Opeyemi Oniya, Snr

By Opeyemi Oniya, Snr.

““He who has no sin, let him cast the first stone”
It is therefore not the purpose of this essay to demonize or sanctify either of the two prominent Yoruba sons who have declared interest in occupying Aso Rock post Mohammadu Buhari. While neither is the devil incarnate, we may as well say, with certainty, that both (like all Nigerian politicians), deserve no halo over their heads.

More importantly, we, The Yoruba, are in familiar territory. We are busy tearing at each other while the northern puppet master pulls the strings.
The conqueror’s belief that Nigeria is their conquered territory is on. The discerning of the Yoruba centra gravitatis and striking forcefully against it is on. It is a grand, time tested and efficient strategy – that of neutralizing the The Yoruba’s center of political gravity. A Tinubu and Osinbajo unity represents that centre in APC and on the journey to 2023. Those who are discerning enough understand that the north (a euphemism for the Fulani oligarchy), will characteristically not let that unity stand. Hence, we are where we are today. The centrepoint of Yoruba political unity has been attacked, and the whole structure of a credible Yoruba challenge to northern choke hold of Nigeria is again set to collapse.

The modern Fulani oligarchy is powering on to Abacha’s raw deployment of total power and the refined Ibrahim Babangida’s seemingly uncanny knowledge of the Nigerian socio-political terrain. From Alimi to Buhari, and from Afonja to Tinubu, the script is the same: tactical stabilization, treachery, deceit and bait-dangling.

In its Afonja deceit, and with the emasculation of its Yoruba apologists, the oligarchy continues to stride all over as if The Yoruba do not matter. Do The Yoruba really matter? As in Ola Rotimi’s Kurumi, the baboon cannot see the ugliness of his own buttocks. We must, need fully, take a look at our buttocks and have a rational discussion of the way forward. Why?

The rose-colored diadem of a possible Osinbajo presidency is therefore a Greek gift of a Trojan horse. The people that scuttled Awolowo and Abiola have now brought us a Yoruba man who held power at the center but ran in the opposite direction to his people. The truism is that strong, visionary, viable and independent Yoruba candidates, Awolowo, Abiola (and now Tinubu) are usually rejected by the Northwest power dynasty.

Earlier, the geo-political mores was the destabilization and break-up of Western Nigeria. And the tool in accomplishing their grand design was facilitated by the NNDP group. The benefits that accrued to the Yoruba collective, unlike the Awolowo years, were – ‘imudunmudun’ (renumerations) – for individuals, and not for the collective Yoruba nation. The Nigerian political economy is an amalgam of visionless conqueror suzerainty and a mix of unstainable state capitalism. In the so-called free markets of enormous economic distortions, of multiple exchange rates, subsides and rent collection, all the power to dole out or to withhold resides in the north.

While one acknowledges the uncanny tenacity of the Northwest to power, Nigeria’s power center remains the Southwest. The problem of lack of the presence of power in the Southwest is primarily due to the diabolical machinations of the Yoruba themselves. Pray, we have a Yoruba vice President now as a presidential contender sponsored by the cabal? Abi, no?

The Yoruba intelligentsia continues to conflate the presence of power, (one with the lever on the instruments of the state’s monopoly of violence), with the the symbolic occupation of constitutional offices.
What has the West gained in its collaboration (with the North) within the context of the so much talked about need for Yoruba support? What has been the Yoruba experience that we know, and the antecedence of contemporary Yoruba Nigerian experience and knowledge?

One cannot but emphasise though that while the north designs the road map for Yoruba emasculation, we, The Yoruba have always done the hands-on job of self-immolation.
Post the 1940s, the Yorubas were the pace setters in human, societal and political development in Nigeria. And post 1966, we were the King Makers of political power at the center. The key players in the enthronement and assertion of Northwest power were Yoruba – Sowemimo, Majekodunmi, Adetokunbo Ademola, Awolowo (with Gowon), Akinjide, Fatai Williams, Adekunle (black scorpion), Abiola, Obasanjo and Obasanjo (at Supreme Headquarters, Head of State and president), Shonekan, Tinubu, etc. And what did, or have these key players got for the Yoruba nation and Yoruba people in return for playing the master’s game and getting personally wealthy?
Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

It is in the light of the foregoing that we must ask: What does an Osinbajo declaration portend for 2023 and the Yoruba nation? The problem it presents is beyond the betrayal of Tinubu as is being erroneously portrayed. It is rather dislocation of the Yoruba trajectory of pathway to Aso Rock. A house divided against itself is once more set to fall all because The Vice President has listened to the whisperings of the masters of divide and conquer.

The Yoruba has always been the problem of the Yoruba. Remember Alaafin Abiọdun and Baṣọrun Gaa, Yoruba-Egba declared independence under Lisabi against Oyo; the rivalry between Arẹ Ọna Kankanfo Afọnja and Alaafin Aolẹ. All opened the gateway for the fall of Oyo empire, and to the Fulani domination of Ilorin. The spoilers of Yoruba integration and homogenous nationhood have always been fellow Yoruba.
The post 1940s continued advancement of the Yoruba was short-circuited by Akintola and his ilk. Awolowo and many Yoruba leaders were delivered to the powers that be in the treason trials by the Yoruba. And post 1966, the actors that delivered power to the Northwest power dynasty were Yoruba – Akinjide, Fatai Williams (12 two thirds), and Obasanjo (the best man doesn’t have to win). And, in recent time, Tinubu.

In all of these, particularly during Buhari-Tinubu 2015 bromance, was there a presumption that the emerging APC’s power dynamic would be the creation and cultivation of a synergy of what some were putting forward as a new Northwest-Southwest dynamic? Was there an expectation of an Odua/Arewa geo-political-developmental complex with Tinubu as the Yoruba arrowhead?
Even if it was unwritten, this was the vision following Tinubu’s acquiescence to Buhari’s Jonathan “overthrow”. But the leopard will not change its spots! Soon after cornering power, the house of Fodio came out with the Sicilian Defense move!! (The Sicilian move is an effective chess opening with a strategic defense advantage, while denying the opposition the usual benefits of an opening move. A very aggressive defense move staking claim to the center).

The rose-colored diadem of a possible Osinbajo presidency is therefore a probable Greek gift of a Trojan horse. The people that scuttled Awolowo and Abiola have now brought us a Yoruba man who held power at the center but ran in the opposite direction to his people. The truism is that strong, visionary, viable and independent Yoruba candidates, Awolowo, Abiola (and now Tinubu) are usually rejected by the Northwest power dynasty.

How organic is Osinbajo’s candidacy to a new Nigerian geopolitics anchored on the greatest good for the greatest number of the people? Is it not merely a recalibration of continued Northwest hegemony over the Nigerian political space? It is, I daresay, merely new wine in the same old bottle and the voice of Jacob with Esau’s hand.

For now, the baboon must be able to see the ugliness of his own buttocks and be pragmatic about it. For once again, through the machinations of the “owners of Nigeria”, the King Makers and the power players at the center, the Yoruba remain a naked people in the dynamics of Nigerian geo-politics. Go figure!

Opeyemi Oniya, Sr – teaches Biology/ Microbiology in the US.
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