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Written by Igbo Focus 3rd April 2025 It appears as if Yoruba or some Yoruba people do not wish Igbo people any glory. They think Igbos should be dormant in every sector whilst allowing them take the credit along with success of respectability. They do not believe that Igbo people should possess or produce anything meaningful. Upon all their claiming of Igbo creations and inventions, now it is “egusi soup” that they are claiming this time. They are maintaining that Yoruba is being the originator of egusi soup exclusively in preparation and cooking the most superb ones. They are now arguing that they are the proprietors of egusi soup. They are seriously insisting that egusi soup name is theirs. I don’t know whether the Yorubas are trying to provoke Igbos or what? In view of the fact that they are seriously drawing and seeking all manners of attention, their concentration in quest of Igbos perceive. Even, once I heard one Yoruba man as saying that ‘egusi’ is their word because it ends with ‘si’ but ‘isi’ in Igbo language is a name for head; ‘esi’ means ‘from’; ‘gosi’ is show (me); ‘osisi’ is tree; ‘elusi’ is flight from; ‘kwusi’ is stop; ‘mbosi’ is blocked; ‘mposi’ is locked; ‘mpalisi’ is pillow; ‘aisi’ is ice; ‘urosi’ or ‘eresi’ is rice; ‘nsi’ is faeces or shit; ‘asi’ is false – must I go on? So, it is not only Yoruba words end with ‘si’. But come to think about it, how many Yoruba soups have you seen looking like egusi soup? Many of their soups are full of oil without any vegetables in them. Looking at some of Yoruba soups, you can see your face in them, oil glittering, you might even have heart attack just by looking at their soups. They more so, had the impudence of going to Wikipedia to edit it that it is the soup of the Yoruba. According to someone who said: “It’s just a soup,” but the same soup is giving them sleepless nights, and they even went ahead to edit the Wikipedia page claiming that egusi soup belongs to the Yoruba. Some Igbo people said they heard about it but we should ignore them. I have been told about this. But let's ignore that for now. At the same time, others say we cannot ignore things like that. You know how it works? Once blogs, social media will copy it as soon as possible and use the same Wikipedia they edited it in as their source. This is how these narratives thrive, and this is exactly why they did it. A blog article is on the side waiting to strike. What’s wrong with them? They said they are more educated than the Igbos; they are richer than Igbos; they claimed Yoruba language is spoken more than Igbo; they maintained that their population is more than Igbo; they alleged that their culture is better than Igbo; they professed that more of them are professionals and doctors than Igbos, etc. Yet, upon all these assertions, they are still disturbed, having restless nights over Igbo people. On top of that, Igbos are still begging the Yoruba to have their own country at least these assertions will be authenticity, well documented, analysed and perhaps open the door for the whole world to see Yoruba what they are, as conceivably perfectly industrious hard- working people. On the contrary, they decide on refusing to have their own country, they merely wouldn’t aspire to it, rather stick to be talking nonsense or rather underestimating Igbo’s good work. Asaba Now Yoruba Land Yoruba similarly is claiming that Asaba is in their land by using Igbo names for the composition of their articles. According to people who investigated the matter, “there is no need to respond to these guys and their pages, they are not form Igbo, they are from South West and after our investigations, they used Igbo names to put confusion everywhere. As stated by someone from the area who pointed out that the real name is Ahaba and not as people had known it as Asaba, and Ahaba is undoubtably Igbo land. These Yoruba writers that wrote those articles saw that a lot of Igbo businessmen are trying to move away from Lagos, by relocating their businesses from Lagos to a considerable place to Igbo land. And the most excellent place closest to Igbo land from Lagos to make their repositioning easier, and the utmost closest to Igbo land near Lagos is Asaba (Ahaba). Yoruba writers claiming that Asaba is in their land should read a very short history of Asaba. “In Asaba alone, 700 Igbo males who came out to welcome “victorious” federal soldiers were singled out and slaughtered in a market place (Emma Okocha, 1994). This incident was further collaborated by the reports from the international press and an International Committee on Crimes of Genocide. The New York Review, on December 21, 1967 reported: "In some areas outside the East which were temporarily held by Biafran forces, as at Benin and the Midwestern Region, Ibos were killed by local people with at least the acquiescence of the Federal forces. About 1,000 Ibo civilians perished at Benin in this way." The London Observer also reported on January 21, 1968: "The greatest single massacre occurred in the Ibo town of Asaba where 700 Ibo males were lined up and shot." Again, Monsignor Georges Rocheau, an envoy from His Holiness Pope Paul VI in an interview with Le Monde, a French Newspaper had this to say concerning the killings: "There has been genocide, for example on the occasion of the 1966 massacres... Two areas have suffered badly. Firstly, the region between the towns of Benin and Asaba where only widows and orphans remain, Federal troops having for unknown reasons massacred all the men." There were also other incidents of mass killing of especially young boys and men in Nsukka and Ikot-Ekpene. The killing at Ikot-Ekpene, one of the minority towns in the Eastern Region was particularly more revealing in the sense that it contradicted the much- publicised federal propaganda that the crisis was entirely an Igbo affair and that the federal soldiers were quite benevolent in their dealings, especially with the minorities whom they claim to have liberated. Furthermore, this incident also contradicts the claim that the minorities in Eastern Nigeria wanted to join the Nigerian federation but were prevented by Ojukwu. According to Axel Harneit-Sievers et al, (1977), the killing in Ikot-Ekpene was in retaliation for the latter's support of the NCNC in the first Republic. Again, the fact that such retaliation could still take place in that circumstance seems incomprehensible.” It is hilarious that today Yorubas are claiming Asaba, they were among those soldiers who killed Asaba males because they are Igbo. Yoruba always and would try to dormmate any land or anything forcefully, at present, the construction of a highway from Lagos to Cross River State is one targeted on claiming the state, and very soon they will be claiming that Cross River State is Yoruba land once the construction is complete. A long time ago, once before, Yorubas were claiming everything in Lagos as belonging to them, even though then Lagos was still the capital of the country. As a consequence, when the Northerners realised that one day Yoruba will claim the whole capital as being theirs and in view of that fact decided on building the capital (Abuja) in a central location in Nigeria so that nobody, even the Yorubas will not claim it as belonging to them.