Yoruba political renaissance  

Two major events occurred last week that hopefully will signal a new dawn in Yoruba land. The Oonirisa, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, Ojaja II, visited the Iku baba yeye, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi III, Alaafin of Oyo on Sunday, January 17, 79 years after an Ooni visited an Alaafin. It was an unprecedented visit, which further cemented Oba Ogunwusi as a progressive – not in that jejune political usage in Nigeria – and one who keeps saying and doing the right thing. The rivalry between Oba Adeyemi and his predecessor as Ooni is still fresh in memory to warrant a recall here. Yorubaland suffered immensely as a result of their unnecessary battle. I shall return to this later.

The second was the admittance of Lagos State to the Odu’a Investment Company Limited after a meeting last Tuesday. The Ondo State governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, announced this cheering news at a media briefing. Mimiko added that the governors have also decided to increase the revenue base of the company from N4 billion to N20 billion. Ordinarily, this ought to gladden the heart but when one remembers that nearly all the states are incapacitated economically with the governors seemingly helpless and frequent propensity to making bad economic choices, you wonder how they hope to achieve this. But then that’s why the fact that Lagos is joining makes greater meaning as other states should be able to leverage on its economic potentials as springboard for commercial viability.

I know it is a season of ethnic jingoists but this piece is not an attempt at demonizing other nationalities in Nigeria but rather looking inward at what should be a win-win situation for all of us if properly harnessed. A closer look at our country’s economic history will reveal that our golden period remains the First Republic when our federating units were the regions and we depended most on what these regions could generate rather than allocation from the federal purse. Granted that things have changed so much from what was obtainable then, but the fall in natural resources prices globally offers another opportunity to view economic development from a regional perspective.

This piece is also not canvassing for a pan-Yoruba political party in the mood of Scottish National Party, a Scottish nationalist and social democratic party which supports and campaigns for Scottish independence. It would be foolhardy expecting all Yoruba to belong to a political party in a multiethnic nation like Nigeria but we can harness our political differences for growth without demonizing anyone. After all, what the late Samuel Ladoke Akintola wanted to do that resulted, at a level, in the political crisis that engulfed the then western region was what happened in 2015 wherein two dominant power blocs in Nigeria aligned. The Ooni’s visit should be seen also in the light of ‘I don’t have to continue fighting you because my father fought you’ which can signpost a new beginning in Yoruba politics. Yoruba politics is used in this context advisedly as it simply means politics played by Yoruba not any particular or dominant political party. This is why the statement credited to Oba Adeyemi that were the late Obafemi Awolowo alive, he will be a member of APC appeared to stretching incredulity rather too far but kabiyesi is entitled to his opinion, no doubt.

I wonder how the proponents of gedegbe l’Eko wa that is Lagos stands alone, ideology see the entrance of Lagos State into the Odu’a group as they have always tried to separate the state from their kith and kin in other Yoruba states. They conveniently forgot that Ilupeju, Ikeja, and Mushin areas were developed by the Western Region under Awolowo, which gave birth to industrial estates that propelled Lagos at a level to the economic prosperity it enjoys today. They should also be reminded of Epe Plywood factory established by the Odu’a group too not just because of the Epe forest, but to give the Epe and Ikorodu people a sense of belonging. So, there is nothing wrong in Lagos serving as the hub of an economic renaissance that can propel southwest out of the doldrums it is in currently. If the governors could put aside partisan politics and took this bold step, nothing stops them from going to another level and have a holistic agenda in developing the region.

Why can’t we start with an integrated railway system which will link the state capitals and can help in transporting people and goods faster and better than what obtains presently? With our representatives and senators, it is therefore high time we canvassed for a repeal of the Railway Act that will take railway from the federal government or allow states to facilitate this as well. The Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) should also be repositioned in fulfilling its mandate as an institution for the sustainable development of the region. Let there be a new dawn in Yoruba land.