₦airaland Forum

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

By which we know that some Church leaders, in their presumptuousness, discountenanced the word of the Lord concerning the Nigerian Post-Colonial State, this Word, the negation of their positioning for power and authority within the State.

Opening the window to the wind of pestilence; already circling the Nations, waiting for whom to devour, the Nations and Peoples, now reaping the whirlwind.

Despite which those who trust and know the Lord their God remain unshaken, being confident in this very thing, that the Lord God of Peace, who “commanded light to shine out of darkness, has shone in their hearts”, the necessity for the negation and not the preservation of the Post-Colonial State.

As when the Apostle Paul described himself as being “all things to all men”; not opportunistically, by not making himself the center of the mission entrusted to him by our Lord Jesus Christ, but recognizing the unity in the diversities, by which we know these as the acknowledgement of the Nations, of classes, and making himself available such that the justice and liberty in Jesus Christ might the achieved by all.

Against which the church leaders of today must compare themselves, not representing their persons as the alternative to acknowledging the Nations.

Substituting their own form of unity for a Unity in Christ, which was and is founded on the recognition and manifestation of the diversity; hiding behind the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, as the excuse for not challenging the reality of the current world, content with tagging along, uninterested in changing the context of their reality.

By which the Scripture is disregarded; Jesus Christ having stated that no one knows the time, except the Father in Heaven.
For, indeed no one can know the time.

It is written:
For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, And do not return there, But water the earth, And make it bring forth and bud, That it may give seed to the sower And bread to the eater, So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth;
It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it. Isaiah 55:10-11

By which we know that the end time is not nigh, if there is one soul expecting the Promise of God to manifest, either individually or communally. For no one knows all the promises of God to any or all the Peoples of the earth, except the maker of the promise: The Lord God.

Daniel, with his exploits for God, even knowing the content of the king’s dream, told to no one; and who, at the end, while inquiring from God about the meaning of a vision, was told to go “his way till the end; for you shall rest and will arise to your inheritance at the end of the days.”

As it is with us today; church leaders trying to envision what and how the end will be or is, preparing for a post-pandemic period, ready to follow the trajectory of the “world” outside the context of their own world to wit: the particularity of the African world within the global order demanding the essential task of regenerating the Nations in Africa, already overburdened with the heavy weight of the Post-Colonial State.

It is written:
And Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”
Philip said to him, “Come and see.” John 1 :46

The invitation to experience the manifestation of the divine in the human, the expression of the Divinity of Christ in His humanity.

By which we know that the Nations, the Peoples, as creation of God must manifest this character; the deviation from which creates a crisis of identity, a state of alienation from God and therefore continuous underdevelopment which any number of worship centers or numbers of congregation or motivational speeches cannot redeem.

Redemption, the return to the existentialism as created by God; establishing their sovereign will in their governance, where, the Yoruba Nation has a tradition and Global reputation of religious tolerance, a globally-recognized part of Yoruba National culture, an example of societal harmony.

Now under threat of neutralization through the instrumentality of the Nigerian Post-Colonial State and reinforced by the denial of Nationhood and the Nationality being currently experienced and preached by the church.

Such that a similar question should now be posed: “can anything good come out of the Nigerian post-colonial State?”

With a similar response: “Come and see.”

We are here in the Post-Colonial State.

But what do we see?

A sustained withering away of our National Existentialism; the continuous corruption of our social values through the direct intervention of the Nigerian Post-Colonial State and the brazenness of enforcing a homogeneity on all the Peoples of Nigeria under Fulani-Kanuri Hegemony.

A direct opposite of the Yoruba People as a creation of God; by which their preference for governance and social order must take precedence over any form of contrived “unity”.

By which the Church leaders rely on a partial rendering of the Scripture, admitting that all authority derives from God, but omitting the crucial part as to the use of such an authority for the good of those under authority.

By which we know that a negation of our God-given existentialism; the homogenization of the Peoples of Nigeria, is not for our good.

Thereby rendering obedience to such an authority null.

This obedience, couched as “fairness”, to manifest in a demand for a “Christian” as the President of the Nigerian Post-Colonial State, and which, in its warped reasoning, sought to play the West (Yoruba) against the East(Igbo and the Eastern minorities), both clamoring for a “Christian” candidate, creating room for Hegemonic maneuvers.

And this battle is not of God.

For the Nigerian Post-Colonial State is not a creation of God but of man.

Not even an African initiative, but the result of a global economic and political competition designed and operated as a means of entrenching our humanity in continuous subservience.

Turning us into a caricature, deviating from God’s nature, and aspiring to the expectation of another being, partially succeeding in suppressing our Languages and Nations, losing our God-given capacity and capability for self-expression in global affairs, onlookers in the evolving history of humanity.

Anchored by the apparatus of the Post-Colonial State, found in its bureaucracy, its security agencies, the judiciary, and the legislature, all combined to ensure the continuity of the Post-Colonial State, under the authority and power vested in its executive, the Presidency.

Which is what a “Christian” President is to uphold, and despite having had “Christians” in such positions, twice, with no discernible transformation of our existential reality.

A “Christian” Presidency of the Nigerian Post-Colonial State without the Redemption of the Nations substitutes the “self” for God, the sole reason for the previous occupiers serving as puppets for the Hegemons; having deliberately or ignorantly disallowed the Redemption of the Nations from being fulfilled; manipulated at will and plastering the wall of the Nigerian Post-Colonial State with untempered mortar.

History is about to repeat itself; the tragedy of previous “Christians” as president becoming the farce of the expectations of the present; the pursuit of which will be tempting God.

That is, when all is said and done; the question of underdevelopment reinforced by the re-energized Nation States of the western hemisphere; the Nigerian National Question flowing from the current reality of Hegemonic power plays, disregarding the existentialism of other Peoples and Nations making up the Nigerian geo-political space, overwhelming Yoruba Existentialism.

Will the “Christian” President then recoil and cry “Fulanization” or “Islamization” just as the predecessors are now doing?

Or

will these “Christian” leaders obey God and join hands with the Yoruba Nation to pursue the Referendum towards Yoruba Self-Determination?

It is written:
Surely, when the wall has fallen, will it not be said to you, ‘Where is the mortar with which you plastered it?’” Ezekiel 13:12


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

Wale Odeku

It is written:

“Then the men of Israel took some of their provisions; but they did not ask counsel of the LORD. So Joshua made peace with them, and made a covenant with them to let them live; and the rulers of the congregation swore to them…………And all the congregation complained against the rulers. Then all the rulers said to all the congregation, “We have sworn to them by the LORD God of Israel; now therefore, we may not touch them. This we will do to them: We will let them live, lest wrath be upon us because of the oath which we swore to them. Joshua 9: 14-21

The Gibeonites, a strong city with a strong army, despite which they became slaves on the assurance that their deception would secure their safety and freedom under Israel; having recognized the power and authority of God whom they were prepared to worship.

Israel, with Joshua as the leader, presumptuously agreeing to the Gibeonite’s supplications, relying on their own military exploits; only to later discover the ruse; but bound by their oath sworn before the Lord God.

Rather than getting punished, they obtained Mercy from God; the Gibeonites, serving at the temple of God; Israel, not diminished in her efforts at reaching the Promised Land.

By which we know, God’s Grace abound, even in our presumptuousness. Continuous willful disobedience to God cannot and does not attract Grace.

Yoruba existential heritage, the “omoluwabi”, the physical manifestation of Yoruba cosmogony, always expected to drive internal, external, personal, and communal relations, coming under attack, by omission or commission; the result of opposing social and cultural values, now laying the land prostrate.

But refusing to go the Gibeonite route; having recognized the historical and contemporary context under which these are taking place.

In contemporary times, represented by the Awolowo school of thought, at one stage seeking to introduce Yoruba existential paradigms to the rest of the country, based on expanding what had become beneficial to Yorubaland in terms of social, economic, and cultural development, arising from the dominance of a praxis tailored toward the regeneration of the Nigerian Post-Colonial State, with an assumption of reasoning as a core value of State.

Serially attacked by the center, comprising the unholy alliance between the Hegemons of the North and the East, as the custodian of State Power, both united in their attempts at neutralizing the Yoruba West, the only obstacle to their political and territorial ambitions.

Fueled by their intellectuals and progressives, disregarding the Multi-Cultural composition of the Nigerian geo-political space; in the process embarking on a series of illegalities in pursuit of maintaining control of State Power.

Affirming the lie of the “carpet crossing” as the source of Awolowo’s Parliamentary victory, despite its purveyor, Nnamidi Azikiwe’s NCNC only able to provide a list of 27 members in an 80-member Parliament and the Action Group, having 42 victorious members.

Appropriating “Nation-building” as their area of exclusive preserve; ascribing “balkanization” to the Action Group’s insistence on Federalism of the Nationalities as the basis for an independent Nigeria.

Disregarding the reality of many of the Peoples of Nigeria already balkanized into different geo-political territories by the colonial regime; and this, taking its full course under the post-independence alliance between the East and North Hegemons.

With other African Peoples and Nations already balkanized into different countries maintained by artificial boundaries created by the colonial powers; the acceptance of which substitutes for the natural boundaries of the Nationalities.

But which we know is not the case.

The bogey of "balkanization” leading to the denial of Regions for minorities in Nigeria; the “balkanization” that will correct the artificiality of the boundaries and create a platform for the Nationalities to work out their best form of coexistence.

The aim being the denial of the capability and capacity of the Yoruba Nation to pursue her dreams and aspirations.

All of which gave rise to a contest of praxis in Yorubaland.

Between advocacy for “mainstreaming”; that is, surrendering to Northern Hegemony as the senior partner with the aim of substituting itself for the Hegemons of the East.

Having come into full bloom under Olusegun Obasanjo, twice an official partaker in these infamies, only to be tossed aside, with him, in the 21st century, lamenting the “Fulanization” of Nigeria.

A process that had begun since the 19th century amalgamation of the southern and northern protectorates establishing the Nigerian State.
Utilizing the powers of the Post-Colonial State in its relentless pursuit of “Fulanization”, with the Hegemons utilizing all means at their disposal to deny the non-Fulani Peoples of the North and the East the possibility of their coming into being.

A telling example. The Mobile Police Force, also known as “Kill and Go” established as a force to crush the demand for the Middle Belt Region, the Hegemons having seen it in action in similar situation in Malaysia, eventually transforming into a force of repression to the Peoples of Nigeria, till date, living true to its moniker.

The “progressives” opposed to the “mainstreamers”, hoping to transform the Post-Colonial State by reinventing the wheel of development through supplanting the Hegemons.

It is written:

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.” Proverbs 3:5-6

Limited in its quest by not addressing the fundamental defect of the Nigerian Post-Colonial State; relying on assumptions of its neutrality in the underdevelopment of the Peoples, in defiance of the reality of the Post-Colonial State as the expression of Hegemonic political calculations; the end-game for imperial domination.

Fueled by its presumptuousness as to its knowledge and ability to make sense of the Nigerian Post-Colonial State.

Offering alternatives to existing paradigms, substituting the pretensions of the Hegemony for the all-embracing pursuit of development; the coming into being of the Peoples. Denying the reality of the Post-Colonial State as incapable of ushering the becoming. Relying on their ability, trusting in their own knowledge, their ability to turn things around, their political sagacity.

With only the solidification of the Hegemony to show for it.

Bringing forth the necessity for the Yoruba Nation to complain against the entire Leadership; just as “all the congregation complained against the rulers” .

The Yoruba leadership, the “mainstreamers”, and the “progressives”, both having run their course, must now answer the Yoruba National Question.

Questioning Yoruba leadership, based on the recognition that all over the West/Yorubaland, in 1999, the deeply held popular opinion was that the Alliance for Democracy (AD) was the vehicle for Yoruba Regional Autonomy; there was an army but no commanders.

The self-determination groups that could have been the general staff headquarters were busy ingratiating themselves into the politicians’ orbit, falling into the cesspit of leadership fetishism.

The Yoruba Peoples’ perception of what was expected did not propel these groups into taking any political initiative, even if it meant taking on the political establishment, leaving room for the missing of opportunities to map out an Autonomist Agenda, even if only by making it the electoral issue of the land.

And this, hugely different from the usual pre-electoral promises of either “Restructuring” or economic development; usually forgotten once elections are over.

It is written:

“The voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the LORD; Make straight in the desert A highway for our God.” Isaiah 40:3

The Post-Colonial State, through the Hegemony, having created an electoral system on its terms, based on false Census figures assuring electoral majority for itself, Legitimized with the 1999 Constitution, all wrapped around the fallacy of its being the product of the Peoples of Nigeria, is on the road to being permanently established as the determinant of the leadership of the Post-Colonial State.

By which we know that the Yoruba Referendum is the way of the Lord, the answer to the Yoruba National Question, the only way to address the clear and present danger to our existential preferences and Legitimizing our existence, a necessary precondition for the resolution of our existential crises.

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

Wale Odeku

Abba Kyari’s tenure as Muhammadu Buhari’s Chief of Staff brought the National Question in Nigeria into sharp focus.

By which we know that the Nigerian Post-Colonial State is detrimental to the progressive development of the Peoples of Nigeria.

Now proven by Abba Kyari’s published piece in “This Day” newspaper on October 1, 2012 titled “Nigeria: Africa’s Leader or Leaden”? where he lamented Nigeria’s lackadaisical attitude to her “historical role” in and for Africa.

The preponderance of hopes lost and dashed in Nigeria and proposing all the views and opinions already advanced by advocates of True Federalism as the way forward for Nigeria.

In the process, exposing the foundational truism of the Post-Colonial State with his answers to the questions he posed, to wit: How do we move our country forward? How do we move Africa Forward?

His response anchored on a heavy reliance on non-Nigerian or even African experts, despite his acknowledgement of the record of the First Republic.

Describing how “cash crop surpluses (groundnut, cotton, hides and skins), Northern Nigeria developed NNDC, Marketing Boards, Bank of the North, Kaduna Polytechnic, relatively free education etc. The West (Cocoa, rubber) developed WNDC, National Bank of Nigeria, relatively free education etc. The East (Palm oil & kernel, rubber, wood) developed ENDC, African Continental bank, advanced commerce etc.”

Yet, these play no part in his answers to the question he posed.

Relying on Professor Hicks and V.K Pandit as his authorities on “Integration of Plural Societies”; but ignoring, for example, the experiences of the Western Region, whose educational policies attracted even non-Yoruba outside the Region so they could benefit from it.

Demanding a “complete rethink on the economic framework...” citing Professor J. Needham of Cambridge and Thomas Karier as his authorities; but disregarding the combined and even development of the Western Region, with its focus on integrated educational and economic systems.

Addressing questions of Democracy without reference to how it had operated in Nigeria, under colonial rule, where, in the Western Region, the ruling AG Party lost the 1956 Parliamentary elections mainly due to the misinformation passed around on the free education policy but which provided further impetus for more engagement with the People which eventually paid off in the 1959 elections where it regained lost electoral advantage.

Above all, relying on Lee Kwan Yew of Singapore’s perspectives on Education even when the reality of his exposition is right under his nose, in Western Region’s policy on Education as the catalyst for development.
His conclusion?

“These leaders achieved so much because they followed the right policies based on the right economic and philosophical framework. To bring IMF/World Bank economists to run your economy today is the height of folly. They will not run your economy. They will ruin it.”

Which played no part in his examples, further exposing a Colonized mindset weaned on the denial and neutralization of the inherent ability of the Peoples in and for themselves.

It is written:

King Rehoboam rejected the advice of the elders, and he spoke to them according to the advice of the young men, saying, “My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to it; my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scourges!” So the king did not listen to the people; for the turn of events was from God, that the LORD might fulfill His word, which He had spoken by the hand of Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat..” 2 Chronicles 10: 13-15

In like manner, Abba Kyari ignored what he admitted was the “right philosophical framework” and opted to sustain Colonial legacy as the foundation for his vision of Nigeria.

By which we know that its continuity by the Nigerian Post-Colonial State is a denial of the God-given National identities of the Peoples of Nigeria, negated by the relentless pursuit of Unitarism as had been witnessed under the Muhammadu Buhari Regime, in which Abba Kyari played a prominent part.

“Northern Intellectuals”, at home in appropriating the quest for True Federalism in Nigeria, diverting its subversion by the Northern political leaders.

And which, ordinarily, ought to be the first step in the regeneration of Federalist principles.

Presenting a “northern problem” as a Nigerian Problem, the trademark.

Evidenced by the almajiri system, a northern cultural and religious problematic turned into an issue to be resolved by the Nigerian Post-Colonial State, with “nomadic education” as a first step; proposing education or economic development without addressing the impact of Unitarism on its regression, such that lowering standards for the north to “catch up” became their solution; proposing democracy without addressing issues already raised by the likes of Chiefs Obafemi Awolowo and Anthony Enahoro et al, but would rather make a proposition on Federalism without addressing the role of the Northern elites, including its military wing, in subverting the Federalism that ushered in the country’s Independence, as a matter of State policy.

The trajectory is not too difficult to understand.

It is written:

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Mathew 7: 15-16

A Paper, written by Northern intellectuals, titled “Project Nigeria” was said to have been presented to Muhammadu Buhari, who promised to follow through on its recommendations.

That Muhammadu Buhari would make Abba Kyari his chief of staff, empowering him by asking every matter of State to pass through him, showed the actualization of the Fulani-Kanuri alliance as the dominant force not only in Northern politics—to the permanent detriment of Northern minorities—but also in Nigeria in general.

Ahmadu Bello’s NPC made itself the umbrella for Northern aspirations, assimilating Northern minority elites into its leadership.

Denying these minorities any Region (s) of their own, Northern Nigeria became the laboratory for the Unitarization of the Nigerian Post-Colonial State.

Suppression of the agitation for the Middle Belt, Borno and Calabar-Ogoja-Rivers Regions, on the one hand, and on the other, aggressive support for the creation of the Mid-West Region out of the Western Region.

The sole aim being the neutralization of Federalism’s major proponent, the Action Group, the defining characteristic of the Nigerian Post-Colonial State.

Manifested, militarily, by the attempt to change the nature of the narrative through military coups by both Eastern and Northern soldiers, each side aiming for the control of the Post-Colonial State, leading to the Nigeria-Biafra war.

Politically, by various post-war alliances, leading to the emergence of the Kanuri as an independent political force through the GNPP, even while denying “southern” leadership of a countrywide alliance against the NPC, manifesting, once again, the “National Question”.

Enabling the Kanuri as a major factor in the pursuit of Unitarism via its assumption and subversion of “June 12” and the subsequent emergence of the Sanni Abacha dictatorship thereby solidifying the Kanuri in the affairs of the Nigerian Post-Colonial State.

Muhammadu Buhari, a Fulani hegemon, embedded in the military, strategically courted the Kanuri through his loyalty and acquiescence to Sanni Abacha.

The Fulani-Kanuri Alliance coming into full bloom.

And the appointment of Abba Kyari as the point man for the pursuit of “Project Nigeria”.

Unitarism by the Muhammadu Buhari Regime, its focus.

For the Yoruba Nation, the choice is now between following on the footsteps of the Gibeonites, who, when faced with the threat of annihilation by Joshua’s army, went into voluntary servitude by pretending to be what they are not.

They ended up living according to their pretensions.

Or

Taking Israel’s admonition, when confronted with Rehoboam’s insistence on their continued suppression.

It is written:

Now when all Israel saw that the king did not listen to them, the people answered the king, saying: “What share have we in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse. Every man to your tents, O Israel! Now see to your own house, O David!” 2 Chronicles 10: 16

Olusegun Obasanjo pursued Unitarism to the best of his ability, ending up as the Sisyphus of the Nigerian Post-Colonial State whose continuous efforts at “nation building” always end up being rolled back to the extent that he came to realize its futility by denouncing “Fulanization” and “Islamization” of Nigeria—the twin pillars of his double ascension to Nigeria’s Presidency.

What then for the Yoruba Nation?

What inheritance have we in the Nigerian Post-Colonial State?

The answer lies in the choice we make in the Yoruba Referendum.

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

Wale Odeku

By which is meant the Church in Yorubaland, regardless of the composition of the Congregation.

For the Church and their Auditoriums in Abuja are no more than a collection of the various Nationalities residing in that city; created on the whims of a military, established as the enforcer of a Hegemony.

As in the days of old, where the Empires established their headquarters representing the power and opulence of the Empire without pretensions to neutrality.

By which it created Abuja, with pretensions to neutrality of the geo-physical space for its headquarters.

Which is the denial of the Peoples as creation of God.

The reality of the Nigerian Post-Colonial State, the imposition of the Hegemony.

To which flocked the various Congregations and Auditoriums, reinforcing the lie of the neutrality.

By which we know, the Church (congregationally) in Yorubaland must serve the purposes of the Yoruba Nation.

The Church in Abuja free to choose whom it will serve. What it will be.

Reinforcing the pretensions of the Post-Colonial State as the expression of transforming the Nationality into a “tribe”, individually and communally.
Or
Reversing the trend. Re-establishing the Nationalities. In and for themselves.

It is written:

“For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God.” Romans 8:19

COVID-19, once again creating a defining moment for Africa in general; Yoruba World in particular.

The world, waiting for the vaccine, to be developed and controlled by global institutions represented by Big Pharma, in concert with Big Tech, utilizing Artificial Intelligence, woven together by a myriad of financial Institutions, operating within their National Sovereignties, to sustain their dominance.

Substituting themselves for the “the creation”; sole determinants of “the revealing”

And this, despite the evidence of possible engagement and neutralization of Big Pharma.

Oyo State Governor and the Chief Medical Director of UCH, Ibadan, among others, whose credibility may not be doubted.

Having survived the disease, clearly stated their course of treatment, providing sources for deliberate research with possibilities of providing treatments making a vaccine superfluous.

Upending Big Pharma.

And this is just one instance.

Yet, rather than pouring resources on research, Yoruba Nation’s “Men of God”, concerned more with “revelations” and “predictions” on COVID-19, sustaining the Peoples’ dependence on these as the possible antidote to the problematic.

Fulfilling what is written:

“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.” 2 Timothy 4:3-4

And this, the Truth of Jesus Christ.

By which He defined Himself:

“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.” Luke 4:18-19

Enabling the Church to become active participants in the shaping of our world; the Yoruba World.

Being confident of this very thing, that He who called us is capable of being our Great Shepherd, leading us in the path of Righteousness, following His footsteps.

“Proclaiming liberty to the captives”(Politically, the Yoruba captives of the Nigerian Post-Colonial State); “recovery of sight to the blind (Medically/Healthwise); “to heal the broken hearted”(Psychologically/Culturally); “to set at liberty those who are oppressed” (Economically).
All combined as the “Gospel”, the “Good News”.

This recognition of the possible response to COVID-19, the “day the Scripture is fulfilled.”

By which we know that this is “the revealing of the sons of God.”

For the pretensions of the Nigerian Post-Colonial State on addressing the pandemic is the manifestation of its inadequacy in coping with the health mechanism of her citizens, having been deprived of their humanity as a consequence of its establishment as a Post-Colonial State.

Denying us the capacity to develop Intellectual Property capability, a precondition for development.

Exemplified by the “loss” of capability to overcome Sickle Cell disease; the wasting away of several research reports gathering dust on University shelves; all because the Post-Colonial State is comfortable playing the role assigned to it as the executioner of our Humanity.

By which we become incapable of setting our hearts “to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all that is done under heaven; this burdensome task God has given to the sons of man, by which they may be exercised.” Ecclesiastes 1:13.

By which we know that the Post-Colonial State cannot go outside the limitations placed on it by its creators; hence can do no more than sheepishly following what it is told to do.

Generating a false dichotomy between “hunger” and “lockdown”.

A non-choice, coming into play because of the nature of the Post-Colonial State.

Caught in an “emergency”, without a corrective roadmap. Its continued existence resting on the denial of our Humanity.

Re-establishing our Humanity being the first condition for addressing the emergency.

By which issues of “hunger” would have been on the table.

The Peoples not now having to make a choice between a health hazard and hunger, itself a health hazard.

“When I see the Blood, I will pass over you”, the physical manifestation of “proclaiming liberty to the captives”.

Now reversed as being the safety for the believer in times of the pandemic.

Unrelated to the liberty of the Peoples in the Post-Colonial State.

Despite the world having experienced one pandemic or the other. And with more expected.

The participation of Christians/Believers in addressing previous pandemics not in doubt; either as “ministers of the Word”; proponents and activists in the emergence of their National States and their Sovereignties; as academics/researchers/inventors in various disciplines, or as financiers of any of the above.

Rev Mojola Agbebi’s Inaugural Sermon, quoting The Apostle James: ‘Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is: “To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and to keep one’s self unspotted from the world.”’

And by way of expansion, saying “I would add, however, that at present the cultivation of cotton, the raising of rubber trees, of coffee, kola nuts, etc., the calling forth the riches of the soil, sanitation, and the promotion of handicrafts form part of the pressing essentials of religion.”

This was 1902, before Amalgamation and the formalization of the Colony.

By which we know that the only period Mojola Agbebi’s “addition” came into fruition was during the time of relative Autonomy for the Regions, arrived at as the only possible way for the emergence of such admonition.

Recognized as the “Golden Era”, for the Western Region.

To which we must now return; having experienced and continue to experience, the indignities of the Post-Colonial State.

By which our manifestation as the “sons of God” would be realized.

Making it mandatory for the Church in the Yoruba World to champion the necessity for the actualization of Yoruba Autonomy.

To become a topical subject on the Pulpit.

Overcoming the constraints of a false dichotomy between the Pulpit and political engagement.

For many believers are already active participants on the political arena, leaving behind the truth of Christ as the embodiment of liberation.
Redemption: from sin. Miracles and wonders: liberating the beneficiaries from physical and emotional limitations preventing their being productive members of the society.

Being our righteousness in God, the Father.

To whom “ a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” Revelation 7:9-10

By which we know, we will be able to become active participants in the post-pandemic world.

Having come into the fullness of the realization of our Nation and our responsibility to humanity; first, to the African.

Not afraid of the “chip”; “AI” or cutting-edge knowledge in all fields.

The first step to which is the decoupling from the Nigerian Post-Colonial State, the only measure of our capabilities.

Having a historical example in Mojola Agbebi and Obafemi Awolowo.

In contemporary times, Ayo Ladigbolu, Emmanuel Bolanle Gbonigi.

Now calling on the Church to embrace Autonomy/Self-determination in all its ramifications.

Getting the various Congregations to unite behind the Yoruba Referendum.

Calling for its actualization from the Pulpit as a Ministerial and Pastoral responsibility.

The Church, by this very act, repudiating the colonial holdover.

The notion that we are a “tribe” and not a Nation.

And our manifestation as the “sons of God”.

For whom “the creation eagerly waits”

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

Wale Odeku

It is written:

“Of the sons of Issachar who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do, their chiefs were two hundred; and all their brethren were at their command” 1 Chronicles 12:32

“understanding of the times”.

Of David’s faithfulness to God and his Nation.

Despite Saul’s conscious torpedo of Israel’s Sovereignty through his iniquities.

In these times.

COVID-19, the manifestation of limitations of human assumptions and the necessity to return to the reality of our existence, established by God.

By which we know that, as Africans, we must “know what we ought to do”.

Despite inhabiting lands full of milk and honey; with a history of major contributions to human development, either on our own or as victims of vicious exploitation.

Experiencing unprecedented material and cultural decimation.

Our existence constrained by this historical experience.

Global economic powerhouses “understanding of the times”; mandating a re-evaluation of their realities; adopting measures once promoted as anathema to their political economy.

Making nonsense of “globalization”; that “borderless” capitalism coming of age in the early part of the 20th century.

Attempting to sideline the imperial context for global dominance, in operation since the days of the rise and fall of the Empires, integral to its existence.

The last to fall being the French and British Empires; broken down into their Ethno-National Nation States.

The various Post-Colonial States in Africa and Arabia as trophies.

Regulated by a global trade mechanism.

Expected to be moderated by the Trans Pacific Partnership; but ending up with a glaring contest and new context for global dominance.

COVID-19 providing a fast track for the fight-back, and reinforcement of the Nation-State.

Continuing the quest for global dominance.

And now calling into question the relevance of the Sovereignty of the Post-Colonial State manifesting as either its sustenance or its negation, the liberation of the Peoples from its suffocating influence.

Driving you to postulate certain “measures to reboot the economy” of the Nigerian Post-Colonial State as a response to the “ravages of global economy”.

Expecting the leadership of the Post-Colonial State to take certain measures in response to COVID-19.

Not addressing the nature of the Post-Colonial State as the responsible agent in the entire problematic.

And creating a dichotomy between present needs and future necessities.

Despite today’s needs being predicated on the expectations of tomorrow.

For, the future is in the present.

You occupy a pride of place within the Yoruba Political firmament alongside the Intelligentsia, the Clergy and “traditional” Institutions as the four “pillars” on which Yoruba Autonomy/Self-Determination rest.

By which you must engage the Nigerian Post-Colonial State.

But saying “This situation presents a historic chance to establish a more beneficial social contract between the government and the governed. If we so utilize this moment, it will be recorded as a pivotal one in our national history. If we allow this moment to slip, history will not be obliged to treat us with great mercy.”

Without asking what history is being made such that it will or will not be obliged to treat us with great mercy.

For, “mercy” is not for history to bestow. Only God can do so.

“Man” may aspire to exercising “mercy”.

But “Man” can only make history; “man’s” mercy is therefore conditioned by the circumstances of making that history.

By which we know that expectations of a “historic chance to establish a more beneficial social contract between the government and the governed” [/i]within the context of the Nigerian Post-Colonial State is a denial of the reality of such a State being established without a “social contract”.

With ample historical and even contemporary evidence of its a-historical, anti-social and a-cultural nature; its Constituents having been denied a say in its coming into being, making a social contract impossible.

A “historic chance” does not come about by reinforcing all of its current existential realities, with NASS remaining what it is; the political economy stiflingly centralized with humongous emoluments for its bureaucracy; Hegemonic contests for power fundamental to its continuity; the security architecture operating as a conquering force reminiscent of its colonial origins; denial of Autonomies/Self-determination for Nations caught up within the Post-Colonial State.

And many more.

A “historic chance” must aim at transforming what is, to what it ought to be.

An opportunity to engage in the negation of all the philosophical assumptions of a present order, the rejection of its underlying political, economic, social and cultural assumptions, and its transformation into their opposites.

It does not lie in extending its life by some political maneuvers, as in “saving to conserve foreign exchange” as if such a conservation by itself is a “historic chance”.

A “historic chance” must therefore translate into a fundamental change of the Political Economy, the transformation of the political and economic configuration of the Post-colonial State.

A “historic chance” must not assume that “the global economy has turned against us” but must acknowledge that the Prebendal Nigerian Post-Colonial State does not have an existence incongruent with that global order.

From which flows the necessity for the manifestation of the Peoples as drivers of their own history and the Nigerian Post-Colonial State as the obstacle that must be overcome.

The notion that “[i]A government deficit serves to enrich the private sector. A deficit means the government spends more than it takes in. That extra amount goes to the private sector. As such, national government deficits boost private sector growth and activity.”

Is not an iron law of economics.

As now shown by COVID-19.

“Private sector growth and activity” having been rendered useless.

Only bailed out by massive government spending.

By which we know that the Government or State Apparatus has the inherent ability to serve the people in general and not only the private sector.

The essential characteristic of the Welfare State.

And not a stranger to Yoruba Existentialism.

Being the foundation for “freedom for all, life more abundant”.

Rather than repeating all the economic postulations that has led the Nigerian Post- Colonial state to this sorry pass.

Pursuit of an alternative economic paradigm anchored on a philosophy of neutralizing the continuous development of underdevelopment of the Peoples becomes imperative.

“Import suppression” or “export-oriented” being normal features of an economy; the foundation of trade; the response to the ebbs and flows of economic competition or necessities.

Cannot therefore become the foundation of a new economy.

Derived from and defined by the combined and even development of human and material resources of which a template was created with the establishment of Oodua Investments.

Which did not occur by happenstance.

But at the instance of a direct intervention by “economic patriots” of the Western Region led by Mr. C.S.O. Akande, who saw the necessity for retaining such an economic model.

A follow through from the redefinition of the role of Banks in National Development via the National Bank.

Which Chief S.L Akintola, as the Premier, had to defend when the Central Government attempted to destroy it.

And this, despite his opposition to the Welfare State.

Meaning, the Post-Colonial State ruling a Multi-National, Multi-Cultural society, and tending towards a Unitarist Structure (at that time) or having become fully manifested, as it is now, will always have its own prerogatives in complete opposition to the aspirations of the Peoples.

Therefore, as the current Regime is rolling out its palliatives, its trajectory is in its self-preservation and not necessarily aimed towards the addressing the liberation of the Peoples from permanent Underdevelopment.

Reversing this scenario must mean enabling the Nations within to embark on their journey to Self-determination, the only route to exhibiting their abilities to combat any future hazard.

Because, by “understanding of the times, we know what we ought to do”.

By which we know that the recent outrage committed by sundry criminals in Lagos and Ogun states would probably have been nipped in the bud by “Amotekun”.

But for its being hamstrung by the Nigerian Post-Colonial State.

The price the Yoruba Nation always pay for our assumptions on the possibilities of the Nigerian Post-Colonial State.

“Rebooting the economy” must therefore start with rebooting the architecture of State, recognizing the Constituents as the Nations within Nigeria and ensuring their active participation in any effort at rebooting.

A[b] Referendum[/b], within the Nations, being the only way, this could be done.

And Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, you have your work cut out for you.

Ensuring the activation of the Referendum Process in Yorubaland; the Bill having been submitted to the various Houses of Assembly.

Provision made for negotiations with other Nations within Nigeria.

Resulting in the Re-Formation and Re-Constitution of Nigeria.

The only way to reboot the economy.

It is written:
“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.” 1 Corinthians 2: 9-10

The hope for the Yoruba Nation in all its fullness.

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

Wale Odeku

A Message for Easter.


It is written:

"Now there were four leprous men at the entrance of the gate; and they said to one another, “Why are we sitting here until we die? If we say, ‘We will enter the city,’ the famine is in the city, and we shall die there. And if we sit here, we die also. Now therefore, come, let us surrender to the army of the Syrians. If they keep us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us, we shall only die.” And they rose at twilight to go to the camp of the Syrians; and when they had come to the outskirts of the Syrian camp, to their surprise no one was there.” 2 Kings 7:3-5

Having recognized their humanity despite their infirmities; disregarding their powerlessness as a form of death sentence; further recognizing the powerlessness of the king in addressing their existential issues.

Chose to leverage their humanity in pursuit of a solution.

Going into the camp of the Syrians, hoping on a possible benevolence.

Unknown to them, that the Lord God had already created the solution.

For, it is written:

“For the Lord had caused the army of the Syrians to hear the noise of chariots and the noise of horses—the noise of a great army; so they said to one another, “Look, the king of Israel has hired against us the kings of the Hittites and the kings of the Egyptians to attack us!” Therefore they arose and fled at twilight, and left the camp intact—their tents, their horses, and their donkeys—and they fled for their lives.” 2 Kings 7: 6-7

By which we know that their salvation was not dependent on their expectation of benevolence by the Syrians.

The Yoruba Nation, having experienced Social Welfare through “freedom for all, life more abundant" as the foundational paradigm of the society.

Being a foretaste of what is to come through the Autonomy practiced up to 1962, despite all attempts at suppressing this hope.

Pursuit of our Autonomy bound to result in our welfare.

Regardless of the de-Cultured Nigerian Post-Colonial State.

Whose entire economic architecture is only a manifestation of the inhumanity visited upon the Peoples by the very act of its creation.

Anchored on a continuous contest for Hegemony, since the beginnings of the quest for Independence.

Now sheepishly following the Western responses to COVID-19 without a direct examination of her own underdevelopment.

Ordering a “lock down”; “social distancing”, the outward responses to the health hazard.

Ignoring humanity’s survival anchored on the exact opposite, wherein economic and social continuity is a function of social interactions.

With the Post-Colonial State unable to address its underdevelopment deficit.

Where the Peoples, just as the lepers, powerless, but human, must now have to continuously live in their powerlessness or take a leap of Faith in transforming their condition.

It is written:

“And when these lepers came to the outskirts of the camp, they went into one tent and ate and drank, and carried from it silver and gold and clothing, and went and hid them; then they came back and entered another tent, and carried some from there also, and went and hid it.”2 Kings 7:3-8

Appropriating the provisions left behind by the Syrians, with no knowledge of its source.

Fulfilling the word of the Lord, as spoken by Prophet Elisha in assuring a solution to the problematic, to wit:

“Hear the word of the LORD. Thus says the LORD: ‘Tomorrow about this time a seah of fine flour shall be sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley for a shekel, at the gate of Samaria.’ 2 Kings 7:1

Just as it is with the death and Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Who, having become human in order to reconcile us to God, “prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.” Mathew 26:39

This Will, the redemption and reconciliation to our God-given Identities, the manifestation of which confers Righteousness.

The “Western” Nation State ensured the dominance of an economic philosophy upheld for centuries as the highest form of human economic imagination.

Now exposed to the potential existential threat posed by COVID-19, through which the existing form of State is threatened.

Reversed course through a series of monetary and fiscal measures anchored on massive State intervention to ensure continuity in their economic paradigms after containing the disease.

Its form of State, resulting from the resolution of the social, economic and political conflicts in favor of high finance; its own demonstration of human capacity in all its fullness.

Bringing into light, its version of the Lord God putting all things under “man’s” feet.

It is written:

“So they went and called to the gatekeepers of the city, and told them, saying, “We went to the Syrian camp, and surprisingly no one was there, not a human sound—only horses and donkeys tied, and the tents intact.” And the gatekeepers called out, and they told it to the king’s household inside.” 2 Kings 7: 10-11

Not keeping the discovery to themselves, but alerting the Nation, through their King, of the way out.

Beneficial to their society.

Mandating the Church in the Yoruba Nation, to go to the “gatekeepers”; bearing the news of the discovery of the solution.

Just as the life and times of our Lord Jesus Christ, who already knew of the Glory set before Him, and thus was not deterred by the sufferings.

By which we know that our historical background provides the route towards reconciliation with God, and the restoration of our God-given Identity.

To which the Church necessarily must play its role, being one of the “four leprous men.”

Defined, for the Yoruba Nation, as the “Intelligentsia” (primarily the public Intellectuals); the Church (especially the Clergy); the “traditional” Institutions; and the Political Leadership.

Who, combined, and regardless of which generation they belong to, must approach the gatekeepers.

Had the four lepers balked in pursuing their hope of benevolence, they would have died, and the salvation of Samaria would have died with them.
For these four categories of the Yoruba Nation.

Remaining in their positions, without attempting to pursue the hope of salvation, and who, unlike the lepers, have the full knowledge of the possibilities, can only mean expecting salvation from the de-Cultured Post-Colonial State.

Which, by the nature of its creation, is an impossibility.

And by extension, the perishing of the hope of salvation for the Nation.

For what had been found to provide for our welfare is our Political and Economic Autonomy, established upon the foundation of our “Cultured” Nationhood.

But the Church had, over the years, not only situated itself within the ambit of the Post-Colonial State but has also enabled and empowered the inhumanity inherent in the State.

Having submitted itself to “obeying and praying for the authority” of the State outside the necessity of the State “doing good”.

Unable to show their “faith by their works”.

For which manifestation is in ensuring an alternative to the existing inherently exploitative and oppressive order.

It is written:

“We are not doing right. This day is a day of good news, and we remain silent. If we wait until morning light, some punishment will come upon us. Now therefore, come, let us go and tell the king’s household.” 2 Kings 7:9

“Evangelism”, the “good news”.

The solution to the questions of famine in the land.

Not remaining silent when confronted with the obvious solution; not ascribing the solution to high membership numbers; not aspiring to the expectations of the de-Cultured Post-Colonial State.

But in pointing the way towards resolution of its contradictions.

The Yoruba Referendum, the starting block.

The Church must now promote the Referendum.

Distributing the Bill for the Referendum within their Congregations.

Getting the Houses of Assembly, the “gatekeepers”, to act on this “good news” by passing the Bill and presenting it to the “king”, each of the Governors, for assent.

For, the king, despite his reservation, followed through on the report of the “good news”.

By which we know that the Referendum [/b]is the way to addressing the impending economic, political, cultural and social disaster confronting the Nation.

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

[b]Wale Odeku

In the spirit of the times, the death and Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.


It is written:

“For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God”. Romans 8:19

COVID-19, the wake-up call for the Church in the Post-Colonial State.

Through whom the revealing is to manifest, not circumscribed by the plethora of “spiritism”, “revelations” and “predictions” as call signs of “men of God”.

Who proclaim “Abraham’s blessings are mine”; but disregard its anchor on Abraham’s faith in God’s Promise: “I will make you a great nation”; and His Covenant of Nationhood; “you shall be a father of many Nations”; the Faith by which it was accounted to him for Righteousness.

Approved by his obedience concerning Isaac, the child of the Promise, through whom the Covenant was made manifest in Jacob, the father of the twelve tribes of Israel.

This Faith and the Covenant of Nationhood, attested to, by our Lord Jesus Christ, who was, before and after Abraham; is, today and is to come.

The I AM; the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, always present, from the beginning; and always will be; the Lord of Nations, by whom we cry: Abba Father!

It is written:

“Pilate therefore said to Him, “Are You a king then?” Jesus answered, “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\

And this is the truth:

“The earth is the LORD’s, and all its fullness, The world and those who dwell therein”. Psalm 24:1

By which the Father divided the earth and the Peoples into the Nations and Languages; out of whom Abraham was called out to manifest His Sovereignty.

Denying this reality, the Son’s persecutors substituted their own particularities for the universal, undermining His Sovereignty.

Against which The Lord of Nations made Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles, the other particularities in the Universe.

By which we know that Apostleship by Jesus Christ, the Lord of Nations, is specifically aimed at addressing the “National Question”.

Despite the revelations said to initiate the establishment of the various African-themed and oriented Churches.

Without the Covenant of Nationhood.

“Go and make disciples of all the nations, teaching them to observe all things I have commanded you…….”.

Ignoring the “all” referenced by the Lord of Nations, whom “The Spirit of the LORD anointed and sent To preach the gospel to the poor; 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.”

Confirmed by His response to Pilate.

The Gospel, the “Good News”, none other than “all” the enumerated Freedoms, embedded in the Covenant of Nationhood.

Ajayi Crowther, having recognized the racism of his denomination, pursued the Covenant of Nationhood by way of translating the Bible into Yoruba and other African Languages, as his platform of engagement.

In contemporary times, the engagement by Bishops Ayo Ladigbolu and Emmanuel Bolanle Gbonigi, and those in the Diaspora: Pastor Goke Afolayan of Christians for Yoruba Nation; without ignoring others, whose direct intervention in the Yoruba National Question uplifts the Church in following the footsteps of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of Nations.

Prior to which Mojola Agbebi, a veritable participant at the first Universal Races Congress in London in 1911, enabled the establishment of the Yoruba Baptist Convention, later to be converted into the Nigerian Baptist Convention, operating under the dictates of the Nigerian Post-Colonial State; in the process becoming circumscribed by its dictates.

The fate of such Churches in the Post-Colonial State.

Regardless of COVID-19’s origin, the Western Nation-States induced a recession as the antidote.

During which its fundamental, historical economic assumptions were abandoned, but only for a time.

By which we know that the recession, being a deliberate act, leaves room for a tweaking of the assumptions, with the hope of re-invention without transforming the fundamentals.

Among which is mandating its global muscleman, the World Bank, to pursue the “Structural Adjustment Programs” (SAP) for the Post-Colonial States in Africa.

SAP, the product of Milton Friedman’s Chicago School of Political Economy, found wanting under the Nixon Administration in the United States; but made operative in Chile and enforced in the Post-Colonial States of Africa.

Social responsibility of the State, neutralized by SAP, now the major response to the induced recession.

Containing COVID-19’s epidemiological catastrophe, its end-game.

After which the expansion of social services sustains her consumerism, aided by her technological advancement.

Dominance of the geo-political market becoming existential imperatives, creating an atmosphere of more rivalry; the foundation for her global relations.

Building on the foundation laid by its historical emergence as the practitioners of extermination and severe exploitation of the Peoples, in and out of Europe, and buoyed by the destruction of the Native Populations of North America predicating the establishment of America.

Despite asking Europe to: “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door….”

But disregarding the humanity of non-European Peoples, aided and abetted by her “men of God”.

Profaning the name of the Lord by their total commitment to the racist and white supremacist foundation of their economic thought, the logical conclusion of their economic philosophy.

Not distant from the Chief Priests who profaned the name of the Lord God in the persecution and crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Blissfully ignorant of His Glorification in the Resurrection.

The lie of colonial Biblical exegesis, in Africa and her Diaspora, becoming exposed.

Which the Church in the Nigerian Post-Colonial State is yet to address.

By which we know that the proliferation of churches and the multitude of attendees have not come into the fullness of the manifestation of the revealing as the sons of God.

Accommodating the plethora of officials of the Post-Colonial State; eager to celebrate their “change in status”; praying for the leaders of the Post-Colonial State.

The Post-Colonial State turned its authority as “God’s minister to you for good”, literally to "ministering in perpetuity"; disconnecting the Peoples from “having dominion over all things created”; becoming a “terror to good works”.

By which we know that “works” of the Church, embedded in continuous underdevelopment of the Post-Colonial State is a function of its lack of influence in transforming the Political Economy.

Creating the atomization of Christian praxis, without a combined developmental paradigm; a lack of Economic Philosophy to transform the Political Economy and make “faith by works” manifest.

Recognition of which mandates the reconfiguration of current “works”; in particular, the educational institutions.

By creating specialized institutions through denominational collaboration.

In the first instance concentrating on the four core areas of Agriculture, STEM(including the Medical Sciences), Political Economy and Language.

Utilizing Yoruba Language as the Language of production and reproduction of knowledge; the forerunner of social, cultural and economic transformation.

And the antidote to the creeping extinction of the Language.

By which products of these institutions will be conscious of their roles in the transformation of the Yoruba Nation.

Only possible with the Autonomy of the Nation, a derivative of the Covenant of Nationhood.

That the congregations are not only of the Yoruba Nation proves the truth of the Scripture.

Provisions can be “distributed to each as anyone had need” such that each Language/Nation in the congregation can achieve maximum productivity of, and for, their Nations.

Recognizing that the Post-Colonial State will attempt blocking this initiative through its bureaucracy, JAMB and NUC as experienced with “Amotekun”.

The Church must take the lead in making the Yoruba Referendum, a reality.

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

Wale Odeku

God fulfills every promise He has made to the Righteous, justified by Faith.

It is written:

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. Romans 5:1-5

COVID-19 will surely be contained.

The question is what happens thereafter.

The “Omoluwabi Ethos”, the character of the Yoruba Nation, serially under threat.

In times past, enduring the travails of internal and external disruptions, including the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, the tribulations rekindling hope, sustaining the character. The hope that does not disappoint, bringing solutions to existential crises.

The hope that engaged brutal monarchies and autocracies, reestablishing the character; ultimately bringing about the Kiriji Peace Treaty; setting the stage for the modernization of the Nation; introducing Federalism, the recognition of Autonomy and Self-Determination, for the Peoples of the Nigerian geo-political space.

By way of Egbe Omo Oduduwa, whose aim, among others, was “the propagation of the ideal of a modern Yoruba State and Federal State of Nigeria”.

Sustaining the character of Yoruba Political firmament, to which political platforms must correspond, for acceptability.

The continuous negation of which ensured the failure of the Post-Colonial State, now once more made manifest.

By which we know that the State must not be allowed to continue in its corrosion of the Nations.

The perseverance of the Yoruba Nation is for a time like this, able to engage the Post-Colonial State, by way of the Yoruba Referendum.

The Bill of which is in the hands of the members of the Houses of Assembly and Political leaders, the elite of the land, to act upon.

Participation in previous State-induced attempts at reforming itself, not carried on the wings of Self-Determination but on the expectation of the State “reasoning” along.

Ultimate failure, till date.

The Prebendal nature of the Nigerian Post-Colonial State cannot encourage “reasoning” hence the continuous subversion of all presentations.
“Reasoning”, a consequence of elite consensus.

The elite must exist for and in itself, the absolute condition for consensus.

Prebendalism forecloses existence for itself; it must engage in vicious inter and intra-elite competition for Hegemony in the State, the source of its sustenance.

By which we know the bar for entry must be raised; anchored on the subversion of the Nationality to the advantage of the Hegemonic elite, ensuring continuity of Prebendal competition.

To recap.

The Yoruba elite in favor of continuity of the Nigerian Post-Colonial State:

General Olusegun Obasanjo, as the Military Head of State, utilized the Akinjide Memo on subterfuge to prevent the “best candidate” from succeeding the military; M.K.O Abiola expended his financial capital on neutralizing the Federalist Tendency in Yoruba Political firmament; Professor Ojetunji Aboyade chaired the “economic brain trust” of the Babangida Military regime; Chief Olu Falae, as the Finance Minister, became the ears, eyes and intellectual justifier of the Structural Adjustment Program, destroying the Political Economy of the West; Justice Akinola Aguda and Tai Solarin became the vessels for consummating Abuja as the “federal capital”, expecting a short cut to “ Nigerian unity”; Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, as the civilian President, repeated in a more insidious manner, the neutralization of Yoruba Self-Determination; Pastor Yemi Osinbajo, the current Vice President, comfortable with the extreme Centralization of the Post-Colonial State.

None escaped the trappings of Unitarism and anti-Federalism.

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

Mordecai had positioned Esther in a vantage position in the palace, the route to Self-Determination and Autonomy for her Nation.

The precursor to Revolution in Permanence.

Esther did not abandon the mission entrusted to her. Her life became her mission and vice versa.

Through their actions, the Jews eventually achieved Self-Determination within the empire.

Glory be to God in the Highest! Amen.

“Revolution in Permanence”, the slogan formulated by Leon Bronstein, famously known as Leon Trotsky, the Russian revolutionary extraordinaire, in responding to the establishment of the “Soviets”, that is, the Council of Workers and Peasants Deputies, as their Parliament, during their February 1905 uprising led by a “man of God”, Father Gapon.

The defeat of which raised the question as to what is to be done to drive feudalism of the Russian Empire into the dustbin of history.

Consequently, a bitter dispute with the leader of the Majority faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party known as the Bolsheviks—the Russian Language translation of “Majority” --- Vladimir Ulyanov (Lenin) who proposed a “two stage” process.

Organizing workers and peasants to enable the Russian bourgeoisie attain power after which, buoyed by their freedom from feudalism, they would be able to take on the bourgeoisie, overthrow its rule and establish the Government of Workers and Peasants.

For Leon Trotsky, it was a matter of workers and peasants pursuing the end goal of overthrowing bourgeois rule without interruption as the only guarantee of revolutionary success, hence “Revolution in Permanence”.

Resolved only by the February 1917 uprising, along similar themes as in 1905, but now showing the futility of ensuring a “breathing space” for the bourgeoisie and ultimately leading to the October revolution and overthrow of both the bourgeoisie and the monarchy.

Recognizing the self-activity of the People, Lenin adjusted his previous theory and embraced the new reality, enabling them to become the “team leaders” of the revolution.

Mirroring Mordecai’s charge to Esther, to wit: prominence in the palace must lead to Self-Determination/Autonomy for the Jewish Nation.

“Amotekun”, the response of the Yoruba Nation to her existential crises, sustained by the interest and activity of the Yoruba People, at home and in the Diaspora, posed the 1905 Question.

The Governors were dragged “kicking and screaming” to ensure its existence, manifesting the hope, brought about by the tribulations of insecurity, sustained by our perseverance, for a solution.

COVID-19, further exposing the self-evident failure of the Nigerian Post-Colonial State.

The 1917 Russian revolution, dominated by the Bolsheviks, succeeded in establishing the “Soviets” as its form of State.

Eventually coming under the control of Joseph Djugashvili; also known as Joseph Stalin.

A former Seminarian, from Georgia, one of the Nationalities of the Russian Empire, denied his Nationality and imposed “Sovietization” on the entire country.

The Bolshevik leadership, including Leon Trostsky, a Jew, denied the Jewish Bund within its membership, citing, as its reason, its opposition to the Nationalism espoused by the Bund.

On his death bed, Lenin, in responding to Stalin’s “Sovietization” concluded: “scratch a Bolshevik and you will discover a Great Russian Chauvinist”.

The conclusion of a lifetime of quests for the liberation of the Peoples of the Russian Empire, floundering on the denial and suppression of what became known as the “National Question”, that is, the question of the Nations separating themselves from the Hegemony of and in the Empire.

Pastor Tunde Bakare along with Yussuf Bala Usman, the intellectual justifier of Fulani Chauvinism, ascribed Nationality Consciousness in Nigeria to the imposition of the British Colonial State.

Denying the ancient cosmological existentialism of the Peoples; a denial of God in their existence.

The absence of the colonial State in any Nationality is not the absence of a common consciousness of self among the Peoples.

Proven by the Yoruba Nation embarking on, among others, a “war to end all wars” in the land.

The military and economic might of the Soviet Union was unable to sustain the suppression of National aspirations among its Constituents, eventually succumbing to these pressures by its dissolution in 1991.

For the Yoruba Nation and her current elite “who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”

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

Wale Odeku

“This day, the Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” Luke 4: 21


Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, anointed by the Spirit of the Lord, gave us His Peace.

By which we are able to continue His mission “to preach the gospel to the poor; 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”. LUKE 4: 18-19

By which we know that vulnerability (that is, poverty, oppression, economic insecurity) is not inherent in humanity but products of systems put in place by humans for its own sustenance.

COVID-19, the divine call on the Peoples of Africa to reexamine their existential paradigms.

The “origin of the species”; “the Preservation of favored Races in the Struggle for Life” and its conclusions, mere justification for the then social order.

Reinforcing the Nation-State paradigm, anchored on continuous exploitation and exploration of the world for human subjugation as a matter of course; itself arising from being subjected to oppression and exploitation by the empires of old.

Taking on the characteristics of the empire, the Nation-State became its alter ego, exalting the “invisible hand of the market” as its economic savior.
Appropriating for itself, God’s admonition, to wit: “to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all that is done under heaven; this burdensome task God has given to the sons of man, by which they may be exercised” Ecclesiastes 1:13

COVID-19, whatever its cause or origin, has upended the Nation-State self-assuredness in addressing previous pandemics, anchored on the economic philosophy of this “invisible hand of the market” for self-correction.

Current Massive State Intervention showed possibilities of man’s humanity, a proposition long advocated by various social and political movements since the dawn of the Nation-State paradigm.

The European Nation-State and its ruling classes dominated the narrative and suppressed the demands.

Now, for its self-preservation, it had to suspend its long-held philosophical platform and put some of the demands in place; wasting no time in retreating from its fundamentals when confronted with self-destruction.

COVID-19 shows social welfare and social /cultural democracy as fundamental to humanity.

Easily achievable for the European Nation-State, a collection of Mono-Cultural, Mono-Lingual Nation-States; the opposite of the African Post-Colonial State devilishly established for the Peoples of Africa.

The Structural Adjustment Program, the death-knell of our humanity, imposed by this European paradigm.

The Nigerian Post-Colonial State, having possibly escaped an epidemiological catastrophe, cannot embark on similar economic response of the West, whose economic philosophy and survival is now sustained by massive State Intervention.

Being on the periphery of global economic imperatives, the Nigerian Post-Colonial State can only respond minimally, her political economy lacking both the economic philosophy as well as the productive capacity for regeneration.

The Western Region.

Her economic philosophy anchored on a philosophical orientation aimed at negating colonial economy; “freedom for all, life more abundant” manifested through the combined and even development of the Region; the pursuit of Political Autonomy for other Peoples of Nigeria through advocacy for more Regions and a vision of foreign policy anchored on less dependence on colonial military imperatives, as in the rejection of the Anglo-Nigeria Defense Pact.

All neutralized by the transformation of the political economy of the Nigerian Post-Colonial State into the dumping ground of Western Praxis, foreclosing any possible aspiration to economic self-satisfaction.

General Olufemi Olutoye, trying to persuade Chief Obafemi Awolowo to accept General Gowon’s offer to be the Vice Chairman of the then Federal Executive Council, situated it within the context of “bringing back our captivity”; to which Chief Obafemi Awolowo responded by reciting Psalm 124:

“If it had not been the LORD who was on our side,” Let Israel now say—“If it had not been the LORD who was on our side, When men rose up against us, Then they would have swallowed us alive, When their wrath was kindled against us; Then the waters would have overwhelmed us, The stream would have gone over our soul; Then the swollen waters Would have gone over our soul.” Blessed be the LORD, Who has not given us as prey to their teeth. Our soul has escaped as a bird from the snare of the fowlers; The snare is broken, and we have escaped. Our help is in the name of the LORD, Who made heaven and earth”.

And indeed, if it had not been the Lord who was on our side, when men rose against the Yoruba Nation:

We would not have been able to navigate our ways out of impending military invasion from the East and armed occupation of the land by the North; salvage some of our political economy and philosophy, even in its incapacitated state; overcome the political years of the locusts; withstand terrorism of all types; establish “Amotekun”. The list goes on.

The Lord is once again on our side; otherwise the National Assembly would not have embarked on another round of Constitutional Review.

It is written:

“Now it happened, when the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, that he tore his clothes. Then the king commanded Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam the son of Shaphan, Achbor the son of Michaiah, Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah a servant of the king, saying, “Go, inquire of the LORD for me, for the people and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that has been found; for great is the wrath of the LORD that is aroused against us, because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book, to do according to all that is written concerning us.” 2 Kings 22: 11-13

The “Book of the Law” became the foundation of his rule.

Our “Book of the Law” is the various propositions on True Federalism/Autonomy, the focus of Yoruba political praxis.

The Yoruba Nation have kings who have ruled during different political regimes; we have had and still have political parties administering our societies; some professing to advance the cause of Federalism/Autonomy; others, as unenforceable electoral promises.

The political and traditional leaders therefore collectively constitute the “king” whose authority is necessary for the enthronement of our Constitutional Imperatives as our foundation.

Moses was unsure of being accepted by the People.

But God asked him “What is that in your hand?”

He said, “A rod.”

Through which he was able to demonstrate that God was with him to deliver the children of Israel from Egypt.

What is that in our hands now?

I say: The Bill for A Referendum Law of Ekiti State, Ondo State, Osun State, Oyo State, Ogun State and Lagos State.

Articles 7-10: “In the event of a YES vote on the Referendum, the Governors of each State shall appoint members into a Constitutional Council of Western/Oduduwa Region.

The Constitutional Council of Western/Oduduwa Region shall include not more than twelve (12) other members chosen at random throughout the Region and four (4) members from Kwara and Kogi States.

The 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”.

The Annexure, condensed from the Draft Yoruba Constitution:

“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[i] Parliamentary System[/i] 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”.

The Yoruba Referendum renders null any “public hearing” in Yorubaland by the National Assembly and Legitimizes Yoruba Aspirations expressed by the Yoruba Constitution.

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

Wale Odeku

Time for Yoruba Constitutional Convention


Knowing full well that the Restructuring of the Nigerian Post-Colonial State cannot be achieved without fundamental changes to its fraudulent Constitutional order, the Yoruba Nation, in the Year 2002, convened the Yoruba Constituent Assembly, under the chairmanship of retired Bishop E. Bolanle Gbonigi where the Draft Yoruba Constitution was adopted; its Articles having been earlier produced by the Yoruba Constitution Group, coordinated by the coalition known as Alajobi.

The correctness and validity of this Constituent Assembly now underscored by the various conferences and reviews carried out by the Nigerian Post-Colonial State with nothing to show for them.

It is written:

This is the ‘stone, which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.’ Acts 4:11

Referencing Jesus Christ, as the stone, recorded in Luke 4:18:

“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.”

By which we know that neutralizing, denying or homogenizing the Multi-National, Multi-Cultural geo-political economy of Nigeria in the formulation of her State Architecture is retaining the Nations in colonial captivity; continuous suppression and broken-heartedness; the current realities in Nigeria.

And not acceptable to the Lord.

That none of the merry-go-round of Constitutional Reviews and Conferences addressed the fundamental issues of the various Peoples and Nations of Nigeria confirms the initiative of the Yoruba Constitution Group, and subsequently the Draft Yoruba Constitution.

This is the stone rejected by the builders of Unitarianism and uniformity; the centralizers of the Nigerian Post-Colonial State anchored on Northern hegemony, reinforced by its military and legitimized by a fraudulent Constitution which its 1999 version brazenly and falsely declared itself as a product of “We, The People”; even when none of those who swore to administer the Nigerian Post-Colonial State saw the document before swearing by it.

The Peoples of Nigeria had no input in the conception of the Grundnorm; their existentialism played no part in the formulation; their humanity defined by the exigencies of their oppression.

The representations of the Peoples at those reviews were at the behest of those in control of central power.

By which we know, that the Central bureaucracy, rather than enhance the humanity of the Peoples, deny it by various permutations and policies that subject the Peoples to lower standards of human existence; the greatest manifestation of which is found in the “brain drain” celebrated as an achievement by the Post-Colonial State.

Whereas a Nation can exist without a State as it currently is with the many Nations in Nigeria, a State cannot exist without the Nation or Nations, the reason for the perennial attempts by one Nation to dominate the other, usually through attempted imposition of uniformity, as being practiced in Nigeria; now referred to as “Fulanization”.

Whereas colonial powers imposed a form of State which is only beneficial to their expectations and anchored on their own histories which the colonized are expected to consummate.

Ignoring God’s definition of us and embracing the human, colonial definition; the Peoples and Nations became identified with and as shrimps (Cameroon); of sketches of European clothing (Gabon); of rivers, (Nigeria) a fusion of the territories bordering on parts of the Niger and Benue rivers.

By which we experience the deliberate destruction of the territorial extent of the Nations inhabiting the geo-political space thus shortchanging them in the existential prerogatives.

It is written:

“What is man that You are mindful of him, And the son of man that You visit him? For You have made him a little lower than the angels, And You have crowned him with glory and honor. You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet, All sheep and oxen—Even the beasts of the field, The birds of the air, And the fish of the sea, That pass through the paths of the seas.” Psalm 8:4-8

By which we know that continuous existence under the colonial-inspired paradigm is a denial of God, despite public exhibition of fidelity to God by officials of the Post-Colonial State.

The first condition for Redemption: a recognition of our Indigenous Identities, of our individual Nations, territorially and politically, created by God.

This cannot be abridged, as the National Assembly is attempting to do, by making our Identity subject to residency.

One is not Yoruba simply because of residence in Yorubaland for several years; neither can one be Igbo for similarly residing in Igboland.

These are identities beyond residence; anchored on historical, cultural and existential experiences, culminating in identification as such.

Indigeneship therefore, is not a question of residency; for an indigene of any society can reside outside that society; and this will not be a repudiation of the indigenship.

To advocate otherwise, as the National Assembly is trying to do, is to launch a direct assault on the Peoples and Nations within the Post-Colonial State, especially the Yoruba, whose existentialism accommodated non-Yoruba as a matter of course.

To bring into memory: The Free education policy of the Western Region neither prevented nor excluded non-Yoruba from outside the Region benefiting from the policy. There was no attempt at separating the Yoruba from the rest.

Military adventurism, the formal attempt at forcefully reinforcing Northern Hegemony through Centralization of all the resources of the country.

A reflection of the nature of the military whose colonially imposed mission is the neutralization of the Nations, making orphans of the Nations.

Itself an orphan, for it is not a creation of, or for the Nations or the Peoples; but a utility vehicle which ran aground once its owners got out of the way.

By which we know that making an issue out of Indigeneship by the National Assembly is another attempt at formalizing uniformity as the foundation of the Post-Colonial State.

Therefore, when the Church prays for unity in and of Nigeria, it is without recognition of the Nations as integral to any definition of Nigeria.

Martin Luther King once said, in reference to the silence of the Church of England on the quest for Ghana’s Independence: “God comes in the picture even when the Church won’t take a stand.”

For, it is written:

“I hate, I despise your feast days, And I do not savor your sacred assemblies. Though you offer Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them, Nor will I regard your fattened peace offerings. Take away from Me the noise of your songs, For I will not hear the melody of your stringed instruments. But let justice run down like water, And righteousness like a mighty stream.” ----Amos 5:21

Justice and righteousness start from the recognition of the Nations as Nations in and for themselves, created by God, which the Church is yet to come to terms with. Yoruba Christians, take note.

The Yoruba response to this initiative by the National Assembly must be anchored on a Yoruba Constitution fashioned out of the Yoruba Constitutional Convention, confirmed by the Yoruba Referendum, becoming the only Legitimate and valid answer to the Nigerian Post-Colonial State conundrum.

Therefore, all the Yoruba Leaders who are now clamoring for restructuring, must convene the Yoruba Constitutional Convention as the litmus test of their leadership; regardless of whatever positions they might have held in the past or in the present within the architecture of the Nigerian Post-Colonial State.

Otherwise, not only their voices but also their Nation will be silenced by the rampaging forces of uniformity.

By which such a leadership would have failed God.

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

Wale Odeku

Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the first version of this message was published on February 2, 2018; repeated on September 29, 2019. And now further reiterated.
You are arguably the most effective political leader of the Yoruba Nation today, regardless of any assumptions as a pan-Nigerian leader.
You are engaged in a life and death struggle with the forces of darkness ravaging Nigeria.

It is written:
“Do not trust in oppression, Nor vainly hope in robbery; If riches increase, Do not set your heart on them. God has spoken once; Twice I have heard this: That power belongs to God. Also to You, O Lord, belongs mercy; For You render to each one according to his work” ----------Psalm 62:10-12

The Nigerian Post-Colonial State is not right in the sight of God; accommodating it as a condition for achieving power is doing evil in the sight of God.

Lebensraum, the oppression of the Peoples---Northern (Fulani) ambition to “dip the Koran in the sea” as stated by Ahmadu Bello; Biafra’s invasion of the Mid West and later on, the West; and aided by previous military adventurism, its current relentless pursuit by the Muhammadu Buhari Regime.

Prebendalism, its formal route to wealth accumulation and distribution; increasing its riches through inhuman exploitation of the Niger Delta along with the robbery of the commonwealth of the Peoples of Nigeria.

The Nigerian Post-Colonial State is conditioned by the type of power that does not belong to God.

The mercy of God, to render to each one according to the good or evil work in His sight.

The fortunes of Yoruba Nation as a major factor in Global African Emancipation is not limited to Nigeria’s geo-political confines and therefore cannot be constrained by it.

Historically, all efforts at mixing the fortunes of the Yoruba with that of the Nigerian colonial architecture had always ended up in misfortune for the Yoruba.

It is not fortuitous that the only manifestation of our potentials was through the attainment of Autonomous Self-Government between 1951 and 1959.

All attempts to dissolve our particularities into Nigerian generalities had always ended disastrously.

This is not an advocacy for a Yoruba National Purity. Our history as a welcoming and tolerant people, very accommodating to non-Yoruba People, testify to this.

60 years after political Independence in Africa, the colonial architecture is unable to engender any form of development for her various Peoples. The continent is merely a playground for International economic forces with a capability to reproduce its own internal elites for continuation of its economic hegemony while her hapless Peoples continue to wallow in deep material poverty, as well as poverty of understanding.

Sustaining this economic playground requires a political façade, often procured through periodic cycle of elections usually dubbed as democracy, where victors in all African countries seem to have only one prescription for Africa’s development, to wit: foreign investment, foreign investment and foreign investment, supposedly aimed at creating jobs for the youths coupled with finely woven words on economic development.

This, in direct and violent contradiction with the iron law of global dominance, where further economic development outside their spheres automatically shrinks their economic and political power.

An economic philosophy that places human development at the core of policy therefore becomes mandatory; manifesting through the recognition of the People as Nations in themselves, which the Nigerian Post-Colonial State seeks to destroy.

It is written:
‘Hearing you will hear and shall not understand And seeing you will see and not perceive; For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, And their eyes they have closed, Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, So that I should heal them.’ Mathew 13: 14-15

We have seen, we have heard how France took away even the smallest light bulbs from Guinea in “protest” against Guinea’s preference for Independence; we have seen, we have heard how the then Soviet Union removed all of her technical expertise, including industrial blueprints, from China in “protest” against Chinese pursuit of an independent foreign policy; we have seen, and continue to see the protection of “intellectual property” through the instrumentality of various “trade” agreements in operation today, all in aid of sustaining the iron law of global dominance.
By which we know that there can be no beneficial “direct foreign investment”.

We have seen the establishment of post-colonial armed forces of state whose primary responsibility is the suppression of the expectations of the Peoples, to wit: the “Kill and Go” Mobile Police created specifically to suppress Middle Belt agitation for their own Region; the Nigerian Armed Forces(Army, Navy and Air Force) with no discernible external threat hence turning their attention into internal repression, their mere physical presence on the streets, individually or collectively, radiates oppression; the Nigeria Police Force daily terrorizing the People; the internal security agencies operating at the whim of whoever is in power.

All of which are covered under a fraudulent legitimacy.

Obafemi Awolowo attempted to reverse this phenomenon by combining the best of capitalist development and its social imperatives with a decidedly YORUBA world view, via the anti-colonial imperative of coming into being of the Yoruba Nation as a Nation in and for itself, the rationale behind the agitation for True Federalism anchored on Ethno-Lingual Categories.

He also attempted to introduce this paradigm into the rest of Nigeria, with each Nationality/Culture as its own paradigm and the story of his experience is very well known.

M.K.O Abiola spent a large part of his financial fortunes in pursuit of Islamic development in the North, again, within a strategic political objective. Northern Muslims voted massively for him but when the time came to take up a stand against the then looming military shenanigans, they balked, largely because another “northern” Muslim would take over; the current head of the Nigerian Post-Colonial State, Muhammadu Buhari, a major beneficiary.

And you know how they famously refused to be part of the pan-Nigerian coalition against the annulment of a fellow Muslim’s election thereby leaving the opposition to only the Yoruba, Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

In both instances, Nationality prerogatives trumped religious affinity; therefore, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, while you do not play up your religious affiliations, you must embrace Self-Determination or Autonomy for the Nations, in any quest for political power in Nigeria.

This had been relegated to the background; and why Yoruba National Imperatives become confused with a pan-Nigerian agenda, all in the name of developing Nigeria into a modern geo-political entity.

Aiming for Nigeria’s presidency is not the way; neither is it a matter of a new coalition for power and certainly not in retaining Nigeria’s current political economy.

Self-Determination/Autonomy for all the Peoples of Nigeria is the way.

It is the Golden Bullet.

Any form of Southern/Middle Belt solidarity, any handshake across Eastern or Northern Niger, MUST be anchored on Self-Determination/Autonomy for ALL.

The National Assembly has thrown the gauntlet. You MUST pick it up. The bus is waiting for its driver.

Perchance others may foot-drag, the Yoruba Nation must not be carried along that route. The Yoruba Nation does not need to wait on them before pushing ahead.

This is what you[b] MUST[/b] champion: The Nationalities engaging the National Assembly by way of their own Constitutional Conventions and whose conclusions will be ratified by their Nationality Referendums.
The basis for a Federal Constitution.

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

Wale Odeku

Concerning the “ talking about the good old days”.

Addressing students of Federal University, Dutse, Nigeria, in your capacity as the Vice President of the Nigerian Post-colonial State---- Nigeria is neither a Republic nor a Federation by any form of definition and to affirm it as such would be a lie------- you stated, inter alia:
“Let nobody tell you about the good old days. I said before, and I am quoting someone, I’m not so sure who he is, he said that “those who remind us of the good old days are probably suffering from memory loss.” We must not allow them to keep talking about the good old days. We are in the best times possible today. And the reason why these are the best times is that we are in the most technologically advanced human history”.

Know this, Pastor Osinbajo:

Talking about the “good old days” is a recognition of possible choices in resolving today’s contradictions, making possible a choice between good and evil, what is beneficial or not.

Talking about the “good old days” projects a preference for the beneficial; an affirmation of experiential possibilities and the recognition of our God-given abilities despite their being circumscribed by your Regime’s attempt at erasing our past and distorting our humanity.

Preventing us from talking about the “good old days” is to confine us to the evils of the present; where the much touted technological advancement would not prevent your Regime from sending the Peoples of Nigeria back to the stone age, where our Humanity is disregarded.

It is written:
But many of the priests and Levites and heads of the fathers’ houses, old men who had seen the first temple, wept with a loud voice when the foundation of this temple was laid before their eyes. Yet many shouted aloud for joy, so that the people could not discern the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people, for the people shouted with a loud shout, and the sound was heard afar off.
Ezra 3:12-13

The weeping of the old men was of joy in seeing the “good old days” of the first temple; others shouted for joy, for they only experienced the manifestation of their expectations in the present.

It is said that a river that forgets is source will run dry. The “good old days” is a source, providing the strength to engage the present and face the future.
Pursuing a rejection of that past is to deny any possibilities for the present and by implication, the future in the human world.

Humanity had been adding value since overcoming the hunting and gathering existential phase. The ebbs and flows of adding value therefore have nothing to do with “talking about the good old days” but with extant contradictions of the global world order.

All the examples you cited as manifestations of the “most technologically advanced human history” occur within specific geo-political entities where the “technologically advanced” part of its humanity achieved its preeminence by the extirpation of the rest.

As Africans in the Diaspora and on the Continent, we have had to embark on life and death struggles to reinstate and reiterate our humanity, as a condition for continued existence.

Mainly championed by “men of God”—from the abolitionists like Sojourner Truth, Henry Highland Garnet, John Brown, Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln to the civil rights era of the Martin Luther Kings, Fannie Lou Hamer et al; there was also the destruction of the “Black Wall Street”; the various innovators with patented inventions erased from history by those you now celebrate as anchors for the “best times possible today”.

The erasure would have been permanent, but for the tenacity of those who, like Carter G. Woodson, talked about the “good old days” of African achievement in all fields, unencumbered by conditions of chattel slavery, bringing forth what is now celebrated as “Black History Month”.
By which we know that we do not lack innovators who added value but have had to deal with the reality of our negated humanity.

The Continent, specifically Yorubaland, had its share of these Champions: “men of God” like Ajayi Crowther, Mojola Agbebi, Ladejo Stone et al; the Odutola Brothers, T.A. Oni et al.

Your “Nigerian success stories” are consumers of the negation of our humanity with no capacity to redirect their “successful” trajectory into reinstating our humanity which you are now reinforcing through your Regime’s attempt at obliterating the Nationalities, thus formalizing a role to which the post-colonial state had been assigned.

The purveyors of “the most technologically advanced human history” eventually came to the recognition of the humanity of the oppressed as critical to maintaining its global domination hence the establishment of a State Apparatus to mediate its continuous control, imposing various economic theories aimed at reinforcing our dependence on the “most technologically advanced” and where the graduating students you were celebrating will aspire to migrate to, in short order.

It is written:
“For your hands are defiled with blood, And your fingers with iniquity; Your lips have spoken lies, Your tongue has muttered perversity”. (Isaiah 59:3)---the nature of the Nigerian post-colonial state which you have made the defining line.

Your determination not to allow talking about the “good old days” is a direct attack on the Yoruba Nation; for the Nation utilizes every opportunity to talk about her “good old days” as a counter narrative to the attempts at neutralizing the Nationality.

Those “good old days” provided the foundation for adding values; for, by design and philosophy, her political economy was all about adding values; the neutralization of which constitute the Yoruba experience under the post-colonial State of which you are the Vice President.

Talking about the “good old days” for the Yoruba Nation:

The understanding that “Freedom for all, life more abundant” was a direct philosophical engagement with poverty that did not rely on cash payments to the poor, now deemed as a “humanitarian” gesture under your regime.

The manifold abilities wrought by the educational and cultural system which produced high level manpower that became useful in the Western World when the hemorrhaging embarked upon by the Post-Colonial State ensured a massive brain drain.

The University of Ife envisaged as an architectural masterpiece and designed as a Global Yoruba Institution of knowledge, connecting the Yoruba in the Diaspora, especially Brazil, with the Yoruba in West Africa, with all the possibilities it entailed.

The Western Region provided more than the UNESCO recommended budget for education.

The Civil Service in the Western Region was the cynosure of all eyes in Africa.

The Western Region established the payment of minimum wage in Nigeria, underscoring the understanding of capital-labor relations.

The Regional Governments contributed funds for the running of the center contrary to what is in operation now.

The beginnings of industrialization in the Western Region was initiated without the need for any centrally concocted “South West Development Commission”.

The establishment of the Marketing Boards enabled an engagement with global commodity exchanges before they were destroyed by the acquiescence of the Nigerian post-colonial state to the dictates of its creator which you are now celebrating.

The Ife Model School experiment in Mother-tongue education provided a more functional way for educational advancement, a fact universally acknowledged by linguists and educators today.

All the above (and more) established the Region’s ability to compete in the global economy, ensuring maximum possibilities for adding values, without which the political economy under construction would not have been able to create avenues for advancement, including in technology.

You know of all these, and more; yet you decided to play king Rehoboam, who, contrary to the advice of the elders to reiterate the “good old days” as the template for governance at a time of Israel’s existential crisis, settled for the iniquity promoted by his young advisers.

It is written:
“Now when all Israel saw that the king did not listen to them, the people answered the king, saying: “What share have we in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse. To your tents, O Israel! Now, see to your own house, O David!”
1 Kings 12: 12-16

Pastor Yemi Osinbajo, the Yoruba Nation has not suffered and will not suffer any “memory loss” in talking about the “good old days”.

On the contrary, “talking about the good old days” is the affirmation of the pursuit of our Autonomy, now under threat by your Regime, and to which I declare:

The Yoruba Nation has no share in the iniquity that is Nigeria. We have no inheritance in the Buhari Regime. Pastor Osinbajo, you are on your own! See to your own expectation!

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

Wale Odeku

It is written:

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. 1 Peter 5:8

The adversary the devil is the thief that has come to steal, to kill and to destroy.

By this we know that the Nigerian State Apparatus provides the cover for the adversary the devil; papered over by a Constitutional paradigm in pursuit of the neutralization of the Nations.

In its recent manifestation, the devil the adversary seeks to steal all the lands of the Nations, first by ensuring herdsmen encroachment which made Femi Adesina, the Special Adviser on Media to Muhammadu Buhari and a leader of the Four Square Gospel Church, to ask us to choose between death or losing our ancestral land, and now, by abrogating the Land Use Act already in existence.

The adversary the devil wants to retain the humongous emoluments of the National Assembly and by extension, its central bureaucracy, already consuming over 70% of the country’s income.

The adversary the devil, through the State Apparatus projects itself as the protector of the Nations. Its foot soldiers go about killing, maiming, raping, kidnapping and generally sowing terror among the Nations; while its official armed forces go all over the country with their various animal dances----the manifestation of the rejection of our humanity.

The adversary the devil, having destroyed the Self-Determination and therefore the livelihoods of the Nations, through herdsmen terrorism, corrals the victims into Internally Displaced Peoples camps, displaced from their God-given lands, eking out a living while functionaries of the adversary the devil are reintegrated into the society.

The adversary the devil seeks what and whom to devour; but, for the Yoruba Nation, Thus says the Lord:

“The adversary the devil shall not come into Yorubaland, Nor shoot an arrow there, Nor come before it with shield, Nor build a siege mound against it. By the way that the adversary the devil came, By the same shall the adversary the devil return; And the adversary the devil shall not come into Yorubaland,’ Says the LORD. ‘For the Lord will defend Yorubaland, to save it For HIS own sake and for HIS servants sake.’”

“All the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us.”

It is written:

“Take heed to yourselves, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them”. Deuteronomy 11:16

Serving other gods is accepting the rule and authority of the adversary the devil which is attempting to deny our Nationhood.

By which we know we must take heed to ourselves, having been lied to at various times in the past, having put our trust in “man” whose heart is desperately wicked; he, that is Muhammadu Buhari, whose pretense at humanity is a cover for his nepotism, irredentism and chauvinism aided by the intellectual somersaults of his kinsmen as to what constitutes Nigerianism.

We take heed to ourselves, having been serially lied to by the prospects of a new beginning, trusting in “man” when our trust ought to be in the Lord, who, by His Grace, has offered us the opportunity to manifest our God-given abilities as a Nation in itself, a Nation as its own end.

By which we know, that the Egbe Omo Oduduwa, at its founding in 1945, stated as follows: “the propagation of the ideal of a modern Yoruba State and FEDERAL STATE of Nigeria, through the agency of reliable persons who share our ideals”

Taking heed to themselves, the Egbe proceeded to seek the freedom of all the Nations in Nigeria, by insisting on the recognition of “minorities” in Nigeria and challenged the colonial oppressive philosophy with “freedom for all, life more abundant”.

Removing the Nationality from the citizenship of Nigeria is akin to worshiping and serving other gods; taking heed to ourselves is challenging the means through which our neutralization is being pursued.

The adversary the devil assumes the “oneness” of the cultures by stealing and destroying our cultures; for these are not recognized and play no part in the determination of citizenship.

Taking heed to ourselves demands the redefinition of Nigerian Citizenship; our history demands it. Our humanity depends on it.

It is written:

“Then Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the scribe, “I have found the Book of the Law in the house of the LORD.” And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it……. Then Shaphan the scribe showed the king, saying, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” And Shaphan read it before the king. 2 Kings 22: 8, 11

King Josiah had sent the scribe to the high priest to ensure that the money collected from the people are judiciously utilized without the workers and laborers rendering any account for they were trusted, having been found faithful in their work. An economic mission; a development mission.

In the course of carrying out this instruction, the high priest found the book of the Law, which contained God’s Covenant with the People, gave it to the scribe who read it and immediately went to show and read to the king.

In pursuit of this economic objective, the quest and necessity for political sovereignty was not lost on the high priest.

By this we know that the high priest, today’s Pastor, is in the position to know God’s Will, having been entrusted with the assignment to watch over the house of the Lord. It is therefore impossible for the high priest to feign ignorance as to the intentions of God for His People.

The high priest did not summarize; he did not interpret what he found; he simply ensured that it was given to the king by the scribe; the intelligentsia of today.

The high priest did not deny the reality of his Nation in itself; he ensured the king was fully informed about this reality, of which it was written of the king that he did what was right in the sight of the Lord.

King Josiah gathered all the elders of Judah and “read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant which had been found in the house of the LORD”, thus making it public; just as the Yoruba Nation’s “book of the Law” which the intelligentsia had made and continue to make public, at various times in the past and today.

This is the Law of Federalism, as stated in the founding document of the Egbe Omo Oduduwa; and had been the dominant political tendency in Yorubaland since the attainment of Regional Self-Government.

Our experiences since Nigeria’s Independence demands that we embark on a sober reflection of how we have been carried away by false pathways to federalism, while being tossed to and fro by every wind of false federalism; from “Federal Character” to “zoning” to “devolution advocacy” to “local government autonomy” to “state police” etc, all anchored on the retention of absolute power by the center and antithetical to the Federalism preached by our “fathers”.

What is now being undertaken by the Muhammadu Buhari Regime is the permanent alteration of the course of our humanity and finally nailing the coffin of Federalism by formally and Constitutionally neutralizing our existence as Nations.

Therefore, the Nations must not allow any form of Constitutional Amendment to be carried out in their name; they must not be ignorant of the times.


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

Wale Odeku

It is written:

“Thus you shall divide this land among yourselves according to the tribes of Israel. It shall be that you will divide it by lot as an inheritance for yourselves, and for the strangers who dwell among you and who bear children among you. They shall be to you as native-born among the children of Israel; they shall have an inheritance with you among the tribes of Israel. And it shall be that in whatever tribe the stranger dwells, there you shall give him his inheritance,” says the Lord GOD.
Ezekiel 47:21-23

The culmination of the instructions on the geo-political, religious and economic relations to be established by the people of Israel.

By this we know that the Nations come with their territories or ancestral lands.

Political control of the land rest on the ability of the Nations to establish their political authority as owners of the land.

A long-held view is that the Fulani have no territory of their own in Nigeria; that they are nomads from the Fouta Djallon areas in present-day Senegal.
The Fulani, with the aid of some European and Arab powers were able to take control of the Hausa States in the North, where they established their Emirates and which they hoped to extend to the rest of the geo-political space known as Nigeria.

Having been defeated by the British, they became willing participants in the colonial enterprise, partly as a continuation of their own imperial ambitions and achieved through the “Nigerian State”, via, first, the corruption of the Census that gave political mileage to the North by ensuring her dominance of the Parliament; second, by the military institution, starting out as the Royal Hausa Constabulary which gave birth to what is now known as the Nigerian Armed Forces, both of which culminated in securing the acceptance of the colonial boundaries which cemented the division of various Peoples/Nations in West Africa, from themselves as well as from other Peoples/Nations.

In recent times, the closure of Nigeria’s borders ensured the dependence of relations between the Yoruba in Nigeria and those in Benin Republic on the Nigerian State, with no recourse to whatever the feelings of the Yoruba in Nigeria are, akin to Brexit, where the English pulled the Scots out of Europe against their will.

The economic reason adduced by the Nigerian State does not pass muster. “The State” in Nigeria (Africa) cannot generate a philosophy of development as it exists purely as an avenue for dominance, not development; hence its permanent capacity to be tossed to and fro by any wind of economic doctrine established by tormentors of Africa. The economy is not a reflection of the productive capacity of the African but a proving ground for colonial economy.

By which we know that the lackadaisical form of internal economic paradigm stimulates smuggling thereby making closing of the borders a political and not an economic necessity.

The superimposition of citizenship, because of the Nation-State paradigm, anchored on European colonial imperatives of the Nation State created a dichotomy between the realities of the Nation and abstractions of the Nation State.

The attempt to turn the abstraction into the reality is the problem with Nigeria.

Thus, the acquiescence of the Yoruba Governors with the substitution of their administrative entities (states) as “Federating Units” via denial of “Amotekun” as a Regional Imperative, is antithetical to Yoruba Existentialism as a Nation, which had been expressed as a historical reality.

By this we know that the methodologies of European Constitutionalism are absent in Nigeria. Europe recognized the Peoples as Nations, hence the Nation State, notwithstanding their internal class divisions. The opposite is the case in Nigeria (and Africa) where the State had been substituted for the Nations. The State exists as a negation of the Nations, thus putting them in perpetual conflict as one Nation attempts an absolute Hegemony over the others, through the instrumentality of the State.

In a recent interview, Prince Tony Momoh, who was chairman of Muhammadu Buhari’s CPC before the formation of the APC, stated that Muhammadu Buhari is executing the content of a document prepared by the Northern Intelligentsia titled “Project Nigeria”.

By this we know that the document is the anchor for Fulani Hegemony which Muhammadu Buhari is executing through his Presidency as shown by his chauvinism, nepotism and irredentism.

The Nigeria-Biafra War was a battle of hegemonies, arising out of the breakdown of the political alliance between the North and the East which the two military coups of January 1966, led by the East and the counter-coup of July 1966, led by the North, aimed to resolve in their respective favors.
By this we know that “de-Regionalizing” Amotekun is the consummation of neutralization of the Yoruba as a Nation.

Glory be to God in the Highest! Amen.

The National Assembly has opened the door, which cannot be shut, through its Constitution Review, for the Nations to establish their bona fides.

Having passed through various “Constitutional Reviews”, all coming to a dead end, it is disobedience to God for the Nations to allow themselves to be run through the merry-go-round, once again.

The Nations must therefore counter the National Assembly with their own Constitutional Imperatives by establishing their own Constitutions as a prelude to Re-negotiating Nigeria. That is the only way for the Nations to manifest the inheritance as commanded by God.

Chief Anthony Enahoro’s Movement for National Re-Formation has the following, which may be adjusted as necessary, as the basis for a new Constitution for a Federation of Constituent Nationalities:

12 Federations: 1. Ibibio Federation; 2. Ijaw Federation;3. Igbo Federation;4. Urhobo Federation; 5. Edo Federation; 6. Yoruba Federation; 7. Nupe Federation; 8. Tiv Federation; 9. Gbagyi Federation; 10. Hausa Federation; 11. Fulah Federation and 12. Kanuri Federation.
Six multi-Nationality Regions:
[b](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[/b]

The Bill for A Referendum in Yorubaland has, as its ANNEXURE:

1. 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.
2. [b]Western/Oduduwa Region [/b]shall be a Constituent Unit of the Nigerian Union. Western/Oduduwa Region shall adopt a Parliamentary System of government.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. The Judicial power of the Region shall be vested in the[i] Supreme Court of the Region, Court of Appeal, High Court, Customary Court and Other lower courts as the Regional Parliament may establish[/i].
6. 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.
7. Western/Oduduwa Region shall have its own internal security system.
8. Each Constituent Unit of the Nigerian Federation shall control primary interest in its own resources with an agreed Tax Model for the Federation.

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

Wale Odeku

It is written:

Then Jehu gathered all the people together, and said to them, “Ahab served Baal a little, Jehu will serve him much. Now therefore, call to me all the prophets of Baal, all his servants, and all his priests. Let no one be missing, for I have a great sacrifice for Baal. Whoever is missing shall not live.” But Jehu acted deceptively, with the intent of destroying the worshipers of Baal. And Jehu said, “Proclaim a solemn assembly for Baal.” So they proclaimed it. Then Jehu sent throughout all Israel; and all the worshipers of Baal came, so that there was not a man left who did not come. So they came into the temple of Baal, and the temple of Baal was full from one end to the other. And he said to the one in charge of the wardrobe, “Bring out vestments for all the worshipers of Baal.” So he brought out vestments for them. Then Jehu and Jehonadab the son of Rechab went into the temple of Baal, and said to the worshipers of Baal, “Search and see that no servants of the LORD are here with you, but only the worshipers of Baal.” So they went in to offer sacrifices and burnt offerings. Now Jehu had appointed for himself eighty men on the outside, and had said, “If any of the men whom I have brought into your hands escapes, whoever lets him escape, it shall be his life for the life of the other.” Now it happened, as soon as he had made an end of offering the burnt offering, that Jehu said to the guard and to the captains, “Go in and kill them; let no one come out!” And they killed them with the edge of the sword; then the guards and the officers threw them out and went into the inner room of the temple of Baal. And they brought the sacred pillars out of the temple of Baal and burned them. Then they broke down the sacred pillar of Baal, and tore down the temple of Baal and made it a refuse dump to this day. Thus Jehu destroyed Baal from Israel. However Jehu did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who had made Israel sin, that is, from the golden calves that were at Bethel and Dan” 2 Kings 10: 18-29

By this we know that Jehu deceived the prophets of baal and eliminated them behind closed doors thereby taking complete control of the spiritual and religious space, alongside his authority and power as the king.

Nevertheless, king Jehu, rather than use this as a way of getting the People of Israel to serve the True God, simply substituted himself for baal and continued the practice of his forerunners.

Coming at a time when the Governor of Borno State pointedly accused the Nigerian Army of dereliction in terms of the Boko Haram attack on a Maiduguri suburb, the Bill on security now in the Houses of Assembly in Yorubaland, established a Governing Board whose chairman would be a member of the Nigerian Armed Forces. By which we know that the Western Nigeria Security Network, otherwise known as Amotekun, is already declawed and defanged.

The Bill says the chairman would be “a person of proven integrity with experience in security matters and shall be a retired Law Enforcement or Military Officer not below the rank of a Major or its equivalent in the other Security Services”; other members will be representatives of the Commissioner of Police, members representing “different services of the Armed Forces of Nigeria operating in the State”; chairman of the council of traditional rulers in each state and sundry nominees”; further confirming Amotekun’s compromised existence.

This Board, having not only members from the Nigerian Armed Forces but also chairing its Board will be operating within the context of Nigeria’s power relations, with the powers to, among others, “set the general policy guidelines for the management of the Agency; the administrative guidelines for the conditions and welfare of staff of the Agency; approving programs of training for members of the Agency and provide a graded command structure for the Amotekun Corps”. This is akin to doing the same things repeatedly and expecting a different result.

It is generally recognized that the heightened insecurity in Nigeria is largely due to the ineffectiveness and/or the lackadaisical attitude of her armed forces, whose members are now expected to dominate Amotekun’s leadership.

There are several retired officers of the armed forces in Yorubaland who are nevertheless circumscribed in addressing the contrived or real limitations of the armed forces since the command structure and therefore the loyalty of its personnel are directly controlled by the leadership of the armed forces, which itself is at the behest of the leadership of the Nigerian State.

Some of these retired officers were active in calling attention to the security lapses in the Region, while some, even while alive, promoted active engagement of the people in matters of security.

Granted they were not officially backed by the State Governments under which these efforts were made, it must be noted that they were also conscious of the limitations of subsuming our security issues to the parameters created by the central government.

The Chief of Army Staff recently concluded that the army is engaged in “asymmetrical” warfare as opposed to the symmetrical they are formally trained in. Meaning the deliberate immersion of the people in the warfare (asymmetrical) is primary.

By which we know that the chairman of the Board should not be a serving or retired member of Nigeria’s military, but a representative of the Council of Traditional Rulers. This is a body directly in charge of the welfare (including security) of their Peoples and can always be called into account, one way or the other.

As King Jehu destroyed his fellow travelers in baal worship behind closed doors, so this Amotekun Law was done behind “closed doors”, despite the attempt by the Ekiti State Government to have Peoples’ input for only a 24-hour period. This is akin to shaving our heads in our absence.

That the members of the Houses of Assembly are representing the people by virtue of the 2019 electoral victory is irrelevant; for, Regional Security was not on the ballot. Only their “job description” as defined by the 1999 Constitution, was.

When this job description is confronted with the existential contradictions in their societies, the Peoples so affected have their God-given inalienable right to determine the resolution of those contradictions.

Yoruba People openly endorsed the initiative through their various representations and representative organizations, which also proved relevant in its sustenance as well as encouraging other Peoples to begin their own processes. Being a “people’s initiative”, its control cannot now be ceded to the forces proven to be, at best, lackadaisical to the security of the People.

What the Governors must therefore do is to Legitimize the endorsement by the people. The Bill, as presented, does NOT recognize this endorsement; for the People are now to be onlookers, once again, in terms of their security.

Therefore, the Governors MUST reverse course; they MUST not assent to the Bill as being presented and they MUST revert to the People through a Referendum on which way forward for our People.

Such a Referendum is a Referendum on our general welfare; is not to be a “closed doors” affair but an open engagement on the right of the people to be engaged in their own welfare. It will legitimize the demand and remove all barriers to legality as Amotekun would no longer be carried out behind the “closed doors” of legalism. The Referendum will coalesce all issues of our welfare, primary of which is security, under one canopy.

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

Wale Odeku

You have shown, by your walk for peace, that you have not plastered the Buhari Regime with untempered mortars.

Glory be to God in the Highest! Amen.

It is written: “… of the sons of Issachar who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do….” 1 Chronicles 12:32

Calls for a state of emergency; community policing; recruiting more personnel into the military; National Assembly setting up a Constitution Review Committee and sundry suggestions are direct reactions to the Yoruba Consensus on Security, to wit: Amotekun.

By this we know that these are attempts at neutralizing the Consensus by way of another working to the answer, going by the conclusions of previous Review Committees, “public debates” and “Conferences”- IMF debates, Political Bureau, Niki Tobi's Constitutional Review, Abubakar's consultations, Obasanjo’s “Technical Review Committee”; Yar Adua’s Constitutional Review, Jonathan’s “Confab”; APC’s Committee on Restructuring. None yielded the desired degree of Autonomy for the Nations, Peoples and Tongues in Nigeria.

The required concurrence of 24 states in any Constitutional amendment already denies the existence of the Nations, Peoples and Tongues; for, these states may or may not share similar existential prerogatives with others, hence asking one to determine the course of the other jeopardizes their existence; even if the central government railroads its amendments through.

It is written: “If the foundations are destroyed, What can the righteous do? …The LORD tests the righteous…. “ Psalm 11:3-5

The test for the Righteous is in addressing the false foundation of the 1999 Constitution.

The Federal Foundation of Nigeria, largely representing the Nations, Peoples and Tongues, was destroyed by the colonial military which created a new State Apparatus, and now using the faulty 1999 Constitution as the glue holding all the different Nations, Peoples and Tongues together.

There were and are Christian politicians and military active in the ways and means by which the State itself came into being and now being run.

Christian leaders played various leadership roles in the emergence and sustenance of any of the administrations that have run Nigeria, civilian or military, including those who served as Heads of State professing to be Christians, the outcome of which is further destruction of the foundation.

Some served or are serving in any of the Administrations directly or as advisers, again without any attempt at correcting the foundational anomalies.

Others speak up only when their places of worship become victims of the destruction of the foundation, such that, at this time, CAN found it necessary to embark on rallies across the country but without addressing the foundation.

Praying for the authorities without specifics as to what is being prayed for; exhortations ministering to the hearts of those in government; embarking on fruitless peace missions alongside those leaders of the Islamic faith ostensibly to prevent conflicts only to be confronted with further conflicts thereby making nonsense of such peace efforts, only point to the necessity of addressing the destruction of the foundation.

The State Apparatus, via the current Regime, routinely releases captured and supposedly rehabilitated terrorists back into society while thousands of common and petty criminals languish in prisons without any hope of rehabilitation.

Victims of terrorism of both the Boko Haram and herdsmen varieties remain contained in IDP camps, and having been denied their Self-Determination, have no control over these released terrorists thereby enabling them to regroup and carry out further acts of terror.

The nomadic business of cattle rearing almost always leads to destruction of farmlands and murders of farmers, raping of women follow the methodologies employed by the “supporter of APC”, a terrorist militia established by the then government of Sudan to systematically destroy the African populations while taking over their ancestral lands.

Routine killings by both the state agencies as well as terrorists with no consequence on the perpetrators, with the State Apparatus ignoring these atrocities while regaling us with its activities regarding other forms of crime, all point to the reality that the State Apparatus was established as a negation of the Peoples, Nations and Tongues(Languages); Language being the only Godly basis for existence.

By this we know that further enablement of such a State Apparatus with powers of a state of emergency or cementing its operations via a Constitutional Amendment is to reinforce the destruction of the foundation, continue in sin and expect grace to abound.

By this we know that there would be no Creation, no social relations hence no society, without the Spoken Word, for God spoke all that was created into being: “Then God said, saying, “let there be light”; and there was light. Genesis 1:3.

By this we know that the world was divided by Language: “Therefore, its name is called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.” Genesis 11:9

Our Lord’s Prayer says in Mathew 6:10 “Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven” where what is done in Heaven is described in Revelation 7:9-10 thus: “After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”


In another place, it is written: “And there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under heaven. And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together, and were confused, because everyone heard them speak in his own language. Then they were all amazed and marveled, saying to one another, “Look, are not all these who speak Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each in our own language in which we were born? Acts 2: 5-7

By which we know the centrality of Language in Creation and all the works of God.

Disregarding this foundation will ultimately lead to extinction and continuous conflict with the nature of the society as had happened to several Peoples and Languages throughout history.

The essence of our faith is Restoration, (the recovery of what is lost); and Redemption, (the prevention of loss); of the individual to God and of the society into which God intended it to be, to manifest the God-nature in us, where all the contradictions embedded in social life will have a Godly foundation through which they could be resolved.

Thus, the questions surrounding insecurity cannot be resolved by providing more military hardware or welfare packages or recruiting more military personnel or declaring any state of emergency or piecemeal establishment of “community policing” but in the Constitutional Re-Formation of Nigeria where all the Peoples, Nations and Tongues will be able to address these issues when they have Restored themselves into their God-given existence.

Countries now serving as models of material development all over the world utilize their Languages for the production and reproduction of knowledge. None of them rely on Languages foreign to them.

A culture of development cannot exist outside the Language of its expression; this is without prejudice to multi-lingual, multi-cultural congregations and assemblies each of whom will have to take responsibility for the developmental existentialism of the congregants.

The Apostolic Message:
The Righteous is to use the “understanding of the times” to legitimize the Language paradigm; to ensure that the Nations, Peoples and Tongues have control over any and all attempts at resolving the security conundrum by ensuring that the Nations, Peoples and Tongues organize their own Referendums on the Constitutional Foundations of Nigeria thus making restoration of the foundation possible. And Nigeria will have a Constitution that rightly and truthfully say: “WE, THE PEOPLE”.

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

Wale Odeku

You have shown, by your walk for peace, that you have not plastered the Buhari Regime with untempered mortars.

Glory be to God in the Highest! Amen.

It is written: “… of the sons of Issachar who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do….” 1 Chronicles 12:32

Calls for a state of emergency; community policing; recruiting more personnel into the military; National Assembly setting up a Constitution Review Committee and sundry suggestions are direct reactions to the Yoruba Consensus on Security, to wit: Amotekun.

By this we know that these are attempts at neutralizing the Consensus by way of another working to the answer, going by the conclusions of previous Review Committees, “public debates” and “Conferences”- IMF debates, Political Bureau, Niki Tobi's Constitutional Review, Abubakar's consultations, Obasanjo’s “Technical Review Committee”; Yar Adua’s Constitutional Review, Jonathan’s “Confab”; APC’s Committee on Restructuring. None yielded the desired degree of Autonomy for the Nations, Peoples and Tongues in Nigeria.

The required concurrence of 24 states in any Constitutional amendment already denies the existence of the Nations, Peoples and Tongues; for, these states may or may not share similar existential prerogatives with others, hence asking one to determine the course of the other jeopardizes their existence; even if the central government railroads its amendments through.
It is written: “If the foundations are destroyed, What can the righteous do? …The LORD tests the righteous…. “ Psalm 11:3-5

The test for the Righteous is in addressing the false foundation of the 1999 Constitution.

The Federal Foundation of Nigeria, largely representing the Nations, Peoples and Tongues, was destroyed by the colonial military which created a new State Apparatus, and now using the faulty 1999 Constitution as the glue holding all the different Nations, Peoples and Tongues together.
There were and are Christian politicians and military active in the ways and means by which the State itself came into being and now being run.

Christian leaders played various leadership roles in the emergence and sustenance of any of the administrations that have run Nigeria, civilian or military, including those who served as Heads of State professing to be Christians, the outcome of which is further destruction of the foundation.

Some served or are serving in any of the Administrations directly or as advisers, again without any attempt at correcting the foundational anomalies.
Others speak up only when their places of worship become victims of the destruction of the foundation, such that, at this time, CAN found it necessary to embark on rallies across the country but without addressing the foundation.

Praying for the authorities without specifics as to what is being prayed for; exhortations ministering to the hearts of those in government; embarking on fruitless peace missions alongside those leaders of the Islamic faith ostensibly to prevent conflicts only to be confronted with further conflicts thereby making nonsense of such peace efforts, only point to the necessity of addressing the destruction of the foundation.

The State Apparatus, via the current Regime, routinely releases captured and supposedly rehabilitated terrorists back into society while thousands of common and petty criminals languish in prisons without any hope of rehabilitation.

Victims of terrorism of both the Boko Haram and herdsmen varieties remain contained in IDP camps, and having been denied their Self-Determination, have no control over these released terrorists thereby enabling them to regroup and carry out further acts of terror.

The nomadic business of cattle rearing almost always leads to destruction of farmlands and murders of farmers, raping of women follow the methodologies employed by the “supporter of APC”, a terrorist militia established by the then government of Sudan to systematically destroy the African populations while taking over their ancestral lands.

Routine killings by both the state agencies as well as terrorists with no consequence on the perpetrators, with the State Apparatus ignoring these atrocities while regaling us with its activities regarding other forms of crime, all point to the reality that the State Apparatus was established as a negation of the Peoples, Nations and Tongues(Languages); Language being the only Godly basis for existence.

By this we know that further enablement of such a State Apparatus with powers of a state of emergency or cementing its operations via a Constitutional Amendment is to reinforce the destruction of the foundation, continue in sin and expect grace to abound.

By this we know that there would be no Creation, no social relations hence no society, without the Spoken Word, for God spoke all that was created into being: “Then God said, saying, “let there be light”; and there was light. Genesis 1:3.

By this we know that the world was divided by Language: “Therefore, its name is called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.” Genesis 11:9

Our Lord’s Prayer says in Mathew 6:10 “Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven” where what is done in Heaven is described in Revelation 7:9-10 thus: “After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

In another place, it is written: “And there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under heaven. And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together, and were confused, because everyone heard them speak in his own language. Then they were all amazed and marveled, saying to one another, “Look, are not all these who speak Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each in our own language in which we were born? Acts 2: 5-7

By which we know the centrality of Language in Creation and all the works of God.

Disregarding this foundation will ultimately lead to extinction and continuous conflict with the nature of the society as had happened to several Peoples and Languages throughout history.

The essence of our faith is Restoration, (the recovery of what is lost); and Redemption, (the prevention of loss); of the individual to God and of the society into which God intended it to be, to manifest the God-nature in us, where all the contradictions embedded in social life will have a Godly foundation through which they could be resolved.

Thus, the questions surrounding insecurity cannot be resolved by providing more military hardware or welfare packages or recruiting more military personnel or declaring any state of emergency or piecemeal establishment of “community policing” but in the Constitutional Re-Formation of Nigeria where all the Peoples, Nations and Tongues will be able to address these issues when they have Restored themselves into their God-given existence.

Countries now serving as models of material development all over the world utilize their Languages for the production and reproduction of knowledge. None of them rely on Languages foreign to them.

A culture of development cannot exist outside the Language of its expression; this is without prejudice to multi-lingual, multi-cultural congregations and assemblies each of whom will have to take responsibility for the developmental existentialism of the congregants.

The Apostolic Message:
The Righteous is to use the “understanding of the times” to legitimize the Language paradigm; to ensure that the Nations, Peoples and Tongues have control over any and all attempts at resolving the security conundrum by ensuring that the Nations, Peoples and Tongues organize their own Referendums on the Constitutional Foundations of Nigeria thus making restoration of the foundation possible. And Nigeria will have a Constitution that rightly and truthfully say: “WE, THE PEOPLE”.

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

Wale Odeku

"employed by the supporter of APC"
Don't know how this became injected into the write up.
The correct statement is "employed by the supporter of APC"
Thank you

You have shown, by your walk for peace, that you have not plastered the Buhari Regime with untempered mortars.

Glory be to God in the Highest! Amen.

It is written: “… of the sons of Issachar who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do….” 1 Chronicles 12:32

Calls for a state of emergency; community policing; recruiting more personnel into the military; National Assembly setting up a Constitution Review Committee and sundry suggestions are direct reactions to the Yoruba Consensus on Security, to wit: Amotekun.

By this we know that these are attempts at neutralizing the Consensus by way of another working to the answer, going by the conclusions of previous Review Committees, “public debates” and “Conferences”- IMF debates, Political Bureau, Niki Tobi's Constitutional Review, Abubakar's consultations, Obasanjo’s “Technical Review Committee”; Yar Adua’s Constitutional Review, Jonathan’s “Confab”; APC’s Committee on Restructuring. None yielded the desired degree of Autonomy for the Nations, Peoples and Tongues in Nigeria.

The required concurrence of 24 states in any Constitutional amendment already denies the existence of the Nations, Peoples and Tongues; for, these states may or may not share similar existential prerogatives with others, hence asking one to determine the course of the other jeopardizes their existence; even if the central government railroads its amendments through.

It is written: “If the foundations are destroyed, What can the righteous do? …The LORD tests the righteous…. “ Psalm 11:3-5

The test for the Righteous is in addressing the false foundation of the 1999 Constitution.

The Federal Foundation of Nigeria, largely representing the Nations, Peoples and Tongues, was destroyed by the colonial military which created a new State Apparatus, and now using the faulty 1999 Constitution as the glue holding all the different Nations, Peoples and Tongues together.

There were and are Christian politicians and military active in the ways and means by which the State itself came into being and now being run.
Christian leaders played various leadership roles in the emergence and sustenance of any of the administrations that have run Nigeria, civilian or military, including those who served as Heads of State professing to be Christians, the outcome of which is further destruction of the foundation.

Some served or are serving in any of the Administrations directly or as advisers, again without any attempt at correcting the foundational anomalies. Others speak up only when their places of worship become victims of the destruction of the foundation, such that, at this time, CAN found it necessary to embark on rallies across the country but without addressing the foundation.

Praying for the authorities without specifics as to what is being prayed for; exhortations ministering to the hearts of those in government; embarking on fruitless peace missions alongside those leaders of the Islamic faith ostensibly to prevent conflicts only to be confronted with further conflicts thereby making nonsense of such peace efforts, only point to the necessity of addressing the destruction of the foundation.

The State Apparatus, via the current Regime, routinely releases captured and supposedly rehabilitated terrorists back into society while thousands of common and petty criminals languish in prisons without any hope of rehabilitation.

Victims of terrorism of both the Boko Haram and herdsmen varieties remain contained in IDP camps, and having been denied their Self-Determination, have no control over these released terrorists thereby enabling them to regroup and carry out further acts of terror.

The nomadic business of cattle rearing almost always leads to destruction of farmlands and murders of farmers, raping of women follow the methodologies employed by the supporter of APC, a terrorist militia established by the then government of Sudan to systematically destroy the African populations while taking over their ancestral lands.

Routine killings by both the state agencies as well as terrorists with no consequence on the perpetrators, with the State Apparatus ignoring these atrocities while regaling us with its activities regarding other forms of crime, all point to the reality that the State Apparatus was established as a negation of the Peoples, Nations and Tongues(Languages); Language being the only Godly basis for existence.

By this we know that further enablement of such a State Apparatus with powers of a state of emergency or cementing its operations via a Constitutional Amendment is to reinforce the destruction of the foundation, continue in sin and expect grace to abound.

By this we know that there would be no Creation, no social relations hence no society, without the Spoken Word, for God spoke all that was created into being: “Then God said, saying, “let there be light”; and there was light. Genesis 1:3.

By this we know that the world was divided by Language: “Therefore, its name is called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.” Genesis 11:9

Our Lord’s Prayer says in Mathew 6:10 “Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven” where what is done in Heaven is described in Revelation 7:9-10 thus: “After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

In another place, it is written: “And there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under heaven. And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together, and were confused, because everyone heard them speak in his own language. Then they were all amazed and marveled, saying to one another, “Look, are not all these who speak Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each in our own language in which we were born? Acts 2: 5-7

By which we know the centrality of Language in Creation and all the works of God.

Disregarding this foundation will ultimately lead to extinction and continuous conflict with the nature of the society as had happened to several Peoples and Languages throughout history.
The essence of our faith is Restoration, (the recovery of what is lost); and Redemption, (the prevention of loss); of the individual to God and of the society into which God intended it to be, to manifest the God-nature in us, where all the contradictions embedded in social life will have a Godly foundation through which they could be resolved.

Thus, the questions surrounding insecurity cannot be resolved by providing more military hardware or welfare packages or recruiting more military personnel or declaring any state of emergency or piecemeal establishment of “community policing” but in the Constitutional Re-Formation of Nigeria where all the Peoples, Nations and Tongues will be able to address these issues when they have Restored themselves into their God-given existence.

Countries now serving as models of material development all over the world utilize their Languages for the production and reproduction of knowledge. None of them rely on Languages foreign to them.
A culture of development cannot exist outside the Language of its expression; this is without prejudice to multi-lingual, multi-cultural congregations and assemblies each of whom will have to take responsibility for the developmental existentialism of the congregants.

The Apostolic Message:
The Righteous is to use the “understanding of the times” to legitimize the Language paradigm; to ensure that the Nations, Peoples and Tongues have control over any and all attempts at resolving the security conundrum by ensuring that the Nations, Peoples and Tongues organize their own Referendums on the Constitutional Foundations of Nigeria thus making restoration of the foundation possible. And Nigeria will have a Constitution that rightly and truthfully say: “WE, THE PEOPLE”.

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

Wale Odeku

Concerning the Yoruba Consensus.

Amotekun engendered the current Yoruba Consensus. The problem is therefore not about its legality or constitutionality, but in the 1999 Constitution and the “law” it purports to promote; for the recognition of the existence of the Peoples, as Nations, created by God, is the first requirement of Law and Constitutionality.

The 1999 Constitution, flowing from all the efforts of the Nigerian Military to impose a uniformity on the Nations of Nigeria, otherwise known as Unitarism, denies our humanity and is a violation of this fundamental principle.

Thus, we see persons alleged to have committed crimes paraded as if they are not human beings; the security agencies, rather than secure the communities, become their overlords and justice is absent from the judicial system; the Peoples are separated from their humanity.

By which we know that our humanity, recognizing ourselves as human beings, including the alleged and substantive criminals, is already denied by the architecture of State that seeks to homogenize all the Peoples of the geo-political territory of Nigeria into “one”.

This Yoruba Consensus supersedes any of the previous “national conferences”; establishes the basis for the Yoruba Referendum; provides the platform for the demonstration of our self-existence; is the expression and reaffirmation of our Nationality as self-secured and the re-establishment of our humanity. It cannot therefore be legislated into or out of existence by the 1999 Constitution.

Only the Yoruba Nation and People can determine their own state of existence; while relations with other Nationalities will be negotiated with those Nationalities, hence the necessity for the Yoruba Referendum.

The Yoruba Consensus is our Ziklag.

The Amalekites attacked Ziklag and took away all they could while burning the remainder and David, having been anointed to replace Saul as king, became the subject of opprobrium. He was to be stoned by the People for what they considered the loss of their humanity—for even their wives, sons and daughters were taken away.

And before Ziklag, David had fought his battles with or without alliances and without letting down his guard as to the raison d’etre for these, to wit: the self-preservation and self-security of his Nation.

When thus confronted by the situation in Ziklag, he did not allow himself to be defined by the adversary. He did not allow himself to be alienated from his God-given identity. He strengthened himself in the Lord, from whom he asked what is to be done, saying, “Shall I pursue this troop? Shall I overtake them?” [/i]1 Samuel 30:8(a).

So, shall we pursue?

That is, pursue our Self-Determination and Autonomy in the light of the experiences we have had, and are having, in Nigeria, with what had been and is being taken away from us.

In contemporary times, the Yoruba Nation had fought all sorts of battles to sustain herself: the opposition to the NCNC/NPC Alliance’s attempt at decimating our land; “wet e”, in opposition to the blatant and shameless rigging of the 1965 Western Region elections; the coalescing of all Yoruba forces at the onset of the Nigeria-Biafra war, leading to the Yoruba Consensus to make Chief Obafemi Awolowo the Yoruba leader to prosecute the war on our behalf; to the various anti-military struggles where the most intense efforts took place in Yorubaland; the alliance that spearheaded the “June 12” protests.

The Yoruba also entered into all sorts of alliances; the solidification of the so-called paradigm shift in the land that saw the Yoruba hankering after the center; all the way to the present, where, once again, another alliance enabled the emergence of the present Regime.

At every point in all these alliances, something was always taken away from us. We were always expected to jettison our Nationality.

Thus, Balarabe Musa, Ralph Obiora et al, supposed progressives in the North and East, summarily withdrew from NADECO, claiming it had become a “Yoruba affair”. Yoruba advocates of paradigm shift ended up with the murder of Chief Bola Ige thrown in their faces. And now, the Buhari Regime is hiding behind the wall of “national security” to perpetuate Northern Hegemony and homogenization.

The Yoruba are not supposed to exist as Yoruba; but the Fulani North are fully living their Nationality.

Hence, pastoralism, a Hausa-Fulani cultural and economic paradigm, is turned into a pan-Nigerian economic imperative, via RUGA or “livestock transformation plan”; the Almajiri system, a largely Fulani/Northern socio-cultural practice, is turned into a countrywide educational problematic. And this, after ensuring the collapse of the educational system in other parts of Nigeria, resulting in the expansion of out of school children as a consequence; some major markets in our cities, in reality ghettos parading as markets, are monopolized by so-called “nation builders” from the East. And the list can go on.

A North East Development Commission was established, ostensibly as a counter to Boko Haram destruction even when there had not been any discernible development recorded by the Niger Delta Development Commission since it was created in 2000. Despite these, some Yoruba Senators are demanding for a South West Development Commission.

Yet, part of what had been taken away from us is the entrepreneurial spirit behind Oodua Investments, established as the holding company of the Western Nigeria Development Corporation which drove the economic development of the Region; meaning, there is no need for a centrally sanctioned “development agency”.

So, we know what had been, and is being taken away from us, even if we are still physically occupying the land; despite this being compounded by the additional push to take over what is left through a demographic shift.

The military is a weapon in this quest; the National Assembly its footstool.

By decrying Nigeria’s state of insecurity, it sought refuge in amending the 1999 Constitution in order to accommodate restructuring of the security architecture.

But Glory be to God in the Highest! Amen

[i]For thus has the Lord said to me: “Go, set a watchman, Let him declare what he sees.” Isaiah 21:6



Then he cried, “A lion, my Lord! I stand continually on the watchtower in the daytime; I have sat at my post every night. And look, here comes a chariot of men with a pair of horsemen!” Then he answered and said, “Babylon is fallen, is fallen! And all the carved images of her gods He has broken to the ground” Isaiah 21:8-9

“Carved images” come in various forms; some, carved in the open for entertainment; some, carved in the secret as substitutes for God.

The 1999 Constitution is the carved image of the god of Unitarism, underwritten by the various military interventions, planned in secret, decreeing us out of existence and attempting to create a new Identity for us.

Amending this carved image to provide for “community policing” or “state police” and sprucing these up with the reports of or setting up of any “National Conference” will only alter the contours of its carving; it will not replace it.

The Community must first exist for its policing to exist. The State must exist on its own before it can have its own police system.

States were arbitrarily created and declared as “Federating Units”. The 1999 Constitution decreed our communities into existence by way of naming the 774 Local Governments in the Constitution. That our governments had to devise ways and means of circumventing it by creating LCDAs makes the case for abrogating this carved image of Unitarism.

And so, God answered David: “Pursue, for you shall surely overtake them and without fail recover all.” 1 Samuel 30: 8(b)

David pursued and recovered all with his army made up of “everyone who was in distress, everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented…. he became captain over them. And there were about four hundred men with him.”

The Yoruba Nation is in distress, in economic degeneration and discontented—and so, as David and his men pursued and recovered all, so shall the Yoruba Nation without fail, recover all.

The Yoruba Referendum is the route to recovery; the template for any type of Constitutional Re-Formation of Nigeria; the response to any form of military intervention; the alternative to any and all sorts of “national confabs”, and the answer to any promises of “Restructuring”.

As Saul rejected David and sought to kill him to prevent him from achieving God’s purpose; so, the Central government can declare the Yoruba Referendum illegal and unconstitutional.

As David established another pathway towards achieving his objective, so, the Yoruba Referendum provides the platform to set up our own institution(s) for the manifestation of our right to exist as Yoruba.

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 Jonathan answered Saul his father, and said to him, “Why should he be killed? What has he done?” 1 Samuel 20:32

The soul of the Nation of Israel was at stake, and Saul, despite his rejection as king, tried to defy God by killing David, who had been anointed king in his place. But Jonathan, his son, would not play ball because he was a “man of God”; that is, someone who reveres God. Jonathan’s loyalty was to God and his duty was to ensure that His Will for the Nation prevailed.
By this, we know that Jonathan rejected the [b]LIE [/b]that his father’s rule had come to represent. Jonathan defended his friend and compatriot, David, against his father, despite the possibility of eventually becoming king. His concern was not so much based on such an expectation but for the soul of the Nation. In like manner, David, because of his reverence for God, would not kill Saul, even when he was perfectly positioned to do so.
All of which took place within the context of the Nation of Israel fighting for its life; from several enemies.
Having become dissatisfied with the rule of the judges, the Nation of Israel had asked for their own king “to judge them like all the nations.” They chose to go through with their demand and God allowed it. Having established the parameters of a king’s authority and powers, the Nation was left to deal with its consequences; they can choose to do right by the Lord or do evil in the sight of the Lord.
By this we know that Self-Determination is acceptable to God.
The question, therefore, for Jonathan, was whether the pursuit of his potential rulership is greater than the establishment of God’s Will for His people. Jonathan and David centered their actions on the truth of God, for themselves and for their Nation.
The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and colonial rule separated us from our God-given identities as Nations, hence, the concept of Nigeria as a negation of the Nationalities, also known as Unitarism, is, ab initio, satanic and therefore not of God.
Nigeria, as presently constituted, is not God’s plan for Yoruba People (or any other Nationality in Nigeria who would tune in to God’s plan for them). If Nigeria is to remain a geo-political entity, it must be reconfigured by the Nationalities within the territory.
Nigeria can only be a commonwealth of Nationalities. It can only become a “Nation” when all the Peoples created by God become homogenized into a “nationality”, becoming the creation of the fallen man, already the embodiment of sin and therefore incapable of righteousness unless there is repentance, a turning away from the sin.
That is, reverting to God’s purpose as defined by Him by virtue of our identities as Tongues and Nations.
Nigerian “Nationality” would therefore be living a LIE and would continually and diligently seek God but would not find Him.
By which we know that the plethora of churches in Nigeria could not even begin to address the Nigerian problematic, even as they create separate social and economic paradigm for their congregations.

Their educational institutions at all levels, housing estates, economic ventures, motivational speeches, mentoring, expansive memberships etc do not address basic economic indices; rather these attempts try to showcase their own successes within the economic, political and social darkness that is Nigeria. They have not and could not provide the light.
Truth is not an agency for sustaining a LIE; nor a measure of success within a LIE; it is for the disappearance of the LIE.
It is written:
“How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, You who weakened the nations! Isaiah 14:12
Satan is the father of LIES.
Lucifer(satan) “weakened our nation”, such that we no longer exist as a Nation in, and for ourselves.
The only way to glorify God in our existence is in manifesting our capacity to have dominion over all that is created.
The other way around is our current reality.
We exist at the behest of the elements we have no control over; contrary to God’s expectations and command, hence basic existential necessities become our albatross.
But it was not so in the Western Region, even within the limits of the time. That was why the period of its existence was our “Golden Era”, our Zion.
Now, we are by the rivers of Babylon, and wept, when we remembered Zion.
By this we know that the Nigerian “nationality” exist only through the instrumentality of[b] LIES:[/b]
Every action, every thought aimed at sustaining Nigeria was, and is based on a LIE.
From the lie of the NCNC “victory” in the 1951 Western Nigeria Parliamentary Elections; to the lie of the 1963 Census; to the lie about the 1963 “Republican Constitution”; to the lies of the January and July 1966 military coups; to the lies used to justify other military coups; to the lies about the military defending Nigeria’s territorial integrity when all the military’s efforts were and are geared towards suppressing the Peoples of Nigeria; to the electoral malfeasance since 1999 till date and now to the lies about border closing---after-all, Buhari went to London to tell them the “truth” about this.
By these, we know that satan, the father of lies, reigns in Nigeria.
And will continue to reign until the Peoples caged under its architecture are freed from its darkness into the light of God’s expectation.
Unitarism is under severe questioning in the UK, the superintendent of the creation of Nigeria through the on-going quest for Scottish Independence and potentials for Wales while death and misery is imposed on the Peoples of Nigeria for daring to pursue a similar quest-- the clear manifestation of satan’s control.
It is written:
For “who has known the mind of the LORD that He may instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
The mind of Christ is expressed in His assignment, to wit: He has come to set at liberty those who are oppressed.
The political economy of the Yoruba Nation has the potential to set us at liberty and transform the Nation into greatness.
A peep into an example which will spur other Nationalities on the continent to revert to their God-given identities:
Nowhere in the world was any form of development achieved by using a Language foreign to that society.
It has been proven that the using “mother tongue” for production of knowledge is the motor of development, and this is aside from the generation of social and cultural consciousness which enables the development of our humanity.
The economic impact of production and reproduction of knowledge in the Yoruba Language, by generating publishers, authors, editors, translators, specially trained teachers, printers etc can only be imagined.
The light of Self-Determination must therefore shine in the darkness of Nigeria.
How?
Jonathan and David provided the answer. Jonathan was not shackled by the potential of future power; his expectation was not on the lie his father’s authority and power had become. He knew his father and his power no longer represent God in the kingdom; taking over such a power would therefore be against God’s Will.
All attempts by the Yoruba at reinforcing the lie that Nigeria is, had always been disastrous—for the individual and the Nation. We know how the Obasanjo Presidency played out for the Nation such that his attempted come-back through his political formation fell flat on its face—no one outside Yorubaland played any serious role in it. Justice Akinola Aguda and Tai Solarin were scammed into providing a “unifier” for Nigeria; hence the birth of Abuja and we know what it has turned out to be. Professor Ojetunji Aboyade led the economic team that was eventually used to introduce SAP, of which Chief Olu Falae became the public face and main defender; M.K.O was swept away even though he was on a “Nigerianist” mission and of course, Chief Obafemi Oyeniyi Awolowo sacrificed his all, for Nigeria and without surrendering the Yoruba Nation. He was swept away.
Jonathan, on his part, paved the way for the regeneration of his Nation by supporting David in the quest for the manifestation of God’s Will.
Let it therefore be known that reinforcing the lie that is Nigeria is not acceptable to God.
The regeneration of the Yoruba Nation is.
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says.


Wale Odeku

It is written:

“Then say, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “The city sheds blood in her own midst, that her time may come; and she makes idols within herself to defile herself. You have become guilty by the blood which you have shed, and have defiled yourself with the idols which you have made. You have caused your days to draw near, and have come to the end of your years; therefore I have made you a reproach to the nations, and a mockery to all countries. Those near and those far from you will mock you as infamous and full of tumult. “Look, the princes of Israel: each one has used his power to shed blood in you.” Ezekiel 22:3-6



That Nigeria is a “mockery to all countries” or “mocked as infamous and full of tumult” is true; except for those who plasters it with untempered mortars.



Concerning the 1999 Constitution.

This Constitution, by virtue of separating the Peoples of Nigeria from their God-given Identities, is the idol which makes itself more important that God, our Creator.

On the platform of this idol, the Nigerian post-colonial State since Independence had continuously “shed blood in her own midst”; where the Peoples are sacrificed on the altar of Nigerian “territorial integrity”.

The “princes”, that is, the military and their civilian counterparts, through the Constitution, used, and continue to use their “power to shed blood”, as the very many experiences show.

The Police Mobile Force, “kill and go”, was purposely established to destroy the Self-Determination of the Peoples of the Middle Belt; the Nigerian Armed Forces began life as the Hausa Constabulary established by colonial authorities to suppress the quest for Self-Determination by the various Peoples of the colony; the NCNC/NPC Alliance against the AG was formed to neutralize the creation of more Regions in Nigeria as expected by the Willinks Commission in 1958– (the AG was the only party which admitted to the existence of minorities in the colony); the January 15 & 16,1966 coups and the July 29, 1966 “revenge coup” were attempts at sacrificing Self-Determination on the altar of Unitarism by the Eastern and Northern Hegemony, while all military and civilian Regimes in-between were established either by Military Decrees or Military Constitutions, ultimately using its “power to shed blood”.

In these times, the Buhari Regime, in a violent assault on our sensibilities, turned coup plotters into heroes; military adventurers branded as “statesmen”; daily creating Ethno-National Hegemony as its route to “Unity”.

The 1999 Constitution supposedly had security of lives and property as part of its main functions and from which the Buhari Regime also claim to have derived its Legitimacy.

This Constitution had never been able to address the geometric growth of insecurity of lives and property from one Regime to the other; and could not do so by its function of imposing one Hegemony over the rest of the Peoples with “territorial integrity” as an end.

The territory is therefore more important than the Peoples in it.

By this, the Peoples are defiled; hence all the atrocities the Peoples encounter at the hands of the defenders of the realm of Nigeria.

The military high command has now been called in to reinforce the idol; and doing so by threatening the Peoples of Nigeria.

But Glory be to God in the Highest!

When the time for the Lord has come, as it has for Nigeria, the idol must be dismantled. The first step towards reformation is the removal of the idol; as shown by the examples of the Prophets and the Kings who did right in the sight of the Lord. Amen.

On August 3, 1998, the Yoruba gathered at the Premier Hotel, Ibadan, Nigeria to deliberate on the formal withdrawal of the military from governance. The major bone of contention centered on accepting the military offer with or without conditions.

Despite a spirited and brave effort by High Chief Bayo Akinnola (now late) insisting on establishing conditions for participation, the military offer was accepted without conditions. We ended up participating in the elections without the slightest knowledge as to the Constitution which was and is to guide the country.

1998 presented an existential crisis for the Nigerian post-colonial State. Existential crises are in-built into the architecture of the post-colonial State; more so when the colonial powers would not want any disruption of their carefully orchestrated global order; knowing full well the potentials of a People unbowed by 400 years of slavery and colonialism combined. The Yoruba Nation did not take maximum advantage for our Self-Determination.

The Yoruba Nation is now faced with another existential crisis.

The resistance to the declaration by the Central Government must therefore go to the core of the problem: who are the Constituents of Nigeria?

By this we know, that if “We, the People” are the Constituents, the Governors and Houses of Assembly in Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ondo and Ekiti States must organize the Yoruba Referendum as soon as possible. The Bill is now being distributed among the members of the State Houses of Assembly.

Were the Yoruba Referendum on Self-Determination to be held today, it will record over 90% “YES” vote.

The Referendum is anchored on the following Annexure:

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.


A 2023 Yoruba Presidency wrapped around the 1999 Constitution cannot take us to the promised land. But a “Yoruba Presidency”, arising out of a Collective Presidency for Nigeria, will.

Concerning the threats of the Buhari Regime and its military command.

Thus says the Lord:

“[i]Muhammadu Buhari and his security agencies shall not come into Yorubaland, Nor shoot an arrow there, Nor come before it with shield, Nor build a siege mound against it. By the way that Muhammadu Buhari and his security agencies came, By the same shall Muhammadu Buhari and his security agencies return; And Muhammadu Buhari and his security agencies shall not come into Yorubaland,’ Says the Lord. ‘For the Lord will defend Yorubaland, to save it For HIS own sake and for HIS servants’ sake.’”

“And it came to pass on a certain night that the angel of the Lord went out, and killed in the camp of the Assyrians one hundred and eighty-five thousand; and when people arose early in the morning, there were the corpses—all dead.”

“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says ”.[/i]

Wale Odeku

The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Pastor Bakare Plastered Buhari With Untempered Mortar



Concerning Pastor Bakare’s visit to Muhammadu Buhari on December 30, 2019 and his “state of the nation” address delivered on January 5, 2020.



It is written:

“Therefore, thus says the Lord God: “Because you have spoken nonsense and envisioned lies, therefore I am indeed against you,” says the Lord God. “My hand will be against the prophets who envision futility and who divine lies; they shall not be in the assembly of My people, nor be written in the record of the house of Israel, nor shall they enter into the land of Israel. Then you shall know that I am the Lord God. “Because, indeed, because they have seduced My people, saying, ‘Peace!’ when there is no peace—and one builds a wall, and they plaster it with untempered mortar— say to those who plaster it with untempered mortar, that it will fall. There will be flooding rain, and you, O great hailstones, shall fall; and a stormy wind shall tear it down. Surely, when the wall has fallen, will it not be said to you, ‘Where is the mortar with which you plastered it?’ ” Therefore, thus says the Lord God: “I will cause a stormy wind to break forth in My fury; and there shall be a flooding rain in My anger, and great hailstones in fury to consume it. So I will break down the wall you have plastered with untempered mortar, and bring it down to the ground, so that its foundation will be uncovered; it will fall, and you shall be consumed in the midst of it. Then you shall know that I am the Lord. “Thus will I accomplish My wrath on the wall and on those who have plastered it with untempered mortar; and I will say to you, ‘The wall is no more, nor those who plastered it, that is, the prophets of Israel who prophesy concerning Jerusalem, and who see visions of peace for her when there is no peace,’ ” says the Lord God. Ezekiel 13:8-16



By this we know, that asking Muhammadu Buhari to “pivot for a new Nigeria” absolves him from personal responsibility for the actions and inactions of his Regime, compensating him with a “strong leadership” through “strong institutions,’ result-oriented policies, and a legacy of strong succession”.

Unitarist Nigeria, the active suppression of Self-Determination, under the banner of “forging a nation…” and now anchored on Fulani/Northern Hegemony of the Buhari Regime, as the pivot for a “new Nigeria”, is the wall Pastor Bakare plastered with untempered mortar.

Concerning Herbert Macaulay.

Ajayi Crowther, his grandfather, a “man of God” and an Apostle of Self-Determination who no doubt influenced him, went about his mission by, among others, translating the Bible into Yoruba Language and other African Languages while simultaneously engaged in the development of the Languages and their Nations as a means of deconstructing the colonial definition of the African.

Centuries before Ajayi Crowther, Martin Luther, the Reformer, translated the New Testament into German Language, not from the Latin in use in the Holy Roman Empire of which the Germanic tribes were a part, but from the original Hebrew and Greek.

By this, we know that Martin Luther’s actions was a conscious rejection of Roman Imperialism and led to Self-Determination of his People. This is the foundation of German Nationhood and State from the Holy Roman Empire and eventually the 30-years War culminating in the Self-Determination of European Nations/Peoples and resulting in what we now know as the Nation-States of Europe.

This foundation did not prevent Germany or any of the major European Nations from active participation in colonial and imperial exploitation of Africa.

This foundation survived and survives the ebbs and flows in governance. Some governments would do “evil in the sight of the Lord” as in the evils of slavery, colonialism, laissez faire capitalism, authoritarianism, fascism, racism, etc. Others would do “good in the sight of the Lord” as in abolition of slavery, emancipation, the development of the welfare state, social democracy, etc.

But the foundation remains.

It was the same with the Kings of Israel and Judah, characterized as either doing good or evil in the sight of the Lord.

But the foundation remained.

Self-Determination of the Nationalities, the foundation of modern Europe, was conspicuously missing from the activities of European Christian missionaries in Africa.

This missing link of Self-Determination for the Nationalities as the foundation for Independence in Africa enabled the perpetual cycle of “evil in the sight of the Lord”; for, the evil of the Slave Trade and colonialism served as the format for the post-colonial State, achievable only on the altar of Unitarism.

“Forging a nation….” without Self-Determination is turning up our noses at God for creating us with our National Identities. These are Identities that the massive 300-year Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and colonial rule could not wipe out but now expected to be given away, “by fire by force”.

The Yoruba had always been in the political, economic, social and intellectual leadership of the anti-colonial movement, where Federalism based on Self-Determination of the Peoples was the route towards decolonization.

The Central Government would be based on Regional Autonomy.

This was the foundation for Federalism in Nigeria.

It is written:

“If the foundations are destroyed, What can the righteous do”? Psalm 11:3

Destroying this foundation, utilizing both military and political means, had been the wall of Nigeria since Independence, and plastered with untempered mortars of various shades.

From the NCNC/NPC Alliance which truncated the creation of more Regions in the North and East while Illegally and Unconstitutionally creating one in the West; to its Illegal and Unconstitutional Declaration of a State of Emergency in the West on May 29, 1962.

All the military coups in Nigeria, starting from Nzeogwu’s on January 15, 1966 always had the same justification; for, their primary aim was in ensuring the destruction of this foundation by continuous Centralization and Unitarization.

What is now being experienced under Muhammadu Buhari as to the reinforcement of Northern, Fulani Hegemony confirms the façade of the “forging a nation…” mantra; all of which were sealed with their fraudulent 1999 Constitution.

By which we know that Centralization is the wall being plastered with the untempered mortar of the Buhari Regime from which Pastor Bakare expects a “strong leadership”.

When Self-Determination is not the foundational reference point, the post-colonial State defaults into all sorts of shenanigans as had, and is being witnessed in Nigeria, where “Law” is at the instance of wielders of power and every thought on human governance is turned upside down.

And why Pastor Bakare ignored “strong institutions” as embedded in Yoruba thought process, where the possibility of chaos in government, family (nuclear or extended) or social order exists because of the hibernation of the undesirable, waiting for an opportune time to act; the amelioration of which is possible only when “strong institutions” exist to keep the undesirable at bay. That this possibility permeates the consciousness ensures self-regulating behaviors.

A phenomenon expressed in the saying: “hibernation of the undesirable engenders social harmony”;(ilu t’o toro, omo ita won ko tii d’agba ni). The undesirables gain the upper hand when the foundation become weakened thus enabling their emergence from hibernation, as being proved by contemporary history.

“The Lord tests the righteous” Psalm 11:5(a)

God already provided a template for a Nigerian Nationhood through the realities of her Nationalities, which is possible only through Federalism based on their Self-Determination. This is the call of the righteous. And it shall be well with them.

Through it all, through it all,

Thus says the Lord:

“Muhammadu Buhari and his security agencies shall not come into Yorubaland, Nor shoot an arrow there, Nor come before it with shield, Nor build a siege mound against it. By the way that Muhammadu Buhari and his security agencies came, By the same shall Muhammadu Buhari and his security agencies return; And Muhammadu Buhari and his security agencies shall not come into Yorubaland,’ Says the Lord. ‘For the Lord will defend Yorubaland, to save it For HIS own sake and for HIS servants’ sake.’”

“All the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us”.

Wale Odeku

“When the LORD brought back the captivity of Zion, we were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter, And our tongue with singing. Then they said among the nations, “The LORD has done great things for them.” The LORD has done great things for us, And we are glad. ----Psalm 126:1-3

The “captivity” is not the physical dislocation into a foreign land but the remembered glory of a lived experience as a free people, otherwise known as “Zion”. Bringing this back is possible only when they regain their freedom, their Self-Determination, which, once again, will restore their experienced glory.
When their captors demanded they sing to them a song of Zion, to express this glory in a song, the obvious question to them was, how this can be possible when they live under a foreign authority?
So, they sat down by the rivers of Babylon and wept, when they “remembered Zion”.
Bringing back their captivity is a demand and pursuit of their Self-Determination.
“Remembrance” is therefore a fundamental necessity to the well-being of a Nation; carried away or not. This is also why God always reminds Israel about what He has done for them.
A Nation’s glory can be lost even when not carried away as the Yoruba Nation’s experience in Nigeria shows.
A Yoruba Christian leader, Pastor Tunde Bakare, a very good friend of the current President, once stated that the Yoruba must be grateful to Britain for bringing about Nigeria, for, according to him, the notion of a Yoruba Nation is a myth, for there was no Yoruba Nation prior to the creation of the Nigerian State, which we must celebrate and strengthen.
This concept is also applied to other Nationalities in Nigeria in furtherance of denying Self-Determination for the Nations in Nigeria.
But Glory be to God, who enjoined His creation, to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all that is done under heaven. (Ecclesiastes1:13)
So, we know that what separates a Nation from just a group, is the commonality of expectations manifested through Cultural, Lingual, Political and Economic prisms which forms Yoruba existentialism: from the recognition of Ile-Ife as the “source” laying the basis for an unwritten Constitutional order, to wit: Ile-Ife must not be attacked, the violation by Owu which led to the city being destroyed by an array of Yoruba forces, to the forms of government (Obaship), to the Cosmogony (despite introduction of Christianity and Islam) and more importantly, the “war to end all wars” in Yorubaland and which ultimately pitted Yoruba Unitarists against Yoruba Federalists.
There would not have been such an internal conflict if there was no sense of Yoruba Nationhood.
These ensured the future development of an economic infrastructure based on a welfarist economic philosophy fashioned around “freedom for all, life more abundant”, the product of a Political Autonomy resulting from the Federalist form of Geo-Political Architecture of the emerging post-colonial State.
Military and civilian central governments commenced systematic destruction of all the Region’s Welfarist Political Economy by destroying these critical infrastructures upon which social and economic development of the Region rested such that the pride of place of the Region’s economic development are now objects of lamentation.
This renders null the proposition of a viable, sustainable, social and economic development without Geo-Political Autonomy.
When therefore the Buhari Regime pursues “infrastructural development” only as a function of its physical manifestation, it fails to recognize the centrality of an overall economic philosophy of development, itself a function of the nature of its
State and without which no economy can develop. This is why the Nigerian experiment had been going around in circles.
Nigeria’s architecture of State is Prebendal; a political economy based on an inherent right to resources by office holders for the benefit of their geo-political supporters and which is now being carried to the “next level” in its fundamentalist form.
It was not so in the Western Region.
Its political system was influenced by the cultural realities of the Region, which in turn fed the economy. We were a People coming into being by ourselves.
One example will suffice.
The Action Group party in power in the Region lost the 1954 Regional Elections because a section of Yorubaland opposed the party’s education policy. Two years later, when the effects of the policy became manifest, the section reversed course.
This would have been impossible had the Region’s political economy been Prebendal; for the Prebend can only reproduce itself. It cannot transform itself.
This is the reality of Nigeria.
So, today, “we remember Zion” and weep because we are living through the attempts to obliterate our Zion through a centralist, anti-Federalist Regime, a clear and present danger to our existence.
And a 2023 Yoruba Presidency is expected to be the final nail in the coffin of Self-Determination and Federalism, more so when such a Presidency will be unattainable without accommodation with the anti-Federalists.
Therefore, the only acceptable trajectory of any 2023 political mission must be Self-Determination.
As always, Glory be to God in the Highest, Amen! He calls into Remembrance the necessity and creates the opportunity to restore our Zion; and return that which we have lost.
Despite Nehemiah’s high placement in captivity, he “remembered Zion”. His answer to King Artaxerxes’ question as to the reason for his sad countenance was instructive, to wit: “Why should my face not be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers’ tombs, lies waste, and its gates are burned with fire?”
Indeed why should the Yoruba not be sad, when our patrimony is up in flames, and another Yoruba Christian leader, Femi Adesina, the Special Adviser on Media to the president, once asked us to choose between losing our lives or ancestral land to rampaging herdsmen terrorists!!!
Nehemiah stood up to the situation of his People, and King Artaxerxes empowered him so he could mobilize and organize his People along a line of action that rebuilt Judah, defended it when it became necessary and ensured necessary social and economic reforms.
King Artaxerxes recognized the Jews as a Nationality; the Nigerian post-colonial State, now being run by the Buhari Regime, denies the Yoruba as a Nationality. It will therefore be safe to assume that his Regime may not accommodate the necessity of returning to our Zion.

Yet, return we must. Otherwise, we become a footnote in history and would have turned up our noses at God who created us as a Nation, regardless of our evangelization and winning of souls.
The 1960 Independence Constitution recognized the Nations, even as they were represented by the political parties of the time. Efforts to formalize the recognition through the creation of more Regions were truncated by the anti-Federalists.
The 1999 Constitution consummated anti-Federalism and must be rejected and replaced.
Aspiring to the Presidency in 2023 with whatever justifications must not be the Yoruba priority. Our Self-Determination must be.
The road is the Referendum Law, which is being placed before the Houses of Assembly in Yorubaland.
Nehemiah mobilized the people for effective rebuilding as well as injecting righteous forms of civil governance among the Jews.
Yoruba Political leaders must do no less. They are to mobilize the Yoruba people for the Referendum.
By this, we shall be able to ask “God to Remember us, concerning this, and spare us according to the greatness of His mercy!”
That is the only solid ground to tread. Any other road will be washed away by a flood.
Fear Not! Says the Lord of Hosts.
When the Referendum route is taken, “Muhammadu Buhari and his security agencies shall not come into Yorubaland, Nor shoot an arrow there, Nor come before it with shield, Nor build a siege mound against it. By the way that Muhammadu Buhari and his security agencies came, By the same shall Muhammadu Buhari and his security agencies return; And Muhammadu Buhari and his security agencies shall not come into Yorubaland,’ Says the Lord. ‘For the Lord will defend Yorubaland, to save it For HIS own sake and for HIS servants’ sake.’”
“All the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us”.

Wale Odeku

“Then God said” is His affirmation of the transformation of a reality that exists contrary to His nature. God is Light and in Him there is no darkness at all.

Concerning the Yoruba-African Nation within the context of Africa’s historical experiences and the journey towards Yoruba Emancipation, our experiences during the last 400 years of Slavery and colonialism created a reality that cemented our alienation from our God-given existence.

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”.

The children of Israel spent 400 years in Egypt before their deliverance according to the Covenant with Abraham, who, as recorded in Genesis 15:12 “Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, horror and great darkness fell upon him:

“Then HE said to Abram……..”

When therefore, there is darkness, God speaks; what God says ensures the disappearance of the darkness.

Darkness in Nigeria is characterized by the subversion of democracy and Self-Determination of the Peoples. Federalism is the only route towards the manifestation of Self-Determination of the Peoples, for it leaves room for their self-actualization in contrast to the uniformist, Unitarist, post-colonial State seeking to ensure the erasure of their God-given nature from human history. Federalism, then, is the union of two or more Self-Defined entities that may be administered in any manner. The form of administration does not become a substitute for Self-Determination.

The West/Yorubaland had borne the brunt of these Unitarist, anti-Federalist forces, a joint venture between the East and the North and primarily aimed at subduing the West/Yorubaland because of her anti-colonial philosophy anchored on Federalism.

Current attempts at consolidating anti-Federalism and denying Self-Determination include the so-called autonomy for local governments; the proposed Waterways Bill which will enable the central government to control all the river banks in Nigeria; the resettlement of herdsmen across the country in the name revitalizing agriculture and livestock production, otherwise known as RUGA Settlements; border closures negating cross-border Ethno-National Existence, which, ordinarily, ought to have engendered a new form of economic thought but which is now ensconced within closures of the artificial borders thus compounding the artificiality, and denying the existentialism of the Peoples of the border areas.

Ethno-National nepotism, Chauvinism and Irredentism are the ideological weapons of the anti-Federalists. These characteristics are personified, historically, by Major-General Aguiyi Ironsi, the military head of state after the January 1966 military coup and in the current circumstances, Major-General(retd) Muhammadu Buhari.

Both subverted the Federalism that ushered in Independence by disregarding its essence by turning Federalism on its head and making the center the focal point. Aguiyi Ironsi’s substitution of the Regions arrived at during the Independence struggles with his “group of provinces” and effectively neutralizing Federalism became the launchpad for incoming military adventurers whose past-time was tinkering with Federalism until it now has no meaning.

The Nigeria-Biafra war was a consequence of the anti-Federalist posture, with Biafra, on the one hand, trying to overrun Yorubaland and the “Nigerian Forces” under the control of the North trying to make the West (Yorubaland) its plaything.

The Nigerian Army (armed forces) was a colonial creation aimed at suppressing the Peoples and placed under the control of northern hegemony which had not failed to utilize it in the process of entrenching itself while neutralizing Federalist forces. It ended up subverting the will of the People through political immorality by making a patently false claim as to the country’s Grundnorm being the “will of the People”.

The Buhari Regime is the latest in the long line of anti-democratic Regimes since Independence, where the subversion of democracy was and still is the order of the day, despite any electoral victories and notwithstanding the Regime’s pretensions as to its fidelity to democracy simply because it was able to achieve electoral victory over its opponents

Since Independence, various civilian administrations subverted Federalism and democracy at will; The East and the North, through the NPC/NCNC Alliance that oversaw the negation of the Independence Constitution via the Unconstitutional Declaration of the State of Emergency in the Western Region leading to the change to the 1963 Constitution; the 12 2/3rds NPN electoral shenanigans in 1979 through its 1983 moon-slide; the 2003 “do or die” elections; the 2007 elections which the victor, Musa Yar Adua even admitted was fraught with irregularities; the violent resistance to the 2011 election results by the Buhari partisans to its loss, all the way to the present where the Buhari partisans now claim legitimacy only on the platform of its 2019 electoral victory.

Yet, Africa has and continue to have its share of electoral victories, either in one-party states, which by definition, cannot make any pretense at democracy(Guinea under Sekou Toure, Congo Republic, Zaire); pretentious multi-party states as in Zimbabwe, Kenya, Ethiopia under EPRDF etc; such that the story of Africa is not complete without the negation of democracy through electoralism.

That the Buhari Regime will hang its legitimacy on this dubious paradigm in order to sustain its anti-Federalism shows its disdain for the existential imperatives of the Peoples of Nigeria.

Despite these clouds of darkness, the righteous are emboldened because “Then God said”.

While it may be prudent to employ the Yoruba aphorism as to resolving the primary contradiction before attending to the secondary, the question as to what the primary contradiction is, remains to be answered.

The primary contradiction is whether the quest for a Yoruba Presidency in 2023 will solidify the anti-Federalist forces or not; the secondary being any form of alliance aimed at bringing forth such a Yoruba Presidency; both of which are dependent on either the retention or replacement of the 1999 Constitution foisted on us by the anti-Federalist military created precisely for our oppression and sustained by various military or civilian political machinations.

The 1999 Constitution is the darkness that must be replaced.

“Then God said……..”

“When the enemy comes in like a flood, The Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him”.

The combination of the military machine and its political equivalent against the emergence of our God-given existence, expressed through the Federalist option, constitute the enemy coming like a flood—as indeed it has come like a flood.

But Glory be to “God who does nothing unless He reveals His secret to His servants, the prophets”. “For since the beginning of the world Men have not heard nor perceived by the ear, Nor has the eye seen any God besides You, Who acts for the one who waits for Him” …… “But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God”

To avoid presumptuousness will necessarily lead to relying on what is written in order to determine what God said as to the darkness enveloping Yorubaland and Nigeria.

Judah, under King Hezekiah, experienced Sennacherib’s terrorism, leading to King Hezekiah’s surrender of all of Judah’s economic and cultural patrimony, mocking Judah’s antecedents and arrogantly ascribing Judah’s overlord-ship to himself. (2 Kings 18 & 19). All of which are not different from what Yorubaland had been going through, since 1960 up till the present.

“Then God said”: concerning the King of Assyria and now says, concerning the Regime of Muhammadu Buhari:

‘Muhammadu Buhari and his security agencies shall not come into Yorubaland, Nor shoot an arrow there, Nor come before it with shield, Nor build a siege mound against it. By the way that Muhammadu Buhari and his security agencies came, By the same shall Muhammadu Buhari and his security agencies return; And Muhammadu Buhari and his security agencies shall not come into Yorubaland,’ Says the Lord. ‘For the Lord will defend Yorubaland, to save it For HIS own sake and for HIS servants’ sake.’”

“And it came to pass on a certain night that the angel of the Lord went out, and killed in the camp of the Assyrians one hundred and eighty-five thousand; and when people arose early in the morning, there were the corpses—all dead. So, Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went away, returned home, and remained at Nineveh. Now it came to pass, as he was worshiping in the temple of Nisroch his god, that his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him down with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. Then Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place”.

This, then, is our confidence.


Wale Odeku

www.ooduapathfinder.com


Subversion of the democratic ethos appears to be the categorical imperative of all civilian administrations in Nigeria since 1999 and may now be heading towards its apogee via the creeping passage of the “Social Media and Hate Speech Bills”, both of which are aimed at striking a dagger at the heart of our existentialism. This is so because “speech” is a fundamental expression of human existence which can manifest in various ways and through various means, social media inclusive, in today’s environment.

To classify any form of “speech” as hate therefore denies African existentialism, where the various wars and conflicts confronting the continent today are not the result of “hate” but arise out of the denial of the various Peoples of the continent as Nations (Peoples) in themselves and for themselves. This was, and still is, the primary objective of the colonial project where our existence is denied, re-framed as being of what the colonizer wanted us to be and warehoused within a State Apparatus in violent conflict with our being.

To inject the concept of “hate speech” into our lives is therefore an attempt at justifying the colonial project of homogenization through this State Apparatus and in Nigeria’s specific case, an attempt at subjugating all of the other Peoples under Fulani or, in worst case scenario, Northern Hegemony.

This had been the course of Nigeria’s political trajectory since the anti-colonial struggles and consolidated with Independence, where the primary purpose of the so-called 1963 Republican Constitution was simply the denial of Obafemi Awolowo’s victory at the Privy Council via substituting the Privy Council with the Supreme Court which was later used to justify the repression of the Action Group and subsequently upholding the conviction.

The eventual passage of these Bills will require the support and acquiescence of the Yoruba members who are from a geo-political Region, which, since the earliest days of the anti-colonial agitation had been known for its steadfast demands for a Truly Federal Nigeria, based on a Lingual-Ethno-National characteristics, and in the process lost quite a few of her noblest sons and daughters.

This demand for True Federalism, anchored on Self-determination of the various Peoples of Nigeria, is the highest form of democratic engagement, the denial of which created and continues to create all the crises of the Nigerian post-colonial State since Independence.

The formation of the APC was assumed to address these crises, but as is very well known, the opposite had been the case. The Buhari Administration embarked on various attempts at further alienating the Peoples of Nigeria through processes of Unitarization and Centralization, which had always been the strategic imperative of the Fulani or Northern Hegemonic praxis in Nigeria.

These had manifested in both the political and economic arena; the major ones, in today’s atmosphere, being the Waterways Bill, RUGA Settlements; border closures negating cross-border Ethno-National Existence, which, ordinarily ought to have engendered a new form of economic thought but which is now ensconced within closures of the artificial borders thus compounding the artificiality, for it denies the existentialism of the Peoples of the border areas, even while propagating the ECOWAS Protocol on Herdsmen migration; the change in the narrative from Herdsmen terrorism to that of banditry or so-called insecurity; the weaponization of Local Government Autonomy contrary to the letter and spirit of Federalism; the nepotism and irredentism of the person of Muhammadu Buhari and now these Bills created under a “democratic” cover.

If the Yoruba leaders of the APC are content with the attempt at Nigeria’s homogenization, it must explain to the Yoruba people how this will address the fundamental question of the “development of underdevelopment” going on in Yorubaland, in particular and in Nigeria, in general; that is, whether Nigeria’s post-colonial architecture as a homogenized post-colonial State as conceived by the colonial powers and sustained by successive rulers, can lay the foundation for an enduring political and economic philosophy for development of not only Africans in Nigeria but also of the global African Peoples, more so when African countries spend their energy on sustaining the Balkanization of the various Peoples of Africa into these post-colonial countries, and now caught up continually in existential crises.

That this question is relevant today flows from the fact that all of the problems associated with the Buhari Administration had been a recurring decimal of the Nigerian post-colonial State since Independence as evidenced by not only the various speeches announcing the various military coups but also the perennial attestations of all civilian administrations reinforcing the underdevelopment paradigm that has festered in Nigeria since at least 1966, with each administration making up what is regarded as programs for development; and this, despite the fact that such programs are never in short supply in Nigeria’s electoral cycles with absolutely no discernible impact on the country’s political economy.

From which it must be obvious that the Nigerian underdevelopment problematic is not about any economic policy, no matter how highfalutin it may be, as none of the previous policies had made any difference, otherwise the Buhari Administration will not present itself as addressing the same fundamental issues today anchored on similar mechanisms.

Yet, the issue with Nigeria’s economy has less to do with its fidelity to economic principles propounded by any of the economic institutions in the world or corruption, but more with the lack of an economic philosophy without which no economy can sustain itself in the global marketplace.

It must be recalled that one of the reasons for the January 15,1966 military coup was to “fight corruption”; and Nigeria had either been enabling or fighting it since then. Obviously, something must be wrong with the chosen methodology and to discover this means to address the State Structure housing the “fight”.

Nigeria’s economy is not responsible for its own reproduction as the state reproduces itself as a Prebend, where rulers appropriate available resources for consumption either by themselves or in conjunction with their areas of origin, in a parasitic relationship vis-à-vis the economy; hence the “do or die” approach to elective offices. The consumption becomes its own end; hence, all administrations aim to ingratiate themselves into this Prebendal structure resulting in continuous underdevelopment of Nigeria’s economy.

Prebendalism, in turn, feeds off the absence of an economic philosophy and creates a narrative based on a pedestrian appreciation of what obtains in other places; thus, China is cited as an example without an examination of how China came to be what it is, today; that, despite her being a one-party State, her Ethnic Minorities have their Regional Autonomy, including the full development of their spoken and written Languages, while also simultaneously resolving the philosophical question of the relationship between Capital and Labor based on its own existential realities thus enabling it to engage the world.

Her educational paradigm provided not only mass labor but also technical and managerial competencies which would drive the process. The underdevelopment of Nigeria’s education system is no longer news. It had been in a downward spiral since the introduction of the IMF-induced Structural Adjustment Program (SAP) which saw no need for the development of the middle class for the purposes of driving the internal economy.

Having destroyed the middle class with a massive brain drain, the only recourse is in the continued exploitation of its mineral and now agricultural resources (cash crops, as under the colonial regimes) for export, mainly to centers of colonial power, and now classified as diversification; these economic activities making no impact on the daily lives of her citizens but with a massive contribution to the well-being of the former colonial powers.

Yet, SAP was the economic tool utilized by the “world market” to maintain its dominance over “local markets” through the instrumentality of the Prebendal State and it will therefore be quite a tragedy of massive historical proportions if the decapitation of the Peoples of Nigeria succeeds with the acquiescence of the current, dominant Yoruba political leaders.

The pursuit of the formation of the APC as an amalgam (as different from an alliance) of diverse tendencies and forces was a strategic error on the part of the leaders. A party like the APC could not have pursued True Federalism despite its setting up a Committee for that purpose as well as having it as an item in its 2015 electoral Manifesto. This is so, for the simple reason that its formation, and therefore existence, is contrary to these pursuits.

A homogenized political party structure, completely dependent on the Unitarist State architecture, cannot be the platform for a decentralized or Federalist pursuit, as is now being experienced in Spain and the UK, where their Centralized parties of whatever ideological coloration (Labor/Tory in the UK, PPP/Socialist in Spain) are in opposition to Catalan and Scottish Independence and only being forced into adjusting to the reality of Self-Determination by the general mobilization of Catalans and the Scots.

Does this then imply our pursuit of a Self-Determination oriented Party? NO.

The SW APC as well as all of the Yoruba members of the National Assembly, either as a specific grouping within the Assembly or in conjunction with others who may think along with them, must line up behind their various Peoples in advancing the quest for a REFERENDUM within the various Nationalities in Nigeria as to their expectations on Sovereignty.

This is the ALTERNATIVE; which also simultaneously cures the false declaration in the Preamble to the 1999 Constitution as being a product of “We, the People”. These members of the National Assembly owe us nothing less.

http://www.ooduapathfinder.com/headline-stories/editorial-fasola-and-his-falsehoods/




Babatunde Raji Fasola claimed he was speaking as a member of Island Club and not as an APC or Federal Executive Council member at the 76th anniversary of the Island Club where he was the guest speaker. Nevertheless, his speech, as reported, was made up of political falsehoods, an attempt at justifying the Administration’s opposition to Restructuring.
Babatunde Fasola’s FALSE statements and their rebuttals are as follows:

(1) He was quoted to have concluded that the evolution of the United Kingdom was similar to Nigeria’s 1914 amalgamation that merged the Northern and Southern Protectorates.

The 1707 Act of Union between the two crowns of Scotland and England followed a historical trajectory of the emergence of England and Scotland and modern Europe itself. Unlike the forced amalgamation of the North and South Nigeria by colonial forces, the Act of Union was a choice, albeit surreptitiously carried out by both parties and which is still a subject of conflict today, wherein Scotland is demanding her Independence from the UK. There is no and can be no similarity between a voluntary and forced union, more so when such coercion is carried out by an external force, as was the case with Nigeria in 1914.

(2) It is FALSE to create a connection between Brexit/EU and the quest for Restructuring in Nigeria, or “that young people, who were not aware of the history of the emergence and evolution of Britain voted in favor of leaving the EU without understanding or weighing its implications, resulting in the current logjam.”

The European Union is a union of sovereign entities, countries, who can decide their interrelationships. Therefore, the question is NOT Brexit, but the United Kingdom itself.
The United Kingdom is made up of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, where Great Britain is England, Scotland, Wales. At the present time, Scotland, as part of the Kingdom, is pushing for a Second Referendum in her efforts to be an independent country, having lost the first Independence Referendum in 2014. Wales is also on course in pursuing the same objective while both Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland are looking for ways to re-unite, leaving England to try to pursue its own way.
Brexit, on the other hand, is a function of interrelationships between sovereign entities, where within Britain itself, England voted to leave the European Union while Scotland voted to remain. Within Britain therefore, two different and opposing camps emerged based on their different social, cultural and political imperatives.
The Lesson here is that the UK colonized Nigeria and amalgamated the various components without their consent. Despite spirited efforts to keep “UK one”, the Peoples demanding Independence are also able to make their agitations clear and a process for a Referendum was created for that purpose; unlike Nigeria, where every effort is made to criminalize the demand for self-determination and/or Independence thus fulfilling the racist notion of the African as lacking in reason and acting more on emotions. Otherwise, why would the creators of Nigeria allow themselves the freedom to dissociate while Nigeria, the created, is insisting on its own artificiality by violence? That is the core of Fasola’s FALSEHOODS.

(3) It is FALSE, for Fasola to say that “there had been confusion in the restructuring agitation with people clamoring variously for confederation, secession, constitutional amendment and state police, among others, adding that restructuring in whatever guise must be made clear to youths” and that we should “decompose that word and let everybody be specific. There is so much confusion. Don’t hide restructuring under one word. Bring it out, so that we know what to choose.”

(a) That there are various destinations and definitions of Restructuring implies that everyone knows what they want. The confusion comes when these definitions are being denied and substituted with what they are not. The only way to decide on these definitions is through a Referendum where all of these would be placed on the ballot and the people, old and young, will be able to make a final determination. The Referendum will allow a coalescing of suggestions into simple and definitive categories; (b) the fact that there are various conclusions as to what people mean by Restructuring already implies that the word had already been decomposed.

(4) It is FALSE for Fasola to claim that “Some people are calling for parliamentary system of government. The new generation must be told that it was the parliamentary system that caused crisis which was difficult to resolve, and which led us into civil war.”

It was NOT the parliamentary system of government that caused the crisis, which “was difficult to resolve, and which led to us into civil war”
The TRUTH is, the crisis occurred under the Parliamentary system as it could have occurred under any system. But, it was under the Parliamentary System that was regarded as the “Golden Era” of the Western Region. Other Regions also point to that era as development-oriented, such that it became the standard with which further developments in Nigeria are measured. The dislocation and underdevelopment of the Era started when the Presidential System was introduced, first by the military and subsequently by its political offspring, to wit, the NPN, PDP and now APC.
The systematic underdevelopment started with de-industrialization, deliberate decay in education and its infrastructure leading to the “brain drain” and welcomed by the political and military forces of the day, topped with cultural and moral decadence all of which were anchored on lassez-faire political economy characterized by the Structural Adjustment Program which became Nigeria’s new economic foundation.
When Babatunde Fasola was governor of Lagos State, under the Presidential System, he championed the study of Chinese Language as the “language of the future” to the detriment of Yoruba Language despite various studies showing the necessity of indigenous Language as the medium for production and reproduction of knowledge to usher in the developmental paradigm just as Prof Babatunde Fafunwa demonstrated his experiment on mother-tongue education as beneficial to development.
If the Chinese of which Babatunde Fasola was so enamored had ignored their Language in favor of a foreign Language, it is doubtful if they would be the world power they are today.
The crisis referenced by Fasola was therefore not because of the Parliamentary System but in spite of it; for the crisis was a result of a power grab embedded in the nature of the Post-Colonial State which the Parliamentary System sought to ameliorate hence the resort to Illegal and Unconstitutional methodology to ensure the realization of the power grab.
Such Illegal and Unconstitutional methodologies were and still are the only route towards power grabs and this is possible only because the Post-Colonial State is anchored on the non-recognition of Nigeria as a territory of different Nationalities and Peoples, which eventually led to the civil war.
The question therefore should be how these Illegalities and Unconstitutional means are to be challenged and addressed.

(5) Fasola also says, “A Good Document not backed by the right attitude does not take people far. If anything really needs restructuring, it must start with us as people, with our attitude and with our mindset” and that “Where people are diverse, a federation is better. There is a great deal of work to be done by the protagonists.’’

If by this, Fasola wants a Restructuring that starts with our attitude and mindset, this should start from the basis of our political and cultural morality, that is, our Grundnorm, the fundamental Law of our society and this cannot be based on a false foundation.
The question then is: what makes a Good Document, that is, the Grundnorm?
A document with a false preamble is not and cannot be a Good Document. So, the various military-induced Constitutions, especially the current one in use, the 1999 Constitution, with a FALSE Preamble that states, “We, the People” is NOT a good document.
A Good Document recognizes the Peoples of Nigeria as the Constituent Units. Therefore, when Fasola says a “federation is better”, the question of the Federating Component must be answered; for, by definition, a Federation is a union of two or more entities, and in a geo-political sense, reflects a relationship between the “national” (center) and the “sub-national” (Regional) entities.
Indeed, every Union or Federation in the world is based on a Union of Peoples which may now be administered either as states (as in the US), Regions as in Germany or Emirates as in UAE. For a Federation or Union to exist, therefore, the Peoples inhabiting a geographical space must make that decision.
To arrive at a Good Document means the Peoples must be consulted and become the driver of their own Constitutions, which is why a demand is now being made for the various Peoples in Nigeria to make their own Constitutions through a Referendum and from which a “Good Document” will emerge.
This is all the more important when it is recognized that, at various times, the protagonists have made their cases known when they were asked to: the various “National” Conferences and Summits, the IMF debates, Political Bureau, Niki Tobi's Constitutional review, Abubakar's consultations, Obasanjo’s “Technical Review Committee”, Yar Adua’s Constitutional Review, Jonathan’s “Confab”, APC’s Committee on Restructuring. Each ended up legitimizing doubtful socio-political legacies.


(6) It is FALSE for Fasola to claim that “countries that broke up without being able to resolve the issues of separation to include Yugoslavia, Sudan, the Soviet Union, North and South Korea, warning against agitations to split Nigeria”.


Fasola did not tell us what “issues of separation” these countries failed to resolve by breaking up. In all the cases, the nature of the State Apparatus as it affected the Peoples were called into question and the solution was found in breaking up. Did this translate into development of the society? Yes, for some (South Korea, Russia, parts of former Soviet Union and Yugoslavia). Sudan’s case is like the rest of Africa where the National Question, despite the Independence of South Sudan is yet to reach a conclusion.
Africa’s post-colonial experience had been one of perpetual conflict between the post-colonial State and the various Peoples anchored on the separation between the People and the State, with control and dominance of the State being dependent on the hegemony of one Nationality over the other even as this is couched in “national” terms, and this taking precedence over all other existential matters; social and cultural existentialism of the Peoples play no part in the Architecture of the State, thus making the State a “foreign” entity.
A Yoruba aphorism says one’s head cannot be shaved in his/her absence; therefore if Restructuring is not placed before the Peoples of Nigeria to decide upon in a Referendum within themselves such that a determination made by the People becomes the foundation for Restructuring, any other outcome would be a manifestation of the aphorism. And such cannot stand.

Call on Christian Association of Nigeria to champion Referendum for Self-Determination.


https://christiansforyorubanation.org/f/petition-to-christian-association-of-nigeria







Christians for Yoruba Nation (CYN) was founded as a platform for concerned Christians in general and Yoruba Christians in particular, to intervene in the attempts at redefining the concept of Nigeria and the place of Yorubaland and her people in it.

CYN is not advocating a “Christian” Yoruba Nation, for we recognize that the Yoruba Nation is a multi-religious society hence all her citizens and residents shall have the freedom of worship, more-so when the Yoruba Society has a tradition and Global reputation of religious tolerance within itself. This religious tolerance is a major aspect of Yoruba National culture and as an example of societal harmony where members of the same family practice different faiths without disruptions in family relationships.

LETTER TO CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (CAN)

1. As Nigeria lumbers through, and wobbles in the throes of her numerous crises, several suggestions as to the resolution came forth. These range from the President’s promise to reduce the cost of governance to those asking for the scrapping of either the Senate or the House of Representatives in favor of a Unicameral Legislature while others seek revisiting the Constitution of Nigeria, for a fundamental reconstruction to enable the Federating Units of Nigeria function in their proper role.

2. Preceding these new suggestions were the various “National” Conferences and Summits, the IMF debates, Political Bureau, Niki Tobi's Constitutional review, Abubakar's consultations, Obasanjo’s “Technical Review Committee”, Yar Adua’s Constitutional Review, Jonathan’s “Confab”, APC’s Committee on Restructuring with each legitimizing doubtful socio-political legacies.

3. Yet, it is obvious that Nigeria cannot continue in these endless journeys to nowhere; the discourse and current prescriptions, taken all the above into consideration, must therefore 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.

4. A peaceful and practical way towards reestablishing Nigeria as a Federation, that is, a Union between two or more entities, is for each of the Nationalities in Nigeria to organize and hold a Referendum within the Nationality/Constituent Unit as the first step, from which a Federal Constitution for a Federal Republic will emerge.

5. Christian Association of Nigeria has a major role to play in this, as the organization can initiate a dialogue with their Muslim counterparts with the aim of utilizing their combined influence to ensure the passage of the Bill for a Referendum among the various Peoples of Nigeria.

6. This Bill is to be submitted to the various Houses of Assembly in the South-West, South-East, South-South, North Central, North-East and North-West zones, where each Zone must fashion out the content of its own Bill for A Referendum based on the reality of different expectations and expressions between and within the different Zones.

7. Towards this end, and for Yorubaland/South-West, Christians for Yoruba Nation (CYN) was founded as a platform for concerned Christians in general and Yoruba Christians in particular, to intervene in the attempts at redefining the concept of Nigeria and the place of Yorubaland and her people in it.

8. In pursuing this, CYN is not advocating a “Christian” Yoruba Nation, for we recognize that the Yoruba Nation is a multi-religious society hence all her citizens and residents shall have the freedom of worship, more-so when the Yoruba Society has a tradition and Global reputation of religious tolerance within itself. This religious tolerance is a major aspect of Yoruba National culture and as an example of societal harmony where members of the same family practice different faiths without disruptions in family relationships.

9. CYN is following on the footsteps of early Yoruba Christians, like Mojoola Agbebi, James Johnson, Samuel Johnson, Ladejo Stone et al, whose pioneering efforts against colonial invasion of Yorubaland and by extension, what later became Nigeria, led to the realization of cultural nationalism as a condition for Independence.

10. For Yorubaland/South-West, the Egbe Omo Oduduwa already published a Draft Bill for a Referendum Law,(sample below) to be submitted to the Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ondo and Ekiti Houses of Assembly, through their Speakers, for appropriate action with copies to the Governors in these States as well as the Yoruba Obas, representing the Yoruba People in Kwara and Kogi States.

11. CYN endorsed and still endorses this Bill for A Referendum Law and we are asking CAN to throw its weight to its passage in the South-West, just as we would expect them to do in the other Zones.

12. This Bill of a Referendum Law is anchored on the following Annexure:

· 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 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.

Pastor Femi Afolayan, Convener, Christians for Yoruba Nation.

DRAFT BILL FOR A REFERENDUM LAW

A Law of Ekiti State House of Assembly, Ogun State House of Assembly, Osun State House of Assembly, Oyo State House of Assembly, Ondo State House of Assembly and Lagos State House of Assembly for the holding of a Referendum on the proposal to Federate Ekiti State with Ogun State, Osun State, Oyo State, Ondo State and Lagos State and constitute same into Oduduwa Region of Western Nigeria, within the Federation of Nigeria.

A: REFERENDUM ON FEDERATION OF EKITI STATE WITH OGUN STATE, OSUN STATE, OYO STATE, ONDO STATE AND LAGOS STATE AND CONSTITUTION OF SAME INTO ODUDUWA REGION IN A FEDERATION OF NIGERIA.


1. On this ——— day of —————, 2020, A Referendum shall be held in Ekiti State, Ogun State, Osun State, Oyo State, Ondo State and Lagos State of Nigeria on:

(i) Whether the Governments of Ekiti, Ogun, Osun, Oyo, Ondo and Lagos States should negotiate with each other with a view to forming a FEDERATION of STATES to be known as the ODUDUWA REGION OF WESTERN NIGERIA and (ii) whether the said REGION should negotiate with the Government of Nigeria and the remaining 30 states or any group of states that have also agreed to Federate and the administration of the Federal Capital Territory to achieve AUTONOMY/SELF-DETERMINATION for the said REGION within a Federation of Nigerian Constituent Units. (ANNEXURE)

2. The questions or propositions to be voted on in the Referendum and form of the ballot paper to be used for that purpose are to be in the form set out in the schedule herein contained.

3. Those entitled to vote in the Referendum are the persons who, on the date of the Referendum, would be entitled to vote as electors at a local government election in the electoral area/ward of the State in which they reside and/or carry out business.

4. The Governor of Each State shall appoint a Chief Electoral Officer who shall appoint an electoral officer for each Local Government Area.

5. Each Local Government Electoral Officer shall (a) Conduct the counting of votes cast in the area under his/her authority in accordance with any directions given by the Chief Electoral Officer and (b) Certify the number of ballot papers counted by him/her and the number of votes cast for each question/proposition.

6. The Chief Electoral Officer must certify:

(a) The total number of ballot papers counted for the whole of Each State and (b) the total number of votes cast for each proposition/question for the whole of the State.

7. The result of the Referendum shall constitute the entire position of the people of Ogun State, Oyo State, Osun State, Ekiti State, Ondo State and Lagos State (WESTERN/ODUDUWA REGION OF NIGERIA).

8. In the event of a YES vote on the Referendum, the Governors of each State shall appoint members into a Constitutional Council of Western/Oduduwa Region.

9. The Constitutional Council of Western/Oduduwa Region shall include not more than twelve (12) other members chosen at random throughout the Region and four (4) members from Kwara and Kogi States.

10.The 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.

B: The short title of this Law is “Referendum Law of Ekiti State, Ondo State, Osun State, Oyo State, Ogun State and Lagos State”.

SCHEDULE

FORM OF BALLOT PAPER: Ekiti State House of Assembly, Ondo State House of Assembly, Osun State House of Assembly, Oyo State House of Assembly, Ogun State House of Assembly and Lagos State House of Assembly, have decided to consult the People of Each State On this ——— day of —————, 2020, on the proposal to Federate the Government of Ogun State, the Government of Osun State, the Government of Oyo State, the Government of Ekiti State, the Government of Ondo State and the Government of Lagos State with a view to constituting a REGION of Western Nigeria within a Federation of Nigeria.

THUMBPRINT in the box containing: (YES)

1. I AGREE that the Governments of Ekiti State, Ondo State, Oyo State, Osun State, Ogun State and Lagos State should negotiate with each other with a view to forming a FEDERATION of STATES to be known as the ODUDUWA REGION OF WESTERN NIGERIA which shall negotiate with the Yoruba persons in Kwara and Kogi States, whether they want to be part of the ODUDUWA REGION or not; shall further negotiate with the Government of Nigeria and the remaining 30 states and the administration of the Federal Capital Territory to achieve AUTONOMY/SELF-DETERMINATION for the said REGION within a Federation of Nigeria.

OR

(NO)

2. I DO NOT AGREE that the Governments of Ekiti State, Ondo State, Oyo State, Osun State, Ogun State and Lagos State should negotiate with each other with a view to forming a FEDERATION of STATES to be known as the ODUDUWA REGION OF WESTERN NIGERIA which shall negotiate with the Yoruba in Kwara and Kogi States as to whether they want to be part of the ODUDUWA REGION or not, and further negotiate with the Government of Nigeria and the remaining 30 states and the administration of the Federal Capital Territory to achieve [b]AUTONOMY/SELF-DETERMINATION [/b]for the said REGION within a Federation of Nigeria.

Contrary to the Central Government’s assertion of “revolution” as the forcible overthrow of a Government, and in this instance, linked with the demand by the Global Coalition for Security and Democracy in Nigeria’s street protests, a forcible overthrow may or may not have anything to do with “revolution”, for the overthrow may be for the self-preservation of an existing regime(as recently happened in the Sudan) or a form of neutralizing an internal or external threat to the regime without addressing any existential issues in the society (as happened in Zimbabwe).
From Nigeria’s experience, there had been many instances where forcible overthrow of an existing Government had occurred and in no instance were any deemed to be revolutionary; from the January 15, 1966 forcible change of government, even as the principal actors deemed themselves “revolutionary” to the July 1966 counter-coup and in all of the successive military coups since then.
Ascribing its 2019 electoral victory to a preference for electoralism on the part of the Peoples of Nigeria does not vitiate the need for street protests in pursuit of certain demands, as expressed by the Coalition, more-so when such demands did not constitute part of the Administration’s electoral projections.
Therefore, neither the use of force nor electoralism, by themselves, constitute a revolutionary act nor a recognition of the demands of the Peoples and the Administration cannot thereby call a dog a bad name in order to hang it.
This reductionism to a choice between forcible or electoral change of government is not only a disservice to the expectations of a People, but also an attempt at diverting attention from the contradictions embedded in the Nigerian State formation of which the current president, Muhammadu Buhari , is a major beneficiary, not only as a result of his 2019 electoral victory, but more importantly, his being an active participant in all of the forcible overthrow of Nigeria’s government since 1966; such that even when he was overthrown in 1985, by 1993, he ended up as one of the most trusted allies of Sanni Abacha’s military establishment.
Yet, street protests are a legitimate part of any form of social struggles, be it under a military regime, as we witnessed during “June 12” or under civilian dispensations, as had taken place at different times; for example, as expressed under the banner of “Save Nigeria Group”. If these protests ended up with a change of government, it can only mean that the government of the day was unable to address the contradictions that gave rise to the protests in the first instance and which does not make those street protests a “revolution”.
Electoral victories or street protests do not necessarily translate into an interrogation of the social relations in the society, but pursuing only a change of policy, as now being demanded by the Coalition or change of government, as experienced by the current government in 2015, and which Nigeria has witnessed since 1999, where the various electoral victories did not touch the foundational structure of the Post-colonial Nigerian State and its perversion of Federalism, the form of State that accompanied Independence; rather, what we have witnessed are various attempts at strengthening the aberration under the cover of electoral victories.
Therefore, for the Central Government to ask the Global Coalition for Security and Democracy in Nigeria to adhere to the electoral process as a means of changing Governments only shows that the Administration’s differences with the Coalition are not about substance but of form; a question of methodology and not a fundamental critique of the society that will translate into a direct change in social and political relations; meaning both the Administration and the Coalition are on the same page, moving towards the same destination but by different routes.
Why then should the same Administration characterize its own route as “democratic” and the Coalition as “treasonable”?
The answer could only be found in the historical role of the Nigerian post-colonial State, charged with ensuring sustenance of the colonial imperative, which is also the raison d’etre of any agitation for revolutionary change—regardless of methodology; more-so when either methodology(electoralism or street protests), by itself, does not guarantee an interrogation of existing social relations.
The “Winds of Change” that blew across Africa, leading to the “Independence” of many colonial creations, created conditions for social and political revolution in terms of the coming into being of hitherto suppressed Peoples of Africa and balkanized into separate post-colonial states.
These expectations were suppressed by the Post-Colonial State apparatus, especially through the colonial military, whose mindset was not different from that of the colonizer. The Nigerian Armed Forces, from its foundation as the Hausa Constabulary Force transitioning into a West African Volunteer Force, functioned as a colonial stabilizing force, trained to subjugate the “natives,” suppress the Peoples and relate with them as a conquered specie. This was why the "Nigerian Army" never batted an eyelid when sent on such errands as very many examples in Nigeria show.
Yet, these also created the platform for a fundamental critique of the colonial paradigm, hence the various conflicts across the continent being tied to the existential control and/or influence or lack thereof, of the Peoples on the post-colonial State, as had also been the real experience in Nigeria, and subsequently the imposition of all sorts of military-inspired Unitarist and Homogenizing Constitutions on the country, which is what the problem is, in Nigeria today, despite the Administration’s claim to electoral or “democratic” sanctity.
Sustenance of the post-colonial State, in its “pure” form of suppressing the Peoples became this military’s own imperative; this type of military cannot possibly be transformed into its opposite, the anti-thesis of colonialism unless its original intent is abolished such that it becomes a creation borne out of the “soul”, the essence of the society and which can only come from “within” the ethos of the Nation/People/Nationality, an essential ingredient absent in the Nigerian post-colonial state.
An extension of consequences of this anomaly is the current crisis of the Nigerian Post-Colonial State pitting the Coalition and the Administration against each other and expressed in the denial of the expectations of the Peoples in and of themselves.
Both failed to interrogate the contradictions of the Nigerian Post-colonial State since none of the aspirations of the Peoples, in terms of their becoming, consequent upon Independence, were placed before the electorate by the victorious Administration and are not even on the list of demands provided by the Coalition.
The Administration cannot claim to represent the interest of most of the Peoples, despite its electoral victory, because of this denial of the Peoples of Nigeria as the Constituents by virtue of the military-inspired Constitution on which its electoral victory rests; just as the Amendments to the Constitution of the United States in favor of the African American Community and various electoral successes by various political parties did not obviate the electoral or street protest agitation for Civil Rights by African-Americans.
Whatever level the Administration aspires to, and whatever slogans the Coalition embodies, the reality is that a historical precedent for recognizing the Peoples as the Constituent, exists,—the Regional form of Government at Independence---and all references to any form of development in Nigeria always point to this historical precedent, despite the limitations of that period---- and the spirited attempts by the military to replace and destroy it is the foundation for the current crisis.
Proceeding from the precedent is the context of its necessary implication for the present, since the crisis simultaneously engenders the forces necessary for the solution, to wit, the negation of the denial of the Peoples and which forces of actualization are the Nationalities/Peoples that make up the country; the reaffirmation of their existential imperatives being the solution to the crisis of State.
This is why Egbe Omo Oduduwa proposed the Yoruba Referendum as the route towards addressing these existential issues of the Peoples, anchored on the Annexure to the Bill for a Referendum, which states as follows:

A Federal Nigeria, through a Federal Constitution, to be known as The Union of Nigerian Constituent Nationalities, with aPa 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 rliamentary 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 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 [i]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. [/i]

The[b] Referendum[/b] will simultaneously reaffirm the Nationality as the Constituent as well as address social, political and economic issues pertinent to the development of the Nation-State.


Shenge Rahman Akanbi; Femi Odedeyi,
for and on behalf of Egbe Omo Oduduwa

e-mail: egbeomooduduwa1945@gmail.com

http://thepathfinderinternational.com/2018/12/09/christians-for-yoruba-nation-cyn-response-to-president-buhari/





President Muhammadu Buhari’s opinion article on politico-religious issues in Nigeria published in “churchtimes.co.uk” on November 30, 2018 asking that Religion should not be politicized in Nigeria, did not provide a template for peaceful co-existence between Muslims and Christians; rather, it merely established the use of religion by the president to serve his own political purposes, hence a disservice to not only Christians and Muslims but also the generality of the Peoples of Nigeria who may not adhere to either faith.

Christians for Yoruba Nation, a platform for concerned Christians in general and Yoruba Christians in particular, to intervene in the attempts at redefining the concept of Nigeria and the place of Yorubaland and her people in it, categorically takes issues with president Buhari’s out-of-context quotations of the Bible in his bid to be politically correct.

We must correct the President’s assertion that Samuel Ajayi Crowther “came with the first Bibles translated into Yoruba and Hausa languages”. This was not so as Ajayi Crowther translated the Bible only after his arrival.

If, as president Buhari claims, he believes in “peace, tolerance, and reconciliation; in the institution of the family, the sanctity of marriage, and the honor of fidelity; in hope, compassion, and divine revelation”, he must know that these things are impossible without Justice.

Thus, when he asked Muslims and Christians to turn to one another in compassion, quoting Amos 3:3, “Do two walk together, unless they have agreed to meet?”, he failed to situate compassion within Justice; for compassion is meaningless without Justice and the Peoples of Nigeria, regardless of their faith, are already denied Justice by their forcible alienation and separation from their existential expectations, with president Buhari in the forefront of foreclosing any attempt at reviving these imperatives. These Nationalities have been made to veer away from their God-given Identities, which will place them squarely within the context of Israel’s iniquities, God’s fundamental complaint.

Amos 3:3 was a direct question to the Nation of Israel whose iniquities derived from their deviation from God’s way. In other words, can God and Israel walk together unless they are agreed? And how can they agree when Israel had already turned away from God? Thus, begging the question as to the standard for “walking together”: God or Man?

Every aspect of human life requires some form of “walking together”, and this is neither about Muslims and Christians nor about two Christians or any two persons even as it may be applicable to any circumstance of two. For Amos 3:3 to apply, the standard for walking together is God; the standard remains today, for God created us with our Identities and expects us to relate with Him as such.

God is interested in Nations, not simply in countries(which could be made up of many Nations) and which, in today’s expression, would be known as the “National Question”; as seen, among others, in His promise to Abram, Genesis 12:2 “I will make you a great nation”; similarly at Pentecost, Acts 2:5-12 “devout men from every nation under heaven ..heard them speak in his own Language” and Revelation 7:9, where a “great multitude ..of all nations, tribes, peoples and tongues…”

The Nigerian Post-colonial State was created by Man, directly aimed at negating our Identities, and substituting man for God through various forms of homogenization aided by proclamations, even by some Christian leaders, as to Nigeria being “created by God”, a sentiment once shared by the president, thus making Nigeria’s case worse than that of Israel. Rejecting this man-made notion is at the core of the demands to Restructure Nigeria along Ethno-National geo-political lines which the president opposes.

Attempting to justify his notion of unity, he referenced Luke 9:50: “forbid him not, for he that is not against us is for us” concluding by saying that is the path for followers of the two great religions. Jesus Christ took this position because HE stood as the standard, those who used His name to cast out demons could only do so; they can neither usurp nor substitute themselves for Him or His name; hence it was permissible.

On the contrary, everything about the Nigerian Post-colonial State is about negating the standard that God has set for the Nations/Peoples of Nigeria. Luke 9:50 is therefore applicable in two ways; those for or against Restructuring, where those desirous of it, despite their different and differing ideological or philosophical and indeed religious beliefs are demanding a Referendum among all the Nationalities, having arrived at a common denominator.; and those opposed are using all the tricks they can muster to deny it; the way out being the Referendum among the Peoples as to where they belong thus making a reality of Luke 9:50; that is, recognition of the “other”, more so when it is not inimical to one’s well-being but their own self-expression.

Meanwhile, Yorubaland had been known to be religiously tolerant, with adherents of different faiths often found within the same family and which had produced numerous studies into how this became possible and continuous. Furthermore, this religious tolerance is applicable on the socio-political level where non-Yoruba people were and still are welcomed into the society such that many non-Yoruba became assimilated into Yoruba society, not by force but by mutual interest.

But the Yoruba have become a victim of the homogenization attempt, first by the British imperial calculus of ensuring northern political domination and followed by the military of which president Buhari played a prominent part, such that everything about Yoruba Renaissance which had begun in the Western Region became neutralized through the Unitarization of Nigeria such that even our language is on the verge of extinction, save the efforts by countries with historical connections to the Yoruba like Brazil ensuring the study of the Language in the primary and secondary schools as well as the efforts of the Lagos state Government to institutionalize the Language, circumscribed by the fact that social and educational policies of the Yoruba Region are not under their control but dictated by and from the center.

To make matters worse, president Buhari tried to justify the enablement of herdsmen terrorism by the Nigerian post-colonial state with another Biblical reference, this time, Mark 8:18 which he quoted as: “Having eyes, do you not see and having ears do you not hear”

This passage was taken out of context in order to justify a political stance anchored on what he says are his administration’s achievements in tackling terrorism; for Jesus Christ categorically asked His disciples why a material lack could becloud their judgment such that their previous experience with material provisions did not play a part in their understanding of the issues at hand.

What then are today’s issues against the backdrop of our previous experience that will warrant this passage? He says his cabinet is evenly split between Muslims and Christians as if that is the issue— after all, it was a Christian president who allowed Sharia law in some parts of the North in violation of the Constitution and continued to violate the Constitution at will throughout his tenure.

Besides, since the military advent into the political leadership and control of the country, all cabinets have been composed of individuals of both faiths, regardless of which was in the majority, with the Presidency and Vice presidency often rotated between the two faiths as a matter of course.

Despite the current Vice president being Yoruba and a Pastor, the Nigerian post-colonial state aided and abetted Fulani herdsmen terrorism, with all manner of excuses and justifications; victims are routinely prosecuted by the State; herdsmen unilaterally and violently challenge Laws against open grazing, sometimes issuing ultimatums to state governments without being called to order by their leadership, of which president Buhari was one, as a patron; our safety made dependent on acquiescing to forcible take-over of our lands, all of which the president now wants to attribute to climate change.

When a “degraded” Boko Haram is dangled as a categorical achievement, he forgot his earlier admonition to the civilian force which had successfully engaged and defeated Boko Haram and whose request for support fell on deaf ears, claiming, at the time, that Boko Haram cannot be fought with sticks, yet with all the machinery at his Administration’s disposal, we are supposed to be content with their being “degraded” when it had been shown that a different security architecture anchored on the will of the Nationalities is the way to Boko Haram’s defeat.

Contrary to all these was the Pre-1966 experience, a categorical example of how a Multi-Ethnic, Multi-Cultural and Multi-Lingual society can be organized in harmony. Colonial UK was forced to accede to the Federalist Structure, later truncated by the military, ostensibly to combat corruption, which the same military had been combatting ever since and which the Buhari Administration calls one of its major objectives and continues to peddle.

Furthermore, his Administration turns a blind eye to the emergence of Scottish Independence movement and the methodologies of addressing it. Yet, in the Nigeria created by the UK, it is either a denial of its necessity or the criminalization of its advocacy, which ultimately points to how we, as Peoples of Nigeria, have been made to separate ourselves from our God-given Identities and recreated in the image of another, despite this “other” re-inventing itself.

All of his Administration’s efforts are geared towards further centralization and homogenization of Nigeria, to wit: centralization of water resources, central control of local governments, central government funding of cattle ranches all over the country despite the Fulani claims of cultural economy; all of which make the retention of the Architecture of the centralized and Unitarist Nigerian Post-colonial state, the bottom line, contrary to all the Scripture he quoted.

Therefore, referencing the passage must determine whether we knew all these things or not, and whether our capacity to grasp God’s will for our Nations is influenced by an understanding of what God had established in our history.

President Buhari once claimed to be ignorant of what is meant by Restructuring; yet all advocates are agreed on its basic principles which now allow for different exhibition of their ideological imperatives, much like the First Republic which saw to the emergence of the Regions with their different ideological systems, where the attempt to impose one over the other led to the crisis of the Nigerian post-colonial state which is still with the country till date.

The CYN, therefore, wants to once again tell the world about our endorsement of the Yoruba Manifesto, and the Draft Bill for A Referendum Law in Yorubaland, in fulfillment of the quoted and unquoted Scripture, among others; just as another Christian Group, the Northern Christian Elders Forum wants to draw up a Charter of Agreement for all the presidential candidates to sign and implement.

The ball is now in the president’s court.



Pastor Goke Afolayan,

Convener, Christians for Yoruba Nation.

e-mail: christiansforyorubanation@gmail.com

website: www.christiansforyorubanation.org

http://thepathfinderinternational.com/2018/12/09/egbe-omo-oduduwa-letter-to-ayo-fayose-et-al/



Cc: Olagunsoye Oyinlola, Gbenga Daniel, Jimi Agbaje, Seyi Makinde, Buruji Kashamu, Hosea Agboola, Eddy Olafeso







Your presence at the Ibadan rally for your Party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, on Thursday, December 6, 2018, mandates this letter. At the rally, Atiku Abubakar declared that “we will, within 6 months, start the process of restructuring of this country”; and further, that he “headed the best economic team in Nigeria between 1999 and 2003”; a period he described as being of positive economic value to Nigeria.
It must be noted that he was also the Vice President from 2003 to 2007, during which time it will be presumed that he did not head the then economic team. This being the case, it must be obvious that this would be due to the changes in the then political calculus which foreclosed any possibility of his heading the team. This also means that the economy, by itself, is not the problem with Nigeria, but the politics of it, hence the question of Nigeria as a political economy, which directly translates into the question of Restructuring.
Restructuring calls into question the nature of the post-colonial State as it affects the Peoples of Nigeria. Africa’s post-colonial experience had been one of perpetual conflict between the post-colonial State and the various Peoples anchored on the separation between the People and the State, with control and dominance of the State being dependent on the hegemony of one Nationality over the other even as this is couched in “national” terms, and this taking precedence over all other existential matters; social and cultural existentialism of the Peoples play no part in the Architecture of the State, thus making the State a “foreign” entity.
We must reiterate the fact that Restructuring is a by-word for True Federalism, itself being a Union or Federation based on the Peoples; a union of two or more entities, reflecting a relationship between the “national” (center) and the “sub-national” (Regional) entities. Indeed, every Union or Federation in the world is based on a Union of Peoples which may now be administered either as states (as in the US), Regions as in Germany or Emirates as in UAE. For a Federation or Union to exist, therefore, the Peoples inhabiting a geographical space must make that decision.
We are all witnesses to previous attempts at Restructuring; where each administration followed the footsteps of its predecessors by making Restructuring conditional upon completion of electoral cycle. Nigeria had been going this route since 1999, where an incumbent government or any aspirant will promise to Restructure as a route to electoral victory.
Need we remind ourselves what such promises via “public debates” or “Conferences” have done to our body politic in legitimizing doubtful socio-political legacies – IMF debates, Political Bureau, Niki Tobi’s Constitutional review, Abubakar’s consultations, Obasanjo’s “Technical Review Committee”; Yar Adua’s Constitutional Review, Jonathan’s “Confab”; APC’s Committee on Restructuring; yet none of these yielded the desired degree of Autonomy for Nationalities/Regions making up Nigeria. In each of these, it was a case of working to the answer.
The question to you all, therefore, is how Atiku Abubakar’s process of Restructuring will be different from the previous promises. We do not expect any response in any personal capacity. You all are not only high-ranking officials of the PDP, but some of you are also aspirants to the office of the Governor in Lagos, Oyo and Ogun States, while some were former and current officials of the Party at the national and “zonal” levels. Therefore, your response must be recognized as reflecting the official position from the Party and its Presidential candidate.
We agree with the Yoruba truism that says one’s head cannot be shaved in his/her absence. Even if it is assumed that all Atiku Abubakar’s advisers on Restructuring are Yoruba, it will still amount to shaving our heads in our absence if we do not know exactly what your party and candidate mean by Restructuring, and if this meaning is not placed before the Yoruba people to decide upon in a Referendum within Yorubaland such that a determination could be made by the People between what you offer and what had been our aspirations, which becomes the foundation for Restructuring.
You may ask why a Referendum when there is a National Assembly through whom the Restructuring will proceed via Constitutional Amendment. Asking us to look forward to some legislation or Constitutional Amendment from the National Assembly towards Restructuring will be waving a flag at the problem; for, the current Constitution is the problem that must be resolved.
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, for, these states may or may not share similar existential prerogatives with others, hence asking one to determine the course of the other jeopardizes their existence. The discourse on and advocacy for the Restructuring of Nigeria must therefore be put within the context of the Peoples to assert their right to Self-determination and the various Houses of Assembly can organize the Referendums in their states, even before the presidential elections
This Referendum cannot be made subject to your candidate’s coming to power; for, restricting it to an individual prerogative will be akin to denying the reestablishment of the Peoples’ ownership of the apparatus of their own governance; the need for a Referendum on Restructuring does not depend on any individual, but a collective aspiration of the People which your Party would have subscribed to if it agrees with the Referendum, regardless of success or failure of your presidential candidate.
Yes, individuals have roles to play in history, and have indeed played such roles, but then only in circumstances where the general, collective aspiration is yet to be concretized and ascertained hence the individual may become the catalyst. Once the threshold of societal pursuit is reached, as it had been for the Yoruba in the quest for Restructuring in Nigeria, such pursuit can no longer become dependent on the individual, who can then function only in tandem with other individuals in the quest.
Having attained this threshold in Yorubaland, Egbe Omo Oduduwa condensed the age-long expectations of the Yoruba into this Yoruba Manifesto, aspects of which are produced below, as the foundation for Restructuring, and which we expect your Party and candidate to subscribe to, in its entirety or, in the alternative, present the Yoruba People with Atiku Abubakar’s notion of Restructuring. The Referendum will become the ground for acceptability or otherwise of either option.

What We Want:

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.
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 AUTONOMOUSNation 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 .
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.
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.
The Judicial power of the Region shall be vested in the Region’s 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.
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.

Shenge Rahman, Femi Odedeyi, for and on behalf of Egbe Omo Oduduwa

e-mail: egbeomooduduwa1945@gmail.com

ENDORSEMENT:

Christians for Yoruba Nation

Convener: Pastor Goke Afolayan

www.christiansforyorubanation.org

e-mail: christiansforyorubanation@gmail.com