Yesterday, I witnessed something on my way back from Sango.
I boarded a Keke Napep, and while inside, I received a call. As soon as I answered and began speaking Hausa, all the passengers turned their attention to me. One of them looked shocked.
He couldn’t even hide it. He said, “I don’t want to be kidnapped by bandits.” 
The driver replied,
“Why now? Just because you heard Hausa being spoken here?”
The passenger insisted,
“It’s not like that.”
I listened to them in silence and didn’t say a word. The man continued,
“I don’t want to hate Islam and Muslims, but they’re forcing us to hate both.”
To my greatest surprise, what brought Islam into this matter, for God’s sake? These are some of the reasons why innocent Hausa, Hausa-Fulani, and even Fulani people have been killed or harassed on several occasions for things they knew nothing about.
You see, some people, especially here in the South West, don’t always consider the consequences of certain statements. No religion teaches anyone to do evil. The South enjoys relative peace and harmony, and they have a record of managing security situations effectively because they don’t joke with the lives of their people.
I don’t understand why being Hausa, or from any other tribe, should make you a scapegoat for the actions of a few.
I urge our people, especially our Yoruba brothers and sisters, to continue exercising the same tolerance and wisdom they’ve shown in the past. Your understanding and accommodation of different tribes living in your communities is well recognised and appreciated and because of that, no one will be a problem to your existence, God willing.
We Hausas are not criminals, and we will never choose to be. Yes, there are bad eggs among us who have taken the wrong path. We cannot deny that fact, but that does not justify generalising or condemning an entire tribe.
We continue to appeal to security agencies to intervene decisively to protect innocent people from becoming victims of insecurity.
Language barriers are also a major factor that wrongly puts innocent people in dangerous situations.
May God help and protect Oyo State.
ALSO READ: Inside a Nigerian Kidnappers’ Den
Culled from Ibrahim Shehu Hunkuyi Facebook.
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