Omoluabi: A new socio-political concept for Yoruba nation?

THE plethora of socio-economic and political vicissitudes bedeviling Nigeria might have been remedied, thus putting the 150 million-populated Black nation on the fast track of development and progress if its leaders had many years ago embraced the agitation for Sovereign National Conference (SNC), a window into true federalism.

Though the failure could be assessed by casting blanket blame on all past leaders since independence, the Ogun State Governor, Otunba Gbenga Daniel could not but be very disappointed at the action of his kinsman and former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, who ruled the country for eight years without allowing the much sought-after SNC to hold, despite his initial pledge to right the series of lopsidedness in the country’s configuration immediately he was sworn- in in 1999.

As if blaming the Owu High Chief for using mono-focal lens to view the country’s warped condition, despite advice and support given him by many right-thinking South West stakeholders, Daniel in Ibadan last week, disclosed that he and many other people in the South West joined the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 1999 because they thought Obasanjo would champion the course of the Yoruba people and right the wrongs of the past meted out against them.

His words, “Many progressives decided to join Obasanjo after the 1999 election, and we told him about the national conference which we believe was necessary as panacea to Nigeria ’s myriad problems. Chief Obasanjo bought into it, but somehow just like a virus, the third term agenda crept in and destroyed the federalism”.

Daniel who did an x-ray of the political situation in the country, made the startling disclosure at the first lecture organized by ‘Egbe Omoluabi’ entitled: “Politics in Post 2011 Nigeria : Is Yorubaland Endangered?,

The lecture was delivered at the packed Premier Hotel, Mokola Hill, Ibadan by the emeritus historian, Professor Akinjide Osuntokun.

Making a holistic assessment of the political situation in the country, Daniel nevertheless said that, “In democracy, each person is entitled to one vote. But if somebody is stressing the need for education and about 500 touts are saying no, the touts would win”, stressing that “for the past two years governance has been shut down and everybody has been claiming to be a professional politician”.

On the coming elections and the hype about ‘one- man- one vote’, the governor asked whether because of calls that votes must count, Nigerians should divert their attention from good governance. To him, is it because votes must count that we should spend billions of naira to register? Would the problems of this country disappear if the votes count?”, he queried.

Daniel therefore called on the Yoruba people to have a common agenda which he said, was the only way the zone could progress.

Present at the lecture were many dignitaries including Dr. Yemi Farounmbi (Chairman of the occasion), Dr. Isaiah Kunle Salako, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, Chief Adebayo Faleti, Professor Wale Olaitan (Vice Chancellor Olabisi Onabanjo University), Mr Sina Kawonise (Ogun State Commissioner for Information), Chief Ladosu Ladapo, Architect Kayode Adebayo, Mr Femi Ogodo (retired Police Commissioner), Mr Niyi Owolade (former Attorney General and Justice Commissioner, Osun State), Alhaji Abdul Ganiyu Oguntoyinbo (President General, Yoruba community, Northern Nigeria), Chief Wale Eegunleti, Hon Sola Ladipo, Prince Gabriel Adekunle leading Kwara delegates, Hon. Bunmi Jenyo, Hon. Kole Omololu (Chairman, Afenifere group in Europe), Dr. Akin Onigbinde, Mr Gbenga Kejide, Akinrogun Tunde Odanye (Vice Chairman, Omoluabi group), Akeem Gbajabiamila, Dare Babarinsa, Pastor Tijani (Goodluck Volunteer group), Chief Lere Adigun, Otunba Alex Onabanjo, Abagun Kole Omololu, Oladapade Fakunle, Mr Kehinde Sogunle, and Oba Isiaka Olajide Ajede, Ogirimadagbo of Ilodo, among many others.

The lecture was facilitated by Governor Daniel while Otunba Adebayo Alao-Akala was chosen as guest of honour. The Oyo governor was however not present and did not send any representation.

The club, christened Omoluabi (child of good breeding), was established to foster the principle of good behaviour as enunciated in the Yoruba customs and traditions for the enhancement of peaceful and progressive human co-habitation.

According to Kehinde Sogunle in his lecture , the concept of omoluabi preaches that “a person will not do what others should not do, what others should not hear, and what is not right.

Though the Ogun State governor identified Obasanjo’s administration as having contributed to the country’s problems, by shutting its ears to the call for a national conference, he, however refrained from absolving other past governments and some stakeholders of the blame, pointing out that, “we must not use the example of a single person to judge the whole process”.

Daniel’s position had been informed by earlier vitriolic verbal attack launched at the former president by Osuntokun in the course of his lecture where he had berated Obasanjo for performing below expectation for the South West during his eight year rule as president of the country.

According to Osuntokun, “Chief Obasanjo government bent backwards to accommodate other ethnic groups at the expense of Yoruba and Yoruba people watched helplessly when their son was in the saddle and all their roads became dilapidated and all other appurtenances of modern life collapsed”.

The people who believe and advocated belonging to the mainstream and joining others in the government of Nigeria have had their position weakened by the fact that there is nothing to show for the time when one of their sons was at the helm of the Presidency between 1999 and 2007. In fact, if the truth must be told, Obasanjo’s government bent over backward to accommodate other ethnic groups at the expense of the Yoruba. Even in the distribution of Ministerial positions, Yoruba have faired worse than other ethnic groups. Since 2003, no Yoruba woman has been found suitable for ministerial appointment in a country where Yoruba women have led in the acquisition of western education since the imposition of colonial rule.

Sounding dejected and disappointed at the consequence of the support some Yoruba people gave to Obasanjo’s administration in 1999, Osuntokun therefore concluded that “it is therefore open to debate if the Yoruba would have faired worse if they had not belonged to the mainstream”.

Osuntokun extolled the importance of the Yoruba race in the existence of Nigeria , saying that, “As an important leg of the tripod of which this Nigeria stands, whatever affects the political health of the Yoruba would eventually affect the whole nation. Any derogation of the dignity of the Yoruba nation will affect others with such devastating consequences that can only be imagined. God has been kind to the Yoruba people in its geographical location in the fertile south western part of Nigeria and from the Atlantic to the River Niger. They are the only homogeneous group contiguously located that can survive as an independent entity The emergence in Yorubaland of a nation through the crucible of war lasting a century places the Yoruba in such a vantage position that those who try to undermine them as a result of their liberal nature are not likely to succeed because their recent history has taught them how to survive in difficult times. The large population of the Yoruba, their dominant economic power based on agriculture and manufacturing and the relative ease of political mobilization put them in formidable position in the future politics of Nigeria”, Osuntokun said.

Worried by the ongoing rising spate of political misgivings among the people of Yorubaland, considering the major political parties rivaling one another, Osuntokun asked what could have led to the political disunity and acrimony being witnessed among the leaders and the led in the parties.

His words, “One mystery is why there should be so much bitterness in the politics of Yorubaland bearing in mind that fundamental religious differences have been resolved in Yorubaland. If something as fundamental as religion does not bring division, disunity and violence in Yorubaland, why then can politics not be put on the same peaceful pedestal?”

Espousing further the principle of omoluabi, which he advocated the Yourba leaders should embrace instead of engaging in run-him-down politicking, the lecturer advised that, “The Yoruba should be reconciled to the fact that their civilization embraces all the tenets of liberalism which allow a thousand flowers to blosom. The sky is large enough for all kinds of bird to fly without collision. This should be the credo of Yoruba politics. Besides, it is in the contestation of ideas that one finds the highest truth”.

The dignitaries at the event, drawn from all walks of life, were treated to a light entertainment by the 25-year England-based returnee artiste, Blackman Akeem Kareem, who sang some of his old soul-inspiring lyrics to the admiration of the gathering, who nostalgically mimed along with him.

Sola Adeyemo, Ibadan