My dear Asiwaju,
I am compelled to write this open letter to you because of the state of
affairs of the Yoruba nation. Firstly, I wish to acknowledge that fate
has put you in a prime position to determine to a large extent the
direction that the Yoruba people will go. The indisputable truth is that
one may quarrel with your politics but your sagacity is never in doubt.
Even those who don’t see eye to eye with you agree that you are imbued
with unusual native intelligence, uncommon people skills and unrivaled
foresight. You, more than any other person, has been the game changer
since the advent of democracy in 1999. It is for these reasons that I
have chosen to direct this letter to you.
My singular purpose is to tug at the strings of your heart. I am not
writing to appeal to partisan considerations but to see, if per chance, I
can pour out my heart to you in a manner of speaking. God has blessed
you even beyond your wildest imagination. You have installed Senators
and Governors. You have removed Governors and even a President. You have
also installed a President. There is nothing you have wished for or
desired that you didn’t get. Fortune has smiled on you. Goodwill follows
you everywhere you go. You have done very well- more than most men ever
will. However, there is one area that is begging for your urgent
attention. This area may well define you and all you have ever achieved.
This matter, in my opinion, is the onlydifference between you and the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo. Let
me restate for the purpose of emphasis that this is the area in which
the late sage and Leader of the Yorubas stand head and shoulders above
you. It is the reason his name has been a constant denominator in our
regional and national politics. It is the reason politicians, friends
and foes invoke his name for political advantage and personal glory. It
is also the reason why we can’t stop talking about him almost thirty
years after his death. What will anyone say about you thirty years after
you have transited?
Asiwaju Sir, you may be wondering what I’m talking about? It is the
issue of legacy. According to Peter Strople, ‘Legacy is not leaving
something for people, it is leaving something in people’. Legacy is
building something that outlives you. Legacy is greater than currency.
In the words of Leonard Sweet, ‘ What you do is your history. What you
set in motion is your legacy’. You can’t live forever, Sir. No one can.
But you can create something that will. Enough of speaking in parables- I
shall now speak plainly.
When destiny brought you on the scene, we were enamoured because you
championed the case for true federalism. It was your belief then that
the Yoruba nation will fare better under a restructured arrangement than
under the type of unitary government we run while pretending by calling
it a federal government. Everyone knows that there is nothing federal
about our government at all. If truth must be told, the Yoruba nation
has fared very badly since the advent of our new democracy. And this is
not about holding power at the centre.
Let me bring this home: someone passed a comment recently that he
would want Biafra to become a reality because he knows the Igbo nation
will survive. That comment led me to deeper introspection as I wondered
if the Yorubas can truly survive. Let me cite my first example. From Oyo
to Osun, Ogun to Ondo, Ekiti to Kwara and Lagos, hardly will one see
any serious industry or manufacturing concern owned by a Yoruba person. I
am not talking about portfolio businesses or one-man business concerns.
Most industries in Oyo State are owned by the Lebanese. The native
business and industry gurus who dominated the landscape- Nathaniel
Idowu, Amos Adegoke, Lekan Salami, Alao Arisekola, Adeola Odutola, Jimoh
Odutola, Chief Theophilus Adediran Oni and others- are all gone with no
credible replacements. I’m sure you remember the tyre factory of the
Odutolas and how Jimoh Odutola was even asked by the Governments of
Kenya and Ghana to set up a similar factory in their countries. Chief
Theophilus Adediran Oni, popularly called T.A Oni & Sons started the
first indigenous construction company in Nigeria. He willed his
residence- Goodwill House, to the Oyo/Western state government, to be
used as a Paediatric Hospital, which is now known as T.A Oni Memorial
Children Hospital at Ring Road in Ibadan. This sprawling family Estate
and residence was cited on a 15acre piece of land, 65 rooms, with modern
conveniences, Olympic Swimming Pool and stable for Horses, etc.
People like Chief Bode Akindele started companies like Standard
Breweries and Dr Pepper Soft drink factory at Alomaja in Ibadan. Broking
House built by the late Femi Johnson, an insurance magnate, still
stands glittering in the mid-day sun as an epitome to a rich history
that Ibadan has. The most serious and only notable Yoruba entrepreneur
we have now is Michael Adenuga. I say this quite consciously because
most of the other names are oil and gas barons. Most of what stood as
testaments of industry in Oyo State are gone- Exide Batteries, Leyland
Autos and many others. In its place are shopping malls and road side
markets but no nation develops through buying and selling alone-
especially when you’re not actually producing what you’re selling.
Hypermarkets and supermarkets have taken over because of the need to
feed our insatiable consumer-appetite and foreign tastes. In one
instance, an ancient landmark in the form of a hotel was demolished to
pave way for a mall. That is how low we have sunk. If our past is better
than our present- if we always look back with nostalgia frequently,
then there is a problem.
The case of other states is not different. Osun’s case is pathetic.
Ditto for Ondo and Ekiti. Ogun State can boast of some factories at
Sango-Otta and Agbara axis but most of them are not owned by the
Yorubas. There is no significant pharmaceutical company owned by any
Yoruba except for Bond Chemicals in Awe, Oyo State- and its wallet share
is very insignificant. For Lagos State, more than 70% of the
manufacturing concerns and major industries in the State are owned by
the Igbos. If the Igbos were to stop paying tax in Lagos State, the IGR
of Lagos State will reduce by over 60%. In contrast, Sir, go to the
South East and look at the manufacturing concerns in Onitsha, Aba and
Nnewi. Please don’t forget those were areas ravaged by civil war a mere
forty something years ago. The Igbos have certainly made tremendous
progress but the Yoruba nation has regressed. I wish to state that this
letter is not meant to whip up primordial considerations or ethnic
sentiments but just to put things in proper perspective.
Asiwaju, I will like to also talk about the state of education in the
Yoruba nation. Our education has gone to the dogs. We have a bunch of
mis-educated and ill-educated young men and women roaming the streets.
Ibadan, for instance, had the first University in Nigeria and the first
set of research centres in Nigeria ( The Forestry Research Institute,
the Cocoa Research Institute (CRIN), The Nigerian Cereal Research
Institute Moor Plantation (NCRI), the NIHORT (Nigerian Institute of
Horticultural Research), the NISER (Nigerian Institute of Social and
Economic Research), IAR&T (Institute of Agriculture, Research and
Training), amongst several others). Ibadan was the bastion of
scholarship with people like Wole Soyinka, JP Clark, D.O Fagunwa and
Amos Tutuola as residents. In the May/June 2015 West African Senior
Secondary Certificate Examination, Abia came tops. Anambra came 2nd
while Edo was 3rd. Lagos placed 6th while Osun and Oyo was 29th and
26th. Ekiti was 11th, Ondo State was 13th and Ogun State was 19th. In
2013 WASSCE, only Lagos and Ogun States were the Yoruba States above the
national average. If we do an analysis of how Lagos placed 6th in 2015,
you will discover that it was substantially because of other
nationalities resident in Lagos. For proof, please look no further than
the winners of the Spelling Bee competition which has produced One-Day
Governors in Lagos State. Since inception in 2001, other nationalities
have won the competition six times (Ebuka Anisiobi in 2001, Ovuwhore
Etiti in 2002, Abundance Ikechukwu in 2006, Daniel Osunbor in 2008,
Akpakpan Iniodu Jones in 2011 and Lilian Ogbuefi in 2012). Sir, there is
something seriously wrong about our state of education. From the
vintage times of Obafemi Awolowo who initiated ‘free education’, we have
regressed into a most parlous state.
Let me talk about roads, housing and infrastructure . The first
dualized road in Nigeria, the Queen Elizabeth road from Mokola to Agodi
in Ibadan was formally commissioned by Queen Elizabeth in 1956. The
first Housing Estate in Nigeria is Bodija Housing Estate (also in
Ibadan) which was built in 1958. The state of roads in the Yoruba nation
has become pathetic. Our hinterland are still largely rural. Even some
state capitals like Osogbo and Ado-Ekiti are big villages when you
compare them to towns in the South East. How many new estates have been
built over the last decade? Even Ajoda New Town lies in ruins.
We have abandoned the farm settlement strategy of the Western Region
and only pay lip service to agriculture. Instead of feeding others like
we once did, others now feed us. We plant no tomatoes, no pepper and the
basic food that we require. The Indians have bought the large expanse
of water body that we have in Onigambari village. The water body in Oke
Ogun of Oyo State can provide enough fish to feed the whole of the South
West. From being a major cocoa exporter many years ago, one can point
to just a few vestiges of factories that still deal with Cocoa in the
Yoruba nation. 80% of Cocoa processing industries in the South West have
been shut down. The Chinese have taken over the cashew belt at Ogbomoso
in Oyo State. They have even edged out the indigenes as brokers. They
now come to the cashew belt to buy from the local farmers, sell on the
spot to other Chinese exporters who now process the cashew nuts and
import them back into Nigeria at a premium. Sir, there are only 7 major
cashew processing plants in Nigeria and you can check out the ownership.
The glory has departed from the Yoruba nation.
Apart from Asejire, Ede, Ikere Gorge and Oyan dams built ages ago,
where are the new dams to cater for increased population and water
capacity for the Yoruba nation? How have we improved on what our heroes
past left us? Maybe apart from certain areas in Lagos State, others
can’t even supply their citizens with pipe-borne water.
Our youth which we used to take pride in are largely a mass of
unemployed and unemployable people. Have you noticed the abundance of
street urchins, area boys, touts and ‘agberos’ that we now have all
across the Yoruba nation? Have you noticed the swell in the ranks of
NURTW (I mean no disrespect to an otherwise noble union)? Have you
noticed the increase in the number of Yoruba beggars? There was a time
that it was taboo for a Yoruba man to beg- but no more. The spirit of
apprenticeship is dead. There was a time that people who learn
vocational skills celebrate what we referred to as ‘freedom’. While that
is largely moribund now in the Yoruba nation, the Igbos still practice
it with great success.
The only thing we can boldly say the Yoruba nation controls is the
information machinery- the press. We own largely the newspapers- the
Nation, Punch, Nigerian Tribune, TV Continental and a few others. It is
because of our control of this information machinery that we have
rewritten the narrative in the country with the misguided self-belief
that things are normal and we are making progress. A look beyond the
surface will prove that this is so untrue.
We are largely divided. For the first time in the history of the Yoruba
nation, religion is about to divide us further- and it is starting from
Osun State. You are married to a Christian. My own father-in-law is an
Alhaji. That is how we have peacefully co-existed but the fabrics are
about to be torn to shreds because of poor management of issues.
Afenifere has been reduced to a shadow of itself. OPC that once defended
Yoruba interests has gone into oblivion. Yoruba elders have been
vilified in the name of politics and partisanship. It is no longer news
to see teenagers throwing stones at their elders because of their
political indoctrination. Even under the late sage, Chief Obafemi
Awolowo, the Yorubas never belonged to just a single party- yet our
unity was without blemish. Now, our values have gone down the drain.
Asiwaju, I believe I have said enough. The task is Herculean but I
believe Providence has brought you here for such a time like this. It is
time for the Yoruba nation to clean up its acts. What do we really
want? How can we quickly right the wrongs? The Yoruba nation is in a
state of arrested development. The Yoruba nation is gasping for breath
and crying for help. Will you rise up to the occasion? I am aware you
understand that all politics is local and charity begins at home. Our
fathers gave us a proverb: ‘Bi o’ode o dun, bi igbe ni’gboro ri’. I know
there are no quick fixes but I also know that if there is anyone who
has the capacity to do something about our current situation, that
person is you. This should be the legacy you should think of. Your
legacy is our future.
Yours Very Sincerely, Adebayo C. Adeyinka
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