₦airaland Forum

Urgent tasks for S/west leaders and governments Since the brutal attack by Fulani cattle herders on one of the most important fathers of the Yoruba nation, Chief Olu Falae, most Yoruba people have been, at last, waking up to a realization of the dangers that threaten their Yoruba nation in Nigeria. The signs of the shock, and the growing anger and outrage, are spreading in all directions among Yoruba people. A Yoruba leaders’ summit meeting even threatened secession from Nigeria on account of the incident – although many other Yoruba have denounced that threat, rightly insisting that, for a large and prestigious nation like the Yoruba, talk of secession ought to be over much more substantial and structural issues, and ought to be arrived at through very thorough considerations. Virtually all Yoruba are agreed, however, that the attack on Chief Falae represents a warning alarm to all Yoruba people and their leaders to brace themselves for the protection of their nation, and their nation’s interests and integrity, in Nigeria. When different nationalities, each living in its own homeland, different in culture and religion, are forced together into one country, dark forces of rivalry, envy, fear, ill-will, hatred, and primitive ambitions by some to dominate or even eliminate others, can sometimes be generated in the hearts of some of the nationalities against others. That is what happened in Yugoslavia, producing the horror of genocidal brutalities when that country disintegrated in the early 1990s. It has happened in many Black African countries too. It is the duty of the leaders of each nationality to ensure protection for their people in such a setting. Signs of these dark forces are strong in Nigeria. Some nationalities harbour ambitions to dominate others or even to dominate all. Some nations are trying to seize the homelands of the smaller nations. Some nations disrespect and try to destroy the traditional farming economy of other peoples. Some nationalities compulsively behave in unruly and disruptive ways in the homelands of others. Some try to use violence to force their brand of religion on others. If Nigeria is to be able to live down these fault-lines and become a stable and prosperous country, then Nigeria would need to be much better structured, and much better governed, than has been the case since independence. Also, much will depend on how much Nigerian nationalities respect one another. Those who migrate to other peoples’ homelands and choose to be disrespectful of their hosts, and to indulge in aggressive and unruly claims and behaviour against their hosts, and those who seek to dominate others or to destroy the economies of others, must know that they are essentially making Nigeria impossible to hold together. But also, very importantly, the leaders and rulers of each Nigerian nationality owe the duty of ensuring that inter-ethnic relationships in their own homeland shall develop in an orderly and healthy manner. For instance, nearly all Nigerians relocating from their ethnic homelands today are heading to the Yoruba South-west. Already, the coming of many of them is disorderly and unhealthy, and manifestly brewing conflict and confusion. Yoruba leaders, and Yoruba state governments, are doing little or nothing to respond to this growing crisis in their homeland. They are thus preparing the ground for big trouble in the Yoruba homeland – since it is impossible that the masses of common Yoruba people will forever tolerate being insulted and trampled underfoot, and having their means of livelihood destroyed, by immigrants from other parts of Nigeria. No matter how much Yoruba political leaders may be committed to Nigeria, the masses of Yoruba people are likely to react someday to these provocations. Hospitality to strangers is a well-establishe d icon of Yoruba culture. Moreover, welcoming people from other lands is something that can add greatly to prosperity in Yorubaland over time. However, the large- scale immigration into Yorubaland today creates many serious problems – problems that Yoruba people, Yoruba leaders, and especially Yoruba state governors and legislatures need to find answers to. Yoruba leaders should establish some modicum of unity in their own ranks, at least for the purpose of facing these serious problems together. The six governments of the Yoruba South-west should put heads together to find and implement answers to these problems. The problems are many and complex, but they are soluble if seriously confronted. The leading problem is that the Yoruba South- west is not generating enough economic development, and enough jobs, for its burgeoning population of indigenes and immigrants. Among the Yoruba people themselves, in spite of their solid education, enough businesses are not emerging – largely because the governments are not guiding their people to develop a modern entrepreneurial culture. As a result, most educated Yoruba youths are unemployed, and most of the immigrants are unemployed too. Huge numbers of the immigrants, and many of the Yoruba youths, take to petty peddling of merchandise on the streets, which is a classic example of “under- employme nt”. The state governments must arise to this situation. The governments must create programmes of human development – improved basic education, job-skills education, entrepreneurial development and promotion, small business promotion, modern farmers’ programmes, and well- managed micro-credit systems, for all (indigenes and immigrants alike). The objective must be to achieve the purpose of the old Yoruba adage – “that the owners of the home and the strangers in the home may all have plenty to eat”. Another problem is the serious shortage of shopping centres in Yoruba towns. The old marketplaces are still offering great service, but more modern shopping centres and malls are urgently needed. Also needed are proper licensing of traders and stores, introduction of sales taxes, proper urban zoning, and proper control and management of street peddling. Laws should also be made to prohibit the existence of exclusive “tribal” marketplaces or shopping centres, so that all marketplaces and shopping centres shall be the common property of the community, equally open to all. Serious provisions also need to be made for the proper enforcement of law in business competition in Yorubaland, as well as for the prohibition of ethnic-based, or other, monopoly or cartel practices – including illegal or violent acts aimed at eliminating business rivals. Yet another problem is that, though Nigeria’s laws vest the management of the land of every state in the state government, most Yoruba states have evolved no land policies and no clear land transfer systems, and the states that have evolved such laws are not properly enforcing them. Therefore, land acquisitions and land transfers are occurring on a massively chaotic scale in all parts of the Yoruba South-west – obviously threatening the interests of indigenes and immigrants alike. The state governments need to deal urgently with these matters. Moreover, it is time to eliminate cattle herding in the Yoruba South-west, and the dangers that it brings to Yoruba farmers and urban dwellers alike. There is really no place for unrestrained cattle herding in a country like Yorubaland where there are cities and towns at short distances from one another all over, and where most of the rural folks live on peasant farming. The answer, undoubtedly, is that the Yoruba state governments should speedily promote modern cattle ranching in the Yoruba grasslands in the northern parts of most Yoruba states, encourage and assist Yoruba people to become ranchers there, and establish modern abattoirs for the slaughter and distribution of beef. All of these will discourage and ultimately eliminate unrestrained cattle rearing. In short, the impression must be eliminated that the Yoruba homeland is a “no-man’s- land” , a land without rules or order or leadership, where people from other parts of Nigeria can come and do as they wish. The Yoruba people can, and must, change all that – for their own good, and for the good of all residents in Yorubaland. THE NATION

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glimpse33:
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No! Sandwich

I once thought tribalism was an exclusive preserve of the uneducated. Now, the so called "enlightened" are blithely partaking in it.