The Yoruba Response To Kayode Fayemi (Part 2 of 3)

By Egbe Omo Oduduwa
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13. All the foregoing shows clearly that "DEVOLUTION" as experienced by the Yoruba Nation has been detrimental to Yoruba Emancipation and therefore cannot be an acceptable route to go in her quest for "True Federalism" in Nigeria.

14. Flowing from this is the continuous denial of the various existential values of the various Peoples through the instrumentality of the Colonial State Apparatus, which was simply replaced by the Post-Colonial State, manifesting through the relentless demonization of the Action Group and the Western Region as promoters of Balkanization and “Pakistanization” of Nigeria by the authorities of the Eastern and Northern regions.

15. The irony of it all was that while the latter opposed and successfully, albeit unconstitutionally prevented the realization of the quest of the Peoples of the Middle Belt and Calabar Ogoja and Rivers Province for their own Regions, they went ahead to secure the creation of the Mid-West from the Western Region.

16. The deliberate disregard of the foregoing apparently enabled Governor Fayemi to wrongfully celebrate a supposed ability of Nigeria to manage “diversity” declaring that “It is what makes us better than even Europeans who find diversity management difficult. The Balkans had to split into Sweden, Norway, and Finland. Czechoslovakia became Czech and Slovak Nations, the Soviet Union couldn’t hold together, Yugoslavia collapsed into Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia and Herzegovinia and Britain still has not found a definitive answer to the Irish, Welsh and Scottish question.”

17. Governor Kayode Fayemi’s conclusion flies in the face of REALITY; for NONE of the MODEL DEVELOPED countries in Europe is a Multi-Lingual, Multi-National and Multi-Cultural country existing and operating as a “NATION”-STATE, the NATIONS being identified by their Lingual and Cultural expressions; what happened in ALL the instances cited by the Governor were aimed at arriving at the same destination, and that is, the establishment of a country , a NATION-STATE, anchored on the expectations and aspirations of her PEOPLES within their Cultural and Lingual matrices.

18. The question for Europe is therefore NOT about “diversity management” but REAFFIRMATION of diversity expressed in its form of STATE.

19. When therefore, Governor Kayode Fayemi averred, that “Our ability to live together as a diverse but unified country is something we should celebrate”, he failed to answer the pertinent question as to how such ability had been manifesting; for, the central question to be asked and answered is whether the story of Nigeria since 1966 is something to celebrate when ALL REFERENCES to the developmental paradigm experienced in Nigeria ALWAYS point to the Regional Period, from 1951 to 1966, upon which “a more perfect union” ought to have been built but whose neutralization became the albatross on the neck of the Nigerian Post-Colonial State till date.

20. When the Governor proceeded to ask “But imagine Nigeria with over 250 ethnic nationalities and particularly in Arewa, where no state, indeed few communities can claim to be homogeneous. Yet we are managing our diversity very well until we lost the values of tolerance, equity, fairness, and justice which we inherited from our founding fathers such as the Sardauna of Sokoto”, he also failed the REALITY TEST.

21. Ignoring the Governor’s resort, once again, to abstract formularies as is the character of the Nigerian Post-Colonial elite, leading to his lamentations on the absence of values, equity, etc, he clearly forgot that the Yoruba can comfortably and conveniently make the claim to homogeneity as we have been doing since the advent of anti-colonial struggles; exemplified not only in Lingual and Cultural expressions but also manifested politically through the political motive of defending Yoruba Federalism via the Yoruba Civil Wars expressed as the “war to end all wars” in order to ensure peace in Yorubaland.

22. Furthermore, and in the spirit of seeking similarities in other climes, Switzerland in Europe provides an excellent template for the pursuit of “a more perfect Union” as a reflection of the reality of the PEOPLES in their TERRITORIES, recognizing both the “INDIGENES” alongside their TERRITORIES, a recognition of the Multiplicity resulting in what is now known as the Swiss Confederation with geo-political and territorial boundaries anchored on Lingual and Cultural determinations within the Swiss Multi-National State.(to be continued)