By ALOBA JOSEPH OLUSEGUN
“Will the principal bunch of the Yorubas who actively contributed to “cripple” Nigeria check out of Africa altogether, undergo a DNA patch or go through a deliverance service? …If we can not compete and excel in Nigeria, retreating into an Oduduwa of acrimonies will be an unmitigated disaster. We must stay within and fight for a better Nigeria.”
We need answers to some serious questions before some disgruntled and perhaps misguided people, who have done no serious research, stampede and railroad us headlong in to a Republic of irreconcilable contradictions! We must develop a deep sense of history and relativity.
1) Will the Yoruba subcultural and unhealthy rivalries, i.e , ijebu vs egba, ekiti vs Ibadan etc come to an end with Oduduwa creation?
2) Will the principal bunch of the Yorubas who actively contributed to “cripple” Nigeria check out of Africa altogether, undergo a DNA patch or go through a deliverance service?
3) What method will Oduduwa use to extricate self from Nigeria?
4) Can Federal assets and LIABILITIES ever be shared, peacefully, equitably and without rancour?
5) Where is the master plan or the economic blueprint or the mass industrialization agenda of the new Republic? How shall we do it better and do it much faster than Nigeria?
6) Will the Yoruba subcultures, ekiti, egba, ijebu etc not evolve in to new competing, antagonistic pseudo nationalities, at each other’s throats, when traditional yoruba – hausa – ibo rivalries recede?
7) Where will Oduduwa take off grant come from?
8)In what instances had Nigeria or her constitution been the stumbling block to Yoruba interest and progress and if so, in what ways?
9) Have yorubas and Nigerians not collectively rejected good leadership having forced an aspiring leader to sell his property and borrow heavily before we would approve that he leads us? Will this change in the new Republic?
10) On hindsight have you by now realized we, perhaps, need Nigeria much more than she needs us?
11) Have we imagined what negative effects our opting out will have on our immediate neighbours north and east respectively and are there plans designed to deal with them?
12) Have you not visualized that approximately half of our national budget will be spent on arms procurement? Oduduwa would create a theater of War? We shall be fighting on several fronts for fifty (50) years, perhaps?
13) Will the North West allow Ilorin to go without a fight?
14) Who will lend us money year in year out to finance our deficit budget?
15) How will the ibos be kept at arm’s length since Southeast can not accomodate the returning ibos? The ibos will naturally expand at others’ expense and shall we remain neutral?
16) How will Oduduwa Republic handle Kwara, Kogi, Edo and Delta (Itshekiri)?
17) Have you imagined we might have been playing to the digital script of a multitude of international conspirators who had never wished us well, those that want Nigeria disintegrated at all costs? A fox that hearkens to the distress call of a rabbit has not rushed in to help? It has come to take a strategic advantage!
18) Is any nation ideal in terms of man getting nearer to understanding man? Plato that nursed a notion and actually started an “ideal” Republic but ended up as a slave! America recently survived her most unbelievable and trying turmoil in 200 years!
19) Have you projected that in the proposed Republic Bibles and Koran will be published in Oyo, ekiti, ijebu, ijesha etc versions of Yoruba and treated as distinct languages?
20) The probability of ekiti or ijebu etc , after the honeymoon is over, to try and opt out of the Union is real , citing marginalization and desire for self determination?
21) Is every affront, disagreement, misunderstanding worth a war? Is severing the the head the only solution to curing headache? We must remember there are imperfections anywhere you turn?
22) Are we prepared to sacrifice Saturday, work longer hours for less pay? Do we have the revolutionary favour to sustain the struggle?
23) Will the administrative structure be unitary or federal, parliamentary or presidential? What stopgap solution is proposed when the monthly allocations suddenly stop? We have been lazy, dormant and gone into hibernation for 60 years!
24) Have we realized that ordinary people on the Street, after one week of hunger, will turn on the leaders and one another?
25) Have we evaluated our individual lapses contributing to lack of confidence in Nigeria? Will our attitude get better in the new Republic?
26) Can you imagine the rest of the world is talking of the 4th industrial revolution and we are thinking of separation and wars?
27) Are the small countries of Africa competitive and success stories. For example, Benin, Togo, Sierra Leone, Gambia, Liberia etc are right offs.
28) Had there ever once been a Yoruba nation, all i remember are wars and slave trade? Yoruba sold more slaves than all the slaves from Angola to Senegal. Did 200,000 strong Yoruba Army come to the rescue of Ijebu at Magbon on May 12, 1892 where a mere 400 strong British expeditionary force wiped out 8,000 strong Ijebu army in 5 hours, the war had ended before noon!
29) Did other Nigerians other than Yoruba kill the Odua Investments?
30) Seriously, is something genetically wrong with the African brain? Are we the missing link between the homosapiens and the Apes?
If we are related in thought and ideas, we shall always meet (Frederick Engels)
We must learn the difference between a smart person and a wise one? There is no road around pain but suffering is optional and Volataire had been right: those that believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.
Education is not a name of any degree or certificate that can be shown as proof. Education is the name of our attitude, actions, languages, and behaviours with others and our environment in real life.
If we can not compete and excel in Nigeria, retreating into an Oduduwa of acrimonies will be an unmitigated disaster. We must stay within and fight for a better Nigeria.
I have said my own!
Comrade Aloba, Joseph Olusegun.
18 March 2021
