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,
By Bayo Adeyinka
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/06/open-letter-asiwaju-bola-ahmed-tinubu/
cc lalasticlala mynd44