For a people with a long cherished history and culture of political decisiveness, the gale of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, which swept through Yoruba land at the polls last year, with President Olusegun Obasanjo calling the shots and playing a very influential role, is it time yet to start talking about the re-integration of the Yoruba into national politics - especially at a time Afenifere, its socio-political arm seems to be in disarray? Some leaders in Yoruba land (including traditional rulers and some state governors) jaw-jawed last week about this issue. This report captures the event, but goes a step further to critically appraise the issues at stake as well as their possible backlashes.
FOR about six hours last week, leaders of the Yoruba race brain-stormed on the way forward. As the Seriki of Egba land, a former Attorney General of Western State and Secretary General of the Supreme Council on Islamic Affairs, Alhaji Lateef Adegbite took the stage to analyse the state of politics in Yorubaland and what the future portends for the people if there is no fundamental change in the structure, it was obvious that the leaders of various persuasion were apprehensive of the future.
In attendance at the well attended summit were the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi; Oba of Lagos, Oba Rilwanu Akiolu, Gen Adeyinka Adebayo, Lt. Gen Alani Akinrinade, Lt Gen Oladipo Diya, Senator Olabiyi Durojaiye, Senator Femi Okurounmu, the Speaker of the Ogun State House of Assembly, Mrs Titi Oseni, Sen. Ayo Fasanmi; Chief Reuben Fasoranti, former governors of Ekiti and Osun state, Chief Bisi Akande and Otunba Niyi Adebayo, Prof Wale Omole.
Others were: Mr Ayo Opadokun, Chief Adebayo Faleti, Dr Beko Ransome Kuti, Prince Ademola Adeniji-Adele, Senator Anthony Adefuye, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, Chief Gani Adams, Chief Lanre Razak, Chief Funso Williams.
As the Obas and the elders were making speeches in the Oranmiyan Lodge of Airport Hotel, venue of the summit, the younger of both factions of Afenifere and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) agreed that the issues involved were too grave to be concluded at a one-day summit. Consequently, a nine-man committee comprising the committee headed by Akogun Lekan Alabi, Senator Femi Okunrounmu, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, Mr Niran Malaolu, Mr Yinka Odumakin, Mr Femi Oyetayo, Mr Niyi Afuye, Mr Dare Babarinsa and Mr Gbenga Oduwaye was set up.
Sources close to the meeting said it was not too difficult to arrive at the composition of the committee because the members had worked together before. As the Ogun state governor, Otunba Gbenga Daniel who presided said, he and Prince Adeyeye had been friends. The Prince is well regarded by Mr Malaolu, the Ogun State Commissioner for Information and Strategy who is believed to be the governor’s Man Friday. Both men had little difficulty flowing together and thus influencing the eventual outcome of the summit. The choice of Akogun Alabi was to douse partisan considerations.
As Chairman, it is expected that he would be able to steer a middle course. He is expected to be assisted in achieving that objective by Mr Dare Babarinsa who is known to be fiercely committed to the Yoruba cause without being tied to any of the prominent groups.
The presence on the committee of the trio of Prince Adeyeye, Mr Yinka Odumakin and Mr Niyi Afuye points at the fact that Afenifere is still well respected and it is accepted that the group must be taken fully along in any decision that may be taken if it is to make the desired impact.
Senator Okurounmu is seen as the ideologue of the Akinfenwa Fasoranti faction of the Afenifere. If the committee gets him to endorse a peace plan, the task of getting his group to accept the eventual outcome would have been made very easy.
There are however many questions still begging for answers. When is the report expected to be turned in and to whom? Would Alaroye be convening another meeting to consider the report.? How broad based is the committee? Is the composition a statement on the relevance of the Yoruba Council of Elders, for example? Beyond working for peace, can the group also work out strategies for actualising the dreams of the Yoruba? These are questions that would continue to agitate observers of the scene for some time to come.
Whither the Yoruba
The big question that dominated discussions at the meeting was the place of the Yoruba in the comity of Nigerian nations. Specifically, it was asked, where would the Yoruba be after the Obasanjo administration.
In the main lecture delivered by Alhaji Adegbite, he attempted to put the problem in perspective. In his view, “there is little material gain that the Yoruba can hope for, from the evolving political dispensation. Therefore they must go along with the Politics of Principles, which President Obasanjo appears to have rooted for. This is in line with the Yoruba philosophy and tradition. It is equally true, however, that the Yoruba cannot benefit fully from the emerging policies if the present structure of government is retained and the centralising Federal System, which some describe as Unitary-Federal, is maintained.
“In other words, in their own interest the Yoruba must insist on the return to true federalism as practiced in Nigeria pre-independence and up to immediately after independence. That is, from 1954 to 1965.
“A state, as a political enterprise, is a coalition of groups and interests giving rise to mutual obligations among the component units inter Se, and between them and the central body. In the case of Nigeria, we need to go the memory lane and recall that a central government was imposed on the people by the Colonial Masters and acquiesced in by the constituent units through discussions and decisions at the various Constitutional Conferences held in London in the stages leading up to the country’s independence.
“The Yoruba leaders took part in those events fully and actively. It was clear from the various speeches and writings that they endorsed the sovereign and independent State of Nigeria to which all Nigerian groups including the Yoruba were ready and willing to belong, and play an active role. Nigerians opted for a federal system of government: a constitutional state in which political and civil rights were recognised, protected and guaranteed. These rights and freedoms would be enforceable in the courts of law manned by qualified, independent and impartial judges. There would be the Rule of Law and leaders of Government at all levels would be elected in free and fair elections. The Nigerian Independence Constitution provided for all these and was reaffirmed in the Republican Constitution of 1963.
“By 1962 however, things had begun to fall apart leading to the declaration of a State of Emergency in the Western Region, the Yoruba heartland. The Federal Government assumed direct administration of the Region, which prided itself as the most active and efficient government in the Federation. That emergency heralded the political trouble from which the Nation has never fully recovered, and was to lead to a military Coup d*etat and Civil War. The break-up of the country was averted but the oft-repeated states creation exercise resulted in the atomisation of the Yoruba region, which is now made up of six states.
“The historic June 12, 1993 presidential election victory of Chief M.K.O. Abiola, of blessed memory and an illustrious Yoruba son, was annulled by the Military under President Ibrahim Babangida thus preventing him from being sworn in as President of Nigeria. The maximum dictator, General Sani Abacha came on the scene, with NADECO emerging to battle him to a standstill.
“The Pro-democracy groups won their struggle. Abacha, through divine intervention, disappeared from the scene in June 1998, but so did Abiola most lamentably in July 1998. The military was left with no option but to retreat to the barracks, thus paving the way for the enthronement of civil rule in May 1999 with Obasanjo becoming President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. This development however, still fell short of Yorubá aspirations. They still long for genuine democracy, true federalism, credible protection of political, social and economic rights.”
Alhaji Adegbite who hardly delves into the murky debates on politics made a move to situate the squabble that had almost relegated the Yoruba nation in recent times. He blames the Afenifere for getting tied to the AD for the failure of that organisation to provide an umbrella for all Yoruba organisations. His words: “Once the Yoruba are clear as to their aspirations, they must work out the best way to pursue and achieve the goal. The first hurdle is how to ensure that the Yoruba speak with one voice.
“Given the happenings in recent times, the prospects of Yoruba unity are not so bright. The common platform, which Afenifere appears to provide, is crumbling. But in all honesty and with due respect, Afenifere had all along harbored the elements of its own destruction. It insisted on being a socio-cultural and political organisation as well as an umbrella body for all Yoruba people. As long as Afenifere sees itself as a socio-cultural wing of the Alliance for Democracy (AD), regarding both organisations as siamese twins, it will continue to compromise its unifying mission and would increasingly lose the confidence of non-AD politicians and some AD politicians as well. For the sake of total Yoruba unity and solidarity, a new Pan-Yoruba socio-cultural organisation should be formed bringing together all other Yoruba bodies including some that have sprung up seeking to replace Afenifere. The new organisation would take a new name and must be all-inclusive, embracing all Yoruba leaders and youths.
The “Yoruba Council of Elders (YCE) would join as well as the Odua Peoples Congress (OPC). But the latter would henceforth function as a civil volunteer corps and a cultural rather than a militant outfit. It is this new body that would speak for the Yoruba and negotiate with other ethnic nationalities in Nigeria when the time comes to discuss the future of this country.”
Alhaji Adegbite was not alone in wondering aloud what would become of the nation that produced the first set of professionals in the country and contributed more than others to the attainment of political independence. The Alaafin of Oyo, in a brilliant review of the place of the Yoruba in the scheme of things, argued that only a united front would guarantee relevance for the Yoruba in the period beyond 2007.
Otunba Gbenga Daniel not only warned against political violence but used the opportunity to take a swipe at his predecessor, Chief Segun Osoba. He spoke about politicians in Yoruba land who were not content with accepting the verdict of the people and warned that their time was up.
In his own paper, the governor of Lagos State who was represented by his Special Adviser on Education, Professor Tunde Samuel called for a return to true federalism as the only way the country in general and the Yoruba nation could progress.
The questions being asked are: What was the state of things when President Obasanjo mounted the saddle in 1999? What has changed fundamentally since then? If things continue as they stand until 2007, where would it lead the Yoruba? In other words, should the Obasanjo tenure end with things remaining substantially as they were in 1999, is it possible that sometime in the near future the debacle of 1993 which led to the annulment of the freest and fairest election in the country and the eventual death of the winner of that election repeat itself.
Again, Alhaji Adegbite posited an answer. According to him: “There is an overwhelming case and the pressure is mounting, which also calls for the unequivocal support of the Yoruba on the matter, that a National Constitutional Conference must be convened before 2007 when the time of the present Administration would expire. The argument being canvassed in some quarters that desirable changes in the 1999 Constitution should be effected by the National Assembly and the presidency cannot hold. Nigeria did not elect those currently at the helm of affairs with a mandate to give them a new Constitution. Rather they were to rule on the basis of the 1999 Constitution, which by all accounts is today a discredited document. Nigerians desire a total replacement of that Constitution with a popular Constitution, conceived, debated and adopted by all Nigerians through a National Conference and a referendum.”
He canvassed fundamental structural rearrangement for the Yoruba to achieve their objectives within the national setting. He spoke frankly: “The six zones, which have received partial constitutional recognition should become full-fledged units of government, standing below the Federal Government from which they would take on many matters now placed on the federal list. In other words the zonal (Regional) Government should now become the focus of power, with the Federal Government only vested with a few functions and such powers as would enable it to conduct defence and foreign affairs as well as coordinate the national economy.
“The Yoruba must be resolute in demanding these arrangements, which would bring all the states with Yoruba population together under one regional or zonal government. They should vigorously canvass for true federalism, democracy, justice, resource control, rapid economic development, social welfare, and the pursuit of peace and harmony through religious tolerance and inter-ethnic understanding and cooperation.
“With this constitutional arrangement in place, the Yoruba area would become a formidable and autonomous entity in Nigeria just as California is to the United State, Bavaria to Germany, New South Wales to Australia and Ontario to Canada: strong and self reliant.”
The platform might not have resolved pending problems plaguing the Yoruba nation, but it has managed to call to sharp focus what must be done. The people can now wait for the Akogun Alabi panel to turn in its recommendation in order to move forward. The fact that traditional rulers and non politicians are involved in the effort can only portend good for the Yoruba, a people who were once clearly in the lead and are currently being threatened with relegation.
