₦airaland Forum

Neddstark:
Where una military strength? Or una wan bring back Ogbunigwe
What makes your economy good. Economy is not about making mega rich men like Orji Kalu. Its also about the money spreading to all.
When it comes to academics, please dont Bleep with us. You know that. We have great intellectuals too
By the way, when una go rule Nigeria. Sorry, the East wants GEJ back

We are the key to Nigerian Economy, that's why the GDP of an average Igbo is high. Outside Lagos you can't compare the rent of houses anywhere in Nigeria to East except South South.
Regarding arms, we don't deal on Ogbunigwe at least for now.
We don't need presidency to define our future like you people, we work things out with our hands.
Hausa have ruled more, but have the highest number of illiterates, mortality, poverty, vulnerable people.


Open letter to Tinubu: Has glory departed from Yoruba nation?
2 months ago
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Editor’s note: Bola Tinubu, the APC national leader, has become synonymous with political power in Nigeria due to his growth in business politics that has made him one of the most influential Nigerians.
In this opinion, Adebayo Adeyinka, a writer and columnist, argues that Tinubu has not provided any legacy that Nigerians, especially Yoruba people, can enjoy and remember and this may diminish him. Read the ‘open letter’ below:
The Jagaban of Nigeria
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?
A handshake with the president
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.
READ ALSO: President Buhari meets Tinubu in London
What will happen to Yoruba people if Biafra is achieved?
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.
What will happen to Yoruba leaders if Biafra is achieved?
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.
Which way, Yoruba people?
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.
Chinese have taken over the cashew belt at Ogbomoso in Oyo state. Has the glory departed from the Yoruba nation?!
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.
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.
“Nigeria has benefited immensely from your fountain of knowledge, wealth of experience, political sagacity and leadership acumen.”
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.
READ ALSO: Why the list of rich Nigerian politicians is imaginary
Yoruba’s unity is threatened
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 co-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 personified is you. This should be the legacy you should think of. Your legacy is our future.

Neddstark:
Power is power. Una never get am. After Buhari, we'll take it back. And if you have a problem with that you can join IPOB.

Thanks for confirming my comment. Have the power while we keep taking over the academic spheres of Nigeria and the economics of Africa too.
Two things or one of the two things makes a nation super power.
1. Good economy
2. Military Strength.

Neddstark:
Despite una gra gra, you guys have only ruled this country for less than 9 months under Ironsi.
Betrayal or not, we have been in power and dictated the fate of your region for 11 good years.
There are no people like the Yorubas, hate us or not, we forever soar high in the skies like the Eagle

Did you say gra gra? Igbos have never settled for Nigeria that's one.
Secondly, Power is gained for the purpose of alleviating poverty and social benefits that's the Igbo man's view of power, but Yoruba counts years spent as achievement, just like calling Buhari's tenure success for completing his tenure, after taking us into recession.

Neddstark:
If you like copy a million Nairaland post tobrpove your point. Fact remains that the Ndigbo will do anything for money

Just like Afonjas will betray anybody for power.

Neddstark:
Every African tribe does juju. Especially yours who are ready to do anything for money both physical and diabolical.

One tribe in Nigeria is renounced, known for diabolic rituals ask any Nigerian... Brownies.
Please check the list of the most notorious men, who will do anything to survive count how many Igbos.

https://www.nairaland.com/3198437/top-10-most-notorious-armed

Neddstark:
Only a Ipob separatist will write this crap against my community, one he doesn't know. Even if we havent won anything, at least we dont have baby factories there..

You are right you don't have a baby factory, but you diabolic juju uses people for rituals, now which is worst? Lazy-brown-roof-beggars.

Neddstark:
Prestigious? Who knows Hugo awards?

Nobody from your lineage has ever won community stick, more of international accolade.