My Response:
IllBliss, Oga Boss,
Your words are not just careless — they are a deliberate provocation and a deep insult to the Yoruba people, the indigenous owners of Lagos (Eko).
Lagos was never a “no man’s land.” It is the ancestral home of the Awori Yoruba people. From the time of our forebears — the children of Olofin — to the thriving Yoruba kingdoms and communities that built this city long before modern Nigeria, Lagos has always been Yoruba land.
You and your people are welcome to live, trade, and prosper here — as millions of Igbos have done peacefully for decades. We Yorubas are hospitable people; that is our culture. But hospitality is not ownership.
No amount of buying properties (which many groups do) changes the fact of indigeneity. Under the Land Use Act, land belongs to the state, but the soul, history, culture, and political identity of Lagos remain Yoruba. We are not “fools” renting our inheritance. We are the landlords of our ancestral home.
Your statement reeks of arrogance, entitlement, and dangerous tribal supremacy. It fuels division. If Igbos truly “own” Lagos as you boast, why do you not build your own economic capitals in the Southeast to the same level? Why the fixation on claiming what is not yours?
To my Yoruba brothers and sisters:
Let us remain calm but resolute. Protect our heritage. Document our history. Support our own. And reject any narrative that seeks to erase us from our land.
Lagos is Yoruba. Eko o ni baje o.
— HRM Oba Omotooyosi Bayo M. Akinleye