I wish to start this piece with one of the most popular songs about Caroline that they taught how to read and write, but began to do better than the teacher.
Historically, Ijaws are the proponents (originators) of both armed and nonviolent resistance in the history of what we have today as Nigeria.
It is on good records that Ijaws are the first people that had direct encounter with the European explorers and adventurers.
It is important to note that the first set of European explorers and adventurers were Portuguese who transacted businesses with Ijaws as equal trade partners.
The British, who are very cunny, crafty, and exploitative people, came later when they heard about the area that was full of abundant natural resources.
The major and perhaps the only available international travel route then was the water and Ijaws lived along the coastline. So, they were the first set of people who had direct encounter with the European explorers and adventurers.
During the slave era, Ijaws who already had long existing business relationships with the Europeans served as middlemen to buy slaves from Igbo hinterlands.
So even Igbos got western civilization through the European missionaries and merchants who passed through Ijaw land to access the Igbo hinterland.
In the case of the Yorubas, the European ships that went to Lagos and then spread to other parts of Yoruba land all passed Ijaw territories.
It is only the Hausa-Fulanis that had encounter with the Arabs through the deserts. The Europeans who later moved up to the far north all passed through Ijaw territories.
Back to the crux that revolves around history of resistance struggle. Ijaws are the originators of the above. But the Yorubas and Ogonis who learned from Ijaws have remained resolute.
For the purposes of this piece, it is pertinent to chronicle some of those contemporary struggles and their ultimate results.
YORUBA AGITATIONS
Sir Herbert Macaulay, a yoruba man and Chief Ernest Sisei Ikoli, an Ijaw man are the originators of independence nationalist struggle.
Sir Herbert Macaulay, who was born in 1864, died in 1946, long before the independence that he dreamt and also fought for.
While Chief Ernest Sisei Ikoli, who was born in 1893, actually died twenty (20) days after the independence of Nigeria, precisely on 21st October, 1960.
In the history of ..-civil war Nigeria, Yorubas fought and got the following;
1. After facing prosecution during the General Sani Abacha military regime, at the return of our contemporary democracy in 1999, only Yorubas were allowed to contest for the Nigerian presidency, which was used to compensate them.
The Presidential election was between Chief Olu Falae who was a product of political alliance between two of Nigeria’s main political parties, the Alliance for Democracy (AD) and the All People’s Party (APP), and Chief Olusegun Obasanjo of People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
At the end, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, who was a former Military Head of State and the candidate of the then outgoing military regime, was declared winner.
The above is the first and only time that contest for the Nigerian presidency has been left for only one tribe.
What happened was the power and evidence of consistent and persistent advocacy.
2. The Yorubas came up with a story of marginalization again by the President Goodluck Jonathan administration, and at the end, another Yoruba man, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo was made running mate to General Muhammadu Buhari, and he subsequently served as Nigeria’s Vice President for 8 years (2015-2023).
3. As if that was not enough, in 2023, another Yoruba man Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu, was elected again as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Today, Yorubas are occupying almost all the key offices in the country. Other tribes, particularly the North, are accusing President Tinubu of Yorubanization of the country.
