Yoruba Autonomy
Recharging the Battery of a Nation
The Yoruba Autonomy Certificate (hereafter referred to as The Certificate) is a trust fund established by the Egbe Omo Yoruba. The purpose of The Certificate, offered in units of $50 for Bronze, $100 for Silver, and $200 for Gold, is to promote the cultural, economic, educational and political self-determination of Yoruba people world-wide, particularly in the context of a multinational Nigeria.
The mission of Egbe Omo Yoruba is to address and resolve the crisis of an uncertain future that faces Yoruba people in their ancestral home in the geographical space of Nigeria. For as Chief Obafemi Awolowo observed more than three decades ago, the future of the Yoruba nation is difficult if they remain complacent about the reality of the forces they have to contend with. Since we would like to construct a certain and prosperous future for our children, we must deal with our present through a knowledge of the past and a vision of the future.
Nigeria, as we now know it, was a contrivance of imperial Britain; and though Lord Lugard would have us believe otherwise in his Dual Mandate rationalization, we also know that Britain stayed in Nigeria for its own interest and left when that interest was no longer served by colonial expansion.
Prior to the partition of Africa and the claim of Britain on Nigeria, various nationalities with centuries of historical existence and flourishing civilizations occupied various territories in the physical space that became British territory. The amalgamation of Northern and Southern territories, which put a final seal on this adventure, was later to be described as a mistake by the Sardauna of Sokoto, Alhaji Ahmadu Bello. Thus while Obafemi Awolowo saw Nigeria as a mere geographical entity superimposed over pre-existing nationalities, Bello saw the superimposition as a mistake. But at least, all the nationalist leaders made effort to fashion out a system of governance that preserved the autonomy of the component nationalities.
The driving force behind the 1959 and 1963 constitutions was the creation of a Nigeria that would nourish its diversity and endow the clusters of nationalities that constitute the country unfettered self-government and autonomy. But the 1963 constitution was scuttled by the military, and with it, the federalism it was Designd to protect. Since 1966, successions of military dictatorships from Aguiyi Ironsi to Abacha have, through the might of the gun, reDesignd Nigeria into a unitary system with a federal façade. Nigeria lost its federal structure and democratic system in 1966, and with the annulment of the presidential election of June 12 1993, it lost its pretensions to having a national soul.
Before the attainment of political independence by Nigeria in 1960, the Western Region, ancestral home to most Yoruba people, was a trail blazer in development efforts and projects: free primary education scheme, social welfare programs, agricultural development projects, a gender-balanced commercial culture and a politically sophisticated citizenry that is jealous of its human and civil rights. All these were facilitated by the ideology of progress that characterized the ruling party in the West, and by a cultural head-start created by the ancestors of the Yoruba.
The Old Western Region established its own regional university to create opportunities for higher education for the graduates of its secondary schools and thus lay a solid foundation for manpower for development. These efforts to create "firsts" in almost all aspects of social life paid off until they all fell victim to the unconcerned attitude and incompetence of successions of military agents who had no responsibility to the people they were supposed to serve. All progressive institutions and projects established by the old Western Region, including overseas scholarship programs, road construction and repair, University of Ife (later Obafemi Awolowo University), and agricultural institutes were killed by successions of military administrations.
Still the Yoruba people, relying on their resourcefulness and industry, continued to keep hope alive. The humiliation of Awolowo in the hands of the calliphate did not discourage the Yoruba from having faith in a future, truly democratic federal republic of Nigeria. They invested in the education of their children, and many of us today are living testimonies of the collective sacrifice of our people. For thousands of Yoruba members of the newly emergent African neo-diaspora in the United States are descendants of people who were sent to Europe and North America in the 1960s and 70s with cocoa and timber money. But these Yoruba men and women are still now returning to these countries for lack of opportunity at home and because they still face unwarranted harassment in their own land of birth. And the younger ones who came in the late 80s cannot return home to support their aging parents.
Politically, the Yoruba are an endangered species. After they led the struggle for independence for which Britain singled them out as trouble-makers, they suffered persecution in the hands of their fellow "nationalists" at independence. Awolowo's politics of principle was unacceptable to the Northern calliphate which made sure that he never got close to the presidency. Abiola, on the other hand, thought that he could do better by compromise and accommodation. He soon learned a bitter lesson. It was not enough that Abiola was a friend of the North, nor that he was the Vice President of the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs. He made a mistake for daring to be president and thus competing for the birth-right of the Hausa-Fulani oligarchy. Between Awolowo's politics of principle and Abiola's politics of accommodation, we have come full circle.
|
|
| The question remains: Where do we go from here? |
|
It is not irrelevant to the present predicament of the Yoruba that Adekunle Fajuyi, paid the supreme sacrifice, while Wole Soyinka suffered imprisonment and deprivation, all for the sake of a united Nigeria. These and the valiant roles of Akinrinade and Obasanjo during the civil war, do not add up in the warped minds of our detractors. They cannot entrust a Yoruba with the highest political office in the land.
In view of the foregoing, the time has come for Yoruba people world-wide to make the unity, empowerment, and autonomy of the Yoruba nation a task that must be done within the context of a true federal union. This is the rationale for the establishment of the Yoruba Autonomy Certificate. The Certificate is established to raise funds for the realization of an effective autonomy for Yoruba people in the context of a truly Democratic Federation of Nigerian Nationalities.
Proceeds from The Certificate will be used to set up institutions of civil society for the mobilization of Yoruba people, along with other nationalities, to press for a return to the autonomy wrested from them by military governments since 1966; to establish educational foundation and research institutes for the promotion of Yoruba language and culture; as well as to promote the culture of investment and productivity .
This is a clarion call to all Oduduwa descendants and friends at home and abroad to invest generously in the future of a prosperous, democratic and autonomous Yorubaland in the context of a truly Democratic Federation of Nigerian Nationalities where each nationality, no matter how small, will enjoy equal opportunities with others. We must do this for our children so that they can proudly identify with their source of being.
The concept of an autonomy certificate may appear novel, and you may wonder if the objective can be realized. However, you must realize that the risk of doing nothing now is far greater in consequence for our children's children yet unborn who will bear the burden of not doing anything now. A change for the better is long overdue in our situation. The question is "who will spear-head it, if we all sit on the fence?" Our ancestors did their part. They fought many battles and were never enslaved to any nation on the continent of Africa. Today, we are weak and unfree in our own land! This is certainly not the legacy that we want to bequeath to our own children.
Your contribution to the struggle for autonomy through this Certificate guarantees you an enviable place in the annals of an autonomous and empowered Yorubaland, which is greatly blessed and endowed with natural and human resources. The present situation of unfreedom and material privation can be overcome in no time if we all answer this call. The satisfaction of being a part of an investment in the future of an empowered Yorubaland is itself a priceless return on your contribution. For you will be able to display your Certificate for generations of your offspring to see the contribution you made to the empowerment of Yoruba nation within the Democratic Federation of Nigerian Nationalities This is not therefore a call for secession. Rather, it is a call for restructuring the country for effective devolution of power to the nationalities, in the true spirit of the Nigerian Federal Constitution of 1963.
With your contribution, we expect to succeed in returning Nigeria to the era of regional autonomy in which each nationality is empowered by the constitution to take care of its economy, education, health, agriculture and trade, and security. Therefore, an autonomous Yoruba nation will be able to set an agenda of economic and educational empowerment for its people such that we can see again an era of development and healthy competition among the various groups of people. This expectation should make your investment in this Certificate a worthwhile venture.
|
