By Kayode Emola
Many Yoruba people especially those born in this 21st century have not caught up with who we truly are and until we reawaken the exploits of our forebears, these achievements may be lost in history. Most of them would have heard of Oduduwa and few would know Oranmiyan but not many would know what these Yoruba greats went on to achieve.
Legends have it that Oranmiyan existed around the 9th century A.D and was the last born of Oduduwa. The greatness of this humble son of Oduduwa continues to be a part of us till today and if exploited can rekindle the flames of greatness we Yoruba enjoyed for many generations.
The story of Oranmiyan goes thus: The Edo people believe that Oduduwa is the right heir to the throne of their land formerly known as Igodomigodo. After a very long interregnum, the Edo people approached Oduduwa to come and take the throne and rule them. As Oduduwa was an established king in Ife, he asked his son Oranmiyan to go and rule the Edo people.
When Oranmiyan got to Edo, he managed to rule Edo for several years, but the Edo people never truly accepted him as their king as he was not born in Edo which is against their culture and tradition. Fortunately for Oranmiyan who had an Edo wife at the time gave birth to a son called Eweka who would go on to be the substantive king of Edo. His descendants’ seats on the Benin throne till date. However, this episode of how Oranmiyan wasn’t accepted by the Edo people to be their king made him call the place Ulè Ubinù (land of angry people corrupted to Bini or Benin as we know it today.
Oranmiyan who didn’t want to go back home to Ile-Ife sojourned North-Eastwards of the Yorubaland to Oyo-Ile, present day Ilorin to build what was the most vibrant and most successful empire in Yorubaland and indeed Africa at the time. He became the first Ala-afin of the Oyo empire before Afonja lost the empire to Alimi the Fulani trickster who usurped power from him forcing the remnant of the kingdom out of Oyo-Ile to its present-day location in Ibadan but that is a story for another day.
Having ruled the Oyo empire for several decades and upon the death of his father Oduduwa, Oranmiyan was called to settle the family dispute in Ife and to become the new Olofin of Ife as it was referred to back then (now known as Ooni of Ife today). Thus, Oranmiyan is the only person in history in Africa who successfully led 3 major kingdoms that still exists till today. Not even his own father achieved this feat.
The story of Oranmiyan shows nobility and what Yoruba can achieve if we set our minds to it. When the European imperialists came to Yorubaland, we were already a successful people who took pride in our culture and tradition. However, our brains have now been brainwashed to feel inferior to these European slavers who took everything from us and gave us nothing but misery in return.
Knowing fully well, that they can never truly conquer us except they corrupt our system, the Europeans merged us with our neighbours on the north and on the east whose ways of life are completely different from ours. They ignored our tradition and followed the greed of their heart which was only interested in our natural resources and God-given wealth.
It is the reason why we Yoruba must be resolute in dissociating ourselves for Nigeria as quickly as possible to build a strong and stable country of our own. A country where birds will sing as birds and the vulnerable will have their rights protected in the laws of the land.
At the forefront of this struggle lies the Yoruba Self-Determination Movement (YSDM) that has taken the baton of liberating our people from this perpetual slavery we find ourselves in Nigeria, unbeknown to most of our people. Despite the many attacks on this baby organisation that was formed in 2021 out of love for our people, it has continued to flourish and ready to face the challenges that lie ahead.
In its quest to energise our youths and to galvanise support for the struggle, the YSDM is currently undergoing a structural revamping which will bring our message to the grassroots. As this are the people who ultimately matters as they are the ones bearing the brunt of the Nigerian misrule of over 100 years.
The YSDM is also calling on genuine Yoruba who truly believe in the struggle for liberation to support its quests both financially and materially. Rising from an emergency council meeting on 13th March 2024, the Chairman Emeritus Prof. Banji Akintoye urged every Yoruba citizen to support the Oranmiyan-10 initiative which he hoped to raise funds for the activities of the organisation.
Whilst many nay-sayers will question the rationale for this initiative, I believe this is a golden opportunity to rally round our grassroots to get support for the movement. The Oranmiyan-10 initiative is only asking for ten units of the currency where we are domiciled into the central fund. This fund is dedicated to the rebuilding of our Yoruba land that is nearly turning into a wasteland by the forced emigration of our people en-mass from their ancestral home.
It is very easy to criticise, but I urge those who want to criticise to come up with a viable alternative. Many of them would ask us to call on the wealthiest amongst us for generous donation, but I will challenge them to put this together and see how many will respond. The freedom of a nation doesn’t have to lie in the hands of few powerful elite.
Afterall, as much as Nehemiah received from the king of Babylon, very many Israelites contributed their personal time and resources into rebuilding the temple walls of Jerusalem. Let us as Yoruba come together to support this Oranmiyan-10 initiative and to provide positive criticism where necessary and help to scrutinise how these resources will be allocated to ensure our people at the grassroots level are benefitting from it.
I know it may be tempting to label this initiative another gimmick to syphon resources from the Yoruba people. Let us remember that many establish nations also face periods in their existence where resources have been misappropriated, this has not caused the citizens to stop paying their taxes that go on to provide necessities for its citizens.
For instance, the US government spent over $1trn during the covid-19 pandemic half of which was misappropriated, that has not stopped their citizens from paying their taxes. Likewise, the UK spent over £400bn, most of which were misappropriated and that has not stopped the UK citizens from paying their taxes.
If we learn to support little initiatives like this that are designed by leaders of the struggle to help better the lives of many of our people without it inflicting maximum damage to our pockets but capable of transforming the lives of many. I believe we will achieve our Yoruba nation sooner rather than later.
One of our limiting factors in this struggle has been our limited resources. If we focused more on contributing our widow’s mite rather than endless meeting and criticism, we may be able to achieve something tangible in a short space of time. I therefore urge our people to be more generous in their heart to warm up to this initiative of Oranmiyan-10 that is capable of delivering the expected result of a Yoruba nation sooner rather than later.
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