By Kayode Emola

In our chaotic world, it is very easy to forget one another due to the constant demands of the precious little time we have. It was in the year 2020 that I first encountered our illustrious Yoruba daughter. It was a meeting organised by the then Yoruba World Congress UK with a group of professionals that eventually became the Yoruba Global Directorate.

Barrister Janet was among the 4 delegates from the Global Directorate who met with our team of 5 from YWC UK. Although that meeting didn’t go down well, Barrister Janet and Barr Taiwo Odumosu requested a follow-up meeting, which has never happened until this day.

Barrister Janet and her team went on to form what we now know as the Yoruba Global Directorate and YWC UK is nothing to write home about. However, one of the fascinating things about Barrister Janet is that she is not a quitter. She is a fighter and that is what she did until she took her final breath on Saturday 14, September 2024.

When the meeting between her team and the YWC UK didn’t go as planned, she didn’t buckle. She and her team went ahead to create the Global Directorate and she was very prominent in their Saturday’s weekly meeting until she eventually left the Global Directorate.

After leaving the Global Directorate, she formed many small groups that accomplished unspeakable feats. Prominent of them was the Interfaith group that brought three major religious groups (Christians, Muslims, and Yoruba Traditional Worshipers) under one roof to pray. This has never happened in the history of our people as Yoruba, even though we are well known for our religious tolerance.

This interfaith group which still thrives till date was able to achieve a lot together. The group was established in 2021 after Chief Sunday Igboho was arrested in Cotonou. The group met constantly to pray for God’s intervention and Chief Igboho’s early release. God attended to the prayers of the Yoruba people by ensuring that Chief Igboho was released from prison into house arrest before his eventual release.

Barrister Janet didn’t rest on her laurels after Chief Igboho was released from prison. She went on to successfully create her oko etile farming project which has revolutionise home farming in our Yoruba communities. She pursued this vision passionately and will constantly share the successes of the farming project on social media encouraging others to join the train.

Aside from being a Barrister of law, she completed a nursing degree back home in Nigeria and in the United Kingdom before relocating to the USA. Her background in the health sector is demonstrated in her charitable works as she never misses an opportunity to bless the lives of those that she encounters.

Barrister Janet is an embodiment of compassion and she radiates the light of God that shines brightly for all to see. Her departure from this life will be sorely missed not just by her immediate family but by the entire Yoruba nation struggle. Barrister Janet still has a lot to offer our Yoruba nation struggle but her passing has made those contributions fade away into the skies.

By the time we come to raise our Yoruba flag to which Barrister Janet composed a very beautiful song, I hope and pray that she and many others that has passed away will not be forgotten. The labour of our heroin Janet will never be in vain and her contributions to our struggle will continue to be in our hearts.

For those of us who are still around, this is the time to start making a positive impact and more so on our Yoruba nation’s struggle. The time is now to liberate our people from the bondage called Nigeria. Let us all join our strength together for this noble cause so that we can bring about the positive change we want to see in our society.

By Kayode Emola

When the quest for an independent Yoruba nation took off fully in 2018, the focus was to begin a grassroots mass awareness and mobilisation. In early 2020 the decision was taken to stage a worldwide protest across the globe on 1st October which was supposed to be an Independence Day celebration for Nigeria. Every Yoruba son and daughter at home and in the diaspora was expected to come out for that protest to drive home our demand for a sovereign Yoruba nation.

Unfortunately, Covid-19 happened and this dream was scuppered as many nations were on lockdown due to the spread of the infectious disease. However, Yoruba people in the UK and some other European countries like Italy, Germany, and France were not deterred and went ahead with the protest rally. This made our demand resonate with the international community about the plight of our people back home under the oppressive Nigerian regime.

Whilst many of our brethren at home did not turn up for the rally, one particular person of note who held a mini rally around his Ibadan residence was Chief Sunday Adeyemo, popularly known as Sunday Igboho. This mini-rally encouraged many of our people back home to identify with our struggle and gave the Buhari government a run for its money.

Today, the UK team of the self-determination struggle has rekindled the flame of the international campaign with the support and presence of Chief Sunday Adeyemo live in London. The presence of Sunday Igboho will no doubt encourage a lot of our people whose hearts are dampened regarding self-determination and the continued deterioration of the Nigerian economy.

It is now expected that our people all over the world will see this rekindled flame of our campaign as the dawn of a new era. We need to use this opportunity of the Yoruba nation campaign in London to rally our people at home, in other countries in Europe, and on other continents to begin to organise massive campaign rallies wherever they are in the world.

They need to take our message of Yoruba exit under the Nigerian government control to the leaders of their countries of residence just like the UK delegation did. The UK delegation in the company of Chief Sunday Adeyemo was able to deliver the self-determination struggle letter of exit to the British Prime Minister Sir Keir Stammer in his official residence at 10 Downing Street.

This is a remarkable step in the right direction for our self-determination struggle as we engage positively with friendly nations in the world. We need to mobilise as many leaders as possible around the world that would be sympathetic to the plight of our people in Nigeria to act to pressure the Nigerian government on our quest for self-determination.

With the dwindling economic fortunes of Nigeria, it is best that we get as much support possible, that we can receive around the world during this stage of our struggle. This will place us in a better position to achieve greatness within the shortest possible time as many countries will be open to doing business with our new independent Yoruba nation.

I urge our Yoruba people especially those at home in Yorubaland to see the UK rally as an opportunity to begin a wholesale campaign at home for our sovereign nation. We need to get our traditional rulers and those occupying political positions to understand that the wish of the majority of our people now is nothing other than a peaceful separation from Nigeria.

It will be better if the Nigerian government will do the right thing while there is still time. Failure to act now when there is still the opportunity for dialogue may later be regretted if Nigeria were to descend into chaos and anarchy. I hope and pray that we will not be dragged into that situation by circumstances that are beyond our control, especially with the ongoing militancy in the southeastern region of Nigeria.

By Kayode Emola

Many of us knew that if a Yoruba man were to become the President of Nigeria, the number of our people crying for their own Yoruba country will begin to dwindle as people begin to sing another song. It wasn’t long after President Bola Tinubu was sworn in as Nigeria’s president that all sorts of idea about how Nigeria can be great again began to fly in different directions.

Even now, with the collapse of the Nigerian economy, many of our people still believe that Nigeria can work. It is either they are deluded or they never believed in what an independent Yoruba nation has to offer.

My fear is not what will happen if we were to get our Yoruba nation; but rather what we will do with our Yoruba nation when we eventually get it with such people who never stood for anything. As things stand, many of us professing Yoruba nation have no vision for the Yoruba nation other than the position or status it will bring to them.

This is a serious problem that needs to be addressed before we even begin to talk about Yoruba nation and what type of nation it will be. We’ve allowed our blind love for Yoruba nation to lead us to the point where anything goes. This attitude that destroyed the Nigeria we are trying to escape is yet very prevalent among our rank and file; making it difficult to see how we can build a successful nation on these faulty foundations.

I don’t know if it is the Nigerian mentality that has eroded our morals or it is now an inbuilt culture which we must embrace for lack of escape. If we continue on this trajectory, Nigeria will seem like child’s play compared to the tribulations we would face in our Yoruba nation.

The plight of the matter is that many of us who live outside the shores of Nigeria and who have experienced life in civilised culture are no better than those in Yorubaland. Our exposure to better system of government has not inspired us as to what we hope to bring to the development of our land and people. We tend to think that getting Yoruba nation is an opportunity to become famous through the position that it affords.

My advice to those of us serious about the liberation of our people is to make clear what the vision we have for the new country are. Like our late SAGE, Obafemi Awolowo, who had a vision for Yorubaland and when the opportunity came, didn’t waste time on frivolities. He went straight into accomplishing the tasks he set for himself thereby bringing enormous development to the lives and livelihood of our people.

The time has now come for us to get rid of these professional profiteers among us, who are inglorious praise singers of politicians when it pleases them. They neither see nor hear evil and are insensitive to the sufferings of our people. Their mission is simple, be at the centre of attraction all the time because at one point or another they will benefit from whatever Yoruba nation has to offer.

We can see that Nigeria is headed nowhere and we who have vision for a glorious Yoruba nation must stand firm in our belief. We must never succumb to those who have nothing to offer other than seeking to fulfil their own self-interests.

Our struggle today is in comatose, because some of these self-serving parties have now risen to the position of the decision makers. Many of those who previously aligned with us are now singing the praises of the Yoruba/Nigerian politicians who have nothing to offer Yoruba nation.

Therefore, the time has come for a reset, for us to take stock of where we are and where we are going. The journey to nationhood is not one that can be attained by taking shortcuts to victory. It is a journey that must be meticulously planned and perfectly executed to achieve the maximum benefit that our people deserve.

There is now a lot of heavy lifting to do, as we need to define what the vision for Yoruba nation will be. This will ensure that when the independence finally comes, those people who have no idea of what nationhood is are not given the opportunity to derail the progress of the new country for their own personal gain.