Confab: Regionalism, True Federalism Top Yoruba Agenda
Thursday, February 27, 2014, was a special day in Nigeria as far as the much-talkedabout National Conference is concerned. It was the day the opinion leaders and leaders of thought from the entire six States comprising the South West geo-political zone, with an extension to the Yorubaspeaking tribes of Kwara, Kogi and the Itsekiris of Delta State converged on the historic Parliament Building, Ibadan, Oyo State capital, where they formally ratified the draft of what is now referred to as the Yoruba Agenda for the forthcoming National Conference scheduled to hold in Abuja in the next few weeks.
At the well-attended Yoruba Assembly were governors, traditional rulers, technocrats, retired military chiefs as well as a coalition of representatives of various Pan-Yoruba sociocultural groups at home and in the Diaspora. They included the host Governor, Senator Isiaq Abiola Ajimobi; representatives of the Governors of Ekiti, Ondo and Ogun State; Chief Olu Falae; General Alani Akinrinade; Alhaji Lateef Jakande; Senator Femi Okunrounmu, Chairman of the 13-man Presidential Advisory Committee on National Dialogue; Chief Olusegun Osoba; Otunba Niyi Adebayo; the Owa Ooye of Okemesi-Ekiti, Oba Gbadebo Adedeji; High Chief Omowale Kuye representing the Olubadan of Ibadanland; the Salu of EdunAbon, Oba Elijah Oyelade representing the Ooni of Ife; Chief Reuben Fasoranti; Mrs Rita Lori Ogbebor from Itsekiriland; Otunba Gani Adams of the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC), Dr. Kunle Olajide and Chief Ayo Adebanjo, among others.
It was instructive however that delegates to the forum rose from the five-hour deliberation warning those who would be representing the Yoruba ethnic group, in clear terms, not to engage in any act capable of truncating the position of the Yorubas at the National Conference. In the alternative, anyone found to have sold out risks being declared personal non-grata from Yorubaland, the forum had resolved.
Among other recommendations, the 15-page Yoruba Agenda which was unanimously ratified at the forum calls for a return of Nigeria to Regionalism where the proposed new Nigeria would consist of a central union/Federal Government and six regional governments (based on the current six geo-political zones -including all other Yoruba outside the imposed artificial boundaries, that is to say, in Edo, Delta, Kogi and Kwara) operating federal and regional constitutions.
The Yoruba Agenda also seeks a negotiated legislative Exclusive, Concurrent and Residual list; the Westminster model of parliamentary government; the right to self determination on and up to the right to secede; and a just and equitable taxation system that will make the federating units equal and coordinating at the federal level in order to eliminate the current rentier syndrome.
Other specific issues to which the Yoruba Agenda seeks an enduring solution for include a new peoples’ constitution; true federalism, regionalism with Fiscal Federalism in varying degrees; role of traditional rulers; status of Lagos and Federal Capital Territory among others.
The Owa-Ooye of Okemesi-Ekiti, Oba Gbadebo Adedeji specifically called for constitutional role for traditional rulers across the country and the forum resolved that the proposed regionalism should take adequate care of this as applicable in the respective regions.
At the end of the deliberations, Sir Olaniwun Ajayi moved a motion for the adoption of the Yoruba Agenda as contained in the draft copy and it was seconded by Oba Elijah Oyelade, the Salu of Edun Abon, Osun State while it was unanimously adopted by the gathering.
Addressing the forum earlier, Governor Ajimobi of Oyo State had remarked that the amalgamation of the Northern and Southern Protectorates had earned Nigeria several pains and calamities in contrary to the view expressed by President Goodluck Jonathan that the 1914 amalgamation by Lord Luggard was not a mistake.
“As you all know, the Yoruba people, like every other ethnic nationalities that make up this country did not willingly join the behemoth that was to later become Nigeria. We were coerced by the British overlords in the evergreen magical marriage of inconvenience called amalgamation of 1914,” Governor Ajimobi had stated.
The Governor spoke further: “Since then, Nigeria has presented as the forcefully conjured seeds in the walnut pod, what our people call ‘Omo inu awusa’. Different world-views, different ideologies, different cultures, different political beliefs, yet we were soldered into one component by the British colonial masters.
“This forceful marriage has earned us several pains and calamities. It led to the 30-month old civil war where the Yoruba suffered needless casualties in the course of fighting for the unity of Nigeria. The most recent calamity of our forced togetherness is the pain of being tagged as citizens of the same country with the senseless killers of children who are inflicting needless pogrom in the North.
“I imagine that when a Yoruba man walks up to fellow humans in the world and he introduces himself as a Nigerian, what comes to the mind of his naive audience would be that he shares the same humanity, the same human and national space with those bloodthirsty hounds called Boko Haram. It is the pain of the forced identity of 1914.
“We, the Yoruba people, are one of the most blessed ethnic nationalities in the world. Blessed with human and natural resources, we demonstrated during the First Republic that we could hold our own in the comity of other republics.
“The current pseudofederalism that we practice merely gathered, as our people would say, the hen and dove under the same cage. It breeds redundancy, cheating and parasitism, it is a recipe for chaos. This is why we are very strong in canvassing a return to that system where our forefathers proved their mettle to the rest of the world as brilliant administrators of men and resources.
“For us as Yoruba, no system is as potent enough to bring out the best in us as true federalism. Forget political party configuration, there is no Nigerian who honestly did not suspect the current decision of the federal government to convoke a national conference.
“We have been fooled in time past, only for our time, resources to be wasted on the altar of political leadership’s strategizing to hold on to power. As Yoruba sons and daughters, you will recall that our forefathers were never easily held captive. They were not because they learnt to look before they leapt.
“That was why we were circumspect about the call for a national conference, a few months before the general elections. However, as you elders have taught us, the art of knowing when to flee and when to fight are twin qualities of a valiant warrior at the war-front.
“Yoruba people will participate at this constitutional conference armed with our own arsenal. At this conference, Yoruba must strongly canvass the return of the country to regionalism. We must ask that Nigeria becomes again a union of federated regions where each of us will be at liberty to restructure the current artificial state structure that we have.
“The sub-set of this is that we must canvass a return of the regions of the federal union to their separate constitutions as was present in the 50’s and 60’s. Personally, I am in favour of a presidential system of government but it would seem that the consensus of our fathers and mothers here gathered is that Nigeria should return to the parliamentary system of the First Republic. We must all learn to subordinate our personal preferences to collective preference,” Ajimobi said.