By Kayode Emola
The wise king Solomon wrote in Proverbs 24 that “if you faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small”. Definitely, if a student has not prepared properly for an exam, then failure is inevitable. We had promised a new dawn for our Yoruba people this year 2022 and unfortunately, it seems what we have succeeded in delivering is nothing but chaos and more confusion. Does that mean our strength was small or that some people were really sent to derail our forward trajectory?
We started the year 2022 on a high note, and a lot of our folks were convinced that Yoruba nation is possible before the end of the year. However, we allowed ourselves to be carried away by sweet talks and empty promises without substance from people who meant no good to our struggle. This hindered those who were well-equipped to move this project forward, eventually causing the work to stall or even retrogressed in some instances.
I felt really sad when it became obvious that the Yoruba sovereign nation final push was going to be put on hold in the last minute, not because our strength was small but because one individual was determined to cause our people a lot of pain. We have set at the beginning of the Yoruba sovereign nation campaign to pursue it with all sense of responsibility, dignity, and integrity. However, when someone took it upon themselves to abrogate power that was not vested in them in order to cause a lot of damage, there was no alternative than to take a pause. It was inevitable that if this was not sorted out, we risked the chance of scuttling the whole project altogether.
I must say, however, that the Yoruba nation struggle is in a good shape and we are hopefully going to achieve our sovereign nation sooner than we would anticipate. I would only urge our people to remain resolute in their determination to achieve their own independent Yoruba nation. For if we don’t, the alternatives are very dire and one to be only imagined and not prayed to experience.
A note of caution to our leaders would be to stop any form of suggestive timetable in achieving our Yoruba sovereign nation. All this does is to slow down the work, as people are bogged down on a particular date that this must happen. The lifespan of a nation far surpasses anyone or even several generations. It would therefore be injurious for any one person to think of the project as their individual assignment.
The granting of a nation is in the hands of Olodumare, and He has graciously given us our land and its people. I know that He would preserve us in the space that He has provided for us and those of us who want to force the hands of God to act on our own timetable are completely missing the point.
It is a shame that someone who only arrived on the scene just recently believes that the struggle was all about them. The struggle is not all about any particular person, therefore, if we must get to the finish line, we must understand that it is a relay. In a relay, if the baton has not been passed to you, then you don’t leave your spot, otherwise, you will jeopardise the chances of your team winning the race. However, very few people do not understand this and started running ahead of themselves, thereby lengthening our journey for freedom.
My appeal to our Yoruba people is not to give up on the struggle as it is very easy to throw everything away and move on as a lot of people have already done. However, if someone like Prof. Banji Akintoye can still be standing and fighting, I believe we the youths have no excuse not to stand up and fight for our God-given land. It is ours and we must fight for it, no matter what
As we move into 2023, I want us to move with a renewed sense of responsibility to our Yoruba nation. We must call out those who stand to derail our journey quickly and support those who are helping to lift the hands of our leaders. Every one of us has a duty and role to play and if we just play our role, then we will get to our destination sooner rather than later.
I use this medium to wish our people a happy new year 2023 and pray that the good Lord will in His infinite mercy grant us our heart’s desire for a new nation, where justice and equity shall prevail.
