By Kayode Emola
Special Credit: Dr. Bethan Emola
As we near our destination of a sovereign Yoruba nation, there will be those who would seek to see it all come to nothing. Such detractors may pose as friends of the struggle whilst secretly having their own concealed agenda. Our final instalment of the series on Nehemiah considers how to deal with such opposition, both overt and covert.
Just as Nehemiah and Ezra answered the call to restore the walls and the Temple in Jerusalem, several personalities have risen to champion the cause of our people. They are advocating for the Yoruba nation to once again be granted sovereignty and allowed to determine their own future. And just as Nehemiah faced opposition, so do we, as we strive to secure our independence.
In the instance of Nehemiah, he faced opposition in the form of Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite. It is worth noting that both the Horonites, from Samaria (in the modern-day West Bank region of Palestine), and the Ammonites, from Ammon (now part of present-day Jordan), had a vested interest in the perpetual oppression of the Israelites, as both historically had antagonistic relationships with the nation of Israel.
Initially, Sanballat and Tobiah treated Nehemiah’s project as laughable, without any real chance of success. Although angered by the project, their first attack came in the form of ridicule. They launched a personal strike against Nehemiah, even accusing him of treason. Nehemiah responded by pointing out that, as they are not from Israel, this has nothing to do with them, so why should they be bothered about it?
When opponents of our cause launch attacks against our person, it can slice deep and trigger a desire to defend ourselves, to protect our reputation. This is a diversionary tactic, designed to distract us from the real work at hand. When our attention is directed toward these vain arguments, we are no longer working towards the bigger goal, and so progressed can be slowed, or even stopped completely. It is better not to engage, to simply tell such people that this is our work, we are not requiring anything of them, and so it is none of their business.
When ridiculing Nehemiah personally failed to discourage him, Tobiah and Sanballat mocked the Jewish people as a whole, taunting them that their efforts would be futile, that their mission was impossible. Nehemiah did not rise to their bait, becoming entangled in a fruitless war of words that would have drawn him away from the work at hand. Instead, having already answered them the first time, he did not reply again, and simply continued with the work at hand.
We would be wise to take our lead from his response. When those who seek to antagonise us get no further reaction, and see that instead, we apply ourselves all the more wholeheartedly to the work at hand, they will cease their mocking.
When Sanballat and Tobiah saw that they could not use their words to bring down the Jewish people, they decided to take physical action to stop the rebuilding. Nehemiah prayed to God for protection, but, pertinently, did not just pray without action. He took all possible steps to protect and defend the people. He assessed where the weakest points of the work were situated and reinforced them with extra guards. Then he organised teams, half of the men continuing with the work whilst the other half protected them. Even the half that were building kept a weapon in one of their hands whilst working on the walls with the other.
Nehemiah was not complacent or lax in his defence of the project, and neither must we be. For those of us who ascribe to a religion, of course it is good to pray, but we must also take decisive action. We must anticipate our enemies’ plans, and take pre-emptive steps to guard ourselves against them. We must not drop our guard at any point, not when we are tired, nor when we think that we are safe. But we must be ready to defend ourselves at any and every given moment. It is true that this will occupy some of our resources, and this be perceived as hindering the speed of the work, but it is better to continue slowly but consistently towards our goal, than to be forcefully halted entirely.
Tobiah and Sanballat, finding their schemes once again frustrated, next tried to derail the project by guile. They invited Nehemiah to meet with them, perhaps under the guise of seeking resolution. Nehemiah was wise enough to discern that this was a trap, but also humble enough to recognise that his place was alongside all the other Jews, working on rebuilding. Although he was the convener of the building effort, he did not consider himself above doing the physical work as well.
His enemies sent the same message to him four times, and each time Nehemiah sent them back the same answer. He did not let them wear him down or distract his eyes from staying focused at all times on the end goal and so it must be with us. We must be wise and, on our guard, to recognise when those who are not part of our struggle are actually seeking to hinder it. And when we identify such plots, we must not allow ourselves to become wearied or disheartened by their repeated attempts to distract us.
We Yoruba must, as a matter of urgency, realise that each of us needs to be a watch(wo)men, remaining vigilant at all times. The people of Judah did not lose sight of their goal, even when they were tired or overwhelmed by the enormous task before them. I want to urge our Yoruba patriots that this is not the time to relent in our quest for our sovereign nation, and it is certainly not the time to give up. We are within touching distance of victory; if we all pool our resources together, we will see our end realised.
There will be times when those among us become weary, asking if there is an alternative to an independent Yoruba nation, asking whether perhaps settling for a regional Yoruba government within Nigeria could be an acceptable compromise. This is not dissimilar to that which the advocates of restructuring are campaigning for. However, this fails to address the problem of multi-tier citizenship, where the elite are viewed as being superior, above the law and entitled to the country’s riches, whilst everyone else receives only the dregs.
The days of thinking that Nigeria can possibly work are now long gone. Nigeria has passed the point of no return; no Messiah can redeem this dying country. Despite the enormous annual deficit in our budget, the government still has the audacity to borrow N4 trillion for oil subsidy. This portends that worse dangers await on the horizon if we fail to act decisively. We must realise that elections are just a distraction from the real issues. Those that would seek to have us believe that a change in political leadership is the answer are doing so as a diversionary tactic, to draw us away from the effort for independence.
The Jewish people did not relent in their effort to rebuild the broken walls of Jerusalem, neither did Nehemiah attend to his detractors’ call for a private meeting. We, too, must not give ear to anyone trying to distract our eyes from the main focus. We should continue to build, using our previous successes to become the foundations for ongoing work, whilst at the same time remaining vigilant to ward off those who seek to do us harm. The only viable solution is total separation from Nigeria, and the time for the realisation of an independent Yoruba nation is now. Yoruba nation is our only solution out of the current mess we have find ourselves, so it is our duty to fight for it with everything that we have.
