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By adminadmin on November 28, 2015



Aokoya is presumably a Yoruba self-determination group by which definition will be assumed is a promoter of peoples’ right to self-determination. In doing so, it must be able to situate such rights within an existential paradigm of the peoples, in this instance, the Yoruba and Igbo peoples of Nigeria. The Igbo have been demonstrating for the restoration of Biafra, albeit couched under the auspices of having Radio Biafra’s director, Nnamidi Kanu released from detention, while papering over the contents of his radio broadcasts reeking with hate speeches against the Yoruba(and Fulani) as well as advocating war against the Nigerian State; even as the government embarked on a judicial process to prove his innocence or guilt as to any charges leveled against him, these play no part in the demonstrators’ demand for his unconditional release, having dubbed him their own freedom fighter.
Aokoya on its own part, hinged its support for the agitation by saying “ In 1966, Yoruba people were used as canon-fodders in the subjugation of the Igbo people”; this is nothing more than an attempt at befuddling Nigeria’s, hence Yoruba history under the cover of “self-determination” anchored on a complete denial of Yoruba experience thus also calling into question Aokoya’s credibility as a self-determination group. Any quest for self-determination that cannot stand on its own reality is false, all the more so when such a reality negates the quest ab initio, as in the case of the Igbo who have been active contributors to the Nigerian debacle.

The Igbo contributed in no small measure to Nigeria’s afflictions, having been consistent in sustaining Nigeria’s deconstruction through the 1966 illegal transfer of power to the Igbo Ironsi by the Igbo senate president leading directly to Ironsi’s abolition of the Federal Regions; the rejection of Decree 8 by Ojukwu, a decree which all but made a Confederation out of Nigeria through acquiescence to the Aburi Accord; Igbo electoral positions are always consistent with forces aimed at retaining the manifold corruption of the Nigerian State as expressed via the 1979 electoral college, “June 12”, all the post-military elections where the Igbo are always solidly behind the PDP, a clearly anti-progressive, anti-Federalist platform; while there are reports about the Secretary to the Federal Government in the Jonathan Government, an Igbo, ensuring all important positions in the office being held by the Igbo, while the then president himself, Goodluck Jonathan was adopted by the Igbo.

Prior to these, the NCNC allied with the NPC to illegally declare a State of Emergency in the West in 1962; the coalition ensured the creation of the Mid West Region out of the West with the aim of weakening the AG-controlled Western Region. As necessary as the creation of the Mid West Region was, it must be noted that the AG had always advocated the creation of at least three more Regions: the Mid West; Calabar-Ogoja-Rivers and the Middle Belt, for a more sustainable Federation. The NCNC/NPC coalition rejected the COR and Middle Belt, which happened to be in their respective Regions only to go for the Mid West.

With all of these(and more) how a “self-determination group” would define the current agitation as self-determination and worse, ascribe Igbo subjugation to the Yoruba beats the imagination. To be used as cannon-fodders imply a deliberate assault on the Igbo by other Nationalities in Nigeria, or the Nigerian State itself, with the Yoruba being the foot soldiers of such operations and discarded at will, yet this is not borne out by historical evidence.

Yoruba leaders, led by Awo had visited Ojukwu in order to arrive at a political solution outside of war; the Yoruba had successfully negotiated the repatriation of “northern” soldiers from the West; Igbo properties were left untouched by the Yoruba so much so that many Yoruba acted as property caretakers for the Igbo who were able to collect the arrears of their rents on their return. Ojukwu virtually snubbed the Yoruba delegation while his nocturnal visit to Awo was only to confirm Biafra’s readiness to declare secession, telling Awo that there is nothing anyone could do about it. The position remained unchanged even when Awo requested that he should be given two weeks’ notice before commencing any operations. The Awo delegation hardly arrived at Ibadan before the republic of Biafra was declared. Awo’s statement as to “ omission or commission..” was further manipulated to suit Biafran propaganda purposes while shelving the statement’s identification with self-determination, which is that Nigeria cannot be a country on the basis of expulsion/exclusion of another; it has to be either inclusive or non-existent.
At the commencement of the war itself, Biafra surreptitiously invaded the Mid Wester Region which had already declared its neutrality, and where only Igbo officers were in the know of the invasion and for the West, the invading forces only had a Yoruba at the head with the entire fighting force made up of Biafran soldiers with an order to the effect that all of the political and economic decisions to be made in the administration of the West remain with Biafra, an action which also scuttled the repatriation of northern soldiers. All of these are in the public domain and it is expected that a “self-determination group” worth its salt would be able to base its decisions on verifiable data; which calls into question Aokoya’s motivations as well as its worth as a self-determination group.

If self-determination implies the right of a Nationality to formally express her own existence in her own way, the abridgement of such rights must be clearly visible, one way or the other and as has been shown, Aokoya’s claim is not only false, it did not even show any form of abridgement.
Granted that this alone cannot be an impediment to the Igbo right to self-determination, objectively, none of the “majority” Nationalities, (the Tripod), in Nigeria can make any claim for self-determination from Nigeria, if the definition is based on the lack or denial of political/economic and cultural participation to the “group” which is not the case for the “Tripod”; especially for the Igbo and the Hausa-Fulani.

In this respect, it can only follow that agitation for self-determination by the “Tripod” in Nigeria cannot be isolated but must be applicable to all. This also does not imply that one Nationality must be made to wait for the other or that one Nationality’s actions must have the concurrence of the other in order for the agitation to proceed; which is why, for the Yoruba, the agitation for True Federalism had been continuous and consistent, regardless of what the Nigerian Nation State offers.

What is true of one Nationality is also true of the other; for, in more ways than one, every Nationality has a grouse with the Nigerian Nation State such that if any wants to be free from Nigeria, it cannot approbate and reprobate; and when such a Nationality is conspicuously active in the making of the present status, its quest for self-determination will be bereft of equity, which, by definition, nullifies the quest itself; equity being at the heart of self-determination.
The Igbo cannot solely determine the circumstances for her separation from Nigeria, except though force. Other Nationalities must have a say in defining what Nigeria is, or would/would not be, being that the quest for self-determination is a question of, for and about Nigeria itself, which boils down to the Igbo agitation not being a stand-alone. Such a case for self-determination, to be able to stand alone, must be able to show that its grievances are also stand-alone otherwise, the agitation is aimed at something quite different from self-determination.

The Buhari administration has to battle with a fight back from the losers of the 2015 election, not only as electoral losers but also as beneficiaries of the “unregulated” system of graft permeating the entire fabric of the society which, alongside the economic downturn, the Boko Haram insurgency, possible economic sabotage, judicial corruption as well as legislative opportunism in the National Assembly and now with supporters of Biafra surreptitiously steering the agitation towards revisiting the recommendations of the 2014 national conference organized by the losers, show that the aim of the agitation is not self-determination but bringing down the current government with whatever means at their disposal.

The current regime did state, in its Manifesto, that it will restore the “Federal Spirit” through True Federalism and President Buhari, in his Inaugural address did allude to Nigeria’s founding fathers and their achievements, mentioning them by name and these are none other than those who worked for and achieved the Federalism that ushered in Nigeria’s Independence.
Having said that, nothing stops any Nationality from making a case for not wanting to be part of Nigeria under any circumstances, which is precisely why “ooduapathfinder” says the issue of self-determination by any of the “Tripod”, and by extension, other Nationalities, cannot be made in isolation. Doing otherwise, especially by those responsible for bringing the current state of affairs into being go beyond self-determination and places it squarely within the ambit of bringing down the government of the day.