YORUBA ELITE: LESSON FROM OTHER PEOPLE’S HISTORY 2 (SERIES) The country called Yugoslavia in southeastern Europe broke up in a terrible series of bloody inter-ethnic wars in the early 1990s. I am sure that many Nigerians still remember the story. The great powers of Europe (Britain and France) had created Yugoslavia in 1918, four years after Britain created Nigeria. Like Nigeria, Yugoslavia was made up of many different nationalities – the Serbs (the largest nationality), Croats, Slovenes, Bosnians, Macedonians, Montenegrins, Albanians, etc. Like Nigerian leaders, Yugoslav leaders were never able to manage their inter-ethnic relationships amicably. Like Nigeria therefore, Yugoslavia was always unstable. After a dictator, Josip Broz Tito, came to power in 1945, he adopted repressive means to keep the ethnic rivalries down. But after he died in 1980, the instability returned in full force. After his death, most of the ethnic leaders did desire to keep Yugoslavia together. Throughout the 1980s, they held a series of national conferences aimed at working out an amicable agreement. However, mostly because of the Serbs’ demands, the conferences achieved nothing. The Serbs would not tolerate any arrangement that did not guarantee their dominance. Gradually, it became obvious that the country would break up in some chaotic inter-ethnic violence. Most of the ethnic nationalities therefore began to prepare to defend themselves. But Bosnia’s situation was extremely complicated and difficult. The leaders of the Bosnian nation had done nothing to prepare a future for their nation. They believed themselves to be civilized and liberal-minded, and they were hospitable and accommodating to the other nationals. Consequently, neighbouring Serbs and Croats had come in large numbers across the border and become large resident communities in Bosnia. Therefore, as Yugoslavia began to show signs of breaking up, the Bosnian leaders could not evolve any independent policy or direction for their own nation, because the Serbian and Croatian resident populations resisted and obstructed them – with help from the Serbian and Croatian homelands just beyond the border. Meanwhile, the Croats and the Slovenes got tired of the unproductive national conferences and took action – by announcing the secession of their separate countries, Croatia and Slovenia. The Serbs massively mobilized the armed forces and launched attacks on Croatia and Slovenia. The war spread and engulfed all parts of Yugoslavia as more nations, including Bosnia, tried to secede. Then the Bosnians found themselves in hell – real hell. Armies commanded by Serbs came, and the foreign resident communities joined hands with the invading armies. Bosnian people and children were killed in their tens of thousands, and their women were raped and killed. In some towns, thousands of Bosnians were forcibly herded together into detention camps and then slaughtered there or made to starve to death there. By the time the United States, NATO and the United Nations finally intervened, the Bosnians had suffered abominably. The lesson here is clear. When different nations, each living in its own homeland, different in culture and religion, and belonging to different levels of cultural development, are forced together into one country, dark forces of rivalry, envy, greed, fear, ill-will and hatred can sometimes be generated in the hearts of some of the nations against some others – and these can sometimes produce unruly ethnic ambitions, unhealthy desires and claims of ethnic dominance, actual inter-ethnic aggression, and even genocidal intents. That is what happened in Yugoslavia. It has happened in some Black African countries too. Its roots are manifest in Nigeria too, but, fortunately, Nigerians are still together in one country, and if they sincerely desire to get rid of these dark forces they still have a chance to do it. Moreover, each Nigerian nation is still in a position to make inter-ethnic relationships in its own homeland orderly and healthy, and thus protect its own homeland from chaos, by pushing back on the signs of excessive aggression and of unruly claims by immigrants from other homelands. We Nigerians can live harmoniously together and, if Nigeria is fortunate to last long, we can become considerably interwoven – but all these will depend on how much those who go to live in others’ homelands respect the culture and sensitivities of their hosts. Those who choose to be disrespectful of their hosts and to indulge in noisy and unruly claims and conduct must know that they are essentially blocking their own paths and making Nigeria impossible. Well, through the interventions by the United States and others, Yugoslavia was ultimately broken into five new countries – including a Bosnian country. Also, some of the people who had committed the atrocities against the Bosnians were taken before the International Court and punished for their crimes against humanity. But the suffering of the Bosnians, and their human losses, had been horrific – because their leading citizens had made the unpardonable mistake of leaving their nation too open, unprotected, and unprepared for eventualities. It has taken me nearly two days to write this message –because I have been interrupted by other things off and on. This morning, as I was about to complete it, a young friend of mine who often likes to print interesting materials from the internet to give me as gifts, came to give me a print-out, and it was the text of a lecture recently delivered by another Yoruba man, Femi Fani-Kayode, to a Yoruba nationalist group known as The Kurunmi Front. In one part of his lecture, Femi told the story of the terrible carelessness of the Bosnian leaders of the 1980s and the consequent disaster that befell the Bosnian nation afterwards. What a strange coincidence! Because of my Yoruba upbringing, I cannot help being superstitious sometimes. So, what I am reading from this coincidence is that a great Power that loves the Yoruba nation is trying to send an important message to the leaders of the Yoruba people. I hope my Yoruba people are listening. I hope our Obas (fathers of our nation) are listening. I hope our State Governors and other elected officials (of all parties) are listening. I hope our leading politicians are listening, even as they run around Nigeria trying to win elections. I hope that the leaders of our countless civic and self-determination organizations are listening. And I hope that our youths are listening. The Bosnians learnt a painful lesson the hard way – namely, that the world does not forgive self-neglect and careless disregard of vigilance. A great and civilized nation like the Yoruba have a lot to protect, and they therefore must be vigilant and far-sighted.-APATA
Posted on: Fri, 22 Nov 2013 16:35:49 +0000
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