Posted by Olajide Laniyonu on
While I appreciate the way and manner Nigerians mourned the sudden demise of the First Lady, Mrs. Stella Obasanjo, especially via the obituaries in the print and broadcast media, one thing that baffled me most is what appeared to be a conspiracy of silence over the late First Lady's Edo name.
While I appreciate the way and manner Nigerians mourned the sudden demise of the First Lady, Mrs. Stella Obasanjo, especially via the obituaries in the print and broadcast media, one thing that baffled me most is what appeared to be a conspiracy of silence over the late First Lady's Edo name.
Even the Edo State Government and Stella's own Abebe family couldn't care less about using her given Edo name, as if her marriage to a Yoruba man obliterated her Edo ancestry.
This is one typical instance of how Nigerians relinquish their native names and identities for whatever reasons, preferring to take on foreign names and identities, such that it becomes virtually impossible to trace their origin at critical moments.
Nowadays, especially among Yorubas, it is considered crude to speak the native language, much less to give one's children the traditional Yoruba names.
Children are given foreign names, taught to speak foreign language's and eat foreign (unhealthy) foods, to the point that the children become citizens of no world on the long run.
Someone said that if you want to annihilate a people, make them forget their language, religion and culture.
Most Nigerians are on their way to self-annihilation, and unless we make a U-turn for the better, it is only a matter of time before we lose our peculiar identity as indigenous peoples.
Olajide Laniyonu,
27, Aluko Street,
Felele, Ibadan,
Oyo State.
The PUNCH, Tuesday, December 20, 2005