By Taiwo Adisa
Let me start by telling the Niger Delta militant, Mujahidin Asari Dokubo that his vituperations against the Yoruba ethnic group in his reaction to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s decision to scrap the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs and replace the same with the Ministry of Regional Affairs, was not only off-key but a misplaced or call it hasty generalisation that is a crime against reason. In Dokubo’s reaction, he heaped the blame of Tinubu’s cancellation of the Niger Delta Ministry on the Yoruba, claiming that “Yoruba are traitors.” That’s an outlandish statement the Yoruba will not take from anyone by whatever name called. But it is also a statement borne out of sheer ignorance. Tinubu’s decisions as president of Nigeria cannot, in any way aggregate the opinions of the Yoruba people, home and in the diaspora. Maybe Dokubo does not know that millions of Yoruba are not even Nigerians. One will need to mention some countries where Yoruba people are found as indigenes. Such countries include the Benin Republic, Togo, Trinidad, Cuba, Saint Lucia, Brazil, Guyana, Haiti, and Jamaica. His conclusion is an insult that must be retracted because it amounts to heaping insults on the sensibilities of millions of Yoruba people who know nothing about his allegation. And besides, how does an action by Tinubu, as Nigeria’s president, translate to a decision by the Yoruba ethnic stock. In Yorubaland, as our elders have since affirmed, we do not sleep and place our heads in the same direction.
As much as I know, Tinubu is a Nigerian politician who happens to have a Yoruba origin. He contested for the Nigerian Presidency just like former Vice President Atiku Abubakar of the Fulani ethnic stock and Mr. Peter Obi, who is of the Igbo ethnic group in the South-East. Tinubu was supported by some Yoruba voters, while some voted against him. Of the six Yoruba states, Tinubu won four and lost in two, including Lagos State, which he has superintended politically since 1999. The Yoruba were fair in their assessment of the 2023 political track and you could see top nationals like Chief Ayo Adebanjo, and former President Olusegun Obasanjo championing the cause of Peter Obi. Dokubo believed in Tinubu, so he said and decided to empty his bank accounts working for his presidency. If his friend has thus offended him by refusing to reflate the depleted purse, that should not be blamed on the Yoruba. It could be best viewed as one of the typical betrayals that litter the political scene. Let him straighten his issues with his estranged friend and blame not the Yoruba.
In case Dokubo Asari is in doubt about the true character of the Yoruba, let him read the statement released on Friday by the Pan-Yoruba Socio-political Organisation, Afenifere led by Chief Ayo Adebanjo. The statement is titled, “Afenifere: Tinubu doings not in Afenifere nor Yoruba name!” It reads in part: “Afenifere has clear cut principles of being Social Democrats and not autocratic leaders, economic welfarists, not neo-liberal economists, so what President Tinubu government is doing politically and economically is not in the name and support of Afenifere and Yoruba people. By virtue of our name, Afenifere, meaning those that want good for all humans, and as Omoluabi Yorubas, we won’t support any government that engages in undemocratic practices. Nor would we support a government whose first year pushed over 14 million people into poverty with anti-people policies.
“President Tinubu is no stranger to Afenifere, but having backed him into power in 1999, and witnessed his 24-year precedents in Lagos, it would have been wicked and morally irresponsible to support him into power as President. This was why the true Afenifere supported Peter Obi and was in charge of his presidential campaign headed by Akin Osuntokun, an Afenifere chieftain. Peter Obi’s greatest supporters were Baba (Ayo) Adebanjo, Afenifere Leader and Ex-President (Olusegun) Obasanjo, so it will be morally disingenuous to hold Yorubas accountable for the unravelling unforced errors of President Tinubu.”
I do not mean the above as a disclaimer on Tinubu since he is undeniably from the Yoruba ethnic stock. He even displayed his Yorubaness on June 12, 2024, during the year’s Democracy Day celebration, when he claimed he did “Idobale for democracy” after that famous fall at Eagle Square. Idobale (prostrating) is highly regarded as a mark of respect to the elders among the Yoruba. Though the same elders would say “idobale kii se iwa” ( knowing how to prostrate is not the only signal of good character), the act is still well revered as a show of respect. I can recall how as young adults, I and my friends used idobale to effectively disarm some strict fathers who would not want young men around their daughters. The usually difficult father would gladly call out his daughter to come and attend to ‘these Omoluabis’ after we had bamboozled him with flat-out idobale! So, Tinubu must be reenacting his steepness in Yoruba culture by capturing his fall with that euphemism, as a show of respect for the nation’s democracy.
Thus, whether he had the full backing of the Yorubas in Nigeria while seeking the exalted office or not, Tinubu must rule the country with an eye for the Yoruba of today and tomorrow. In their previous forays in the Nigerian political public space, Yoruba sons have left indelible marks that stand the people of that region out as not only good administrators but people with a good sense of planning. The pre-independence and immediate post-independence exploits of the Action Group (AG) led by Chief Obafemi Awolowo stood the Yoruba out as pacesetters, with the Western Region leading in every aspect of human capital development and infrastructure. The region launched the first television station in Africa, ahead of many European countries of today, and paid wages far above the national minimum wage.
Though the military’s game of thrones would not necessarily throw up a Yoruba son, until fate landed power in the lap of General Olusegun Obasanjo, a Yoruba from Ogun State, his tour of duty coincided with the exemplary decision of a military ruler to voluntarily hand over power to civilian authorities. When Obasanjo returned to power as a civilian in 1999, he equally left huge benefits by paying off the nation’s huge debt overhang and delivering infrastructure that remains standing today. Though many expected more from an Obasanjo who was barely saved from the jaw of death in General Sani Abacha’s gulag, his administration still attained heights all his successors have been struggling to attain.
Now that it is Tinubu’s turn to carry the Yoruba banner in the leadership echelons of Nigeria, what a Yoruba person like me and many in the diaspora want is for him to better the scores of Obasanjo and make us proud. He needs to show once again that the late Ikemba Nnewi, Chief Odimegwu Ojukwu did not tag Chief Awolowo “the best president Nigeria never had,” for fun.
As I conclude this, the words in that famous television advert by Peak Milk, Papillo, kept ringing in my head. Papillo’s mother in the advert had said: “Papillo, I know say, one day, you go make us proud.” The prayer of the Yoruba is that Tinubu, having been elected Nigeria’s President, would make us (and Nigerians at large) proud.