by Prof. Moses Oludele Idowu
There is a quiet war going on that most people do not know. There is a silent auction ongoing that people are not aware of. People talk of the Silent Auction of Nigeria’s resources and wealth currently going on through no- bid contract in humongous sum to foreign elements and collaborators of ruling powers; some speak of the collective dispossession of Nigerian masses through all manner of loans without any substance or value accruing from them or even of massive theft of mineral resources by foreigners, syndicate made up of army generals, corrupt elites and their local minions. And some speak of the auction of the future of Nigeria today through ballooning debts that increase day by day.
These are all true but this is not what I have in mind.
There’s another auction going on presently across Yorubaland especially. There is a Silent Auction now reaching advanced stages that no one is talking about and which will have dire consequences for future.
It is my purpose in this essay to draw attention to it and to show why it is happening. My purpose is not to whip up ethnic sentiments or hatred against any group or tribe but rather to show that no one but the Yoruba themselves have to be blamed for this. The auction of which I speak is the Silent Auction of land and property now going on in Yorubaland and especially in the Southwestern part of Nigeria.
Here’s a prediction: if the Yoruba Nation fails to materialise in the next 10 to 15 years the entire demographic of most part of Southwest would become completely different from what it presently is; if there is no course correction soon even the ownership structure of most landed properties, structure and even estates in the cities and urban towns of Yorubaland will become completely disfigured, reconfigured to remove every trace and claim of Yoruba ethnic identity, dominance or colouration. The process is already on course and has been on course for long and nothing is stopping it. Yorubas are being outbid, out-funded and outclassed in their own land by people with access to unusual money, enormous wealth. Yoruba are facing two dangers at this present time: in their cities they are being “bought out” by non- Yoruba who have access to bigger money; and in the rural areas they are being bought out and chased by insecurity. All these while a man who is supposed to be a Yoruba man is heading the Federal Government.
Let me make the case clearer for all to see.
I visited an elderly man in his estate inside Lagos and we began to discuss about property in the area and he demonstrated graphically the trouble Yoruba are facing today in Lagos, the temptation and the snare to sell. He said a former governor from outside came to him with money in the boot of his car to buy the property and that this man from outside Lagos has been going around buying up property in the area. He said he has at least 3 houses already that he bought. He offers ridiculous money that owners can hardly resist or reject. He made this same offer to him but he refused to sell and he told him that he was already in money when he was still in secondary school and that there is no money he can offer that could tempt him. This man would come with millions of cash in his boot not through banks so EFCC cannot trace the transactions. What happened to money laundering laws?
Now as a result of this offering of ridiculous money to purchase property in this centrally located estate in Lagos, the cost of renting had gone up. He told me that to rent a flat in that estate now cost five million naira per annum. This is mainland Lagos not island. How many salary earners today could rent a flat at that rate? But he told me people, mostly from Southeast are taking it and renting. Thus there is a change of demographic as the original Yoruba occupants are moving out, others from outside Yorubaland are coming in. Don’t you know the implications of this in future for democracy?
Several years ago when I was in active Engineering practice as a consulting Structural Engineer I did some jobs for clients around Ikoyi Foreshore estate. Here was my shocking discovery: a plot at that time in that prime estate costs around one hundred million naira ( 100 million) and all the clients that I know including the one I worked for were from Niger Delta or South-east. I never knew a single Yoruba man or elite as possessing even a single plot in that corridor. Not that there were none but I did not know or meet a single one. All the clients that I saw and met were Igbos. That was around 2007. I do not know what it is now.
Yorubas have been leaving the cities and going back to the countryside or to the outskirts.
Even on the outskirts they are being out-manouvered by their more economically empowered competitors. In their own land!
I will give just one example. A community on the outskirts of Lagos where I live whenever I come to Lagos is technically in Ifo Local Government of Ogun State but more than 80% who live here actually work in Lagos State. When I came here in 2007 it was purely and largely and typically a Yoruba settlement or community. However, in the last few years something has changed. Some landlords have relocated to their villages and sold off their properties. Rent that used to be around 150,000 or 200,000 naira now goes for millions just for a flat. Several people have come especially from the Southeast and other part of Nigeria and have offered mouth- watering sum too tempting for any landlord that has never seen money. The result, there is a new demographic in the ownership structure now emerging.
The Baale of the community is known to me, his wife is a close friend of my wife. She told a story few days ago that shocked her. An Igbo man who also is well- known to the Baale came looking for land. A landlord had relocated abroad and wanted to sell his property and handed the documents to the Baale for disposal. The Baale introduced this igbo man to the property and told him how much the owner wanted to sell. He did not even price it, or bargain over it. The young man just picked his phone there and then after visiting the place and liking it, and transferred twenty million naira to the account (N20 million) Just like that !
If.you see any shopping mall or skyscraper in this community today it is most likely owned by an Igbo man or someone from Niger Delta.
In 2007 when I came here it was a purely Yoruba community with few Easterners and several Hausas and northerners. Today it is a different story.
The nursery school where my children schooled here who are now in university have been sold for 20 million and in its place a new Mall. The owner has relocated. The new owner? You can guess. As it is the day will soon come when you will not be able to win an election without the support of the Igbos here.
Yoruba fight over effects while they ignore the root cause.
*The New Golden Rule*
There is a new golden rule that operates in the market place, at all Stock Excahnges of the world. It is well- known to financial gurus: _he who has the gold makes the rules._
At the rate at which things are going what happened to Access Bank built by some Ijesha Yoruba but now taken over by non- Yoruba with access to crowdfunding, may happen someday in Yorubaland. It is already on course and with the kind of leeches you have as politicians who could sell their own mothers for money and personal interest then we will soon get there.
I am told the same trend is ongoing in many Yoruba towns – Osogbo, Akure, Abeokuta and even Ibadan. My friend in Ibadan who brought me to Ibadan has sold his own house too right on the roadside and relocated inwards. The buyer was also an Igbo man. He then pulled down the old house and built a solid imposing structure.
You will soon get there, Yorubas.
*The Igbos Are Not the Problem*
Make no mistake and let no one misunderstand this. I am not against Igbo or anyone from Niger Delta. I am not one of those abusing the Igbos cursing and using expletives on Igbo because they are buying up Yorubaland. I am a servant of God and Igbos are among my followers, faithful followers and mentees.
I have observed some Social Media platforms and WhatsApp groups lambasting Igbos to no end about buying up Yorubaland.
This is the trouble with our people. They rarely address the disease or problem, they merely cry over the effects or symptoms. Know this today: the Igbos are not the problem. They are not. Before I round up this essay I will tell you who your greatest enemies are in Yorubaland. If you are foolish enough to sell your family patrimony then do you blame an outsider for buying it? If you are foolish enough to sell your father’s heritage and inheritance do.you blame a foreigner for buying them? Is the foreigner the problem? Can he forcefully take over if you refused to sell? When the former governor with stolen funds came to my elderly friend to buy his property and he lectured the governor that he had seen big money when he had not even gotten admission to secondary school, did he not leave him?
The buyer is not the problem, it is the seller. There would be no buyer if there were no sellers. But then the seller too cannot be blamed but the conditions that forced a man to sell his own father’s property and relocate. Why are many Yorubas selling their houses and relocating abroad? What type of constricting conditions force a man to leave the land of his forefathers to foreign land selling everything? Yoruba are leaving while other Nigerians are moving to the same Southwest due to insecurity in their own land and taking position.
As Yoruba are being outbid in the cities so they are also been chased in the rural areas by the Fulanis who are buying land and for those who would not sell, using terror to chase them as we have in Igbomina land now.
This then brings me to the conditions that make Yoruba so precarious that they can no longer defend themselves financially in their own land. I am amused when I hear Yoruba speak of Igbos as if they are the enemies; they are not. You, Yorubas are the greatest enemies of yourselves.
Here are few examples.
A certain estate around Igbogbo, near Ikorodu on which many Yoruba owned properties was marked for demolition. An estate with several properties owned and where Yoruba who could not afford the city of Lagos lived. Then suddenly Government claims the land belongs to it and they should vacate. The residents went to court against the Government and- to cut the long story short – one Monday morning a combined team of thugs, police, “area boys” bulldozers came and began to pull down the building. While the case was still in court. Newspapers carried this story.
Another estate in the same state around Epe too suffered similar fate from the hands of the same people, the same arrogant cocks who crow “Change”, Next Level, Renewed Hope…”
Do you know who they sold the land to? An Igbo businessman.
The same people who drove Yoruba from Badia, Ijora and after redevelopment sold it to highest bidders; the same people who took Tejuosho from market women and after development sold it to Igbos…
And they are rhe same people who would cry during elections: don’t let Igbos take over Lagos. Manipulators, predators, leeches, agents of colonial perpetuation and cultural imperialism.
These are your greatest enemies, not the Igbos. These are the leeches who have impoverished you and still impoverishing you. As your proverb itself says, “the enemy is in the backyard but the real subverter and adversary lives with you in the house.” [ Ehinkule lota wa inu ile laseni ngbe]
The political elites are one source of trouble for the Yoruba race at this time.
For months now we have been crying in Igbomina land for succour and salvation from insecurity and banditry and who cares? Whole towns are being deserted villages have been left and no one cares. Lives have been lost and not a word from the top, not even a mention. Dislocating and castrating opposition political parties are far more important for the success of 2027 than securing a Yoruba community. This is when someone who is supposed to be a Yoruba man is in power. At least you all knew when Buhari was there, no one dared touch the Fulani – either in the city or forest.
The Yoruba politician is enslaved to supreme selfishness. He thinks only about himself and family and no one else. Why do Igbo men have the crowdfund to purchase land and build business in Yorubaland and the indigenes do not have?
Keep deluding yourself with false accusations. ” Igbos are into drug running ” ” Igbos are into criminal enterprises…” I ask you, “Are all Igbos into criminal enterprises?” Are all Igbos into drug running? Are there no Yoruba too doing drugs? Are there no Yoruba into “yahoo” and criminal enterprises? A first class Oba of Yorubaland is serving jail term abroad due to fraud. Are your politicians saints?
The two other problems Yoruba has that has led.to progressive deterioration and poverty is built in the very culture and attitude of Yoruba. There are some good things about our culture and traditions – humility, diligence, self- control, contentment, respect for elders… These are good and these are the reasons Yoruba are loved and welcomed everywhere.
There are however certain aspects of our culture that need to change because they are sources of poverty and insecurity. They are what is fuelling the loss of fortune and why Yoruba is losing ground everywhere and on all fronts.
What is this culture? It is rooted in our very attitude to be culturally promiscuous, accommodating, welcoming, etc. It is the attitude of being syncretist in religious beliefs or what I call religous harlotry and prostitution. Only Yorubas I know who want to marry everything together. They want to be Christians and also Muslims and also Traditionalists – all at the same time. Yoruba Traditional Religion is syncretist in nature and most Yoruba never advance from this basic attitude of syncetism and never fully graduate from this childhood stages of spiritual development. It is only on Yorubaland that the doors are open to all manner of religions, cultic practices, gods, traditions and cultic practices. It is in Yorubaland that someone is a pastor and he is also an Apena of Ogboni Fraternity.
It is where you have a pastor marrying an Alhaji – no, pastors should marry pastors and Alhajji should marry an Alhaja. It is where you have a man attend two church services in a day and still go on thereafter to consult Ifa – as Chief Obasanjo told us he usually does.
This mixture is one of the reasons for poverty and why Yoruba are losing ground. We often see it as being tolerant and accommodating. It is not. It is harlotry and religous prostitution. Don’t you know that it is only a prostitute who opens her doors to every man? The married woman opens her doors only to her husband. Yoruba are glorying in their shame.
If you will be Christians, be real Christians; if you will be Muslims be real Muslims and if you want to be Traditionalists then stay with that. But stop deceiving yourself that you are Christians while at tje same time you are also Traditionalists- it is an error, a very grievous error. You cannot follow Christ and follow Ifa; you cannot be a child or follower of Esu or Ogun and Osun and still follow Jesus Christ of Nazareth. It is a shame that you don’t know this since 1842. So what did you learn in your universities, seminaries and Bible colleges?
It is this confusion of gods and religions among Yoruba that is at the background of your ensuing poverty and why you are losing ground.
You could say many things about the Fulani most of them negative and you will be right. But there is one thing that you may not say about him: that he is not zealous or faithful to his religion- Islam. You can say many things about the Igbos when it comes to religion they are either Catholic, Anglican or Pentecostal largely, even if they mix.other things too with their beliefs.
Now what do you say about the Yorubas? – Chrislam, Trado- Chrsitians, – a little to Christianity, a little to Islam and to Traditional Religion.
The result is they are neither real or good Chrsitians nor true Muslims nor even competent Traditionalists. That is why no Fulani man will queue behind a Yoruba Imam for prayer because he believes they are not true Muslims and they may probably be right. Because the average Muslim just like most Yoruba Christians don’t see anything wrong with juju or Isese medicine.
This is what is fuelling culturicide in Yorubaland and spiritual poverty.
One of the ways you know a culture is on its last legs is when external influences are coming and invading the culture without resistance or internal buffer to prevent the erosion and hold ground against it. Yoruba culture has reached this stage now and is being invaded. The buying out of properties and ownership structure of land is the physical reflection and manifestation of a spiritual condition, a deep disease which only a collective spiritual regeneration can tame.
By the time the Yoruba man leaves power at the centre then you will see the havoc that will happen. Yoruba have been greatly impoverished in the last few years even when a Yoruba man is in leadership. It would be worse when another tribe takes over.
There is a Silent Auction going on across Yoruba land. The kinds of politicians and their attitude and policies have contributed to this takeover and Silent Auction. Most of Ikoyi prime land were sold by this same criminal elites who never seem to have enough. They are corrupt, inept, enemies of the Yoruba race and Emancipation. These are the ones to watch, not the Igbos. The Igbos are merely like ants looking for honey; wherever honey drops ants would gather there. The blame is not the ants, it belongs to those who dropped and splashed honey on the ground. Stop fighting the symptoms while leaving the disease. Shout all you can, murmur all you wish, the action goes on. And it will continue because the conditions necessitating the takeover remain.
Silent Auction, Quiet Wars – Noiseless Weapons. Not AK-47, missiles, jets, bombs but bank balances, bank drafts, transfer forms, cheques, financial instruments… at the end the ownership changes. That is the Silent Auction now going on. Who will address this?
*A Special Invitation*
Here is a special invitation to all my readers. This coming Friday, 15/5/2026, in the hallowed academic grounds of the Premier University of Ibadan, two of my priceless works will be presented to the public for launching. The two books are historical works based on several years of research.
You are invited to join me and cheer and support me.
Expecting to see you there.
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©️ Moses Oludele Idowu
May 8, 2026
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