Ademola Adegbamigbe
The havoc the Fulani herdsmen from the Northern part of Nigeria and even the Diaspora have caused in the South West could be compared to the invasion of the Mongol hordes. These modern day sons of Attila the Hun leave death, destruction and arson in their wake.
The activities of the herders actually caused the rise of Sunday Adeyemo (Igboho) who is a villain to the Federal security forces and a hero to the Oke Ogun people who have suffered untold hardships as a result of the invasion.
Things were not always like that, especially from a point in the political economic history of the South West, especially from 1952. This is argued by Mr. Dare Babarinsa, veteran journalist and Kaskia Media boss in an opinion article he wrote in The Guardian.
He wrote: “For generations, especially after the end of the 100 years Yoruba Civil Wars, that the late Professor J.F. Ade-Ajayi called the Century of Revolutions, Fulani herdsmen found fortune in Yorubaland. They helped in raising cattle, most of which were owned by them and others by Yoruba entrepreneurs. They supplied meat and milk to the West.
“When Chief Obafemi Awolowo became Premier of the defunct Western Region (now divided into Ekiti, Lagos, Delta, Edo, Ogun, Ondo, Oyo and Osun States) in 1952, he found the cattle business an attractive one. He established eleven cattle ranches across the region and imported a new, studier and more productive breed of cattle from Argentina.
“Awolowo left power in 1959. Then Chief Ladoke Akintola came. After Akintola was the Interim Regime of Dr Koyejo Majekodunmi. Akintola returned for the second and final time. After his violent death in 1966 came Colonel Adekunle Fajuyi, and then, Colonel Adeyinka Adebayo, Colonel Oluwole Rotimi, Admiral Akintunde Aduwo and Colonel David Medaiyese Jemibewon. By the time Uncle Lam Adesina became Governor in Oyo State in 1999, there were no more ranches anywhere in the former Western Region once ruled by Awolowo. The Yoruba elite have consumed the entire Argentine breed and the Fulani herdsmen were back in rearing business.
By the time Uncle Lam Adesina became Governor in Oyo State in 1999, there were no more ranches anywhere in the former Western Region once ruled by Awolowo. The Yoruba elite have consumed the entire Argentine breed and the Fulani herdsmen were back in rearing business.
In year 2000, there was a violent clash between Fulani herdsmen and Oke-Ogun farmers in Oyo State. People were killed on both sides. In the aftermath of the clash, Major-General (rtd) Muhammadu Buhari led a northern delegation to Governor Adesina to plead the cause of the Fulani. The clash had occurred in the immediate constituency of Adesina’s Deputy Governor, Barrister Iyiola Opadokun. Later some of my colleagues and I met with Governor Adesina. He promised that he would build new ranches and revive the old ones of the Awolowo era after he must have won his re-election bid in 2003. He lost. Five governors later, the herdsmen remain a terror to the people…”
Read the full article below, entitled:
The Igboho mini series: Act one, scene one!
The Sunday Adeyemo Igboho saga is not going to end without several mini-series. One of the mini-series was the event that happened in Soka area of Ibadan when security agencies carried out an almost successful operation against Igboho on Thursday July 1, 2021. They killed two of his guards, destroyed his personal belongings like cars and furniture and traumatized his family. The raid took place with heavy gunfire from both sides, but in the end, the federal forces prevailed with superior weapons and more men. The Nigerian state has proven itself that it has teeth to bite.
But their main quarry escaped. How he performed that feat is something that would emerge another day. His escape bolsters his image as a man gifted with supernatural powers. It was even said that the DSS operatives, disappointed that they did not see him cowering among the women, decided to arrest a stray cat, believing that Igboho, using his supernatural powers, may have transformed himself into a cat! I don’t know the veracity of this story, but that it emerged at all, shows the fecundity of our people’s imagination.
The Igboho phenomenon has taken a while in coming. He participated in the Ife-Modakeke crisis of 1997, which was later inherited by the civilian regime of Governor Adebisi Akande. He fought on the side of Modakeke as one of the most notable imported warriors of that conflict. Since then, he had embarked on a carreer as a valued muscleman for Oyo State politicians. He started off in the camp of Chief Lam Adesina, the governor of Oyo State between 1999 and 2003 and later moved on to become a stalwart of Adesina’s successor, Chief Rashidi Ladoja. In the course of his career, he has accumulated a sizeable fortune, founded one or two thriving companies, sent his family abroad, and embraced a good life.
But the provocation that brought him into the limelight came in earnest. For generations, especially after the end of the 100 years Yoruba Civil Wars, that the late Professor J.F. Ade-Ajayi called the Century of Revolutions, Fulani herdsmen have found fortune in Yorubaland. They helped in raising cattle, most of which were owned by them and others by Yoruba entrepreneurs. They supplied meat and milk to the West. When Chief Obafemi Awolowo became Premier of the defunct Western Region (now divided into Ekiti, Lagos, Delta, Edo, Ogun, Ondo, Oyo and Osun States) in 1952, he found the cattle business an attractive one. He established eleven cattle ranches across the region and imported a new, studier and more productive breed of cattle from Argentina.
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