Continued from last Friday
Our people in the Diaspora, when they hear these things, will surely ask, what are our state governors doing? At home in Yorubaland, many people are snapping at our governors and accusing them of doing nothing to defend our people. Some are even calling them traitors. But this is a matter in which we need to show understanding of our state governors’ situation in this great trouble. What exists under the present Nigerian Constitution is a unitary system of governance very heavily underpinned by impunity. What that means is that no state governor in Nigeria can lead his state with any success without, at least, a rapport with the controllers of the central establishment in Abuja. It is well-known that the controllers of the Abuja establishment are pressurising the governors of all states to cooperate with the agenda of creating Fulani enclaves all over Nigeria. That puts our governors under enormous pressure – first, pressure from Abuja, and secondly, pressure from the citizens of our states. Since the Land Use Decree vests the land of each state in the state’s governor, Abuja wants our governors to use their official power to grant land for the Fulani cattle enclaves; but our people are warning that granting any land for Fulani cattle enclaves will lead to very serious trouble. I am sure that the duty of Yoruba leaders in this situation should be to come close to our governors, and to give them confidence so that they may be able to resist the Abuja pressures. I humbly suggest that our notable citizens in the Diaspora should participate in this task of encouraging and empowering our governors to stand up bravely to protect our homeland.
I humbly propose too that we Yoruba must strive hard to ensure that this Fulani menace will not leave our nation badly divided. Those of our men and women who belong to APC, the party of President Buhari, are not doing anything strange or wrong in generally supporting the government of their party. They are doing what members of political parties do in an elective democracy. Rather than castigate them and call them ugly names, we need to help them to reach the mindset that though they may keep supporting the government of their party, they need to distinguish between the policies and programmes of their party and those other things that their party’s men in government are doing that are not party policy, especially things that they are doing that threaten the welfare of our Yoruba nation. I know it cannot be easy for us, in the heated atmosphere of today, to pursue such careful and constructive approaches to those who are members of APC among us and who are supporting all things that the Federal Government is doing. But it is a job that we must try seriously to work at. Excessive partisanship can only weaken our nation’s ability to preserve its freedom of action and its integrity. And again, I humbly urge our leaders in the Diaspora to contribute their efforts to this. No matter what happens, we must hold the unity of our nation as a paramount priority.
For us Yoruba nation, the demand that we should give room to Fulani cattle rearing enclaves in our homeland is a hideously insensitive demand. Our Yoruba homeland has been a copiously urbanised nation for over one thousand years. We have been easily the most urbanised nation in the history of Africa and one of the most urbanised nations in the history of the world. How can we possibly now allow primitive cattle rearing enclaves to be inculcated into our homeland? Why should anybody demand of us to move back civilization in order to make space for this barbarism? Well, they have demanded that of us, and it is our duty to join hands as a nation and say No! To do this effectively, we need our nation’s unity.
Fortunately, I can say for sure that I have never met any Yoruba person who sincerely thinks that our Yorubaland is suitable for nomadic cattle rearing enclaves. Some may say it in the course of political party activity or in the course of defending their party. But, in intimate contacts, in conversation between brother and brother, I have never met any Yoruba man or woman who has said we should allow Fulani nomadic cattle rearing enclaves or Ruga (Rural Grazing Areas) in our homeland. In private, there is a very solid unity among us Yoruba on this matter. In fact, I have met leading APC members, who are among the most radical opponents of Ruga, and of Fulani killings, kidnappings and destructions in Yorubaland. I am sure that if we handle this situation with family love, we can easily unite to clear our homeland of today’s Fulani menaces and threats. We can do it; so, let us do it.
It would be wrong, and even dishonest or cowardly of me, if I do not touch on an important point that is increasingly constituting part of the massive debate that is going on now in the Yoruba homeland. Very many of our Yoruba youths, and more and more of the mature and experienced adults among us, are wondering whether we Yoruba people are doing ourselves honour and justice by remaining in the Nigerian construct in which all these inter-people viciousness, violence and hatred are forever an inescapable feature of life and relationships. Even the most knowledgeable of Nigeria’s statesmen are warning that a Rwanda-type storm of violence, pogrom and genocide against the Fulani people seems to be gradually approaching now in Nigeria, as a possible outcome of generalised self-defence resistance against the Fulani. Knowing how deep and fundamental the principle of hospitality and helpfulness to foreigners is in our Yoruba culture, mythology and history, many Yoruba people are asking the troubling question whether we Yoruba should let ourselves become part of such a storm, and whether we ought not now to begin seeking peaceful, mature and diplomatic outlets from the field of the coming storm. In short, there is going on a conspicuous growth of the view that we Yoruba should seek for ourselves the ultimate construct in which we can fully work out our inherent qualities as a civilization-building people. More and more are saying that we have surrendered and abandoned our nation to Nigeria’s culture of chaos, conflicts and retrogression for too long, and that we should now brace ourselves for change. This view is not informed by any hatred of any Nigerian people or peoples. Rather, it is informed by a sense of duty – the duty of a nation like the Yoruba to show to the world that a Black African nation, or better still, that Black African peoples, can indeed take leading positions in the modern world’s march of civilization – in the sciences, the technologies, the literary arts, the humanities, the visual arts, etc. This is worth pondering among leading Yoruba people, and the Yoruba Diaspora contains a very major part of leading Yoruba people.
My summary of all these pictures of the Nigerian and Yoruba scene today is that we, the present generation of Yoruba leaders, have great duties that urgently demand our responses. A great American once said, “To some generations much is given; of other generations much is expected.” It is my profound belief that we of today’s generation of Yoruba people are called upon to give much to our Yoruba nation and to the world, and that we do have much to give. How else do we explain the various manifestations of Yoruba significance and strength that are showing up these days across the world? Late last year, in the great country of Brazil, where some 54 million citizens are officially identified as Yoruba descendants, there suddenly popped up an official indication that the Yoruba language will be given official recognition and be taught in Brazilian schools. In January this year, the Yoruba people of Benin Republic organised a mammoth conference at which they inaugurated a movement named Egbe Omo Oduduwa of Benin Republic. The conference was attended by many of the Yoruba obas of Benin Republic, many leading politicians, many public officials, many university academics, and large crowds of excited citizens. From Nigeria, by invitation, the Ooni of Ife, the Alaafin of Oyo, and President Olusegun Obasanjo (former president of Nigeria), sent representatives, and many leaders of Nigerian Yoruba business, professions and academia came. Some months later, large Yoruba demonstrations filled the streets of many Yoruba cities in Benin Republic, carrying placards featuring pictures of Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Ori Olokun, and chanting songs which said that it was time for the Yoruba of Benin Republic to go and join the major part of their Yoruba nation that is in Nigeria. Among scholars and observers of world religions today, one of the greatest wonders is that indigenous Yoruba religion is spreading throughout the world. One scholar wrote in his book that Yoruba religion is one of the few largest religions today in expanse across the world, and the fastest growing religion in the world.
Confronted by these awesome changes and advancements of the Yoruba nation worldwide, some Yoruba intellectuals and professionals of Nigeria, Benin Republic, Togo Republic, and Brazil have started to work towards creating an international Yoruba organisation under the name Yoruba Heritage International, which is designed to bring the Yoruba people and Yoruba descendants worldwide together for the purpose of accentuating Yoruba strength in the world. The plan includes that the Yoruba Heritage International will hold a periodic Yoruba Heritage World Congress. These plans are still at the level of conception. They will soon be brought to all of us for our contributions – especially to great bodies of the Yoruba people like Egbe Omo Yoruba United States and Canada which will, without doubt, provide much of the strength of the Yoruba Heritage International. You of the Egbe Omo Yoruba have been doing a great service to our people in Nigeria by regularly sending financial assistance to your families and friends. The Nigerian situation has seriously impoverished our people, and your assistance has become perhaps the surest means of saving many of our people from abject poverty, and from becoming beggars in the streets. I bring you the gratitude of all our people, and their prayers for your continued safety, success and prosperity in your foreign places of abode.
From a succinct consideration of the total situation of our Yoruba nation, I also want to repeat now something that I have said to your president, Dr Duro Akindutire, when he came to Nigeria recently. It would be a great service to the Yoruba nation now and in the future if you would start a Yoruba National Fund, similar to the famous Jewish National Fund that has served the Jewish people greatly. I do not need to spell out the many ways in which the existence of this fund can uplift the Yoruba nation in the world.
- The concluding part of an address delivered by Professor Banji Akintoye, at the 25th anniversary conference of the Egbe Omo Yoruba United States and Canada, held in Louissiana, United States from July 18 to 19, 2019.