Midastouch1:

My friend, most of what you have written is nonsense! I am from Ondo and I am yet to see any Ondo or Ekiti man/woman ever question or doubt their Yorubaness or their association with the rest of the great Yoruba race.

Your argument about equality, while being a fair point given historical events is misguided in the current scheme of affairs. You say you wanted an intellectual discussion but the title of your thread does not indicate that, neither did the contents of your OP.

South West Politics, generally has metamorphosed from the parochial politics that existed in the early-mid 20th century , our experience in the Nigerian nation has fostered unity in Yorubaland. As an Ondo man, you should know that even within the state, there is mutual suspicion between people from Ondo Town, Ile-Oluji and Idanre - such is the nature of politics but at the end of the day, we sit down together and eat Iyan together.

We have fought our corner collectively and have arguably fared better than most ethnic groups in Nigeria in terms of political unity. I am not trying to imply that we are perfect - far from it, but it is that unity of purpose that has differentiated us from the rest of Nigeria. Individualism is a philosophy unacceptable in Yorubaland.

The handwriting is on the wall, every region in Nigeria will soon start to bear their papa name either by a transparent and efficient fiscal federalism structure or most likely and more appropriate regional political structure. As a Yoruba man, I dont care if the capital is Osogbo, Abeokuta, Ogbomoso or Ifon, we have the political maturity to govern ourselves and formulate/implement policies that will benefit our citizens and law abiding immigrants. A Yoruba region or Nation will foster constructive competition and engender overall development. We dont engage in hocus pocus politics- we will discuss and thrash it out so that no set of people will arrogate political and economic power to themselves.

Lastly, to the usual suspects who come here to rejoice at divisions in Yorubaland, I will advise you to wake up and smell the coffee. Yorubaland is strong and a force that no one can wish away- not even in your dreams. A lot of you have consistently complained that you have been marginalised - can any of you give provide any statistics as to the difference between the Federal Govt allocations that has been given to your states and the rest of Nigeria since the inception of the Nigerian state and let us conduct an empirical distribution analysis. Could it be a case that while your leaders have been resolutely misappropriating these funds at the expense of your development- Federal allocations to the SW has been relatively better spent to make the region a magnet for inward migration?

Dudu_Negro:

Your original post should have opened on this quest. This response is welconing.

No Yoruba state was immuned from the wastefullness and largesse of corruption instituted at the center.

There are certain critical timelines in the evolution of modern democracy in Yorubaland. Your issue is addressed in all of them.

1. 1957
Western Nigeria gained independence from colonial rule and went into self-governance.

Awolowo installed his socialist reform policies for free education, free healthcare and launched public awareness programs through print media, radio broadcast and tv programming.
His field agents, in conjunction with public information broadcasters, took the message of "education" into rural Yorubaland and campaigned vigorously to farmers and artisans on the value of education and its relational benefit to the land, the farm, the peoole and their community.


2. 1960
Nigeria is Independent and self-governance is returned to the people.

Awolowo retained the sovereingty of Western Nigeria as a concrete power and viewed Nigerian sovereingty as a pseudo-power to exist simply as an experiment. His progressive policies covered all the way up to what is today Ijaw territories and Anioma. No land under the umbrella of Western coverage was left untouched. This ran counter to the ambition in the center. Awolowo and the West must be slowed down. Part of the scheme to effect the slow down was strenghtening the center as a Republic and thereby effecting a new citizenship status - the political impact is that Yorubas thus lost their citizenship as Westerners and became citizens under a Federal Republic of Nigeria in 63.

Also, the Federal Republic with its new power sabotaged the Western interest and aroused division by campaigning a propaganda of deceipt that Yorubas want to use the resources of non-Yorubas in the Western Region to develop Yorubaland and subdue them as second class citizens in the region. That propaganda succeeded in collecting signatories for a break-away from West and the creation of MidWestern State.

Following that, Awolowo, unperturbed, continued to score many developments on the ground. He introduced produce board, farmers cooperative councils, savings and investment banks, Oodua development board, Cocoa House, incentive laced industrial complexes and a robust taxation system to fund the socialist programs of education, healthcare, retirement and pension, trade and skills learning centers as well as expansion of public awareness programs and the establishment of a political think tank group.

Cracks in the internal disagreements within the party was exploited to launch chaos and disorder. Awolowo was falsely charged of treason. Akintola was installed, mayhem broke and the independence status of Western Nigeria was substantially erased when Federal troops were deployed to maintain law and order. Politically that was a territorial invasion into a sovereign soil. That event brought Yorubaland firmly into the grip of Federal authorities and Yoruba lost its 1957 sovereingty privilege.


3. 1966.
Double Coups and military power
In quick successions and back to back all the ideals of a great Yoruba societyand the 9yrs progress from 57 to 66 were thrown out. There was no way we could ever reverse and gain those exclusive trajectory of developments back.

However, with the widespread frustration of failure with the experiments of nationhood, it appeared that egos were deflated and defeated in the two regions North and East who in their political coalition had ganged up to retard the sovereign progress in the West, and finally each region might take its loss and start back up where it missed the road in 63. If that had happened West could perharps have had a second shot at it....after all, beside the ones killed in the coups, most of the principal ideologues were still alive and the blueprint is there, the infrastructures were there.

Yoruba was ready for another shot at sovereingty, North was ready and it appeared MidWest and East were ready. This was the first SNC, popularly called Aburi Accord.

In its implementation, East raised accusations that the central military power was biased and lacked credibility. East approached the Accord as a matter of principles and failed to see the political benefit. Even when the political rewards were pointed out and they were persuaded to accept that and use it pivotally to later negotiate and firm up on the principles, it was rejected as all or nothing. In the struggle to gain much East ended up loosing all. The hope therefore that Nigeria will be dissolved was lost and a new eliteclass of rulers mounted the center.


4. 1967
War
A negotiated agreement to move all non-Yoruba military personnell out of Yorubaland had been won and was awaiting execution when East suddenly marched into MidWest and changed the course of events.

Yorubaland was occupied by a horde of non-Yoruba foreigners conscripted in the North by Federal power and then Biafra had advanced into Ore and aiming for Lagos and Ibadan.

If Federal troops had deployed out before Biafra had launch, there might not be a Nigeria today and West would have secured its borders militarily against incursion in East or North. This would definitely have prompted Ojukwu to view his opportunities from a different angle....but his rebellion resulted in another missed opportunity for sovereingty.

5. 1970 to 79
Military Leadership
For the first time in the history of Yorubaland a non-Yoruba sits as a ruler over the land and directs the affairs in our Oba's palace.

We ended up with foreigners as governors over us. Not only did we loose a sovereingty, we also lost right of political supremacy that dated back into ancient history. Never before has any foreign power dictated decision making to an Ooni or an Alaafin. Even the Colonialists did not do that. Now we have an Ezechukwu and a Yakassai, a Donald and a Luther, a Babagana and a Okon serving as Lords over us.

These are some of the pains of what the loss of sovereingty cost us.

6. 1979
Return to Democracy
The period of 70 to 79 has brought in the new age of national project. Government contractors were swimming in wealth. A new movement came alive.....the movement of money is power! It used to be Independence is power in the 60s. MKO, Akinjide, Omoboriowo, Ogunlana.....these people departed from the Yoruba struggle and consciousness for exclusivity and sovereingty and camped with the power in the center for personal gains.

Yorubaland lost its grip on self-sufficiency from 79 through 99.....a period of twenty years!

In that period, we suffered on our land a repeat of what we went through between 63 and 70, except that this time it happened on a different scale.


6. 2000 to 2015
Our experience has taught lessons. We have seen wisdom in the knowledge that we are at our best when we focus in on our commonwealth and regard Nigera as a toxic and unfriendly landscape and our land and people must be secured and shielded from its vagaries.

We are confronted by another opportunity to give Western Sovereingty a shot. Elements of individualism must be subdued for the purpose of collective gains.

If everybody agitate for their land or state to be capital.....then where do we get food, educators, military, artisans, and so on?

Each land must put forward its best footing and be our capital for that value-add to the society.

cKaiser: Not to bore you lets fast forward to 1999, [size=14pt]The Yorubas were given a free pass to produce the President, Guess who Afenifere endorsed? You got it right Chief Olu Falae an Akure man even at the expense of a core NADECO man like Bola Ige and all Yorubas even Ogun people ditched Obasanjo and voted Falae en masse

Do you think ogun ppl who embraced Falae and ditched OBJ were foolish? If they had followed your own line of reasoning, They would have voted for their son too. But guess what? Yoruba cultural heritage supersedes all banal sentiments
[/size]

Fashola thats governor in Lagos is reported to be from EKiti and Tinubu from Osun why no issues

Now back to your position when Awolowo , Akintola and the AG were ruling there was nothing like Oyo state, Ekiti state and Osun state we were all Western region

Now tell me what special status Ogbomoso, Osogbo, Ikirun, Igbeti, Saki, Sagamu, Ijebu Igbo Ado Ekiti now benefited and why haven't the people from these places come out to protest like you?

I know a lot of Ondo people, My wife is from Ondo state and no one I repeat no one shares this sentiments with you

[size=13pt]BTW have you asked WAEC why they use Oyo Yoruba for the exams and not Ekiti Ijebu or Akure dialect?[/size]

Desola:
Brilliant stuff! Very well articulated!

Dudu_Negro:

Shymexx, please put it up there. We will contribute to it. Its important for us to look back and see where we could have been and compare with where we are and where we should be going.

America is still struggling and tettering on its feet over 50 years after we launched free health care for all. No othe region, not even the Colonial government or Nigerian government gave people free health. Western Nigeria built the first stadium in Sub sahara, first tv in Africa as a whole. Awo stood on the legislative floor in Lagos and told the white Governor General that he had no use for them because he has accomplished successfully in 14yrs for Western Nigeria what they failed in 100yrs from 1860 to 1960 to achieve for Nigeria.

This statement by Awo need to be on a plaque and on display in the museum in Cocoa House. It should be taught and phrased the way JFK's inauguration theme was phrased....or MLK's March on Washington speech was phrased.

Awo must be immortalized. If this was 1700s Yorubaland the man will be deified!

alj harem: Ok first of all op, you have aired your point in a very Stu.pid way lol . Yes I am not from ondo but Lagos. Akure can be a capital and I have no objection to that but the reason why you are a but Stu.pid is that in Yoruba land, where the capital is located is NEVER AN ISSUE SO DON'T MAKE IT ONE. For all I care, warri or yagba can be the new capital, it does not change the relationship. What is most important is how we see ourselves. Tinubu is from osun and was a gov in my state, fashola is from ekiti not Lagos and is a governor in the economic capital so in all these it is clear location of a capital has no bearing.

You remind me of a typical silly igboman tbh

Katsumoto:

The man was ahead of his generation and subsequent generations by at least 100 years. It is no wonder Harold McMillan said Awo was great enough to have been a British Prime Minister.

Desola:
Don't worry about how or when I get oiled but worry about your non appealing state to even your kinsmen. Ibos are queuing up to have a Yoruba abuna? So hey yourself together and give onlytrith your best outing yet,
It's not everyday you get to sh4g an eze of Nairaland you know. If you are lucky? He might throw in tomakint to give some cunnil1ngus
It's your lucky night.

Dudu_Negro:

First and foremost, there has been discussions for years on how to transform Yoruba politics in the eventual return to regional power. The concensus in West is to go Parliamentarian. What does this mean?

It means a co-share of decision making between democratically elected politicians who hold a strong worldview and traditional land barons who hold a conservative position on customs and tradition. This will give us a diverse and balanced political stability. This system is consistent with Yoruba historical rulership.

I could be wrong but my suspicion is that under such configuration, we will do away with states and instead have Ijeshaland, Ijebuland, Igbomina, Egbaland, Eko, Ilorin, and so on as the replacement for states. Each of these lands will be sub-composed into constituencies such as Ikeja, Agege, Badagry, Isheri, Ota, Sagamu, Abeokuta, Idanre, Okitipupa, Akure, Owo, Ede, Saki, Offa, and so on....

Each commonwealth land will be a designate for a particular and specific socio-cultural value. This value ought to be assigned on the basis of comparative advantage.

So what comparative advantage does Akure have and is best at than any otjer Yorubaland? Whatever it is, that is what you should be crusading for........not the seat of Yoruba politicalpower. Oyo has the best advantage for Yoruba political power and history and customs supports this. We should be moving forward from our point of detachment from Nigeria, not regressing. Changing seat of political power is a regress, not to say it is impossible and impractical.

shymexx:

I asked you to read more on why London was chosen as the Capital of the UK because it actually betrays your agenda. However, it gives credence to why Ibadan should be the Capital of any Yoruba country. London was made the Capital by the Normans because it was the largest city in England (and it's) at that point in history. Before London, the Romans used Colchester as the capital city. Saxons chose Winchester and Vikings used York..

shymexx:
Anyway, I'm also not too inclined towards the choice of Ibadan, since Ibadan has always been a city - and it's still a city. However, Ondo is out of the equation due to its location. I would like a situation whereby a new city would be built from the scratch. And it has to geographically in a safe and barren place. Probably somewhere around[b] Oyo/Ogun/Osun/Ondo axis[/b].