From Neo-Colonialism To Neo-Oligarchism: The Yoruba Nation's Quest For Liberation

“We have awakened. We will not sleep anymore.”

- Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah
"Open your eyes and look within, are you satisfied with the life you are living? We know where we are going, we know where we are from. We’re leaving Babylon, we’re going to our fathers’ land."

–Bob Marley in his track “Exodus.”

It was the Great Osagyefo, Kwameh Nkrumah, the man who led Ghana to independence in 1957, who introduced the lexicon of “Neo-Colonialism” into our political discourse. His objective was to help the newly independent African Nations understand the challenges they faced vis-à-vis their erstwhile colonial masters, who were still reeling from losing direct control of their colonies in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and Latin America.

In his book Neo-Colonialism,the last Stage of Imperialism , first published in 1965, Nkrumah gave an insight to what he meant by the term “Neo-Colonialism.” In the last Chapter of the book, Nkrumah defined “Neo-Colonialism as follows:

“Faced with the militant peoples of the ex-colonial territories in Asia, Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America, imperialism simply switches tactics. Without a qualm it dispenses with its flags, and even with certain of its more hated expatriate officials. This means, so it claims, that it is ‘giving’ independence to its former subjects, to be followed by ‘aid’ for their development. Under cover of such phrases, however, it devises innumerable ways to accomplish objectives formerly achieved by naked colonialism. It is this sum total of these modern attempts to perpetuate colonialism while at the same time talking about ‘freedom’, which has come to be known as neo-colonialism.”

Buttressing his argument and explanation as to the mechanism of this “last stage of imperialism” Nkrumah quoted copiously from The Invisible Government authored by David Wise and Thomas B. Ross and published by Random House, New York, in 1964. He concluded that essentially, the objective of “neo-colonialism” is to maintain and sustain “colonialism” while preaching “independence.” This methodology was appropriated by the diabolical British Government which was unhappy to leave Nigeria as at the time they had to leave thus granting a gratuitous and superfluous “independence” in 1960.

For the British to be able to effectively achieve their objective, the Hausa-Fulani ruling oligarchy were lured in as collaborators and used as operational instruments to ensure that Nigeria remained and still remains in bondage of colonialism. Thus in this context, the Hausa/Fulani oligarchy now have the status of neo-colonialists of Nigeria acting as fronts for their colonial benefactors, enslaving, subjugating and exploiting the rest of Nigeria for their economic, social and political interests.

From thence, the Hausa-Fulani employed political advantage which was consciously and deliberately put in place while the British still held sway prior to Nigeria’s gratuitous independence: In the article titled “The Unmaking of Nigerian Federalism”, how this was achieved was explained as follows:

“It would be recalled that as a result of the elections of 1954, there were 162 seats in the Nigerian National Assembly. Out of this, the South had 83 seats (51.23%) and the North had 79 seats (48.76%), including the Yoruba people of Kwara. This means that if the Kwara people were not lumped with the North, they would still have less number of seats than 79, since this was based on population. This shows that the South of Nigeria has always been more populous than the North of Nigeria…………

….. The British overlords, in order to assuage Sultan Bello’s fears and put Nigeria in his control, created in 1959, 312 seats for the Nigerian National Assembly without any election or new Census. Out of this 312, the North was allocated 174 and the South 138 in the anticipation of the Parliamentary Political System being put in place for Nigeria’s independence. Sultan Bello asked for 50% of the seats in the National Assembly, he got 55.7%. Suddenly, an apartheid system was put in place as the majority South, became the minority and the minority North became the majority.”

The resulting political power received by the Hausa-Fulani oligarchy of Nigeria’s far North was then used to appropriate and consolidate undue military advantage which was in turn used to coerce, intimidate and persecute the civilian leadership of other ethnic nationalities and their peoples into submission. Some of these leaders of other ethnic nationalities within the Nigerian context were either imprisoned, assassinated or annihilated politically and economically.

For example the Tiv Riots of 1960 and 1964 occurred as a rebellion against the neo-colonialism of the Hausa-Fulani controlled Nothern Peoples’ Congress (NPC). The Tiv people had refused to be part of NPC and had opted for the United Middle Belt Congress (UMBC) led by their own son, Joseph Tarka. According to Ben Audu of the Department of History and International Studies, Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna, in his seminal work Tiv (Nigeria) Riots of 1960, 1964: The Principle of Minimum Force and Counter Insurgency “…..the response of the Native Authority, police and the military in the Tiv political riots which had little regard for international humanitarian law and rules of engagement” was to “punish the Tiv civilian population for supporting the United Middle Belt Congress rather than the ruling Northern Peoples’ Congress.” He contended that “ random acts were thus strategic, and emerged in different forms: burning of property, beatings and torture, murders, and forced population movement,” adding that “such harsh measures were seen by the government as necessary and effective in countering dissent voices.”

Another example was the way and manner fake allegations of treasonable felony were brought against Chief Obafemi Awolowo in a kangaroo Court to politically emasculate him. Hear Sir Ahmadu Bello (Premier of Northern Region and grandson of Uthman Dan Fodio in the Daily Times of May 3, 1961 some days before Chief Awolowo was arrested:

"I'm set and fully armed, to conquer the Action Group, AG, in the same ruthless manner as my grandfather conquered Alkalawa, a town in Sokoto province, during the last century."

The aftermath of this concerted effort to suppress and persecute the leaders and the people of ethnic nationalities who were resisting the neo-colonialism of the Hausa-Fulani oligarchy was serious crisis that elicited military intervention in the political process. The advent of the military forcefully emasculated the resistance of other ethnic nationalities. This further generated the Civil War in the country and the molding of Nigeria’s Federalism in a manner that was favourable to the Hausa-Fulani dominated North. The military regimes were now used by the Hausa-Fulani dominated North to appropriate all other advantages they could not have otherwise appropriate under democratic or civilian administrations.

The Hausa-Fulani oligarchy used the Military (Yakubu Gowon, Murtala Mohammed/Olusegun Obasanjo, Ibrahim Babangida and Sanni Abacha) to change the Constitutionally agreed to Revenue Allocation as at independence in 1960; the oligarchy used the Military (Murtala Mohammed) to cancel the custom duties that the North was expected to pay to the Western Region or the Yoruba Nation which was paid until 1976; the Hausa-Fulani oligarchy used the Military to create states to the advantage of the North (Gowon, Mohammed, Babangida and Abacha); the Hausa-Fulani used the Military to inflate the Census figures to the disadvantage of all other ethnic nationalities in Nigeria (Gowon, IBB) after the controversial one conducted by Tafawa Balewa in 1963 was roundly rejected by all and sundry.

According to Nigeria: The Truth,"When the British was creating self government in the regions, it specifically disbursed the money it had saved for each of the three regions – West, East and the North. The amount saved was 74 million pounds. She did not give out the money to each region by a prescribed ratio, but what was saved for each region of the country. The West received 34 million pounds, North 24 million pounds and the East 15 million pounds. The Marketing Board was like our Central Bank then. Each region has its own account with the Board."

Through the unfair revenue allocation introduced by the Hausa-Fulani controlled Military, the Yoruba people have lost more than any ethnic group. In 25 years, through Statutory Revenue Allocation to Local Governments alone, the Yoruba States have lost over 2.027 Trillion naira in relation to their actual population. Remember this is just for Local Governments. If one calculates what the Yoruba States have lost through States Allocations in addition to the Local Government Allocation, the figures would be tragically mind boggling.

By merely looking at the numbers of Census, State creation, Local Government creation, allocation of seats in the Federal House of Representatives, allocation of Senate seats and revenue allocation to Local Governments, one could see evidence of premeditated fraud on other ethnic nationalities in Nigeria, especially the Yoruba Nation by the Hausa-Fulani oligarchy using its military wing to do things by decree.

For example
North East West Mid-West
Census 1952/53 55.4% 23.7% 16% 4.9%
Census 1963 53.5% 22.3% 19.6% 4.6%
Census 1991 53.4% 21.3% 19.8% 5.3%
State Creation 54.1% 24.3% 16.2% 5.4%
LG Creation 54.1% 22.6% 17.7% 5.6%
Fed Hse of Rep. 53% 27.6% 16.7% 5.3%
Sen. Members 53.2% 24.8% 16.5% 5.5%
Presidential Electoral
Votes 1999 52.5% 24.2% 18.3% 5.0%
Rev. Allocation to LGs
Jan-Sept 2001 55.3% 21.6% 17.6% 5.5%
If you do an average of these numbers, the North has 54.1% of the Censuses. The states created in the North make 54.1% of the 37 states (Abuja included as a state). Similarly, Local Governments in the North (419) represents 54.1% of the total 774 (Source – Nigeria: The Truth by Dan Agbowu)

With continued restiveness of other ethnic nationalities in Nigeria as to the unfair domination of the Hausa-Fulani oligarchy and blatant appropriation of the country’s resources to the detriment of others, the Hausa –Fulani ruling class had to come up with what I term “neo-oligarchism.” This term is used to denote the members of political and economic class in Yoruba Nation who are recruited as collaborators with the Hausa-Fulani neo-colonialists to subjugate, enslave and exploit the people of Yoruba land. This class of Yoruba “leaders” readily accepts second fiddle roles in covert subservience while projecting themselves to the general public as advocates of “True Federalism” or “Fiscal Federalism”.

The neo-oligarchs in Yoruba land are the most evocative in their songs of ‘ONE NIGERIA’ as is presently constituted, effusive about its indivisibility, eloquently advocating a tortuous ‘UNITY IN DIVERSITY,’ deliriously exuding unguarded PATRIOTISM about it, emotively feeding you on hope while you crave to extricate yourself from grinding poverty, agonizing want, debilitating need, incapacitating insecurity, and inability to SELF DETERMINE your own destiny; movingly asking you to persevere in this unending miasma as he forcefully gives unfounded assurances about the future of Nigeria.

The neo-oligarchs in Yoruba Nation are tools of the Hausa – Fulani neo -colonialists. They are purveyors of modern Afonjaism in Yoruba politics. They are essentially mercantilist in nature and character. The well being of the Yoruba Nation is not their forte. They do not care about the progress and prosperity of the Yoruba Nation. They employ tokenism as a tool of fooling the generality of the Yoruba people to sustaining themselves politically. They have no scruples. They are dexterous in odious propaganda. They build few roads here and there, plant few flowers here and there, and trumpet that to the heavens as momentous feats.

For a Yoruba Nation that is nostalgic for “old glories”; a Nation in agonizing search of the greatness it knows it deserves; a Nation desperate to appropriate amnesia as a means to extricate itself from the woeful memories of the recent decades; a Nation that has been so pulverized almost to the point of delirium, such mediocrities are celebrated as great feats. They loot the commonwealth of the Yoruba Nation and blame others for it. They steal our lands for their personal business interests and tell us it is for our progress and prosperity. They live in opprobrious opulence and flagrantly engage in noxious conspicuous consumption. They are much more concerned about their financial gains and that of their family members.

The neo-oligarchs in the Yoruba Nation represent the worst of the Yoruba values. They are corrupt beyond what the word “corruption” could fathom. Their dearths of conscience make them veritable collaborators against the interests of the Yoruba Nation and its peoples. Their appropriation of power is to use the Yoruba people as negotiating chips for more wealth and riches from the collapsing Nigerian State.

The neo-colonialist powers of the Nigerian State are always happy to have neo-oligarchs as tools, giving them crumbs while they (neo-colonialists) hold on tight to the levers of power. The neo-colonialist’s objective is to make restive members of other ethnic nationalities (tired of their subjugation by the Nigerian State and seeking to liberate their people from its bondage) believe that its members are not the only kleptomaniacs in the polity and that there are thieves among other ethnic groups too. They sell the idea of corruption as being a “national problem” with “national character” to divert the focus of the enslaved ethnic nationalities to the preachments of “One Nigeria” that could not and would never be one.

Hence you hear odious and superficial arguments from their sentries that there are corrupt politicians in every ethnic group. They use such arguments to reinforce the idea of corruption as a “national problem” when indeed such is a façade. They gladly sidetrack the fact that without the deleterious umbrella of the Nigerian State that incubates and protects the rapacious neo-oligarchs and their neo-colonialist masters, this would never be the case. The neo-oligarchs are used to shroud the real criminals who control the levers of power in the Nigerian State - the neo-colonialists, who have mastered the art of the “Invisible Governance.” They recruit from among the people of Yoruba Nation to be their mouthpiece(s), officially, in the traditional media, on social media and all over to defend them and carry their water to give a mirage sense of “we are all in this together” when indeed that is not the case.

When the neo-oligarchs steal, they are protected by the agents of the Nigerian State that see them as junior partners in exploitation, subjugation and enslavement of their Yoruba people. The job of the neo-oligarchs is to keep the Yoruba slaves on leash and ensure that there is no political revolt that could rock the boat of the Castle of Bondage called Nigeria. The neo-colonialists would eulogise these Yoruba neo-oligarchs as “nationalists” and “patriots” who are not “tribalists”, “sectionalists” or “ethnicists.” The neo-oligarch, a natural megalomaniac consciously covet these platitudes and deliriously bask in such as s/he is dandified in dreary draperies.

The people of Yoruba Nation have been fooled. But gradually they are waking up. Just as the Osagyefo Nkrumah contended in his speech delivered on March 6, 1957 at the independence celebration of Ghana, “We have awakened. We will not sleep anymore.” “You can fool some of the people some of the time, but not all the people all of the time” as Marcus Garvey posited. The days of the neo-oligarchs in Yorubaland are numbered because the Yoruba people are waking up. Oodua shall be free.

“In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility – I welcome it.”

- John F. Kennedy, in his Inaugural Address January 20, 1961

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Articles by Remi Oyeyemi