By Farooq A. Kperogi
Amid the grief of the heartrendingly tragic collapse of the 21-storey luxury apartment building in Ikoyi, Lagos, a sadly familiar, barely acknowledged but nonetheless insidiously widespread anti-Muslim bigotry in Yoruba land came to light.
A Yoruba Muslim by the name of Adebowale Sikiru revealed in an interview with a YouTube news channel called AN 24 that he was rejected for a job at the Ikoyi construction site because of his Muslim faith. He applied for the position of a site engineer and was found qualified enough to deserve being invited for an interview by Femi Osibona, the MD of Fourscore Homes, the firm that managed the construction of the ill-fated multi-storey building.
After the interview, Sikiru said Osibona asked him what church he attended, and he responded that he was a Muslim. “Ah, I can’t work with a Muslim,” Sikiru quoted Osibona to have said. Osibona reportedly said in Yoruba that he couldn’t work with someone whose response to his chant of “Praise God!” would be “Alhamdulillah!”
When Sikiru told him of his struggles with getting gainfully employed after graduation, Osibona also reportedly said it was probably because of his Muslim faith that he was not “able to make a headway” in life. “He said that in front of even the bricklayers” and many others at the site, Sikiru said.
Sikiru left the site sad, humiliated, and deflated, but a friend of his who brought his attention to the job he had interviewed for called him while he was on his way back home. The friend wanted to find out if he was trapped in the building that had collapsed a few hours earlier. That was the time it dawned on Sikiru that his rejection and humiliation on account of his faith ironically saved him from death.
Unfortunately, Osibona died in the collapsed building, so we have no way of getting his own side of the story. Nonetheless, it doesn’t seem plausible that Sikiru, who didn’t even come across as a devout Muslim during his interview with AN 24, would just wake up and invent the encounter with Osibona. Plus, videos that have emerged of Osibona’s meretriciously outward displays of his Christianity and evangelical exhibitionism are consistent with Sikiru’s account of his encounter with him.
More than that, though, it merely instantiates the casual bigotry that Yoruba Muslims routinely contend with in their own natal region on account of their faith, which I’ve known for years.
I followed the social media conversations that Sikiru’s encounter with Osibona triggered among Yoruba Muslims and came away with the distinct impression that many Yoruba Muslims are seething with frustration and deep-seated inferiority complex on account of their faith-based systematic exclusion and demonization, but they are grinning and bearing their fate in smoldering silence out of social pressure, out of anxieties about social ostracism. We call this the spectacle of the spiral of silence in communication theory.
A Facebook friend of mine by the name of Ganiyu Oludare Lasisi who now lives and works in Scotland narrated how he was denied a job to teach high school geography in his hometown of Abeokuta because of his Muslim faith. He has an Upper Second-Class honors degree in Geography and a distinction in the subject in his “O” level. But “on the day of the interview,” Lasisi said, “the school owner/founder (also a pastor) rejected me because of my Muslim name (Ganiyu). I was so sad and angry then. He even suggested that I can convert to Christianity and change Ganiyu to Gabriel.”
In their safe spaces, multiple Yoruba Muslims shared similar such anecdotal encounters of causal bigotry. They say they are habitually ridiculed for their faith, sneered at for their Muslim sartorial choices, alienated and rhetorically marginalized, and outright denied opportunities by people with whom they share the same ethnicity. Several of them are forced to convert to Christianity or hide their faith to fit in.
Just the other day, on November 3, Premium Times published a story of the appointment of a 45-year-old professor of geo-technical engineering by the name of Afeez Bello as acting Vice Chancellor of the Osun State University in Osogbo. The photo of Bello that the paper used to illustrate the story was of a heavily bearded man with a Muslim felt hat.
Apparently, that sartorial symbol of male Muslim identity was like a red rag to a bull among Christian Facebook commenters, most of whom were Yoruba. The man was called “Boko Haram,” “Shekau’s reincarnation,” a “fanatic,” and all sorts of other cruel slanders and unwarrantedly unmentionable vituperations. I was emotionally distraught after reading a sample of the comments. I inflicted self-torture on myself.
The truth is that the famed religious ecumenicalism and tolerance of the Yoruba people is often achieved at the expense of Yoruba Muslims. It is they, and not their Christian brothers and sisters, who must always perform religious tolerance. (In his interview with the YouTube news channel, even Sikiru felt compelled to say that 95 percent of his friends are Christians and that he hadn’t closed off the possibility that he could convert to Christianity at some point in his life.)
It is Yoruba Muslims who are required to downplay or hide their religious identity in the interest of an overarching Yoruba identity because, over the last few decades, Christianity has been rhetorically constituted in the popular imagination as a core constituent in the construction of Yoruba identity. That’s why prominent Yoruba Muslims almost always have to invoke their connection to Christianity to fit in.
The late Gani Fawehinmi always had a need to show that his wife was a Christian. Bola Ahmed Tinubu has a need to strategically let it be known that his wife isn’t only a Christian but a deacon. House of Representatives Speaker Olufemi Hakeem Gbajabiamila concealed his Muslim identity until he needed the support of the Muslim North to become Speaker. After the fact, his handlers played up the fact that his wife and his mother are Christians.
Prince Bola Ajibola, one of Africa’s finest jurists who happens to be a devout Muslim, doesn’t openly bear Abduljabar, his Muslim name—unlike his father who bore Abdulsalam as his first name—perhaps, not being married to a Christian, it was his only way to reassure his Christian Yoruba brothers and sisters that he is Yoruba. Yet, he is so strong in his Muslim faith that he established the Crescent University, one of Nigeria’s first private Islamic universities, in his hometown of Abeokuta.
Although Muslims constitute a numerical majority in Yoruba land, they are a symbolic minority and are perpetually put in a position to prove their “Yorubaness.” For instance, in the heat of the debate over the formation of Amotekun to ward off “Fulani bandits,” Bolaji Aluko, who was a professor here in the United States and who is now a prominent Ekiti State government official, used the moment to stealthily alienate Yoruba Muslims in his state.
In a January 25, 2021 article titled “Sunday Musings: On the Matter of Farmer-Herdsmen Clashes in Ekiti State,” he wrote, among other things, “Our Muslim Yoruba citizens must decide whether the Umma principle of brotherhood is greater that [sic] the collective security of our Yoruba citizenry." As I told him then, there are at least four ways in which he was wrong.
First, he exoticized, needlessly put Yoruba Muslims on the spot, and created a false binary between being Muslim and being Yoruba, even though (nominal) Muslims constitute the majority in Oyo, Osun, Ogun, and Lagos states. Islam has been in Yorubaland since at least the 1400s. The first mosque was built in Oyo-Ile, the ancient capital of the Oyo Empire, in 1550, that is, centuries before colonialism.
Second, Yoruba Muslims are themselves victims of the homicidal fury of Fulani brigands. If being Muslim hasn't immunized Yoruba Muslims against sanguinary clashes with Fulani people, why should they be singled out as people who are suspect, as people who might betray non-Muslim Yoruba people to the Fulani out of "the Umma principle of brotherhood," which, by the way, is nonsensical, meaningless verbiage?
Third, Aluko’s claim assumes that all Fulani brigands are Muslims (they are NOT) and that they are committing their crimes on behalf of Islam, which would predispose them spare Yoruba Muslims in the spirit of "the Umma principle of brotherhood." But nothing can be more ignorant and bigoted than that.
If "Umma principle of brotherhood" (whatever the heck that means) were a thing, Muslims in Katsina, Zamfara, Kaduna, Niger, and elsewhere (who are also incidentally Fulani, Hausa, or "Hausa-Fulani" wouldn't be killed, kidnapped, and overawed by criminally bloodthirsty Fulani brigands. Mosques wouldn’t be invaded, and imams and worshipers kidnapped and murdered. That should tell anyone that this isn't about religion or even ethnicity.
Sadly, Yoruba Muslims have no voice and seem to have accepted their fate.

Sadly, Yoruba Muslims have no voice and seem to have accepted their fate with listless resignation. Not being a Yoruba myself, I know I will be viciously attacked by the people who lubricate and enjoy the current hegemonic high ground that puts Yoruba Muslims at the lower end of the totem pole, but I am not one to shy away from telling the truth because of fear of attacks. I resist injustice no matter who the victims or the perpetrators are.
Anny
November 6, 2021 at 9:29 AM
Prof Kperogi, i applaud your unbiased and purely professional insightful write-ups!
Must say i read a lot of social commentaries on FB but most times. I see a group of commentators struggling to push narratives either in favour or out of favour with the govt depending on thier affiliations to the govt of Nigeria, ethnicity,party or even business interest and NEVER to set out the facts out there and let the people decide based on the info presented!
Nigeria needs just 2 more of you,may be one in europe and 1 in Asia to keep throwing out the facts out there and we will be fine!
Please continue in your stride and do not relent----those that cannot stand you are those averse to the truth !kudos
REPLY
Unknown
November 6, 2021 at 11:43 AM
Well,Prof. Kperogi, there is no doubt, the problems of this country are our elites, from both divide, North and South. This reminds me of you good friend,late Professor Adesanmi(hope I remember the name correctly),who was always referring these elites, in his columns,as "the 2percenters."I always enjoyed reading his columns because of his candour, like you. But how do we challenge and defeat the 2percenters without people like you and the late Prof. Adesanmi, when illiteracy and poverty were deliberately created to be cloud our sense of reasoning? Each section of the country has its "weapon of mass dis-atraction". As for the North, we have the 'political Islamists', and the South West, we have the 'ethnic supremacist', while in the South East we have the 'secessionist,' who always cried against marginalisation.
REPLY
Ade
November 6, 2021 at 1:02 PM
While I agree with your position on widespread bigotry among Yorubas, your analogy is conveniently one-sided.
The derogatory term used for Christians in the southwest is 'Kiriyo'. A typical devout Muslim family in Ibadan will literally disown their children for associating with Kiriyo, some to the point of threatening fatal consequences.
How many born again Christians get employed in schools owned by Imams? In fact you won't bother to apply because you'll already know they're not looking for 'your type'
The subject of bigotry among Yorubas have to addressed holistically because it goes many ways.
Lasly, I think it is the height of unfairness to selectively site cases of bigotry against muslims, while subtly rejoicing that a supposed bigot got what they deserved in death (it's even crazy thinking about it). Your post showed zero respect for the souls of the departed
REPLY
Replies
Unknown
November 7, 2021 at 6:07 AM
With all due respect Ade, you sound to be guilty of what the Prof is saying here. Kariyo has never been used as derogatory term to describe Christians. Rather it is a common way the uneducated among us including my grand parents and probably yours too pronounce Christian. I am sure that you have heard the same people called Yoruba of Muslims faith 'Imale' and later twisted as 'Awon Elesin Lile.'
Reply
ogupla
November 6, 2021 at 4:31 PM
This is a good literary write up though he could have given it some religious societal and moral balancing.
REPLY
Adetayo Hakeem
November 6, 2021 at 4:57 PM
It's a lie. Please don't bring division between us. We accept religious tolerance in this part of Nigeria
REPLY
Replies
Unknown
November 7, 2021 at 6:25 AM
That is not true Mr Adetayo as you may prefer to be called. Religious tolerance has disappeared into thin air in Yoruba land. It is true that Yoruba Muslims have been gradually facing persecution and extinction in Yoruba. It is fine if you never witnessed it but is just the reality. I witnessed it too first when I went for interview at NNPC JVD on Adetokunbo Ademola. Despite all the noise about Northerners occupying everywhere. A Yoruba NNPC Coordinator, who was head of that division at that time in 1990 or 1991, and who happens to be of Ijebu decent like me but a Christian and I believe, a Deacon told me to my face that I cannot work their because every one around him were Muslims. Only to discover he reserved the position for his son who just came back from England.
Or, is it the several battles I had fight with a private school I put my children only to remove their Muslims names from my children report card after several complaints, and to be asked why did I give my children such 'satanic' name.
Moderators: OAM4J, Mynd44 over to you. Or is the article unworthy of front page since it is about the plight of those who don't share your religion?
Reply
TheSaint
November 6, 2021 at 5:14 PM
Prof I think you 'misfired' this one.
While bigotry of any nature is deplorable, I don't think what happened between late Osibona, if true, is worth the colouration of generalisation. And the premise of your argument; a few yoruba politicians unwilling to confidently bear their religious name does not emanate from fear of discrimition but political gimmickry. May the Almighty comfort the bereaved and grant eternal rest to the victims.
REPLY
Sulaak
November 7, 2021 at 3:49 AM
The SW has many problems, corruption,poverty and underdevelopment, let not allow religion to be another issues in the SW. We have seen how religion has turned the North into a basketcase.
REPLY
babajide
November 7, 2021 at 3:50 AM
Does it wonder any Christian what Jesus was trying to convey when he said he shall reject them that day? "many shall come to me and said lord, we have done many things in your name, and Jesus shall tell them that get ye away from me you workers of iniquity'. I had to say this with the mindset that every christian claimed to follow Jesus in act and saying, if Osibono, the owner of the ikoyi collapsed building and a representation of an average christian, then for sure, based on the above quote from Jesus, no christian will make heaven.
REPLY
Share your thoughts and opinions here. I read and appreciate all comments posted here. But I implore you to be respectful and professional. Trolls will be removed and toxic comments will be deleted.
(Quote) (Report ) 3 Likes (Like ) 1 Share ( Share)
Re: Farooq Kperogi: Ikoyi Tragedy And Casual Bigotry Against Yoruba Muslims by NoSentiment: 4:44pm On Nov 07
I will see if this will be moved to the front page or it will also suffer the same fate as Engineer Sikiru

It's a shame Yoruba hate themselves

Amosun and Tinubu hate for each other comes to mind

The late ajimobi didn't hide his hate for Yinka ayefele

Let me not even talk about late Kashamu and baba Ijebu cat and rat chase chase till one of Dem gave up the ghost

It's that bad

It is an individual thing, I have worked with Yoruba Muslims, both men and female and we bonded well.

Even one alhaja wey be devout Muslim in my area dey always buy me beer. The first day she accepted to buy me drink, I told her I want beer but she asked the seller to give me drink that doesn't have alcohol, when I pointed one fruit wine and the seller told her 3k...she shouted and said I should take beer

Na so one woman ask me the other day where do you worship I just reply her that I don't need the job anymore for two weeks she was disturb she had to call me and clear her conscience, she apologies for bringing religion into 3 month of hard work and interview.

PrinceOfLagos:
It's a shame Yoruba hate themselves

Amosun and Tinubu hate for each other comes to mind

The late ajimobi didn't hide his hate for Yinka ayefele

Let me not even talk about late Kashamu and baba Ijebu cat and rat chase chase till one of Dem gave up the ghost

It's that bad

You're back from your cave to civilization. I doubt if you sleep 2 nights in that God forsaken state. Weyrey will soon come and claim Yoruba now, watch peeps..

Awkabigboy:
I wonder why a sane yoruba person will choose to be a Muslim, i mean a religion that is anti-life, a religion of terror and women subjugation that takes life is definitely a curse to humanity

Hmmm

But if this post is to shed light on the religious doings of Christian against Muslims, what about the fact that Bokoharam are killing and is still killing Christians in the North. Write about that. One recent Muslim facebook post wrote that it is his pleasure to kill Christians. If you where a Christian you will ask questions of your Muslim friends so they don't kill you in your sleep. How can a religion encourage and mandate killing of anyone not in their faith. That is a bad religion. That's on period.

Gbagura:
You're back from your cave to civilization. I doubt if you sleep 2 nights in that God forsaken state. Weyrey will soon come and claim Yoruba now, watch peeps..

Keep following me up and down, I am your star boy .

PrinceOfLagos:

Keep following me up and down, I am your star boy .

Ọmọ nna

Used to think it’s the other way round... Yoruba hAte themselves... but will pretend ..

North says they have two rivers.. so it impossible to catch em on one.. most time they swing where it favors them .. knowing themselves they’re not comfortable with each other.

Who blames them when they go tribal with non Yoruba..

Someday this Sophisticators will understand that life is all about humanity first. Before tribe and religion.

Gbagura:
Ọmọ nna

Ore Omo nna , bawo ni o

Awkabigboy:
I wonder why a sane yoruba person will choose to be a Muslim, i mean a religion that is anti-life, a religion of terror and women subjugation that takes life is definitely a curse to humanity

You’re not making sense now.
Every religion is fvcked depending the angle you looking ..

There is no such thing

Christianity is founded on love. Indeed, the God of Christians is Love Himself

PrinceOfLagos:
It's a shame Yoruba hate themselves

Amosun and Tinubu hate for each other comes to mind

The late ajimobi didn't hide his hate for Yinka ayefele

Let me not even talk about late Kashamu and baba Ijebu cat and rat chase chase till one of Dem gave up the ghost

It's that bad

Forgotten the real oldies

Obasanjo and Abiola

The writer is a useless Almajari who was born by the roadside by destitute parents. Instead of him to find solution to the bandits = boko Haram = kiler herdsmen before they wipe out his whole generation, the idiot is putting his smelly mouth where he was not called.

Ogun go kee his forefathers.

IPOpigs are having a good day while Kanu is already complaining of pillow

Awkabigboy:
I wonder why a sane yoruba person will choose to be a Muslim, i mean a religion that is anti-life, a religion of terror and women subjugation that takes life is definitely a curse to humanity

I wonder how somebody will be cursed to the extent that this is the rubbish in his skull.

The people that exported your grandparents binded in chains to EU and US to work as farm slaves and sex slaves are Christian Missionaries.

Even Pharaoh did not put Egyptians in chains.

PrinceOfLagos:
It's a shame Yoruba hate themselves

Amosun and Tinubu hate for each other comes to mind

The late ajimobi didn't hide his hate for Yinka ayefele

Let me not even talk about late Kashamu and baba Ijebu cat and rat chase chase till one of Dem gave up the ghost

It's that bad

You are very right, Yorubas hate themselves unlike Igbos who love themselves so much that they established ESN and UGM to be killing and maiming their own brothers, killing their traditional rulers and desyroying their own properties. Umuleri and Uguleri are on regular killing of each other.

I know Orji Uzor Kalu and Theodora Orji are now arch enemies who will never sit in the same room

Now, isn't it obvious that the OP is typing from the psychiatric ward of Enugu Isolation Center?

Asgard73:


Forgotten the real oldies

Obasanjo and Abiola

Obasanjo that used three million local goats from the East to make pepper soup and suya?

Farooq would soon get what he is looking for.

Professor in Controversy

Awkabigboy:
I wonder why a sane yoruba person will choose to be a Muslim, i mean a religion that is anti-life, a religion of terror and women subjugation that takes life is definitely a curse to humanity

Be more concern about igbo muslims in Ebonyi and Enugu

Asgard73:
Used to think it’s the other way round... Yoruba hAte themselves... but will pretend ..

North says they have two rivers.. so it impossible to catch em on one.. most time they swing where it favors them .. knowing themselves they’re not comfortable with each other.

Who blames them when they go tribal with non Yoruba..

Someday this Sophisticators will understand that life is all about humanity first. Before tribe and religion.

Where is the OSU outcast from self? Na Yoruba be ESN and UGM that have been killing and maiming fellow Igbos?

helinues:
Farooq would soon get what he is looking for.

Professor in Controversy

The write-up by Farooq is so stupid.

He should be more concern about his Nupe ethnic group

The pretends is real..... they claim they're living in unity when they never like each other....



But what's there to like about the religion of peace people that are very good at cutting someone's neck in the name of Allah...

yanabasee2:
The pretends is real..... they claim they're living in unity when they never like each other....

But what's there to like about the religion of peace people that are very good at cutting someone's neck in the name of Allah...

If you mind your business, your life will nor be miserable as it is now. The ESN and UGM that are killing, maiming and destroying properties including killing Dora Akunyili's husband, are they Muslims?

If he mistakenly shout Alahkaka the next things you would hear is boomboom

DubaiLandLord1:
The write-up by Farooq is so stupid.

He should be more concern about his Nupe ethnic group

All the people that Pdp, Atiku surrounded himself with are just bad luck.

How would this gibberish attract Yoruba voters to Pdp, the party Farooq is proxily defending?

mauriceju2:
If he mistakenly shout Alahkaka the next things you would hear is boomboom

Just as UGM did when they killed Dora Akunyili's husband

By the time Nigeria is done with the Yoruba race, we would become a people without an identity, we would start having Christian/Muslim dominated areas, just like the useless people that brought us the useless religion! Over 3000 years of useless war and bloodshed, no country or people on earth can balance both religion,

efighter:


Where is the OSU outcast from self? Na Yoruba be ESN and UGM that have been killing and maiming fellow Igbos?

You suppose don grow pass this