Tag: Yoruba

The costly mistake that Afonja, the infamous Aare Ona Kankanfo of Yoruba land and rebellious subject of Alaafin of Oyo, made nearly two centuries ago has continued to produce costly consequences, following his thoughtless defiance against the eminent monarch.

The great warrior asserted the independence of Ilorin, the legacy of his illustrious forebears – Alugbin and Pasin – after seeking help from a stranger who later plotted his disastrous end and whose descendants have continued to politically dominate the ancient outpost to this day.

Through Afonja’s miscalculation and missteps, Ilorin became a part of the North and has since remained so. Majority of the indigenes of the town have not regained their voice and relevance, having been subjugated through conquest. Ilorin became an extension of the Sokoto Caliphate with adjoining vast districts having Yoruba-speaking people.

The Yoruba northerners in Kwara and Kogi states suffer an identity crisis. They are not Hausa/Fulani and share no language and other cultural similarities with their neighbours who have strengthened their links with the far North through religion and politics. The only thing superlatively northern in Ilorin is the kingship, under which the republican nature of earlier aborigines has been suppressed.

The Yoruba of Ilorin even fare better in the face of the political marginalisation of their kith and kin in Kogi whose aspiration to produce a governor has often met a brick wall. When the monarchical deprivation of the Yoruba in Lokoja is considered, their plight in the northern cage is better imagined.

In these two states, the Yoruba are relegated into minority status. Since democracy is a game of numbers, the voice of minority ethnic groups is only heard; their legitimate aspiration is hardly upheld. To survive, it is either they continue to play the second fiddle or muster the will and strength to mount an effective resistance to the pattern of domination, marginalisation and exclusion for them to get some concessions.

What exacerbated the problem was the improper grouping of tribes by the British interlopers during the colonial era for administrative convenience. But for the protest and plea by the Ewi of Ado, the British officer who came to Ekiti through the Kwara/Kogi axis would have grouped Otun and the entire Moba land under the North. The Ewi told the colonial rulers that the Oore of Otun occupied a strategic position among the children of Oduduwa, being the monarch exclusively saddled with the responsibility of announcing the passage of the Ooni of Ife, the acclaimed titular head of the Yoruba. He also said that grouping Otun with the North would have meant the severance of the cord binding it with Pelupelu, the famed Ekiti Confederation.

An adjustment to the glaring tribal, linguistic and cultural differences imposed on the diverse ethnic groups forcefully lumped together in a local government, province, state or region remains a big challenge.

To avert the consequential identity crisis, the then Western Region Premier, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, in his book, titled: ‘Path to Nigerian Freedom’ published in 1947, made a compelling argument for the redrawing of the administrative boundaries. He said: “The present three regions were constituted without regard to ethnological factors,” noting that there were “incompatibilities among the various tribes which militate against unification.”

Read Also: Yoruba Wikimedians partner J. Randle Centre for Yoruba storytelling event

Awo added: “The Yoruba of Ilorin, Offa, and Kabba are included with the Hausas in the Northern Region. The Ibos, who properly belong to the Eastern Zone, are grouped with the Yoruba in the West. There is no justification whatsoever for this arbitrary grouping. Certainly, these minority groups are at a considerable disadvantage when they are forced to be in the midst of other peoples who differ from them in language, culture and historical background.”

The solution, the late sage suggested, was to constitute the scattered units into separate provinces “for better understanding and unity among the tribes” in order “to enable each group to make rapid progress”. He stressed that by doing this, the pace of the country would be considerably quickened towards a federal unity.

As Premier Awolowo in later years began the implementation of free education in the defunct Western Region, the Yoruba of Northern Region could not benefit from the programme. At a lecture in Lagos, a former Kwara State governor, Chief Cornelius Adebayo, lamented the erroneous groupings of the country. He recalled that the Yoruba of Ilorin and Kabba Province, who envied their brethren in the Western Region, only gazed at the opportunities those in the Western Region enjoyed. They were helpless. Those who could benefit were those who migrated to the West.

Southwest leaders are often seized by nostalgia, particularly the bond between the region and their politically and geographically separated relations in the Northcentral. Thus, concerned about the infrastructural inadequacy in the Kwara/Ekiti boundaries, former Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi constructed a road linking the two states to facilitate easy movement. Many people from Yoruba-speaking Kwara towns retain their emotional attachment to Ekiti where they trade every week.

The battle against marginalisation shifted to the Willink Minority Commission where the oppressed minority ethnic nationalities pressed for a sense of belonging. But First Republic Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa declared that the myth of Fulani domination was nonsense, thus trivialising the people’s genuine concerns. He premised his argument on the historic mistake of Afonja, the Yoruba generalissimo. The prime minister said the Yoruba in Ilorin were different from those in the South. He said they had the choice of being a part of the North since the 19th century without any use of force by the Fulani. According to his biographer, Trevor Clark, the prime minister attributed the troubles in Offa, Ode Oke, and Ajasa to chieftaincy disputes, emphasising that all the calls for the transfer of Ilorin had been engineered from outside, as the Germans had arranged in Czech’s Sudetenland. According to him, the Yoruba in Dahomey (today’s Benin Republic) were not calling for a union with Nigeria and the Fulani were not calling for the cession of the French territory (in today’s Niger Republic) opposite Katsina.

From Offa in Kwara State, Chief Sunday Olawoyin was elected on the platform of the Northern Peoples Congress (NPC) into the Northern Regional House of Assembly. He became the Leader of Opposition, like a sheep in the midst of wolves. There was no cultural congruity or religious similarity. He had canvassed the merger of Yoruba in the North with the West during the 1957 Constitutional Conference. The proposal was shot down. Perceived as the face of Awo’s Action Group (AG) in the North, Olawoyin faced tribulations. He was detained, imprisoned and humiliated. All this would not have occurred if there wasa proper grouping of the ethnic nationalities.

Yoruba northerners’ fears were not mitigated by the subsequent creation of Kwara and, later, Kogi states, where they have continued to endure glaring marginalisation. Since the creation of the two states, no Yoruba has been governor, except for the three-month period Senator Adebayo became the Kwara State governor. That followed a split in the state chapter of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN). In the Third Republic, Olorunfemi made a serious attempt during the governorship poll in Kogi but without success. The second term bid of Mohammed Lawal in Kwara was truncated.

The political and legal abracadabra of 2016 in Kogi underscored the stiff resistance to Yoruba’s quest for a sense of inclusion and belonging. The victim of the intra-ethnic suspicion, hostility and plot was James Faleke, a member of the House of Representatives who was prevented from politically returning home. He was rejected by a tiny but powerful Northcentral elite in league with influential and egocentric Fulani hatchet men. They insisted that an Asiwaju of Lagos should be stopped from making an inroad into the North at that time through the governorship victory of “his boy” from the Yoruba town of Ekinrin-Ade.

As the final result of the governorship election was about to be announced, the symbol of the victory, Governor Audu Abubakar, unfortunately passed on. To debar his running mate from pressing forward, the election was suddenly declared inconclusive.

Such was also the fate that befell Chief Sunday Bolorunduro Awoniyi, the Aro of Mopa, a retired Federal Permanent Secretary, Third Republic senator and prominent Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain. His intellectual and radical kinsmen believed he was a collaborator with some perceived oppressors because Awoniyi had accepted his fate as a Yoruba northerner, following the geographical accident.

But when he declared his interest in the national chairmanship of the then ruling party, former President Olusegun Obasanjo was said to have objected, saying: “I am Olusegun, you are Awoniyi. Both of us are Yoruba. A Yoruba man cannot be President and another the party chairman of the same party at the same time.”

When Awoniyi protested, saying he was a northerner, his party men insisted that he was Yoruba. That sent him to a political retirement.

In fact, many Yoruba politicians from Kwara suffer a similar identity crisis, which has been a factor in a presidential contest. They are northerners. But because they are also Yoruba, it becomes a key point in ambition and career ceiling. Even, any time Bukola Saraki throws his rat in the ring, they suddenly remember his Yoruba name.

If those exploiting these scenarios have had their way, Bayo Ojulari, who was recently appointed the Group Managing Director of Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL), would not have been appointed by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, despite his eligibility and competence. The sin of Ojulari is that although he is a northerner, he is Yoruba.

Perhaps, state creation would be the solution. But how viable is this option? The North should accommodate all northerners as northerners. Yoruba northerners should build bridges of cooperation with their neighbours. They need to understand that power is not served a la carte.

Also, zoning or micro-zoning of the governorship ticket is crucial to the prevention of domination so that the ethnic groups can have access to power, influence and privileges along the principles of equity, fairness and justice.