By Joe Iniodu
The ownership of
APC, the major opposition Party in Nigeria is no longer debatable. Its
metamorphosis from Alliance for Democracy, AD, when it was jointly owned by
Yoruba people to Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN when it became Tinubu’s
investment to All Progressive Congress, APC that he is currently the sole
proprietor, depicts a business concern with profit as the sole motive. And the
target is the wealth of the South-South which is oil. It is the oil wealth that
he is plotting to use APC as a platform to control if the latter wins the
presidency.
The action of Asiwaju
Bola Tinubu should not be a surprise to those who have followed Nigeria ’s
political history. The Yorubas as a race have always undermined the rest of the
country. They have innate arrogance and believe that they are a superior race.
During the days of Northern and Southern protectorates, they exhibited this
complex in their dealings with other sections of the South. When Calabar was
made the capital of Nigeria by the colonial masters, the Yorubas using their
famed advantages, employed all kinds of subtleties and subterfuges to have the
capital relocated to their enclave in Lagos . We lost that and still trusted
and maintained them as allies.
When our nation
launched for independence in the early fifties, the Yorubas played a leading
role not totally in the interest of others but for the reason that a country
where they would have control because of the advantages that accrued to them
was about to be born. This perception was given credence when the colonial
masters leveraged their hold on the country and paved the way for self
determination. The Yorubas refused to join cause with Namdi Azikiwe who lived
in their community and worked with them. They formed a Yoruba party and
attempted to force it on the rest of Nigerians. But Nigerians knew better and
consistently denied their leader who ironically was then the best for Nigeria
political leadership. It was true reward for the attitude he and his race
consistently exhibited towards others. For instance, it is a known fact that
their leader introduced ethnic politics into the nation’s polity.
In that first
republic, the arrogance of Yorubas and its leadership led to Wild Wild
West or “Operation wetie”which culminated in a crisis that
eventually took a toll on the nation. Infact, the seed of insurrection was sown
from there and which led to the coups of 1966. The masterminds of the January
15 coup apart from appearing to be led by somebody of Igbo extraction also had
Yoruba men as accomplices. Many believe that the coup failed because the Yoruba
participation was half hearted. It is said that it was why the coup with all
its redeeming ideals failed from Lagos and succeeded from the Kaduna axis that
was led by Major Kaduna Nzeogwu. The Yorubas had sabotage their co-travelers in
that coup in submission to their known tendency of treachery.
Of course the
botched coup had a cataclysmic effect. There was a reprisal coup masterminded
by the Northerners which many believe also brought upon the Yorubas nemesis as
the coupists did not spare their people. The North was turned into a killing
field of Southerners, Yorubas inclusive as it is playing out today. Ojukwu who
was the governor of Eastern Nigeria, however, received the greatest number of
victims and returnees. Many protested the violence in the North but without
attaining let or hindrance. The violence continued unabated with victims
heading to the South in droves. The then governor of Eastern Nigeria met with
the leadership of Yorubas to chart a programme of protection of the entire
Southern region. And history records that they agreed to co-operate for the
common good of the South. It is said the two regions of the South then agreed
to secede with the intent of one declaring Oduduwa Republic and the other the
Biafran Republic. But at the critical moment, treachery set in and the
South-East was betrayed. And so the civil war witnessed Yorubas fighting on the
side of their captors and tormentors. It was again the vintage Yoruba attitude
towards other sections of the South.
When the civil war
ended in 1970, a Yoruba personage who had earlier been rewarded with a high
office for betraying other sections of the South decided to go for the jugular
of the people of today Akwa Ibom. He hectored the then Federal Government which
he was Vice Chairman Federal Executive Council into going for the pound of
flesh of the people currently inhabiting Akwa Ibom State. He introduced the
onshore/offshore dichotomy which denied the people of the proceeds of its God-given
wealth despite the environmental degradation to which they are perennially
subjected. It took the benevolence of military President Ibrahim Badamasi
Babangida for that obnoxious law to be repealed.
But that gracious
gesture was again scuttled by another Yoruba man, General Olusegun Obansanjo
who re-introduced that anti-people law until the prayers of the faithful
touched his heart and he reverted to status-quo-ante using the doctrine of
political solution. This happened after Akwa Ibom people voted massively for
him in 1999 and 2003. The then President believed that denying Akwa Ibom people
access to their God-given wealth was appropriate for their numerous gestures
including unalloyed support for him and his government. He also believed that
he owed neither the State nor any section of the South any obligation. In his
opinion they are far lesser in esteem than the Yorubas and should consider
relating with Yorubas even a privilege.
But the Yorubas
don’t seem to know that things have changed and would continue to change. They
have failed to observe that the emerging universal policy of ‘rubb my back, I
rubb yours’ has become a social constant. They don’t seem to see the modern
approach of quid pro quo as the new social formula. For many years, other regions
have toiled for Yorubas. But the Yorubas are yet to produce any record of their
support to any other region except only when it is convenient. During June 12,
1993, the entire of South-South and South-East filed out behind a Yoruba
candidate in the person of Moshood Abiola and voted massively for him. They did
not only do that, they joined the various protest groups to advocate for the
revalidation of that election result.
In 1999, General
Olusegun Obasanjo who was released from prison the previous year was nominated
as the presidential standard bearer of PDP. They were credible candidates from
the North equally. But the South-South and South-East felt it a reasonable
action to placate the Yorubas who had suffered a pyrrhic cost on account of June
12. The two regions considered it worthy to support a Yoruba man despite the
egregious failings of the Yorubas as a race, the deficiencies of their
character and even the character defect of the nominated candidate of PDP then
who was Olusegun Obasanjo. The regions supported him massively in 1999 and in
2003 and was almost hood-winked into supporting his selfish third-term project
despite the ineptitude of his eight-year reign. At the risk of sounding
immodest, the Jonathan administration has achieved more in the last four years
than his (Obasanjo) administration achieved in eight years.
The 2003 election
of Obasanjo was a difficult election. He had nothing to show as achievement.
Corruption was rife and in full display. Anti-democratic tendencies were also
in full display yet the South-East and South-South tolerated him and re-elected
him for a second term. Even his fellow Yorubas grudgingly voted for him but he
still failed in his ward. He rode on the votes of the Southerners to win that
election which he contested against this same Buhari. But where is his
gratitude to the South-East and South-South?
Rather what has
been on display is treachery, betrayal and pettiness not expected of such a
supposedly mighty man. Nigeria has been good to Obasanjo. PDP has been good to
him. His plot to destroy the party today may be viewed as one of the tendencies
of the Yorubas to be part of only things that serve their interest and their
interest only.
Today the
South-South which has through great sacrifice kept Nigeria together from
independence through oil that was discovered in Oloibiri in 1958 is seeking
just a constitutional second term of another four years in office in a country
that has existed for about 54 years in which the North has ruled for more than
38 years and the South West for more than ten years. And for these four years,
the country is on such scale of sabotage and propaganda in which Obasanjo is
leading the charge with Asiwaju Bola Tinubu. For convenience against the race
of the South, these arch enemies of Yoruba extraction have found the need to
co-operate against the race of the South.
It must however be
known to them that the rest of the South is learning and would learn fast. The
rest of the South is aware that Tinubu, the fabulously wealthy politician of
today made his first inroad into wealth as worker with Mobil unlimited which he
eventually served as a treasurer. How has he repaid the people of South-South
where he made money from? Is it by betraying them? Is it by looking at them as
outcast and unworthy of a second term that other regions get without
performance? Do unto others what you would wish others to do unto you. Tinubu,
do unto the South-South what the South-South has been doing to the South-West.
Obasanjo, do unto the South-South what the latter has always done to you. A
stitch in time saves nine.
Joe Iniodu is a
public affairs analyst.
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