Those who think the Yoruba will upturn the applecart of the President Bola Tinubu-led administration seem not to know the Yoruba very well. The Yoruba do not indulge mediocrity, not even from their own.
The Yoruba won’t pamper any wayward President, no matter the region he comes from. Not after witnessing the erosion of the existential gains of the progressive credentials of Obafemi Awolowo and Ladoke Akintola, the first and second premiers of Western Nigeria, through the fumbling of successive national leaders.
Isaac Ighure, a friend and former Executive Director (Editorial Operations/Editor-in-Chief/Marketing) and General Secretary, Nigeria Guild of Editors, says, “A just mind tells the truth to all, friends & foes alike, there’s no selective telling – regardless of whose ox is gored – and not minding what he/she stands to gain/lose materially or financially.”
By the way, the Yoruba, alongside other groups of Nigerians, are waiting, with bated breath, for what will be the verdict of Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, on the performance of the government of President Tinubu.
Prof. Soyinka and President Tinubu were together in the trenches with others in the struggle for the actualisation of the mandate of Bashorun MKO Abiola, the man presumed to have won the presidential election of June 12, 1993.
Before the colonial masters came, the Yoruba compelled erring obas to abdicate, or even commit suicide in extreme cases. During the First and Second Republics, only the Yoruba disciplined their erring leaders through satirical songs and stage plays, riots, arson and even murder!
The Yoruba helped to uphold Nigeria’s democratic credentials when the likes of Abike Dabiri-Erewa of the House of Representatives of the 4th National Assembly, joined Senate President Ken Nnamani to frustrate former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s third-term bid.
Evidence of the profound success of the concerted shooting down of the plan is that no one else has dared to moot such a reprehensible idea. It is safe to assume that whoever has had that thought chose to perish it because he knows that the Yoruba will not stand for it.
The revered, probably venerable, Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba S.K. Adetona, had no reservations in telling off former President Obasanjo, a fellow indigene of Ogun State, for failure to deliver adequate and regular electricity supply to the nation after eight long years.
Be not in doubt that the Awujale is capable of letting President Tinubu know what he thinks if he fails to live up to the expectation, even though they may be friends and belong to the same Yoruba race.
A former Military Governor of Ondo State, Commodore Olabode George (retd.), has been a thorn in the flesh of both presidential candidate and now President Tinubu, though both are indigenes of Lagos Island.
However, it is arguable if he still has any animus against President Tinubu after the equivalent of Lagos City Fathers paid him a courtesy visit after the conclusion of the 2023 presidential election. At least, his rhetoric of relocating to Ghana, or anywhere else, has died down.
This brings to mind the argument that the average Yoruba is likely to be excited that a Yoruba is the President of Nigeria. But that is not to say that the Yoruba will accommodate mediocrity even from one of their own, the same way they won’t accept it from Presidents from other regions.
But then, the Yoruba will resist any attempt to ethnicise criticism against any President, whether or not he is one of their own. Maybe you’ve read about a northern traditional ruler who says he cannot, or won’t, rein in his subjects if they choose to be violent against a non-northern President.
You may have already read about another traditional ruler, whose subjects were caught hoarding foodstuffs from other residents of his kingdom, passing insults through the First Lady to the President.
Despite his medieval, lackadaisical ruling style, skewing of appointment of security chiefs to favour only the North, ineffectual economic policies and indulgence of herders, said to be foreign Fulani, who were raiding farms and killing farmers in near-holocaust proportions in the Middle Belt and Southern Nigeria, no Southern Nigerian traditional ruler sent sly threats or insults to President Buhari.
Did you also notice that Northern traditional rulers that were concerned when sanctions were placed on coup plotters in the Sahel region of ECOWAS, failed to commiserate with the families of Gulf of Guinea Yoruba obas who were shot and killed by marauders? That is how much the Sahel blood is thicker than the Gulf of Guinea water.
Recall also, that despite being a sitting Governor, Samuel Ortom was chased out of his private farm by marauders that he believed were Fulani militia, he hardly got assistance from President Buhari, except perhaps a politically correct platitude.
Prof Usman Yusuf, whose tenure at the National Health Insurance Scheme “gets as it be,” is wondering why the Igbo of South-East have deigned to join in the “ebi npa wa,” “we are starving” sing-song because of the rising cost of foodstuffs occasioned by President Muhammadu Buhari who actually removed fuel subsidy ahead of the swearing-in of President Tinubu.
Prof. Usman’s “ajegbodo,” (let him research the meaning of that Yoruba phrase), is looking for co-travellers on a pull-him-down-at-all-cost mission to scatter the eggs of the hen that threw away his medication.
Sometimes, some individuals are so embittered about the way they lost their exalted public offices that they are prepared to bring down the house on everyone. Sometimes they assume hard lines to scare those who are in a position to sanction their perfidy.
At yet other times, they raise fire and brimstone against those who have the power to dispense sinecures. Dr Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, former Director of Publicity of Northern Elders Forum, who wouldn’t let anyone rest not too long ago, is now quietly nestled within Tinubu’s Presidency.
Now, those who insist on ethnicising what should be the concern of all Nigerians should be aware that subtle threats of sectional insurrection (or even coup) may lead to the dismemberment of the country.
They are not the only ones who are frustrated with the failure of the Nigerian State, whose failure to deliver good governance and the good life to its citizens, is exceedingly scary. How can citizens of a nation with so many resources be wallowing in so much poverty?
It is no longer fashionable for any group of Nigerians to use the military to seize political and economic power for the advantage of their people only. Every group in Nigeria should subject themselves to the rules of the game of democracy and stop acting like spoilt brats.
One may need to point out that out of 16 individuals who have had the opportunity to (mis)rule Nigeria, only five, namely, Major General JTU Aguiyi-Ironsi, General (later President) Obasanjo, Ernest Shonekan, Jonathan and Tinubu, are from the South. All the others have been from the North.
If you add up the number of years that southerners have been Chief Executive of Nigeria, it is less than 20 years out of the 64 years after independence, if you discount the four years that Tafawa Balewa was Chief Minister in the closing years of colonial rule.
Anyway, President Tinubu, find a righteous, efficient, effective and swift way to deliver good governance to Nigeria.
- X: @lekansote1, lekansote.com
