By Yinka Odumakin
The recent unfortunate incident between GTB and Innoson almost put another knife to the thread we are using to join the Igbo and Yoruba, two groups that have shared origin but have been programmed to live like enemy tribes within the Nigerian union.
At the peak of the crisis, leaders across the divides were consulting on how to lower tension. I recall speaking with the leader in Ohanaeze, Chief John Nwodo on the need not to allow our people turn a purely business transaction to a political disagreement between Igbo and Yoruba as we eagerly look forward to the January 11 Handshake Across the Niger in Enugu.
He said I was talking to the converted and that he already offered to mediate. I also spoke with Senator Hope Uzodinma whose response was encouraging and many other leaders on the Igbo divide.
I made calls to some contacts in EFCC too on the need to handle the issue with utmost care.
I was equally in touch with the founding Managing Director of GTB, Mr Fola Adeola, who corroborated the attached report as exactly what happened. And I trust his integrity that he would not tell me a LIE.
I must say that the high-handedness of EFCC has in a way been a factor in the angst displayed on this matter. I recall that I had to make a public statement when the EFCC descended on Otunba Mike Adenuga in the days of Obasanjo.
I am certain the matter could not have generated the kind of emotions it did, if it was handled by the police. The EFCC has to temper its operations as its modus often overshadow the crimes it deals with most times.
Those of us who called for caution have been borne out that there is nothing ethnic as we would never have heard anything on all sides if nothing went awry.
We shall comment fully on the role of the judiciary in this saga when all cases are out of court. Suffice to say for now that this transaction has challenged the integrity of our judiciary and it did not make good grades.
The first casualty in any war is the truth and that was what we have witnessed in many of the accounts so far peddled. I was even misled by some accounts.
What we are after in the immediate is to totally douse the ethnic fire this ignited as men of goodwill continue to find peace between the two parties to find amicable resolutions.
Moving forward, it is important we find out the truth in the future before taking positions that hurt our relationships. We have sufficient well-headed people on both sides who can dispassionately look into issues and give the truth in any situation.
We must always listen to ourselves, seek the truth and pursue reconciliation if the metaphoric (not the failed project in FG hands) East-west road must always be motorable and it must be motorable!
Yinka Odumakin, is the Publicity Secretary of Pan Yoruba Socio-Political organization, Afenifere.
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