My dear Asiwaju,
I am compelled to write this open letter to you because of the state
of affairs of the Yoruba nation. Firstly, I wish to acknowledge that
fate has put you in a prime position to determine to a large extent
the direction that the Yoruba people will go. The indisputable truth
is that one may quarrel with your politics but your sagacity is never
in doubt. Even those who don’t see eye to eye with you agree that you
are imbued with unusual native intelligence, uncommon people skills
and unrivaled foresight. You, more than any other person, has been the
game changer since the advent of democracy in 1999. It is for these
reasons that I have chosen to direct this letter to you.
My singular purpose is to tug at the strings of your heart. I am not
writing to appeal to partisan considerations but to see, if per
chance, I can pour out my heart to you in a manner of speaking. God
has blessed you even beyond your wildest imagination. You have
installed Senators and Governors. You have removed Governors and even
a President. You have also installed a President. There is nothing you
have wished for or desired that you didn’t get. Fortune has smiled on
you. Goodwill follows you everywhere you go. You have done very well-
more than most men ever will. However, there is one area that is
begging for your urgent attention. This area may well define you and
all you have ever achieved. This matter, in my opinion, is the only
difference between you and the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo. Let
me restate for the purpose of emphasis that this is the area in which
the late sage and Leader of the Yorubas stand head and shoulders above
you. It is the reason his name has been a constant denominator in our
regional and national politics. It is the reason politicians, friends
and foes invoke his name for political advantage and personal glory.
It is also the reason why we can’t stop talking about him almost
thirty years after his death. What will anyone say about you thirty
years after you have transited?
Asiwaju Sir, you may be wondering what I’m talking about? It is the
issue of legacy. According to Peter Strople, ‘Legacy is not leaving
something for people, it is leaving something in people’. Legacy is
building something that outlives you. Legacy is greater than currency.
In the words of Leonard Sweet, ‘ What you do is your history. What you
set in motion is your legacy’. You can’t live forever, Sir. No one
can. But you can create something that will. Enough of speaking in
parables- I shall now speak plainly.
When destiny brought you on the scene, we were enamoured because you
championed the case for true federalism. It was your belief then that
the Yoruba nation will fare better under a restructured arrangement
than under the type of unitary government we run while pretending by
calling it a federal government. Everyone knows that there is nothing
federal about our government at all. If truth must be told, the Yoruba
nation has fared very badly since the advent of our new democracy. And
this is not about holding power at the centre.
Let me bring this home: someone passed a comment recently that he
would want Biafra to become a reality because he knows the Igbo nation
will survive. That comment led me to deeper introspection as I
wondered if the Yorubas can truly survive. Let me cite my first
example. From Oyo to Osun, Ogun to Ondo, Ekiti to Kwara and Lagos,
hardly will one see any serious industry or manufacturing concern
owned by a Yoruba person. I am not talking about portfolio businesses
or one-man business concerns. Most industries in Oyo State are owned
by the Lebanese. The native business and industry gurus who dominated
the landscape- Nathaniel Idowu, Amos Adegoke, Lekan Salami, Alao
Arisekola, Adeola Odutola, Jimoh Odutola, Chief Theophilus Adediran
Oni and others- are all gone with no credible replacements. I’m sure
you remember the tyre factory of the Odutolas and how Jimoh Odutola
was even asked by the Governments of Kenya and Ghana to set up a
similar factory in their countries. Chief Theophilus Adediran Oni,
popularly called T.A Oni & Sons started the first indigenous
construction company in Nigeria. He willed his residence- Goodwill
House, to the Oyo/Western state government, to be used as a Paediatric
Hospital, which is now known as T.A Oni Memorial Children Hospital at
Ring Road in Ibadan. This sprawling family Estate and residence was
cited on a 15acre piece of land, 65 rooms, with modern conveniences,
Olympic Swimming Pool and stable for Horses, etc.
People like Chief Bode Akindele started companies like Standard
Breweries and Dr Pepper Soft drink factory at Alomaja in Ibadan.
Broking House built by the late Femi Johnson, an insurance magnate,
still stands glittering in the mid-day sun as an epitome to a rich
history that Ibadan has. The most serious and only notable Yoruba
entrepreneur we have now is Michael Adenuga. I say this quite
consciously because most of the other names are oil and gas barons.
Most of what stood as testaments of industry in Oyo State are gone-
Exide Batteries, Leyland Autos and many others. In its place are
shopping malls and road side markets but no nation develops through
buying and selling alone- especially when you’re not actually
producing what you’re selling. Hypermarkets and supermarkets have
taken over because of the need to feed our insatiable
consumer-appetite and foreign tastes. In one instance, an ancient
landmark in the form of a hotel was demolished to pave way for a mall.
That is how low we have sunk. If our past is better than our present-
if we always look back with nostalgia frequently, then there is a
problem.
The case of other states is not different. Osun’s case is pathetic.
Ditto for Ondo and Ekiti. Ogun State can boast of some factories at
Sango-Otta and Agbara axis but most of them are not owned by the
Yorubas. There is no significant pharmaceutical company owned by any
Yoruba except for Bond Chemicals in Awe, Oyo State- and its wallet
share is very insignificant. For Lagos State, more than 70% of the
manufacturing concerns and major industries in the State are owned by
the Igbos. If the Igbos were to stop paying tax in Lagos State, the
IGR of Lagos State will reduce by over 60%. In contrast, Sir, go to
the South East and look at the manufacturing concerns in Onitsha, Aba
and Nnewi. Please don’t forget those were areas ravaged by civil war a
mere forty something years ago. The Igbos have certainly made
tremendous progress but the Yoruba nation has regressed. I wish to
state that this letter is not meant to whip up primordial
considerations or ethnic sentiments but just to put things in proper
perspective.
Asiwaju, I will like to also talk about the state of education in the
Yoruba nation. Our education has gone to the dogs. We have a bunch of
mis-educated and ill-educated young men and women roaming the streets.
Ibadan, for instance, had the first University in Nigeria and the
first set of research centres in Nigeria ( The Forestry Research
Institute, the Cocoa Research Institute (CRIN), The Nigerian Cereal
Research Institute Moor Plantation (NCRI), the NIHORT (Nigerian
Institute of Horticultural Research), the NISER (Nigerian Institute of
Social and Economic Research), IAR&T (Institute of Agriculture,
Research and Training), amongst several others). Ibadan was the
bastion of scholarship with people like Wole Soyinka, JP Clark, D.O
Fagunwa and Amos Tutuola as residents. In the May/June 2015 West
African Senior Secondary Certificate Examination, Abia came tops.
Anambra came 2nd while Edo was 3rd. Lagos placed 6th while Osun and
Oyo was 29th and 26th. Ekiti was 11th, Ondo State was 13th and Ogun
State was 19th. In 2013 WASSCE, only Lagos and Ogun States were the
Yoruba States above the national average. If we do an analysis of how
Lagos placed 6th in 2015, you will discover that it was substantially
because of other nationalities resident in Lagos. For proof, please
look no further than the winners of the Spelling Bee competition which
has produced One-Day Governors in Lagos State. Since inception in
2001, other nationalities have won the competition six times (Ebuka
Anisiobi in 2001, Ovuwhore Etiti in 2002, Abundance Ikechukwu in 2006,
Daniel Osunbor in 2008, Akpakpan Iniodu Jones in 2011 and Lilian
Ogbuefi in 2012). Sir, there is something seriously wrong about our
state of education. From the vintage times of Obafemi Awolowo who
initiated ‘free education’, we have regressed into a most parlous
state.
Let me talk about roads, housing and infrastructure . The first
dualized road in Nigeria, the Queen Elizabeth road from Mokola to
Agodi in Ibadan was formally commissioned by Queen Elizabeth in 1956.
The first Housing Estate in Nigeria is Bodija Housing Estate (also in
Ibadan) which was built in 1958. The state of roads in the Yoruba
nation has become pathetic. Our hinterland are still largely rural.
Even some state capitals like Osogbo and Ado-Ekiti are big villages
when you compare them to towns in the South East. How many new estates
have been built over the last decade? Even Ajoda New Town lies in
ruins.
We have abandoned the farm settlement strategy of the Western Region
and only pay lip service to agriculture. Instead of feeding others
like we once did, others now feed us. We plant no tomatoes, no pepper
and the basic food that we require. The Indians have bought the large
expanse of water body that we have in Onigambari village. The water
body in Oke Ogun of Oyo State can provide enough fish to feed the
whole of the South West. From being a major cocoa exporter many years
ago, one can point to just a few vestiges of factories that still deal
with Cocoa in the Yoruba nation. 80% of Cocoa processing industries in
the South West have been shut down. The Chinese have taken over the
cashew belt at Ogbomoso in Oyo State. They have even edged out the
indigenes as brokers. They now come to the cashew belt to buy from the
local farmers, sell on the spot to other Chinese exporters who now
process the cashew nuts and import them back into Nigeria at a
premium. Sir, there are only 7 major cashew processing plants in
Nigeria and you can check out the ownership. The glory has departed
from the Yoruba nation.
Apart from Asejire, Ede, Ikere Gorge and Oyan dams built ages ago,
where are the new dams to cater for increased population and water
capacity for the Yoruba nation? How have we improved on what our
heroes past left us? Maybe apart from certain areas in Lagos State,
others can’t even supply their citizens with pipe-borne water.
Our youth which we used to take pride in are largely a mass of
unemployed and unemployable people. Have you noticed the abundance of
street urchins, area boys, touts and ‘agberos’ that we now have all
across the Yoruba nation? Have you noticed the swell in the ranks of
NURTW (I mean no disrespect to an otherwise noble union)? Have you
noticed the increase in the number of Yoruba beggars? There was a time
that it was taboo for a Yoruba man to beg- but no more. The spirit of
apprenticeship is dead. There was a time that people who learn
vocational skills celebrate what we referred to as ‘freedom’. While
that is largely moribund now in the Yoruba nation, the Igbos still
practice it with great success.
The only thing we can boldly say the Yoruba nation controls is the
information machinery- the press. We own largely the newspapers- the
Nation, Punch, Nigerian Tribune, TV Continental and a few others. It
is because of our control of this information machinery that we have
rewritten the narrative in the country with the misguided self-belief
that things are normal and we are making progress. A look beyond the
surface will prove that this is so untrue.
We are largely divided. For the first time in the history of the
Yoruba nation, religion is about to divide us further- and it is
starting from Osun State. You are married to a Christian. My own
father-in-law is an Alhaji. That is how we have peacefully do-existed
but the fabrics are about to be torn to shreds because of poor
management of issues. Afenifere has been reduced to a shadow of
itself. OPC that once defended Yoruba interests has gone into
oblivion. Yoruba elders have been vilified in the name of politics and
partisanship. It is no longer news to see teenagers throwing stones at
their elders because of their political indoctrination. Even under the
late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the Yorubas never belonged to just a
single party- yet our unity was without blemish. Now, our values have
gone down the drain.
Asiwaju, I believe I have said enough. The task is Herculean but I
believe Providence has brought you here for such a time like this. It
is time for the Yoruba nation to clean up its acts. What do we really
want? How can we quickly right the wrongs? The Yoruba nation is in a
state of arrested development. The Yoruba nation is gasping for breath
and crying for help. Will you rise up to the occasion? I am aware you
understand that all politics is local and charity begins at home. Our
fathers gave us a proverb: ‘Bi o’ode o dun, bi igbe ni’gboro ri’. I
know there are no quick fixes but I also know that if there is anyone
who has the capacity to do something about our current situation, that
person is you. This should be the legacy you should think of. Your
legacy is our future.
Yours Very Sincerely,
General Adebayo Adeyinka
Iyin-Ekiti
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