AS COPIED......
Interesting read my people!
Open Letter To Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu
By Adeyinka Adebayo
Iyin-Ekiti
My dear Asiwaju,
I am compelled to write this open letter to you
because of the state of affairs of the Yoruba
nation. Firstly, I wish to acknowledge that fate
has put you in a prime position to determine to a
large extent the direction that the Yoruba people
will go. The indisputable truth is that one may
quarrel with your politics but your sagacity is
never in doubt. Even those who don't see eye to
eye with you agree that you are imbued with
unusual native intelligence, uncommon people
skills and unrivaled foresight. You, more than any
other person, has been the game changer since
the advent of democracy in 1999. It is for these
reasons that I have chosen to direct this letter to
you.
My singular purpose is to tug at the strings of
your heart. I am not writing to appeal to partisan
considerations but to see, if per chance, I can
pour out my heart to you in a manner of
speaking. God has blessed you even beyond your
wildest imagination. You have installed Senators
and Governors. You have removed Governors and
even a President. You have also installed a
President. There is nothing you have wished for
or desired that you didn't get. Fortune has smiled
on you. Goodwill follows you everywhere you go.
You have done very well- more than most men
ever will. However, there is one area that is
begging for your urgent attention. This area may
well define you and all you have ever achieved.
This matter, in my opinion, is the only difference
between you and the late sage, Chief Obafemi
Awolowo. Let me restate for the purpose of
emphasis that this is the area in which the late
sage and Leader of the Yorubas stand head and
shoulders above you. It is the reason his name
has been a constant denominator in our regional
and national politics. It is the reason politicians,
friends and foes invoke his name for political
advantage and personal glory. It is also the
reason why we can't stop talking about him
almost thirty years after his death. What will
anyone say about you thirty years after you have
transited?
Asiwaju Sir, you may be wondering what I'm
talking about? It is the issue of legacy.
According to Peter Strople, 'Legacy is not leaving
something for people, it is leaving something in
people'. Legacy is building something that
outlives you. Legacy is greater than currency. In
the words of Leonard Sweet, ' What you do is
your history. What you set in motion is your
legacy'. You can't live forever, Sir. No one can.
But you can create something that will. Enough
of speaking in parables- I shall now speak
plainly.
When destiny brought you on the scene, we were
enamoured because you championed the case
for true federalism. It was your belief then that
the Yoruba nation will fare better under a
restructured arrangement than under the type of
unitary government we run while pretending by
calling it a federal government. Everyone knows
that there is nothing federal about our
government at all. If truth must be told, the
Yoruba nation has fared very badly since the
advent of our new democracy. And this is not
about holding power at the centre.
Let me bring this home: someone passed a
comment recently that he would want Biafra to
become a reality because he knows the Igbo
nation will survive. That comment led me to
deeper introspection as I wondered if the
Yorubas can truly survive. Let me cite my first
example. From Oyo to Osun, Ogun to Ondo, Ekiti
to Kwara and Lagos, hardly will one see any
serious industry or manufacturing concern owned
by a Yoruba person. I am not talking about
portfolio businesses or one-man business
concerns. Most industries in Oyo State are
owned by the Lebanese. The native business and
industry gurus who dominated the landscape-
Nathaniel Idowu, Amos Adegoke, Lekan Salami,
Alao Arisekola, Adeola Odutola, Jimoh Odutola,
Chief Theophilus Adediran Oni and others- are all
gone with no credible replacements. I'm sure you
remember the tyre factory of the Odutolas and
how Jimoh Odutola was even asked by the Governments of Kenya and Ghana to set up a
similar factory in their countries. Chief
Theophilus Adediran Oni, popularly called T.A Oni
& Sons started the first indigenous construction
company in Nigeria. He willed his residence-
Goodwill House, to the Oyo/Western state
government, to be used as a Paediatric Hospital,
which is now known as T.A Oni Memorial
Children Hospital at Ring Road in Ibadan. This
sprawling family Estate and residence was cited
on a 15acre piece of land, 65 rooms, with modern
conveniences, Olympic Swimming Pool and
stable for Horses, etc.
People like Chief Bode Akindele started
companies like Standard Breweries and Dr
Pepper Soft drink factory at Alomaja in Ibadan.
Broking House built by the late Femi Johnson, an
insurance magnate, still stands glittering in the
mid-day sun as an epitome to a rich history that
Ibadan has. The most serious and only notable
Yoruba entrepreneur we have now is Michael
Adenuga. I say this quite consciously because
most of the other names are oil and gas barons.
Most of what stood as testaments of industry in
Oyo State are gone- Exide Batteries, Leyland
Autos and many others. In its place are shopping
malls and road side markets but no nation
develops through buying and selling alone-
especially when you're not actually producing
what you're selling. Hypermarkets and
supermarkets have taken over because of the
need to feed our insatiable consumer-appetite
and foreign tastes. In one instance, an ancient
landmark in the form of a hotel was demolished
to pave way for a mall. That is how low we have
sunk. If our past is better than our present- if we
always look back with nostalgia frequently, then
there is a problem.
The case of other states is not different. Osun's
case is pathetic. Ditto for Ondo and Ekiti. Ogun
State can boast of some factories at Sango-Otta
and Agbara axis but most of them are not owned
by the Yorubas. There is no significant
pharmaceutical company owned by any Yoruba
except for Bond Chemicals in Awe, Oyo State-
and its wallet share is very insignificant. For
Lagos State, more than 70% of the manufacturing
concerns and major industries in the State are
owned by the Igbos. If the Igbos were to stop
paying tax in Lagos State, the IGR of Lagos State
will reduce by over 60%. In contrast, Sir, go to
the South East and look at the manufacturing
concerns in Onitsha, Aba and Nnewi. Please
don't forget those were areas ravaged by civil
war a mere forty something years ago. The Igbos
have certainly made tremendous progress but
the Yoruba nation has regressed. I wish to state
that this letter is not meant to whip up primordial
considerations or ethnic sentiments but just to
put things in proper perspective.
Asiwaju, I will like to also talk about the state of
education in the Yoruba nation. Our education
has gone to the dogs. We have a bunch of mis-
educated and ill-educated young men and
women roaming the streets. Ibadan, for instance,
had the first University in Nigeria and the first
set of research centres in Nigeria ( The Forestry
Research Institute, the Cocoa Research Institute
(CRIN), The Nigerian Cereal Research Institute
Moor Plantation (NCRI), the NIHORT (Nigerian
Institute of Horticultural Research), the NISER
(Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic
Research), IAR&T (Institute of Agriculture,
Research and Training), amongst several others).
Ibadan was the bastion of scholarship with
people like Wole Soyinka, JP Clark, D.O Fagunwa
and Amos Tutuola as residents. In the May/June
2015 West African Senior Secondary Certificate
Examination, Abia came tops. Anambra came
2nd while Edo was 3rd. Lagos placed 6th while
Osun and Oyo was 29th and 26th. Ekiti was 11th,
Ondo State was 13th and Ogun State was 19th.
In 2013 WASSCE, only Lagos and Ogun States
were the Yoruba States above the national
average. If we do an analysis of how Lagos
placed 6th in 2015, you will discover that it was
substantially because of other nationalities
resident in Lagos. For proof, please look no
further than the winners of the Spelling Bee
competition which has produced One-Day
Governors in Lagos State. Since inception in
2001, other nationalities have won the
competition six times (Ebuka Anisiobi in 2001,
Ovuwhore Etiti in 2002, Abundance Ikechukwu in
2006, Daniel Osunbor in 2008, Akpakpan Iniodu
Jones in 2011 and Lilian Ogbuefi in 2012). Sir,
there is something seriously wrong about our
state of education. From the vintage times of
Obafemi Awolowo who initiated 'free education',
we have regressed into a most parlous state.
Let me talk about roads, housing and
infrastructure . The first dualized road in Nigeria,
the Queen Elizabeth road from Mokola to Agodi
in Ibadan was formally commissioned by Queen
Elizabeth in 1956. The first Housing Estate in
Nigeria is Bodija Housing Estate (also in Ibadan)
which was built in 1958. The state of roads in
the Yoruba nation has become pathetic. Our
hinterland are still largely rural. Even some state
capitals like Osogbo and Ado-Ekiti are big
villages when you compare them to towns in the
South East. How many new estates have been
built over the last decade? Even Ajoda New
Town lies in ruins.
We have abandoned the farm settlement strategy
of the Western Region and only pay lip service to
agriculture. Instead of feeding others like we
once did, others now feed us. We plant no
tomatoes, no pepper and the basic food that we
require. The Indians have bought the large
expanse of water body that we have in
Onigambari village. The water body in Oke Ogun
of Oyo State can provide enough fish to feed the
whole of the South West. From being a major
cocoa exporter many years ago, one can point to
just a few vestiges of factories that still deal with
Cocoa in the Yoruba nation. 80% of Cocoa
processing industries in the South West have
been shut down. The Chinese have taken over
the cashew belt at Ogbomoso in Oyo State. They
have even edged out the indigenes as brokers.
They now come to the cashew belt to buy from
the local farmers, sell on the spot to other
Chinese exporters who now process the cashew
nuts and import them back into Nigeria at a
premium. Sir, there are only 7 major cashew
processing plants in Nigeria and you can check
out the ownership. The glory has departed from
the Yoruba nation.
Apart from Asejire, Ede, Ikere Gorge and Oyan
dams built ages ago, where are the new dams to
cater for increased population and water
capacity for the Yoruba nation? How have we
improved on what our heroes past left us?
Maybe apart from certain areas in Lagos State,
others can't even supply their citizens with pipe-
borne water.
Our youth which we used to take pride in are
largely a mass of unemployed and unemployable
people. Have you noticed the abundance of
street urchins, area boys, touts and 'agberos'
that we now have all across the Yoruba nation?
Have you noticed the swell in the ranks of
NURTW (I mean no disrespect to an otherwise
noble union)? Have you noticed the increase in
the number of Yoruba beggars? There was a time
that it was taboo for a Yoruba man to beg- but
no more. The spirit of apprenticeship is dead.
There was a time that people who learn
vocational skills celebrate what we referred to
as 'freedom'. While that is largely moribund now
in the Yoruba nation, the Igbos still practice it
with great success.
The only thing we can boldly say the Yoruba
nation controls is the information machinery- the
press. We own largely the newspapers- the
Nation, Punch, Nigerian Tribune, TV Continental
and a few others. It is because of our control of
this information machinery that we have
rewritten the narrative in the country with the
misguided self-belief that things are normal and
we are making progress. A look beyond the
surface will prove that this is so untrue.
We are largely divided. For the first time in the
history of the Yoruba nation, religion is about to
divide us further- and it is starting from Osun
State. You are married to a Christian. My own
father-in-law is an Alhaji. That is how we have
peacefully do-existed but the fabrics are about
to be torn to shreds because of poor
management of issues. Afenifere has been
reduced to a shadow of itself. OPC that once
defended Yoruba interests has gone into oblivion.
Yoruba elders have been vilified in the name of
politics and partisanship. It is no longer news to
see teenagers throwing stones at their elders
because of their political indoctrination. Even
under the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the
Yorubas never belonged to just a single party-
yet our unity was without blemish. Now, our
values have gone down the drain.
Asiwaju, I believe I have said enough. The task is
Herculean but I believe Providence has brought
you here for such a time like this. It is time for
the Yoruba nation to clean up its acts. What do
we really want? How can we quickly right the
wrongs? The Yoruba nation is in a state of
arrested development. The Yoruba nation is
gasping for breath and crying for help. Will you
rise up to the occasion? I am aware you
understand that all politics is local and charity
begins at home. Our fathers gave us a proverb:
'Bi o'ode o dun, bi igbe ni'gboro ri'. I know there
are no quick fixes but I also know that if there is
anyone who has the capacity to do something
about our current situation, that person is you.
This should be the legacy you should think of.
Your legacy is our future.
Yours Very Sincerely,
Adebayo Adeyinka
Iyin-Ekiti