Talks About Yoruba
Marginalisation Kayode Komolafe backpage kayode.komolafe@
thisdaylive.com The alleged marginalisation of
the Yoruba has been turned
into the issue before members
of the ethnic group. The way
the issue has been presented
in the public sphere again confirms the position that
members of the elite use their
class advantage to impose
their interpretation of reality
on the majority of the people.
Worse still, this interpretation of reality has nothing to do
with the fundamental
interests of the people. Yet
those who have voice claim
they are speaking for their
people, regardless of the fact that what they present as the
issue is meaningless to the
people. It is an age-long
ideological problem.
Unfortunately, there is hardly
any prospect of a definitive solution to the problem soon. Meanwhile, the distortion of
the reality by the various
strands of the Yoruba faction
of Nigerian ruling class should
be unsettling to those who
genuinely crave for progress. It is the duty of the
progressive elements from
the Yoruba ethnic group to
combat these backward
positions at the ideological
level. This is the time for proper
clarification. Those who want
progress ought to insist on the
interpretation of the reality
that would advance the
genuine interests of the people. However, the matter
becomes more worrisome
when those who profess
progressivism are the most
conspicuous in this “struggle”
against Yoruba marginalisation. For instance,
Senator Femi Okunrounmu
was recently quoted as saying
inter alia: “Check from
number one to number 15,
you won’t find a Yoruba person there. Look at the
people controlling the
economy, the finance
minister, the Central Bank
Governor; no Yoruba person is
there. The first lawyers in this country were Yoruba. Today,
the Yoruba are marginalised
in the judiciary. In the
National Assembly... the
Yoruba people are not in the
leadership position. It is bad. It’s as if the Yoruba people are
not wanted”. Now, there could have been
no problem with this reported
statement of the Okunrounmu
if he had talked of the Yoruba
elite and not the Yoruba
people whose name is being invoked in vain. It is hard to
see how the Yoruba are
marginalised simply because
none of them occupies any of
the first 15 offices in order of
precedence. Even going by Okunroumu’s statement
which, by the way, is a clear
articulation of the position of
the Yoruba Unity Front (YUF),
let’s not forget what has
happened in the last 14 years of this republic.During the
period under review, a Yoruba
man, Olusegun Obasanjo,
combined the office of the
President with that of the
Minister of Petroleum for eight years. During the first three years of
Obasanjo in office, other
Yoruba men held some of the
positions the Yoruba elite
now want to hold so soon
again. Some of these Yoruba personalities were Chief
Joseph Sanusi, Governor of the
Central Bank; Alhaji Musiliu
Smith, Inspector-General of
Police; Chief Bola Ige, Attorney
General, Chief Sunday Afolabi, Minister of Interior and
others. Although, in fairness
to President Obasanjo, you
could not accuse him of ethnic
chauvinism in the
composition of his team, yet it is not true that the Yoruba
elite have been excluded in
the sharing of these offices in
recent years. The prognosis is
that by the current geo-
political formula there are several ethnic groups this
country that would not
produce a President in many
decades from now. However, that is not even the
point at issue. The question to
ask is this: in what way has
the fact of Obasanjo’s
presidency or any Yoruba man
holding any high position for that matter alleviated the
mass poverty in Yoruba-
speaking areas? In eight years
of Obasanjo, was there a
revamp of decaying
infrastructure or reduction in youth unemployment in
Yoruba land in a remarkably
different way from what
happened in other parts of the
country? The Lagos-Ibadan
Express Road was left to collapse; the road to Ota from
where Obasanjo left to Abuja
to take the oath of office, as
President in 1999 was not
fixed.
Did the federal government educational and health
institutions located in the
Yoruba-speaking fair better
because a Yoruba man was
President? When you consider
all the indices of development, the condition of the Yoruba,
like any other ethnic group,
has never been determined by
the positions held by its elite.
The condition of the people
has always been the consequence of poor
governance of the country no
matter the language spoken
by the President and his
ministers. So the material
issues of underdevelopment facing the Yoruba like other
Nigerians are not going to be
tackled by the psychological
satisfaction that someone
who speaks their language is
appointed to any of the high posts. Similarly, it is yet to be seen
how the fact of President
Goodluck Jonathan being a
son of Niger Delta has
enhanced the fundamental
resolution of the issues at the root of the agitation in the
region. Just like Obasanjo
played politics with Lagos-
Ibadan Express Road;
Jonathan is making the East-
West Road, which traverses all the states of the Niger Delta,
another political toy. The
Amnesty Programme that
was conceived by President
Umaru Yar’Adua to be a
tactical manouvre to create a peaceful atmosphere for
development has now
become the strategy.
Awarding huge contracts to a
handful “ex-militants” has
become a development programme. When Senator
Adeseye Ogunlewe was
Works Minister under
Obasanjo, no federal road was
done in his home state of
Lagos just as the earlier tenure of Mr. Fix It, Chief Tony
Anenih, as Works Minister
could not ensure the fixing of
even the Benin-Ore Road. Yet
by his presence in
government, Edo State is presumed to be represented
and not “marginalised” like
the Yoruba elite would say
now. Going by the Okunroumu’s
logic, can we now say that
the appointment of Mallam
Sanusi Lamido Sanusi has
reduced poverty in Kano, the
home state of the prince? Or has the fact of Dr. Ngozi
Okonjo-Iweala being Finance
Minister and Coordinating
Minister for the Economy
shortened the job queue in
Delta State where her parents come from or Abia the home
state of her husband? She is
rather expected to manage
the economy for the
development of the whole of
Nigeria. The foregoing is just to demonstrate the point that
appointing persons of any
ethnic or regional group into
office does not necessarily
translate to the development
of the area. It is honest development efforts that can
benefit the people. Come to think of it, the
Nigerian constitution provides
for the reflection of federal
character in appointments and
staff recruitment in public
sector. The purpose is not for the person occupying any
office to serve his ethnic
group alone. Even though
every section of Nigeria
should be represented in
making appointments, whoever is so appointed is
expected to work for the
good of the whole country
and not his area alone. So if
you concede that Obasanjo’s
policy in the telecom sector succeeded, the benefits have
not been restricted to the
Yoruba. It cannot be
otherwise. That is the correct
interpretation of reality. It is
also necessary to distinguish
career posts in the public
service from political
appointments. The Federal Character Commission is there
to ensure that every section of
the country is represented
based on the competence of
the respective officers. The
National Assembly has committees in both houses
performing over-sight
functions in matters of federal
character. So the Yoruba are
not the only with complaints. It is interesting that the other
factions of the Yoruba elite
strike the same chord as the
YUF in this latter day cry of
marginalisation. The agitation
is in itself a gross decline of politics. It is derogation from
the rigour of the Awolowo’s
politics, which the competing
factions claim as their root.
More appropriately, the
marginalisation talk is symptomatic of the inherent
malaise of bourgeois politics.
The emptiness of this sort of
politics is shown when under
stress. That is why in his
response to the YUF, the presidential spokesman, Dr.
Doyin Okupe, also substitutes
the interest of the elite with
those of the people. His
politics is driven by the same
bourgeois calculations. It is even more disappointing
that among the agitators is a
personality such as Chief Olu
Falae. Here is a man who had
the opportunity to influence
policy at the highest level as Secretary to the Federal
Government and later Finance
Minister under the regime of
President Babangida in the
1980s. Subsequently, he
contested presidential primaries during the
Babangida transition
programme. In 1999 Falae
contested the presidential
election against Obasanjo.
The Yoruba elite have forgotten so soon that the
political elite in other parts of
the country could bear with
the fact that the two
candidates in that election
that put an end to military were Yoruba politicians. You
would expect from a man of
Falae’s experience and his
group to articulate alternative
development strategy for the
country if they are not satisfied that the Jonathan
agenda could tackle mass
poverty. The Nigerian political
elite is a study in
contradiction: yesterday you
wanted to govern Nigeria, today you are an ethnic
champion and tomorrow you
may again seek to be Nigeria’s
president. The majority of the Yoruba
people are poor like most
other Nigerians. They are the
ones on the margins of this
political economy and not the
elite. The NOI-Polls released only yesterday showed that
almost 50% of Nigerians lacks
access to clean water. The
Yoruba poor are among the
millions captured in this grim
statistics. You don’t need a Yoruba man to be the Finance
Minister, Governor of Central
Bank or Speaker of the House
of Representatives to reverse
this ugly trend. The ethnic
origin of Minister of Water resources does not even
matter in making potable
water available in every
home. All this talk about the
marginalisation of the Yoruba
is a distortion of the reality
facing the people. It is coming
from the disaffected members
of the Yoruba elite. Their agitation has no bearing with
the problems of poverty of the
people. The problem is not the
alleged marginalisation; the
issues are hunger, disease and
ignorance of the poor. These problems will not disappear
even if Jonathan makes peace
with the elite by merely
appointing some of them into
positions. The people should
see beyond the veil of this “struggle” against
marginalisation. Tags:

nonsense politicians seeking their selfish ends,robbers in political clothing,nonsense

yoruba never see anything...

wait for Nigeria to divide and then become subservient to your hausa lords because your cowardice will not let you attempt to fight for your freedom.

mumu!

p.s.: i did not even bother to read OP's post

Le Ostrich: yoruba never see anything...

wait for Nigeria to divide and then become subservient to your hausa lords because your cowardice will not let you attempt to fight for your freedom.

mumu!

p.s.: i did not even bother to read OP's post

i stopped reading him half way through, he is one of the yorubas that are yet to understand the dynamics of competition and self-preservation. may God show him the way.

anyho, yoruba is still the father of politics in this country. while igbo politics revolve around a daily planning and scheming about secession or why others should seccede, yoruba prefer to continously assess political situation and bring it under our harness.

ODUA_NEGRO:

i stopped reading him half way through, he is one of the yorubas that are yet to understand the dynamics of competition and self-preservation. may God show him the way.

anyho, [b]yoruba is still the father [/b]of politics in this country. while igbo politics revolve around a daily planning and scheming about secession or why others should seccede, yoruba prefer to continously assess political situation and bring it under our harness.

abeg, go make amala chop

@@@@
odua

anyho, yoruba is still the father of politics

---

major looter and killer in this country. while igbo politics revolve around a daily planning and scheming about secession or why others should seccede, yoruba prefer to continously assess political situation and bring it under our harness.

we the people already knew it! but dnt bother reminding us wat we knew biko

Yorubas are already slaves to the north without knowing it.

cowards. I can't wait for sharia law and hizbollah to replace Lastmata.

Mumu!

I don't know why Reuben Abati is so scared of using his name - this article can only come from a vagabond. No Yoruba of karo ojire will vomit this garbage. Nice write-up from Abati

Le Ostrich: Yorubas are already slaves to the north without knowing it.

cowards. I can't wait for sharia law and hizbollah to replace Lastmata.

Mumu!

hmmm oloribuh omo did you know that the absent of yoruba man in Jonathan administration is weakness the government ?

truth4meal: I don't know why Reuben Abati is so scared of using his name - this article can only come from a vagabond. No Yoruba of karo ojire will vomit this garbage. Nice write-up from Abati

you should hav read d contrnt b4 jumping to conclusion calling of names

wonder why people are so lazy to scan tru a write up so as to make meaningfull contributions

The OP said the truth here, all those elites are just fighting for their own pockets, @least they didn't remove yoruba senators from senate house!
What has GEJ done for bayelsa, ehn? Guys leave this marginalization talk alone, people come and go, 2015 now, probably a yoruba man will occupy d apex position, who knows?

django1: The OP said the truth here, all those elites are just fighting for their own pockets, @least they didn't remove yoruba senators from senate house!
What has GEJ done for bayelsa, ehn? Guys leave this marginalization talk alone, people come and go, 2015 now, probably a yoruba man will occupy d apex position, who knows?

Na so we see am.

Marginalisation for newspaper,looting of national together without noise. Criminals

When it is time to share the
spoils of office.They will not
remember marginalisation,but
when they lose out it is
marginalisation