By Kayode Emola
For many Yoruba people, their belief is that Tinubu is a Yoruba president therefore he should do things at the federal government to favour the Yoruba people. Some have even alluded to the fact that during Tinubu’s presidency, more Yoruba people are now occupying juicy positions in the federal government and other parastatals of Nigeria.
My take is that branding Tinubu as a Yoruba president is very misleading and disrespectful to millions of hardworking Yoruba people who are finding it difficult to make ends meet. For the record, Tinubu is not a Yoruba president, and he does not represent the Yoruba people or their interest in Aso rock.
If we look at many of Tinubu’s appointment, we will see that it is a president favouring his inner circle. His appointments are purely political and has nothing to do with the colouration of their ethnicity. Therefore, we cannot associate Tinubu’s political appointment as though he is doing the Yoruba people a favour.
Recently, Tinubu has moved to lift the wanted status placed on Yoruba nation activist Sunday Adeyemo (aka Igboho. For the record, Sunday Igboho did not commit any known crime in Nigeria or anywhere in the world. He even took the federal government under Tinubu’s predecessor Buhari to court and won damages of twenty billion naira (₦20,000,000,000) for destroying his Ibadan residence and killing three of his friends. Money that the government is yet to honour, yet his personal and business accounts continue to remain frozen.
Another matter of note is the position of the Tinubu’s government attempting to make a secret deal with the Biafran leader Mazi Nnamdi Kanu. The Tinubu government is currently giving the Biafran leader a 5-point bail condition in exchange for his freedom. This is following the international pressure that the President is currently facing particularly from the US government.
It must be noted here that the sudden change in direction by the Tinubu’s government to grant amnesty to Chief Sunday Igboho and Mazi Nnamdi Kanu is not because he has suddenly become generous. His sudden action is because of panic in Aso-Rock with the American intervention in the coming days.
We recall that the US government has urged the Nigerian government to deal with the rising insecurity. Despite, all the funds and military grade equipment pumped into Nigeria by the Trump administration, it feels like, the terrorists are still operating in Nigeria with impunity.
Therefore, one can conclude that the lifting of sanctions on Chief Sunday Adeyemo and Mazi Nnamdi Kanu is not from the benevolence of Tinubu’s heart. This moves by President Tinubu is a strategic move in trying to consolidate his opportunity of winning a second term presidency in 2027.
We Yoruba must understand that the granting of few political positions to Tinubu’s cronies is not going to reverse the many years of neglect of services and infrastructure needed for development. The real growth and prosperity of the Yoruba people will not come by appointing few Yoruba people into positions of power. It would come by adequately building a social framework that would lift the millions of Yoruba people who are trapped below the poverty line.
We should therefore not be fooled that Tinubu’s move towards Chief Igboho and Mazi Nnamdi Kanu are out of benevolence. It is time for us to remain resolute in our continued demand for the complete dissolution of Nigeria. We must not allow President Tinubu use we the Yoruba people as a bargaining chip for his return to Aso-Rock in 2027. If Tinubu wants to be a Yoruba president, then he should begin genuine efforts in the dissolution of Nigeria as no person is able to adequately deal with the many challenges facing Nigeria.
