By Kayode Emola

Christmas reminds us that the year is ending. Most people even take the time to draw up a long list of New Year resolutions. Whether they follow through with the resolutions or not remains to be seen. This year’s Christmas will not be an exception; many people will look back to the resolutions they made in 2024 and have a deep reflection as to whether it has come to past or not.

As 2025 draws to a close and 2026 stares at us in the face, it is worth looking back to what we have endured as a nation. It is no secret that the Yoruba people are still reeling from the terror years of Mohammed Buhari’s regime. Many had hoped that with a Yoruba person as President, the terror will be a thing of the past.

Alas, it seems as if the terror has breathed a new sigh of relief with Tinubu as President. When Tinubu said in 2023 that he would continue in the legacy of his predecessor Buhari; people didn’t fully understand what he meant. Now it is very clear that he was going to sit bye and watch while the terrorists overrun the country just like Buhari did when he was President.

If not, how can the former Governor of Zamfara Bello Matawalle, who is a known sponsor of terrorists be appointed by President Tinubu as the Minister of Defence. This and many other questionable appointments make the Tinubu regime and Nigeria a laughingstock in the international community.

Many people are quick to give Tinubu the benefit of the doubt about his inactions as a President when it comes to tackling terrorism in Nigeria. They forget that the innocent people who lose their lives daily through terrorism cannot regain it ever again.

It only took the threat of an invasion from President Trump for the Nigerian government to begin to act to defend its own citizens. Some were even bold to say that the terrorists were not only killing Christians as if the killing of innocent civilians and security officers are a new norm to be allowed to fester.

For all intents and purpose, the killing of any person due to no fault of their own is one too many. It is something that needs to be condemned by everyone in the society. We need to become a society of deep thinkers and to be the moral conscience of our people.

The government of Nigeria is not interested in the security and welfare of our people. Therefore, we at the Yoruba Self-Determination struggle need to be at their heels to make sure they do what they’ve been elected to do. Barring any external circumstances, President Tinubu is laying the foundation of his re-election for a second tenure by luring the opposition into his political party. What they do not know is that God in heaven is not sleeping and He alone has the final say.

As we move closer into 2026, we need to make it the year for our declaration of Yoruba sovereignty. If there is any resolution worth taking for our Yoruba people, it would be the freedom from this perpetual bondage we have come to find ourselves in.

I will take this Christmas period to appeal to our people to recognise that Christ agreed to be born into this earth because he wanted us to be freed from Sin. He did not spare His own life for our freedom. If the freedom of mankind was important to our saviour Jesus Christ, it must be our number one priority for our Yoruba nation come 2026. I wish us all a merry Christmas and a prosperous 2026 in advance.

By Kayode Emola

From Venezuela to Nigeria the story seems to be the same when it concerns President Trump. Presently, over fifteen thousand US military personnel are battle ready to take out the Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro who has been given the opportunity of a safe passage to any country of his choice. Whether he will take it or not remains to be seen and what actions the US President will take.

When it comes to that of Nigeria, it will be what Yoruba refer to as “abowaba” (we’ll get back to that) approach President Trump is adopting. It’s more than a month now that President Trump threatened to attack the terrorists in Nigeria. Many people are wondering whether it’s still going to happen or whether this is the end we’ve end of the matter.

The truth of the matter is the US President is not sitting on the hands on this matter. He has appointed US congress men and women to investigate the matter, and this people are working night and day to get to the bottom of the matter. However sceptical some of our people may be about the intervention of the US, one thing is certain, it will surely happen.

What we can’t say is when it will happen and what the consequences or the fall out of the intervention will be. The most interesting thing is that at last, for once the US is alive to its responsibilities as the police of the world.

As for Nicolas Maduro, whether he is removed as President or not will depend on the support he receives from Russia. With the war in Ukraine, I don’t know how much appetite and resources the Russia federation is happy to deploy to save a foreign country. Especially when its own country and military personnel are in the frontline of a war. My guess is that if Russia could not save President Assad of Syria, then the likelihood of saving Nicolas Maduro is very slim.

Concerning we the Yoruba people, there are a lot of things we can begin to do amidst all these ongoing events. First thing we must realise is that it is very evident that there is nothing left to salvage in Nigeria. Even if the US army comes to Nigeria with all the armoury and arsenals they have, if the fundamentals that caused the insecurity is not addressed, the problem is bound to reoccur.

Therefore, as much as the US is wanting to fight terrorism in Nigeria which is a blessing. We Yoruba must realise that except we separate from Nigeria, poverty and terrorism will continue to be the experience for many of our folks. There is hardly any day that goes by without an incident of kidnapping taking place somewhere in Yorubaland.

Many of our folks can no longer travel to Nigeria from abroad without the fear of being kidnapped for ransom or worse still be killed by terrorists roaming our forests. Many are choosing to travel to other parts of Africa for holidays just to avoid going to Nigeria. For those who are brave enough to travel to Nigeria, they must get private security for they and their families protection which is not supposed to be.

How Nigeria allowed terrorism to fester for 15 years without any government intervention to curb it beats my imagination. The same Nigeria government that says it could not fight insecurity, and insurgency had the military personnel and equipment to put out a coup plot in neighbouring Benin Republic.

Therefore, it is evident that the lives and properties of Nigeria do not matter to the government. I will urge our Yoruba people to get themselves together and decide now that the only solution for us is total exit from Nigeria. Anything other than that is just cosmetics that is bound to fade away when tested in heat.

By Kayode Emola

In a few weeks from now, the Tinubu-led administration will unleash a new tax regime on Nigeria, one for which the poor masses are unprepared. Suddenly, people would begin to fear receiving money in their bank accounts in case they get caught up in the tax brouhaha. No doubt, this policy is designed to make Nigerians poorer, thereby worsening the poverty situation in the country.

In all of this, Tinubu, who is nearly three years into his presidency, has not deemed it reasonable to allow Nigerians the opportunity to write a new constitution for themselves. After all, the Americans that we purport to follow have 27 amendments to their constitution and would be ready to alter it again if it failed to meet the expectations of their people.

We know that in over a century since amalgamation, Nigerians have not had the opportunity to choose for themselves how they want to be governed. Nigeria as a country is a forced nation, destined for failure due to the powers that have declined to build a harmonious country. They have instead built a tyranny dependent on brute force to keep the people silenced and staying in line.

However, there comes a time when brute force alone can no longer hold a contrivance like Nigeria together. In fact, when that time comes, it may be the same brute force used to hold the country together that becomes the pivotal element in tearing it apart.

There’s no doubt that Nigeria is going through the most difficult period in its history as a country to date. Every indigenous nation that comprises Nigeria is dissatisfied with the trajectory of the country and wants out. This should have been ringing alarm bells in the ears of the decision-makers, but they are unfazed by the situation due to the tremendous profits they are accumulating from the chaos.

In a country where Christians outnumber Muslims, Sharia and Qu’ran are mentioned in the constitution 73 times, whilst the word ‘Bible’ or ‘Christian’ is not mentioned even once. That this anomaly has gone on for so many years is not only an aberration but a disrespect to the indigenous nationalities that makes up Nigeria.

When the United Nation special rapporteur, Agnes Callamard, visited Nigeria around 2021, she described the Nigeria constitution as a “pressure cooker of internal conflict.” She highlighted these internal conflicts and generalised violence as matters requiring urgent attention.

Seeing how insecurity in the land has taken on an unprecedented dimension, it beats my imagination how President Tinubu missed the opportunity in his day one address to tackle the issues of insecurity and constitution, instead turning his focus on subsidy.

He further compounded the issue by choosing a fellow Muslim to be his vice president, breaking the decades-long practice of having both Christianity and Islam represented within the Presidency and Vice Presidency. The strategy of ensuring both faiths were represented at the highest level was one designed to promote political and religious unity and inclusivity, a tradition that Tinubu swept away in a moment.

If the Nigerian politicians are now feeling the US breathing down their necks to stop these insecurities and the ethnic genocide in Nigeria, I believe their first act should be to dismantle this diabolic document forced upon Nigeria called the ‘1999 Constitution’.

However, the US do not have the mandate to ask Nigeria to change its constitution if we the citizens do not demand such from our government. It is not surprising that Tinubu has not said anything about the constitution, when he stands to gain so much from perpetuating the status quo.

The time is coming when logic and reasoning will fail and the only means by which the country can move forward would be violence. In that time, it won’t matter what the constitution of Nigeria says; the only thing to matter will be the deprivation that the people are experiencing.

I hope our Yoruba people who are close to the president are letting him know that he’s sitting on a keg of gunpowder. Especially since the US are now also involved in demanding justice for the innocent victims of the ethnic genocide in the country.

If Tinubu wants to solve insecurity in the country, the first step is to set up a constitutional review committee. The committee should be given the mandate to create a new constitution for Nigeria that would be acceptable to every section of the country. The new constitution must guarantee the rights of self-determination as enshrined in international law. It must also permit any constituent parts to break away from the country peacefully if they so choose.

Barring that, even if the US were to come into Nigeria with all guns blazing to fight the current insecurity, it would be only a matter of time before it raised its ugly head again. It is better that this matter is settled once and for all so that millions of Nigeria can have the opportunity for a better life.

I urge our Yoruba people to know that all these beautiful proposals are not going to be considered by the government. Therefore, if the Nigerian government will not do the needful, there is no shame in seeking foreign assistance in helping us secure our own independent Yoruba nation.

Ultimately, we are fighting for a future, not only for ourselves and our tribespeople, but for that of our children and our children’s children. With stakes so high, we must take whatever assistance is offered and do so proudly, knowing that we are fighting for the noblest of causes.