RE THE NEW YORUBA OLIGARCHY

RE: THE NEW YORUBA OLIGARCHY

I read with amusement the November 9, 2003 back page article in The Sun Newspapers by Louis Odion titled: “The New Yoruba Oligarchy”.

People in my class of taught are never again moved by such issues as Oligarchical subversion by the privileged few in the society. The very facts the Gen. Olusegun Aremu Obasanjo as the “President” of Nigeria wants to Yorubanize the country is a certain orchestrated drama and display of Power drunkenness which is imported from the fact that the fight to liberate Nigerians from the shackles of the Military has been totally defeated as we are not only witnessing dehumanization, subjugation and wickedness in the hands of a wrongly “constituted” Civil-Military regime but are also faced with the realities of being in the wrong hands of a Financially, and Petroleum proceed hungry Yoruba Oligarchy.

Mr. Odion’s assertion about the attitude of Yoruba Journalists and “Activists” towards the ills in the Obasanjo “Government of Kill Nigerians”, a government of the Yoruba, by the Yoruba and for the Yoruba is not unfounded by history as it is very clear and documented that the Yorubas are noted for crying foul only when the odds is against them and keeping mute when it’s favouring them especially when a Yoruba is in charge as they have the attitude of “Omo wa ni” It is our child.

To be frank, Nigerians are a gullible people as they only shout and still accept the injustice meted out to them no matter how and who is perpetuating it against them; today, the sack of Mr. Jackson Gaius-Obaseki as the Group Managing Director of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (hereinafter referred to as the NNPC) is been seen as a crime against the Edo people and Mr. Obaseki and not that against the entire civil populace, my beloved brother Mr. Louis Odion in paragraph 7 of his article referred to this injustice as “the fact that a Yoruba name replaced an Edo name at NNPC is another instance of ‘marginalisation’”, but I ask, if replacing Mr. Jackson Gaius- Obaseki (an Edo name) with Mr. Funso Kupolokun (a Yoruba name) is termed as marginalisation then the total neglect of the people where most of the Oil is coming from should be seen as not only marginalisation! but complete wickedness against humanity. The Mr. (Hon.) Jackson Gaius-Obaseki that is in the center of the storm now, is he not the same Mr. Obaseki who’s only policy against people who suffer from the various oil pipeline fire disasters which resulted from NNPC negligence to effect repairs, was to invade their villages and inflict more suffering on the victims? Or is he not the same Obaseki who saw nothing wrong with inflicting hardship on Nigerians through increase in petroleum products? Or is he not the same Obaseki who found nothing wrong in deceiving Nigerians about the fire incident that gutted the Accounts & Records department of the NNPC building in Lagos? The same Obaseki who had always defended his Master and Lord Obasanjo on every increase on the pump price of petroleum products? Wasn’t it Mr. Obaseki that was heaping praises on the “mystified” Gen. Olusegun Aremu Obasanjo in London recently while his sack order was waiting to WELCOME him? Now the issue is that of a Yoruba man replacing an Edo man, after all the said Mr. Funso Kupolokun (Yoruba man) is from Ondo State an equally oil producing State which even produces more oil than Edo State.

If “Oba, Eze, Obong, Amayanabo, Emir, Chief, Gen, Field Marshall Olusegun Aremu Obasanjo likes, let him sack all the non- Yoruba Federal Workers and replace them with only Yoruba Workers today, the criticisms against such a decision will not exceed the pages of the Newspapers and the Yorubas will definitely not see anything bad in Olusegun Obasanjo as President,

Funso Kupolokun as GMD of the NNPC, Rasheed Gbadamosi as “Mr. Fix petroleum pump prices” in PPPRA with Gen, Oluyele’s son as his Secretary or will there be anything wrong with Adebayo Sarumi as the MD, NPA, Joseph Sanusi as Governor Central Bank, Joseph Ajiboye as Auditor-General of the Federation, Kayode Naiyeju as Accountant-General of the Federation, Tafa Balogun as the IG of Police and still think of it, the whole Yorubanization of Nigeria would be complete when the Governors of all the non Yoruba states are replaced with Yorubas and national consigns like NAFCON, NEPA, ASCON, EPZ, Vice Chancellors of all the Federal Universities, Rectors of all the Federal Polytechnics, Provosts of all the Federal Colleges of Educations are Yorubas and all Nigerians are made to speak Yoruba, dress Yoruba, act Yoruba and take Yoruba names amongst other things before you can get employment in Nigeria.

Who heads the NNPC should not be the problem of poor masses like us as we all know that Mr. Jackson “Tall” Gaius-Obaseki served the interest of his master against the masses very well and he benefited handsomely from the “meritorious” service to the “Country” as he was very aware that the NNPC was not his private enterprise and that definitely he shall have to leave as the presidency shall become that of another some day and same applies to all public officers so I do not see his removal for a Yoruba from Ondo as marginalisation as we all recall that in this very country of injustice the Honourable Professor Tam David West from Rivers State was removed as the petroleum Minister and was replaced with Professor Riwanu Lukeman from the North and their was no crime in it even when Prof. David West was labeled “a common Thief” of a mere Gold wristwatch! in the same manner, Dr. Aret Adams from Cross-River State was replaced with Abdulahi Bayero as GMD of the NNPC and nothing was seen as been wrong in these acts just because they come from a shadow group; what will happen if an Ikwerreman, Ndokiman, Ukwaman, Ogoniman, Ibibioman, Effikman, Ogutaman, Ijawman, Urohboman, Ilajeman etc who produces more oil than Edo were Mr. Jackson Gaius Obaseki comes from becomes the GMD of the NNPC.

Today we read from the papers that a fraud of about N 31 billion (Thirty One Billion Naira) is reported at the NNPC under the tenure of Mr. Obaseki; so I ask, if such money was actually misappropriated, who and who benefited from it and what happens to them? If the NNPC could misappropriate such an amount then what about the Federal Government which supervises the NNPC? What kind of country is this; don’t we (the Ethnic Nationalities) feel that it is time to discuss this SICK CONTRAPTION CALLED A COUNTRY?

I will love to refer to the NNPC as “Nigeria Notorious Pilfering Corporation” as it remains the only institution whereby the wealth of this country is being siphoned on a continuous basis. I believe that the only instrument by which the injustices that we suffer in this country can be tackled is by the convocation of a Sovereign National Conference (SNC) nothing more, nothing less and nothing else, and not by crying out against injustice only when it knocks at our door (Ethnicity or Tribe), if we truly love ourselves, then we must tell our selves the truth which is that we do not believe in Nigeria any longer as the very foundation upon which Nigeria is built is faulty, unjust and has since required rehabilitation or total rebuilding. We were not Nigerians in the beginning so we cannot remain as Nigerians any longer.

LET’S WALK THE PATH TO TRUE FREEDOM.