There are many myths circulated by various ethnic nationalities about the Yoruba people of the Southwest, and a personal experience with a non-Yoruba provoked me to address some of these myths using historical facts. Please bear with me, this is a long read.

Myth one: Yorubas are betrayers

A lot of this angst, which has refused to fade away decades after the dramatis personae exited this world, is centred around a supposed betrayal of Emeka Ojukwu and the Igbos by the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo.

And sadly, this has now become an emotive issue, where fiction has been fed to many young people as fact.

The truth is that Chief Awolowo went on a peace meeting to Enugu, to try to persuade Igbo leaders to adopt a peaceful way out of the crisis that had unfolded in Nigeria after the January 15, 1966 coup and the July 29, 1966 counter coup.

Awolowo met with the leaders of the Eastern Region for two days between May 6-7, 1967. THERE IS A TRANSCRIPT OF THAT MEETING, WHICH WAS PUBLISHED WHEN BOTH AWOLOWO AND OJUKWU WERE ALIVE.

Please note that this transcript was taken from a tape recorded by then Colonel Ojukwu’s own recorder.

I encourage those who are still bitterly accusing Chief Awolowo, and by extension all Yorubas, of betrayal, to please read that transcript.

At the time Emeka Ojukwu wanted Chief Awolowo to follow his lead by announcing the secession of the Western Region after his own declaration of secession of the Southeast, there were tens of thousands of armed Northern troops all over the West. It does not take a genius to guess what would have happened if Awolowo had gone that route.

Moreover, unlike Ojukwu, Chief Awolowo had no control over any troops. He was also not the Governor of the Western Region (Adeyinka Adebayo was then the military Governor). As a result, he had no executive powers. Whatever powers he had were at best residual and persuasive.

Chief Awolowo had earlier called a meeting of Yoruba officers of the Nigerian army, and key officers of Yoruba stock refused to attend, with one of them sending a message to him that he was a Nigerian soldier, not a Yoruba soldier.

So given all of that, it was rather naive for anybody to have expected him to declare the secession of the Western Region from Nigeria.

It would have been like expecting Nnamdi Azikiwe to usurp Ojukwu’s powers as Governor of the Eastern Region, and announce the secession of Eastern Nigeria, and the creation of a new Biafran nation. The Ojukwu we know may have even arrested, and probably executed Zik if he had done that.

If the grudge against Chief Awolowo is founded on the £20 pounds payment to persons of Igbo origin, then I can understand it. But even that grudge is also not well founded. Because the £20 policy only affected those whose bank records could not be verified. I hazard a guess that if another person other than Awolowo was on that seat, the payment may have been £0.

But to hold a grudge against the Yorubas stemming from that Enugu meeting is in my view an injustice to a man who only went there to seek a way to avoid bloodletting.

In any case, have those who hold this view ever considered that the man, Emeka Ojukwu, for whom they hold this torch, after his return to Nigeria on May 18, 1982, joined the National Party of Nigeria, the very same party that was peopled, sponsored and supported by the very same people who prosecuted the Nigerian Civil War against him and Eastern Nigeria?

The NPN was a Northern Party that did not win a single state in Western, Midwestern (Bendel) and the Igbo states of Eastern Nigeria. The same people who founded the NPN were the very same people who advised and perhaps tele-guided Gowon.

In fact, the first National Leader of the NPN was Makaman Bida, a former member of the inner caucus of Ahmadu Bello’s Northern Peoples Congress.

This is the party that Ojukwu joined, contested for election into the Senate (and lost), and campaigned for during the 1983 Presidential election.

Taking all of this into consideration, there is no way the myth of Chief Awolowo, and all Yorubas being betrayers, can stand.

Myth two: Yorubas Are Cowards

The late Sani Abacha was the most brutal dictator in Nigeria’s history. I do not need to elaborate. His rule was a dark era in our history, and the nationwide spontaneous celebration of his death is enough shame on his memory and his family and survivors.

Having said that, Nigerians may want to recall that a certain Moshood Kashimawo Abiola stood up to the bully that was Abacha, and rightfully declared himself President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on June 11, 1994.

That took guts! That was not the act of a coward. It was a display of bravery.

Chief Abiola was arrested on June 23, 1994, and taken to Abuja. While there, he met with General Abacha, and told Abacha to his face that he was Abacha’s boss and Abacha should show him respect. That is more than guts. That is what is called Command Presence in the military. Audacity if you will.

On August 5, 1994, Chief Abiola was offered freedom, via a bail, with certain conditions, including that he “stay away from politics”. Abiola’s response was terse. It was given by his wife, Kudirat Abiola, who said “Chief Abiola is not interested.”

That is bravery to the point of self sacrifice. Bear in mind that this was a multimillionaire in US dollars, with access to private jets, and all the modern conveniences money could buy, yet he inconvenienced himself by refusing to betray his mandate.

And after Abacha died (I never call him General. It is an insult to call the world’s biggest political thief, who is still coughing up billions 23 years after his death, a General of the Nigerian Army), Chief Abiola refused to give up his mandate, and probably died because of his principled stand.

It is therefore ridiculous for anybody to call an ethnic nationality that produced such a personality cowards.

And this is not a recent phenomenon. Whereas the Fulani jihadist army completely defeated the Hausas, they could not defeat the Yorubas. A Yoruba regiment from present day Ibadan, and led by Balogun Oderinlo, routed the Fulani army and drove them out of Oshogbo in 1840, and eventually from Yoruba land. In the process, they captured four Fulani Generals.

The popular case of Ilorin was not a military defeat, it was a case of over ambition by a rogue Yoruba, Afonja. And it was isolated to the Ilorin area. I just hope history will not repeat itself in Lagos.

During the Nigerian Civil War, Murtala Mohammed was an unmitigated military disaster. The Biafrans defeated him soundly at Abagana and almost captured him. If not for the Yoruba led Third Marine Commando, Nigeria would not have defeated Biafra at the time she did.

In the history of Nigeria, only two men have returned to Nigeria to face almost certain death even when they had the option of a very comfortable political asylum abroad. Both of them are Yoruba. In 1985, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida toppled the Buhari regime while Major General Tunde Idiagbon (mixed Yoruba/Fulani) was at Mecca yet Idiagbon returned.

In 1995, Olusegun Obasanjo (pure Owu Yoruba) was accused of planning a coup by the blood thirsty tyrant, Abacha (if you do not like that truthful description of Abacha or if you believe that ‘Abacha did not loot’, you can go and join him where he is) while he was away in Copenhagen.

He was informed by the then US Ambassador, Walter Carrington, that Abacha meant to arrest, try and execute him, and was offered political asylum in the United States.

He returned to face almost certain death.

What more example of bravery can there be than these two shining ones.

Furthermore, there is the apocryphal example of Colonel Francis Adekunle Fajuyi who chose to die with the then Head of State, Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi, rather than abandon his guest, which he was at liberty to do.

The Yoruba are a very tactful and diplomatic people. These are attributes that some people mistake for cowardice, or sycophancy. They are a people who understand how to stoop to conquer.

This is what Scripture meant in 2 Corinthians 10:4 “The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty”. Wisdom, courtesy, diplomacy, and praise are all weapons. A weapon is anything you can use to achieve your strategic objective. It does not always have to be a physically offensive weapon.

Myth three: The Yoruba are Clannish, They Form Cliques Against Non Yoruba

The most metropolitan place in Nigeria is the Southwest. The reason being that no other ethnicity is as religiously tolerant and ethnically accommodating as the Yoruba.

And I am very glad that by sheer coincidence, former President Jonathan said as much last week. I had nothing to do with him saying it.

The most prosperous place for an Igbo man in Nigeria is not Nnewi or Onitsa. According to Robert Neuwirth, an American journalists and investigator, Igbos make $4 billion each year from Alaba International Market. There is nowhere else in Nigeria where they generate such a high turnover.

The richest Black man on planet Earth is Aliko Dangote, and his wealth largely comes from Lagos and the Southwest, where he has assets in excess of $4 billion.

The fact that other Nigerians can come to the Southwest and prosper there more than they prospered in their home regions speaks volumes of the accommodativeness of the Yoruba.

How many Igbo Alaba traders have been kidnapped, abducted or killed? But they are kidnapped, abducted and killed in the Southeast.

Terrorists, bandits and Boko Haram have never targeted Aliko Dangote in the Southwest. But in the North, both billionaire and almajiri are vulnerable.

People erroneously think that the Yoruba are clannish, because they maintain and retain their cultural values, when it clashes with other cultures.

So, in an office environment, a Yoruba person is likely to clique with Yoruba speakers. Notice I did not say they are likely to clique with Yorubas. I said they are likely to clique with Yoruba speakers. It is their culture they like. If you flow with their culture, they will also flow with you.

That is why the Yoruba have the highest number of elected non indigenes representing their states, than any other region.

There are natives of the Southeast and South South who won election to represent various Lagos constituencies in the House of Representatives. Oghene Egoh, Rita Orji and Tony Nwoolu are some of them.

Where else is that happening in Nigeria?

Yoruba-phobes should try to understand that the tendency of the Yoruba to retain their full culture within Nigeria and when they travel abroad is not clannishness. It is in their blood.

How do I know this? Because I am an avid traveler.

During the Transatlantic Slave Trade, slaves where taken from almost every Black African ethnic group. However, only the Yoruba slaves retained their culture on a large scale throughout the Americas (the Umbundo also retained some of their culture, but they are limited to Brazil).

In the Brazilian state of Bahia, they speak a patois of Portuguese and Yoruba. The state is 80% Black and they bare Yoruba names. As a matter of fact, after Nigeria, Brazil has the second largest population of people of Yoruba descent. Please fact check me. I deal in facts, not speculation.

In Latin America and the Caribbean, there are an estimated 50 million believers in the Santeria religion. It may shock you to note that Santeria is based on Yoruba traditional worship. In fact, the name for god in Santeria is Orisha, a Yoruba word. Eshu, Sango, and Ifa feature prominently in Santeria.

So, you can see how deep Yoruba culture is, to the extent that even centuries of slavery could not wipe it away.

Go to Jamaica and there are Yorubas there.

There were Hausa, Swahili, Bantu, Oromo, Igbo and other Black African slaves taken to the Americas. None have kept their cultural identity like the Yoruba slaves.

Listen to Rap music and compare it to Fuji and Juju. You notice the same trend. Boasting, women shaking their booties, rivals dissing their opponents. Before Tupac and Biggie dissed each other, Sikiru Ayinde Barrister and Ayinla Kollington had released their own diss tracks.

When you visit London, you may be confused if you think Yoruba is the only African language in existence.

A Yoruba man can enter a quiet bus and receive a phone call and speak in Yoruba, and won’t feel embarrassed. And I am not referring to a Johnny Just Come. I am referring to second generation Yorubas who were born and brought up in England,

I have been traveling the world from childhood, yet I have not encountered people doing that with much wider spoken African languages, such as Swahili and Hausa.

They may speak it privately in their homes abroad. but not publicly, and even if they do, it is not to the extent of the Yoruba.

It has gotten to the extent that the Metropolitan Police now recruit Yoruba speaking Constables, and Harrods now employ Yoruba speaking cashiers. Oh please do not just take my words at face value. Fact check me.

Go to Houston on a Sunday, you will see Yoruba people everywhere in their native wears, adire, plus abeti aja and eleti aja.

Here in California, other Africans now draw crowd to their parties by saying ‘the Nigerians will be there.’

This will annoy other tribes, including mine, however, when foreigners talk about how cool Nigerians are, they are usually referring to Yorubas.

Take it or leave it, but the Yoruba are the most progressive Black people on the face of planet Earth.

They produced the first Black African Nobel laureate for an academic category (Wole Soyinka), and the first Black African military ruler to have voluntarily handed over to a civilian President (Olusegun Obasanjo), and the first Nigerian to win a Grammy Award (Sade Adu) as well as the first person born and bred in Africa to have won a Pulitzer Prize (Dele Olojede).

The reason why Yorubas are the biggest music stars of Nigerian origin is because they are unabashedly Yoruba. They do not try to sing or act like Westerners. They are very in-your-face with their Yoruba-ness. And when people like themselves to such a high degree, others tend to join them in liking them.

There are an estimated 15 Black billionaires on Planet Earth. Three of them are Yoruba. More than any ethnic nationality in Africa. It used to be four, but one of them slipped down the rankings.

US President, Joe Biden, named a Yoruba man, Adewale Adeyemo, as deputy Treasury Secretary. This is the highest position to which a Black African has been appointed (not elected) in US history. Another Yoruba man, Dr. Oluyinka Olutoye, became the first person on Earth to successfully perform a surgery by taking out an unborn fetus from its mother’s womb and putting it back after the surgery.

77% of all Black doctors in America are of either African or Caribbean origin, and a very large percentage of these are Yoruba.

I commend the Edekiri people (the real name of the Yoruba). They are neither betrayers, or cowards or clannish people. They are omoluabi. They are oni te si iwaju.

TableShaker #RenosNuggets

Reno Omokri

Gospeller. Deep Thinker. #1 Bestselling author of Facts Versus Fiction: The True Story of the Jonathan Years. Avid traveller. Hollywood Magazine Film Festival Humanitarian of the Year, 2019.

Reno

You have the power to summon a stronger positive thought into your mind whenever a negative thought attempts to break into your mind

I am stuck in a burning flame,a flame of loneliness which I got used to,a flame of inferiority.

Each seconds that passes by the flame increases. When my emotions go haywire the flame increases.

I got used to and felt comfortable in it cos it felt like home. It blocked my sight to seeing the misdeeds of everyone around me,it blocked my feelings that I felt numb cos I got used to the pain from the burning flame.

I couldn’t cry neither could I feel the hurt.it became my shield shielding me from the world,from the atrocities men committed. But while in the flame I quested for freedom I quested for a cold hands.

As if my wish was granted he came stretching his hand to me, he was exactly what I needed. He was going to bring peace to my burning heart. The look in his eyes spoke love and calmness.

He assured me he was going to be there.
He was mine to hold,mine to love and mine to live for. He gave me the hope of a better tomorrow.

With him I felt true love and calmness. But then I told him I was a burning flame he didn’t say a word but rather stretched his hand towards me….then and only then did I know I have found my ICE the ICE which I longed for.

Many Nigerians wish to dive into the business world but the biggest problem most always encounter is the problem of capital. And this is why I put up this article, this article is about businesses you can actually start with little or no capital.

1. Tea/coffee vendor

You need a trolley to hawk your drinks. The capital required is to shop for the trolley and therefore the beverages, but you’ll need to move from one place to a different one so as to form reasonable sales.

Alternatively, you’ll get a store during a hot spot in town.

2. snack counter retailer

What you are doing here is to retail snacks already prepared by other companies like UAC Foods. you would like a trolley to maneuver about and if you’re at the proper places, there’s every chance you’ll observe sales.

3. Plumbing services

If you’ve got the knowledge of putting in and repairing sinks, toilets, water pipes, etc. you’ll enter this business since homeowners usually have problems that need a plumber. Your investment is that the little tools needed for the work.

You can make piles during this business if you’re good to build contact with building contractors. you’ll get contracts worth millions to handle plumbing for buildings, companies, and more

4. Vulcanizing services

This is a simple business but you want to undergo training to be ready to roll in the hay. The equipment you would like mainly to try to to this business is that the tire pumping equipment, and you’ll fix yourself up at a roadside.

5. Electronics maintenance

You must undergo a period of coaching to try to do this job. you’ve got to rent a store where you repair DVD/VCD players. Also, you’ll repair all types of radios.. small-cap is required for this business.

6. Electrical maintenance

This also requires a period of coaching to master the trade. to start out the business, you want to rent a store and obtain the tools needed to hold out the repairs.

The business is about fixing electrical issues reception and general electrical services.

You can make a pile if you build contact with building engineers. you’ll get regular contracts to handle wiring or buildings, companies then on.

7. Refrigerator servicing

A period of coaching is required for this business. Though it doesn’t require much capital, you want to rent a store and buy tools that are necessary to try to do the work.

Your job is going to be to service the fridge and freezers.

8. painting

You must find out how to color houses before you’ll do that work. However, you are doing not need to rent a store at the start, just lollygag around a paint shop or rather leave your telephone number, they’re going to always contact you when someone needs your services.

When you make enough money, you’ll rent a store, do a card. you’ll make a pile once you have contracts to color buildings.

9. Car painting

This is a really lucrative business people don’t check out frequently. Every day, cars get scratched and everyone that. The owners want it painted to seem new.

In some states, once you buy a replacement car for a taxi or other transportation business, you’ll get to pant it to a selected color.

That is where a car painter is available. There are tons of cash to be made. I even have painted my car a few times and it cost tons. Guess what? my car painter has built his own house from this business!

You will get to learn the skill and obtain a painting machine and an area.

10. Photography/video recording

This business requires a period of coaching for you to try to do it well. It also requires you to shop for cameras, video cameras, s, and laptops.

To be known within the business and secure customers, you want to attend places that events are happening and eventually have your own shop. Those during this business easily survive, it’s recommended for males and feminine.

11. Motor mechanic

You may need an extended period of coaching and it’s a male-dominated business but women also are very successful in it. After the training, you would like to start to repair cars for your clients which you started knowing once you were an apprentice, eventually, you rent a workshop. you would like tools for your business, therefore the business doesn’t require much capital.

12. House cleaning

Some big people and corporations are trying to find house cleaners. No financial investment is required here, what it takes to try to do the work is to be strong. it’s not necessary to get on day to day, so it’s possible you’ll do two of the roles and obtain paid mainly on monthly basis.

You can recruit people to hitch you once you have plenty of clients.

13. Catering services

Some people do parties and wish someone to provide the food for the party. It requires you to purchase cooking utensils and make contacts and obtain information on those planning parties within the immediate future. Investment required here is that the amount it’ll cost you to form the meals required at the party.

If you cook for giant evens as wedding, company meetings, political banquets, and more, you’ll make tons f money.

Collaborate with event planners and you’ll always have jobs.

14. Phone charging business

Since not every area is furnished with electricity, the business opportunity is now created for you to charge peoples’ phones.

All you to try to do is to urge a little generator set, construct charging points, buy few chargers and you’re in business. confirm you promote your business around your base in order that people are going to be aware.

15. Networking business

This wont to be a really popular business in Nigeria but since tons of individuals lost huge sums of cash to MMM, the recognition of networking businesses is waning. what’s required during this business is to understand tons of individuals you’ll introduce into the business also as by the company’s products purchasable to your friends.

There are tons of networking businesses.

16. Babysitting/childcare business

Today’s mothers attend work and where to stay their young babies becomes a drag. So as a lady or man who has soft spot for babies, you’ll start this business and if you’re good to children, the sky is your limit.

You can begin with a neighborhood of your apartment if it’s spacious enough, then later rent a befitting home for the babies.

17. Pet care business

People who love and keep pets sometimes get away on holidays if this is often the case, it becomes a drag for the pets since they can’t be taken along on holidays. it’s a profitable business thus far you’ll promote your business-wide enough. It doesn’t require huge investment aside from space and animal feeds.

You can also look out for sick pets for a fee.

18. Low-income manpower supply business

Restaurant/Domestic workers are in great demand everywhere in big cities in Nigeria and fixing manpower recruitment companies, you’ll shovel in an honest fortune in no time. What it requires maybe a small space and mobile phones but it must be promoted widely for awareness.

19. Gardening services business

Lots of houses within the big cities are decorated with flowers and sometimes times they have a lawns/flower cutter who will keep the flower round the compound neat and clean. No capital is required except your expertise and you’re handsomely paid.

20. Sewing/sales of stitching accessories

For this business, you want to learn the trade before you’ll start it. you want to undergo a period of apprentice before you’ll begin accepting jobs from people. If you good are at sewing, you’ll grow quickly.

21. Event organizer party services

You can offer decorations, parking facilities, and general planning for people that want to host parties. In big cities, every weekend it’s happening somewhere in town and event organizers have tons of labor to try to do.

Apart from parties, other events like meetings, conferences workshops, etc., you’ll undertake to place things together for the hosts. you are doing not need very much capital but expertise.

22. Online content writing

This business doesn’t require much capital since what you would like is a piece of expert knowledge in a particular area, laptop, mobile, and access to the web. If you’re good, the roles will locate you and you’ll be rewarded accordingly.

Use websites like Upwork to seem for jobs.

23. Snail farming business

This is an easy and low-cost business to venture into. Though you would like to understand about snail farming to try to to this business you would like not such a lot money to start out it. and since snails lay eggs in hundreds, feeds on leaves and fruits, and don’t demand much of some time, it’s a business anybody can do.

24. Online Email marketing

This business requires you to possess an email list of blog subscribers to market certain products. it’s actually suitable for people that like to talk, write, explain and have the power to influence. It doesn’t require cash investment except for your talent.

25. Online Copywriting

There is no capital injection for this business but you want to be vast in writing advertising copy that’s meant to influence people to shop for products. So you want to have the power to write down sales copy which will sell products.

26. Online Freelance data entry business

These days many businesses collect a huge amount of knowledge like customer details, product details, research data, etc. These data are collected via various media, forums, surveys than on. These data got to be aggregated into one platform where you’ll study and analyze it. So a contract data entry personnel will perform the work and if he does well, can attract many rewards.

27. Graphic designer business

Quality graphics help to create the merchandise brand’s image into customer’s eyes, they create a long-lasting positive impression on people.

New products are launched a day and there’s a growing demand for graphics designers. to try to do the business, it’s assumed you’ve got the skill and you are doing not need to invest much money except your computer, mobile and internet access.

28. Whatsapp business

You can do that business by creating a lively group on Whatsapp and add members thereto. Then get links of products you would like to sell and paste them to the Whatsapp group. it’s going to even be your product.

If any member clicks on the link and buys the merchandise, you’ll be getting an honest amount of commission. So it doesn’t require capital except for your mobile and internet access.

29. YouTube channel

This is one among the simplest and even successful thanks to making money. it’s an open platform for those that create their own music content, video and publish them on the web, it can reach a targeted audience worldwide.

However, you want to be creative, in order that you’ll make children’s play, for instance, and publish on the web. It needs no investment intrinsically but your talent, and you create such a lot of money from this business.

30. Social media marketing

These days, billions of individuals spend most of their time on the web. The goal of social media marketing is to assist companies and businesses reach these people online.

You do not need any capital aside from knowledge.

31. MakeUp business

People, especially women can’t do without makeup lately. they have it to seem beautiful and more professional.

Some need it for business reasons like movies than on.

All you would like is skills and keenness for the work. It doesn’t cost much to start out.

32. Okrika business

This is one of the foremost trending business ideas in Nigeria because people will always have a need for clothes.

Okrika clothes are the foremost wanted among the center and class.

You don’t need much capital to start out. It all depends upon the size you would like to start out.

Among small profitable business ideas, this one here is extremely lucrative.