Nigeria’s presidential election campaigns of 2015 have developed into unprecedented confrontations. People holding extreme positions insist that their positions are irreconcilable, whip up the language of war, brutalize one another on the campaign trail, and accumulate sophisticated weapons for a final showdown. In the history of mankind, the accumulation of weapons has an almost irresistible logic and finale of its own: those who accumulate weapons almost always end up having to use them.
Nigeria seems now to be about to reach the absolute bottom of the filthy slope that she has been descending determinedly and uncaringly since independence. Countless Nigerians at home and abroad, and countless citizens of a world that is increasingly worried about the impending disaster in Nigeria, have spoken, counseled, entreated and begged. But the captains who guide Nigeria have defiantly insisted on more concentration of power, and more concentration of resource-control and management – all in a country of heterogeneous nationalities. They are hurrying to construct more and more structures that are designed to minister to, and that do excite, the greed and other ignoble passions of man; they are designing more and more interference in, and pollution of, the basic processes of governance. For Nigeria, the hens are now about to come home to roost.
I fear that those who are now beating the drums of war in Nigeria will soon stand condemned before the court of history for the rivers of blood they will soon cause to flow, for the families they will cause to lose loved ones, and for the mothers they will cause to weep for the loss of their children.
As the feared storm gathers, Nigerian peoples will be hit in different ways. I have seen, and I have been part of the struggle through, many of Nigeria’s self- brewed storms since 1960, but I have never been as fearful as I am today for my Yoruba nation. By providence, history and culture, we Yoruba are a large and strong nation. By the time we were forced into Nigeria in 1914, we had had an enviable 1000 years of urban civilization, with a rich and sophisticated economy, and eminently well-structured, enabling and stable governance. We have therefore had, as a nation in a Nigeria of many nations, a lot to impart towards orderly, stable and successful governance. And in fairness, we can proudly say that we have done quite a lot – to persuade Nigeria to tread the path of orderliness, sustainable federal structure, modernization, and focused dedication of rulers to the improvement of the quality of Nigerians’ lives. In my younger years in Nigerian politics and government, my kinsmen and I used to serve with untainted pride, motivated by the realization that we had, as a nation, the duty to help our multi-nation country to walk in the path of decent governance. None of that has really worked – and Nigeria goes its own way towards its own destiny.
But, at this critical juncture, I seem to perceive that my strong Yoruba nation is caving in to the deleterious afflictions of Nigeria, and appears to be becoming incapable of even holding itself together and defending its own. The sheep has kept the company of the dog too long. In all directions in our nation, weakness whimpers pathetically. The once glorious guides and guards of the 1000-year excellence of Yoruba political culture, disregarded and neglected by their own people of today, have abandoned the parapets. Service to the self reigns – with the result that the rich now say “I am poor”, and the strong say, “I am weak”, all because they all are unwilling to give towards the strength and dignity of their Yoruba nation. Little groups mushroom to march out, but nearly every one quickly degenerates into a self-serving cabal, builds a meaningless wall around itself, and then masquerades as too sanctified to touch, or to work with, any other group.
Lone rangers dictate the tune of our national political life, and by their excessive and un-Yoruba presumptuousness, they provoke the emergence of detractors that become bent on fighting them to the death. In every political party, many influential Yoruba say, “We seek power, influence and wealth in Nigeria now; we will think of our Yoruba nation later”. The eagle that was fashioned to soar the heights now waddles in the mud ponds. The up-and-coming generation of bright youths is offered no vision or noble direction to hold on to.
This is our day of weakness. But, it is the way of nature and of human society to experience times of weakness. What is more important, and what we need to grab, is the certainty that our inherent strength, nurtured over a thousand years, is alive and intact, that out there, everywhere, the men and women imbued with that strength are countless, and that the immediate need of the moment is to prod those elements of our culture and fundamental philosophies that can waken and accentuate their strength. Coincidentally, I hear that a large conference of Yoruba leaders is meeting in Ibadan this day, and I hope that they will regard this column today as a message addressed to them.
First and foremost, we need to reawaken our common consciousness as one people – one people with a common national character and a common destiny – no matter what becomes of Nigeria. No matter what political party or group any of us may belong to, our membership of it is chosen by us, and is evanescent and changeable – whereas our membership of the Yoruba nation is God-ordained, unchangeable, and passes automatically to our offspring. And, thankfully, our Yoruba nation is an enormously proud possession.
Secondly, in the shifting sands of Nigerian politics, our only sensible and sustainable option is to revive and reemphasize our national ways and philosophies. From wisdom gathered for over a thousand years in our well-ordered communities, we know that it is not sensible or realistic that all of us should belong to one persuasion, either religiously or politically. The recognition of the right to choose is deeply ingrained in our culture; no Yoruba person disrespects the other because of difference of choice; and no Yoruba person, no matter how high, should claim that his partisan choice is the choice of all Yoruba. Even if (or rather, when) we come to have our own sovereign Odua country, we will have different political parties with members across our land.
Very importantly, neither of the two leading presidential candidates has ever been formally given the Yoruba agenda for Nigeria. We should appoint a delegation of leaders to put it in the hands of the two candidates now – and demand formal responses without fail. Then, we should urge all parties and candidates to respect the non-partisanship of our Obas, and to relate to our Obas with utmost respect.
Finally, we must explore all means to ensure that if, as is widely feared, violence happens to cap the coming elections, no part of Yorubaland, and no Yoruba person, will be involved or hurt in it. On the contrary, we must close ranks, turn such a situation around, and make it the dawn of our day of strength.