LATEEF DADA revisits the recent ethnic crisis in Ile-Ife and writes on efforts to restore normalcy to the cradle of Yoruba race
Since the new Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi ascended the throne of his forefathers over a year ago, inhabitants of Ile-Ife, Osun state, considered to be the cradle of Yoruba race, enjoyed some modicum of peace and tranquillity until Tuesday, March 7, 2017, when the quietness was ruptured by miscreants following hostilities occasioned by a face-off between a Yoruba woman and Hausa man.
The crisis, which Blueprint gathered, started when one Hausa trader identified as Abubakar Muhammed, wanted to drop a load in front of the shop (at Sabo) of one Mrs. Kuburat Saka, the Yoruba woman, who prevented the former from doing same.
According to an eyewitness, altercation ensued after which Kuburat allegedly slapped him, with Muhammed retaliating.
When the fight started, it drew the attention of some motor park touts at Sabo garage, who took side with Kuburat, who incidentally is the wife of their deputy chairman. The touts pounced on Muhammed, an act that caught the attention of other Hausa settlers. Promptly, the police arrived the scene and rescued Muhammed, but that was not after others had sustained varied degrees of injuries.
However, the clash resumed on penultimate Wednesday, hence, what started as mere argument later snowballed into a bloody ethnic conflict, and before frail nerves could be calmed, many people had been brutally killed with properties worth millions of naira destroyed by hoodlums who took advantage of the melee. The two groups had gone berserk for hours before soldiers at Ede barrack, a town some kilometres away from Ife, were drawn to the town later in the day.
Ooni’s intervention
But, for the quick intervention of the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, who immediately suspended his travelling plan and waded in, the crisis would have escalated with possible reprisals on the Yoruba in the North.
During the fracas, it was gathered that a large number of Hausa men were held hostage, but later released on the monarch’s intervention who directed that they should be freed unhurt. The revered monarch was also said to have ordered movement of all Hausa children into his palace for safety.
Oba Adeyeye, who expressed his sadness when Governor Rauf Aregbesola visited the town on Thursday, described the incident as “disheartening”, saying, the crisis was caused by agents of backwardness and devastation.
He described members of the Hausa Community in Ile-Ife as his subjects and co-owners of the town with whom he said, he has enjoyed tremendous loyalty in the last 14 months of his reign.
“That is why I did not leave any stone unturned to bring the avoidable ugly situation to normalcy by acting promptly upon receiving a report of an altercation between a Yoruba woman and a Hausa man on Tuesday evening.
“I immediately sent some chiefs to address the situation which was amicably resolved and we all thought it was over until we woke up the following morning (Wednesday) to hear that they had started attacking one another.
“I got a tip-off that a number of our Hausa brothers were being held in captivity, we rushed to trace them to where they were being held. We were able to rescue all of them numbering over 1,000 and got them handed to their Seriki Hausa.
“I quickly informed the security agencies who responded very swiftly. Thank God for the normalcy, the governor has been so proactive and the security agents were on top of the situation,” Oba Ogunwusi added.
While pleading for calm, the royal father claimed the fracas was caused by some non-Ife indigenes, whom he described as agents of backwardness, assuring the perpetrators of the act would be brought to justice.
Aregbesola calls for calm
Earlier, Governor Aregbesola, in company of his deputy, Mrs. Titilayo Laoye-Tomori, Secretary to the State Government, Alhaji Moshood Adeoti, Chief of Staff, Gboyega Oyetola, among others, assured the Ooni that government would punish anyone found culpable in the violence.
Further to this, leaders of Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo communities in the ancient town, are beginning to fashion out ways for lasting peace.
They spoke variously at a joint press conference organised by the Ife Progressive Forum/ Action Council in Ile-Ife.
Speaking at the event, Seriki Hausawa of Ife, Alhaji Abubakar Madagali, who was crying profusely while responding to questions from journalists, said, “the Hausas are peace lovers. It is not a clash between us and the Yorubas.
“We were attacked, our houses were razed.
We are highly devastated. There is no need to look for the root of the crisis again. All we want is peace.
“We believe that everything that happened to us has been ordained. We hope that this kind of incidence will not happen again in Ile-Ife and Nigeria as a whole. Even when we travel (to the North) to visit our people, they ask us when are we going back home (Ile-Ife). We have been attacked but we are not going to retaliate.”
Leaders condemn act
Since the ugly incidence, different stakeholders, including religious leaders, are condemning the act, just as they called for thorough investigation into the fracas. Addressing journalists in Osogbo, the state capital, the Supreme Council for Sharia in Nigeria, berated those behind the act and pleaded against reprisals, especially against the Yoruba people domiciled in the North.
The group, made of representatives from different states in Nigeria, called for continuation of togetherness that the two ethnic groups have been enjoying. Speaking on behalf of the group, Deputy President of the council, Sheik Abdur-Rasheed Adiyatulahi, noted that “Yoruba people are friends to all ethnic groups in the country and we charge all to continue strengthening the love and peace relationship.
“In other for the government to get to the root of this crisis and put a final stop to any form of reprisal, we demand that Osun state government should set up a Commission of Enquiry to unravel the immediate and remote causes of the crisis.”
Quoting copiously from the Holy Quran, Adiyatulahi urged northerners to uphold peace as exemplified by Prophet Muhammed, saying “Islam abhors fighting and killing, maiming and destruction of lives and properties.”
Also, the Osun chapter of Democratic Socialist Movement, in a statement by in a statement signed by its Coordinator and Secretary, Alfred Adegoke and Kola Ibrahim respectively, condemned the violence. “We condemn the wanton killing, destruction of properties and looting that occurred in the town.
We call on working and poor people of Ile-Ife, both indigenes and non-indigenes, to act and stop the orgy of violence.
“This communal crisis, which started off as a disagreement between two individuals, will affect poor and working people the most. For instance, aside from the lives and properties lost, the means of livelihood of many poor people will be adversely affected.
Aside, this is the internal displacement of several hundreds of people, especially the Hausa community.”
While calling for “full compensation for all the victims of the communal clash,” it called for investigation into the crisis, with representatives of the Hausa community, local community, youth groups, labour movement in the state, among others as members of the investigating panel.
Kwankwaso’s visit douses tension
In the midst of the melee, a visit by former governor of Kano state, Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso, has given some hope and putting paid to fear and insinuation of possible reprisals by the aggrieved Hausa community.
The lawmaker, who was received by the Hausa community in Ile-Ife, was received amidst chanting of “Sai Rabiu”, “Sai Kwankwaso”. He was hosted at the Hausa Mosque in Sabo where the Seriki Hausa received him and Governor Aregbesola.
Speaking with journalists after the meeting, Kwankwaso assured that his people would not launch reprisal, saying “the purpose of my coming here is to appeal to my people to continue to be law abiding.
I told them that when I get home, the Kwankwasiya Foundation will go and sit down and by next week, we will send our own support.”
Similarly, the governor’s intervention is also lauded, with many describing him as a good crisis manager. Receiving Kwankwaso in his office, Governor Aregbesola said, “Hausa and Yoruba have been living together in harmony for over a thousand year.
“The Secretary to the Federal Government, Lagos state Governor and Governor Obiano of Anambra, called me and I assured them that we are on top of the situation. We have to greet security agents for living their homes to ensure there is peace.
“From security report that I have, a very tiny of misguided youths who have been fighting for street control caused this terrible crisis.
We must not allow anybody to jeopardise our peace. Those who caused this are not normal human beings. They are not worthy of existence in any human environment.”
Reassuring his host of return of peace, the governor said a panel of enquiry has been established, pointing out that “we have already apprehended over 20 of them and efforts are on to arrest other suspects.”
With these efforts, it is hoped that genuine peace will return to the ancient city so that the bubbling city can return to its earlier form.
