By Kayode Emola
A stitch in time saves nine, or so they say, but the issue of Sharia may need timely stitching, or else it may haunt us forever.
When the issue of Sharia was first mooted, back in 2000, many of our people in Southern Nigeria said it was a northern problem, and that we should keep out of it. A year later, Sharia was brought into the 12 core Northern Nigeria states to pacify the inglorious Fulani who are hellbent on subduing the ethnic nationalities in Nigeria.
Whilst we didn’t read any serious meaning into it at the time, hindsight shows that it was the introduction of Sharia law and the Sharia court that gave birth to the deadly Boko Haram group. This group went on to forbid any form of Western education in the Sharia North, and the atrocities that followed from there are evident for the world to see.
Having solidified their system in the north of Nigeria, these intruders have now set their sights on introducing Sharia law across Yorubaland. While many of our people may believe this is an innocent idea, we should make no mistake in thinking this is just about Sharia law. This has nothing to do with morality but is a means of forcing subjugation on a people.
This is why Yoruba must rise to not only condemn this callous act by Northern Nigeria and their Arabian backers but to take decisive action to stamp this idea out once and for all. When their attempts to introduce Sharia into Oyo state, the centre of Yorubaland, failed spectacularly, they moved surreptitiously into the Yoruba hinterlands and peripheral states like Ekiti, Ogun, and Ondo to push their agenda and narrative.
Let us not be fooled that these unscrupulous people and their Yoruba agents are ignorant of the fact that Yoruba has enjoyed religious harmony for millennium. They are peddling their Sharia agenda to hide their ultimate sinister mission of conquest. It is the reason we Yoruba must stand united to resist the Nigerian subjugation of Yorubaland and demand our self-determination with immediate effect.
The time has come for every true Yoruba patriot to see this as a clarion call to act and not just sit on the fence. This is not the time to wish the Sharia law away and think it will die a natural death. It is time to be emphatic about our determination to completely disengage from the Nigerian country.
If not, we will all wake up one day and be like countries around northern Africa that were once liberal but have now lost their land to the Arabians. This is not a time to say God forbid but a time to act and the only action that can save us from this impending doom is for Yoruba to get out of Nigeria as quickly as possible.
If we fail to get out of Nigeria now, our children may end up having to take arms in the future to fight in perpetuity for our freedom. We cannot say for certain if they will be able to regain the land just as we have seen happen to the real owners of Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, etc who are now minorities in their own land.
I am not trying to scare anyone, but I am sounding this as an alarm for us to know that the Sharia law is just one aspect of the many woes we may suffer as Yoruba. However, the eternal consequences may be too great for our children and their children to bear.
For example, the Sharia law in northern Nigeria does not affect the elite who continue to steal the treasury without remorse. But when it comes to the innocent poor who steal meat for food, they are amputated and made to suffer irreparable consequences to their body for life.
It is therefore congruent for us to agree as Yoruba to come together to fight for the liberation of the Yoruba nation out of Nigeria so we can enact laws that will be respected and obeyed by all in our land. Let us be determined to stamp out any subjugation by coercion or voluntary acquiescing so that posterity will judge us fairly when we are no more.
