Re: Restructuring or secession, what does the South-West really want?

As expected, my two part piece on the above subject matter generated a lot of comments. And quite unsurprisingly most of the responses were from my Yoruba brothers and sisters, a great number of which were laden with invectives to my person and where I may have come from.

Of the responses I got, the one from Prince Uthman Shodipe-Dosunmu the well-known publicist who also doubles as media adviser to Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) grandee, Chief Bode George of Lagos, mirrors the tenor of them all.

Dosunmu’s long winded response titled ‘’Iliyasu Gadu’s Diatribes against Yorubaland’’ was carried prominently on page 13 of the Daily Trust’s edition of Wednesday, February 12, 2020. His main grouse was that I distorted Yoruba history in my write up. But he did not point out or offer corrections on where I erred in my reference to documented events in Yoruba history. He also took offence to my reference to the legend of Oduduwa as progenitor of the Yoruba as a myth. In historiography such accounts of founders of certain peoples coming from somewhere in the Middle East are collectively known as Hamitic myth or hypothesis. The ‘’Hamitic’’ in reference here pertains to Ham the son of Noah in the scriptures who after the deluge was said to have been the progenitor of dark skinned races of the world. Because these accounts cannot be proven empirically, they are thus referred to as myths or hypotheses. However if Dosunmu or anyone else persists in believing the legend of Odua the son of Lamurudu (Nimrod) from Baghdad as progenitor of the Yorubas, they are free to do so.

In all the dense fog words he put out, Dosunmu as a prince of the Dosunmu royal family of Lagos could not point out where I erred in my account of the events in Yorubaland from the fall of the Oyo Empire up to the eventual intervention of the British to end the hostilities in Yorubaland in 1886 in Imesi.

From Dosunmu’s response we now also know that the recent ban on Okada in Lagos had more to do with surreptitiously chasing people from some certain parts of the country out of Lagos than with improving the traffic situation there. This is despite the constitution of Nigeria allowing free movement of citizens.

Although I can understand the animus emanating from my Yoruba brethren on the contents of my piece, I however must reiterate that I stand by every word of it.

Basically the article is meant to be a ‘’tough love’’ political admonition to the Yorubas of the South-West about their politics which has been in the main opportunistic, and ultimately negative both to them and Nigeria. And this is borne by political developments in Nigeria.

In the First Republic, much of the political tension that characterised that period leading to the January and July ‘66 coups and the unfortunate and tragic civil war emanated from the South-West.

However, it was, ironically, the South-West where the crises were originally contrived that profited most with the indigenization of the economy, the sale of enterprises and the occupation of positions in government institutions and the private sector made vacant by the civil war.

Similarly, the whole June 12 debacle in which Nigerians of all walks of life demonstrated a strong determination to chart a new political course devoid of the known devils of ethnicity and religion, was eventually hijacked and used by the Yoruba elite for their political rehabilitation. Ironically again the people who initially did not show much commitment to the cause, suddenly morphed overnight into the Brahmins of the June 12 struggle much to the chagrin of the late Chief MKO Abiola, his immediate family and steadfast supporters. The climax of the opportunism of the June 12 development was in the imposition of Olusegun Obasanjo (who never supported Abiola or June 12 in the first place) by the military government of General Abdulsalam Abubakar as president in the new civilian dispensation as compensation to the South-West.

Now with another round of political succession in 2023 in the horizon, the South-West is at it again. Probably reading the political tea leaves that 2023 may not be a slam dunk as they have come to expect, the Yorubas are trying to once again muddy the waters. Suddenly Nigeria must be restructured because it is unbalanced in all particulars. And failing that, the Yorubas will pull out of the country and set up an Oduduwa republic.

And the first salvo in this caper is the formation of a regional security outfit with an ostentatious show of intent that the South-West can pretty well chart its own course regardless of the constitutional and operational protocols for such action. In this regard the whole idea behind the Amotekun looks suspiciously more to achieve political than security objectives.

Ultimately, I do not think the South-West will secede from Nigeria. It will be a suicidal and counter-productive move fraught with more uncertainties than certainties. The pursuit of restructuring will be a more realistic option for the South-West and Nigeria.

My suggestion here will be for the South-West as the pacesetter of issues in Nigeria to facilitate the setting up of a single item political party on restructuring. The party could then canvas for the support of Nigerians in the manner of June 12 and raise persons to stand for election on this platform all over the country.

Having sufficient numbers in the legislative and executive elective positions, the party could then push for the necessary reforms that will enable the eventual restructuring of the country.

But to lead this political paradigm change, the South-West must raise its politics to the level befitting its exceptional position in Nigeria. It must necessarily do away with the abiding politics of opportunism which favours only its self-absorbed, indulgent elite rather than the nation as a whole.