₦airaland Forum

1. Asiwaju Bola Tinubu’s Statement on March 13, 2021 on the crises bedeviling the Nigerian Post-Colonial State is a welcome development, not only because he is one of the leading lights of the ruling party but also a major political figure in Yorubaland, going by his attempts to reposition the Yoruba within the Nigerian Political firmament. While it is recognized that there are, of necessity, differing perspectives and analytical attempts regarding the circumstances in which we as Yoruba have found ourselves, his conclusion calls for an interrogation of his entire Statement. The necessity for this has become even more urgent in the light of the critical situation of the Yoruba Nation within the context of the Nigerian Nation-State paradigm.
2. He concluded as follows: “If left to itself, this situation may spread and threaten the progress of the nation. It could call into proximate question the utility of the social compact that holds government and governed in positive bond, one to the other. We have a decision to make. Do we attempt the hard things that decency requires of us to right the situation? Or do we allow ourselves to be slave to short-term motives that appeal to base instinct that run afoul of the democratic principles upon which this republic is founded and for which so many have already sacrificed so much? In the question itself, lies the answer”.
3. YORUBA REFERENDUM COMMITTEE’s RESPONSE: (i)The “hard things” required must be predicated on the recognition of the real cause(s) of the problem and this is to be found in the negation of the FEDERALIST principles “upon which this republic is founded”. That FEDERALISM, despite its limitations, RECOGNIZED the NATIONALITIES as the PEOPLES of Nigeria, hence their administrations as REGIONS and the advocacy for creating MORE REGIONS to reflect the cultural and lingual diversity of the country, especially by the Political leadership of the Western Region, largely Yoruba and which became the bastion of this FEDERALIST advocacy but did not balk as to creating the Mid-West Region out of the Western Region while advocating for a simultaneous creation of the Middle Belt and Calabar-Ogoja-Rivers Regions, as a first step in decolonizing the amalgamated Protectorates. (ii)However, the emergent Post-Colonial State, led by the Northern and Eastern Regions, truncated these attempts by destroying the political leadership of the Western Region.(iii) THIS IS THE KERNEL OF THE PROBLEM which the Nigerian Post-Colonial state has been battling with and which has now led to the DENIAL of the NATIONALITY as the CONSTITUENT of the Nigerian State. The REVERSAL of the DENIAL must therefore be the “hard thing” required in addressing the Nigerian Crises. (iv)This REVERSAL must be anchored on reversing the loss of Sovereignty of the Peoples to successive military regimes and consolidated by civilian rule since 1999 through the instrumentality of the 1999 Constitution, which, in essence DENIED the existence of the Peoples by DENYING INDIGENITY and trying to SUBSTITUTE it with “Citizenship” and which has become the source for “farmer/herder disputes” and relegating the NATIONALITY to an “ethnic” thereby DENYING their existence as a PEOPLE.
4. The above informed Asiwaju’s lead-up to his conclusion, to wit: “The herder-farmer dispute has taken on acute and violent dimensions. It has cost too many innocent lives while destroying the property and livelihoods of many others. It has also aggravated ethnic sentiment and political tension. Despite the efforts of some of those in positions of high responsibility and public trust, the crisis has not significantly abated.”
5. YORUBA REFERENDUM COMMITTEE’s RESPONSE: The current situation is the culmination of a series of violent dimensions of the “herder-farmer dispute” initially confined to the Middle Belt as witnessed in Southern Kaduna, Plateau and Benue States such that if the crises are yet to abate despite the efforts of those in “positions of high responsibility”, we must interrogate those efforts such that we will be able to know whether they were and are directed towards a particular direction and in whose favor as every effort since 1960 had aggravated the tensions which had become the regular feature in Nigeria towards the establishment of the Unitarist State by various mechanisms, principal of which is the now almost absolute control of the Security architecture of the Nigerian Post-Colonial State—the abatement of which must mean the recognition of this foundation, from which necessary conclusions must be drawn.
6. Asiwaju says: “Sadly, others who should know better have incited matters by tossing about hate-tainted statements that fall dangerously short of the leadership these people claim to provide. We all must get hold of our better selves to treat this matter with the sobriety it requires.”
7. YORUBA REFERENDUM COMMITTEE’s RESPONSE: Without expatiating on “hate-tainted statements”, it will be difficult for Asiwaju Tinubu to conclude as he did, more so when he assumed that some people claimed “leadership”; for leadership is not a function of a claim but the representation of a specific phenomenon such that the attributes of any claim would be manifested in its efficacy. Getting hold of “our better selves to treat this matter with the sobriety it requires” therefore implies that we start from the recognition and treatment of what is being presented by those who make a claim to leadership, without which no affirmative conclusion can be reached.
8. Asiwaju says: “Because of the violence that has ensued and the fretful consequences of such violence, if left unabated, we must move in unison but decisively to end the spiral of death and destruction. Only when the violence and the illogic of it are halted can logic and reason prevail. Until the violence is rolled back, we cannot resolve the deep problems that underlie this conflict”.
9. YORUBA REFERENDUM COMMITTEE’s RESPONSE: (i) We cannot “move in unison” unless and until there is a “unity of purpose”; in other words, the existence and maintenance of the Nigerian Post-Colonial State is driven by a fundamental conflict between “INDIGENEITY” and “CITIZENSHIP” whereby the fundamental objectives of the State are in contention, hence we cannot “move in unison” unless and until that end-goal is resolved in favor of one side or the other or a mutually beneficial relationship is made intrinsic to the architecture of State.(ii) To appeal to “unity” in this fundamental existential conflict is to paper over the cracks and hope for the best. The mere existence and reinforcement of this fundamental contradiction creates its own logic of violence which can only be “rolled back” when it is not only recognized but also addressed within its own realities.
10. Asiwaju says: “We will neither be able to uplift the farmer from his impoverished toil nor move the herder toward the historic transformation which he must make”.
11. [b]YORUBA REFERENDUM COMMITTEE’s RESPONSE: ([/b]i) From global and historical experience, either or both above can and have been achieved. (ii) In the Western countries, farmers and farming have been transformed from subsistence to commercial, even as they are still acknowledged as “farmers”. (iii) Herding has also been tamed as witnessed by various methodologies in animal husbandry. These were achieved by the violent overthrow of existing systems, replacing one form of production with another, usually with the instrumentality of either a State already established or in the process of becoming, as witnessed in Europe, where the violent overthrow of the feudal monarchies led to the Industrial revolution and consequently the revamping of farming in the economic transformation of their societies.(iv) Even in cases where forced collectivization or cooperation took place, like the former Soviet Union and China, farmers were “uplifted from impoverished toil” although placed under another form of toiling which also eventually led to another revolution, some violent, others not, to change their conditions. (v) Herding is an economic and cultural necessity among some African Nationalities, and in Nigeria, among the Fulani. (vi) It is also said that the herders do not own the cattle, they are essentially “workers”; therefore their “labor” will also evolve towards “historic transformation” when the nature of the State changes to meet the challenges of a Multi-Cultural and Multi-Lingual society.(vii) “Uplifting the farmers and herders” is therefore a reflection of the economic philosophy of the State, which, in Nigeria, can only come about, preferably without violence, only when the economic prerogatives of the CONSTITUENTS of the State become a fixed part of its architecture. (viii) This is borne out of the history of our “Golden Era” where farming and animal husbandry were integrated into an overall economic philosophy of development, including the educational system thereby ensuring the role of labor not only in agriculture but also in other productive sectors of the economy. This was what led to the introduction of the minimum wage economic regime in the Western Region without any input from the center. (TO BE CONTINUED)


The Editorial Board, Yoruba Referendum Committee
E-mail:yorubaref@gmail.com

The Petition can be found HERE: http://chng.it/ybwX2ZR6Tt


THE PETITION:


YORUBA REFERENDUM NOW! BE A PART OF HISTORY!! SIGN THIS PETITION!!!
TO:
Gov Rotimi Akeredolu <akeredol@yahoo.com>,
Gov Kayode Fayemi <kfayemi@gmail.com>,
Gov Adegboyega Oyetola <gboyega@hotmail.co.uk>,
Gov Babajide Sanwo-Olu <bosgov@lagosstate.gov.ng>,
Gov Seyi Makinde <abiodunmakinde@aol.com>,
Gov Dapo Abiodun dapoabiodun05@yahoo.com
SPEAKERS:
LAGOS: honobasa1@yahoo.com;
OYO: Adebo.ogundoyin@gmail.com
OGUN: oluomoolakunle1063@gmail.com;
EKITI: niyiafuye@yahoo.co.uk;
OSUN:
ONDO:

SOVEREIGNTY RESIDES IN THE PEOPLE!!!

WHY A YORUBA REFERENDUM?

1. Whereas the question may be asked as to why a Yoruba Referendum when the 1999 Constitution is being amended, expected to result in “devolution”, “fiscal federalism”, reduction of “exclusive legislative lists” being touted as the solution to Yoruba (and Nigeria’s) Underdevelopment.

2. Whereas a Yoruba truism says that one’s head cannot be shaved in his or her absence.

3. Whereas all post-colonial Nigeria’s attempts at cultural, economic, and political development shaved our heads in our absence, leading to the societal dysfunction being experienced in Nigeria today.

4. Whereas this reinforces the fact that the National Assembly does not represent the Peoples of Nigeria, more so when the 1999 Constitution it seeks to amend does not recognize the Peoples as the Federating or Constituent Units, substituting them with the administrations of the States and Local Governments.

5. Whereas the process of amending the 1999 Constitution abridges the Right of Self-Determination or Autonomy in that the required concurrence of 24 states already denies the People, where, for example, the Yoruba Nation’s time-honored values which drives her civilization cannot simply be made dependent on other Peoples’ choices.

6. Whereas the YORUBA REFERENDUM provides Yoruba elected and other political leaders the opportunity and means to ensure the resolution of the question of whether our elected officials can, with all conscience, turn round and overturn what they have sworn to uphold and govern with, when it is known that it is a negation of the aspirations and expectations of the people.

7. Whereas the YORUBA REFERENDUM allows the Yoruba to ensure a fundamental intervention in the Re-Formation of the Nigerian Post-Colonial State, now entering a new phase, at this time, when “RESTRUCTURING” has become the political mantra from every forum such as the National Assembly’s Constitutional Review Committee and calls during the recent stakeholders’ meetings across the country as well as by prominent personalities.

8. Whereas the Yoruba Nation (and other Nations inside Nigeria) experience constant and relentless negation of their preferred mode of existence thereby depriving them of their capacity to address their existential paradigms within the global order.

9. Whereas there are different currents of opinion within the Yoruba Nation at home and the Diaspora on what should be the Yoruba Response to her social, cultural, and philosophical alienation by the Nigerian Post-Colonial State.

10. Whereas these differences of opinion exhibit the overall Yoruba preference for multiplicity of views and opinions, reflected in several Yoruba aphorisms, all combined, giving a specificity to Yoruba Existentialism.

11. Whereas this Cultural Existentialism, embedded in the resolution of social contradictions and translated onto the economic and political spheres through the establishment of a Social Democratic, Welfarist Region experienced during our “Golden Era”.

12. Whereas the Yoruba Nation has the capability to resolve the current differences through the combination of her Cultural experience and the internationally recognized Referendum mechanism, already utilized in many instances all over the world, including Scotland, which played a major role in the colonization of Nigeria by the United Kingdom.

13. Whereas the Referendum is the most peaceful way to establish the maxim that Sovereignty resides in the People, the source of all political power.

14. Whereas the Yoruba in Kogi and Kwara States have expressed their desire for a Referendum to determine the acceptability or otherwise of their desire to become part of the Yoruba National Geo-Political space.

15. Be it noted, and it is hereby noted, that the YORUBA REFERENDUM COMMITTEE says that the Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ondo, and Ekiti State Houses of Assembly owe it a duty to the Yoruba Nation to re-establish the Sovereignty of the People by passing the Bill for a Referendum into Law.

WHAT WE WANT:

A Federal Nigeria, through a valid Federal Constitution, to be known as The Union of Nigerian Constituent Nationalities, with a Federal Presidential Council, whose members will be selected or elected from each of the Nationalities as Federating Units and from whom a Head of State will be selected or elected as the primus-inter-pares with an agreed term.

(b) YORUBALAND, geo-politically known as the ODUDUWA REGION and consisting of the present states of Ekiti, Eko, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, Oyo and all Oodua lands in Kwara, Kogi, Edo and Delta States to become an AUTONOMOUS Nation in a UNION OF NIGERIAN CONSTITUENT NATIONALITIES and recognizing all persons in the Diaspora, of African descent who claim Oduduwa/Yoruba ancestry, either through cultural affiliation or genealogical connection.

(c) The Central Government of the Union shall have no power to interfere nor intervene in the affairs of the ODUDUWA REGION, save as shall be agreed to by three quarters of the members of the Region’s Parliament.

(d) There shall be a Division of the Federal Armed Forces in the Region, 90% of which personnel shall be indigenes of the Region. The Divisional commander shall be an indigene of Oduduwa Region.

(e) ODUDUWA Region shall adopt a Parliamentary System of government. This Parliament shall have the power to make laws governing taxes, duties, excise, payment of debt, etc It shall have the power to make laws governing the sourcing of funds on behalf of the Region and to regulate commerce with the co-prosperity spheres within the Union of Nigeria. This Parliament shall have the power to establish Regional Police Service with responsibility to investigate Regional crimes. This Police Service shall have no superintending control over the Provincial and Council Police service, but shall coordinate activities at the Regional, Provincial and Local council levels.

(f) The Judicial power of the Region shall be vested in the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal, High Court, Customary Court and Other lower courts as the Parliament may establish. There shall be a Court of Appeal in each of the provinces. There shall be, in each province, a High Court from which appeals shall lie to the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court.

(g) Oodua Customary forms of land ownership shall be respected. Exploitation of mineral resources shall be the prerogative of the host community without prejudice to the right of the Local, Provincial and Regional Governments to levy appropriate taxes for the welfare of the people of Oodua land and without prejudice to the right of the Federal Government to levy taxes.

The Petition can be found HERE: http://chng.it/ybwX2ZR6Tt


Thank you.
YORUBA REFERENDUM COMMITTEE

The Petition can be SIGNED HERE: http://chng.it/ybwX2ZR6Tt


THE PETITION:

YORUBA REFERENDUM NOW! BE A PART OF HISTORY!! SIGN THIS PETITION!!!


TO: Gov Rotimi Akeredolu <akeredol@yahoo.com>,
Gov Kayode Fayemi <kfayemi@gmail.com>,
Gov Adegboyega Oyetola <gboyega@hotmail.co.uk>,
Gov Babajide Sanwo-Olu <bosgov@lagosstate.gov.ng>,
Gov Seyi Makinde <abiodunmakinde@aol.com>,
Gov Dapo Abiodun dapoabiodun05@yahoo.com
SPEAKERS:
LAGOS: honobasa1@yahoo.com;
OYO: Adebo.ogundoyin@gmail.com
OGUN: oluomoolakunle1063@gmail.com;
EKITI: niyiafuye@yahoo.co.uk;
OSUN:
ONDO:

SOVEREIGNTY RESIDES IN THE PEOPLE!!!

WHY A YORUBA REFERENDUM?

1. Whereas the question may be asked as to why a Yoruba Referendum when the 1999 Constitution is being amended, expected to result in “devolution”, “fiscal federalism”, reduction of “exclusive legislative lists” being touted as the solution to Yoruba (and Nigeria’s) Underdevelopment.

2. Whereas a Yoruba truism says that one’s head cannot be shaved in his or her absence.

3. Whereas all post-colonial Nigeria’s attempts at cultural, economic, and political development shaved our heads in our absence, leading to the societal dysfunction being experienced in Nigeria today.

4. Whereas this reinforces the fact that the National Assembly does not represent the Peoples of Nigeria, more so when the 1999 Constitution it seeks to amend does not recognize the Peoples as the Federating or Constituent Units, substituting them with the administrations of the States and Local Governments.

5. Whereas the process of amending the 1999 Constitution abridges the Right of Self-Determination or Autonomy in that the required concurrence of 24 states already denies the People, where, for example, the Yoruba Nation’s time-honored values which drives her civilization cannot simply be made dependent on other Peoples’ choices.

6. Whereas the YORUBA REFERENDUM provides Yoruba elected and other political leaders the opportunity and means to ensure the resolution of the question of whether our elected officials can, with all conscience, turn round and overturn what they have sworn to uphold and govern with, when it is known that it is a negation of the aspirations and expectations of the people.

7. Whereas the YORUBA REFERENDUM allows the Yoruba to ensure a fundamental intervention in the Re-Formation of the Nigerian Post-Colonial State, now entering a new phase, at this time, when “RESTRUCTURING” has become the political mantra from every forum such as the National Assembly’s Constitutional Review Committee and calls during the recent stakeholders’ meetings across the country as well as by prominent personalities.

8. Whereas the Yoruba Nation (and other Nations inside Nigeria) experience constant and relentless negation of their preferred mode of existence thereby depriving them of their capacity to address their existential paradigms within the global order.

9. Whereas there are different currents of opinion within the Yoruba Nation at home and the Diaspora on what should be the Yoruba Response to her social, cultural, and philosophical alienation by the Nigerian Post-Colonial State.

10. Whereas these differences of opinion exhibit the overall Yoruba preference for multiplicity of views and opinions, reflected in several Yoruba aphorisms, all combined, giving a specificity to Yoruba Existentialism.

11. Whereas this Cultural Existentialism, embedded in the resolution of social contradictions and translated onto the economic and political spheres through the establishment of a Social Democratic, Welfarist Region experienced during our “Golden Era”.

12. Whereas the Yoruba Nation has the capability to resolve the current differences through the combination of her Cultural experience and the internationally recognized Referendum mechanism, already utilized in many instances all over the world, including Scotland, which played a major role in the colonization of Nigeria by the United Kingdom.

13. Whereas the Referendum is the most peaceful way to establish the maxim that Sovereignty resides in the People, the source of all political power.

14. Whereas the Yoruba in Kogi and Kwara States have expressed their desire for a Referendum to determine the acceptability or otherwise of their desire to become part of the Yoruba National Geo-Political space.

15. Be it noted, and it is hereby noted, that the YORUBA REFERENDUM COMMITTEE says that the Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ondo, and Ekiti State Houses of Assembly owe it a duty to the Yoruba Nation to re-establish the Sovereignty of the People by passing the Bill for a Referendum into Law.

WHAT WE WANT:

A Federal Nigeria, through a valid Federal Constitution, to be known as The Union of Nigerian Constituent Nationalities, with a Federal Presidential Council, whose members will be selected or elected from each of the Nationalities as Federating Units and from whom a Head of State will be selected or elected as the primus-inter-pares with an agreed term.

(b) YORUBALAND, geo-politically known as the ODUDUWA REGION and consisting of the present states of Ekiti, Eko, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, Oyo and all Oodua lands in Kwara, Kogi, Edo and Delta States to become an AUTONOMOUS Nation in a UNION OF NIGERIAN CONSTITUENT NATIONALITIES and recognizing all persons in the Diaspora, of African descent who claim Oduduwa/Yoruba ancestry, either through cultural affiliation or genealogical connection.

(c) The Central Government of the Union shall have no power to interfere nor intervene in the affairs of the ODUDUWA REGION, save as shall be agreed to by three quarters of the members of the Region’s Parliament.

(d) There shall be a Division of the Federal Armed Forces in the Region, 90% of which personnel shall be indigenes of the Region. The Divisional commander shall be an indigene of Oduduwa Region.

(e) ODUDUWA Region shall adopt a Parliamentary System of government. This Parliament shall have the power to make laws governing taxes, duties, excise, payment of debt, etc It shall have the power to make laws governing the sourcing of funds on behalf of the Region and to regulate commerce with the co-prosperity spheres within the Union of Nigeria. This Parliament shall have the power to establish Regional Police Service with responsibility to investigate Regional crimes. This Police Service shall have no superintending control over the Provincial and Council Police service, but shall coordinate activities at the Regional, Provincial and Local council levels.

(f) The Judicial power of the Region shall be vested in the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal, High Court, Customary Court and Other lower courts as the Parliament may establish. There shall be a Court of Appeal in each of the provinces. There shall be, in each province, a High Court from which appeals shall lie to the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court.

(g) Oodua Customary forms of land ownership shall be respected. Exploitation of mineral resources shall be the prerogative of the host community without prejudice to the right of the Local, Provincial and Regional Governments to levy appropriate taxes for the welfare of the people of Oodua land and without prejudice to the right of the Federal Government to levy taxes.

Thank you.

YORUBA REFERENDUM COMMITTEE

Statement by Yoruba Referendum Committee
e-mail: yorubaref@gmail.com

(1) What we have just experienced in Oyo and Ondo states, once again reiterates the necessity to re-examine our overall approach to questions around “Insecurity” in such a manner that a holistic resolution would be advanced. The Yoruba Referendum Committee had earlier raised the matter in our first “Open Letter”, which can be read here, in case you missed ithttps://mailchi.mp/b8f203fa65e1/open-letter-to-bola-ahmed-tinubuand other-yoruba-leaders).
(2) All the issues around “insecurity” arise from the denial of the “NATIONAL QUESTION”, as is being witnessed through the aggravating existential reality of the Yoruba and other Nationalities in the country, with pastoralism, an Ethno-National economic paradigm mainly among the Fulani Nationality, who, with the acquiescence of the various military and civilian Administrations seek to impose this economic paradigm and force it as the incontestable reality for the Peoples of Nigeria.
(3) This has engendered continuous denial of the NATIONAL QUESTION by the Nigerian Post-Colonial State, reinforcing itself with the ECOWAS Protocol on Transhumance, supposedly aimed at addressing conflicts arising from Pastoralism, but which has become the platform for imposing such an economic paradigm on the Nigerian political and economic landscape and now to be crowned by the National Assembly’s amendment of the 1999 Constitution utilizing the recommendations of both the 2014 National Conference and the APC Committee on Restructuring, both of which deny the NATIONAL QUESTION that must be answered.
(4) It must be noted that both Conferences perpetuated the false conception of who and what constitutes Nigeria’s FEDERATING or CONSTITUENT entities by superimposing a “Nigerian Superstructure” on REPRESENTATION, in that none of the Peoples of Nigeria were directly represented, as they were not able to ascertain their existential preferences, through a Nationality-specific REFERENDUM BEFORE the commencement of the Conferences as the Nigerian Post-Colonial State is assumed to be a given and not subject to a Re-Formation.
(5) This calls for a rigorous interrogation of the concepts of “CITIZENSHIP” and “INDIGENEITY”. Whereas “Citizenship” is predicated on the POLITICAL NEEDS of a Country, which also creates the conditions for its manifestation, and which may or may not change as circumstances demand, “INDIGENEITY” is a Cosmological and Cultural existence of a People which must be recognized as foundational to the State and exhibited in Country’s architecture of STATE. The neutralization of the latter in the Nigerian Political, Legal and Constitutional framework has given birth to a huge lacuna essentially translating to the negation of the Indigene’s natural right to State formation (Self-Determination), bolstered, and fostered through INJUSTICE and VIOLENCE.
(6) That absence of JUSTICE as the raison detre of all the contradictions of the Nigerian Post-Colonial State is palpable for all to see. It therefore behooves on all of you to live up to Yoruba existential necessities, following on historical antecedents and mirroring our contemporary experiences by contextualizing current events within the context of JUSTICE.
(7) Despite our not being ignorant of the fact that all of you must show fidelity to your oath of office, even as the Constitution upon which such an oath was rendered is now being subjected to a very fundamental interrogation by all the Nationalities in Nigeria, your AD HOC responses in rapid succession to the SAME problem is tantamount to elevating the symptoms over the disease; and these, for emphasis, are: (a) Establishing “Amotekun”, (b) your response to #ENDSARS and (c) your reactive approach to the current crisis as a result of the People’s resort to self-defense, all of which were aimed at providing solutions to “insecurity” that has become a clear and present danger to Yoruba Existentialism.
( It is therefore noticeably clear that the resolution of “insecurity” demands the ability to dispense JUSTICE, of which the Nigerian Post-Colonial State is found wanting, mainly due to the non-recognition of INDIGENEITY as the foundation of State, and which none of the AD HOC options addressed; for, it is now crystal clear that any security paradigm of the Nigerian Post-Colonial State upon which the much-touted “State Police” or “devolution of power” will rest cannot lead to JUSTICE, either in terms of juridical infrastructure or the inherent right of a People to exercise their existential prerogatives.
(9) It is said that human beings make history, but not in circumstances of their own choosing. Such history-making is thrust upon them, within the context of their existential necessities and it is up to them to take up the mantle or lose it.
(10) Losing it, for the Yoruba Nation, under your watch, will have historical consequences almost at the level of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade which led to the collapse of the Oyo Empire and its repercussions on Yoruba People, the consequences of which are still with us, today.
(11) Therefore, the YORUBA REFERENDUM COMMITTEE, is calling on you to rise to the occasion, for the beckoning has opened the pathway for its manifestation; despite the limitations imposed on you by the Nigerian Post-Colonial State.
(12) The YORUBA REFERENDUM is the ANSWER to the AD HOC conundrum while simultaneously LEGITIMIZING INDIGENEITY as fundamental to the resolution of the Nigerian Constitutional crisis thereby enabling you to play your part in history.
(13) As you may be aware, the Nigerian Post-Colonial State is in no way foundationally affected by your AD HOC approaches, as it has always found ways to neutralize such AD HOC efforts, as was experienced during the hey-days of the Niger Delta Emancipation and Self-determination struggles which, under the Jonathan Administration, monetized the entire quest and without achieving ANY of its stated goals.
(14) Permeating into Yorubaland, again under the Jonathan Administration where the OPC became embroiled in a “war of survival”, seeking “opportunities” from the Central Government as “pipeline security consultants” thereby reducing the quest for Self-Determination into a type of mercantilism incongruous with the quest for Autonomy or Self-Determination.
(15) The question begging for an answer is this: whether all of you, as the YORUBA POLITICAL ESTABLISHMENT, can present the ALTERNATIVE to the Post-Colonial State, more so when serially confronted with Yoruba Existential issues OR whether all of you will repeat history by presenting yourselves as the next best thing to happen to the Nigerian Post-Colonial State and with the expected consequences, to wit: the TRAGEDY of our recent past simply becoming the FARCE of today.
(16) The answer to this question is in EMBRACING the following as the new template for a RESTRUCTURED NIGERIA: A Federal Nigeria, through a valid Federal Constitution, to be known as The Union of Nigerian Constituent Nationalities, with a Federal Presidential Council, whose members will be selected or elected from each of the Nationalities as Federating Units and from whom a Head of State will be selected or elected as the primus-inter-pares with an agreed term.”
(17) The route towards achieving it is for each Nationality to organize a REFERENDUM within itself as to its desirability or otherwise.
(18) The YORUBA REFERENDUM COMMITTEE says not only are you all CONSTITUTIONALLY EMPOWERED to carry out the YORUBA REFERENDUM by both the circumstances of the 1999 Constitution as well as International Law and Conventions but also as a HISTORICAL, MORAL and POLITICAL responsibility and necessity.
The Yoruba Nation is eagerly awaiting your response.
Thank you and God Bless the Global Yoruba Nation.

First published on October 28, 2020,, by the YORUBA REFERENDUM COMMITTEE, in the wake of the fallout of #ENDSARS protests which our Governors and Political leaders rightly saw as an attack against Yoruba Economic and Political interests and expectations.


NOTE: Compelling this reproduction is the current crises engendered by continuous atrocities against Yoruba lives and property driven by pastoralism, the Ethno-National, Cultural Economic philosophy practiced in direct contradiction to the Economic and Cultural expectations of the different Peoples of Nigeria, aimed at achieving LEBENSRAUM, the acquisition of a territory a Nation or Nationality considers necessary for her development.

Yorubaland had and continue to be a victim of LEBENSRAUM.

In recent memory, Nnamidi Azikiwe’s “Great Lie” of 1951 when he claimed to have “won” the Western Nigeria Parliamentary Elections, followed by Ahmadu Bello’s goal of “dipping the Koran into the sea”; both mirroring the strategy employed by Adolf Hitler in pursuit of a “living space” for Nazi Germany and now copiously being utilized by the Nigerian Post-Colonial State under Fulani Hegemony.

Rather than situate the pastoralist-anchored economic philosophy within Global best practices towards Agro-Industrial development which was an integral part Yoruba Economic and Cultural Initiatives between 1951 and 1966, the Nigerian Post-Colonial State pursued the negation of these Economic Imperatives thereby neutralizing not only Yoruba Economic Underdevelopment but also her Existential Imperatives.

Rather than proceed towards a MUTUALLY-BENEFICIAL relationship within the Multi-Cultural and Multi-Lingual Peoples of Nigeria, otherwise known as “Restructuring”, “True Federalism” or “Constitutional Re-Formation of Nigeria” as would be expected of a modern, civilized State Apparatus focused on the recovery and reestablishment of our Humanity hampered by the Trans-Saharan and Trans-Atlantic Slave Trades and Colonial Plunder, the Nigerian Post-Colonial State is relentlessly pursuing the opposite via the Homogenization and Unitarization of Cultures under Fulani Hegemony as the defining characteristic of State, ultimately becoming the manifestation of the suppression of our Humanity embedded in those Trades, with LEBENSRAUM as its end.

The above is further compounded by IPOB’s Nnamidi Kanu’s attempt at stampeding the Yoruba into taking a precipitate action, a continuation of attempts by Biafra, itself the outcome of a contest for LEBENSRAUM between the “North” and the “East”, holding Yorubaland captive. To address the LEBENSRAUM QUESTION therefore mandates the LEGITIMIZATION of the YORUBA NATIONAL QUESTION.
This, validated by international Law, Conventions, and other Instruments, will empower us to address the extant situation in a holistic manner.

This can be achieved by paragraphs 7 and 8 of the “OPEN LETTER”, to wit:
(7) As a first step in preventing the potential defenestration of Yoruba Political Leadership, the YORUBA REFERENDUM COMMITTEE is, by this Open Letter, asking our Governors and other Yoruba Leaders to: (a) Put into motion the legal enablement of a “Yoruba Global Commission” as the official, Global Representative of the Yoruba Nation, to, among others, liaise with the International Community on issues of particular importance to the Yoruba Nation. The Commission shall include members from Kwara and Kogi States and the Yoruba Diaspora.
(b) Pass the already available Bill for a REFERENDUM in Yorubaland into Law; the REFERENDUM to take place as soon as conditions permit.

( This will be a further and practical step to ensure that their support of #ENDSARS in their States will not be in vain, while also recognizing the agitations of the Yoruba in Kwara and Kogi states to be joined with their kin in the rest of Yorubaland as well as the panacea to the problematic of the Nigerian Post-Colonial State, especially with the provision in the Bill for a REFERENDUM on the Judicial Powers and the Internal Security system of the Region, anchored on the Reconstruction of Nigeria as “A Federal Nigeria, through a valid Federal Constitution, to be known as The Union of Nigerian Constituent Nationalities, with a Federal Presidential Council, whose members will be selected or elected from each of the Nationalities as Federating Units and from whom a Head of State will be selected or elected as the primus-inter-pares with an agreed term.”

BULLETIN #2: ACHIEVING SELF-DETERMINATION FOR THE YORUBA NATION--THE CHALLENGE TO SW GOVERNORS


Kindly send your comments to : yorubaref@gmail.com




(A) THE YORUBA REFERENDUM AS THE WAY OUT:


1. The spirited efforts by the UPN Governments between 1979 and 1983 to advance the “freedom for all, life more abundant” paradigm in the developmental narrative of the Region was truncated by the Unitarization process imposed by military fiat in 1966, reinforced by the 1979 Constitution.
2. Subsequent Yoruba (SW) Governments, under both military and civilian rule took this Unitarism for granted, grafted economic paradigms onto it, without negating it and ultimately surrendering to its Macro and Micro economic and political mandates thereby ensuring the continuous underdevelopment of the country under the Unitarist 1999 Constitution.
3. The latest examples are “Amotekun”, without the capacity to dispense justice, and the “SW Development Commission” without its own macro and micro economic capability; both anchored on the architecture of the Nigerian Post-Colonial State, already proven to be antithetical to the Region’s development.
4. Yet, we know that the 1999 Constitution was falsely premised on “We, the People” as claimed in its Preamble, for, it is a known fact that “We, The People” had no hand in its making, directly or indirectly, as it was a product of military fiat which was not acting and did not act on our behalf even as the producers of the Constitution, by this admission, unwittingly affirmed the Peoples’ Sovereignty.

5. The Preamble to the Constitution, being a statement of the principles in the Constitution, does not by itself, grant any powers and rights not specified in the Constitution, just as it cannot also be based on a false Premise. A false premise implies that the entire principles, powers, and rights it purports to embody are also false. Nevertheless, the false Preamble implies the need for the People to exercise the right to correct this anomaly by ensuring that any Constitution is indeed a product of “We, The People”, the only guarantee of its Legitimacy and therefore its effectiveness.
6. At this point, the question of whether our elected officials can, with all conscience, turn round and overturn what they have sworn to uphold and govern with, becomes relevant. Constitutional existence of citizens is derived from the delegated authority of “We, The People” via any direct or indirect method, be it a plebiscite, referendum, or simple votes on its provisions. Whichever way it is done, the imprimatur of the People must be made manifest. Thus, for those sworn based on its provisions, it must follow that the restoration of the power of the People and its true reflection becomes their only conscionable activity.
7. The YORUBA REFERENDUM provides Yoruba elected and other political leaders the opportunity and means to make #6 a reality, through a fundamental intervention in the Re-Formation of the Nigerian Post-Colonial State, now entering a new phase, at this time, when “RESTRUCTURING” has become the political mantra on every mouth and from every forum such as the National Assembly’s Constitutional Review Committee and calls during the recent stakeholders’ meetings across the country as well as by prominent personalities.
8. The Yoruba Referendum LEGITIMIZES our quest to have an Autonomous Yoruba Political paradigm without being circumscribed by the central authorities.
9. It provides a credible alternative to the direct involvement of the Yoruba in pan-Nigerian politics by which her politicians are forced to embark on unnecessary alliances within Nigeria.
10. Ensures and assures that Yoruba Political direction is anchored on a firm political demand as enunciated in the “Annexure to the Bill for a Referendum” whereby the Yoruba can address her present challenges by creating the necessary political atmosphere and challenge to extant Nigerian political structures and projections.
11. Assures the Yoruba in Kwara and Kogi states that their Yoruba kin in the West are aware of their own demands for a REFERENDUM to choose where they want to belong.

(B) THE YORUBA REFERENDUM PROVIDES FOR AN ALTERNATIVE STATE:

The ALTERNATIVE FORM OF STATE can be found in the ANNEXURE to the Bill for A Referendum, [/b]derived from the Draft Yoruba Constitution, stated hereunder:
1) For the [b]CENTRAL GOVERNMENT: A Federal Nigeria, through a valid Federal Constitution, to be known as The Union of Nigerian Constituent Nationalities, with a Federal Presidential Council, whose members will be selected or elected from each of the Nationalities as Federating Units and from whom a Head of State will be selected or elected as the primus-inter-pares with an agreed term”
2) For[b] YORUBALAND[/b]: (a) Western/Oduduwa Region shall be a Constituent Unit of the Nigerian Union. (b) Western/Oduduwa Region shall adopt a Parliamentary System of government. (c) The Central Government of the Union shall have no power to interfere nor intervene in the affairs of the ODUDUWA REGION, save as shall be agreed to by three quarters of the members of the Region’s Parliament. (d)There shall be a Division of the Federal Armed Forces in the Region, 90% of which personnel shall be indigenes of the Region. The Divisional commander shall be an indigene of Oduduwa Region. (e) The Judicial power of the Region shall be vested in the Supreme Court of the Region, Court of Appeal, High Court, Customary Court and Other lower courts as the Parliament may establish. (f) There shall be a Court of Appeal in each of the provinces. There shall be, in each province, a High Court from which appeals shall lie to the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court of the Region. (g) Western/Oduduwa Region shall have its own internal security system. (h) Each Constituent Unit of the Nigerian Federation shall control primary interest in its own resources with an agreed Tax Model for the Federation.”


(C) WHY A YORUBA REFERENDUM WHEN THERE IS A NATIONAL ASSEMBLY?

1. We agree with the Yoruba truism that says one’s head cannot be shaved in his or her absence. All of Nigeria’s Constitutions since 1979 shaved our heads in our absence; the main reason for the societal dysfunction being experienced in Nigeria and the only way to remedy the situation is for the Yoruba Nation and People to, in a Referendum within Yorubaland, determine the framework for their aspirations and self-actualization which then become the foundation for RESTRUCTURING of Nigeria.
2. Senator Omo Agege, Deputy Senate President and chairman of National Assembly’s Constitution Review Committee did not mince words when he categorically declared that the National Assembly cannot produce a new Constitution as it can only amend what already exists, thereby reinforcing the fact that the National Assembly does not represent the Peoples of Nigeria, more so when the 1999 Constitution it seeks to amend does not recognize the Peoples, substituting them with the administrations of the States and Local Governments.
3. Furthermore, the process of amending the 1999 Constitution abridges the Right of Self-Determination or Autonomy and therefore True Federalism in that the required concurrence of 24 states already denies Self-Determination, where, for example, the Yoruba Nation’s time-honored values drives her civilization, and this cannot simply be made dependent on other Peoples.
4. Looking towards a countrywide Referendum to be supervised by the Center denies the reality of the perfection of Nigeria’s continuity through a paradigm anchored on an electoral veto based on a combination of votes from the North West and East, enabling them to determine any outcome, and this, despite any handshake across any river(s), considering the history of such relationships since the anti-colonial era to the present.


(D)WHAT IS TO BE DONE?
1. The main task is to aim towards ensuring that the YORUBA REFERENDUM is held before the 2023 elections. This will be achieved by compelling the Yoruba Houses of Assembly to pass into Law the “Bill for A Referendum”; as the collective expression of the aspirations of the People.
2. Towards this end, “We, the People”, must make our political leaders choose a “YES” or “No” to the quest for the YORUBA REFERENDUM.
3. In pursuit of this, the Yoruba Referendum Committee is organizing a Petition directed SOLELY at our current Political leaders as the decision makers, and these are the Governors, Speakers of our Houses of Assembly and Political leaders in and out of office.
4. We enjoin readers to sign this Petition and promote it on as many platforms as possible.
Thank you for reading.

The passing of Bayonile Ademodi, the erstwhile Ondo State Commissioner for Regional Integration came to us as a shock and a surprise, more so when he lost his brother, residing in the State of Michigan, United States to the cold hands of death only a couple of weeks ago.

We are using this medium to sympathize with his immediate and extended family and friends across the political spectrum.

Bayonile Ademodi and his dear friend, late Segun Adewoye, both of whom can be characterized as “two of a kind” knew, at a very young age, in their mid-twenties, as lecturers at the University of Ife, that their academic careers meant nothing if it was separated from the existential imperatives of first, the Yoruba People and by extension humanity at large.

This was manifested in their active participation in emancipation politics, first, through the “Wednesday Klub” of the University of Ife. This was a “klub” which provided the avenue for the dissemination of progressive and radical theory and practice for the various student groups and movements, quite a few of which were influential in the Nigerian Student Movement of the late seventies and eighties, particularly through the Patriotic Youth Movement of Nigeria (PYMN), a decidedly progressive bloc within the National Association of Nigerian Students.

This was the background to his eventual post-University activism which led him into becoming part of the “Action Group”, under the chairmanship of Pa James Aluko, the celebrated “accused Number 31” during the 1962 Treasonable Felony Trial who was never found, due to his having been officially sent to Ghana where he continued to coordinate the party, manifesting the dictum, to wit: “gbogbo igba, e stand by”.

Pa Aluko’s chairmanship emboldened the new formation, giving access to information as to the 1962 crisis and which further established the new formation as the ideological reminder of the First Republic party, and a historical necessity as a defiance and rejection of the May 1966 Ironsi-led military “dissolution” of political parties.

During the NADECO days, when certain members of the “old” Action Group came to the realization of the existence of the new group, their question, was: “is this our own Action Group”?

The resounding answer, of course, was “YES”. And they nodded in appreciation.

Moreover, the formation of the “Action Group” was also a rejection of the “a little to the right and a little to the left” mantra of the Nigerian Post-Colonial State, anchored by Ibrahim Babangida.

Upon the passing of Pa Aluko, Bayonile Ademodi became the Chairman of the Action Group.

During the early stages of the return to civil rule in 1999, a Coalition known as “ALAJOBI” emerged, from 6 organizations with different backgrounds in both the anti-Abacha (June 12) struggles as well as the earlier pursuit of social justice and the resolution of the National Question in Nigeria, predating the anti-Abacha era.

At formation, “ALAJOBI” was immediately confronted with the necessity of establishing its raison d’etre.

The “Action Group” was one of the 6; the others being “Heritage”, “New Generation”, “Idile”, “Oodua Liberation Movement” and “Oodua Youth Movement”.

The “Action Group”, manifesting the dictum as to the validity of a quest being subject to its ability to devise a means of actualization, produced a Paper, titled “Achieving Self-Determination for the Yoruba Nation” advocating the convening a Yoruba Constituent Assembly to ratify the Yoruba Constitution.
The paper was accepted as ALAJOBI’s working paper, and with the collaboration of and consultations with other individuals and organizations, a Draft Yoruba Constitution was produced and ratified under the Chairmanship of Retired Bishop E.B Gbonigi.

From which another problematic arose, to wit: what next?

By this time, the political atmosphere had changed, ALAJOBI went into the doldrums and each component of the coalition found other ways to advance its objectives.

The answer to the “what next” question, the YORUBA REFERENDUM, now championed by successor organizations to “Alajobi and the “Action Group” itself, from which “Egbe Omo Oduduwa” emerged, again, in continuation of the rejection and defiance of its May 1966 “dissolution” by the Nigerian Post-Colonial State as well as the recognition of the pivotal role played by the Egbe in the course of Yoruba Self-Determination.

Bayonile Ademodi did not waver in his commitment, despite the transformation as he was always on hand to provide his intellectual appreciation of any issue that needs a resolution.

He was a delight in intellectual and political discourses.

That the “new" Action Group ignored its historicity is not due to any ideological or philosophical deviation but simply a response to the then emerging political scenario, which also saw to the dissonance within Afenifere and the multiplicity of organizational paradigms, all in the quest for Yoruba self-Determination.

Bayonile Ademodi found fulfillment in active participation in quite a few of these organizations, making his intellectual depth and practical application of theory felt under all circumstances.

Adieu, our friend.
Rest in Peace.

Shenge Akanbi Rahman, Femi Odedeyi
For and on behalf of Egbe Omo Oduduwa
e-mail: egbeomooduduwa1945@gmail.com

It is written:
“……. Then they told him and said: “We went to the land where you sent us. It truly flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. Nevertheless, the people who dwell in the land are strong; the cities are fortified and very large; moreover, we saw the descendants of Anak there…...” Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, “Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it.” But the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.” And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature. There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.” Numbers 13: 27-33

A Nationality, faced with an existential crisis, sent some among them on a reconnaissance mission in pursuit of a resolution to the crisis; the “majority” balking at the possible solution, calling forth the “fear of the enemy”, even bringing along the “fruits of the land” but ignoring the Lord God; the “minority”, strengthening themselves by their confidence in the Lord and asking that they proceed, thereby establishing their historicity.

The Word of the Lord is “Yes” and “Amen”.

For the Yoruba Nation, the Obasanjo Regime, the manifestation of the “majority”, reveling in the distribution of the “fruits of Nigeria”, selling off Nigeria’s economic enterprises through the BPE as a measure of the “fruitfulness” of Nigeria, but fearful of the giants, the “Northern” Hegemony, promoting acquiescence while ensuring the neutralization of the Yoruba Ethno-National center of power, resulting in Afenifere’s emasculation.

Despite which he later became the town crier against “Fulanization”, having ostensibly come to the realization that “fruitful Nigeria” is a euphemism for the enthronement of Fulani Hegemony.

And you, Bola Ahmed Tinubu becoming his opposite, embracing the “Caleb Option”, challenging the giants and their local representatives, defying their affronts, and successfully fighting them to a standstill through your different economic paradigm in thought and deed.

But the Yoruba APC of which you are arguably the main leader is now under threat of extinction as a major bloc in the Post-Colonial political firmament, as can be clearly seen in the attempted defenestration of her influence during the contrived October crisis.

This Yoruba APC, having been instrumental in establishing the Buhari Hegemony in not only the countrywide APC but also on the Nigerian Post-Colonial State, is now saddled with lamentations on a “gentleman’s agreement” purportedly assuring a 2023 Yoruba Presidency.

Bola Ahmed Tinubu, you, and by extension the Yoruba Nation, were undeterred by the giants, hence subscribed to an alliance with the “Northern” Hegemony, partly based on the experience with the East, who did not even make any attempt at reversing their historical push for Lebensraum but sought to capitalize on the extant political situation and utilize it for her own purposes, which, as always, was detrimental to the Yoruba Nation.

The intended or unintended consequence of the alliance: the unmasking of the “Mai Gaskiya”—whose assumed political morality is now blown as a cover for Fulani Chauvinism.

By which you must now pivot, based on the truth of the matter, regardless of any “gentleman’s agreement”.

It is written:

“So shall they fear The name of the LORD from the west, And His glory from the rising of the sun; When the enemy comes in like a flood, The Spirit of the LORD will lift up a standard against him.” Isaiah 59:19

Just as the Buhari Regime is perpetuating his Ethno-National Hegemony, flaunting his ability to railroad the rest of the Nationalities to subservience, the East is flowing with her own historical projections, since the advent of anti-colonial struggles.

The following, by way of remembrance:
The big lie of 1951 Western Nigeria Parliamentary Elections, which it claimed it won, despite all evidence to the contrary, including from Nnamidi Azikiwe, the original author of the lie; followed by the myth of the Nzeogwu coup as an attempt at springing Awo from jail and make him the leader of the country only to be followed by the Biafran expansionist adventures into the West, ostensibly to “free” the Yoruba from “Northern” oppression all clothed within their “Lagos is a no man’s land” mantra, espoused since 1947. All in pursuit of Lebensraum.

The above, from the North and the East, now compounded by the overwhelming and overbearing influence of “hoodlums” and “bandits” on the security of lives and property, combined with the preponderance of “Fulani Herdsmen”, all preparing the ground for turning the Nigerian Post-Colonial State into a “Security State”, under Fulani Hegemony.

For the Yoruba Nation, the enemy coming in like a flood.

Glory be to God in the Highest! Amen.

The Spirit of the Lord having lifted up a STANDARD against him.

And the STANDARD is this:

Nationalities establishing their Existential Preferences through their own REFERENDUMS.

Leading to the RECONSTITUTION of Nigeria as a MULTI-NATIONAL STATE, by which it becomes “A Federal Nigeria, through a valid Federal Constitution, to be known as The Union of Nigerian Constituent Nationalities, with a Federal Presidential Council, whose members will be selected or elected from each of the Nationalities as Federating Units and from whom a Head of State will be selected or elected as the primus-inter-pares with an agreed term.”

Practicable and achievable.

With this, NASS becomes moot, as had even been confirmed by the deputy Senate President and Chairman of its Constitutional Review Committee clearly stating NASS has no authority or power to produce a new Constitution.

The Nationalities, by virtue of their Referendums, would have set the stage for the Re-Formation of Nigeria.

A precedent for a Nationality-specific Referendum exists.

Ahmed Sani, as the Governor of Zamfara State, along with other Northern State Governors, through their State Houses of Assembly, established a form of Sharia to cover criminal cases in complete violation of the 1999 Constitution.

Therefore, you, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, by virtue of your leadership in the Yoruba APC, must, along with the Yoruba Governors and the State Houses of Assembly ensure the passage of the “Bill for a Referendum in Yorubaland” into Law.

It is written:

“Therefore, thus says the LORD concerning the king of Assyria: ‘He shall not come into this city, Nor shoot an arrow there, Nor come before it with shield, Nor build a siege mound against it. By the way that he came, By the same shall he return; And he shall not come into this city,’ Says the LORD. ‘For I will defend this city, to save it, For My own sake and for My servant David’s sake.’” 2 Kings 19:32-34

The king of Assyria and his army perished, despite flooding the Nation of Israel with his army of occupation and arrogantly flaunting its might while simultaneously deriding the Nation’s helplessness as to her existential reality.

Therefore, thus says the Lord: the same fate that befell the king of Assyria and his army shall befall the Nigerian Post-Colonial State and her operators, trusting in her armed and security services riding roughshod over the Nationalities, decreeing them into non-existence and attempting to make them fall short of the Glory of God in their existence.

“That which I have heard from the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, I have declared to you”.

Wale Odeku

Statement by the YORUBA REFERENDUM COMMITTEE
e-mail: yorubaref@gmail.com

23. Even the monocultural, monolingual United Arab Emirates, of which Dubai Emirate is a member and Dubai, a favorite destination of the Nigerian Post-Colonial ruling elite its capital city, has a Federal System anchored on a “Federal Supreme Council, consisting of “the Rulers of the seven Emirates constituting the Federation or their deputies in their Emirates in case of Ruler’s absence or unavailability. Each emirate has one single vote in the Council resolutions and deliberations”, further recognizing the CENTRALITY of the PEOPLES in questions of Federalism.
24. The Yoruba Nation, having existed within the Federalist framework in her Social, Cultural and Lingual homogeneity, has now gone a step further by providing a template for a new Nigerian State anchored on “A Federal Nigeria, through a valid Federal Constitution, to be known as The Union of Nigerian Constituent Nationalities, with a Federal Presidential Council, whose members will be selected or elected from each of the Nationalities as Federating Units and from whom a Head of State will be selected or elected as the primus-inter-pares with an agreed term.”
25. The Chief Anthony Enahoro-led “MOVEMENT FOR NATIONAL RE-FORMATION” had also presented a similar template for consideration and it is surprising that Governor Kayode Fayemi failed to include these prescriptions in his address despite his having access to them.
26. The only conclusion that can be reached for this failure on his part is that he has abandoned the PEOPLES of Nigeria, pandering to the “Northern Script” starting from his revisionism on Nigeria’s historical experience anchored on his substitution of the Values, Cultures and Existentialism of Yoruba People, already negated by our existential experience where our Humanity became subjected to the economic and philosophical existentialism of the colonial power, such that the Governor could not situate his resolution of the Nigerian Problematic within the context of Yoruba Existentialism, itself a Federalist Project and despite his being a Yoruba.
27. Furthermore, the Governor launched a violent assault on the collective memory of Yoruba People, conveniently ignoring historical facts about Ahmadu Bello but eulogizing him and immortalizing “the legacies of the great political leader and premier of the defunct Northern Nigeria, salute his memory, and whose central political philosophy was that every Nigerian, and indeed all human beings, are created equal and that they are endowed by God with rights among which are life, liberty, equal opportunity, blessings and the legitimate pursuit of happiness.”
28. The following, and many more not listed here, constitute the Yoruba National experience with Ahmadu Belloa) rejection of Independence demanded by the Western Region thereby rejecting the existential coming into being of the Yoruba People, subjecting it to his own “northern” prerogatives;(b) his fierce opposition to creating more Regions in Nigeria, notably the Middle Belt Region in the North and the Calabar-Ogoja-Rivers Region in the East while collaborating with the NCNC to engineer the creation of the Mid-West from the Western Region, and this, despite the agitation by the Action Group for the creation of these Regions;(c) his refusal to allow a PLEBISCITE/REFERENDUM for the Yoruba People in Ilorin and Kabba Provinces, followed by the demonization and oppression of the Yoruba in those provinces by his government and party;(d) the illegal and Unconstitutional declaration of the State of Emergency in the Western Region; (e) the introduction of the Anglo-Nigerian Defense Pact, making nonsense of Nigeria’s Independence and stoutly opposed by the Action Group;(f) conniving with the “Monrovia Group” to scuttle the formation of the OAU, leading to its replacement by the toothless organization with no anti-colonial pathway for Africa; (g) for the other Peoples in Northern Nigeria, the formation of the Mobile Police, also known as “Kill and Go” for the singular purpose of “pacifying” the PEOPLES of the Middle Belt in their agitation for their own Region, popularly known as the “Tiv Riots”;(h) conniving with the British colonial power to ensure false Census figures giving numerical majority to the Northern Region thus enabling the Region to command Parliamentary majority in order to carry out its nefarious activity in dominating the Nigerian political space.
29. The simple reality is that Ahmadu Bello was one of the major political leaders from the North who assiduously worked against the emergence of Yoruba Existentialism and thus could NOT be said to be in favor of “ life, liberty, equal opportunity, blessings and the legitimate pursuit of happiness”, not only for the Yoruba, but also for the other Colonized Peoples of Nigeria, whose coming into being, after centuries of Colonial plunder, cannot simply be confined into the Nigerian Post-Colonial State Matrix without their consent.
30. With the Nigerian Post-Colonial State defining itself as a Democracy, it must be noted that the word “Democracy” springs from the Greek word “demos”, which means “the People” by which Democracy becomes the manifestation of the aspirations and expectations of the “demos”, the Peoples, which must be expressed and dominant, either directly through a Referendum or indirectly through periodic elections, delegating power and responsibility to her elected officials.
31. Utilization of such power is expected to be aimed at the deepening of the existential paradigms of the Peoples, ensuring their complete command of their environment thereby creating an enabling society for the manifestation of their God-given abilities in their relationships, first, among themselves, and then with other Peoples; therefore, the “demos” must be consulted on their aspirations and expectations through which any developmental deformities may be cured.
32. Development, for the African, must therefore be anchored on a Decolonization paradigm which subjects centuries of colonial subjugation to the rebirth of their HUMANITY. This paradigm cannot simply be reduced to a reformulation of TERRITORIAL FEDERALISM that is not anchored on INDIGENEITY when the INDIGENES are yet to be wiped out. Nor could that paradigm be conceived or executed as a series of administrative measures or boundary adjustments. The PEOPLES must be recognized as the Federating Entities.
33. This makes the resolution of the issues about Language, Culture and Values vital components of social, economic and political development, to be formally incorporated into any Structure of State, leading to the emergence of the “New Man” on the Continent, as had happened, and is happening in other parts of the world experiencing geometric growth in human development, further serving as a beacon to the Global African (Black) Community.
34. Language as a prerequisite for social and economic development had been shown and proven by the utilization of “indigenous” Languages in the production and reproduction of knowledge in the various “developed” countries, and Nigeria cannot be different if there is a seriousness in the pursuit of development. This was a fact recognized by both the Egbe Omo Oduduwa as well as the Action Group Government of the Western Region by its deliberate pursuit of the development of the Yoruba Language, Culture and History.
35. The Swiss Confederation provides the classic response to Nigeria’s Multiplicity in its recognition of itself as a Multi-Nation Entity, hence requiring the establishment of a MULTI-NATIONAL STATE where the various issues attending to such multiplicity can be conveniently explored, realized and resolved. Nigeria cannot be any different.
36. The YORUBA REFERENDUM COMMITTEE has taken up the MANTLE to ask for, on behalf of the Yoruba People Worldwide, a REFERENDUM in Yorubaland as the ONLY way to determine the YORUBA RESPONSE to the current demands for “Restructuring” from various quarters, including the call for True Federalism by Yoruba leaders in their recent meeting with the Federal Government delegation led by its Chief of Staff, Agboola Gambari; the National Assembly; Governor Kayode Fayemi; Pastor Tunde Bakare; Afenifere; all the Yoruba/Oodua groups asking for Self Determination/Autonomy through the various protests recently embarked upon.
37. Governor Kayode Fayemi must jumpstart this Process through the Ekiti State House of Assembly, tasked with the passage of the “Bill for a Referendum in Yorubaland” if he is truly representing the Yoruba People of Ekiti State and not simply Ekiti State as a geo-political TERRITORY.

13. All the foregoing show clearly that "DEVOLUTION" as experienced by the Yoruba Nation has been detrimental to Yoruba Emancipation and therefore cannot be an acceptable route to go in her quest for "True Federalism" in Nigeria.
14. Flowing from this is the continuous denial of the various existential values of the various Peoples through the instrumentality of the Colonial State Apparatus, which was simply replaced by the Post-Colonial State, manifesting through the relentless demonization of the Action Group and the Western Region as promoters of Balkanization and “Pakistanization” of Nigeria by the authorities of the Eastern and Northern regions.
15. The irony of it all was that while the latter opposed and successfully, albeit unconstitutionally prevented the realization of the quest of the Peoples of the Middle Belt and Calabar Ogoja and Rivers Province for their own Regions, they went ahead to secure the creation of the Mid-West from the Western Region.
16. The deliberate disregard of the foregoing apparently enabled Governor Fayemi to wrongfully celebrate a supposed ability of Nigeria to manage “diversity” declaring that “It is what makes us better than even Europeans who find diversity management difficult. The Balkans had to split into Sweden, Norway, and Finland. Czechoslovakia became Czech and Slovak Nations, the Soviet Union couldn’t hold together, Yugoslavia collapsed into Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia and Herzegovinia and Britain still has not found a definitive answer to the Irish, Welsh and Scottish question.”
17. Governor Kayode Fayemi’s conclusion flies in the face of REALITY; for NONE of the MODEL DEVELOPED countries in Europe is a Multi-Lingual, Multi-National and Multi-Cultural country existing and operating as a “NATION”-STATE, the NATIONS being identified by their Lingual and Cultural expressions; what happened in ALL the instances cited by the Governor were aimed at arriving at the same destination, and that is, the establishment of a country , a NATION-STATE, anchored on the expectations and aspirations of her PEOPLES within their Cultural and Lingual matrices.
18. The question for Europe is therefore NOT about “diversity management” but REAFFIRMATION of diversity expressed in its form of STATE.
19. When therefore, Governor Kayode Fayemi averred, that “Our ability to live together as a diverse but unified country is something we should celebrate”, he failed to answer the pertinent question as to how such ability had been manifesting; for, the central question to be asked and answered is whether the story of Nigeria since 1966 is something to celebrate when ALL REFERENCES to the developmental paradigm experienced in Nigeria ALWAYS point to the Regional Period, from 1951 to 1966, upon which “a more perfect union” ought to have been built but whose neutralization became the albatross on the neck of the Nigerian Post-Colonial State till date.
20. When the Governor proceeded to ask “But imagine Nigeria with over 250 ethnic nationalities and particularly in Arewa, where no state, indeed few communities can claim to be homogeneous. Yet we are managing our diversity very well until we lost the values of tolerance, equity, fairness, and justice which we inherited from our founding fathers such as the Sardauna of Sokoto”, he also failed the REALITY TEST.
21. Ignoring the Governor’s resort, once again, to abstract formularies as is the character of the Nigerian Post-Colonial elite, leading to his lamentations on the absence of values, equity, etc, he clearly forgot that the Yoruba can comfortably and conveniently make the claim to homogeneity as we have been doing since the advent of anti-colonial struggles; exemplified not only in Lingual and Cultural expressions but also manifested politically through the political motive of defending Yoruba Federalism via the Yoruba Civil Wars expressed as the “war to end all wars” in order to ensure peace in Yorubaland.
22. Furthermore, and in the spirit of seeking similarities in other climes, Switzerland in Europe provides an excellent template for the pursuit of “a more perfect Union” as a reflection of the reality of the PEOPLES in their TERRITORIES, recognizing both the “INDIGENES” alongside their TERRITORIES, a recognition of the Multiplicity resulting in what is now known as the Swiss Confederation with geo-political and territorial boundaries anchored on Lingual and Cultural determinations within the Swiss Multi-National State.(to be continued)

Statement by the YORUBA REFERENDUM COMMITTEE
e-mail: yorubaref@gmail.com

1. As is customary of the Nigerian Post-Colonial ruling elite, Governor Kayode Fayemi simply grafted onto the Nigerian Problematic borrowed expressions of a reality that is incongruent with the experiences of the Yoruba and other Peoples of Nigeria by his deployment of the historically conditioned phrase of “a more perfect Union” in his presentation at the Forum on the 50th Anniversary of the Center for Historical Documentation and Research (Arewa House) on October 30, 2020.
2. A casual check with Wikipedia by Governor Kayode Fayemi on the source and meaning of the phrase would have shown that it was part of the Preamble to the Constitution of the United States which states that: “We the People of the United States, in Order to FORM A MORE PERFECT UNION, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
3. Wikipedia continues: “The Preamble was placed in the Constitution during the last days of the Constitutional Convention by the Committee on Style, which wrote its final draft, with Gouverneur Morris leading the effort. It was not proposed or discussed on the floor of the convention beforehand.
4. Furthermore, says Wikipedia: “The initial wording of the preamble did not refer to the PEOPLE of the UNITED STATES, rather, it referred to PEOPLE OF THE VARIOUS STATES, which was the norm. In earlier documents, including the 1778 Treaty of Alliance with France, the Articles of Confederation and the 1783 Treaty of Paris recognizing American Independence, the word "PEOPLE" was not used, and the phrase THE UNITED STATES was followed immediately by a listing of the states, from north to south. The change was made out of necessity, as the Constitution provided that whenever the popularly elected ratifying conventions of nine states gave their approval, it would go into effect for those nine, irrespective of whether any of the remaining states ratified.
5. “The Preamble serves solely as an introduction, and does not assign powers to the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, nor does it provide specific limitations on government action. Due to the Preamble's limited nature, no court has ever used it as a decisive factor in case adjudication, except as regards frivolous litigation”. (All Emphasis Ours)
6. From the above, it is very clear that “A more Perfect Union” was the aspiration for the administration of the TERRITORIES, the States, the former colonies, AND NOT FOR THE PEOPLES OF WHAT LATER BECAME THE UNITED STATES and eventually leading to a STRONGER CENTER; the main reason for this being the already achieved extermination of the INDIGENOUS PEOPLES paving the way for the emergence of the States as administrative entities.
7. For “a more perfect Union” to be applicable to, and meaningful for Nigeria, it must mean the recognition of the EXISTENCE of the PEOPLES in their TERRITORIES, contrary to the experience of the United States; and these anchored on their historical Constitutional journeys in the process of decolonization, expressed in their pre-Independence Political Preferences, manifesting in the Regional Structure, more or less reflecting the Existential Diversity of the Peoples of Nigeria, and which would have been the basis for the pursuit of “a more perfect Union”, especially with the creation of more Regions advocated by the Action Group and which would have averted the Nigeria-Biafra War.
8. This is the REALITY for Nigeria and the PEOPLES of Nigeria, which was neutralized and overthrown by the colonial military and civilian apparatus emerging from the two military coups of January and July 1966 under the guise of fighting corruption and pursuit of “Unity”, both ending up disrupting and negating the wishes and aspirations of the colonized, expressed through their pre-Independence Political Preferences.
9. Since then, the Nigerian State Apparatus had embarked on a systematic Homogenization of the various Cultures resulting in consolidating a STRONGER CENTER , now discredited as being too humongous and a drag on socio-economic development, parasitic on the natural and human resources of the Peoples of Nigeria and creating the avenue for renewed calls for “True Federalism” anchored on “devolution”, “fiscal federalism” “exclusive Legislative lists” etc, all of which Governor Kayode spoke glowingly about.
10. Yet, Governor Kayode Fayemi did not acknowledge the fact that the Yoruba Nation had endured and continues to endure great hardship in her existential coming into being, when, through the “DEVOLUTION” parameters of the 1947 Richards Constitution, the Yoruba Nation experienced her BALKANIZATION, consigning the Yoruba in Ilorin and Kabba Provinces to the Northern Region, and with the Eastern Region acquiescing, excising the Lagos Colony from Yorubaland, both of which ran against popular wishes and aspirations of the Yoruba.
11. The Richards Constitution was replaced by the 1951 MacPherson Constitution which ushered in the era of Federalism of the Regions, reversing the excision of the Lagos Colony from Yorubaland while, the NPC and NCNC refused to allow the conduct of a REFERENDUM/PLEBISCITE among the Yoruba in Ilorin and Kabba Provinces as to their preference as to being part of the Western or Northern Regions thereby ensuring their retention in the North.
12. Since then, the Yoruba People of Ilorin and Kabba Provinces and the Igbomina, all now located in Kwara and Kogi states, have been fighting against this “forced, illegal and Unconstitutional relocation” and are now asking for a REFERENDUM to determine whether they want to be rejoined with their kin in Yorubaland or not, echoing their demands as at the time of the Macpherson Constitution. (To Be Continued)

Statement by the YORUBA REFERENDUM COMMITTEE
e-mail: yorubaref@gmail.com

YORUBA REFERENDUM COMMITTEE salutes the display of courage, steadfastness, devotion, and strength of the # ENDSARS Campaigners. The violent attack on the protesters at the Lekki Tollgate on October 20, 2020 was an act that only barbarians could contemplate and execute! The YORUBA REFERENDUM COMMITTEE commiserates with the families and friends of the victims of the unwarranted brutalities and wishes the injured ones’ speedy recovery.
The YORUBA REFERENDUM COMMITTEE also commends our Governors and other elected and appointed officials from the Yoruba Region for their words of encouragement as well as their marching in solidarity with the #ENDSARS campaigners, despite which the campaign degenerated into the massive destruction of economic and cultural Institutions Yorubaland, especially Lagos.
The YORUBA REFERENDUM COMMITTEE notes our Governors’ acknowledgement of the real political and economic danger to Yorubaland resulting from this destruction alongside the call for “State Police” by Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the Lagos State House of Assembly, as providing a historic opportunity for the mapping out of a PATHWAY for the resolution of the recurring demands for True Federalism by the Yoruba Nation, a process started from the earliest days of the Egbe Omo Oduduwa and all through the period of the Action Group in power in the Western Region, continuing till date.
The events preceding October 20, and what followed thereafter have thrown up issues that must compel sober and rigorous reflections on the National Question in Nigeria by Yoruba people in our long-standing quest for Self-determination.
The YORUBA REFERENDUM COMMITTEE has been interrogating the Nigerian problematic as this "Prison House of Nations" unravels and will continue to do so as events that challenge its claims to Legitimacy unfold.
The #ENDSARS critique of Nigeria and the fallouts arising therefrom must therefore come up for scrutiny!
And we thus state as follows:
(1) Whereas Nigeria is incontrovertibly a Multi-National, Multi-Cultural and Multi-Lingual geo-political entity, the #ENDSARS anchors its Constitutional Reform proposal NOT on the People's/ Ethnic Nationalities that make up (or held up in) the Prison House of Nations by virtue of its denial of INDIGENEITY in favor of PAN-NIGERIAN CITIZENSHIP as the building block of the New Nigeria thereby aligning itself with the Homogenization of Cultures and Uniformity Agenda that have been the albatross and bane of the Nigerian Post-Colonial State! This point is of crucial importance when we bear in mind the insistence of some people on the status of Lagos as "NO MAN'S LAND", YORUBA REFERENDUM COMMITTEE finds this unacceptable and insists on the Constitutional Reformation of Nigeria on the Federalist basis of the Ethnic Nationalities that voluntarily agree to the creation of a UNION!

(2) YORUBA REFERENDUM COMMITTEE notes with curiosity, Item 3 in the List of demands proposed by #ENDSARS that speaks of “an urgent Referendum within 90 days to begin the line-by-line review, reconstruction and upgrade of the extant constitution to be more functional for a 21st Century nation. The selection process for this referendum will have 50% young people under 60 nominated by their peers in a transparent, judicious, and fair process. We demand that credence be given to terms of citizenship over indigeneship and state of residence over state of origin.”

(3) Our observations on the above are as follows:
(a) the said demand betrays a profound misunderstanding of the concept and process of Referendum as evidenced by its conflation of a vote by a selected group based on generational criterion acting in representative capacity with a popular decision by vote based on Universal Adult Suffrage!

(b) the framing of the Constitutional reform proposal of Nigeria upon and around generational synopsis is definitely and diametrically antithetical to the Yoruba worldview which accords recognition to the synergy and symbiotic relationship between the "old" and the "young" as the foundation for social interactions! Consequently, the Constitutional Reformation of Nigeria from the Yoruba point of view must derive from the concrete expression of the wishes and desires of the Peoples /Ethnic Nationalities and not the abstract and amorphous aggregation of supposed positions of demographic groups!

(c) the preference for state of residence over state of origin in a Multi-ethnic, Multi-Cultural and Multi-Lingual betrays an avaricious longing by some for all the privileges and rights that Yoruba land can avail them while they hold tightly to their own mainland.

(d) the line- by- line Constitutional Review methodology proposed by #ENDSARS suggests that what they really have in mind is an amendment process by the Central Legislature and not any "Referendum". Clearly, this cannot fly in the light of our reality.

(e) YORUBA REFERENDUM COMMITTEE’S position is unambiguously a move for the popular vote of each constituent unit, that is each Nationality, by way of REFERENDUM as a fundamental, starting point in the Constitutional Reformation of Nigeria.

(4) The YORUBA REFERENDUM COMMITTEE is not unaware of the eruption of #ENDSARS-like protests on the African Continent in the recent past characterized by heavy involvement of youths and great deployment of technology to effect political changes as witnessed in largely Mono-lingual and Mono- cultural countries like Tunisia, Egypt e.t.c.in what is better known as the "Arab Springs" as well as the more recent instance of Sudan. We however must pay attention to the fact that all of them ended up only in Regime changes without any fundamental transformation, with the "gains" recorded therefrom quickly turning into their opposites in the hands of replacement Regimes such as the El-Sisi military dictatorship in Egypt.

(5) This mandates a re-examination of our engagement with the Nigerian Post-Colonial State, designed by the colonial power as a negation of our humanity, and strengthened with a security apparatus that gave birth to SARS and its operational affiliates within the security services and which, by definition, cannot usher in any developmental paradigm for the Peoples imprisoned within its architecture, as have been experienced in all Post-Colonial States.

(6) History is about to repeat itself as #ENDSARS pursuits and its consequences are largely confined to Yorubaland and now accompanied by a deliberate attempt to paralyze Yoruba economic and political interests, especially in Lagos, continuing from what we had been experiencing since the colonial era, all flowing from the assertion that Lagos is a “no man’s Land”.

(7) As a first step in preventing the potential defenestration of Yoruba Political Leadership, the YORUBA REFERENDUM COMMITTEE is, by this Open Letter, asking our Governors and other Yoruba Leaders to:
(a) Put into motion the legal enablement of a “Yoruba Global Commission” as the official, Global Representative of the Yoruba Nation, to, among others, liaise with the International Community on issues of particular importance to the Yoruba Nation. The Commission shall include members from Kwara and Kogi States and the Yoruba Diaspora.
(b) Pass the already available Bill for a REFERENDUM in Yorubaland into Law; the REFERENDUM to take place as soon as conditions permit.

( This will be a further and practical step to ensure that their support of #ENDSARS in their States will not be in vain, while also recognizing the agitations of the Yoruba in Kwara and Kogi states to be joined with their kin in the rest of Yorubaland as well as the panacea to the problematic of the Nigerian Post-Colonial State, especially with the provision in the Bill for a REFERENDUM on the Judicial Powers and the Internal Security system of the Region, anchored on the reconstruction of Nigeria as “A Federal Nigeria, through a valid Federal Constitution, to be known as The Union of Nigerian Constituent Nationalities, with a Federal Presidential Council, whose members will be selected or elected from each of the Nationalities as Federating Units and from whom a Head of State will be selected or elected as the primus-inter-pares with an agreed term.”
Thank you, Sirs.

By the Yoruba Referendum Committee
e-mail: yorubaref@gmail.com

(1) Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State, one of the Yoruba States whose House of Assembly is expected to pass the Law for a Referendum as part of the Yoruba Resolution on True Federalism in Nigeria, is now advocating condensing the Nikki Tobi, 2014 Jonathan Conference and the APC Committee’s Reports on True Federalism, into a single proposition, wrapped around “devolution” and “Fiscal Federalism” and which will be subjected to a Nigerian countrywide Referendum.
(2) With the stubborn reality of the National Question in Nigeria continuing to stare everyone in the face with its claws and fangs threatening to shred the entire body into messy and bloody pieces, an interesting rally around the clamor for REFERENDUM, as the PATHWAY towards RESOLUTION appears to be building up and gaining greater traction even in unlikely quarters.
(3) The YORUBA REFERENDUM COMMITTEE has found it necessary and indeed urgent to intervene in the growing clamor for the purpose of CRITICAL CLARIFICATION lest the SELF-DETERMINATION MISSION the REFERENDUM CONCEPT AND PROCESS is to midwife be appropriated and converted by forces opposed to it!
(4) Restructuring is about the Peoples in their cultural and existential self-conception(s)and expressions. The discourse on and advocacy for the Federalist Reconstitution of Nigeria must therefore be put in the context by which the Peoples of the Nationalities pursue the Referendum as a methodology to express their wishes rather than subordinate them to electoral, partisan representation thereby asserting their globally recognized right to Self-Determination.
(5) The peaceful and most practical way towards attaining this goal is for each of the Nationalities in Nigeria to organize and hold a Referendum within the Nationality/Constituent Unit as the first step, hence our emphasis on a Yoruba Referendum.
(6) Looking towards a countrywide Referendum to be supervised by the Nigerian Post-Colonial State, as advocated by Governor Fayemi of Ekiti State, already gives victory to the Post-Colonial state, who, by this, will determine the Referendum Question, and which, by definition will be at variance with the needs and aspirations of the various Peoples in Nigeria.
(7) Furthermore, a countrywide Referendum denies the reality of the perfection of the Post-Colonial State’s continuity through a paradigm anchored on an electoral veto based on a combination of votes from the North West and East, enabling them to determine any outcome, and this, despite any handshake across any river(s), considering the history of relationships since the anti-colonial era to the present.
( Moreover, the Referendum for the creation of the Mid-Western Region in 1963 was conducted among only the people of the Mid-West and not the whole of Nigeria; the Northern and Southern Cameroon Referendum was carried out among the Peoples of the Cameroons and not with all of Nigeria, even as they were still part of Nigeria; the Scottish Referendum for Independence was conducted among the Scots; the Catalonia Referendum only among the Catalans; Quebec Independence Referendum within the Province of Quebec in Canada, just as the recently concluded New Caledonian Independence Referendum, conducted in New Caledonia and not in all of France.
(9) In all these instances, National Parliaments exist, yet there were no countrywide Referendums organized by these National Parliaments as the final arbiter of the wishes of their Peoples. There is therefore no reason why the Nationalities and Peoples inside Nigeria cannot conduct their own Referendums.
(10) A Constitution as the “basic law” of a society embodies the socio-cultural essence of the People; it aggregates their existential paradigms; and for the Yoruba Nation, her time-honored values drive the Nation’s civilization and this cannot simply be made dependent on other Peoples.
(11) The Nigerian Post-Colonial-State exists in contradiction to these values thereby denying us the right and consequently the ability to pursue micro and macro-Economic policies that will result in the development of social and economic relationship between, on the one hand, the Yoruba (including those in Kwara and Kogi States) and the various Nationalities within Nigeria, and on the other, the Yoruba Diaspora, that is, the Yoruba in other West African countries, Brazil, Cuba, the U.S, the West Indies and South America, without the overriding legislative power of the Nigerian Union.
(12) This is the precondition for the redevelopment of the human capabilities of the various Nationalities, in abeyance since Colonial intrusion, with Language being a preeminent factor in development, as had been proven by many scholars of development, including Babatunde Aliyu Fafunwa; Ayo Bamgbose; Kayode Fakinlede et al.
(13) With many in the Yoruba Nation very worried about the decline and gradual disappearance of Yoruba Language, its utilization in the production and reproduction of knowledge will not only address these worries but also generate an economic activity on a vast scale. This will be impossible without the largest degree of Autonomy for the Yoruba Nation.
(14) This Autonomy cannot be achieved by either a “devolution of power” from the center to Yorubaland or “fiscal federalism”. Devolution implies the existence of a center that will devolve or “give away” some of its powers while retaining a residual power to take back what it has given away. Therefore, seeking “devolution”, without neutralizing the retention of power by the devolving entity means that devolving power does not necessarily arrive at a Federation.
(15) “Fiscal Federalism”, reduced to issues about reductions or increases in the amount of allocations from the Center, denies the control of economic and fiscal policies by the communities, whereby those communities (Federating Units) determine what is to go to the Center for its operations; and this, raising the question as to who or what the Federating Unit is: the Peoples or the States.
(16) The States as we have them, are mere administrative entities created by military fiat and decreed into existence as “Federating Units”, sealed by the Unitarist Constitution thereby making them subservient to the Center, a complete travesty of the theory and practice of Federalism, and mandating the reordering of the Nigerian Experiment.
(17) The Peoples, on the other hand, are the cultural and social occupiers of the geographical space, who may or may not want to create a Union with other Peoples, already in existence in their own geographical spaces and decide to administer themselves as they deem fit, be it as states, regions, cities, or villages.
(18) These (and more) are why the Yoruba Referendum Committee says the only way to address, all of the above is for the Yoruba Nation and People to, in a Referendum within Yorubaland, determine the framework for their aspirations and self-actualization which then become the foundation for Constitutional Re-Formation of the Nigerian Post-Colonial State.
(19) This, the Yoruba Referendum Committee has defined as a “Federal Nigeria, through a valid Federal Constitution, to be known as “The Union of Nigerian Constituent Nationalities, with a Federal Presidential Council, whose members will be selected or elected from each of the Nationalities as Federating Units and from whom a Head of State will be selected or elected as the primus-inter-pares with an agreed term.”

Esteemed Leaders,
It is with a high degree of responsibility that the Yoruba Referendum Committee writes this Open Letter to your esteemed selves, as part of our intervention on issues begging for answers within the Yoruba Nation today.

(1) While we do not and indeed cannot feign ignorance of the storm currently buffeting the political and organizational initiative both of you have co-founded and are leading ( the Yoruba World Congress), we have no doubt at all in your ability, capability and wisdom to ride the waves and tame the currents well enough to facilitate resumption of navigation towards the desired destination. Our confidence in both of you is rooted in the solid reputation you have built in your separate but related contributions to the defense of the Yoruba Nation and her quest for Self- determination. While we earnestly await the resolution of the political and organizational glitches which we trust your selfless disposition and sacrificial commitment will bring to fruition very soon, we wish to request again your attention to the historic opportunity which Providence presents before our nation to fulfill her destiny - the Yoruba Referendum Project - the attainment of which in your lifetimes will be a befitting crown to all your efforts.
(2) Sirs, we are re-inviting your attention to this Referendum Project because both of you are not only directly engaged in the Yoruba Referendum Committee, you have also provided quality leadership towards its gestation and birth in terms of intellectual perspectives and practical methodologies. We, therefore feel duty bound to humbly but strongly call on you now to renew your commitment to that Idea, that Agenda which, to all intents and purposes, appears to be the WAY, the peaceful WAY to achieve Yoruba Autonomy within a Nigeria reconfigured as a Multi-National Federal State.
(3) The Yoruba Referendum Committee is aware that individuals play their parts in history, but they do not, as individuals, determine the circumstances under which such history is made; otherwise, it will be taken as an article of faith that such individuals create moments of reckoning for their People when it is the other way round. In other words, individuals respond to the circumstances they find themselves, for the good or ill of their societies. Our history bears witness. Limiting ourselves to the immediate past of the anti-military struggles, the failure to achieve Yoruba Autonomy at the end of military rule in 1998/1999, despite holding the Nigerian Post-Colonial State by the jugular, created a vacuum in Yoruba National leadership, consequently leading to a state of anomie in Yorubaland.
(4) The Nigerian Problematic, that manifests in various forms, as military rule; Water Resources Bill; RUGA; banditry or terrorism; Unitarization; all within the context of unsuitable, bigoted economic and social philosophies of colonial exploitation, resulting in vicious cycle of continuous human and material underdevelopment of the Peoples of Nigeria. Attempts at legitimizing this contraption through arbitrary and whimsical serial tinkering with the so called Grundnorm, the latest of which is the ill-fated move by the Central Legislature to review the 1999 Constitution, have all ended up to further atomize the Nigerian Problematic rather than confront and re-configure it in a holistic and fundamental manner.
(5) The Yoruba Responses to all of these can be broadly categorized as follows: one, the uncritical adoption of the report of the 2014 Jonathan Conference and its emphasis on “state police”, “state constitutions” ; two, the clamor of Nigerian National Referendum on a new Constitution for Nigeria; three, the varied efforts by several groups, demanding Self-Determination or Independence through protests and demonstrations; four, the utilization of existing governing state administrations for purposes of development; five, the quest for a Yoruba President of the Nigerian Post-Colonial State. These reactions have resulted into a well-documented damage to the existential paradigms of various Nationalities in Nigeria by the Post-Colonial State, which, by definition and operation is a NEGATION OF THE NATIONALITIES.
(6) It is within the context of Nigerian Problematic and its attendant negative consequences that the Yoruba Referendum Committee is calling for a Yoruba Referendum, to situate all of the various responses by the Yoruba Nation under one methodology of resolution, pursuant to which Article 10 of the Bill for a Referendum provides “Constitutional Council of Western/Oduduwa Region shall be vested with powers to present and represent the views of Western/Oduduwa Region and negotiate on behalf of the Western/Oduduwa Region with all the agencies of the Nigerian Government and non-Governmental organizations involved in the process.”
(7) The Referendum together with its outcome not only represents the expression of the aspirations and expectations of our people, it also provides the JUSTIFICATION and LEGITIMACY of our quest for AUTONOMY. Beyond all this, the Referendum as well as its positive outcome provides our people the platform for relations (negotiations and consultations) with other Peoples and Nations within and outside the Nigerian Post -Colonial State.
( Scotland, Catalonia and Quebec, went through similar experiences, where, despite the differences in leadership and varieties of strategies, from electoral pursuits by their Nationalist Parties to non-governmental organizations clamoring for Autonomy and Self-Determination, all anchored on establishing not only the will of their Peoples but also the Legitimacy of their demands; the contrasts and contradictions eventually brought under the aegis of their Referendums, leading to their different stages of Sovereignty being enjoyed today, and these, despite fierce resistance by their Central Governments, who, each in its own way, tried all in its power to scuttle the movement for Sovereignty.
(9) Their Referendums provided the pathway towards the resolution of not only their internal contradictions but also the alternative State Structure for an Autonomous Quebec; transition from devolved power in Scotland to a settled Scottish Regional Autonomy, and this, still pursuing Scottish Independence, while Catalonia was also able to restore its Regional Autonomy with further prospects for Independence.
(10) The Yoruba Referendum Committee is therefore calling on you ,our respected leaders to, as a matter of urgency to throw your significant weight behind the entire process beginning with this Committee’s efforts to convene a Yoruba Consultative Assembly as the popular democratic institutional launch pad and build-up preparatory to the presentation of formal request(s) to the Houses of Assembly of Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ondo and Ekiti States to pass the Bill for a Referendum into Law. It goes without saying that this process will provide a sound basis and back -up for the demand for Referendum by the Okun in Kogi State to determine their relationship with their Yoruba kith and kin.
(11) This Referendum pathway will reset the resolution of any issue in Yorubaland within the political, social, cultural and economic paradigms of the Yoruba Nation by reducing its subordination to the imperatives of the Nigerian Post-Colonial State; itself requiring the redefinition and reconstitution as "A Federal Nigeria, through a valid Federal Constitution, to be known as The Union of Nigerian Constituent Nationalities, with a Federal Presidential Council, whose members will be selected or elected from each of the Nationalities as Federating Units and from whom a Head of State will be selected or elected as the primus-inter-pares with an agreed term”.
Thank you, Sirs.
The Yoruba Referendum Committee

1. One troubling myth that many Yoruba usually invoke to excuse inaction and focus on the need for the kind of change that can enable them choose the kind of Nation they want is the Myth of a Curse on the Yoruba by Aole in Old Oyo-Ile. Peddlers of this myth say that Aole cursed the Yoruba, saying that Enu won ko nii ko (unity will elude the race). Many Yoruba people at that in Ondo, Ekiti, Eko, Kabba, Ilesa, Ijebu-Ode etc did not even know where Oyo-Ile was, because they had no reason to go that far. To me, invoking this myth is looking for excuse(s) for inaction or trying to push to the gods an ideology of self-paralysis by some articulate Yoruba men and women who prefer to benefit from whatever status quo exists, regardless of how hostile such status quo may be to Yoruba cultural, economic, political, and social interests.

2. Since the death of Aole, the Yoruba had engaged effectively in many ventures that required Unity of Purpose. They fought a joint war to repel the Fulani from conquering Osogbo and using that as a point of entry to Yorubaland to do to the Yoruba what they did to Hausa States at the time of Uthman dan Fodio. The Yoruba Region (old Western Region under Chief Awolowo) was able to establish Free Primary Education in the region while other Regions could not and despite opposition from some Yoruba political influencers. What was important then was unity of purpose. The Yoruba are traditionally believers in Plurality of Perspectives on issues, but also of People with capacity to organize the best policy option after long and sometimes rancorous debates. This is a cultural trait that is suitable for democracy and democratic governance and one that should not be taken as a weakness. Sequel to the 1993 presidential election of MKO Abiola and its annulment, the Yoruba organized around NADECO to fight the annulment, even when a few individuals had no problem with Abacha’s rule. No successful democratic society insists on total unity; democracy requires unity of purpose, and the Yoruba have shown this several times in their history. Democracy has no use for any form of absolutism; it thrives in spaces that have respect for dissent.

3. Another misconception that still exists among members of the typical Yoruba socio-cultural organization in the 21st century is the search for TOTAL UNITY as the only surety for the Yoruba to realize their potential to the fullest within the framework of Nigeria’s multinational federation. Such expectation is antithetical to Yoruba cultural foundation. Yoruba myth of origin is about plurality including many gods to worship, in order to reach Olodumare (the High God) and creation of a federation of 16 kingdoms long before the arrival of British colonialism. One most cited Yoruba proverb is that Omode gbon agba gbon ni a fi da Ile Ife while another Yoruba proverb says Gbogbo wa ko le sun, ka ko ori si ibikan naa. Both axioms remind us of Yoruba respect for plurality of perspectives as the basis of pursuing a unity of purpose. What is important to the average Yoruba is the relevance of a dominant ideology to the improvement of the quality of life of the largest number of people. Since the era of Awolowo, Social Democratic values have been important to majority of Yoruba people. This explains why the Yoruba voted for Action Group, SDP, AD, AC, ACN, and most recently APC when it presented a more progressive party than PDP. Even when majority of Yoruba people voted for all these parties, there were some Yoruba people in all the other political parties, and this situation did not constitute an anomaly to Yoruba people who chose to belong to political parties they considered closest to the type of polity and society they believe to be the best.

4. Another misconception is that the problem with Nigeria is that people pay attention to their ethnic identity. This is another defeatist philosophy. The country that created Nigeria, Great Britain, has English, Scottish, Welsh, and Irish Nationalities in the United Kingdom, and each Nationality is free to define itself within Britain’s informal federation. Belgium has many national groups and that does not diminish the country’s chances of becoming a successful modern Multi-National State. The same goes for Switzerland, Canada, the United States, etc. If other Nationalities in Nigeria believe that their cultures are inadequate, the Yoruba do not need to internalize such self-debasement. Existence of ethnic diversity and identity politics does not justify any form of domination by any group over another, as things have been in Nigeria since 1960. The country’s problem since 1962 is the failure of Nigeria’s political leaders to manage a culturally diverse polity and society with equity, equality, justice, and tolerance of otherness that a plural society calls for. Anybody complaining that all Nationalities should erase their cultural identities so that Nigeria can be united should desist from such irrational thought. Even when the Soviet Union was one country, all the new Nations that became independent after Glasnost and Perestroika in 1985 had their cultures intact. If any Nationality feels cheated by others in Nigeria, the reason cannot be because there are many Nationalities; it should be because some Nationalities prefer or desire to dominate others. And the solution should not be self-erasure by any of the Nationalities, but for each Nationality to insist on a proper governance structure and Constitution that will make domination of one Nationality by another unacceptable, barring which each Nationality should invoke the right to self-determination.

5. The values of majority of Yoruba people make it unacceptable for them to castigate others for being in another political party or having a different perspective on anything. What the Yoruba find acceptable is any system that allows the choice of its majority to emerge. This explains why the Yoruba value free and fair election, and preferably, a free and fair REFERENDUM. There is no basis in Yoruba tradition for anyone to find excuses for any form of domination from other Nationalities. People who do not aspire to dominate other Nationalities should not accept to be dominated by Nationality. This explains why our ancestors took active part in demanding Self-government from the British in 1957 and for Independence for the whole country in 1960. Activists for transformation should never exercise any diffidence. Lack of cultural confidence can diminish resolve. Peddling or accepting any misconception capable of diminishing the confidence of a people is a disadvantage to people seeking change.

pode:
In summary of it all, we can't be paying tax twice, after paying to the government, the little one paid as offering and tithe to the church the government want to collect it again, it is wrong.
#saynotodoubletax

Offerings and Tithes are Voluntary; Taxes are not.

It is written:

“Tell us, therefore, what do You think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, “Why do you test Me, you hypocrites? Show Me the tax money.” So they brought Him a denarius. And He said to them, “Whose image and inscription is this?” They said to Him, “Caesar’s.” And He said to them, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” Mathew 22:17-21


CAMA, the necessary wake-up call for the Church to embrace its mission of providing the light for the transformation of the negation of the existential realities of the various Peoples by a Prebendal Nigeria masquerading as a Sovereign State.

The denarius, the “tax money”, specifically designed with the Caesar’s image and inscription, reinforcing the person of the Caesar as the sovereign as well as his responsibility in utilizing the taxes so collected, for the good (or bad) of the society.

The response of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, not only a reference to the image and inscription on the money but also to the responsibility of a governing authority, in this case, the Caesar, hence “rendering unto Caesar” the things that are his.

The Nigerian Post-Colonial State, the Caesar of today, serially failing to utilize the taxes collected in its name for the good of the society, such that economic misery, human and material underdevelopment constitute the reality of the Post-Colonial State, while those in power and exercise authority at both state and central government levels reserve, for themselves, over seventy percent of any revenue accruing to the country, creating a Prebendal State, with the complicity of the Church.

Celebrating her members achieving high positions of authority and power in this Prebendal, Post-Colonial State, attributing this to some form of God’s favor and blessings, but neither promoting how the People must have a say in the utilization of taxes nor challenging the legitimacy of the exercise of power in creating the Prebendal State.

The Church, always “praying for those in authority” despite the clear Scriptural purpose of authority, to wit: “For he is God’s minister to you for [b]good. [/b]But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil” Romans 13:4

And this, despite historical opposition to the Poll tax as would be expected of subject peoples, manifesting in various forms, including refusal by the Jews in Tiberius’ era, to acknowledge such coins inscribed with graven images; and in our modern times, in Yorubaland, the 1918 Adubi War against British Poll tax as well as the 1947 Abeokuta Women’s revolt, providing ample evidence.

“Render unto God, the things that are God’s”, implying our recognition of things of God, known by God’s characterization of Himself, of which the Scripture provides several examples.

Among which is written:

“For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace There will be no end, Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, To order it and establish it with judgment and justice From that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this”. Isaiah 9:6-7

Referring to Jesus Christ, the second Person of the Triune God, the Word, for, it is written: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. “ Genesis 1: 1-3

“Then God said”, The Word, who, in the beginning was with God and was God, through Whom all things were made.

Coming to life with Jesus Christ, during His earthly journey as written:

“The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.” Then He closed the book and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. Luke 4:18-21

In modern times, power and authority no longer reside in the person of a Tiberius; sovereignty is in the collective resolve of the People to choose, mostly through periodic elections, a leadership thought capable of exercising power and authority for the good of the people.

For the Gospel to be preached to the poor(the good news of freedom from existential want, for example); heal the brokenhearted (social and welfare services, for example); proclaim liberty for the captives (recognition and living with our God-given Identity, having dominion over all things created, for example); recovery of sight to the blind ( health, including the light of production and reproduction of knowledge, for example); set at liberty those who are oppressed(self-determination/Autonomy for oppressed peoples, for example).

All of which proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, when Social Welfare, or “Social Good” is laid as the foundation of the modern society.

“Today, this scripture is fulfilled to your hearing”.

By which we know that the Western Region/Yoruba fulfilled the “acceptable year of the Lord” by its “Freedom for all, life more abundant”; in its Yoruba Language meaning, known as “Afenifere”, underscoring the fact that it was not limited to only the Yoruba or the Western Region, but indeed, for all the Peoples of Nigeria, where the Action Group championed freedom for the minorities in Nigeria while welcoming non-Yoruba into the Western Region to benefit from its educational and social welfare policies.

This Social Welfarist society became an offense to the Nigerian Post-Colonial State, the Caesar of today, which sought various avenues to crush it, continuing till date; utilizing the power and authority of a Post-Colonial State, established as a negation of the Peoples’ existentialism by colonial subjugation and repeatedly proven to be evil, contrary to Luke 4:18-21

It is written:
“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly." John 10:10

In the self-proclaimed "democracy" of the Nigerian Post-Colonial State, the People supposedly determine the fortunes or misfortunes of those exercising authority, have a say in how taxes are spent, power administered, “renders unto Caesar” through their civic responsibility by voting in the elections, becoming a beacon for public accountability.

By which the People are to exercise their moral and political authority to determine the administration of Public Finances; but denied, by the nature of the Prebendal State, while utilizing its authority to administer public finance.

Thereby denying the symbiotic relationship between the Church and the State, in so far as the Church comprises people who are also electors/voters of those in power, whether they are members of the Church or not, and who exercise the authority of the State, on their behalf, ostensibly for their own good.

When the Church is unable to influence Public accountability as had happened and is happening in the Nigerian Post-Colonial State where the People, in and out of the Church, have become objects, tossed to and fro by every wind of power and authority, military or civilian, the Church must reexamine itself, whether it is “Rendering unto God, the things of God”, that is, the restoration of their God-given Identities, where the administration of finance by the State is returned to the authority of the people by which the people will have life more abundant.

Wale Odeku
“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the Churches”

Statement by the Editorial Board of the Yoruba Referendum Committee

(1) The Constitution Review Committee of Nigeria’s National Assembly under the Chairmanship of Senator Omo Agege has announced its intention to present the Draft of a new Constitution for Nigeria by the first quarter of 2021. This Draft is to be based on, among others, the Report of the 2014 National Conference as well as the 2018 Report of the APC Committee on Federalism chaired by Nasir El-Rufai, current governor of Kaduna State. As a prelude, the Constitution Review Committee has asked members of the public to submit memoranda.

(2) Our experience with previous Conferences and Summits aimed at Reviewing Nigeria’s Constitution, from the IMF debates, Political Bureau, Niki Tobi's Constitutional review, Abubakar's consultations, Obasanjo’s All-Parties Technical Review Committee, Jonathan’s Conference, to various National Assembly Retreats on the Constitution, shows that all ended up in the archives of unwanted materials and shows the disdain to which the Peoples of Nigeria had been and are being subjected.

(3) A Constitution is the “basic law”, the Grundnorm of a society. It embodies the socio-cultural essence of the People; it aggregates their existential paradigms. Therefore, it is not simply a series of legal codes that can be altered at will. However arbitrary alteration of the Constitution has been a regular practice in the country, Nigeria, and this occurs always without reference to the people who are to be governed by the Constitution.

(4) Based on the above , the National Assembly’s pursuit of a “Constitutional Review” denies the faulty foundation of the 1999 Constitution; this pursuit is merely an attempt at filibustering the quest for True Federalism; it is a pursuit to rather abridge the right of Self-Determination or Autonomy of the various Peoples and Nationalities of Nigeria and therefore True Federalism by the required concurrence of 24 states’ Legislative Assemblies which may not share similar existential prerogatives or desires.

(5) The 1999 Constitution, the Jonathan Conference and the APC Committee on Restructuring neither presented nor represented the Nationalities as the Federating Units. The conceptualization implicit in these attempts and the implementation of outcomes of such meetings denied the participating Nationalities the freedom to choose their representatives whose direct voices were needed on such crucial aspect of Restructuring the polity in Nigeria.

(6) The Jonathan Conference promoted the ridiculous position of “states” as the Federating Units and proposed “State Constitutions” as a necessity. Yet, States, as we have them in Nigeria, are administrative entities, which were not even created by the residents but by military fiat. A country can have any form of administrative unit, which was why Aguiyi Ironsi replaced the Regions with “groups of provinces” which are now more or less the “states”. Indeed, every Union or Federation in the world is based on a Union of Peoples which may now be administered either as states (administratively) as in the US or (geographically), as Regions as in Germany. For a Federation or Union to exist, therefore, the Peoples inhabiting such a geographical space must make that decision due to their inalienable rights.

(7) A “State Constitution” is meaningless outside the definition of the Federating Unit in and of itself. In other words, the issue is not about "State Constitution" but about the Peoples that want to create a Union. Such that if the issue is about Federating Units being in existence, (and it is) such Federating Units are not the states, but the PEOPLES, who are already in existence and can decide to administer themselves as they deem fit, be it as states, regions, cities, villages.

( The APC Committee’s Report on Restructuring promotes some degree of devolution of powers to the “Federating Units”. Devolution implies the sanctity of the Center and denies Federalism as a relationship between co-equal partners hence cannot be the solution as it retains the power to take back what it has given away. True Federalism, on the other hand, implies (i) re-imagining of the Center, the re-creation of a Center which will ensure the redevelopment of the human capabilities of the various Nationalities that have been in abeyance since Colonial intrusion and (ii) addressing the combined and uneven social and economic development of the country.

(9) The APC Committee chose to make the recreation of the Center a matter for the future by saying that there will be a consequential (Constitutional) amendment if the recommendation that states (Federating Units) exercise control over their natural resources within their respective territories and paying royalties to the Central government is accepted. If States (meaning Constituent Nationalities) exercise such control, all elements of a dysfunctional Post-Colonial State will be neutralized as its architecture will become dependent on the prerogative of the “States” where all the fundamental indices of development such as planning and execution of social, cultural, micro and macro-economic issues will be vested in the Federating Nationality. Since the current Constitution is the pertinent and pervasive problem that must be resolved, the question of its “consequential amendment” does not arise.

(10) In Nigeria, the post-Independence Nation-State exists in contradiction to the right and consequently the ability of the Nationalities to maintain their God-given Identity. This contradiction thus denies the Nations the ability to pursue micro and macro-Economic policies that will result in the development of social and economic relationship between the various Nationalities within Nigeria and their Diaspora, and which, for the Yoruba Nation, are the Yoruba in other West African countries, Brazil, Cuba, the U.S, the West Indies and South America without the overriding legislative power of the Nigerian Union.

(11) The above, and more, are why the Yoruba Nation is putting forward, a new Central Structure for Nigeria as a Multi-National State: a “Federal Nigeria, through a valid Federal Constitution, to be known as The Union of Nigerian Constituent Nationalities, with a Federal Presidential Council, whose members will be selected or elected from each of the Nationalities as Federating Units and from whom a Head of State will be selected or elected as the primus-inter-pares with an agreed term.”

(12) This will be essentially achieved through Referendums among the various Nationalities in Nigeria. For the Yoruba Nation, the Yoruba Referendum Committee is working towards convening of the Yoruba Consultative Assembly for the twin purposes of calling on the State Houses of Assembly to pass the Bill for a Referendum into Law as well as ratifying, rejecting, or renewing the Draft Yoruba Constitution as the alternative to the 1999 Constitution.

(13) The Referendum will become the practical manifestation of the Will of the People through which Nigeria’s and Yoruba Nation’s Grundnorm can confidently assert their being of “We, The People”.

Good morning Distinguished Sons and Daughters of Okun Nation at home and in the Diaspora. We thank God for the gift of another day. We believe we are all doing well and staying safe.

We feel the need to bring to your attention recent development as it relates to the Mandate you graciously gave to us when you elected us into the National Executive of Okun Development Association in October 2017.
This development is with particular focus on the security situation in Okunland and some of the events following from our efforts/interventions.

The influx of the armed Fulani, both local and foreign, into Okunland and the security threat this poses to our existential reality, has been the most critical challenge keeping the ODA National Executive awake all through the night.

By now, no one is in doubt that the armed Fulani issue is a National issue. However, for whatever reasons, there appears to be no orchestrated National strategy to deal with this profoundly serious security challenge. Each affected part of the country is therefore left to work out, as much as practicable, a framework for peaceful coexistence with all non-indigenes in their geographical territories.

One of the first steps we took after coming to office was to set up a Security Committee under the Chairmanship of Mr. Tunde Ibrahim, to facilitate all our initiatives in this area. A lot has happened in the last three years that we came to office. Because of the nature of security matters, we do not usually bring many of these to the public domain for discussion.

Many of you will recall that when the state was alleged to have officially given an open invitation to the Fulani to feel free to come and settle anywhere in the state, we consulted widely with all stakeholders in Okunland and formulated our position which was given wide publicity. What we feared most then did not take long after our position was made known before it started manifesting. It has today assumed a more terrible and disturbing dimension. For this reason, our Security Committee has practically been on the road 24/7 crisscrossing from one part of Okunland to another for the purpose of keeping the peace and promoting security consciousness.

Lately, the challenge has become more complex as the armed Fulani are arriving in different parts of Okunland in large numbers at almost regular intervals. They are even more daring in their threats to our ancestral land, our farmers, their farms and farm produce, and are inching closer and closer to homes in many parts.
Despite our extremely weak financial position, our Security Committee has been unrelenting. We have collaborated with other Security Committees in other parts of Okunland and this has been helpful.

Recently, one of our Leaders In Okunland, Dr. David Atteh, who has been a strong pillar of ODA generally and the bridge between ODA and some other Security Committees In Okunland, posted on many of Okun related platforms his thoughts on the reality of the security situation in Okunland and way forward. This, for the first time, elicited prompt reaction from the DSS.

Do not forget that several times in the past, reports had been made to security agencies in the state about actual attacks, leading in some cases to deaths or complete destruction of acres of farmlands, without any meaningful response. This time around, the DSS deemed it necessary to invite Dr. Atteh as a follow up to his post, which some Tribune journalists mischievously presented in their paper as an interview he granted them. From his account of his engagement with the DSS, it appeared a productive meeting.

Dr. Atteh accepted ownership of the content but denied ever granting any interview to any journalist for that matter, let alone the Tribune Newspaper. They however raised some issues which only the Chairman of the ODA Security Committee could properly and appropriately respond to. For that reason, Mr. Tunde Ibrahim was invited by the DSS to report in their office in Lokoja. He honored their invitation on 13/8/2020, after returning from a previous trip. Following more information from him, the DSS agreed that there would be a joint operation to dislodge those at Mopamuro LG.

That ought to gladden our heart.

On Saturday 15/8/2020, the DSS officer in Mopamuro was to accompany the other members of our Security Committee, who are essentially the hunters and vigilante groups in the LG, to the locations of these Fulani for proper assessment and report back.

Mr. Tunde Ibrahim made sure this was properly agreed. Unfortunately, and for whatever reasons, the Officer declined following them contrary to previous agreement. Only our team went without the DSS officer and came back with several pictures of these Fulani and their colonies/ tents etc. for the Officer.

The Officer rejected these photographs and said they were inadequate for operation. At that point, Mr. Ibrahim told him that was the best we could do under the circumstance. A few hours later, the Director of DSS contacted Dr. Atteh to find out if it was Mr. Tunde Ibrahim that was giving him information about the Fulani to which he said ODA is the official source of information on Security matters.

Not long after, the DSS Officer got in touch with Mr. Ibrahim that the Director would like to see him. This will be his second invitation on the same matter within a few days. Mr. Ibrahim will be honoring that invitation later that day.
We wish to reconfirm that both Dr. David Atteh and Mr. Tunde Ibrahim, together with other members of the Security Committee, are operating under the full awareness and approval of the ODA, in line with your mandate to us as mentioned earlier. This development should therefore be of interest to you, and please be rest assured that we will report back to you as soon as his meeting with the DSS is over.

We sincerely hope that now that the DSS is engaging our representatives at this level, the engagement will be the beginning of greater cooperation between us two so that we can work together to address this challenge through a meaningful and enduring win-win solution for all parties.
Without peace, progress will be stunted.
Long Live Nigeria
Long Live Kogi
Long Live Okun Nation

Barrister Femi Mokikan, National President, Okun Development Association.

THE NATIONAL QUESTION AND NIGERIA’S SECURITY SITUATION



(1) Heightened activities of insurgents and other related terrorists otherwise characterized by the Buhari Regime as bandits as well as continuous attempts at suppressing opposing views through the State Security Service is a confirmation not only of the unworkability of a Unitarist/Centralist security architecture in a Multi-National /Multi-Cultural society, but also the essence of the Nigerian Post-Colonial State as the negation of the sovereignty and individuality of Ethnic Nationalities within the country.

(2) Notwithstanding the pretentious declarations of this regime and previous ones of commitment to democracy, security and liberty of the various Peoples that make up Nigeria, the abiding reality has always been the relentless subversion of the democratic right to Self-Determination of the various Nationalities in this Prison House of Nations by the Post-Colonial State.

(3) This Nigerian Post-Colonial State, Legitimizing itself by a fraudulent Constitution since 1979, wrapped around the fallacy of its being the product of the Peoples of Nigeria, having created an electoral system based on false Census figures, became the playground for Hegemonic power politics, utilizing a sustained withering away of the National Existentialism of the Peoples of Nigeria; the continuous corruption of their social values and the brazenness of enforcing a dominant Hegemony on all the Peoples of Nigeria achieved, first by military adventurism, and now through their periodic electoral cycles.

(4) Their modus operandi is based on turning up the heat in the security situation in the run-up to any Presidential elections, usually engineered by the ruling political party in order to create, for itself, a conducive atmosphere for retaining power by which the various social formations and socio-cultural groups outside of the political parties are sucked in, each under the assumption of pursuing fundamental transformation of the Nigerian Post-Colonial State but always ending up as pawns in Hegemonic power politics.

(5) The electoral history since 1999 bears testimony; from the disorganized retreat of the military in 1999 enabling the electoral manifestation of the country in its pre-1966 reality; with dominant political parties roughly corresponding to the Regional dominance of the AD in the West mirroring the AG and the PDP following on the footsteps of the NPC/NCNC Alliance in the rest of the country; crossing over to the post-1966 reality of creating a Supra-National State where all Ethno-National centers of power are neutralized and replaced by an emerging and dominant Hegemony, achieved partly through the creation of alternative and/or new power bases through the instrumentality of presidential patronage, based on a vision of Nigeria crafted by the colonially-inspired military and security forces.

(6) Its political economy is driven by continuous centralization of political power through dependence on the center, now evidenced by making the State Houses of Assembly dependent on the center for their funding, just as the State governments are dependent on allocations from the center; the continuous attempts at centralizing control of water resources; now leading to the attempt by the north to disrupt the rotation of Hegemonic power by making its own allies the superintending political power all over the country including the utilization of its near-absolute control of the security apparatus in order to ensure its permanent political dominance.

(7) Within this matrix, the socio-cultural and civil society groups were and are active participants in all previous efforts at addressing the Hegemonic power plays; evidenced by their active opposition to the malfeasance of the Post-Colonial State as we experienced with Afenifere, then led by the late Abraham Adesanya and all of the Oodua Self-Determination Organizations being the main platforms for the anti-military, anti-Abacha struggles in Yorubaland between 1994 and 1999; to the emergence of the coalition to ensure the follow-through of even the defective 1999 Constitutional order by sundry formations including the “Save Nigeria Group” upon the demise of President Umar Yar A’dua, towards ensuring Goodluck Jonathan’s ascension to the Presidency all the way to interventions of various civil society organizations in the protests that eventually led to the collapse of the Jonathan Regime and the coming to power of the Buhari Regime.

( Their involvement in all previous efforts at “negotiating” a new Nigeria always end at the conclusion of such “negotiations”. These negotiations, through “public debates” or “public sittings” - IMF debates, Political Bureau, Niki Tobi's Constitutional review, Abubakar's consultations, Obasanjo’s All-Parties Technical Review Committee, Jonathan’s Conference, various National Assembly Retreats on the Constitution, ended up in the dustbin of history.

(9) In none of these instances were the aims and objectives of the civil society organizations situated within the context of the National Question, but on having high expectations of the Nigerian Post-Colonial State to exhibit a character it was not designed for, hence becoming vehicles for the sustenance of the State, normalizing the political parties’ route to political power thereby effectively turning Nigeria into a ping-pong game between only two rival political parties and whose apparatchiks change roles between and within the parties at will, mandating a necessary review of previous praxis, otherwise, the situation will be akin to doing the same things over and over again and expecting a different result.

(10) It is a proven reality that the Nigerian Post-Colonial State is the anti-thesis to People’s Sovereignty and therefore cannot and should not be expected to resolve any issues we are confronted with, security inclusive; our political and moral high ground derives from of our being excluded from the creation of the Nigeria’s Grundnorm, while claiming our acquiescence. “We, the People” did not make the Nigerian Constitution under which the Nigerian Post-Colonial State legitimizes itself.

(11) It is within the above context that the Yoruba Referendum Committee is proposing a change of direction to all the Nationalities in Nigeria by reviewing our pathways towards regaining our Sovereignty, which is the antidote to any security challenges that may arise. It is therefore incumbent on all the Peoples and Nationalities in Nigeria to embark on their own Constitution making processes, preferably via their own Referendums, as the way to re-establish their Sovereignties.

(12) Culminating in a new Nigeria where the Central Power will be based on "A Federal Nigeria, through a Federal Constitution, to be known as The Union of Nigerian Constituent Nationalities, with a Federal Presidential Council, whose members will be selected or elected from each of the Nationalities as Federating Units and from whom a Head of State will be selected or elected as the primus-inter-pares with an agreed term”, and this, becoming the mandate for all Nationalities upon which all of their political/electoral issues rest.

It is written:

“And Mordecai told them to answer Esther: “Do not think in your heart that you will escape in the king’s palace any more than all the other Jews. For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” Esther 4: 13-14


This was after word had gotten through to Queen Esther as to what fate awaited the Jews in Persia, who, because their laws and customs were different from others, became objects of extermination organized by Haman, already placed above all other princes in the kingdom and particularly miffed by Mordecai’s “insolence” toward his authority.

Foreshadowing the Nigerian Colonial State, placing the Sokoto Caliphate, the dominant force in the north, over and above all the other Nationalities in the colony; its prime political office holder, Sardauna Ahmadu Bello, miffed by Obafemi Awolowo’s “insolence” by what he considered a reduction in status by having to venture out of the comfort of his office to seek the consent of his subjects, vowing to ensure Obafemi Awolowo and his political party get roasted.

Starting with the illegal and Unconstitutional shenanigans that eventually led to the Nigeria-Biafra war and continuing through the various military and civilian regimes of present-day Nigerian Post-Colonial State.

With sustained attempts to homogenize all the different laws and customs of the Peoples into a singularity, under Fulani suzerainty; an “aarun oju”, an obvious reality, sometimes manifesting through extermination of the Peoples, especially in the Middle Belt; other times, forcible take-over of their lands by marauding terrorists, with the Post-Colonial State feigning helplessness, giving free reign to nomadic herdsmen pillaging of farmlands; yet, the State itself instituting measures and policies towards such homogenization, as witnessed by the centralization of waterways, so-called autonomy for State Houses of Assembly and local governments ati bee bee lo.

To which Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu cannot claim ignorance.

By which we know that Mordecai’s admonition to Esther: “Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” is appropriate.

As the “last man standing” , utilizing all the human and material resources at your disposal to ensure Yorubaland is freed from political parasites, vagabonds and hypocrites; in the process of which your Yoruba opponents exhibited the worst in Yoruba humanity; some, denouncing Yoruba geo-political realities, creating categories of Yoruba “foreigners” in Yorubaland; and this, despite benefiting from the Yoruba-wide political program you embarked upon; finding favor with the central authorities, whose sole aim was the continuous destabilization of Yorubaland, following on Ahmadu Bello’s footsteps, continuing till date.

The reality of Yoruba experience in the Nigerian Post-Colonial State, by which we know that Mordecai intertwined the fate of Esther to that of her People, to wit: “Do not think in your heart that you will escape in the king’s palace any more than all the other Jews. For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish”

The story of Yoruba political leadership, too numerous to mention; becoming either victims or totally compromised against their own People by the homogenizing forces of the hegemony in its military or civilian outings.

Making complete silence not an option.

To which Esther, recognizing the interrelationship between her particular circumstance as the queen and the general situation of her People, prompted her to take up the historical challenge by asking for her People’s support, which was made readily available; for they are faced with an existential threat, asking them to “Go, gather all the Jews who are present in Shushan, and fast for me; neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I will fast likewise. And so I will go to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish!” Esther 4:16

Going “against the law” while at the same time, obeying the law.

For, the king, despite his absolute authority, always made room for “innocent until proven guilty” in matters of the law, as recorded, hence did not arbitrarily hold Esther guilty.

And this, enabling his recognition of Mordecai’s previous, but forgotten assistance, preventing his assassination, the remembrance of which necessitated his reward and decoration.

Muhammadu Buhari was saved from political death by your and others’ efforts, recognizing the need to transform the Nigerian Post-Colonial State through the assumed integrity of the head of the State Apparatus, in the person of Muhammadu Buhari.

But who, instead, firmly placed the Nigerian Post-Colonial State in the hands of Fulani Hegemons.

And this, proving the point as to the fundamental problematic of the Post-Colonial State resting not on the perceived or assumed individual or personal characteristics, but on the historical purpose and mission of such a State, essentially aimed at the dehumanization and deculturalization of the Peoples, making them historical orphans and requiring a determined, “Estherian” response.

By which the Yoruba Nation already “fasted” and produced a blueprint in the process, demanding a specific Re-Formation of Nigeria as a “ Federal Nigeria, through a Federal Constitution, to be known as The Union of Nigerian Constituent Nationalities, with a Federal Presidential Council, whose members will be selected or elected from each of the Nationalities as Federating Units and from whom a Head of State will be selected or elected as the primus-inter-pares with an agreed term”.

These Nationalities, classified by the Chief Anthony Enahoro-led Movement for National Re-Formation as:

Ibibio Federation; Ijaw Federation; Igbo Federation; Urhobo Federation; Edo Federation; Yoruba Federation; Nupe Federation; Tiv Federation; Gbagyi Federation; Hausa Federation; Fulah Federation and Kanuri Federation.

Six (6) Multi-Nationality Regions: (i) A federation comprising minority nationalities in Cross River and Akwa Ibom states (i.e. Eket, Annang, Oron, Ibeno, Efik, Ejagbam, Korop, Boki, Bakwara, Yakurr, Yala).

(ii) A federation comprising the minority nationalities in Rivers and Bayelsa states (i.e. Ikwerre, Etchei, Ekpeeye, Engeni, Ogba, Eleme, Ndoni, Ogoni, and Andoni).

(iii) A federation comprising the minority nationalities in Delta State (i.e. Ika, Ndokwa, Warri, Isoko).

(iv) A federation comprising the minority nationalities in West Middle Belt, i.e. Zuru, Kambari, Bariba, Bussa, Karekare, Ngizim, Angamo, Bola, Funne, etc.
(v) A federation comprising the minority nationalities in Central Middle Belt, i.e.: (a) Ebira Group: Ebira, Uku, Ebira-Ugu, Ebira-Panda, Etuno-Igarra, Ebira Mozun, Bassa-Nge. (b) Igala Group (c) Upper Benue Group: Alago Eggon, Gwandara, Mada, Kakanda, Mighili, Bassa-Komu, Ninzom, Arum etc.

(vi) A federation comprising the minority nationalities in East Middle Belt, i.e. (a) Plateau Group: Ngas, Berom, Afezere Taroh, Goemai, Nmavo – Jukun, Amu, Pyem, Youn etc. (b) Taraba Group: Chamba, Jukun, Kuteb, Mambila, Kona, Kunni, Kaanab, Ndoro, Abakwa, Mumuye, Yububen, etc. (c) Savanna Group: Bura, Tangale – Waja, Bachama, Manghi, Kilba, Yungu, Mwanna, Bwazza Mbula, etc.

With any necessary modifications, among whom Referendums will be conducted by their own electoral bodies resulting in a New Constitutional Order for Nigeria.

The king remembered how he was assisted, and he sought out his helper; Muhammadu Buhari has forgotten the assistance, seeking to destroy his helpers, and anyone or Nationality who stands in the way.

Mandating the Legitimization of our quest for Constitutional Re-Formation of the Post-Colonial State, by which we, once his helpers, are determined to place our rewards in our own hands.

Against the “law” of the Post-Colonial State, confining our Sovereignty within political party platforms and Legitimizing itself by ascribing to itself, the Will of the People.

And, for us, (and other Peoples and Nationalities of Nigeria) by the Law reserving Sovereignty to the People, by means of a Referendum, organized by the lawful electoral agencies in Yorubaland by which our quest is Legitimized.

By which the Will of the Peoples are made known and by which the architecture of State must stand.

It is written:

“Again, when a righteous man turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die; because you did not give him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he has done shall not be remembered; but his blood I will require at your hand. Nevertheless if you warn the righteous man that the righteous should not sin, and he does not sin, he shall surely live because he took warning; also you will have delivered your soul.” Ezekiel 3:20-21

“That which I have heard from the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, I have declared to you”.

Wale Odeku[b][/b]

The Yoruba Nation, the existential crisis of her Constitutional Monarchy coinciding with imperial Europe’s confrontation with Africa, leading to millions of Yoruba carried into captivity through the Trans Atlantic Slave Trad; Yorubaland, subsequently ending up as a colony of Britain.

The Nigerian Colonial State, the administration of the amalgamated colonies, giving birth to the Post-Colonial State, the consummation of the negation of the Peoples of the colonies by the European colonial powers.

This Europe, a product of the collapse of the Holy Roman Empire via its peace of Westphalia, bringing forth its “Nation”-State; the “Nation”, largely Mono-Lingual/Ethnic and Mono-Cultural in their various stages of existence; its “State”, its form of administration, necessarily Centralized by this historical experience.

Despite which the Swiss, unaccustomed to Centralized administration, rejected the imposition of a Centralized State by foreign, albeit European, forces.

Ending up re-establishing their Autonomy and subsequently the Swiss Confederation as their form of State.

This Europe, grafting its mono-cultural reality onto Africa’s multi-cultural entities, denying the Multi-Lingual, Multi-Ethnic reality of its African “possessions”, driven by the Centralized State.

Either in its Parliamentary or Presidential forms.

In Nigeria, manifesting, first, in the immediate post-independence period, with its Centralized Parliamentary System, bent on neutralizing the Western Region and her political praxis, founded on the necessity for a Nigerian Post-Colonial State, anchored on the recognition of its Multi-Cultural and Multi-Lingual reality.

Promptly followed by the military-induced Presidential System sprinting towards permanent destruction of Nigeria’s Multi-National nature.

This military, whose foundation was in the Hausa Constabulary Force, transitioning into a West African Volunteer Force and ultimately the Nigerian Armed Forces, functioning as a colonial stabilizing force, trained to subjugate the “natives,” suppress the people and consider them a conquered specie.

Having no universal vision of its own.

Centralization, the colonial imperative, becoming its raison d’etre.

Hence incapable of being transformed into an anti-colonial force, without abolishing its original intent.

As experienced by the descent into the Nigeria-Biafra war engendered by attempts at getting the military perform roles it was not historically capable of.

Becoming a creation borne out of the “soul”, the essence of the society; coming only from “within” the ethos of the Nation/People/Nationality; possible only via their Autonomy.

By which we know that the quest for central power is nothing more than reinforcing the Centralized state structure.

Mandating its opposite, de-Centralization, a Confederation, the Multi-National State.

As shown by the Swiss example; with a similar historical experience as ours.

The Multi-National State, the Confederation, demonized by perpetual centralizers, utilizing all sorts of subterfuge in pursuit of their aims.

The story of the Nigerian Post-Colonial State.

Confronted with its reality as a “mere geographical expression”, clearly expressed by Chief Obafemi Awolowo, leading the Western Region into her glory.

Setting the stage for the “Golden Era” of well-known and well-recorded accomplishments of Western Regional Administration; in modern times, the only piece of evidence for the capacity and capability of the Yoruba Nation to exist in, and for itself.

Continuously neutralized by various military and civilian administrations of the Post-Colonial State, as its core mission.

It is written:

“The hand of the LORD came upon me and brought me out in the Spirit of the LORD, and set me down in the midst of the valley; and it was full of bones. Then He caused me to pass by them all around, and behold, there were very many in the open valley; and indeed they were very dry. And He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” So I answered, “O Lord GOD, You know.” Again He said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them, ‘O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: “Surely I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live. I will put sinews on you and bring flesh upon you, cover you with skin and put breath in you; and you shall live. Then you shall know that I am the LORD.” ’ ” So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and suddenly a rattling; and the bones came together, bone to bone. Indeed, as I looked, the sinews and the flesh came upon them, and the skin covered them over; but there was no breath in them. Also He said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.” ’ ” So I prophesied as He commanded me, and breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceedingly great army. Then He said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They indeed say, ‘Our bones are dry, our hope is lost, and we ourselves are cut off!’ Therefore prophesy and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “Behold, O My people, I will open your graves and cause you to come up from your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. Then you shall know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O My people, and brought you up from your graves. I will put My Spirit in you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I, the LORD, have spoken it and performed it,” says the LORD.’ ” Ezekiel 37: 1-14

The “whole house of Israel”; the Yoruba Nation; the “dry bones”, “cut off” from our “Golden Era”; our “lost hope”, by virtue of relentless centralization of the Post-Colonial State.

Once thought achievable through “amalgamation”; anchored on the dominance of a Hegemony but resulting in a continuous crisis of State and economic underdevelopment, despite mechanistic application of the colonizer’s economic philosophy and reliance on its financial institutions.

Reinforced by the Post-Colonial Grundnorm, superimposed over the Peoples’ moral values and codes, with the military substituting itself for “We, the People”.

Leading to the twisting and manipulation of the laws and attendant legalisms deriving from the Grundnorm with the net effect of corrupting the Peoples’ entire social existence.

Keeping the Peoples of Nigeria in perpetual cultural, lingual, and economic bondage.

By which we know that the De-Centralization of the Post-Colonial State is a sine qua non for our “dry bones” to come to life.

Countering of the “Nation-State” paradigm as a historical necessity; the resolution of unfinished imperial business.

Bringing forth the Nigerian Multi-National State as a “ Federal Nigeria, through a Federal Constitution, to be known as The Union of Nigerian Constituent Nationalities, with a Federal Presidential Council, whose members will be selected or elected from each of the Nationalities as Federating Units and from whom a Head of State will be selected or elected as the primus-inter-pares with an agreed term”.

Achieved by picking up the gauntlet thrown by the Muhammadu Buhari Regime, the custodian of Fulani Hegemony, whose tenure serves as its last stand.

For any successor Regime, of necessity, must purge the Centralized State Apparatus, in the process, reinforcing Hegemonic contest for power; always within the context of political rivalry between the East and the West, arbitrated by the Hegemony of the North.

Mandating a review.

Rendering moot, Hegemonic contests for centralized power.

It is written:

Now it happened when Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab, and the rest of our enemies heard that I had rebuilt the wall, and that there were no breaks left in it (though at that time I had not hung the doors in the gates), that Sanballat and Geshem sent to me, saying, “Come, let us meet together among the villages in the plain of Ono.” But they thought to do me harm. So I sent messengers to them, saying, “I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down. Why should the work cease while I leave it and go down to you?” But they sent me this message four times, and I answered them in the same manner. Then Sanballat sent his servant to me as before, the fifth time, with an open letter in his hand. In it was written: It is reported among the nations, and Geshem says, that you and the Jews plan to rebel; therefore, according to these rumors, you are rebuilding the wall, that you may be their king. And you have also appointed prophets to proclaim concerning you at Jerusalem, saying, “There is a king in Judah!” Now these matters will be reported to the king. So come, therefore, and let us consult together. Then I sent to him, saying, “No such things as you say are being done, but you invent them in your own heart.” For they all were trying to make us afraid, saying, “Their hands will be weakened in the work, and it will not be done.” Now therefore, O God, strengthen my hands”. Nehemiah 6:1-9

This last stand, an attempt at “trying to make us afraid, saying, “Their hands will be weakened in the work, and it will not be done.”

But I say:
“With God, all things are possible”; for God will strengthen our hands in establishing the Multi-National State.

“That which I have heard from the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, I have declared to you”.

Wale Odeku

It is written:

“To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven: A time to break down, and a time to build up” Ecclesiastes 3: 1,3b


The time:

Now, for the Yoruba Nation.

A Yoruba President for the Nigerian Post-Colonial State is immaterial, in this period, and under the present circumstances; for not only was there a Yoruba President between 1999 and 2007 , without making a dent on the underdevelopment of the country, the template for continuous Unitarization of the country was formalized, and this, resulting from the compromises that had to be made as a precondition for assuming power.

Compromises with a foundation on the false Census figures engineered by the Colonial State and now reinforced by the Post-Colonial State and which ultimately determines the function and purpose of the presidency; more so when the electoral system is already tweaked in favor of the Unitarist, homogenizing forces from the North.

Moreover, there is nothing new under the sun that had not been previously advocated and not being currently presented as to the development of the Nigerian political economy; yet underdevelopment remains a constant for the Post-Colonial State.

By which we know that the problem is not in the Nationality of the occupier of the Presidency but in its architecture from which methodologies of development must arise.

A “Yoruba President”, a “Nigerian President of Yoruba extraction”, to have any meaning, must be chosen by the Yoruba People, and reserving the right to determine his/her relevance to the process of development of the Peoples of the country; and this, resulting from the historical and existential paradigms of the Yoruba People, thereby making the Presidency a collaboration between the Peoples, the manifestation of social and cultural realities on social and economic development thereby making these the “building blocks” of the new State.

To breakdown:

This Nigerian Post-Colonial State.

With nothing new to offer; having passed through various phases of underdevelopment falsely clothed with the language of development.
At Independence, political power at the center, aimed at the destruction of the Western Region, pitting the Unitarization preached by the North and East against the Federalism of the West, which, among the three Regions, advocated Regional Rights for the minorities; opposed the Anglo-Nigeria Defense Pact which would have given the British total control over Nigerian air space; instituted the minimum wage for workers; created an economic paradigm based on development finance.

The other two Regions, in opposition to all these, creating conditions for the January 1966 military coup led by Nzeogwu, ostensibly as a “nationalist” move to negate “tribalism” and “balkanization” but whose hypocrisy was revealed in its execution and countered in a July 1966 “northern” coup, eventually resulting in the Nigeria-Biafra War.

Regardless of the Ethno-National composition and execution of these military coups, both exhibited a common feature – the imposition of an alien and alienating force on the Yoruba Nationality by either mostly Igbo or Northern military officers, both with the aim of forcing their vision of the Post-Colonial State on Yorubaland.

Despite which the militarist moves pitted the two competing Igbo and Hausa-Fulani Nations against each other for the control of Nigeria; one, the Hausa-Fulani with a history of imperial ambitions, the other, the Igbo and without such a history and actually a pretender to such imperial ambitions, ending up with disastrous consequences, and the Unitarization of Nigeria as the ultimate achievement.

After which the victorious military regime under Yakubu Gowon made a pretense at “reconstruction” and “rehabilitation” only to be exposed by the regime’s lack of knowledge and understanding of the relationship between “money” and “capital”; its political economy engineered as a colonial marketplace to which the Post-Colonial State is beholden for its sustenance.

Succeeded by a Yoruba general as head of State, who eventually handed over power to its anointed civilian counterparts, promising an agricultural revolution at the same time neutralizing it with massive importation of rice and other foodstuff; ignoring the warning about economic collapse, capping it all with a moon-slide electoral victory.

Giving way to various military regimes with a standard rationale for taking power, all anchored on addressing questions of underdevelopment in its various manifestations, up till the present, where the Post-Colonial State is beholden to political economies competing for global dominance.

The reality of the Nigerian Post-Colonial State.

This story of Nigeria, just like the rest of Africa, was and still is based on the corruption of the social and cultural paradigms of the African Nationalities, being subjected to the overarching necessities of the Colonial State and forced into complying with its dictates mainly by negating their existential paradigms and substituting these with a form of social organization in-congruent with their existing values and mores; leaving a void, to be filled with the worst of the characteristics of the colonial society, the direct opposite of those values.

The substitute, not an improvement of an existing paradigm but its negation, which created the cycle of continuous underdevelopment.

The Colonial State, having acceded to the demands of the North to ensure their political dominance through the spurious Census giving it a parliamentary majority as the political foundation for Independence, albeit through its collaboration with the East.

Both, accusing the Action Group of the West, of promoting “balkanization” of Nigeria because of AG’s promotion of Federalism of the Nationalities as the basis for an independent Nigeria.

Disregarding the reality of colonial plunder having already “balkanized” the peoples of Africa into different countries maintained by artificial boundaries, but also within Nigeria by the Post-Colonial State, where many of the Peoples of Nigeria were “balkanized” into different “states”.

The Yoruba, either as the military Head of the Post-Colonial State or as its civilian President, heavily instrumental to the Unitarization and homogenization of the Nigerian Post-Colonial State, to the detriment of not only the Yoruba Nation but also of other Nationalities in Nigeria.

Which any prospective pursuit of a Yoruba Presidency must address; having now known that the Nigerian Post-Colonial State, whose Unitarization and is being pursued apace, is incapable of creating any foundation for the expression of the humanity of the Peoples of Nigeria.

Mandating such a pursuit to be anchored on a completely different paradigm.

To build up:

The Nations, the Peoples in the Nigerian Post-Colonial State.

Without prejudice to other Nationalities in Nigeria, the Yoruba Nation clearly determining for itself, the parameters for Nigerian Presidency.

Mandating the Constitutional Re-Formation of Nigeria.

It is written:

“…. A time to keep, And a time to throw away….” Ecclesiastes 3:6b

By which endless promises and journeys of economic and political development to nowhere, coinciding with electoral contests for the Presidency, must be thrown away; and, together with all the above, be placed within the context of addressing the question of Federalism in Nigeria, by which the Peoples of the Nationalities push for and assert their right to Self-determination via re-establishing the Peoples in their cultural and existential self-conception(s)and expressions.

Overcoming the pitfalls of the Post-Colonial State, neutralizing its mechanistic application of “global” solutions, imbibing the cultural essence of the Nations; these, being the manifestation of their humanity, denied by the Post-Colonial State.

Necessitating the establishment of the Multi-National State as the alternative State Formation.

Where the Presidency is to be arrived at via “A Federal Nigeria, through a Federal Constitution, to be known as The Union of Nigerian Constituent Nationalities, with a Federal Presidential Council, whose members will be selected or elected from each of the Nationalities as Federating Units and from whom a Head of State will be selected or elected as the primus-inter-pares with an agreed term.”

The pursuit of which is to become the political reality of Yorubaland which the Post-Colonial State must respond to.

“That which I have heard from the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, I have declared to you”.

Wale Odeku

It is written:

“And as for you, O My flock, thus says the Lord GOD: “Behold, I shall judge between sheep and sheep, between rams and goats. Is it too little for you to have eaten up the good pasture, that you must tread down with your feet the residue of your pasture—and to have drunk of the clear waters, that you must foul the residue with your feet? And as for My flock, they eat what you have trampled with your feet, and they drink what you have fouled with your feet.” ‘Therefore thus says the Lord GOD to them: “Behold, I Myself will judge between the fat and the lean sheep. Because you have pushed with side and shoulder, butted all the weak ones with your horns, and scattered them abroad, therefore I will save My flock, and they shall no longer be a prey; and I will judge between sheep and sheep. I will establish one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them—My servant David. He shall feed them and be their shepherd. And I, the LORD, will be their God, and My servant David a prince among them; I, the LORD, have spoken.” Ezekiel 34:17-24

General Olusegun Obasanjo, having “eaten up the good pasture” by virtue of his coming to power in 1976 and 1999; treading “down with his feet, the residue of the pasture” by overseeing the ascendancy of Fulani Hegemony, through various dubious political schemes, from the overnight manipulation of the 1979 Constitution to twelve-two thirds, all the way to his 1999-2007 Presidency, throwing all efforts at “Restructuring” into the dustbin, sacrificing it on the altar of Unitarized Nigerian Post-Colonial State.

Formally discarded by Fulani Hegemony under Muhammadu Buhari; lamely fighting back with “African Democratic Congress”, its political irrelevance now substituted with this insistence on “Restructuring”.

Now convinced about “reforming the federating units, without which Nigeria will remain insecure, unstable, non-progressive and stagnated at best or disintegrated at the worst.”

This “Reforming” deemed as the “Re-Constitution”, the “Re-formation” into their essence; a Federation being the Union of two or more Ethnic Nationalities structured as a relationship between the "national"(center)and the "sub-national"(regional) entities.

Lest it becomes “reforming” what does not exist.

As there are no “federating units” in Nigeria but administrative centers created by military fiat and decreed into existence as “federating units”, making them subservient to the Center, a complete travesty of the theory and practice of Federalism; ensuring the current security architecture incapable of giving “any individual or group hope, let alone assurance of security within Nigeria”.

By which General Obasanjo is seeking its “devolution”, without acknowledging the retention of power by the devolving entity; by which we know that devolved power does not necessarily lead to a Federation.

As being experienced by Scotland, where, despite devolution of powers, Westminster (London) retains power, dragging her kicking and screaming out of the European Union.

Which must inform on Nigeria’s Federalism, where the Post-Colonial State exists in opposition to the right and consequently the ability of the Nationalities to maintain their God-assigned Identity, denying them the ability to pursue micro and macro-Economic policies that will result in the development of social and economic relationship between the various Nationalities within Nigeria and their Diaspora without the overriding legislative power of the Nigerian Union.

This Nigerian Post-Colonial State, parasitic on the God-given natural resources of the geo-political space led to the non-utilization of these resources to develop any meaningful human resource or capacity, becoming the backdrop for corruption and causing massive exodus of human capital, “scattered abroad”, glamorized as remitters of foreign exchange back into the country, and with no impact on human and material productivity.

Our God-given Identity is our Nationality and any form of political, economic and social formulation that will mediate the interrelationships within the Nationality and between Nationalities expressed in the State must involve the direct participation of the Nationalities within that entity, more-so when there are different existential realities between the Nationalities which the apparatus of the State seeks to mediate.

General Olusegun Obasanjo, using his 2005 Political reforms Conference to paper over what he now calls the “obvious cracks in Nigeria’s polity” while also proposing that “tearing up or seeking disintegration is also not the solution, remaining silent makes us accomplices and irresponsibly so” and challenging us to “put our thinking caps on, join hands and seek solutions together, otherwise, we will be destroyed piecemeal. There is no time to stand and stare or just to continue to call on governments that are ineffective. Let us take initiative and spearhead actions that will involve governments and the governed and will devolve security architecture, apparatus, arrangement, and responsibility in subsidiarity.”

Which many individuals and groups, putting on their thinking caps, had done, proposing solutions, placing them on the table, while all the civilian and military regimes since 1966 made us “ eat what you have trampled with your feet, and drink what you have fouled with your feet; have pushed with side and shoulder, butted all the weak ones with your horns, and scattered them abroad “.

The story of the Nigerian Post-Colonial State.

Glory be to God in the Highest.

It is written: “therefore I will save My flock, and they shall no longer be a prey; and I will judge between sheep and sheep”. Ezekiel 34:22

By which we know that the quest for True Federalism remain a necessity.

For power, in the Nigerian Post-Colonial State, is for its own sake, with no variations in any critiques of the State, by insiders or outsiders.
Such power, to be meaningful demands a Truly Federal foundation, by which central power is to be exercised and mediated.

Otherwise, a Yoruba may become the president; compelling a reckoning with entrenched Fulani Hegemony; necessitating another era of Inter-Nationality and Intra-Nationality intrigues, acquiescing to the Hegemony; made more problematic by the famed Yoruba existential liberalism; yet without a dent in Post-Colonial economic underdevelopment.

References to Regional experiences of the First Republic and its potentials, ready-made responses to Post-Colonial underdevelopment.

Putting on our “thinking caps”, the Yoruba Nation “took the initiative” and determined what is needed, contained in the Annexure to the “Bill for a Referendum”, to wit:

“A Federal Nigeria, through a Federal Constitution, to be known as The Union of Nigerian Constituent Nationalities, with a Federal Presidential Council, whose members will be selected or elected from each of the Nationalities as Federating Units and from whom a Head of State will be selected or elected as the primus-inter-pares with an agreed term; Western/Oduduwa Region shall be a Constituent Unit of the Nigerian Union; Western/Oduduwa Region shall adopt a Parliamentary System of government; The Central Government of the Union shall have no power to interfere nor intervene in the affairs of the ODUDUWA REGION, save as shall be agreed to by three quarters of the members of the Region’s Parliament; There shall be a Division of the Federal Armed Forces in the Region, 90% of which personnel shall be indigenes of the Region. The Divisional commander shall be an indigene of Oduduwa Region; The Judicial power of the Region shall be vested in the Supreme Court of the Region, Court of Appeal, High Court, Customary Court and Other lower courts as the Regional Parliament may establish. There shall be a Court of Appeal in each of the provinces. There shall be, in each province, a High Court from which appeals shall lie to the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court of the Region; Western/Oduduwa Region shall have its own internal security system; Each Constituent Unit of the Nigerian Federation shall control primary interest in its own resources with an agreed Tax Model for the Federation.”

By which we know that what General Olusegun Obasanjo is seeking in “Sokoto is already in the sokoto”, a. k. a “seeking far afield, that which is already possessed”.

Such that even if the General has an alternative to this existing proposition, the viable means of resolution is through the Yoruba Referendum; with the Committee for the Yoruba Referendum already “spear heading actions that will involve governments and the governed.”

By which General Olusegun Obasanjo is called upon to embrace or reject as the path towards “reforming the federating units”.


“That which I have heard from the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, I have declared to you”.

Wale Odeku

The Yoruba “man of God”, citizen of the United States of America, proclaiming, “All Lives Matter” as the answer to the fundamental crisis now enveloping America, using the Scripture, as a shield.

The Scripture, as written:

“Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness…….”. Genesis 1:26

“Man”, made in the image of God; by which the “man of God” concluded, “All Lives Matter”.

This “man”, repudiated God by disobedience, embracing satan’s wiles, thrown out of the Garden.

Despite which God effected “Man’s” Redemption, for “man” to return to his created state. In the process, destroying the “old world” with the flood, after which “man” was dispersed all over the earth, with different languages and territories; Redemption continuing, till date.

The Redeemer, by whose Blood we are Redeemed, when questioned by Pilate as to his being a king, responded thusly:

“You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.” John 18: 37

The Truth is the cause, the cause is the truth.

Non-recognition of which made Pilate look foolish with his next question, to wit:

“Pilate said to Him, “What is truth?” And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews, and said to them, “I find no fault in Him at all.” John 18:38

Coming to the realization of facing the truth, in person.

Affirming what is written:

”And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written: “The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD. ”Then He closed the book and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” Luke 4:17-21

All Lives matter to Him, hence the Redemption of “man”.

All lives.

Not commodities: for “man” is to have dominion over commodities.

“fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Genesis 1:28

Black Lives, becoming commodities, “living things”, chattel slaves, bought and sold, a possession, through the Arab and Trans-Atlantic Slave Trades, with all the implications for the humanity of the African.

“Black Lives Matter” implies “All lives Matter”; not mutually exclusive. By which we know that “Black Lives Matter” is not a negation of “All Lives Matter” but its affirmation.

Therefore, when “any life” demands justice for itself, countering it with “all lives” is a rejection of the demand for justice by “any life”, pandering to racism and white supremacy, affirming the commoditization.

The “Black Lives Matter” movement; the catalyst for the current Global interrogation of racism, white supremacy, and proposals for policy changes.

By which we know that “Black Lives Matter”.

This commoditization, the consummation of imperial plunder on the African Continent, actively sustained by European/White Christian Missionaries, glorifying the commoditization.

Enforced by the establishment of the various military forces, pressed into the service of suppressing the humanity of the entire Africa Peoples, corralled into the Colonial Nation State.

The anti-colonial struggles, proclaiming “African (Black) Lives Matter”, re-establishing the humanity of the African; and for the Yoruba Nation, now heightened with calls for her Autonomy.

Re-imagining our humanity, and for the Christian experience in the Yoruba Nation, “Black/African Lives Matter”.

Reiterated by Bishop Ajayi Crowther, translating the Bible into Yoruba and other African Languages; Mojola Agbebi at the 1911 Universal Races Congress against racism, advocating self-governance for African churches, his 1902 Inaugural Sermon bearing witness and establishing the Yoruba Baptist Convention in 1914.

Both fulfilling the Scripture: “Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works”. James 2:18

Mirroring Abraham, Moses, Caleb, David et al. The saving Faith.

“Black Lives Matter”, in words and deed.

In the political, anti-colonial firmament, the 1918 Adubi War against colonial taxation; the 1945 formation of Egbe Omo Oduduwa, changing the nature of anti-colonial narrative, introducing the Federalist notion into anti-colonial discourse; the 1947 Abeokuta Tax revolts; Omowale Malcolm X’s visit to Ibadan; anti-military “June 12”, its human symbol, the champion of reparations for slavery, and de-commoditization of Africans.

Globally, the Haitian Slave Revolution, rejecting the commoditization of their humanity; the ANC anti-apartheid struggles, demanding Majority rule; Blacks/Africans, the majority; The Montgomery Bus Boycott; the March on Washington; the Summer Freedom Rides; Soweto; “melo ni a o ka lehin adepele”, a. k. a, the list could go on.

Despite which the wheels of racism and white supremacy unrepentantly and continuously recreates itself, through its African/Black surrogates; and this, not only an “African/Black” phenomenon.

Despite which “Black Lives Matter”.

It is written:

“And when it was day, some of the Jews banded together and bound themselves under an oath, saying that they would neither eat nor drink till they had killed Paul”. Acts 23:12

The Scripture recording such instances of imperial surrogacy, including the betrayal of the Redeemer, and the several kings of Israel and Judah, doing “evil in the sight of the Lord”.

Forerunners of present-day oppressors of their own people, in the service of racism and white supremacy, anchored on its economic imperatives, reinforced with the architecture of the Post-Colonial State.

Repentance of the sinner, the cornerstone of Redemption, the turnaround of “man” as sinner into the recreated “man” in the image of God.

The sin: The Nationalities in Africa accepting, by force or subterfuge, their change of status as created by God, the image of God, embracing their characterization by the sinner; the colonial power, defining their existentialism.

The Repentance: the transformation of the architecture of the Post-Colonial State sustained by the political economy of racism and white supremacy, established for continuous suppression of the African, making the African-American arguably the only National group in America without a formal tie to their homeland.

Mandating the Nationalities to reconfigure the Post-Colonial State into their God-given existence.

This necessity overlooked by earlier Pan-Africanist praxis, championed by Kwame Nkrumah, CLR James, George Padmore et al; correctly recognizing the artificiality of the borders, but compromising African aspirations on its sustenance, hence the OAU and now the AU.

Against which Obafemi Awolowo advised, during the run-up to the 1958 All Peoples Conference, proposing the alternative.

The necessity for the Nationalities to come into being for themselves and in themselves, the basis for Ethno-National Federalism as the political future of Africa and consequently the Global African community.

Put into practice through the then developing relationship established between the Western Region and Bahia in Brazil, truncated by the “Nigerian” enablers of the Post-Colonial State paradigm.

A continuity with the past, where internal conflicts for dominance led to alliances with foreign interlopers, both parties to the internal conflicts becoming victims of the foreigner. Hence colonial rule.

Now making the control of the Post-Colonial State the imperative, an end in itself; and this, possible only by destroying the self-liberation of the Peoples.

Ensuring continuity of the parameters of African oppression and exploitation; all because the Peoples were, and are, imprisoned within the walls of the Post-Colonial State, and by which the Global African remain imprisoned.

By which we know that the Autonomy and Self-Determination of the Peoples of Africa, negating the artificiality of the current borders, is the only pathway towards repentance.

Repentance therefore is “setting at liberty” the various Peoples of Africa from the cages of the Post-Colonial State enabling them to come into being as created by God; “man” made in His image.

But who, despite being commanded to have dominion, is instead dominated by the Post- Colonial State, to which the “man of God” in America is enamored.

Hiding behind “Scripture Alone”, denouncing God’s commands on “liberty for the oppressed” as a function of “pseudo-Spirituality”.

Ignoring the Scripture itself, where, despite a preponderance of priests and prophets, Ezekiel became the watchman; despite the experience of the “old prophet”, God mandated the “young prophet” to go on a particular mission with particular instructions; and Paul, despite the existence of many Pharisees, became an Apostle.

These, not by their might, but by the Spirit of the Lord.

By which we know that charges of “pseudo-spirituality” is a denial of the visions of God given to servants of God, outside the purview of the experienced “man of God”; whose inability to respond with humility and reverence for God, becomes an attempt at subsuming such instructions from God under their authority, substituting the self for God.

Recalling the young prophet’s inability, despite concluding the assignment given him, to “hold fast to what he had”; not remembering “how he had received and heard”; acquiescing to charges of “pseudo spirituality” made by the “old prophet”, consequently losing his life, thereby cutting short further opportunities to serve the Lord.

But Glory be to God who will always confirm His visions in several ways.

Fulfilling the Scripture:

”But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear; for assuredly, I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it”. Mathew 3:16-17

Yes, “Black Lives Matter”!!!

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Wale Odeku

On June 12, 2020, Muhammadu Buhari, the head of the Nigerian Post-Colonial State lied.

Saying, “it is a day to honor our founding fathers who toiled to establish our republic and every Nigerian who has worked tirelessly to sustain it”
“Founding Fathers”, establishing the existential parameters of a Nation, independently or in conjunction with other Nations.

By which we know that in a Multi-National, Multi-Cultural, Multi-Lingual country, each of the entities must have her own “Founding Fathers”, celebrating them taking into consideration these multiple attributes.

Without aggregating these into a single paradigm, denying the nature of the societies. The story of Unitarist implementation by the Nigerian Post-Colonial State, whose aim is the total evisceration of the Nations within Nigeria under the direct supervision of the Northern, Fulani Hegemony.
Once prompting Femi Adesina, Muhammadu Buhari’s Special Adviser on Media, a Yoruba(?); a Christian, applauding herdsmen terrorism by asking us to choose between our lives and our ancestral lands.

Making recognition of ancestry and by extension, ancestral lands, an anathema to his Christian beliefs, despite copious Scriptural references to ancestors and ancestry.

It is written:

“For as many as have sinned without law will also perish without law, and as many as have sinned in the law will be judged by the law (for not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified; for when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them) in the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel.” Romans 2: 12-16

By which we know that the Scripture recognized the “Gentile” African ancestors, their conscience serving as the “law”, making ancestors, ancestry, and the bequeathed lands, the responsibility of the descendants, of any generation.

Nigeria, not becoming a Republic until 1963, with the Republican Constitution, surreptitiously proclaimed by the NPC/NCNC Alliance to prevent a favorable appeal of the Obafemi Awolowo treasonable felony conviction to the Privy Council in London; setting up the Nigerian Supreme Court, sustaining the conviction; their preferred outcome.

The first salvo in the then unfolding Centralization of Nigeria, at every stage entrenching Fulani Hegemony, with spurious legal reasoning enabling the neutralization of the Nations.

Ensuring direct military rule as the force of Unitarism; called upon, under civilian rule, to play similar roles, as witnessed in the “twelve two-thirds” subterfuge, publicly confirmed by a Yoruba representative of Northern Hegemony, Richard Akinjide; forced to make the admission, via a request from him to utilize a similar mechanism to prevent Obasanjo’s impeachment; an unnecessary request.

Obasanjo having made his peace with the Hegemons.

These, among others, the source of the Annexure to the “Bill for a Referendum” to wit: “The Judicial power of the Region shall be vested in the Supreme Court of the Region, Court of Appeal, High Court, Customary Court and Other lower courts as the Regional Parliament may establish. There shall be a Court of Appeal in each of the provinces. There shall be, in each province, a High Court from which appeals shall lie to the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court of the Region.”

Our Founding Fathers.

Obafemi Awolowo, Oni Akerele, A. B. Oyediran, Abiodun Akerele, Akin Reis, Saburi Biobaku, Victor Munis, C. O. Taiwo, Akintola Williams, Ayo Rosiji, S.L. Akintola, Ayo Ogunseye, Ayo Okusaga.

In 1945, established the Egbe Omo Oduduwa, part of whose aims was “the propagation of the ideal of a modern Yoruba State and Federal (my emphasis) State of Nigeria through the agency of reliable persons who share our ideals”.

Obafemi Awolowo, Gaius Obaseki, W.E. Mowarin, Arthur Prest, M.A. Ajasin, Bode Thomas, Anthony Enahoro, S.O. Sonibare, S.O. Ighodaro, M.A. Ogun, S.L. Akintola, E. R. Okorodudu, S.T. Oredein.

The Executive Committee of the Action Group, having won the 1951 Western Nigeria Parliamentary Elections, pursued Federalism as the only option for the emergent State; through the various Constitutional Conferences in 1953 and 1954. Achieving a victory with the Federal Constitution for Nigeria, which came into effect on October 1, 1954, ultimately becoming the foundation for the Independence Constitution of a Federal Nigeria.

These are our Founding Fathers. The Founding Fathers of the Yoruba Nation, in Nigeria; the deviation of some, notwithstanding.

It is written:

“But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood, And your fingers with iniquity; Your lips have spoken lies, Your tongue has muttered perversity.” Isaiah 59: 2-3

Muhammadu Buhari, the “Lord Protector” of Fulani Hegemony in the Nigerian Post-Colonial State, espousing a narrative of the Nigerian Republic midwifed by the Colonial Military and anchored on a fraudulent premise; obliterating the cause of Federalism our Founding Fathers lived and died for.

Muhammadu Buhari’s hands, defiled with the blood of the Peoples of Nigeria; his fingers with iniquity against the Peoples of Nigeria; his tongue, muttering perversity, and now speaking lies.

Applauding “every Nigerian, who has worked tirelessly to sustain the republic”.

“Sustaining the Republic”, anchored on manipulated Census figures in favor of the North, giving it a parliamentary majority, the source of its strength.
All Censuses till date, bearing no relevance to reality. Now to be reinforced with the National Identity Card Scheme, with over 100 million “Nigerians”, mainly found in the cramped IDP camps in the north, not yet on its data base.

In short order, providing a permanent electoral majority for the North.

Finally nailing the coffin of the non-Fulani Nationalities.

The ultimate destination of the Nigerian Post-Colonial State, Buhari’s Republic.

Calling forth a new paradigm of engagement by the Yoruba Nation.

Discarding expectations of an “agreement” between all sections of Nigeria a distraction, an acquiescence to Northern Hegemony; disregarding the injuries imposed on the economies of the Nationalities by centralized control of macro and micro economic indices of the Post-Colonial State while promoting economic and development paradigms on a “pan-Nigerian” scale; raising expectations of “performance” by Yoruba Governors.

Now reinforced by the alarm raised by the Yoruba Vice President as to the looming economic disaster in Muhammadu Buhari’s Republic; the recurring decimal in the Post-Colonial State; reminiscent of Obafemi Awolowo’s warning in 1982 during another Northern Hegemonic Regime, culminating in the December 1983 military coup, with Muhammadu Buhari at its head.

The cyclical history of the Nigerian Post-Colonial state, Muhammadu Buhari’s Republic, made manifest.

It is written:

“And the word of the LORD came to me, saying, “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD to the shepherds: “Woe to the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flocks? You eat the fat and clothe yourselves with the wool; you slaughter the fatlings, but you do not feed the flock. The weak you have not strengthened, nor have you healed those who were sick, nor bound up the broken, nor brought back what was driven away, nor sought what was lost; but with force and cruelty you have ruled them. So they were scattered because there was no shepherd; and they became food for all the beasts of the field when they were scattered. My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and on every high hill; yes, My flock was scattered over the whole face of the earth, and no one was seeking or searching for them.” ‘Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the LORD: “As I live,” says the Lord GOD, “surely because My flock became a prey, and My flock became food for every beast of the field, because there was no shepherd, nor did My shepherds search for My flock, but the shepherds fed themselves and did not feed My flock”— therefore, O shepherds, hear the word of the LORD! Thus says the Lord GOD: “Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will require My flock at their hand; I will cause them to cease feeding the sheep, and the shepherds shall feed themselves no more; for I will deliver My flock from their mouths, that they may no longer be food for them.” Ezekiel 34:1-10

Mandating a renaissance of political praxis of the Yoruba Intellectual and Political leadership in the mold of our Founding Fathers; not the Buhari Republic’s founding fathers.

That which I have heard from the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, I have declared to you.

Wale Odeku

June 7, 1998: Sanni Abacha died.

August 7, 199: Yoruba leaders met at the Premier Hotel, Ibadan, to chart the way forward for the Yoruba because of the impending withdrawal of the military from governance.

Combined, becoming the turning point for the Yoruba Nation; which, despite holding the Nigerian Post-Colonial State by the jugular, retreated without a strategy of further engagement, a sort of disorganized retreat from a position of strength; leaving the political space open for the continuity of the Post-Colonial State, as is.

Justifying this hasty withdrawal with the need to deny political space to avowed "domestic" and "external" enemies of the Yoruba Nation; hoping to advance the quest for True Federalism as a political necessity.

Now reduced to playing the game as decreed by the Post-Colonial State, forced to establish or re-establish dominance of the Yoruba political space; in the process embarking on different types of alliances; the necessity for True Federalism becoming a ball tossed to and fro, with no discernible end.

Leaving room for a false comparison with Afonja.

It is written:

“Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, And rely on horses, Who trust in chariots because they are many, And in horsemen because they are very strong, But who do not look to the Holy One of Israel, Nor seek the LORD!” Isaiah 31:1

But Afonja did not “go down to Egypt for help”.

Foreign interlopers in Yorubaland, finding refuge in Afonja’s territory, pressed into his service, ended up overthrowing him and establishing their own rule.

Colonel Victor Banjo in a similar situation, leading Biafran troops to “liberate” Lagos and the West from the iron grip of the North; with orders compelling him to obtain directives from Enugu on any matter concerning Lagos.

The Afonja experience bringing him back to reality.

In 2015, Yorubaland went “down to Egypt for help”.

Muhammadu Buhari, pretending to some form of incorruptibility and honesty; reducing corruption to only a matter of embezzling public funds, sucking the Yoruba into his web.

Succeeding only because the political philosophy guiding the Yoruba at the time was faulty, repeating the error of August 7, 1998.
Now ending in great disappointment and outright disillusionment; not a function of the badness of a Muhammadu Buhari, but a failure to properly contextualize the struggle in 1998 and 2015; thereby unable to create the political and programmatic space necessary for Yoruba Autonomy.

Not looking “to the Holy One of Israel, Nor seek the LORD”.

Doing justice to the issue at hand demands full reproduction of the Word of the Lord, not a summary.

It is written:

“Now three years passed without war between Syria and Israel. Then it came to pass, in the third year, that Jehoshaphat the king of Judah went down to visit the king of Israel. And the king of Israel said to his servants, “Do you know that Ramoth in Gilead is ours, but we hesitate to take it out of the hand of the king of Syria?” So, he said to Jehoshaphat, “Will you go with me to fight at Ramoth Gilead?”
Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, “I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses.” Also, Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, “Please inquire for the word of the LORD today.”
Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, about four hundred men, and said to them, “Shall I go against Ramoth Gilead to fight, or shall I refrain?” So, they said, “Go up, for the Lord will deliver it into the hand of the king.”
And Jehoshaphat said, “Is there not still a prophet of the LORD here, that we may inquire of Him?”
So the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “There is still one man, Micaiah the son of Imlah, by whom we may inquire of the LORD; but I hate him, because he does not prophesy good concerning me, but evil.”
And Jehoshaphat said, “Let not the king say such things!”
Then the king of Israel called an officer and said, “Bring Micaiah the son of Imlah quickly!”
The king of Israel and Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, having put on their robes, sat each on his throne, at a threshing floor at the entrance of the gate of Samaria; and all the prophets prophesied before them.
Now Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah had made horns of iron for himself; and he said, “Thus says the LORD: ‘With these you shall gore the Syrians until they are destroyed.’ ” And all the prophets prophesied so, saying, “Go up to Ramoth Gilead and prosper, for the LORD will deliver it into the king’s hand.”
Then the messenger who had gone to call Micaiah spoke to him, saying, “Now listen, the words of the prophets with one accord encourage the king. Please, let your word be like the word of one of them, and speak encouragement.”
And Micaiah said, “As the LORD lives, whatever the LORD says to me, that I will speak.” Then he came to the king; and the king said to him, “Micaiah, shall we go to war against Ramoth Gilead, or shall we refrain?”
And he answered him, “Go and prosper, for the LORD will deliver it into the hand of the king!”
So, the king said to him, “How many times shall I make you swear that you tell me nothing but the truth in the name of the LORD?” Then he said, “I saw all Israel scattered on the mountains, as sheep that have no shepherd. And the LORD said, ‘These have no master. Let each return to his house in peace.’”
And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “Did I not tell you he would not prophesy good concerning me, but evil?”
Then Micaiah said, “Therefore hear the word of the LORD: I saw the LORD sitting on His throne, and all the host of heaven standing by, on His right hand and on His left. And the LORD said, ‘Who will persuade Ahab to go up, that he may fall at Ramoth Gilead?’
So, one spoke in this manner, and another spoke in that manner. Then a spirit came forward and stood before the LORD, and said, ‘I will persuade him.’ The LORD said to him, ‘In what way?’ So he said, ‘I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ And the LORD said, ‘You shall persuade him, and also prevail. Go out and do so.’
Therefore look! The LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these prophets of yours, and the LORD has declared disaster against you.”
Now Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah went near and struck Micaiah on the cheek, and said, “Which way did the spirit from the LORD go from me to speak to you?”
And Micaiah said, “Indeed, you shall see on that day when you go into an inner chamber to hide!”
So the king of Israel said, “Take Micaiah, and return him to Amon the governor of the city and to Joash the king’s son; and say, ‘Thus says the king: “Put this fellow in prison, and feed him with bread of affliction and water of affliction, until I come in peace.” ’ ”
But Micaiah said, “If you ever return in peace, the LORD has not spoken by me.” And he said, “Take heed, all you people!”
So, the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat the king of Judah went up to Ramoth Gilead. And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “I will disguise myself and go into battle; but you put on your robes.” So, the king of Israel disguised himself and went into battle.
Now the king of Syria had commanded the thirty-two captains of his chariots, saying, “Fight with no one small or great, but only with the king of Israel.”
So it was, when the captains of the chariots saw Jehoshaphat, that they said, “Surely it is the king of Israel!”
Therefore, they turned aside to fight against him, and Jehoshaphat cried out. And it happened, when the captains of the chariots saw that it was not the king of Israel, that they turned back from pursuing him.
Now a certain man drew a bow at random and struck the king of Israel between the joints of his armor. So, he said to the driver of his chariot, “Turn around and take me out of the battle, for I am wounded.”
The battle increased that day; and the king was propped up in his chariot, facing the Syrians, and died at evening. The blood ran out from the wound onto the floor of the chariot.
Then, as the sun was going down, a shout went throughout the army, saying, “Every man to his city, and every man to his own country!” So, the king died and was brought to Samaria. And they buried the king in Samaria.
Then someone washed the chariot at a pool in Samaria, and the dogs licked up his blood while the harlots bathed, according to the word of the LORD which He had spoken. 1 Kings 22: 1-37


That which I have heard from the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, I have declared to you.

Wale Odeku

Africans in Haiti, rejecting the separation of the African Peoples from their God-given existentialism, able to engage the rest of the Western Hemisphere, on its own, and by extension, African terms, embarked on the 1791 Revolution culminating in the emergence of the first African Sovereign State on January 1, 1804.

Suppressed by the coalition of western hemispheric forces but nevertheless expressing the necessity for African Peoples to re-establish their existentialism outside the paradigms of the Post-Colonial State.

Recognizing that all Peoples of African descent had been facing existential threats stemming from the dispersal of the African Peoples from their God-given territories on the continent of Africa through Trans-Saharan Slave Trade, the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, alongside voluntary and involuntary migrations out of the continent and its ultimate conclusion in colonial rule, turning us into that aspect of humanity being tossed to and fro by every wind of political economy foisted on us by those historical events.

A consequence of which is the Balkanization of the Peoples of the continent into various countries, which saw the Yoruba being dissolved into four different countries in West Africa (Nigeria, Benin Republic, Togo and Ghana) and also within those countries( Yoruba in Kwara and Kogi States being denied as part of the Yoruba Nation) and sustained by the architecture of the post-colonial State till date.

Strengthening the powerlessness of the African Peoples now confined within political Nation-States not of their own making but nevertheless forced to abide by its dictates; unable to make a dent on its presumptions.

Despite which continuous efforts at a global solution to the African problematic continue; through the various Pan-Africanist movements and conferences; the 1958 Accra Conference, pivotal.

Generating a debate between Obafemi Awolowo and Kwame Nkrumah on the pathway for African regeneration.

Both agreeing on the artificiality of the Post-Colonial States, established as the vehicle for dis-empowering Peoples of Africa, existing at the behest of their creators, ensuring African development of her humanity is taken out of their hands and placed within the interests of whichever external force catches the fancy of the rulers.

Globally risking the lives and humanity of the African Peoples.

Mandating its reconsideration.

Kwame Nkrumah opting for its continuity based on an assumption of a possible and necessary union of these states, disregarding the reality of an artificiality incapable of its own negation.

The experience of Organization of African Unity, now known as the African Union; agreed to, as a means of neutralizing Kwame Nkrumah; the Nigerian Post-Colonial State playing the leading role.

As opposed to the Obafemi Awolowo proposal, holding Federalism along cultural and lingual lines as the way for the regeneration of the African Peoples, countering the sustenance of the artificial boundaries.

The fundamental question as to whether the homogenized Post-Colonial State as conceived by the colonial powers can lay the foundation for an enduring political and economic philosophy for development for the global African Peoples remains yet to be answered, 60 years after formal Independence; for the post-colonial State spends its energy on sustaining the Balkanization of the various Peoples of Africa into these post-colonial countries , further fueling our global powerlessness.

Ayo Opadokun, former secretary-general of National Democratic Coalition(NADECO); former secretary-general of Afenifere; lamenting the outcome of their participation in midwifing the current Post-Colonial State as a wasted effort; having not succeeded in “restoring democracy” such that the state of affairs is not the democracy they fought for; concluding by calling on “Nigerians to set themselves free from the shackles of oppressors masquerading as politicians”.

Many members of NADECO and Afenifere were and still are part of those who took over from the military.
Making the re-evaluation of the premise of “returning democracy to Nigeria” a necessity.

The political experience and influence of the driving forces of both NADECO and Afenifere playing no part in their engagement of the Nigerian Post-Colonial State in their attempts to “return democracy to Nigeria”.

The Yoruba Nation, having provided the core of the leadership of these organizations, having been victims of the gradual subordination of the Nigerian Post-Colonial State to the “northern” Hegemons, variously through political chicanery and military force; mandating a critical approach to the Post-Colonial State.

Accepting it as a “given”; and not creating an alternative, thereby making “return to democracy” as a concept, null.
For the “democracy” of the Post-Colonial State is the pursuit of Hegemonic continuity, in which participation, under any guise, becomes its legitimization, the only product.

The democracy that must be fought for, that ought to be fought for, is a democracy anchored on a Federal System based on the Lingual and cultural imperatives of the Peoples, by which the 1960 Federal Constitution that ushered in Nigeria’s Independence was arrived at, against the tide of the colonial homogenizing mission, pursued politically, by the attempt to subdue the Western Region and militarily, by the intervention of the military in January and July of 1966.

NADECO and Afenifere lost the opportunity to reverse centralization and homogenization; for they were unable to recognize their historical moment, despite Yorubaland holding the oppressive Nigerian State by the jugular at that point in time.

Becoming lost in quests for electoral dominance through what is akin to a disorganized retreat from a position of strength, indicating an overall strategy that was not well thought out.

Ascribing this to the "badness" of the human element, waving a flag at the problem.

Making it impossible to create the political and programmatic space to meaningfully influence the political choices made at the time, hence the ease with which political opportunists smuggled themselves into, and hijacked, the entire electoral process.

It is written:

“‘Who is left among you who saw this temple in its former glory? And how do you see it now? In comparison with it, is this not in your eyes as nothing? Yet now be strong, Zerubbabel,’ says the LORD; ‘and be strong, Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest; and be strong, all you people of the land,’ says the LORD, ‘and work; for I am with you,’ says the LORD of hosts.” Haggai 2:3-4

“Work”, building the temple.

The “temple”, the Yoruba Nation, the foundation laid in the Western Region, with the victory of the Action Group in the 1951 Parliamentary Elections, putting into practice, the philosophy, “freedom for all, life more abundant”, translated into the Yoruba language as “Afenifere”, globally relevant to the African Peoples.

The recognition of the Yoruba in Brazil by the Western Region; an attempt at correcting the historical distortions of the slave trade and its impact on the Nations of Africa. Leading to the establishment of “Yoruba House” in Bahia; the precursor to an intellectual exchange between the University of Ife and the Yoruba in Brazil.

Neutralized by the Nigerian Post-Colonial State, in its drive for the continuous negation of the African Peoples.

But the Lord God says “be strong”; Governor Zerubbabel (the political leaders); priest Joshua (the pastors, preachers etc); all the people of the land (the writer and the reader).

It is written:

“For thus says the LORD of hosts: ‘Once more (it is a little while) I will shake heaven and earth, the sea and dry land; and I will shake all nations, and they shall come to the Desire of All Nations, and I will fill this temple with glory,’ says the LORD of hosts. ‘The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine,’ says the LORD of hosts. ‘The glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former,’ says the LORD of hosts. ‘And in this place I will give peace,’ says the LORD of hosts.” Haggai 2:6-9

Ayo Opadokun, your admonition to “Nigerians to set themselves free from the shackles of oppressors masquerading as politicians” must start from the recognition of the oppressor—the Nigerian Post-Colonial State, from which the Peoples must be freed, building their “temples”.

All the countries of the earth, now shaken by COVID-19; upending all previously held human constructs, making possible the glory of this latter period greater than the former.

By which we know the desire of all Nations; the desire of the Yoruba Nation, expressing our humanity by manifesting our God-given existence, in our “temple”, our Nation.

The[b] Yoruba Referendum[/b], the “work” that must be done to build the “temple”. Be a part of the movement.

That which I have heard from the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, I have declared to you.

Wale Odeku

The first act of the Muhammadu Buhari Regime, under its new chief of staff, is “Fiscal autonomy” for the state assemblies.

The icing on the cake of relentless pursuit of centralization and negation of the Multi-Cultural and Multi-Lingual composition of Nigeria, administered by a State architecture anchored on the 1999 Constitution, further exposing the political immorality of the Post-Colonial State.

Its Preamble fraudulently attributed to the will of the People.

“We, the people of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, having firmly and solemnly resolve, to live in unity and harmony as one indivisible and indissoluble sovereign nation under God….”

Every word a lie.

A fundamental lie from which nothing good can emerge.

A “Federal Republic” must have Federating Entities.

The Nigerian “Federal Republic”, arrived at by dividing and subdividing the Nations and Peoples inhabiting the geo-political entity, merely serving administrative purposes, and imposing the “Federal” tag on them.

Federalism in its fundamental nature is a co-operation between two centers, sub-national(state) and national(country).

A Federal Republic, not about administrative convenience but about the Peoples; wholly responsible for their own internal organization; deciding for themselves, further division into smaller units or local administrative centers.

Thereby enabling the Yoruba Nation to decide to make every Yoruba town or city an administrative center— a choice to be made based on our economic and political imperatives.

Therefore, an existing country cannot simply be dividing itself up and calling such division a Federation.

That is the fundamental political immorality of the Nigerian Post-Colonial State; for, at no time did “We, the People” “firmly and solemnly resolve” to do anything.

The military, a colonial creation with the consciousness of the colonizer, seeing itself as an occupation force, through its January 15/16 1966 coup and its July 29, 1966 counter-coup had forced the Peoples of Nigeria to abandon their existential will and abide by its dictates.

Under the leadership of Olusegun Obasanjo, cooked up the 1979 Constitution, through which it handed over power to the civilians.

At no time did “We, the people” decide to “live in unity and harmony as one indivisible and indissoluble sovereign nation”.

That Biafra lost her war of Independence does not vitiate, by itself, continuous demand for such independence by either Biafra or any other Peoples within the Nigerian Post-Colonial State.

Biafra was and is not the defining moment for other Nations and Nationalities.

A loss is not the end of a quest.

Nigeria’s sovereignty must be dependent on the sovereignty of her Peoples, who may or may not delegate such sovereignty to their representatives, directly or indirectly.

Contrary to what had been imposed on the Peoples, whose choices were always manipulated against them by the military and their civilian collaborators.

By which we know that by so doing, the purveyors of this lie also unwittingly affirmed the Peoples’ sovereignty.

If, therefore, in legal terms, the Preamble does not, by itself, grant any powers and rights not specified in the Constitution, it cannot, itself being a statement of the principles in this Constitution, be based on a falsehood.

That such a premise as “We, The People” is false implies that the entire principles, powers, and rights it purports to embody are also false.

By which we know that the Preamble and the Constitution is not binding on “We, The People” on whose behalf such an assumption was made.
Preparing a new Constitution, Legitimized by “We, the People” the only antidote to the anomaly.

The truth against the lie, purporting to be “under God”.

A lie against God.

It is written:

“Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’” Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Genesis 3: 1-5

This lie by satan, described in other parts of the Scripture as the “father of lies” diverted us from our God-given nature into the satanic course of life.
And this, despite God’s provision for life but which Eve and Adam discountenanced.

By which we know that God’s provisions for the Peoples of Nigeria did not require their self-negation but their self-determination into their becoming, in and for themselves.

Which the 1999 Constitution denied and substituted with its own imagination of who the Peoples must be, contrary to the will of God, yet pretending to be acting “under God”.

Just as its father the devil pretended to Eve, to be acting “under God”.

To lie against God is satanic and a sin, by which we know that continuous operation of the 1999 Constitution is a sin against God and the sole reason why nothing good can come out of the Nigerian Post-Colonial State, and by extension, the Peoples that “pine away in them”.

It is written:

“Therefore you, O son of man, say to the house of Israel: ‘Thus you say, “If our transgressions and our sins lie upon us, and we pine away in them, how can we then live?” ’ Say to them: ‘As I live,’ says the Lord GOD, ‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why you should die, O house of Israel?’ Ezekiel 33:10-11

Indeed, why should the Yoruba Nation die?

To live, the Nation must turn away from the evil ways of the 1999 Constitution.

The question is how?

It is written:

“Son of man, speak to the children of your people, and say to them: ‘When I bring the sword upon a land, and the people of the land take a man from their territory and make him their watchman, when he sees the sword coming upon the land, if he blows the trumpet and warns the people, then whoever hears the sound of the trumpet and does not take warning, if the sword comes and takes him away, his blood shall be on his own head. He heard the sound of the trumpet but did not take warning; his blood shall be upon himself. But he who takes warning will save his life. But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, and the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at the watchman’s hand.’ Ezekiel 33:1-6

Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, whether you are interested in pursuing the Nigerian Presidency or not, is immaterial at this point.

The issue to ponder is: Why should the Yoruba Nation die?

The omen pointing to the death of the Yoruba Nation is too clear for all to see, pretensions to Nigerian Nationhood notwithstanding.

The Yoruba Nation shall live, not by the instrumentality of the APC and accession to the Presidency of the Nigerian Post-Colonial State, nor by any other party formation or formulation, but through the Constitutional Re-formation of Nigeria.

The route being the Yoruba Referendum, whose Annexure says: “A Federal Nigeria, through a Federal Constitution, to be known as The Union of Nigerian Constituent Nationalities, with a Federal Presidential Council, whose members will be selected or elected from each of the Nationalities as Federating Units and from whom a Head of State will be selected or elected as the primus-inter-pares with an agreed term”.

This is the counter to the lie being foisted on the consciousness of the Peoples of Nigeria through the architecture of the Post-Colonial State and whose raison d’etre is in the complete subjugation of the Peoples within that geo-political space by the “northern” Hegemons, now fully manifesting in Muhammadu Buhari’s Presidency.

That which I have heard from the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, I have declared to you.

Wale Odeku