As North’s Emirs Visit South-west’s Obas -By Tunji Ajibade

Traditional rulers play a significant role in promoting peace and unity in our nation. Each time they take steps in this direction, I applaud. One happened lately. Traditional rulers from the north visited their colleagues in the south-west. The Emir of Kano was on the list, and so was Etsu Nupe. We know visits undertaken by big personalities anywhere have both their overt and covert purposes.  I focus on the former – the image projected, the reading of these visits by our peoples, north and south.

This isn’t the first time I call attention to the need to promote unity rather than division in our nation. We know the outcomes when the latter is the case. We’ve seen fields where fracas happened, as well as the undesirable outcomes. Witnesses say fracas is better avoided. Among them are former Heads of State. There’re traditional leaders too who say only those who haven’t seen the carnage on fields where there has been fracas call for war. War in Nigeria?  A nation where the linkages among our peoples are so deep-rooted that I wonder if anyone who talks about war considers all the variables?

Sometimes I ask if many of us see the silent transformation that’s taking place across Nigeria. It takes someone stuck all their lives in only one part of this country to not see it. The moment I left home for the NYSC programme I began to see firsthand what I heard was happening. Nigerians increasingly marry across tribes, especially the more educated ones. The NYSC Coordinator in the town where I served was a Kanuri married to a Yoruba lady. By the time I completed the one-year national service, a fellow NYSC member, a Yoruba, travelled with his Igbo girlfriend to his home state in order to introduce her to his family. These days, many people in the public space discuss with me and inform that they are married across tribal lines, a phenomenon that makes me to applaud enthusiastically. I applaud, believing that our nation has a great future with such trend.  But this trend didn’t start today. It’s been there since yesterday, only that majority of Nigerians are blissfully unaware of history, a reason some make acerbic comments about tribes other than theirs. I mean, tribes which blood may actually be flowing in their veins even though they don’t realize it.

If there’s one thing the visit undertaken by north’s traditional rulers to the south-west does, it’s that it affords me the opportunity to call attention to one issue that served to connect us in the past. It also gives me the opportunity to state that, even across tribes and religions, we’re closer than some would want us to believe.  The view I express here is informed by the effort I’ve made to understand my past. With what I found out, I’m certain that there’s no way I can realistically claim to have an ‘all-and-all’ Yoruba blood in my veins, and I doubt any human being does.  This applies to most Nigerians. With the rulers of the defunct Oyo Empire, the Alaafins, as my forebears it’s not possible to imagine that I don’t have an admixture of blood across tribes. Why? My forebears were conquerors, empire builders. They waged wars and once dominated the landscape from Kogi State all the way to parts of Ghana and lowers ends of Niger Republic even. What does one expect when the major means by which strong men in Oyo proved they were strong was by winning wars? They went out to battles annually, and the Field-Marshal who didn’t win must commit suicide. Oyo rulers took many wives and concubines for themselves among the conquered tribes. They married the daughters of kings of other tribes too. If I don’t know any other, at least I know that Oranmiyan the founder of Oyo married a Nupe princess.

What about the warrior class under Oyo Empire? They conquered and took wives for themselves from far afield. These same Oyo warriors predominated in Ibadan when they moved there early in the 19^th century. We know that from that period to the time the British colonial government arrived,  Ibadan warriors continued to go to war and they took wives for themselves from different tribes. So we have Yoruba today who, if they bother to check, will find Fulani, Hausa, Nupe, Gwari and the blood of other tribes in their veins in diverse percentages.  Nonetheless, there are some public figures who send insult to these same tribes. If anyone carries out a reasonable research about the past, he’ll not engage in such rather pedestrian exercise.

The same applies to most members of other tribes in Nigeria too, where we have people who fancy they have what they could call the pure blood of the tribes to which they say they belong. I stated it on this page in the past how some famous people across the world, who once held such a view, were disappointed. They were,  after  a DNA check showed the concoction of blood across races flowing in their veins. There were, for instance, Britons who swore they would never want to be Germans, French, Italian, and vice versa. Many of them were soon to discover that they had  the blood of the nationals they had badmouthed all their lives. In spite of this reality, some in Nigeria specialize in promoting disunity by badmouthing tribes other than theirs. To such persons,  people of some tribes should be thrown out of Nigeria. I’ve had reasons to shake my head at such mentality. One has to, especially when it’s considered that even those who claim to have a religion, (a religion that instructs them to win everyone over no matter their tribe or language), harbour this same mentality.

I regard highly any effort which promotes unity and peaceful coexistence. The latest visit made by traditional rulers from the north to their colleagues in the south-west is one of such, and we mustn’t miss the relevance. The traditional rulers struck the right notes that time, and one can be sure that in their domains their people have heard them. They heard and realized that they and the people of the places that their traditional rulers visited had more in common than what separated them. It’s a good image to project, a good idea to sow in the minds of Nigerians of all tribes.

For instance, while hosting his guests in Oyo, the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi, said he had consistently stated “the roles of traditional rulers,  and why the traditional people must be allowed to convene for the greater good of this country.”  The need to convene and trash out issues that are relevant to our peoples is sacrosanct.  It’s my view too, one that cannot be stated often enough. While he was in Oyo, the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Aminu Ado-Bayero, lauded the role being played by the Alaafin in the integration of Nigerians. As the Emir of Kano further explained, “We have come to Oyo to demonstrate to our people that we are all tied by thread of common destiny.” Thread of common destiny. These are valuable comments from Their Highnesses, one reason their visit caught my attention in the first place.

There was the other visit paid by the Etsu Nupe to Lagos where he met the Oba of Lagos. There was also the visit by a Delegation of the National Council of Traditional Rulers in Nigeria to the national leader of the All Progressives Congress, Ashiwaju Bola Tinubu. Details of the visit have generated other dimensions in public discourse. Such aren’t my focus here. The point is that the traditional rulers have all acknowledged that coming together often as they do is beneficial to the nation. And so it is. As for the format this should take, the royal fathers certainly know how to sort it out among themselves. But one thing is clear; traditional rulers in Nigeria are presenting a united front. How to ensure this contributes meaningfully to peace, unity, as well as national development is where the government must play a role. The government will, only if the royal fathers refuse to give up on their goal of being a force for peace and unity among our peoples.

’Tunji Ajibade;   tunjioa@yahoo.com;  08036683657