Dare Sunday Awoniyi is one of the children of the late Sunday Bolorunduro Awoniyi, Aro of Mopa, Kogi state. The late Awoniyi lived all his life defending Northern hegemonic oligarchy interest. He never identified with the main stream Yoruba in the west. His political camp was pitched with the northern power base. He openly declared his political leaning and he never wavered in his defense of the northern political establishment. He lived and died for the North.

However in 1999, when political reconfiguration of the country was being done, the late Awoniyi had a head - on collision with another defender of the Northern oligarchy, Aremu Olusegun Obasanjo. The north was reading the nation political radar better than the late Awoniyi. Awoniyi could not adjust to the new political beat fast enough and he was sacrificed by the oligarchy.

Awoniyi kind of political permutation was still rooted in Nigeria of the 1960's. He could not decipher fast that the political climate had changed. Awoniyi was a dinosaur that the northern oligarchy wanted in the museum of politics because the oligarchy needed Obasanjo more than he needed them. Obasanjo was needed to give Nigeria a semblance of unity and cohesion. Awoniyi had been used and was sacrificed by the oligarchy.

Obasanjo was used for the job. The occasion was the election of the chairman of the Peoples Democratic Power, PDP, the largest and the most powerful political party in Nigeria then. And the year was 1999. The venue was the eagles square in Abuja. The man that was put in the ring with him was Barnabas Andyar Gemade, another member of the oligarchy. In the full glare of the camera the ballots were counted and Awoniyi lost to Gemade. The rest as they say is history.

Before the convention that threw up Gemade as the chairman of the party, PDP, something interesting happened between Awoniyi and Obasanjo and it had to do with the Yoruba ethnic identity crisis of so-called northern Yoruba. Obasanjo called Awoniyi and told him he could not become the party chairman since a Yoruba man was already the President. However Awoniyi disagreed with him and told Obasanjo that the presidency was zoned to the south west while the party chairmanship was zoned to the north central. And, according to Awoniyi, being from Kogi state made him belong to north central and as a result eligible to contest. Obasanjo, as humorous as ever asked Awoniyi: which Hausa person bears Sunday Bolorunduro Awoniyi?

I hope Dare Sunday Awoniyi will resolve his Yoruba ethnic identity crisis earlier. Living all his life in Kaduna does not make him Hausa. And I ask like Aremu Obasanjo: Is there any Hausa man answering Dare Sunday Awoniyi?