By Adbulrahman Oluwole-Ajayi
(Oluwole- Ajayi is the Deputy Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Apapo O’odua Koya, (AOKOYA)
A brief history
We have come a long way. In every epoch, lack of effective leadership with the most efficient strategy and tactics drew us back, ceaselessly. The Yoruba had the equivalent of a city-state as early as the 9th century. We ran a monarchy with Ile-Ife as the dominion.
· The O’oni’s palace was 700 years old Buckingham palace was built in 1704, a clear 400 years after Alaafin’s palace had flourished. If you visit the Buckingham palace today, it’s a tourist delight with some 50,000 visitors in every year. Ooni and Alaafin’s palaces existed some 800 years before Sultan’s Palace in Saudi Arabia was built. While thousands of tourists visit Buckingham and Sultan’s palaces, Ooni and Alaafin’s palaces record less than 100 tourists in each year. Most of the time, you see animal faeces and a horde of beggars and even bushes and heaps of filth around them.
We have a rich history. Oyo Empire, which emerged from the city-state began around 1300 and lasted for over 300 years before its collapse. Its glorious era was 1608-1800. Oranmiyan, descendant of Oduduwa built Benin Empire which lasted from 1300 until around February 1897.
We had wars; only great nations, rich people could fight wars. We had our civil wars too which ended in 1886. The Yoruba civilization is unique. During the war, children and women were spared, though some women were taken and married off. Not a single instance were women and children killed. This differs from the Fulani war strategy where infants and unborn children were eliminated. Yoruba had soldiers and at a time could boast of some 300,000 armed soldiers put together, controlling one fiefdom or the other. The push for a garrison structure as against Federalism was at the root of the Kiriji war. All said, the Yoruba would have overwhelmed the British, if they all the sub Yoruba ethnic army had united as one. That was lack of strategy and tactics.
The post colonial years
· Yoruba people led the struggle against British rule: Herbert Macaulay, Adeniyi Jones, Mrs Fumilayo Ransome-Kuti, Chief Obafemi Awolowo and others. In the colonial era, Awo reunited the Yoruba Nation through Egbe Omo Yoruba which led to the formation of Action Group, (AG). The philosophy was Democratic Socialism which saw the introduction of free health, free education and life abundance based on welfarism. The SW built world class institutions, an efficient civil service, a servant-driven public administration system, functional educational system rooted in culture, knowledge and a fairly inclusive and transparent political economy.
Why was our education system of world class? Because it was based on culture. Prof Wole Soyinka’s enigmatic literature that shook the world was due to his Yoruba cultural thought processes and leitmotif. Our own version of Dick and Harry or Nickelodon were the folklores of Ijapa and Iyanibo all of which taught pupils to avoid greed and avarice, we were taught AKOSORI, (Iya re le lowo lowo, baba re le lesin lekan, to ba gboju le won, O te tan ni mo so fun e) all designed to produce mankind with dignity and honour.
The Fulani incursion
Since 1804, the Fulani had planned to conquer all ethnic groups in Nigeria. They succeeded in parts of the North, subdued the Hausa and committed almost irreversible cultural genocide against them. The Yoruba resisted in the 1840 war which led to the Fulani defeat. But the dream of Fulani conquest and subjugation remains.
Decree 34 of 1966 forced Yoruba into a garrison structure in Nigeria. The commanding height of Yoruba Nation was subsumed under military command, a martial institution under the Fulani hegemony. 27 years of military rule by Fulani or their rookies changed the history of Yoruba for the worst. An indolent, inept, lazy, primordial and feudal people took over the institutions of the state driven by wealth and power, without consideration for Knowledge.
Efforts to regain lost grounds through democratic means is not possible, not with the false population figures, skewed delineation of wards and constituencies and the once gradual but now full control of the judiciary not to talk of the dominion over security apparatus. The muzzling of the Yoruba economic class to fit into the mindset of a Taliban race has seen millions of Yoruba relocate from Nigeria, some passing through the Mediterranean sea and losing their lives in desperation for green pastures.
The Era of Terrorism and Land occupation
Though the Jihad that began in 1804 to seize Yoruba territories by force of arms, the plot continues in different forms. Having failed to nail the coffin using democratic means, the new concept is to change the content and form of democracy in Nigeria. This has blossomed with President Buhari’s regime, had waited, patiently, with his team to realize the Jihad, using democratic structures. This has seen the control of most critical state structures, including security apparatus by the Fulani and their agents, the importation of Fulani from across West and Central Africa to Nigeria and the deliberate arming of non state actors to cause a state of siege, fear and trembling across Yorubaland.
Today, from Lagos to Kwara, Kogi and Itsekiri Delta, no inch is spared. The forests are occupied, the towns and in the hands of terrorist cells and the state itself has become the main defender of terrorism through orchestrated killings, invasion and abduction of individuals that seek to challenge the raging violence of armed bandits and the state security operatives. The agenda is as clear as spring: Take over Yorubaland by force of arms and subdue resistance by all means necessary.
Threats to Yoruba Nation and the Character of Resistance
There are two broad threats to Yoruba nation: External and Internal Threats. The Internal Threats have less to do with Fulani. They arise from the mutilation of the Yoruba mentality and the destruction of the people’s sense of values, the emergence of wealth and power as ends in themselves in the place of knowledge and ideas, the decimation of the cultured class, the lack of deep and ideological movement that is endowed with a rich sense of history and the rapacious academic and political classes that are naïve, inefficient, barren and essentially unproductive. The current generation of Yoruba people, young and old, men and women, artisans, professionals are essentially and largely dishonest. The greatest nations on earth are build on the pillars of public trust. We need to deconstruct the mind of the Yoruba People for any great leap.
· The External Threats come from the ravaging Fulani terrorists, not to be mistaken for the Kanuri led Boko Haram, the displacement of people in the Maghreb and the Nigerian Middle Belt which has seen millions of unskilled people and street urchins moving to Yoruba land coupled with the ban on Okada in most parts of the North, East and the Middle Belt leaving the South West as their haven, a development that has helped the infiltration of armed terrorist cells across Yorubaland. Again, the external threat also comes from the South East, a people determined to leave Nigeria pushing Yorubaland to a more desperate cliff. If the Igbo launch their attacks today, what would the Yoruba do?
What is to be done?
Lack of correct perspectives gave way for the overrun of Yorubaland by the British and the near conquest by Fulani jihadist. We might make the same mistake again, at this moment of struggle for Yoruba self determination. Various groups have emerged. However, we must proceed with caution. Leaving Nigeria is a great option, but it is not as great as knowing what to do with the new Yoruba nation.
· There are so many groups, famous, but tactless, popular but lack strategy, renowned but lack the structures, admired but lack the capacity and the historical understanding of the problems at hand. Yoruba people must be careful to distinguish between a struggle that can lead to the emergence of populis but barren and arid Idi Amin or Charles Taylor or a less popular but more focused and critical Wilson Churchill or Awolowo.
· Tactics have not been involved in the Funding of some of the Pan Yoruba groups. They expose many professionals who the Fulani agents can harm anywhere in the world. Too many open activities. Boko Haram and Fulani Terrorists who kill Yoruba and rape our people are covert. Even IPOB leaders across Nigeria are unknown apart from Kanu. Apart from all these, some of the Yoruba groups continue to receive funds from supporters but the issue remains: When we win, and if some of these groups emerge, what is their capacity to manage a complex civilization like the Yoruba nation? This is the starting point. This is the most important question.
· Literarily, It is not just looking for money to buy a Limousine, but who will drive it and what is the level of the training of the driver? What manner of moral and cultural strength are the groups giving to men and women that will fight on the field for Yoruba nation? What kind of ideological orientation do the fighters and their leaders have? Remember, Liberian soldiers turned against their own people, cutting their hands during the war. In the euphoria of liberation struggle, an icon can emerge so also is the possibility of building a monster.
The Tasks
· The fundamentals must be designed and affirmed before the new nation emerges. A real, people-driven Yoruba group must be accountable, democratic, transparent, must understand and have solutions to the tasks ahead: How do we rebuild trust in the broken society? How do we change the mental orientation of an indolent and redundant society with a leisure view of life and living? What is the programme for our children and women? What are the transformational plans on Environment, Culture and Education? How do we want to deal with the moribund civil service? What do we do with traditional institutions and traditional rulers, Churches and Mosques and their new focus on wealth and accumulation of material gains? How do we define and deconstruct Yoruba spirituality? What is the Economic and Political template for the new Nation? What programmes are we designing for the Yoruba in Diaspora to come back home and help rebuild the new nation?
· This is the reason why the campaign for Yoruba Nation must never be left for populist figures or cult models that lack critical understanding of our history and lack the deep knowledge to address and subdue our fears so as to redefine our aspirations as a people. This is why professionals, clear headed people, honest and transparent Yoruba people, all over the world, must show interest in the current momentum, not just as funders, but they must also own the process and the movement of liberation for the utilitarian good of the long suffering Yoruba people. This is the only way Yoruba Nation can conquer the world in the first 24 months of attaining her liberation from the chilly hands of death or the Concentration Camp we call Nigeria.
