www.ooduapathfinder.com
February 2, 2015


Terrorism is a strategy aimed primarily to intimidate a Nation State into either introducing a state of emergency by truncating civil liberties which in turn will work in favor of the insurgents or directly overwhelm the State into submission, which, apparently, is the case with Nigeria, as far as the calls for postponement of elections and an Interim Government are concerned, which will not only be a clear subversion of the Sovereign will of the people expressed in periodic elections but also an affirmation of capitulation to Boko Haram’s terrorist tactics.
The former National Security Adviser, late General Andrew Azazi had openly stated that Boko Haram is a PDP affair; Goodluck Jonathan had also openly declared that “Boko Haram is in his government”. Taken together and coupled with terrorism’s strategic goal of utilizing such tactics to bring a country’s democratic pursuit down, the only beneficiary of postponement or interim government is Goodluck Jonathan, as a political product of Boko Haram terrorism, which makes him and by extension, all promoters of election postponement and/or interim government politically culpable in the Boko Haram insurgency .

Afenifere, the self-glorifying group purportedly in pursuit of Restructuring Nigeria, hinged its support for Goodluck Jonathan on the pretext of consummating Goodluck Jonathan’s restructuring of Nigeria via his National Conference, on the basis of which Afenifere is canvassing for the postponement of the elections topped with an interim government.
Goodluck Jonathan has spent six years in office, and the only time he made a foray into the Restructuring process is his convening of his National Conference, in 2014; wherein its resolutions were submitted to a committee to study and make its own recommendations known. Aside from seeking “state police, state constitutions, creation of more states, mergers of states into zonal commissions” there is nothing in the Conference resolutions that centered on powers over resources where such issues were reserved for a “technical commission” to resolve while the states are further balkanized into economically powerless entities dependent on the same center for its survival.
What all of these go to show is that “Restructuring”, by itself, does not automatically translate into “Federalism” as going by the Jonathan Conference reports, which is now deemed as “restructuring”, a further strengthening of the Center, and therefore the Presidency, is its outcome. Coupled with calls to postpone the elections with an interim government in tow, it becomes very obvious that Boko Haram’s strategy of intimidating the State into submission is being strengthened since the only way to achieve it is the subversion of the established Sovereign will of the Nigerian State through postponement/interim government.
By canvassing this line of action, Afenifere has shown that it is an enabler of Boko Haram by advocating postponement of the elections or an Interim Government, subsuming it under an excuse of promoting Federalism which had been at the center of Yoruba political demands since the dawn of anti-colonial politics and which, at one time, was an active participant.
[b]“ooduapathfinder” [/b]reminds readers that in 1994, the Obas, Chiefs, Leaders of Thought and Entire People of Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Osun and Oyo States of the Federal Republic of Nigeria prepared a Memorandum to the National Constitutional Conference Commission (NCC) in response to the call by Sanni Abacha, to all the people of Nigeria, including Traditional Rulers, to contribute ideas for his proposed National Constitutional Conference that would fashion out an endurable and sustainable political system which will suitably accommodate the diverse cultures of Nigeria and adequately address the fears and aspirations of the various Nationalities in the country.
The memorandum was remitted to all the five states for detailed and critical consideration by the Obas, Chiefs and Leaders of Thought in each of the States. A further meeting of representatives of all five states was held at Abeokuta where all the different Groups, including Committee of Afenifere that had earlier submitted memoranda to NCCC were represented. A post-Abeokuta committee was also set up to harmonize the various Yoruba positions to the proposed Constitutional Conference. The draft memorandum prepared by the Committee was considered by the Resumed Conference of Obas, Chiefs and Leaders of Thought of the five Yoruba States in Akure and was adopted by acclamation by the Conference and it represented the sole and authoritative views of all the Obas, Chiefs, Leaders of Thought and the entire People of Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Osun and Oyo States of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The Abacha National Constitutional Conference eventually led to the establishment of “Zones” as “Federating Units”, even as this was not made a Constitutional construct.
In 2005, the government of General Obasanjo organized its own Political Reform Conference, where the content of the Yoruba Memorandum was reinforced and acknowledged by the Yoruba representatives. Also acknowledged were the efforts of other groups like the Yoruba Constitutional Group which had prepared the Draft Yoruba Constitution after several consultations throughout Yorubaland and the Yoruba Diaspora.
The demands made at both the 1994 and 2005 Conferences centered on, among others “a self-governing and autonomous Yoruba Region necessary to mobilize the energy of the Yoruba for progress and development, and to ignite their collective resolve for cultural renaissance, educational resurgence and social stability; the right of the Yoruba of Nigeria (living in Ekiti, Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Osun and Oyo states) to live under a Regional Government within the Federation of Nigeria, where The Yoruba Region shall have the right to negotiate with other nationalities of Nigeria along the laid down principles of true Federalism, justice and equity; the Yoruba Region shall have its own Constitution that shall not be inconsistent with the constitution of a true Federation; recognized the right of the Yoruba of Nigeria living in Ekiti, Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Osun and Oyo states to live under one Regional Government of their choice within a democratic Federation of Nigeria; affirmed the right of Yoruba living in Delta, Edo, Kogi, and Kwara states, whose territories are contiguous with the rest of Yorubaland to demand that they want to join the Yoruba Region; affirmed the right of other nationalities and states to form their own Regions within the Federation of Nigeria and the right of non-Yoruba, and indeed, non- Nigerians, to live and work within the Yoruba Region being protected by law like every other citizen of the Region and finally affirmed that it is the right and, indeed, the duty of every Yoruba citizen to work for the creation of the Yoruba Region to protect the legacies of our ancestors, safeguard the heritage of the past, and bequeath a land of freedom and progress to future generations of Yoruba.
But Afenifere, a participant in all of the above affirmations and demands, has now turned these demands on its head, for there is nothing in the Jonathan Conference recommendations that are anywhere close to the above. Even if it is said that current states cannot simply be wished away as administrative units, the fact of the matter is that each “Zone” or Federating Unit should be able to decide for itself how its administrative structure is to play out which is completely different from having a Center in control of resources while being the overseer for the creation of states that will continue to depend on the same Center for its survival allocations. Thus, instead of the Jonathan Conference taking off from where we left off in 2005, it completely overturned the concept and meaning of Federalism and substituted it with an unparalleled unitarism that even the colonial forces were unable to achieve; no thanks, in part, to Afenifere’s antics.
The idea that the “north” does not want True Federalism and opposed it at the Conference is not tenable; for nothing stopped Afenifere from sticking with the Federalist position even if the end result would be a deadlocked Conference, as happened in 2005, where Oronto Douglass, now Goodluck Jonathan’s Special Adviser on Research and Documentation, led the Niger Delta to scuttle the 2005 Conference based on unresolved Resource Control issues and even supported by the Yoruba; yet heavens did not fall. Afenifere is certainly comfortable with only a “successful conference” regardless of its content and the reason is now very clear as it is now being promoted as a campaign platform for the Jonathan-Presidency-in-permanence, which is the direct consequence of the Boko Haram strategy.
Afenifere, for purposes of political opportunism, having completely negated and sold out on historical Yoruba demands, must be unequivocally denounced alongside its political platform, the PDP of Goodluck Jonathan. We have an opportunity on February 14, 2015 to vote out Goodluck Jonathan and we must not let it slip us by. “ooduapathfinder” also calls on the entire Yoruba Global Nation to denounce and reject any attempt at postponing the elections or imposing a so-called interim government.