130 groups warn against distortion of Yoruba, Itsekiri history

By Omolade Adegbuyi

A coalition of 130 Pan Yoruba, Itsekiri groups have warned against the deliberate plot to distort history of Western Nigeria saying that the plot may lead to unintended consequences which includes but not limited to clashes and conflict if unchecked. Irohinoodua obtained a copy of the statement on Tuesday.

The group said it is worried by two separate books one written by two Igbo teachers, Standard History Studies for JSS 1-3 and another by Tony Duru and Ijeoma Duru another titled The Igbo:People, History and Worldview by Don Eze and Chinedu Ochinanwata.

The two books claimed that Ile-Ife, Warri and Benin were originally inhabited by Igbo and that Yoruba, Bini and Itsekiri monarchy developed from Igbo civilisation. AYDM said the publications were said to have been approved by the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council, (NERDC) and the Federal Ministry of Education as study materials in the Igbo South East. It said the approval could only have been due to grandscale corruption orchestrated by the authors to ensure the approvals.
In a statement on Tuesday signed by its General Secretary, Popoola Ajayi who is a product of History and Art at the premium University of Ibadan, the Alliance for Yoruba Democratic Movements, (AYDM) a coalition of 130 pan Yoruba,Itsekiri and civil society groups said the falsification of a people’s history is akin to treason against the age-long civilisation of the people of Western Nigeria.
‘It is an aggressive assault by a people who appear to think they have neither history no ancestral values but in their loneliness need to forcefully attach themselves to those they envy,’ AYDM said.

The publications also claimed that Edo, Warri and the Bini monarchs were founded and established by Igbo. ‘This is ridiculous and portrays the Igbo as fraudulent, dishonest as if they are a people who have no civilisation but desperate to steal others and build their own history on fabricated propaganda. It ridicules the entire Igbo and destroys the Igbo self esteem,’ the AYDM said.
The group said the publications show that robbery, corruption, Advance Fee Fraud have been brought into the realm of intellectual and academic world in the most shameful manner.

‘Those claiming Igbo civilisation came from Ife are a set of shameful liars. We do not wish to believe that Igbo people have no history of their own worthy of self-esteem. A proud and decent people should not be begging for relevance in the acclaim of others, they should not behave as if they have no past or that they have neither shame nor conscience,’ AYDM said in the statement signed by its General Secretary, Mr Popoola Ajayi and Dr Kunle Oshodi.
AYDM said the Igbo have at one time claimed Congo and at another time claimed Israel and at another moment claimed Enugu Ukwu as their origins and wondered why the Igbo history is full of contradictions and inconsistencies to the point of self-ridicule.
AYDM said ‘The Yoruba and Itsekiri will not accept people who portray themselves as historical orphans desperately looking for a father to adopt. Even if the Yoruba would accept orphans, not those who seeking orphanage but at the same time claiming multiple fathers elsewhere.’
AYDM said there have been series of publications by Igbo scholars in the past 50 years including accounts of Igbo history by Professor Kenneth Onwuka Dike who lived between 1917 and 1981 and described as one of the pioneers of African historiography.
AYDM said Dike was influential in the establishment of Nigerian National Archives and the Historical Society of Nigeria. He actually led several archaeological missions across Nigeria but never at any time traced the Igbo to Ile Ife.
‘We are also aware of the first Professor of Igbo language, Umeeze Igbuzo. None of these scholars made reference to Ife or Bini as having anything to do with Igbo.’

AYDM said the Igbo are providing a deceptive and untruthful basis for the theft and vandalisation of other people’s ancestral heritage in the absence of an inspiring history which they lack or have failed woefully to invent one.
‘We also see this as a Biafra plot. We are not opposed to Biafra but the Yoruba will rise up and fight any definition of Biafra that goes beyond the historical and ancestral limits. It is unfortunate that while the Yoruba consistently stretch the hands of friendship to the Igbo, a section, a significant section of it wants the Yoruba to be destroyed by all means.’

The AYDM reminded those spreading the propaganda to realise that all over history, the Yoruba have always been victorious in all battles and that it the Igbo shows to consistently sow wind, they would meet a whirlwind.

ABOUT THE AYDM
The AYDM was established to bring all the social, cultural and self determination groups in the old Western Region together. It is the largest coalition of Pan Yoruba groups made up of over 130 coalition members drawn from community based, artisan and professional groups. AYDM coalition members includes but not limited to South West Professional, (SOWPROF); O’odua Peoples Congress, (OPC); Agbekoya; South West Farmers Forum,(SWFAF); United Itsekiri Peoples Congress, (UIPC); ANAMMACO, representing Okada Riders in the South West; South West Students Coalition, (SWSC); O’odua Nationalist Coalition, (ONAC); Yoruba Community Association in Northern Nigeria, (YOCANN); Ilaje Peoples Assembly; Igbimo Omo Oodua in Diaspora, Nigerian Automobile Technicians Association, (NATA), with some 5million registered members of mechanics established in 1953; Covenant Group, South West Professionals,(SOWPROF); Association of Yoruba Communities in West Africa (AYOCWA); Yoruba Artisan and Traders Association, (NATA); O’odua International Democratic Movement, (OIDEM); O’odua Muslim-Christian Dialogue Group,(OIDEM) among many others.