By Remi Oyeyemi
When a supposed elder statesman goes to the press with obvious lies about History and historical events, it has become perversion. It is an enthusiastic exudation of irresponsibility. A gutsy display of shamelessness. An odious invitation to be disrespected in the market square.
But as a bona fide Yoruba son with Omoluabi ethos, one would not disrespect an elder who holds his own age in contempt. An elder who oozes ossiferous egotism. An elder who radiates odorous demeanor. An elder who marinates in the natatorium of falsehood, deceit, duplicity, distortion, and fabrication.
Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyawu, an Igbo newspaper mandarin who has enjoyed Yoruba hospitality and prospered in Eko, in a video widely circulated on social media had engaged in deliberate obfuscation and falsification of Yoruba history as well as conscious lies about the history of his own Ibo people. In the course of his macabre dalliance, he was flagrant in self-disrespect as he stammered in lies and falsehood about how the Ibo have been developing Lagos- Yorubaland since 1914 amalgamation of Mr. Frederick Lugard or before then.
This is not the first time he would engage in umbrages against the Yoruba. The first time, he had publicly called the Yoruba, “rascals.” Many of his apologists openly lied on his behalf that he did not mean exactly that. They tried, though unsuccessfully, to spin his verbiage. Their spin did not stop the stench. But he is at it again, because from the abundance of his heart, his mouth blatantly speaketh evils and spilleth frauds.
Chief Iwuanyawu had forgotten that his lies could easily be exposed. He had forgotten that he was dealing with one of the most educated nationalities not just in Africa, but in the world. He had forgotten that he was dealing with Yoruba, the Kaaro – Ojiire. He had forgotten that he was engaging in self-immolation with his lies and falsehood.
As of 1914, the majority of his Ibo people were still walking around naked in the Alaigbo. They had no idea what civilized people called clothes. Many of them did not even know that they had to put anything on to cover their bodies. They put to shame the Adamic innovation of fig leave coverage. The Adamic innovation still escaped their intelligence as recent as the beginning of 20th Century. These are the people claiming to have developed Yoruba Land!
This is the same Yoruba land that had the first railroad built in 1898! This is the same Yoruba land that had its first electricity generated in 1886. This is the same Yoruba land that had the first motorized vehicles road constructed in 1906 from Ibadan to Oyo.
This is the same Yoruba land that produced its first lawyer on November 17, 1879 (Christopher Sapara Williams). This is the same Yoruba land that produced the first licensed Civil Engineer on December 5, 1893, (Herbert Macaulay). This is the same Yoruba land that produced its first medical doctor in 1876, (Nathaniel Thomas King).
All this while, a sizable majority of Chief Iwuanyanwu’s Ibo people were still wandering around the forests of Alaigbo in nakedness. Stark nakedness! As late as early 1960, before Nigeria’s Independence, the colonial masters had to make nakedness illegal in parts of Ibo land to prevent a possible show of shame at some Independence celebrations! How could a people who had no idea what clothe meant, or what it looked like, claim to have taught those already wearing clothes how to dress? Is that not absurd? Yet, Chief Iwuanyawu is supposedly an intelligent man?
“Ihoho ni Akara wa, ti Moinmoin ti nwo’so.” Somebody should interpret that to him and his fellow travelers, instructively.
Chief Iwuanyawu claimed that Lagos was “swampy” and that his Ibo people developed Lagos. As one watched the video, it revealed so much. Chief Iwuanyawu’s body language showed that he knew he was lying. He was conscious of his crocking. He knew he was selling bullshit. Laboriously, he was adding salt and onion to excreta. Determined to make dung aromatic at all costs, he arduously added some pepper, in a spurious bid to make the salacious soup of sham savory.
He was discomforted as he spilled the perjuries. He prevaricated. He stammered. He garbled. He muddled. Severally, he searched for deodorizing words to glamourize his fabrications. He continuously shifted on his seat as if he was sitting on nails. He was an exemplar of the characterization in the Ecclesiastes 4 verse 1 – “…. And from the hand of evil-doers there went out power, but they had no comforter.”
In the virally circulated population census conducted in 1891 by the colonial masters, every ethnic nationality living in Lagos was identified. Not even one member of Chief Iwuanyawu’s Ibo tribe was identified. Ibo men could not possibly have been counted because they were nowhere near Lagos. This is because history’s attestation is to the fact that they were, at this time, still rummaging the bush of Alaigbo in their nudity. Sauntering around unclad. Socially girded. Economically cinctured. Politically discombobulated arising from the aridity of any identifiable concise political system.
Yet, Iwuanyanwu and his people are claiming they built Yoruba land. The land of a people who built empires. The land of a people who built kingdoms. The land of a people who have a definite and identifiable, distinguished political system. The land of a people who have properly organized social systems with checks and balances. How could a blind man show the road to a man with wide open eyes? Even in comedy, it would be an impossibility!
In his obnoxious hypocritical dawdling, he made a bumbling complaint about Prince Adedamola Adetayo’s writings about Ibo acts of criminalities across Yoruba land. He did not fault the writings of Prince Adetayo on contents. He never accused him of writing lies. He just did not like that Prince Adetayo was exposing the diabolical Zionist agenda of his people in Yoruba land. In his amorous amnesia, he did not see anything wrong with insidious and incendiary write-ups by his Ibo writers about Yoruba and Yoruba land. Writings that are full of lies, falsehood, revisionisms, and perversions.
He engaged in barefaced debauchery about drug pushing and the Ibo people. He said he had statistics in his office that showed that the Ibo are the least in numbers as far as drug pushing is concerned. But he never had the presence of mind or the most tenuous of courage, to share those statistics with the world for proper interrogation. He must have thought that he was lecturing some nursery school kids in Owerri. Oniyeye ale Amuda.
The beautiful thing about pushing back on these diabolical endeavors of Iwuanyawu and his fellow Zionists, is that we are not going to descend into the gutters of lies and false propaganda with them. We shall continue to push back with the facts of history and the truth as it were. We would remind them of their atrocities against other ethnic nationalities in Nigeria. Their diabolical appeals to false sense of persecution would continuously be stripped naked for the world to behold. Guided by history, we know the limitations of false propaganda and lies. They always have expiry dates. This is because as one has always contended, lies never last, history never dies, and the truth is always constant.
And then, there was Oba of Benin, Oba Ewuare ll. He came all the way from Benin to display “royal rascality” in Lagos. A supposedly educated royalty, he ought to know that in this day, and age, it is difficult to make spurious claims that has no factual basis. The Yoruba influence in Benin Palace is evident in so many ways. So, having a Benin prince in Lagos Island is not out of place. He is still a Yoruba man.
But Oba Ewuare ll has not been able to explain to the world the fact that in the Ereko (Lagos Island) palace, the dominant culture and tradition there is Yoruba-centric. It confounds one that a supposedly sane mind like that of Oba Ewuare ll, would peddle an obviously mendacious tale of installing a Baale on a territory that has no inhabitants, claiming that the Bini founded Ereko! Sounds like the Mungo Park story.
The obvious evidence of this lie is why they still speak Yoruba in Ereko or within the confines of its palaces. All the Baales of Ereko from day one till date have borne Yoruba names. Even, “Oba” Rilwan Akiolu, the Eleko of Ereko (a Yoruba word meaning “farmstead” shortened to “Eko”, a word the Bini are fraudulently claiming to be an Edo word, the meaning of which they could not explain to the world) who admitted that he was related to Bini made it clear that the fact that Bini had installed a Baale in Ereko does not mean that Ereko belonged to or was founded by Bini.
The other challenge to Oba Ewuare ll’s credibility is the tall tales about the so-called Ekhaladehan or Ekhaladeran or whatever he is called. Oba Ewuare ll and his courtiers are yet to get their stories straight. Did Ekhaladeran die in Ughoton or not? According to Henry Ling Roth in his 1903 book, “Great Benin, Its Customs, Art And Horrors,” published by F. King & Sons (Hallifax, England), Ekhaladeran died in Ughoton. The Bini palace have used this claim to win a case over Ughoton. Jacob Egharevba, a distinguished and widely respected Benin historian recorded the same version.
So, how could the same Ekhaladeran, dead and buried in Ughoton, suddenly appear in Ile-Ife and abracadabraly turn into Oduduwa? Is that not delusional and illusory? What is the need for this royal casuistry on the part of Oba Ewuare ll? What does he hope to gain in engaging in perversion of History? Are there no courtiers knowledgeable enough to ground his royalty in reality? Some of us had thought that Oba Ewuare ll had self-respect and royal dignity. And that he was not one to puddle in the pool of charlatanism! How wrong could we be?
By now, the Yoruba should know that there are so many enemies of their Nation in Nigeria. They need to be alert if they would not be overrun from different angles by different covetous enemies. Their accommodating and tolerant qualities have turned them to victims of devilish machinations from all angles. The insults and disrespect are becoming vexatious. It is time the Yoruba wake up and wear the garb of vigilance before it is too late. A stitch in time will always save nine.