By Kayode Emola
Some few weeks we heard from the former Nigerian Diplomat Chief Emeka Anyaoku patriotically narrating how he believes Nigeria can still be salvaged. In his efforts to salvage Nigeria, He stated that their newly formed group of Patriotic Nigeria has tabled a motion before President Bola Tinubu to convene a conference of Constituents Assembly to review the Nigerian Constitution and to allow for a referendum on the new constitutions.
While the efforts of the patriots are laudable, their suggestion is at the same time laughable, not because their proposal is not good but because Nigeria has gone beyond redemption. To think that Nigeria can ever recover from its current situation of hopelessness with these current crops of scavengers called politicians is nothing but a pipe dream.
Chief Anyaoku’s proposal of nominating 3 people from each state to form that Assembly to look into the constitution beats my imagination as to why we have the House of Representatives. The current Federal House of Representatives has 3 members from each state already. If since 1999 Nigerians have been electing 3 people from each state to the House of Representatives on a faulty constitution and they still haven’t sorted out the constitution, I don’t think there is hope for the country. It shows the dire situation we are in as a country and if care is not taken, it will blow up unexpectedly in all of our faces.
Over the last 2 weeks, the Nigerian government have been on the international news for the wrong reasons. The Nigerian government properties around the world are now at risk of seizure due to a business transaction gone wrong. As we speak now, a French court has seized three jets owned by the Nigerian government for Zhongshan Fucheng.
Two of the Nigerian government properties in Liverpool were also recently seized by a UK court and are being advertised on eBay. On 9 August, the US courts of appeals ruled that Zhongshan could proceed with its efforts to confiscate Nigeria’s assets abroad rejecting Nigeria’s defence of “Sovereign immunity”.
Over the years, Nigeria has always ignored local and international laws to its detriment and that of its citizens thinking it is above the law. This time around it did not work in their favour and has boomerang to hurt the country’s image globally. The mere fact that this contract was awarded in 2007 and after 16 years there is nothing to show for it other than this whole charade that has obviously gone wrong begs many answers to a list of unending questions.
All these nonchalant acts with the rule of law are definitely going to cost the Nigerian government and by extension we the Yoruba people who have refused to force our representatives to call time with Nigeria. The mere fact that we allow them to use our name to perpetrate this impunity shows that we condone their abhorrent behaviour to the rule of law.
For us as Yoruba, we will continue to be a part of these international humiliations so long as we remain in Nigeria. The onus is on us to force the Nigerian government to give us our own independent country through our relentless demand for our own sovereign nation. We must not let them find it too easy to continue this brazen disregard for the rule of law as it will not bode well both for us as individuals and our collective as a country.
The Yoruba nation is capable of handling its own affairs and we should be able to do better than the Nigerian government. The Zhongshan saga is just one in a series of saga plaguing the nation. Chief Anyaoku’s proposal with his new patriotic group for Nigeria’s unity is no solution for the Nigerian country.
As Chief Anyaoku rightly noted, Nigeria is heading the way of countries like Yugoslavia which couldn’t manage their federalism and eventually had to split. Anyone thinking they can still salvage Nigeria by one proposal or the other is just wasting their and our time.
President Tinubu stated that he inherited nothing but massive debt upon his assumption of office. His predecessor also said the same thing, likewise their former predecessors and I guarantee you, that is what any successive government will continue to tell us until we decide that enough is enough.
If we do not think it’s worth fighting for our freedom now, I believe it is worth fighting for the freedom of those who are coming after us. We must not allow our Yoruba nation to die in the hands of Nigeria which has nothing to offer us. Rather we should save the future of those who will inherit the land after us.
I call on every patriotic Yoruba son and daughter all over the world to know that we have had more than enough humiliations in the hands of Nigeria. It is high time we left this contraption called Nigeria to build a glorious future. A future that our children and those after them can be proud of. It can only happen if we decide to act, and I call on all of us to take that action now.
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