By Femi Fani-Kayode
On March 28th a hitherto unknown northern group known as the Arewa
Youth Consultative Forum, through its spokesman, one Yerima Shetima, had the
nerve and effrontery to accuse Afenifere and the Yoruba nation of a
“subtle campaign of ethnic cleansing” and went on to threaten us with what they
described as “reprisals against the millions of Yoruba living in the north” if
we did not stop complaining about the fact that our people were slaughtered in
Ile-Ife and that the police were handling the whole matter in a selective,
inappropriate and unjust manner.
It
is clear that this is not an empty threat because for the last two weeks fake
and horrendous videos and graphic pictures of what purport to be the killings of
Hausa Fulanis by the Yoruba and the people of Ile-Ife are being circulated all
over the internet and social media by those that seek to promote anarchy,
violence and carnage and those that are set to kill.
This
is not the time to escalate the tension and we must do all we can
to exercise restraint and keep the peace but clearly the stage is being set by
some in the north for ethnic pogroms and reprisals against the Yoruba.
Yet
we are not in the least bit perturbed and someone should advise the Arewa Youth
Consultative Forum and those that they represent that pulling the tail of the tiger can
be a very dangerous thing indeed.
Like
Shakespeare’s King Henry V once said they must “wake not our
sleeping sword lightly.”
They
and whoever sent them can be rest assured that the Yoruba are not intimidated
or deterred by their boastful threats and that we will lose no sleep over their
irresponsible and reckless words.
Whether
they and their sponsors like it or not we shall continue to complain and to
protest and we eagerly await the full manifestation and execution of their
cold-blooded and unwarranted threat.
Yesterday
evening the Arewa Consultative Forum itself, the body of elders and leaders
that speaks for the north, chose to stop hiding behind their youths and waded
into the ring.
They
issued a formal statement, through one Muhammadu Ibrahim, who is apparantly
their spokesman, cautioning Yoruba elders and leaders not to “give ethnic
coloration to the Ile-Ife crises” and that if they continued to do so they
should be mindful of and ready for what he described as “reprisal
consequences”.
