Freegift75:


*I LONG FOR THE DAYS OF WESTERN NIGERIA*
by
Prince Lanre Adegun


Many people, today, (including those in their 50’s!) don’t know this.

I long for the days of Western Nigeria. I long for those days when I lived in peace, knowing that I was well taken care of.

When my then Premier (Chief executive of Western Nigeria) - Obafemi Awolowo didn’t have to wait, every month, for Federal Government allocation, before doing for us what development plans he had.

There was a time in this country when we actually had THREE COUNTRIES effectively within the country. And each country was RUNNING SMOOTHLY on its own. It’s like England, Scotland, and Wales (each of them individual countries in themselves, with their own flag, anthem, etc.) yet making up the country called Great Britain.

At that time, Western Nigeria was a COUNTRY on its own. We had our own WESTERN NIGERIA CONSTITUTION. Just like Eastern Nigeria (another country) had theirs. And Northern Nigeria (yet ANOTHER COUNTRY!) had theirs.

These three countries (just like England, Wales and Scotland) had a jointly-agreed-upon federal government which only took care of matters of COMMON INTEREST – like Defence, for instance, but was NOT a humongous task-master that keeps breathing down the neck of those Regions.

Yes, we called them Regions, but the truth was that they were DIFFERENT COUNTRIES which had decided to come together to operate a FEDERAL SYSTEM. A Federal System in which the REGIONS WERE THE MASTERS OF THEIR OWN DESTINIES.

Western Nigeria had a MINISTER OF EDUCATION (not a Commissioner) Eastern Nigeria had their own MINISTER OF EDUCATION. Northern Nigeria had theirs too.

Similarly there were all other MINISTERS – because these were COUNTRIES on their own. The Federal MINISTER OF EDUCATION was NOT in any way a superior to the Regional Ministers of Education. He simply supervised those educational institutions that were strictly owned by the joint Federal Government belonging to the THREE REGIONS – the THREE COUNTRIES.

*The 3 Regions actually owned the Federal Government, and not the other way round!* Just as the countries of West Africa, today, own ECOWAS.

Western Nigeria had its own FOREIGN EMBASSIES. We chose our own foreign friends. And they didn’t have to be the same countries that Nigeria at the Federal level related with.

There was NO unified salary structure. I remember Western Nigeria paid the highest civil servants’ salaries in the entire Federation! *It was one of the reasons there weren’t many Yorubas, relatively speaking, in the employment of the Federal Government!*

Our Igbo brothers on the other hand flocked to Lagos as their region paid far less than the Federal Government.

Because, what were you looking for in the Federal civil service, when Western Nigeria could pay more. It sounds too good to be true, but it’s not only TRUE, but, also, they don’t want you to know this TRUTH, so that you won’t long for those days, and so that they can keep you and your people in BONDAGE to this present Federal Government that is now alpha and omega.

When every other region (and the colonial masters too) thought it was IMPOSSIBLE to give free education to children, Western Nigeria said we can do it. And WE did it. Boy! Education became FREE in all PRIMARY SCHOOLS in Western Nigeria.

Most of us attended MISSION schools in those days, as there were only very few schools established by government itself.

But the free education given by Western Nigeria was to ALL children in primary schools. Yes, all children *So those mission schools, compulsorily, STOPPED charging fees! The Western Nigeria government (because it had control of its own resources and was NEVER in any way tied to the apron strings of the Federal Government) provided for ALL the schools – regardless of whether they were directly owned by government or not!*
That’s why many people think that my generation attended public schools. The truth is that, if public schools mean schools owned by government, there were VERY FEW SCHOOLS OWNED BY GOVERNMENT.

IN THOSE DAYS, and most of us actually attended schools owned by missions – churches. *But my dear Western Nigeria gave ALL OF US free primary education, whether in Government or Private Mission Schools* !

And they intended taking it higher before the Army truncated that system in 1966.

My dear Western Nigeria established the University of Ife. *Awolowo was not as parochial as those of recent years. He did not take the University to his place at Ikenne, Ogun State.* He could have done it then.

Now, go ask your elders what is meant by University of Ife. They will tell you that it is that University which struck WORLD-WIDE ATTENTION right from its inception!

It’s not for nothing that it’s called “GREAT IFE” From its very inception, it shot to the limelight *Professor Banji Akintoye,* a renowned historian, RESIGNED his position at the University of Ibadan (which had been established by the colonial masters after the pattern of British universities) to go to Ife! Ife was IRRESISTIBLE! Ife became THE STANDARD.

May God bless the soul and memory of *Professor Hezikaih Oluwasanmi* and his cohorts for bringing prestige to the Yoruba Nation

Because Western Nigeria had their Destiny in their own hands, and we pursued it with vigour, until they took away our patrimony from us!

The military struck in 1966, and, with one thing leading to another, they gradually TOOK AWAY THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE REGIONS and gave the powers of those regions to a humongous and behemoth *Unitary Government of Nigeria* that now CONTROLS OUR DESTINY.

They took the University of Ife away from us (commandeered it, military style) and made it a FEDERAL UNIVERSITY Go and ask those who know, they will tell you that that’s the day the UNIVERSITY OF IFE STARTED GOING DOWN.

They now sought to placate us, later, by naming it OBAFEMI AWOLOWO UNIVERSITY. Na dat one we wan chop? *It is time now that we behind to act towards taking back our sovereignty!* We need to take back our property. We need to start the fight to get control of our own resources.

We are TIRED of your Nigeria that is suffocating us!

Western Nigeria established the FIRST television station in Africa. Even when the Federal Government did NOT have a television station! Officials of the Federal Government came (they were invited!) to come and watch when we opened the first television station in Africa, in 1959. It was named WESTERN NIGERIA TELEVISION (WNTV) and the first face ever, on television in Africa, was one of our mummies (who was a young girl at the time), *Anike Agbaje-Williams.* Western Nigeria caught the attention of the world They came later, and took away WESTERN NIGERIA TELEVISION from us, and they named it NTA, which now call themselves the first and largest television network in Africa.

The so-called Federal Government controlled by Northerners soldiers took over our patrimony. This was sadly but naively aided by our own *Chief R.A. Ogunlade* , the then Federal Minister of Information

The Unitary Government of Nigeria took over our Liberty Stadium and other icons of our achievements as a proud Yoruba Nation.

It is fact of history though that our brethren YORUBAS in uniform were naive and got carried away by the fake promise of a United Nigeria. Their antelope was sadly in bed with the hyena of the Fulanis. Very sadly indeed to have been akimbo while their Northern colleagues got away with cunning deception.

Now that the fake Federation has turned out to be a Unitary Government of Nigeria, the time is nigh to start the quest to regain the Yoruba Nation.

The time is nigh.

GIVE ME THE OLD WESTERN NIGERIA.

MAY GOD BLESS THE ODUDUWA PEOPLES OF THE WORLD.

Edited for clarity.
Akin Fapohunda.

TheFreeOne:
The writeup almost brought tears to my eyes.

Nigeria 'as is' presently is a lost cause. Only fools believes it will get better without restructuring or a split into 'countries'. The injustice in the system is an albatross that'll always be the bane of her real development.

I am an omoluabi and i long for Oodua nation.

bilulu:
nice write-up.... history was wiped out from our schools so that other generations won't know how we were. But do most Yorubas believe that this present Nigeria is scam? are they not carried away like the western armies you pointed out? Nigeria as it is now can never work

BuhariAdvocate:
Aguiyi ironsi caused Nigeria problem and it would last forever.

Freegift75:


pray for the betterment of the nation, those who love it shall prosper.....says the book of the lord

bilulu:

Bros you may not agree with me, China and the likes were not developed tru prayers but good and credible leaders. how can we vote in bad leaders den turn to God to help change us? Bros prayers won't solve because we are the cause of our problems so we should rise up and take back our country by force.... Nigeria is one of the most religious people on earth but what has dat brought us?

coolzeal:
If the Igbo's and the Yoruba's can put aside their differences in a minute and comes out in full force to enact these type of sovereignty, the North will not stand a chance. Too bad it's just a dream.

coolzeal:
If the Igbo's and the Yoruba's can put aside their differences in a minute and comes out in full force to enact these type of sovereignty, the North will not stand a chance. Too bad it's just a dream.

DeejaywonDJ1:
Let's stop all these lamentation because it won't solve any of our problems. Pa Awolowo transformed western region without university education but with standard Primary & Junior secondary education (Iwe Mewa) certificate at age16 with that you can start working (German standard). What stop our present Southwestern region from following the procedure because Primary and Secondary schools system are under their control. The only solution to our problem is let for us in Southwest to copy german Education system and Bologna declaration, Turn all our universities to research university. Teaching STEM in our own language(Yoruba) and English, and taking any foreign language of your choice.

SIRTee15:


Where will they get the resources to pursue such plan...
Besides F.G basic educational policy supersede that of regional or state govt....
Go to state ministries of education....
It's dead, nothing goes on there....
Moreso, tertiary education curriculum is designed by NUC or NABTEB.....
Universities must follow the curriculum if they are to be accredited....
Unitary system is killing Nigeria....

DeejaywonDJ1:

Sir, Our leaders down here are visionless, there is no policy stopping them from doing it. There are many resources spread all over but they refuse to mine it (human, raw and natural) andwe expect those resources to mine themselves without effort.

Herdsmen:
Lamentations of afon..son of.... Ja..

When ipob lamented and want out..this same humans abuse them with all their might..

Just because say the north have refuse to secede power to west.. Una don dey lament already...

E go sweet to see west call for odua nation....true federalism...or regionalism...

Beans still dey bag Dem dey cry..e Neva enter water ..talk more to grind before e don..

Abeg jare..

Very senseless post...

SIRTee15:

All natural resources anywhere in the country belongs to FG....
Be it carbon or solid minerals....
FG receives all corporate tax which is the bulk of tax paid by companies....
Even VAT goes to FG....
Investment policies are responsibility of ministry of trade n investment ....
Fiscal n monetary policies are sole responsibilities of ministry of finance n cbn respectively....
Yes nigerian governors are useless n lazy....
But the unitary system we operate is hugely responsibility.....
Who will want to work, when free money is always flowing from Abuja.....
Water will always flow the way of least resistance, it's the natural law of convenience.....
Even those who wants to work can easily get frustrated by FG policies....
Look at tinapa, a product of cross river govt. The Nigerian customs killed that project.....
Lagos IPP was made redundant by FG policy on power.....
Go back n read that article with an unbiased mind and u will understand the author's message better....
Unitary system is killing Nigeria.....
And the biggest victim is south west not even south south....
Majority of Yoruba are just too blind, naive or ignorant to see it....
Let's stop pretending all is well.....

SIRTee15:


Unitary system is killing Nigeria....

DamolaIbrahim:
If we Yorubas cannot get regionalism now that Yoruba have the VP position and Buhari the darling of yorubas is in power as president, that we should forget it.

Any regionalism lamentation when an Ibo or another Hausa president is power will not be entertained.

Buhari your darling Don set standard of shooting and using tear gas on protesters, na standard we go follow forever. Any 'phem' or 'noise' from the SW post-buhari will not be tolerated in future.

Make everybody take note.

SIRTee15:


Post Buhari, don't u guys want Biafra anymore.....
Or all the noise from the east is all about occupying Aso rock as presidency....
So what happens to IPOB members, will they also receive same treatment if they continue their agitation....

Besides, I remember Biafra agitation gained momentum after your favourite son GEJ lost out of power.....
I don't think there's anything wrong if southwest agitation follow the same pattern.....
It will only depict everything wrong with our current political system- once u lose out at the centre, u feel disenfranchised....
And this will quickly bring about the disintegration of the unitary system we all detest.....

Think outside the box, don't let hatred of a particular ethnic group cloud your sense of pragmatic judgement.....
Forget about Presidency for once, u guys can only occupy it for max 8 years, what happens after that.....
We both have a common enemy- the retrogressive unitary system which is killing Nigeria....

DamolaIbrahim:


Now that we Yoruba are closest southern region to federal power we should solve the unitary problems. Why have the cry from regionalism died since Osinbande became VP. Even tinubu was pro-regionalism before APC came to power. He was secretly sponsoring pronaco groups and conventions before APC came to power. Why is he now silent that he has the opportunity to change the unitary system. Make una dey deceive una self.

If Yoruba does not get us that regionalism that they've been shouting about for donkey years now that Yoruba has the chance, we should forget it out after this dispensation.