Presently, the Yoruba share the Nigeria nation with peoples and nationalities that are not our friends. The Hausa-Fulani are heatedly antagonistic, envious of our achievements and ruthlessly cadaverous when it comes to attacking our interests. In practical terms we have been at war with them since 1821 when they launched the Fulani jihad against Yorubaland. Since the combined Yoruba forces defeated them at the battle of Inisan, near Osogbo in 1835, they have engaged in a war of attrition with us ever since. The Hausa-Fulani sees the Arab in North Africa or Arabia as more his kin than a Yorubaman next door in Saki. He rejoices at the fall of the man from Ondo while he is ready to take up arms in defence of an Iraqi. The Igbo are our major competitors in education, commerce, industry and the economy. But, as nature will have it, they are landlocked like the Hausa-Fulani. Not being empire builders like these two other groups, they found their voice and their feet in the later days of the 19th century and have become brutally aggressive ever since. This trait has earned them so many names and enemies all over the country. They even had to endure a massive civil war as a consequence. For decades they have openly coveted Yorubaland and its assets. The greatest population of Igbos, outside of the East is in the Southwest; when they had a war with the North as a consequence of the pogroms against the Igbos in Northern Nigeria, it was the South-West that they attacked through Ore, in the pretext of heading for the federal capital, Lagos. One would ask why did they not head for Kaduna or Kano. They were decisively repulsed, anyway. Out of either respect fear or hatred, the average Igboman talks disparagingly of the Yoruba. They are extremely wary of the Yoruba enigma. Lately, they are laying claim to Lagos; saying it is No man’s land. The same, to a lesser extent, can be said of the Ijaw. (Jonathan’s kinsmen and the fourth largest ethnic group in Nigeria). During the days following the June 12 crisis, the Ijaw ‘Egbesu’ attacked all the Yoruba river-rine areas of Ilaje, claiming they belong to the Ijaw. They attacked the Itshekiri who are kin to the Yoruba. Thank God for the promptness of the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) and other Yoruba nationalist movements. They were decisively repulsed and all the conquered territories reclaimed and their Yoruba identities immediately re-established. We all remember Jomo Gbomo of the MEND fame who launched an ‘Operation Babarosa’ to bomb Atlas Cove in Lagos. The major reason for all these stories is to highlight the fact that we are surrounded by enemies who laugh with us in the open, but behind us meticulously plot our downfall. The only way we can safeguard our people, our heritage and our culture is through eternal vigilance, which, as they say, is the price of liberty. We would better protect our own in a free, independent Oodua nation where citizenship is determined by our common heritage of language, culture, Ife originating source, kingship traceable to an Oba, Olu or Owa, etc. Don’t let us belittle the fact that forming a modern Yoruba nation is going to be a tea party. Of course, there will be challenges, arguments and disagreements. But this will be in an atmosphere of a common destiny, understanding and camaraderie, knowing we are forging a modern nation of our dreams where the welfare of the citizen is paramount. Where education will be free to university level, housing will be provided for all; both the poor and the rich; where there is an efficient health care insurance system that does not discriminate against the sick based on the size of his pocket; where food is available, cheap and subsidized; where the latent energies of the teeming Oodua citizenry is awoken to drive industrialization, commerce, sport, technology and the economy for the Oodua nation to claim its pride of place in the comity of nations. This is possible. I have seen this revolution happen in the most unlikely of places. It happened under Lee Kwan Yew in Singapore; It happened under Ben Gurrion in Israel; It happened under Sheikh Zayed in the United Arab Emirates. It happened under Nkrumah in Ghana. And come to think of it, it happened under Awolowo in Yorubaland. Note that the distraction of a Bola Tinubu is temporary. But his nuisance value is appreciated when we remember that he stood up to the enemy when Yorubaland was all but taken by our detractors, through their agents. He was all we had to protect the vanguard at that time. When the time arrives for us to ‘daa le, ka tun sa’ am sure a thousand champions will rise up. Keep believing! -George Akinola
Posted on: Sun, 20 Oct 2013 21:05:18 +0000
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