By Kayode Emola

Two weeks on from the conflict between the US & Iran and there is no end in sight. Many analysts are asking what the real cause of the fighting was and what is the US government hoping to achieve. Till date, the White House has not come up with a coherent reason as to why they went into the war other than they thought the Iranian regime was going to strike first.

The fact of the matter is that the US government went into this war with their eyes closed and when their eyes were opened, the world was already in chaos. A chaos that everyone, no matter where you are on this planet is going to partake in. So, all we need to do is to brace ourselves for the challenges that will follow in the coming days, weeks and months that will follow.

As it stands, President Trump is in a bind and has limited options on how to manoeuvrer the situation. He is hoping that the Iranian regime will capitulate and plead for clemency but that is never going to happen. The Iranians saw the weakness in the US plan from the beginning, and they exploited it big time.

They knew the US was going to finish them off militarily on an open combat, so they weren’t going to even try to confront the US on the battle ground. Rather, they resulted to an asymmetric warfare where Us interests were the targets.

They were prepared to hit the US where it matters most and that is on the economic front. Had the US opened their eyes to calculate the risks before venturing into the war, they would have been better prepared to deal with the fallout from the Iranian resistance.

The world we live in has experienced a lot of shocks in recent times which it is still recovering from. Not least the recent covid-19 pandemic that put many nations in dire financial constraint. On top of that, we had the Russian/Ukraine war that stretched the finances of many families all round the globe. Yet again the world is plunged into a war between the US and Iran, one which no analyst can say precisely when it would end.

From all indication, it seems as though there will be more pain before we begin to turn a corner. The Iranian economy has already taken a big hit from the many years of sanctions and may or may not be prepared for what is to come. The rest of us who do not know what it means to live inside austerity for many years like the Iranians have endured will have a taste of what it means to have your food being rationed if the war doesn’t end soon.

Either way, there are some few pointers as to the direction of travel for this ongoing conflict. The first is that the war has gone so bad for the US that President Trump has lifted sanctions on Russian oil on a whim. That is a big win for President Putin who has endured selling his crude oil at a cheap to India for over 4 years. Instead of the $20 mark he was collecting for a barrel, he can now charge over $100/barrel.

The next is that no amount of oil pumped out by Russia can make up for the over 25 million barrels of oil per day that was previously being pumped into the international market by the Gulf States. This means that if the war doesn’t end anytime soon, then the world would be in for a serious economic shock due to the shortage of energy readily available for distribution.

This brings me to the Yoruba question of independence from Nigeria. We have seen that the Nigerian security agencies are helpless in the face of terrorism confronting the country. Everyday we hear of terror attacks on our military infrastructure with no decisive response from the security agency. This can only mean one thing, that the Nigerian military do not have the wherewithal to confront these attacks.

It then goes to show that the security of our communities cannot be trusted to a Nigerian state that is lying to its people about the state of its defence capabilities. Our Yoruba people must as a matter of urgency begin to build resilience in our defence capabilities to confront the Fulani jihadist who believe that once they overpower the Nigerian army, they can overrun the country as they see fit.

We as Yoruba must learn from the Iranian regime that did not just capitulate in the face of a great adversary. Rather they confronted the Americans and its allies with the little strength that they have, and it seems to be keeping them going for now.

Whether the Iranians will surrender as President Trump has demanded remained to be seen. However, the pain that is spreading because of the conflict will be felt by everyone around the world. With Russia now actively playing the role of a mediator between the US and what is left of the Iranian government, one can only hope that diplomacy is given a chance to succeed for the sake of humanity.

If not, we might get to a point where either side will result to the use of a nuclear weapon in resolving the impasse. One that will have a devastating consequence for the entire world for a long time to come. My advice for those who are able at this juncture will be for people to stock up on supplies and be ready to ride this out for the long run and not just hope that the conflict comes to an end soon.

By Kayode Emola

In February this year, the Fulani terrorists issued a stern warning to the Yoruba people of Southern Nigeria that they would be restarting their 1804 Uthman Dan Fodio Jihad. Their intention is to conquer Yorubaland and the entire Southern Nigeria for their Fulani tribe, who are not originally from Nigeria.

This brazen audacity shows that these Fulani militias and their paymaster do not understand the deep history and culture of the Yoruba people. If they do, I don’t think they would dare to issue such a genocidal threat on our people and a land that we inherited from our forebears.

The Fulani must have mistaken the 8-year misrule of late President Buhari from 2015 to 2023, which favoured the Fulani tribe above every indigenous people of Nigeria. They must be thinking in their mind that they could conquer and subjugate our people with their crude method of governance that uses religion as a deception.

They must know that the Yoruba are a sophisticated people whose history dates back millennia, and our culture transcends the Yoruba borders of Nigeria. Yoruba is not just the largest tribe domiciled in Africa but also has a huge diaspora population that stands ready to defend our homeland, and people should the need arise.

It is therefore foolish for the Fulani people to think that they can come to Yorubaland in the name of Islamic jihad to conquer a people who were the first to bring Islam into Nigeria. The average Yoruba person does not hold a religious bias and will not succumb to any conquest by whatever ammunition the enemy may possess.

The Fulani militia, who dared to invade Yorubaland in the nineteenth century, regretted ever setting foot on Yoruba soil in the name of jihad. Likewise, those who tried their luck in the twentieth century. Therefore, any potential or real threat by the Fulani militias in this twenty-first century to invade Yorubaland after the Ramadan fasting would be met by a swift and decisive counter-offensive.

That the Yoruba haven’t responded in kind to the egregious crimes being committed against our people in Nigeria by the Fulani people is down to our belief in trying to settle disputes through diplomacy.

Yoruba people are descendants of royalty and great warriors; therefore, we are not a people that can just be pushed aside by mere threats from anyone, let alone the Fulani people. Our Yoruba warriors and hunters stand ready to face off any perceived or real threats by the Fulani people, and we shall respond in kind if they dare to raise a finger this time around.

The collective decision of the Yoruba people in Nigeria is to become autonomous and have our sovereign nation and to raise our flags in every nook and cranny of Yorubaland. This reality will happen sooner rather than later should the Fulani militia think they can conquer Yorubaland using force.

It is no secret that the Fulani people do not want the Yoruba, Biafra and other indigenous nationalities to leave Nigeria. This is due to their selfish and greedy nature that makes them parasitic to their hosts wherever they find themselves.

Therefore, the Yoruba people must ensure that this is the last daring act by the Fulani people against the Yoruba nation if they raise their hands against our Yoruba people. We must stand in unison, not just to push back this nauseating garbage from the Fulani people, but to make sure this is the end of the Nigerian project.

By Kayode Emola

This week, I was going to respond to the supposed threat sent out by the Fulani foot soldiers for the supposed beginning of their Jihad against the indigenous people of Nigeria. However, with yesterday’s early morning strikes in Iran by the firepower of the USA and Israeli government, I believe we need to evaluate events far away from our Yoruba shores.

Ayatollah Khamenei took the reins of power as the supreme leader of Iran in 1989 when his mentor Ruhollah Khomeini died of heart attack. Following his emergence as the supreme leader, his number one goal was the destruction of the state of Israel and the United States. One which he did not hide both in the Arab world and in the Western circles with the constant threat of uranium enrichment.

This made him enemy number one for the Jewish State that was constantly under the fear of an Iranian nuclear annihilation. Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made it his lifelong ambition to ensure the decapitation of the Iranian regime by any means necessary. The Hamas attack on Oct 7, 2023, gave the Israeli government perfect opportunity to not only go for the Hamas leadership, but to also confront all the Iranian proxies in the region.

If there’s anything to learn from the Israeli’s approach, it is the fact that since the October 2023 attack, they have not shied away from going after all their enemies. One after the other, the Israeli’s took out all the commanders of Hamas, Hezbollah and now the very top hierarchy of the Iranian regime.

The death of the Iran supreme leader will not only be a morale boost for the Israeli government. It will consolidate Israel’s dominance in the region for the foreseeable future. Thus, Israeli will hope to live in peace with its Arab neighbours for many years to come.

The death of Ayatollah Khamenei will not mean that the job is finished both for the Israeli government and its US ally. It can either be the journey to peace or the beginning of a long walk to an everlasting conflict with Iran if the regime is not finally taken out.

With the decapitation of the Iranian regime, I believe anyone stepping forward to replace the late Ayatollah will have a lot to do to keep Iran as one without further military strike from the US. Anything short of regime change will lead to more destruction and destabilisation of the region if not half of the entire world population.

The Yoruba nation struggle must now get our act together in taking a decisive decision about our exit from Nigeria. For some time now, we have been ruminating on how to proceed with our Yoruba nation struggle in the face of constant threat by the Fulani militia on innocent civilians and villagers in our towns and villages.

The time has come for us to be decisive in calling the bluff of the Nigerian government and show the world that we are ready for the emergence of our new nation. The Israeli saw a window of opportunity, and they did not waste time to take it. The result was a resounding victory against the oppressive regime that has ruled Iran for nearly five decades.

If we continue to dilly dally and think for once that the international powers will grant us our Yoruba nation on a platter of gold, then we are very mistaken. This period is not the 1950s nor is it the 1960s when African nations were ruthless in the pursuit of their independence from their colonial masters.

This era is a different kettle of fish as our colonial masters are now our own brothers and sisters who seek public office not for the benefit of the people but for their own enrichment. The time has come for every Yoruba person to be ready to defend their towns and villages in the event of a Fulani onslaught. We must seize the opportunity to affirm our right to self-determination and call on the nations of the world to recognise our sovereignty.

I beseech all my brethren to be watchful and vigilant for when the time comes for us to go all out for our victory march. We must not be cowed by fear, but rather, have the courage of our forbears who were never defeated by the Fulani military to take our country out of this crooked Nigeria.