A recent publication by Femi Fani-Kayode was titled, "WE ARE SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF ODUDUWA, NOT YORUBAS." Had he not been a rascal, he should have spoken for himself that he, Femi Fani-Kayode, is not a Yoruba. Instead, he demonstrated his intellectual hooliganism by embracing all Yoruba speaking people in his public denunciation and renunciation of his Yoruba identity. He claimed that the Fulani gave demeaning and insulting names to Southerners : Nyamiri (meaning fetcher of water) to the people of the Southeast and Yariba to the people of Southwest. According to Femi Fani-Kayode, Yoruba derives from *Yariba* which means usurper, deceitful, shady, treacherous, cheating usurer and double-dealing bastard. Femi Fani-Kayode stated further, "The British named our nation, 'Nigeria' meaning 'area of darkness' and the Fulani named our ethnic Nationality *Yaruba.* Together this means a group of deceitful, shady, treacherous usurpers and bastards from an area of darkness." Since I read this on 21 October 2019, I have tried to enquire from Fulani people who speak Fulfulde if the word *YARIBA* belongs to Fulfulde and if that single word contains all the meanings attributed to it by Femi Fani-Kayode with no confirmation from any source. Curiously, Femi Fani-Kayode says the name, Nigeria, is equally demeaning to him as Yoruba, but he has not denounced or renounced his national identity as Nigerian.
In the online Nigerian Vanguard of 25 May 2013, Femi Fani-Kayode cast aspersion on the word Yoruba thus, "Yet, the fact of the matter is that the word 'Yoruba' has NO meaning in our language that is known to man. No-one has been able to tell us with certainty the meaning of the word *Yoruba* or indeed where it really came from. This really is very strange and is indeed a deep and unsettling mystery. FOR ALL WE KNOW; IT COULD EVEN BE A DEEP AND ANCIENT INSULT. That is why I have always preferred to be referred to as an 'Ife' rather than a ' Yoruba.'' That was over six years ago. Now in 2019, Femi Fani-Kayode has not told us the source of his information as to why he is so cocksure about the origin of the word *Yoruba* and its multiple of derogative meanings. As the Yoruba saying goes, if a person calls his clothe a rag, people will scrub the floor with it. Following Femi's article in the online Nigerian Vanguard of 25 May 2013 and in which he denounced the name Yoruba, one Ambrose Osawe appeared on 15 June 2013, in the online vanguard with an article titled, "Benin, Kingdom of Sky-Kings. Mr. Osawe stated specifically, "YORUBA is not originally a Yoruba word. It is a corruption of Iyoya rruoba (I have gone to pay homage to the Oba). It is a Bini word corrupted into Yoruba...." No, Femi Fani-Kayode is not a Yoruba because no true Yoruba will be standing trial in court for laundering eight-hundred million naira (N800 million). In 2015, Mr. Femi Fani-Kayode was the chief propagandist for President Goodluck Jonathan's re-election campaign for which he obtained over a billion naira from Sambo Dasuki, Jonathan's security adviser. According to EFCC, Femi Fani-Kayode used his girl friend Miss Precious Chikwendu as a front to open two fake bank accounts at Diamond Bank and another 15 bank accounts at Guaranty Trust Bank to launder N800 million out of the campaign funds. It is out of the ongoing money laundering prosecution of Femi Fani-Kayode for N800 million that he has become so sensitive to the words usurper, deceitful, shady, treacherous, cheating usurer and double-dealing bastard, characters that have no connection with either YARIBA or YORUBA.
S. Kadiri
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