Chief Obafemi Awolowo, in interrogating the colonial creation of Nigeria as a “Nation-State” stated as follows: “if rapid political progress is to be made in Nigeria, it is high time we were realistic in tackling its Constitutional problems. Nigeria is not a nation. It is a mere geographical expression. There are no “Nigerians” in the same sense as there are “English”, “Welsh”, or “French”. The word “Nigerian” is merely a distinctive appellation to distinguish those who live within the boundaries of Nigeria from those who do not.”
The imposition of the Nation-State paradigm was the hallmark of the independence era, where, in Nigeria, all attempts had been geared to make a “Nigerian” out of every nationality or culture and which has succeeded in creating a state of permanent conflict. It is even worse in other parts of Africa, for example, the Democratic Republic of the Congo with its endless violence and currently ongoing in the internal war in Ethiopia between Federalist and Unitarist forces.
This does not mean, however, that each Nationality must necessarily establish its own Nation-State, as the “Yoruba Nation Now” agitators are demanding; for the history of the African peoples mandates a transcendence of the Nation-State paradigm. That is the import of Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s observation.
It is written:
“Nevertheless, the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said, “No, but we will have a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.” (1 Samuel 8: 19-20).
Pursuing a “Yoruba Nation-State” is akin to saying that “we also may be like all the nations”, and all the examples being cited by “Yoruba Nation Now” are, for the most part, the Nation-States of Europe, whose control, and domination of Africa placed us where we are today. Following their example will certainly get us nowhere.
God is mindful of history, hence His constant reminder to the people of Israel as to their historical roots and journeys by which they were to exercise the choices to be made.
Nigeria (and Africa), as the product of this European Nation-State paradigm, is caught in the vortex of underdevelopment occasioned largely by this historical and contemporary relationship with the Western (modern) Nation States of Europe, mandating Christians (the Church) in Nigeria to play a pivotal role in charting the pathway for a resolution, just as the Church did in Europe within their own context.
In the self-proclaimed “democracy” of this Nigerian Nation-State, the People supposedly “renders unto Caesar” by determining the fortunes or misfortunes of those exercising authority, have a say in how taxes are spent, power administered, through their civic responsibility by voting in the elections, by which the People are to exercise their moral and political authority to determine the administration of Public Finances; but denied, by the nature of the State utilizing its authority to administer public finance.
Thereby negating the symbiotic relationship between the Church and the State, in so far as the Church comprises people who are also voters of those in power, whether they are members of the Church or not, and who exercise the authority of the State, on their behalf, ostensibly for their own good.
The People, in and out of the Church, have become objects, tossed to and fro by every wind of power and authority, military or civilian, mandating the Church to reexamine itself, whether it is “Rendering unto God, the things of God”, that is, the restoration of their God-given Identities, where the administration of the State is returned to the authority of the people by which the people will have life more abundant.
It is written:
“To everything, there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven: A time to break down, and a time to build up” Ecclesiastes 3: 1,3b
To breakdown:
It is written:
“Babylon is fallen, is fallen! And all the carved images of her gods He has broken to the ground” (Isaiah 21:9)
For Nigeria, what are these carved images? They are the “the mace, the coat of arms, the official seal and symbol of the power of Nigeria’s Presidency and the flag” representing the Unitarist Structure of the Nigerian Nation-State, forged after the European Nation-State without recognizing Nigeria’s Multi-National, Multi-Lingual, and Multi-Cultural composition, the very reason for the emergence of several European Nation-States from the Holy Roman Empire.
Breaking the carved images to the ground is to redesign or replace them with others anchored on the Nationalities to fully represent Nigeria in her Nationality Diversity and from which the development of their God-given talents will manifest part of which the Western Region experienced as her “Golden Era”.
How is this coming about?
It is written:
Isaiah 59:19: “So shall they fear The name of the LORD from the west, And His glory from the rising of the sun; When the enemy comes in like a flood, The Spirit of the LORD will lift up a standard against him”. (Isaiah 59:19)
There is no doubt that the enemy has indeed come in like a flood, both in Yorubaland and Nigeria in general. The standard lifted up by the Spirit of the Lord is a Referendum by the various Peoples of Nigeria, to establish the basis for co-existence among the various Nations in Nigeria as well as setting a template for the RE-FORMATION of the Nigerian State Apparatus into a Multi-National State, for the light of the various hitherto suppressed Nations to shine, and the “darkness” of underdevelopment will not comprehend it —which is why the Tigray struggle in Ethiopia is very crucial to Africa’s future. And “Yoruba Nation Now” should take a cue from that.
A Yoruba President for the Nigerian Nation-State is immaterial, in this period, and under the present circumstances; for not only was there a Yoruba President between 1999 and 2007, without making a dent on the underdevelopment of the country, but the template for continuous Unitarization of the country was also formalized, and this, resulting from the compromises that had to be made as a precondition for assuming power.
Compromises with a foundation on the false Census figures engineered by the Colonial State and now reinforced by the Post-Colonial, Nation-State and which ultimately determines the function and purpose of the presidency; more so when the electoral system is already skewed in favor of the Unitarist, homogenizing forces from the North.
Moreover, there is nothing new under the sun that had not been previously advocated and not being currently presented as to the development of the Nigerian political economy; yet underdevelopment remains a constant for the Post-Colonial, Nation-State. By which we know that the problem is not in the Nationality of the occupier of the Presidency but in its foundation from which methodologies of development must arise.
A “Yoruba President”, a “Nigerian President of Yoruba extraction”, to have any meaning, must be chosen by the Yoruba People, and reserves the right to determine his/her relevance to the process of development of the Peoples of the country; and this, resulting from the historical and existential paradigms of the Yoruba People, thereby making the Presidency a collaboration between the Peoples, the manifestation of social and cultural realities on social and economic development thereby making these the “building blocks” of the new State, the new Multi-National State.
(To be continued).
© Wale Odeku, December 18, 2021
Website: https://solomonoluwabiyi.com
Email: viewpoint@solomonoluwabiyi.com
