strange things happen in south west

The killing of the street evangelist, Mrs
Eunice Elisha, two weekends ago in Kubwa,
Abuja was the final point that made me
conclude that something strange and
inexplicable has happened to the Yoruba in
the past one year.
Two Saturdays ago, The Punch broke the
news that Mrs Elisha, wife of Pastor Olawale
Elisha of the Redeemed Christian Church of
God, left her home around 5.30 a.m. with a
megaphone to preach in her neighbourhood,
as she did every morning. But she never
came back.
At first, the report claimed that the killers cut
off her head and placed it on top of her copy
of the Holy Bible. Later, the police said that
she was killed, not decapitated.
The entire nation received the news with
shock, especially coming a month after a
woman in Kano State and a man in Niger
State were killed for religious reasons.
But the greater surprise came from the
South-West. The Yoruba seemed to have
reached an understanding not to discuss the
killing of Mrs Elisha, their kinswoman, in the
Northern city of Abuja. Posts and radio
comments about her death were
systematically avoided by many people.
Instead, most people in the South-West were
busy discussing Cristiano Ronaldo and Euro
trophy or the trial of Senate President, Bukola
Saraki. By midweek, the focus shifted to
Senators Dino Melaye and Oluremi Tinubu
and the transition in the United Kingdom.
Before Elisha’s murder, similar things had
happened that surprised me. First, it was the
22nd anniversary of the aborted June 12
election. I was in the South-East and Port
Harcourt during that period. So I could not
gauge the way the event was marked in the
South-West. But I read the papers, watched
the TV and monitored the online media. It
was clear to me that there was a lull in the
remembrance.  But, coming about two weeks
after the inauguration of President
Muhammadu Buhari, I felt that the South-
West was still engulfed in the euphoria of
being instrumental to the emergence of the
new government.
However, when the June 12 event came this
year and went by without any fanfare in the
South-West, I was puzzled. Since 1999 when
democracy returned in Nigeria, there had
been an argument, championed by the
Yoruba, that June 12 ,rather than May 29,
should be observed as Democracy Day
because it was the same day in 1993 when
“true democracy” was instituted in Nigeria.
All South-West states declared June 12 a
public holiday and held elaborate rallies and
parades. Also, they made memorable
speeches about June 12, democracy and the
sacrifice of Chief Moshood Abiola.
As if that was not enough, on July 7, 2016,
which was the anniversary of Abiola’s death,
there was deafening silence. Unlike in the
past, what I saw was a team led by Admiral
Ndubuisi Kanu and Dr Joe Odumakin, laying a
wreath on Abiola’s grave. During the
anniversary of the killing of Kudirat Abiola on
June 7, the same attitude prevailed. None of
the leaders of the South-West identified with
the ceremony.
That was not all.
In March, there was an ethnic clash between
the Yoruba and Northerners at the popular
Mile 12 market in Lagos. The incident also
got the same treatment of silence.
In May it was reported that some herdsmen
had invaded a village in Ekiti State and killed
two people. Again, there was silence in the
South-West.
The region, however, found its voice when, a
day after the killings, Governor Ayo Fayose,
in his exuberant and dramatic fashion,
addressed the hunters in the state and urged
them to shoot anybody who tried to attack
the people again. Many people descended on
Fayose – the same fellows who kept quiet
when a Southwestern state was invaded and
fellow Yoruba people were killed!
The same scenario has played out on the
lopsided appointments made by Buhari. In
private discussions, you could hear the anger
of the people from the South-West over the
skewed appointments, but there seems to be
an unwritten code not to raise it in public
discussions.
However, the most prominent is the issue of
restructuring Nigeria. For many decades,
especially since the callous annulment of the
June 12, 1993 election by General Ibrahim
Babangida (Rtd), supported by late General
Sani Abacha, the battle cry from the South-
West has been “restructuring and true
federalism”. Till they died, Chief Michael
Ajasin sang it, Chief Abraham Adesanya
chanted and shouted it, and Chief Bola Ige
amplified it. When democracy returned in
1999, Chief Bola Tinubu never made any
speech without mentioning restructuring. Mr
Babatunde Fashola, Mr Rauf Aregbesola, Dr
Kayode Fayemi, Prof Yemi Osinbajo and
others from the South-West said repeatedly
that without restructuring, Nigeria would not
progress. I agreed with them.
On May 29, 2015, Buhari and Osinbajo were
sworn in as President and Vice President,
respectively, with Fashola and Fayemi as
ministers, Mr Femi Gbajabiamila as Majority
Leader at the House of Representatives and
Aregbesola and others as state governors.
The issue of restructuring has met with
silence from the leaders of the South-West
and their followers, especially in the ruling All
Progressives Congress. Only the voices of
members of the Afenifere like Mr Yinka
Odumakin, Senator Femi Okurounmu, Chief
Ayo Adebanjo are still heard consistently
asking for restructuring of the federation or
implementation of the decisions of the 2014
National Conference.
One would think that, having come into
power, the South-West leaders of the All
Progressives Congress would be in a vantage
position to initiate the process of
restructuring the federation, given that it is in
the manifesto of the political party. But the
new argument now is that restructuring is not
the most pressing issue now; that the
country needs to be stabilised first. What a
lame excuse! Before now, the argument was
that the country was unstable because of
lack of restructuring.
What is difficult to understand is what led to
this new belief in the South-West that
complaining about the killing of a fellow
Yoruba is tantamount to opposing the
government led by Buhari and Osinbajo.
Definitely, there is no connection between
the two. It is said that only a very close
person can tell you that you have mouth
odour. It should not be interpreted as hatred
or opposition.
Nigeria has been ruled from Independence by
people with a hearing problem. You need to
shout before they can hear you. When about
500 residents of Agatu in Benue State were
killed in February, the government said
nothing. But when Ukpabi-Nimbo in Enugu
was invaded in April, there was an uproar.
And for the first time, the presidency
commented on the menace of the Fulani
herdsmen.
Similarly in late May, four people were killed
in Niger State for allegedly blaspheming
against Islam. Not much was said about it. A
few days later an Igbo woman was killed in
Kano in similar circumstances and hell was
raised. The Presidency, Kano State
government and the police reacted,
announcing that the perpetrators had been
arrested.
In addition, many girls had been reportedly
abducted and forcefully converted to Islam. It
was when Ese Oruru’s case was raised to a
high pitch in March that she was released to
her parents. Other girls in the same condition
were also released.
These issues did not show any opposition to
Buhari, Islam or the North. Such uproar was
raised when a political billboard that read
“Bring Back Our Goodluck” appeared in
Abuja: a parody of the BringBackOurGirls
movement. Dr Goodluck Jonathan ordered
the board to be brought down. Hell was also
raised when Chief Olusegun Obasanjo seized
the official vehicles of his estranged Vice
President Atiku Abubakar. The vehicles were
immediately released.
The Yoruba are not known to keep quiet in
the face of injustice or aberration. I don’t
know what has happened in the South-West.
If anybody knows, please let him enlighten
me.