In a tweet made by Reno Omokri, he wrote about his travel experience with regards to similarity between the respect culture of the Yorùbá and Japanese.
“In my travels, the two people I have seen show respect for age and parents are the Yorùbá and the Japanese. Most foreigners are shocked when they visit Japan, he tweeted.
The Japanese bow to their parents till today, just like the Yoruba ‘dobale’. And look at the results. Both are very progressive people, Omokri added.
He wrote: “Nothing is as honourable as respecting the people who brought you into this world. And it is impossible to revere God if you do not first respect your parents.
“The people who say the Yoruba custom of prostrating flat for your parents is barbaric are the same people who say kneeling to propose to a girl is romantic. Look at that. You kneel for a girl you are older than because you want to be married to her. And you cannot prostrate for your parents who carried you in their womb, prayers, and home?”, he wondered.
These cardinal values, Omokri noted formed the core of the Omoluabi (Omo-ti-Olu-Iwa-bi) culture of the Yorubas, aading “And that is why they are good hosts and good settlers. I am almost fifty years of age, and I have never heard of xenophobia against the Yorubas by their host community, either within Nigeria or abroad.”
“Indeed, many foreigners like Nigeria because of the Yorubas. Their diplomacy is their selling point, and it starts from home”, he stated.
A Yoruba man, he noted, would not sit down to talk to his father, saying that in an office environment, the boss would naturally want to promote them because of their natural respect for authority, which he said the uninitiated called sycophancy.
“That respect for elders and parents is why the physical, spiritual, emotional and commercial forces are aligned in harmony in Nigeria’s South-West.
“This is why Aliko Dangote left Kano to thrive in Lagos, and also why the top 10 home-based Nigerians all live in Lagos, even though only five of them are from the South-West, and why the ‘highest scoring JAMB candidate’ Mmesoma Ejikeme’s first, second, and third choice of institutions are in the South-west” Omokri concluded .
