Further evidence about the political objectives of this whole Fulani herdsmen’s terror is found copiously in statements made by many members of the Fulani elite. In 2014, a statement or article by one Aliyu Gwarzo was widely published in the social media, and then quoted in parts in some Nigerian media. It is a very pugnacious statement loaded with insults for most Nigerian peoples. However, its assertions of Fulani intentions are the most relevant here. It stated as follows: “Allah, through the British, gave us (Fulani) Nigeria to rule and to do with as we please. Since 1960 we have been doing that and we intend to continue. In 1966 the Igbo tried to stop us and they paid a terrible price, and now they are broken”. (If any others try to resist our control) “We shall kill, maim and destroy and turn this country into Africa’s largest war zone and refugee camp. The Mujaheedin are more than ready, and by Allah we shall win”.
In January 2018, a large association of Fulani herdsmen wrote a letter of threat to Governor Sam Ortom of Benue State. This letter was received by Governor Ortom while he and the people of his state were mourning and conducting mass burials for the more than 70 Benue citizens who had been killed, with their villages destroyed, on January 01, 2018. The letter started by threatening that, for Benue people, the on-going mourning and mass burials were only the beginning, and that bigger killings and destructions were coming. It added that the problem was that Benue State people regarded the land of their state as theirs. The land of Benue State, and indeed all of Nigeria, belongs “to us Fulani”, the letter asserted. The Fulani had arisen to take back all their land; they had accumulated large amounts of money and weapons for the purpose; they were prepared for long years of war; and even the Nigerian Federal Government did not have the power to stop them. There have been other such letters or statements threatening that peoples who would not submit to the Fulani would be wiped out or “banished” from Nigeria.
We cannot, in this brief speech, engage in a full description and analysis of the political background of the Fulani herdsmen’s killings and destructions. But we must not neglect to comment on the public statements of some prominent citizens who have been claiming that the Fulani herdsmen’s rampages are entirely a consequence of droughts, and that all that is needed to restore peace is to give the herdsmen land for cattle colonies and cattle paths. Persons saying such things either do not know the true facts, or are, for their political purposes, deliberately trying to deceive the world.
We Yoruba nation find ourselves enmeshed and entangled in all of the debilitating ailments of Nigeria. What Nigeria has become today is not the Yoruba kind of life and society, but we find ourselves sharing seriously in it all, and we are experiencing all its devastating symptoms. Our public officials are giving us insensitive and corrupt governance. We are living in massive poverty and hopelessness, in violence and chaos including inter-ethnic violence, in staggering criminalities, in massive unemployment, intensifying restlessness among our youths, and we are helplessly lamenting the destruction of the standards of our education, the almost total destruction of our societal and cultural norms, and the almost total loss of our unique leadership qualities. These conditions have now reached heights that are totally intolerable and unacceptable to most Y oruba people.
Concerning only the Fulani herdsmen’s contributions to the disintegration of Nigeria, the Afenifere study which I have mentioned includes the following paragraph in its conclusion: “Our carefully considered assessment of the predominant feeling and attitude among Yoruba people today, and the widespread feeling among most other peoples and citizens of Nigeria, can be summed up as follows. ‘In orderly and constructive circumstances, Nigeria can indeed be the ultimate peaceful and happy home for most of the Fulani people of West Africa. Nigeria is a large country blessed with resources. The Fulani of all of West Africa are only 23 million, and of these, 6 to 7 million are already citizens of Nigeria. The influx of another 15 million can pose no noticeable problem, as long as they come in an orderly and peaceful manner, and as long as they are respectful of the fact that they properly belong to the Hausa-Fulani Region in Northwestern Nigeria. However, unfortunately, the on-going Fulani herdsmen’s acts of massacre and destruction, frequent and loud Fulani threats of long-term violence on all non-Fulani peoples of Nigeria, and their strange territorial claims based on strange distortions of known history―are poisoning Nigeria’s life-stream beyond the possibility of healing. We Yoruba people and most other Nigerian peoples and citizens strongly feel that if this crisis be not now quickly brought to an end, and if the specter of perpetual violence and instability should continue to hang over Nigeria, Nigeria could soon rip apart – and most probably rip apart in ways that would shed rivers of blood all over Nigeria and spread massive disruptions and human suffering into most parts of West Africa. These human disasters must be prevented at all costs. We Yoruba people want our leaders to see to it that all leaders and governments of Nigeria, with the assistance of the international community, should, through negotiations, seize upon this crisis to put lasting peace at the reach of all Nigerian peoples’
Unfortunately, unhappily, as Yoruba people reel painfully in this Nigerian whirlwind of degeneration, violence and decline, the Yoruba nation does not have active political leaders with the innate Yoruba level of statesmanship, the proper kind of orientation, and the sufficient intellectual and spiritual perception, to help the Yoruba nation to navigate through the storm to survival, to recovery, to self-determination, and ultimately to prosperity. Traditional Yoruba progressivism remains strong among the masses of Yoruba people, but most members of the current generation of Yoruba politicians choose to belong to Nigeria’s low and corrupt standards of leadership and governance.
Increasingly, therefore, the struggle of the Yoruba nation in Nigeria has been left significantly to Yoruba civic organizations. The workshop being hosted by the Yoruba Unity Forum here today, as we are entering into the 2019 Nigerian election cycle, is a very important contribution. It is giving us an opportunity to look closely into crucially important matters. Given Nigeria’s condition of near disintegration, and given the very obvious threats to the security of Yoruba land, the Yoruba people need to approach 2019 with caution and with deliberate choices of direction. In particular, from the look of the whole Nigerian situation, many people are saying that the 2019 federal election seems likely to be decisive concerning Nigeria’s destiny, and concerning the destiny of the Yoruba nation and of most other Nigerian nationalities. We Yoruba need to be very watchful and vigilant about all these in the months ahead. What is approaching is not politics as usual; and we must not let any clever politician or any propaganda machinery trick us into believing that it is politics as usual.
Afenifere is striving valiantly too in various directions. Apart from its activities in the home base, it has contributed significantly to the founding of a Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum, which is championing new levels of demand for the restructuring of the Nigerian federation. The Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum has attracted much attention and acquired much gravity as the collective voice of the elder statesmen of the Southwest, Southeast, South-south and Middle Belt, four of Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones.
In late 2017, most Yoruba civic organizations joined hands together and organized the Yoruba Summit. In a conference attended by over 6000 Yoruba people and by fraternal guests from the Southeast and South-south, the Yoruba Summit issued the Ibadan Declaration – the definitive statement of Yoruba demands for the restructuring of the Nigerian federation.
Some months ago, some Yoruba youths of Kogi State began to plant large wooden boards along roads and highways in their state and then extended the practice beyond their state to other parts of Yorubaland. The boards carried simple messages such as THIS IS YORUBALAND or WELCOME TO YORUBALAND. They were meant to warn Fulani herdsmen marauders and others that Yoruba territory is not available for anybody to grab, and that Yoruba people demand respect for their territory. Some other youths then formed an organization named ‘Yoruba Koya’, and started seriously to plant large boards along highways all over Yorubaland and to mobilize Yoruba youths to learn rudiments of community defence preparedness. And then, an organization of professionals named ‘Voice of Reason’ did the huge job of writing a model constitution for the restructured Nigerian Federation – the kind of constitution that Yoruba people demand for their nation’s continued membership of Nigeria.
A recently formed organization named ‘Omoluabi’ is engaged in the task of urging Yoruba people to return to Yoruba Omoluabi principles – so that Yoruba people may consciously move away from Nigeria’s moral degeneration. Another youth organization, Yoruba Liberation Command (YOLICOM), has bravely announced that its objective is a separate and sovereign Oodua nation-state.
The old and revered organization, Agbe Koya, now led by a brave 109-year old veteran, is being heard and seen increasingly in action. Odua Peoples Congress (OPC) has stirred itself and has issued warnings that though Yoruba people usually do not want to use violence, they would use violence fiercely now to defend Yorubaland if terrorist attacks on Yorubaland continue. Afenifere Renewal Group, the proud authors of the DAWN DOCUMENT, is observed upgrading. From the Yoruba Diaspora, various groups are bracing up too for the Yoruba nation’s struggle of today. All of these contributions and more by Yoruba civic organizations deserve profound and perpetual gratitude from the Yoruba nation.
However, one crucial step needs to be taken today – and taken by a collaboration of all Yoruba civic organizations. In terms of political consciousness, the role models for most of the impressionable Yoruba youths of today are today’s Yoruba and Nigerian politicians who are living “bigger-than-life” existences from the Nigerian culture of irresponsibility and corruption, and who tend mostly to ignore the interests of their Yoruba people. Yoruba youths need to be given different guidelines based on immortal Yoruba values, guidelines that will elevate the moral quality of their lives and that will make them the kind of leaders that the Yoruba people can recognize, leaders that the Yoruba people will happily accept, and leaderships that will seriously benefit the Yoruba nation today and tomorrow. Thoughtful Yoruba folks are suggesting this everywhere.
Thinking of this has led me to something that Egbe Omo Oduduwa did during its most successful years. The Egbe was putting together, from indigenous Yoruba philosophy and ideals, a body of ideas for the development of the modern Yoruba society. On further consideration, the Egbe decided that putting the ideas together was not enough, but that there was need to create the generation of people who would possess the ideas and use the ideas for the development, progress and prosperity of the Yoruba nation. The Egbe then established what became known as the “Saturday School” in which men and
women were given a general knowledge of Yoruba history and culture, with particular emphasis on Yoruba ideas and ethics of society, citizenship, leadership, and governance, and the factors responsible for the Yoruba nation’s outstanding success in civilization building in history.
The Egbe took the Saturday School very seriously. It had branches in many Yoruba towns and cities. Chief Awolowo was the Secretary-general of Egbe Omo Oduduwa until he became the leader of the Action Group and premier of the Western Region. The quality and achievements of the government of the Western Region under his leadership owed something to the kind of spirit that was generated through the Saturday Schools.
I humbly propose that we should establish something like this Saturday School system.
Our objective should be to generate a new Yoruba elite that will respect and value the Yoruba nation’s tradition of leadership – and to promote a Yoruba leadership that is proudly enterprising, that is sensitive to the needs and expectations of Yoruba people, that is respectful of the Yoruba people, that is spiteful of corrupt and immoral conduct in business, employment, politics and governance, that strongly stands in defence and promotion of Yoruba interests, and that dutifully promotes a sense of national unity and pride among us Yoruba.
Of course, we can do this very easily and competently if we decide to do it. I urge all my people, let us do it.
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As I turn now to close this speech in which I have been repeatedly calling a spade a spade, I must make a personal revelation. The ground upon which I am standing to make these statements today is the same ground on which I once worked passionately, in the company of young intellectuals like myself from all parts of Nigeria, to put together the ideas, the plans, and the programs that were meant to advance Nigeria to the status of a truly progressive, prosperous, and powerful country in the world. Working proudly under the leadership and guidance of the man whom we revered and still revere as the greatest Black African of our time, we dared to plan for a Nigeria in which the leaders would work with dedication and self-sacrifice to steadily improve the quality of the lives of the masses of Nigerians, and in which every single Nigerian citizen would have the opportunity, the support and the encouragement to make the very best of his or her life. We dared to think of ourselves as working for a Nigeria that would become “the Blackman’s world power of modern times”.
Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s earthly biological remains rest a few yards from where I stand at this moment. But he is an ever present reality in my consciousness. For me, his awesome presence fills this hall this moment. Whenever I look at him and at the Nigeria that we now have, I am forced to avert my gaze in shame. Whenever I look at him and I look at the Yoruba people for whom he laboured with all his strength, his intellect, his integrity and his dignity, I can do no more than simply freeze. The speech I have made here today is, I am sure, the kind of speech that he would want and expect me to make at this terrible time in the life of Nigeria, in the life of the Yoruba nation, and in the life of all the nationalities that are suffering abominably in Nigeria today, especially the nationalities that are being massacred and devastated, and that are being threatened with mass death and ultimate destruction.
In the face of these conditions, I am sure that Chief Awolowo would say to me, “Banji, speak up. In the interest of our people, speak the truth as you truly see it. Speak it in love, but speak it nevertheless – and speak it without fear”. After this speech today, I hope I am at least a little qualified to answer our father and say, “Yes, Papa, I have spoken it”.
I thank you all.
(Concluded)
- Being a keynote speech delivered by Professor Akintoye, at a workshop hosted by the Yoruba Unity Forum Ikenne, October 11, 2018
and then