By Kayode Emola
With Nigeria descending into a totalitarian one-party state under President Bola Tinubu, it is time to begin earnestly seeking our exit from the Nigerian malunion. As things stand presently, the Tinubu’s presidency is building a bad legacy for Nigeria, one that is sure to come back and bite us as Yoruba if we do not let go of Nigeria immediately.
We know how, until recently, the Afenifere have been vocal about restructuring. However, it is also abundantly clear to them now that this is not possible. The cry for restructuring panders to the Fulani’s northern oligarch agenda, and the northern leaders know they already have Nigeria where they want it to be; that the only thing that would break their control would be a total break-up of the country.
Nigeria is beyond redemption, so it is foolishness for me to try to convince any ignorant person who still believes they can change Nigeria for the better. Any Yoruba person thinking that their future is secure because they are currently benefiting from the shambles called Nigeria is living in a fool’s paradise.
Nigeria, as a land, has abundant human and natural resources, and ought to be awash with opportunities, yet instead it is reduced to a state of paralysis. Soldiers standing gallantly to fight for their nation are being butchered in their thousands, yet no state of emergency is declared by the government. Despite this, some people will want to tell you that Nigeria will one day turn the corner and be a great nation.
My mother always said, ‘Ọmọ tí ó ba má ṣe ṣám, àtí kékeré lọ ti má ṣe ẹnu ṣám ṣám,’ meaning that a child who will be smart when they are older must have had the traits imbued in them from childhood. Nigeria surely did not have a good foundation in its infancy, so how do we now expect it to become good now that is nearly 65 years old? With the way Nigeria is, anyone who thinks that this proverbial child will save not only itself but the whole of the African continent has been sold a monumental lie.
Therefore, the time is now or never: we can either stand up for our rights and fight for our freedom and liberty, or else forever remain slaves to those who have vowed to keep us as such in perpetuity.
We can either bury our ego and come together as one people, one language under one ancestry, to demand justice, or else we can continue to be divided by our enemies. The Fulani, those who seek to take our land and that of other ethnicities, are not relenting. They work hard night and day to terrorise our villages and seek opportunities to break us down.
This is not the time to cower in fear; it is the time to be resilient. Victory will come to those who thirst for it. We cannot sit in our house and hope that the government of Nigeria will hand us the Yoruba nation on a platter of gold.
The time is now to take the battle to the enemy camp and show them that we are valiant men guided by the powers of the ancients. We must all begin preparations for the final showdown with the Nigerian government in our towns and villages. We should be ready, if called upon, to assemble en masse to show our solidarity for our new Yoruba nation.
We must pour out to the streets with determination to rescue our nation from the clutches of Nigeria. We should be resolute this time around that we will allow no hiding place for the government unless we get victory for our cause. We must call them out on each and every one of their misdeeds. We must show the international community that what we desire is independence, a Yoruba nation where we can govern ourselves, and nothing more.
I hope and pray that at the end of this exercise we would have something tangible to hold onto. We hope that by God’s grace we shall be free from this corrupt web of Nigeria; free to build a glorious future for our Yoruba nation, for our children and for the generations that will inherit it long after we have left.
