FEATURE ARTICLE

Saturday, September 5, 2020
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Arizona, USA
THE COMPLEX STRUCTURE OF YORUBA IN NIGERIA'S GEOPOLITICAL PROBLEMS! (YORUBA MUST GO BACK TO THE BASICS)

"Please, can anyone honestly give us ONE Nigerian politician that can morally pass a simple test on corruption?" -Yahaya Balogun

have some reservations about the clamor for the disintegration of the current false unification and shaky constituents called Nigeria. Nigeria is a marriage of convenience! The current Mutual-Assured-Destruction (MAD) is not by happenstance! What Nigeria needs now is real restructuring to address the grievances of its components. Is President Buhari or the stakeholders in the Nigerian project are ready for this inevitable and unavoidable event? Postponing the evil or good day will not solve Nigeria's intractable problems. But the pertinent question is: who will do the restructuring? The premise of this article is on Yoruba and its place in the geopolitical structure of Nigeria. Yoruba is a cultural and geopolitical axis endowed with good lands and human capital.

Yoruba regional escapism premises in our stereotyped exposition and the ego of superiority complex (the most educated region in Nigeria's geopolitical structures). In a nutshell, it is nerve-wracking to see that Yoruba leaders have always encouraged the government at the top to put the round pegs in square holes. Yoruba's misplaced articulation and vibrancy are its shortcomings. Yoruba is a codified structure in the Nigerian moral and political nomenclature.

Meanwhile, how we decode and fine-tune the Yoruba regional placement in the Nigerian complex structure should be our collective conversation now. It is no longer news to see the contentious roles of Vice President Yemi Osibajo and Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the dilemma of Yoruba constituent in the Nigerian nation. Yor�b� Ron�. Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Vice President Yemi Osibajo, and among honest other Yoruba leaders, remain the prominent leaders to lead and wake the slumbering Yoruba youths. Henceforth, Yoruba must stop being pedestrian in its conversation and disposition towards a wobbling and beleaguered Nigeria.

Undoubtedly, the Yoruba region is very vibrant and accommodating but lacks the will and unity to transform its abode, except Lagos. Kudos to Bola Ahmed Tinubu-BAT. Tinubu's controversial political acumen is Yoruba's socioeconomic and political advantage. But the current Yoruba stakeholders have misplaced and misappropriation of priorities. W�n fi �p� s�l�, w�n npa l�p�l�p�. They are more into selfish politics than the synchro-system of the idealism of good governance. The Yoruba stakeholders don't leverage on our strength to imagine a great region. The late sage Awolowo's political gifts to his political scions have been misplaced and jettisoned for political profits and expediency.

Despite Tinubu's political baggage, Senator Bola Tinubu seems one of the remnant scions of the lost political estate left by Chief Obafemi Awolowo. I wasn't taken seriously, sometimes ago, when I wrote about the ethnicized Amotekun security outfit that was dead on arrival. The security outfit was initially a good idea, but the infiltration of its good motives by the geopolitical and ethnic bigots botched its offshoot and potential potency to emancipate the Yoruba enclaves.

The moment I read and listened to once-upon-a-time-ruffian Gani Adams insulting Bola Ahmed Tinubu, my sense of anger was triggered and incensed. I had to discontinuance the affront coming from a man whose credentials can only merit the nation's obnoxious cadre power and contradictions. In an abnormal society, people like unlettered Gani Adams can only thrive at the detriment of the lettered individuals in a region with an abundant fountain of knowledge.

Yoruba is at a vantage point to be a moral compass to other regions in terms of leadership in our geopolitics. The smart organizational structure of Amotekun would have sent a strong message to the shoddy and comatose corrupt Federal government of Nigeria. Still, the disuniting take-off of Ametekun is failing its strand. It is advisable for the honest Yoruba elders and stakeholders in Ametekun to redraw their counterinsurgency plans. The redrawing of the Amotekun devoids of political agenda will deter the re-insurgency of the Fulani's hegemony in the power dominance and geopolitical structure of Nigeria.

In reality, even if we restructure to address our deep division and age-long grievances in Nigeria, corruption is still the bane of Nigeria's growth and development. CORRUPTION is the common bond (friend and enemy) that cord all Nigerians together (in politics and religion). When a typical Nigerian doesn't benefit from corruption, corruption becomes corruption. But when regular Nigerian benefits from corruption, he or she sees corruption as an invincible miasma to be cleaned by the nonexistent or inefficient government. There is an element of Babangida in all Nigerians. Please, can you honestly give us ONE Nigerian politician that can morally pass a simple test on corruption? Each region has its geoeconomic endowments; as a result of Almighty CORRUPTION, every geopolitical region in Nigeria has failed woefully to annex its resources for the common good of their people. Diversity is a great strength anywhere, and Nigeria diversity is not her strength but her grotesque (burden) encumbrance.

The Nigerian government has failed its citizens in all areas, including food and security. We all remember when Abacha said, "any terrorism that lasts more than 24 hours, the government knows about it." Isn't this statement profoundly disturbing if juxtaposed with the past and current administrations? Every individual reading this piece should be able to interpret or process the truthful information hidden in the dark-goggled-evil general's connotation or exposition. From every evil shall good be inadvertently pronounced, and the message from the evil genius must be filtered; not the personality of the messenger of evil.

The more we look in Nigeria, the less we see. I have prescribed the late sage Obafemi Awolowo's and Late Professor Chinua Achebe's geopolitical and economic prescriptions in my various articles to solving mundane Nigerian problems. Until we get our (eliminate corruption) ordinance right and follow the laws, we will continue to lament as concerned citizens, writers, and commentators of our contrived and beleaguered Nigeria!

Nigeria is a pseudo-superstructure and "mere geographical expression" built on mutual suspicion and destruction. The Nigerian independence of 1960 was a contrived celebration of the fake union and mutual enmity of future Nigeria. Nigerian union was a marriage of convenience for easy administrative purposes. The British colonial masters succeeded in bringing Nigeria together without addressing the inevitable miasma of corruption, and future tribal differences. It onus on the stakeholders in Nigeria to restructure a fake and (�j�j�) unidentified union.

In reality, until we come together to have an honest national conversation on how to divorce or reunite for good, the current and future political adventures in Nigeria will be a mirage and exercise in futility. We should stop apportioning mosaic or archaic blame to the doorsteps of the brutish British and their colonial masters. Nigeria is currently under neocolonialism bondage.

In conclusion, the Yoruba nation is expeditiously not impossible, but Yoruba's roles in re-shaping this contrived Nigeria is more than crucial now. Yoruba's indigenous people (like Awo) were more strategic in administration than any other region in the polity of Nigeria. "Res ipsa loquitur," meaning: "the thing (fact) speaks for itself)." Yoruba must go back to the basics. With the help of the Yoruba stakeholders, Nigeria must severe and emancipate itself from the evil of neocolonialism. It is more than half of a century that Nigeria got her independence. It is shameful to note that we are still preparing to crawl to literal utopia or the promised land. It isn't only shady but very concerning! It is pertinent to note that Nigeria is not a jinxed nation; the stakeholders selfishly dwelling in Nigerian troubled cocoon are the jinxed elements.

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