By Kayode Emola
Prior to last year’s election, Yoruba people, both at home and in diaspora, had been wondering what spell was cast upon our Obas, that they would tolerate Buhari’s misrule for almost eight years. They seemed unperturbed by the indiscriminate killing of their subjects, with none of them batting an eye.
I began to wonder if there were any Obas left in Yorubaland ready to fight the cause of the Yoruba people they profess to be serving. In the face of their apparent silence, I made inquiries to ascertain the number of Obas remaining in Yorubaland.
Believe it or not, there are over 900 Obas in Yorubaland, a figure that surpasses the 650 Members of the UK Parliament or the 360 members of the Nigerian House of Representatives. Yet our people are being killed by Fulani terrorists in our own ancestral forests with nothing to deter or curb the atrocities. It was as if our Obas, by their deafening silence, acquiesced to our people being killed.
The question on many lips was, “What on earth is the meaning of this eery silence from those who should know better?” – a question no one seemed able to answer. The truth: our Obas have been reduced to commoners by the government officials that should have been their servants. Many of them are even lower in rank than the local government chairmen – causing them to feel very helpless.
Further investigation and a series of private meetings revealed that a lot of our Obas, in one way or another, had knowingly or unknowingly been supporting the killings. Some had sold community land to the Fulani, who had used this to prevent farmers from accessing their farmlands. Others, unable to stomach the idea of selling their land, instead employed the Fulani to tend their herds. In this context, it is no wonder that the herders felt emboldened to attack innocent farmers without risk of repercussions.
The Fulani have not hidden their intention to conquer the whole of Nigeria, following their belief that our land was gifted by Allah to their forefather, Uthman Dan Fodio. Yet our Obas seemed comfortable playing with fire in the pursuit of “One Nigeria”.
However, the killing of three Obas in Kwara and Ekiti this year seems to have finally got the Obas’ attention. The message was loud and clear: the Fulani are here, they are here to kill and to destroy, just as their agenda has always been, dating back to the seventeenth century.
It is unfortunate that it took three Obas losing their lives for our traditional rulers to finally hear what advocates of Yoruba nation have been saying for a long time: that every life is supposed to matter, regardless of whether it is that of a commoner or a royal.
This is hardly rocket science: if the herders can roam our forests with sophisticated assault rifles unchallenged by the national government, it is the duty of our Obas to come together and defend their race. We are the largest ethnic nationality in Africa, and yet unbelievably we’ve been cowed into submission by those who are not worthy of tying our shoelaces.
I hope the Obas’ coming together this week can bear fruit in fighting against the menace of Fulani terrorists throughout our forests. I hope that they are prepared to stand their ground in ensuring that their people are safe, no matter whose ox is gored. If not, their gathering this week would be another exercise in futility, a jamboree for all to see and for the Fulani to revel in.
God has bestowed upon our Obas a huge amount of power to be a force for good, which, if channelled in the right direction, could liberate our people from this ungodly marriage called Nigeria. I sincerely hope that they realise this and accept the mantle that has been accorded them, for if they do, our journey to an independent Yoruba nation will just be a walk in a park, rather than an odious mountain to climb.