Voice of Emancipation: When Silence is Not Golden

By Kayode Emola

It is often believed that silence is golden, but this narrative is not always true. If there is no preparation for the aftermath a calamity that has befallen a people, it is definitely bound to happen again because the people fail to take precaution. In a situation of unpreparedness, silence may become stupidity as one runs the risks of encountering the same misfortune that has already befallen him.

When Buhari became President of Nigeria and his Fulani kinsmen unleashed terror on the indigenous of Nigeria, all hell was let loose as it was every indigenous nation in Nigeria versus the Fulani people. Yet, the Fulani people hardly spoke anything but kept at what they knew how to do best. At the time, the noise from the Yoruba nation activists around the globe was deafening and the Nigerian government felt the heat, so much so that Buhari when he was leaving office could be seen visibly angry in himself.

One would have thought that the momentum with which we the Yoruba people clamoured for an independent Yoruba nation would have accelerated when a Yoruba man became the president of Nigeria. Alas, instead of steadfast activism until freedom is established, the enthusiasm from a lot of people fizzled out like a pack of ice block.

What could have caused this eerily silence, does it now mean many Yoruba people believe in Nigeria only if a Yoruba man is the president. How come the majority of our people clamouring for Yoruba nation are just happy to sit back despite the atrocities happening in Yorubaland. Or are we blind to injustice happening to our people if the person occupying the presidency in Aso rock is our tribesman.

It will seem our silence in this regard is not golden but stupidity if we fail to plan seriously on how to get Yoruba nation out of Nigeria. When Buhari was president, no Yoruba organisation or state government dared talk of the word security for our people or setting up security outfit to protect our people without backlash from the presidency. This is despite the Fulani people parading Hisbah police as their preferred police of choice in Northern Nigeria.

The Hisbah police were so emboldened that they even arrest the Nigerian police for drinking alcohol in the North, despite Nigeria not been declared an Islamic nation. The Hisbah police had powers to arrest traders who sell alcohol in places like Kano, Jigawa, Sokoto and many of the core northern states.

It is in this feeling of superiority that the Fulani people are now thinking of creating an exclusive Fulani vigilante group to police the entire Nigeria. This is a step too far and we Yoruba must rise up now to create our own people’s militia that will defend our people and their possessions.

This is not the time to be pacifists when our people are been slaughtered in their hundreds and entire communities being displaced in Yorubaland. This is the time to make the world understand that except a peaceful dissolution of Nigeria happens soon, a catastrophic separation is inevitable.

The Fulani are feeling hard done because their man is no longer at the helm of affairs of Nigeria. They do not care the repercussions of their actions as all they ever wanted is power even though they do not know what power truly mean or how to handle it.

The time is ripe for a Yoruba security outfit that can protect our people and defend our land. We must not wait for the Fulani to create a vigilante group before we know that we also need security for our people. Every Yoruba person needs to feel safe in their home irrespective of their status or wealth.

The security of lives and properties is the primary duty of government; however, the Nigeria security apparatus is not set up to protect the citizens. They are rather designed to oppress the very people they were supposed to protect.

Therefore, our Yoruba leaders and elders must know that they owe our people a duty of care. We must do everything within our power to ensure that the lives and properties of our people are always protected if that means that we must strengthen our existing indigenous vigilante groups or create a new outfit that is fit for purpose.

As we cannot rely on the Nigeria security apparatus to protect our lives and property in Yoruba land, it is inevitable that we the Yoruba people must do everything within international law to protect the lives and properties of our people to avoid mass exodus of our people from their ancestral homeland.