STORM IN SOUTH WEST AS REGION LAUNCHES OPERATION ‘YORUBA KOYA’ (ENOUGH IS ENOUGH)
SAYS NO RESTRUCTURING, NO ELECTION
SEEKS END TO BAD GOVERNANCE, INSECURITY, CORRUPTION, POVERTY
BY YINKA OLUDAYISI FABOWALE
A groundswell of agitation for regional autonomy, or, failing, self-determination by the Yoruba of the South West geo-political zone of Nigeria, will boil over this week across the six core states of Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ondo and Ekiti states.
The movement, which has grown like an avalanche and undergone fermentation since the historic Yoruba Summit held in Ibadan in September last year, effervesced last week with a series of action commenced by diverse organisations, youths, activists and other stakeholders within the ethnic nation, to press home the collective demand.
First was the surprise emergence of over 30 billboards and signposts at strategic locations in the capitals of the states that formerly made up the old Western Region including Kwara Kogi and Edo states. Residents of the state capital woke up on Tuesday, April 10, to behold the signages with the bold message: “This is Yorubaland”.
On Thursday, some pressure groups the Agbekoya revolutionary farmers, Oodua People’s Congress, Afenifere and others, addressed a world press conference at which they enunciated the goals of the struggle that, according to them was to safeguard the security of the people of the region and restore Yoruba onto the path of glory and socio-economic progress being undermined by bad governance, corruption and breakdown of law and order in Nigeria
With the rallying cry: “Yoruba Koya (Enough is Enough)”, the groups announced a three-point resolution, which it called the “Yoruba April Declaration”.
This, which is a mere affirmation and elaboration of the September 2017 Yoruba Summit, reads:
We give notice that unless our demands for a stronger more viral nation is accepted, Yorubas will pull out of the 1914 Amalgamation treaty that gave birth to Nigeria
We reject the present constitution of the Federal Government until so amended to fulfil our expectations in Yorubaland
We demand as a first step the restructuring of the country to give us a region in Yorubaland before any election is conducted in Yorubaland. Immediate notice is served on Ekiti and Osun states.
The groups, in the declaration, copies of which were distributed at the venue, urged: “All true sons and daughters of Yorubaland must immediately imbibe and adhere to this call for freedom and unity of Yorubaland in the spirit of the Yoruba Parapo treaty”, while also serving saboteurs and traitors warning that they would reap the retributions for their actions “in the land of Oduduwa”.
Veteran of the Agbekoya civil uprising which challenged the government of the defunct Western State in the 60s, 109 - year -old Ayalu Olalere, who was spokesman, threatened that the amalgam of the various Yoruba organisations would mobilise people of the region to pull out of the 1914 amalgamation that gave birth to Nigeria as a nation.
The groups also stated that it would do everything within the law of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the United Nations Charter to free the region from poverty and bad governance afflicting it.
The following day, scores of placard-bearing youths also took to the streets in the state capitals and some major towns including Lagos, Akure, Ibadan, Abeokuta, Ado Ekiti, Osogbo and Ore in Ondo State, on peaceful demonstrations, chanting slogans and echoing these demands. A chieftain in the group’s high command disclosed that the objective of the demonstration was to sensitize and mobilise the populace for the actualisation of the Yoruba agenda.
Main Page learnt that to demonstrate the seriousness of the Yoruba resolve, there is no let-up in the campaign, as the army of youths are expected to carry their message to each State House of Assembly this week. The aim is to extract the legislators’ support for and ratification of the declaration for onward transmission and action by the National Assembly.
This is to be followed by town hall meetings in each senatorial zones in the six core states by the Yoruba Koya Team led by Yoruba Council of Youths, OPC and other solidarity groups. The objective, sources explained is to make elected public office holders accountable for the remaining period of their tenure.
Like the feat achieved with the 2017 Summit, the renewed agitation/campaign is already being talked about for the massive solidarity and unity it enjoys among Yoruba leaders, as well as the disparate socio-political and interest groups down to the grassroots.
The movement, sources said, not only enjoyed the backing of retired members of the civil and military intelligentsia, but also local vigilante and security outfits. Of the involvement of groups such as OPC and Agbekoya, believed to have supernatural powers, one of the leaders said: “It is the first time that force and magic would be meeting to lend a hand to the struggle for freedom and defence of our common destiny”.
The time may have come for Nigeria to seriously pay heed and positively engage the people with a view to addressing their demands.
NIGERIA’S SKEWED FEDERALISM TIES DOWN YORUBA’S WORLD POWER POTENTIAL
(Interview with a chieftain of Yoruba Parapo)
YINKA OLUDAYISI FABOWALE
What is the current movement all about?
Well, some of us work for Yorubaland and what the general consensus of Yorubas, the organisations and various groups is, is we have to go self-searching on how can we free ourselves from bondage, not bondage necessarily from the Federal Government of Nigeria, but bondage of our souls and minds by the political class that we have created over the years. It’s obvious that most of us have abandoned the responsibility of ombudsman to a non-viral press, sorry to say… to an untrained class, to a decaying civil service structure and basic fabric of discipline, societal order lost in the mad rush for money. And we say enough is enough. That’s how Yoruba Koya is the theme message, and a prayer that “Oduduwa a gbe wa”
How long has this movement been on, which and how inclusive and representative of all shades of opinion?
Well I can say this group has been on for as long as the Yorubas. You remember so many years ago we signed the Yoruba Parapo Treaty. The treaty is what guides the philosophy behind Ekiti, Ijesha and Ijebu and Egba and all other tribes deciding to end the Yoruba wars and then come back as one unit. Unfortunately, it was a ploy by the British to take control of Yorubaland… and that is how you came about the 1914 amalgamation declaration, whereas what we signed up for was to end the war, and to start trading and always to bring something to the centre to develop our land. So, the British I’m sure recognized the strength in wanting to do that. So they turned against us. Ever since, we’ve always been the suspect, the suspicious character of intellectualism, and progressiveness, we’ve always been the victim and you find out that our Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka, talks about this a lot, that we went into Whiteman colonization, back into black colonization... it’s worse than bad, when your fellow human sees you as nothing and you are of the same race, same country and when you are oppressed by a fellow country man, in your country, you are like a second class citizen, you have to sit down and re-examine that and see why is it that I’m regarded as a second hand in my own country. The struggle for Yoruba nation, or region is not fantasy but real. And the reason why it is real, unfortunately for Nigeria, is that we remember, for example, that you have Cocoa House, you have Liberty Stadium, you have Bodija Housing Estate , you have NTC, you have Ikeja Industrial Estate, you have Wema Board, you have quite a whole lot of things, which are legacies or proofs of our people’s capability set in the past by our forefathers, and yet continuing with the country called Nigeria, as currently constituted, we have not been able to move beyond setting up a super Wema Board or making UCH, which was number one as far back as 1963 in Africa, back to number one, UCH which was easily ranked first to five in the Commonwealth, so what are we talking about? Singapore was not even a country yet by that time, it was just coming up. Today you have like 10 UCHs in Singapore, so we have lost it, completely lost it and we are losing it every day, we are losing our values, we are losing our psyche and that’s the worst part of it, that a man can wake up in Nigeria and he has nothing to do and for a businessman to wake up and his business is all gone, like a market woman gets to the market and all her goods have been taken away and like you come to school and there is no school, no teachers, no classrooms, you keep building classrooms and you keep budgeting for new classrooms. What kind of country does that? You have a situation where we know somebody earns monthly millions of Naira able to finish the road in his senatorial district, for him to give N5 million out or N10million or N3million out of this on a monthly basis for 10 months so that they can tar the road in his area, yet, you can’t get him. We have to put a stop to all that.
In specific terms, what you’re demanding restructuring?
Well, in that area I do not have the mandate of the Yoruba Summit group to discuss anything. You caught me with restructuring handbills and posters and you are still asking me why and I am telling you I have been sent on an errand, I am an errand boy. To talk on restructuring, I think that people like Yinka Odumakin and others are there to tell the world, what Yorubas think about restructuring, but if you ask me what this is all about, first it is about restructuring Yorubaland.
How? You mean of the political mess and bad governance that you talked about?
(Chuckles)… Calling it a mess is a glorifying word to use, that thing is worse than mess, this mess didn’t start yesterday, it started so many years ago, like 36 years ago, when the military completely took over our minds and souls, and we have since been guided, goaded with guns and ammunition over the years, police became thieves, thieves became police, soldiers became thieves, thieves became soldiers and governors became thieves, thieves became governors, senator became thieves, thieves became senators and it’s been on and on like that. we also have the rot in some of our traditional institutions with the exception of a few, with due regard to our highnesses… I mean, I always say it, I am proud to be an Ijebu man, because my royal father, Oba S.K Adetona, is a shinning example of what royalty is about, yes he is a businessman, yes, he has tremendous wealth, but that is his role, but you can’t see him begging for contract or oil wealth and he’s never afraid to speak truth to power. If our fathers can return to that, then you can control the children.
So, what do you set out to achieve with this campaign?
Well on the long run, we’re talking about safety, security, good governance, we’re talking about probity and accountability.
What do you mean by security?
Well, you heard the President said that there are no Fulani herdsmen anymore, but Gadhafi trained foot soldiers in Nigeria. So, the President has told us our land has been invaded by foreigners, That’s what my President has told me, he said Nigerians beware, your land has been invaded by Gadhafi’s foot soldiers. Also a while ago, General T.Y. Danjuma said be prepared to defend yourselves. You have to take a cue from the two military men who have access to power and who are in power, what they said is, be prepared to defend yourself.
But the problem of gunmen/herdsmen killings is not as serious or pronounced in Yoruba land as in the middle belt, I would think.
It’s because the press has kept quiet, there are killings in Oke-Ogun area, yes, Kogi, Kwara.
And a caution is on what the president has said, I think we should believe that someone has recruited this people and using them to cause havoc in Nigeria and indirectly they want to move into Yorubaland. let’s think about it, let’s rationalise, someone must have recruited this people that the government is talking about and who are so many in Nigeria and they are using the cows as the shield. That’s why what the Agbekoya said is very sacrosanct, they spoke yesterday, that was 12th, that from 12th of April, Yorubaland has become sacred, sacred in the sense that it abhors danger, it abhors incursion of any form, either man or animal, and any man or animal found disturbing the peace and tranquillity of Yorubaland, that’s what the old man said.
Are you engaging the state governments on this? Do you have their support?
The government is a loving friend, because it’s an Odua thing… I want to see the government that would say he is not in support of Yoruba Koya, I’m waiting to hear the governor that would say Yoruba are not suffering, I’m waiting to hear the governor that would say Yoruba suffering is not enough, waiting to see the governor that would say the shackle of corruption that has overtaken Yorubaland should not be broken, the governor that would say that Yorubas should be second rate citizens.
Your strategy seems to be that of peaceful resistance, but how far can you go, in real terms of achieving your goals, if there’s no direct linkage or engagement of the authorities?
Slow and steady, persistence, when you drum hard into the ears of the deaf, if he doesn’t hear the sound, he would at least see the people dancing, if you dance in front of a blind man, even if he doesn’t see you dance, he would hear the sweet beat.
Elections are here, how do you get public-office seeking politicians to key into this Yoruba agenda
Well, when you suffer a lot, it gets to a time when God says your suffering is over, if you want to go biblical... you’d recall the story of the Israelites, if you want to go modern day and talk about heroism, you can say Mandela. Yoruba as a nation is supposed to be a world power, Yoruba has refused to be a world power because of the continuous suffering and marginalization we’re facing in Nigeria, our ability to grow to our aspirations is constantly bungled by fiddling and mincing with government that sees nothing in the value of humans, but what they have in their bank account, So the Yoruba Koya project is a God-driven project, blessed by royalty supported by the youth and promoted by the others.
So, this project is about the agitation across the federation for self-determination? Is there any understanding between you and other regions?
Well I can say this, I don’t want to hold brief, as you know everyone has their own duty that they are doing. The handshake across the east has been done, we were led by Afenifere into that, they came back home to give their response, the South-South has done their own rally, waiting for the South-East to conclude theirs, but, as Yoruba “A kin fi Ago alago sare”. We don’t copy others. Yorubas have their ways of doing their things, we didn’t tell anybody we didn’t beg anybody before we did the rally on September 7th 2017, we were not involved in consultations with any region about why we want to say enough is enough, we have recognised our position, we have valued our future and the future of our youth, I feel we should not stop mortgaging these on the lap of a nationhood, called Nigeria, this where some of us differ, this is where Yoruba Koya is in the mind of every Yoruba man or woman, it cannot be supressed by anybody aspiring to be A or anyone who wants to control B it, is not available. Yoruba land is not for sale you can go to political parties, you can talk to political elders, but we’ve had enough in Yorubaland and it’s not going to be party as usual.
So how inclusive is this movement, how grounded?
Day by day you’d magnify the work of God, Day by day you’d magnify the growth in the mind of Yorubas, day by day you’d see what God is doing in the lives of Yoruba nationwide as they begin their goals and aspiration of the walk to freedom, we are overripe to be a world power, and that is, if Nigeria can’t be a world power, allow Yoruba be a world power.
