Why Yoruba security summits have not yielded positive results —Hassan, president, YCYW

President, Yoruba Council of Youths Worldwide (YCYW), Oludotun Hassan, in this interview by AKIN ADEWAKUN, speaks on the activities of the association and recent security issues in the South West, giving reasons why efforts at getting lasting peace in the region have continued to be a pipe dream.

You recently had a meeting with the Sarki Fulani of Lagos, was it at your instance?

The meeting was part of the position we took few weeks ago. We had earlier issued a seven-day notice to the Fulani herdsmen, since we had been seeing all the crimes being perpetrated by these people in the South-West. We issued our notice, we predicated it on the June 27 Security Summit that we had in Ibadan, where we launched what we called Operation Folumo, that is operation keep our land clean. As part of our resolutions, we put it as a note of caution that all the Hausa-Arewa community heads must join in the struggle and that we are going to make sure that we interface with them to call for more mutual synergy in fighting the terrorists.

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And they themselves got our message. But, while we were doing all these, the Sarki Fulani of Lagos had not been around. When we eventually got the hint that he was around, that was why we quickly went there. So it was more or less a mutual decision for us to see each other that day. He knew we had wanted to see him, and when he was eventually available, he sent his aides to us. Perhaps, what also fast-tracked the meeting was that when we initially issued a notice and launched the Folumo idea, there was no 30-day ultimatum to the Federal Government, from the northern youths, concerning Ruga, then.  We never also knew those who brought Ruga would withdraw and redress it in another robe of National Livestock Reform Project. When they made that movement of suspension of Ruga and the 30-day notice from the northern youths came again, we were surprised.  So we issued a notice and a press release again, and put it to them that enough was enough.  And we felt the only way to effectively say that was to frontally engage the source, which are those that know them. That was really what led us to that meeting.  So our mission to Seriki Fulani was to tell him that we had every structure to counter the 30-day threat of the boys, but we didn’t want to overheat the polity unjustly since the people that are going to suffer the consequences of such action  will not even be on the table to see our faces when we begin to fight  one another on the streets. So there is the need for us to save ourselves such collateral damage. And when he heard that, he also agreed with us.

You talked about issuing a seven-day notice, what was the notice about?

It was for the terrorists to vacate Yoruba land. It’s a vacation order notice, and when we did that, we also mandated Mr. President to make sure he reviews all security apparatus and drag them into those black spots in Yoruba land.  We also called on our own people to join the struggle, tagged the South West Regional Security Network, which will now be an amalgamation of our various traditional security groups.

But would you say the seven-day ultimatum thing has worked, since it seems the siege of the South-West still continues?

I think it worked. For instance, during that period there was no incident of any killing recorded in the land. Meanwhile, we have issues with some of our people in Yoruba land, I must confess to you. Our programme that we proposed to them then was short-lived by majority of our people, and that’s one of the reasons many of the security summits we have held in the region and even in Abuja with Mr. President have not yielded any positive result. It is because there has not been any harmonisation of ideas. People have not been able to bury this long hatred for each other. If the Yoruba would heal their wound internally, they should be able to accommodate progressive ideology, regarding the management of their territorial boundaries, because in a time like this, all hands must be on deck.

Perhaps the association is being seen as a political group?

Well for us, people would come up with opinions. We cannot deny the fact that people are saying why they must issue notice. But it is because we are only foreseeing danger, that’s why we are telling them ‘let us discuss security issues’. It is our own natural issue. Security is the first right of every man; the right to life.

Where is the association coming from? Was it a response to all these killings and maiming in the region?

We have been on the ground for some time. We have been doing different programmes and activities. We recently re-launched the World Omoluabi Day, which is an identity day for all Yoruba. Every May 1 is the Yoruba day, which is the World Omoluabi Day. It was launched at the Ooni of Ife’s palace. We’ve been carrying on with activities at various points in time. Yes, we have our challenges in terms of doing things, in terms of managing our affairs. If you want something that you want to grow, you must start small; you must not be in haste and not allow unnecessary hullaballoo. So many organisations have blown out of proportion, and you cannot find any rule any longer in the system, because they have no background.  We are giving people the required orientation, and that’s what we’ve done for many years. What we’ve been doing for many years is to re-orientate the people and get them on board. We are making them to see the need for an ideology.

Chief Obafemi Awolowo had ideologies, which were social welfare, social justice and right of the people. We must be able to inculcate back these policies too. No elder in Yoruba land will claim ignorance of our existence as an organisation.

However, the issue of insecurity raises a whole lot of doubt in the system. For instance, I as a person, I’m the Secretary General of Nigerian Ethnic Nationalities of Youth Leaders Forum, where we have the Ndigbo Youth Council, the Ijaw Youth Council, the Arewa  Youth Council and others. Every indigenous youth council is there. I’m also the convener of the Pan-Nigeria Assembly. So we have structures that we are communicating and synergising with. But we believe charity begins at home. From the home front, there is the need for all groupings to come together. We have so many names of Yoruba youths. We are well known to Gani Adams; we were well-known to Baba Fasheun when he was alive and even to the current leadership across boards of various ethnic organisations. We have our structures.

What is the way forward, especially after the Sarki Fulani meeting and the communiqué signed after the meeting?

One of the major fundamentals that we are proposing is that we need to institutionalise our planning, that is, it should have nothing to do with an individual.  One of our major pointers to the 9th assembly, therefore, is that there must be a review of the present constitution to enable Nigerians to have the real people’s constitution; both at the national and regional levels. We are not calling here for a regional government, but we can have a regional constitution.  I am a lawyer and I know that we don’t have a people’s constitution. The 1999 Constitution cannot even survive a democratic definition. That’s why we call on our governors to reconsider the Folumo idea, because the Operation Keep Clean Our Land is not just addressing the issue of Fulani herdsmen, but we are also going to be using it to bring that long-lost Omoluabi ethos, those virtues that have long gone into oblivion. We need to bring back those virtues into our Yoruba land in order to fight corruption and any form of criminality as far as the land is concerned. As you can see today, the vices we see in the land can be traced to our homes where there is no moral training. So Folumo is more or less like a social regeneration ideology that will input and infuse morals in managing the society. It is in the area of security that we now require the government to put in place what we call the South West Regional Security Network, which must be in tandem with the policy of the state houses of assembly and the executive because there must be proper funding. We believe it will be an avenue for employment generation and also serve as an avenue to keep our youths busy.