“If the elements of the past reappear in the present, the future can (easily) be predicted.” – Abdullahi Saidu Wasagu
In legal parlance, it is generally opined that he who comes to equity must come with clean hands. The “Yoruba summit” at Ibadan is a facade of convergence of looters, the confluence of remnants of People’s Democratic Party, and the unsuspecting respected Yoruba elders. They’re trying to cover their past shenanigans and political deceit. We will no longer be hoodwinked by their antics. Responsible Yoruba people should see the pseudo summit as a paradigm shift in the organic problems in Yoruba land. You cannot give what you don’t have. These people cannot give us more of the same. Meanwhile, has anyone noticed that, even the present educated ones in Nigeria are quick to forget the ugly past? They repeat the same mistakes of the past at present, and also roll or rap them into the future! Is it a generational curse that need to be exorcised or broken? Or are these political jobbers motivated by their want of immediacy; or are they motivated to preserve their age-long loot? These are moral questions that need moral answers from morally upright Yoruba people.
The whole system in Nigeria is smelling of corruption and deceit. 2019 general election is around the corner, dummies are being sold again to the unsuspecting people. The political dummies are being sold like indomies, and people are voraciously buying them with nauseating alacrity! Haba! Why is our history full of repetition? We understand the benign intentions of the respected elders at the summit, but these elders are swimming in the ‘oozified’ and polluted water of Nigerian politics. In their twilight age, they shouldn’t be dining with the known devils with short spoons. They need to wash themselves of the stench and individuals who are being ostracized by society. Are you telling me the good ones are not yet born in the Yoruba enclave?
I have strong concerned for the men of integrity at the concocted Ibadan summit. These respected Yoruba elders who attended the summit are people of high integrity and honor. Their invitation to Ibadan summit is like inviting men of honor to feast with Lawrence Anini or Evans, the Kidnapper in the summit organized to embellish and embrace their past. What is the difference between pen robbers and armed robbers? The multiplier effects of both crimes only wreck havoc on the populace! It is ludicrous for these elders to have toyed with their revered image in the comity of rogue politicians who have no shame.
The Yoruba race is known for calling a spade a spade. We inherited this nuance from our ace and icon of inspiration, Chief Obafemi Awolowo. Awo will be consciously uncomfortable in his revered grave now to see these jesters messing with his sacred legacy at the Ibadan summit. The images of the kind of persons we saw at the jamboree summit in spite of the substance of their diction or fictions make the summit obnoxious, null and void in the eyes of people of integrity and honor!
As aptly suggested, this questionable characters should be prevented from further partaking in genuine discursive events that define our future. This should be our collective decision. Anything short of this is like dressing ourselves up in borrowed robes to attend the (Owambe) party of the past. When you bring unaccountable individuals to make decisions for you in time of crucial decision-making, you must be ready to face the outcome of their decision. We should be cognisant of the fact that, men are not what you think they are, they are what they hide!
As aptly espoused by a US based Ekitiman Busola Akerele, we should do away with deceitful individuals who parade themselves as Yoruba leaders; who chose them? Who approved their leadership? We must be thorough in the decisions we make concerning the collective agenda of the Yoruba race. He who has corruption charge(s) must be silenced to the back seat until they come clean.
Some people are comfortable with these men’s summit. My people’s opinions are premised on the substance of the attendant cacophony; this is the usual escape opinion or excuse that always provides an escape route for these children of corruption. If we are to prosper as a nation, we shouldn’t be providing an escape route for corrupt individuals. How we forget the ugly past quickly is unfathomable! Any nation that forgets to use its past at present to shape its future is doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past. We are again threading the famished road to the past. It must be avoided!
After restructuring, what next? Restructuring of Nigeria without the corrupt input of corrupt individuals will only be a true restructuring! Nigeria must be serious with background checks. Corruption in Nigeria can only be cured by incorruptible minds. By the way, who nominated these clowns as the representations of the Yoruba to their “Ajekun Iya ni o je” summit. A preconceived pseudo “Yoruba Summit” to reorganize on how to preserve their loot and hedonism. These people can only be relevant in a raped wasteland like Nigeria.
Meanwhile, my savvy friend Afolabi Babatunde offered a suggestion on social media as regards the summit; he espoused that, we should not throw away the baby with the bath water. This is an archaic proverb for the information age. (Owe aiye atijo niyen o!!!) In this day and age, if the water is dirty, remove the baby from the dirty bath water, throw away the dirty water, or consign the dirty water to the latrine of history; then wash the baby with clean water and give the baby to the mother, the rightful owner. The baby would be sought after by beautiful minds in the household.
In a nutshell, No matter how juicy the substance of their recent ill-conceived Ibadan summit might seem, the presence of these men of yesterday makes their coagulation at the Ibadan summit so obnoxious, null and void to some of us! We should be careful what we wish for! As Khojo Obinna Nwaeze succinctly put: “There is no true federalism in Canada and America. What they have is federalism and their federalism is not similar in structure. No two countries have similar structure of federalism. The much talk (of restructuring) in Nigeria today is not borne out of nationalism but a new path to a greedy means for a few.”
Moreover, Nigeria of today is gradually detaching herself from Nigeria of yesterday. We will get to the promised land with determination, resilience and optimism. We have vowed that our last collective journey to the past was the kleptomanaic administration of Goodluck Jonathan. We are not going back to the past. We have seen the promised land and a brighter future ahead of Nigeria where everyone will beneficiary of its dividends, not for the selected few.
It is heartwarming now that responsible Yoruba youths are waking up to their values and responsibilities to counter these men of yesterday. You don’t easily get a pod out of the shell of a palm kernel, you need smart strategy and unfettered consistency. Our elders who are supposed to be our role models have been sold to the devils of Nigerian politics. It is sad, but we the youth must not sleep for the sake of our children’s future. My unsuspecting countrymen and women, especially the Yoruba should be advised not to be hoodwinked by the hanky panky of these men of yesterday. The children of corruption are not sincerely interested in taking us to the dated 1952 regional system of government nurtured by erudite Chief Obafemi Awolowo, but they are subsumed and impassioned to returning us to their immediate past.
