nerodenero: I vividly Recall My MUM telling me about a man in my Neighbourhood who became popular for engaging in money rituals just to buy the 80's edition of the Honda Prelude. U wouldn't buy that car for 50k today. Some other guy brutally murdered his brother ( whom their father gave cash 2 travel 4 the purpose of re- stocking their warehouse), just 'cos he wanted 2 acquire the rave of the moment - Pathfinder Jeep. That same vehicle is now better described as a coffin. I remember as a kid, my whole street gathered to watch a truck deliver a very large satellite dish to my neighbour's house. Today a dish one tenth that size delivers 5 times the value and is in almost every student's room. What about the Volkswagen Santana, Mercedes Benz V boot, 505 Evolution, Toyota Crown, all overtaken by latest models of Camry, Honda, Bugatti, Bentley, X6, Acura and Infinity.... Vanity! Some ladies left their true loves cos some rich guy then persuaded them with a Benz 190, which turned out 2 be the only car they ever owned till date. They found out too late that true love is invaluable. A friend declared drinks because he launched the Nokia Communicator for over hundred grand in 2002. Today that phone would embarrass the owner and is a joke compared to the low cost and everyday phone. What about d MTN sim card dat many people went extra miles b4 dey bought for over 20k, today u will not buy it at N100 because all networks are begging people to even take it for free. People are still making the most horrific sacrifices over 'vanity' and make enemies over worthless material things. What can I Say? Look back at that one thing you want to kill or die for today and see what becomes of it tomorrow. There is absolutely nothing u can't achieve, all u need is a little time and PATIENCE and u would thank God without regrets.... Be Wise!

nku5: Hypocrisy is the answer. The interests of bi-courtney, maevis etc as well as their internal long term collaborators in faan and her ministry are being crushed so they want to hype as much muck against her as possible. Fani kayode left a bill of 400 million in hotel bills, champagne, food and hoes and he is being applauded as a champion of progress today by some...

We know the cars were exorbitant but there is no clear-cut link to embezzlement. People whose speakers of assembly are on trial for stealing billions and keep mute or blame it political with hunting are not dissapointing discerning observers in their endless game of two faced slime hogging. Smh

free_soul: op, Nairaland does not hate stella oduah, Yoruba nairalanders hate her from here to facebook and twitter.
they hate her because they fear for Lagos if enugu airport starts to operate fully

chima12: There is a paid propoganda against the aviation minister.seun of nairaland is part of the paid propogandist.

slimghost:

Sack her because yorubas proclaimed her guilty? hahahahahahahha. Sane Nigerians are waiting for the outcome of the investigations being carried out by both GEJ and NA.

Alfa Seltzer:

I knew this guy was yoruba. why are yoruba people denying one of their own?

chukwudi44: madam oduah is in isreal on an official assignment

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.

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?

DeLaRue: It is interesting to see some folks, already sharing imaginary spoils in the event of a strengthened Federal structure. Hmm...I laugh. I laugh because these people who I guess are probably from Oyo, Ogun, and Lagos State think we are back in the 60's when Ondo (including Ekiti then) got a raw deal.

Katsumoto or some other person in another thread about the status of Kwara in a new federating structure had it nicely laid out in their heads how Akure will be the 'educational capital' of a new SW, with Lagos, Ibadan, Abeokuta being the commercial, administrative, and industrial capital. Someone else rubbished the idea of Akure as a potential new capital of the new structure, saying' for where?' I laugh again.

These self -centred and myopic comments typify why many in Ondo State decided during the last guber election to stick with Mimiko against the ACN candidate. One of the campaign strategies of the Labour party was to cast the ACN as a party of people who would come to Ondo State to take their resources in order to develop Lagos, Ogun etc. And Labour plastered the airwaves (radio in particular) with jingles reminding the people how Ondo state produced the Cocoa but 'these people' built Cocoa House in Ibadan. Uni of Ife was located in you know where, and Ikeja, among other places were developed with 'their' cocoa money.

At the time I thought this was just silly, ridiculous, and underhand. But guess what, when you see how some folks are already dismissing the goose that will lay the golden egg in any new SW states, you begin to wonder.

And I say this as someone who while not particularly interested in Nigerian politics has some sympathy for the ACN/APC, and respect immensely the astounding accomplishment of Mr Tinubu in rescuing the SW from the 'other' party.
I am also someone who can't understand why Mimiko continues to show little interest in SW integration agenda, and can't wait for his term to run out.

That said, I will say this, Akure will have to be the SW capital in every sense of that word or nothing else. All this nonsense about it being the 'education capital' - what does that mean? The argument in support of Akure is solid:

In any SW region/federating structure Ondo State will bring the following to the table:

- The region's only proven and producing oil reserves providing immediate access to oil and even potential foreign echange income

- The region's only and proven gas reserves providing a basis for powering the new region's economy to new industrial height

- The region's only immediate (from day 1) source of external revenue - Cocoa, Nigeria's current 2nd or 3rd largest foreign exchange earner

- One of the largest and soon to be one of the most successful single industrial parks in West Africa - OLOKOLA - with Dangote's refinery and associated cluster industries - another potential big foreign exchange earner for the new region

- One of the most naturally conducive water fronts in the region

-We also offer the first line of defence to your great Lagos, Ogun and Oyo. Is it not Ondo state people that will first defend you against any invading army from your perceived enemies in the East?. You want to be enjoying yourselves in Eko Atlantic, while our people are paying with their lives repelling your enemies

- I am not even going to talk about the 2nd largest deposit of heavy crude oil in the world. I'm not talking about it as I believe it may never be commercially possible to exploit it. So, it's probably not worth much at this point

- Compared to Ibadan, Lagos, and Abeokuta, Akure is compact enough to be developed into a befitting capital without the geographic and human complications of Lagos and Ibadan. Also, I suspect (I could be wrong) Akure is not as old as the other 3 places. One gets the impression that provided you have the compensation to pay, you can flatten half of Akure without much difficulty ( no insult meant to the indigenes of Akure). Also there is so much virgin land around. All of this will cost less than half what a similar exercise will cost in even Ibadan.

The above is what Ondo state brings to the table. When the time comes and we are all sitting at that negotiation table, you will have to tell us what your state brings to the table, and then we discuss.

You can't ask us to put all these on the table and and share with the rest of our people then turn round to say you want the capital in Ibadan. I[b]t won't happen[/b]. Ondo State will be better off forming a region with Edo, if they are interested. Ah, but then kidnapping,,,crime! We can remain with Ekiti! We do not all have to be in the same region to prove our Yorubaness.

History and location is not an excuse. London is to the far south within the United Kingdom, yet it is the capital. The fact Ibadan is central adds nothing to the debate.


We love you! Honest. But we know what we are entitled to. And in the Omoluwabi spirit, we are ready to share our resources with you without asking for special derivation. But you must make serious concessions to ensure that Ondo, Osun, and Ekiti all develop and are not laggers to Oyo, Lagos, and Ogun. Otherwise, Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Osun, should form their own region. Ondo and Ekiti (but Ekiti people and their petitions and political thuggery!) can form theirs. Maybe a West West region made up of Ondo and Edo states. Benin and Owo are ancient kingdoms who used to fight a lot in ancient times, but we have no problems with our Edo brothers.

Anything other than domination and manipulation by Lagos, Oyo, and Ogun citizens will be better. They either come to the table with fairness or they can bugger off with their Yoruba region. We will form our own Yoruba region too.

Sirniyeh: This is from reliable source.
.
I witnessed a secret meeting where the lagos king-makers converged to propose the next best candidate to succeed BRF in 2015.
What amazed me was when a renowned politician in south-west (name witheld) proposed Dr. Nwazueke of Unilag as a good stuff to take over from BRF.
My concern is that, do these kingmakers realise that it is an attempt to concession lagos state to Ndi Igbo?
I will come back to post the profile of Dr. Nwazueke....
.....
Lagos for Sale

Sloan:

Which one is "main Yoruba groups"? There is NOTHING like MAIN anything, don't create any division where there is NONE! Please delete it from your mind now. This is coming from me, a Yoruba, from Ile-Ife, yes from a royal house if you care, father married to my mother from Oyo, her grandfather, of the house of the chief priest of Sango, I am married to my wife from Ekiti so STOP any idea of imaginary segregation - it is so uncalled for. Thank you.

Ogbeche77: I've met a few peeps who weren't opportune to partake in the youth service probably because took part in sandwich programme or age restriction. They wished they could be part of it, thanks to the stories and adventures ex-corpers narrate after their service year..
But personally, I think the youth service should just end after the orientation camp and each corper should be given their 1 year allawee in bulk and move on with their lives abeg

king of pool: But y'all want easterners to land in lagos b4 travellin back to east abi ?

king of pool: Dey re also but duo to dey senseless argument or point ile-ife is raisin i have to let him knw east have more international business men dan any oda ethnic group, nation

PointB:

Stella going to the NASS is not an issue, it certainly wont be the first time. Only this time I expect her to drag Fola (NCAA Director) along with her as her spokesperson and sacrificial lamb!