THE YORUBA NATION AND SELF-DETERMINATION.

By

Ganiyu Adams, 

President, Oodua People's Congress

Men and women of our oppressed Nation; fellow Freedom fighters, ladies and gentlemen of the press.

We have the honor to welcome you all to this Press Conference of the OODUA PEOPLE'S CONGRESS (OPC) to address the people of the world on the survival of the oppressed people of the Yoruba Nation.

That Nigeria is a Country under siege is apt and incontrovertible.  It's political history since independence in 1960 has been characterized by an avalanche of avoidable political tragedies caused by a tiny clique of military and political adventurers.

The denial of Chief Obafemi Awolowo (who fought for the united Nigeria during the 1967/70 civil war) of the leadership of this country during the 1979/83 General elections was an avoidable tragedy.

The Annulment of the June 12 1993 Presidential Election won by Bashorun M.K.O. Abiola, by the military wing of the Hausa-Fulani hegemony with their Southern collaborators was also an avoidable tragedy.

The incarceration of M.K.O Abiola for about four years in a solitary confinement by the caliphates of the North for demanding his mandate was an avoidable tragedy.

The murder of Chief M.K.O Abiola and his wife Alhaja Kudirat Abiola, Pa Alfred Rewane, etc. in the hands of military wing of the Hausa-Fulani oligarchy were all avoidable tragedies. 

The above brutal injustice and several others instances of organized harassment and slave-treatments meted on the Yorubas and other nationalities who have contributed in no small measure in terms of their GOD-given resources, manpower, sacrifice of their precious lives, etc for the unity and the survival of this country has dampened our hopes and our confidence, too, is lost in the current state of Nigeria.

There is no doubt that we live in a country where the ruthless and unrepresentative nature of the state has been brought to bear on us, so much that we cannot deny the fact of the existence of varying degrees of domination, brutal repression and inhuman exploitation of many ethnic nationalities by the Hausa-Fulani hegemony, which is now posing a threat to continued existence of Nigeria.

We note with utter dismay the hue and cry of some selfish, and mischievous people whose political machinery has for long has been exhausted. These gangs of self-centered people always hide under the needless fear of disintegration to oppose restructuring the nation.  This same set of criminals are the first to complain of being marginalised when the Head of the civil rule, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo was ensuring fairness in Federal appointments, which likely may be reversed at the expiration of his regime.

It is pertinent to state here that where retrenchment takes place at the Federal level Yorubas suffered greatest.  Up till this present moment, President Olusegun Obasanjo's government is yet to make any corrections to this anomaly.  The masses of our people are still suffering under the yoke of unemployment, hunger, squalor, disease, poverty, homelessness, etc. Nothing has ever changed! Therefore it is wrong for anybody to accuse the Government of marginalisation or perceive the southwest as being the benefactor.

Our objection and non-participation in Abubakar Transition Program has always being justified because our own focus has been towards self-determination for all ethnic nationalities, a perspective, like the corner stone the builder refused, but which shall be the head-cornerstone.
Our politicians in their quest to grab power at all cost were not much concerned about the constitution under which they shall operate.  Come May 29th 1999, they all swore to defend the military imposed constitution and when they opened the pages of the so-called federalist constitution it was revealed to them that they have been trapped.  Governors cannot control the police, new states and local government councils cannot be easily created, Revenue derivation and allocation formula, which does not favor most ethnic nationalities, etc., were some of the surprises that awaited them.

Corruption:
The Nigerian military officers and their civilian acolytes have identified massive corruption and reckless stealing of Public funds as one of the major reasons for the insatiable craving for political power.

The few occasions when punitive measures were taken, such have been known to have either been a far cry from the magnitude of the offences committed or was later reversed in favor of the culprits. There is no better way of encouraging corruption.

The efforts of the Government in recovering the looted resources would have been more commendable if the exercise is not limited to Abacha’s family, friends and business partners alone.  The past military mis-rulers like Babangida, Abdusalami Abubakar, their governors and military administrators etc. also need to be investigated.

Economy:
The success of an investment policy is determined largely by how effectively the resources are used, by how their sectoral and reproduction structure is shaped and by how the process of capital construction is organized; all these aspects are harnessed for the betterment and survival of the resources producer. 

We therefore reject any economic system that restricts the people from exercising their fundamental rights on their natural resources. We say NO to the system that allows strangers in any land to reap where they did not sow. The loss of our economic base to the central government through the UNITARY System of Government has relegated the Yoruba Nation and other ethic nationalities to the very background thus affecting our developments in every facet. 

When the Yorubas are crying of being marginalised those who could not reason do criticize us.  Despite the fact that the Head of the civil rule is from the Southwest, for instance, Kano state of 1967 is now 2 states namely Jigawa and Kano state, while Lagos state of 1967 remains one.
 
In the disbursement of revenue allocation for October 1999 Lagos State got N507.524m but both Kano and Jigawa states got N937m.  In 1967 Kano State had 2 local governments but today Lagos State is having 20 local government areas while Kano/Jigawa states now have 71 local governments.

Federal allocations to states during the month of October 1999 were N11 billion.  Shared equally among 774 local governments, it comes down to N14.2 million per local government.  So, the Kano state of 1967 now divided into 71 local governments got a share of N1.01 billion while Lagos state of 1999 with 20 local governments got N0.284 billion.  Bayelsa State, on the other hand, the producer of 40% of the country's oil revenue, with 8 local governments, got a paltry sum of N0.114 billion.  This is the grand result of the master plans of the North to inflate their local governments so as to be able to run away with the lion share of the nation's revenue.  This is also the reason why they are against True Federalism and the convocation of the SNC.

We therefore reject all fraudulent revenue allocation formula designed to rob Peter to pay Paul.  We reject allocation of high percentage of revenue on the basis of landmass.

Education:
The quota system, Federal character and other measures have been the grand design of the northern caliphate to slow down the educational pace of the south for the north to meet up.  The standard of education in the country has fallen drastically, the government could not afford the regular payments of teachers salaries, but could agree to pay three hundred and fifty thousand (N350,000) Naira monthly salary for every-past head of state, discredited or not.

Parents have withdrawn their wards from public schools to fee paying private schools in search of qualitative education. 

The recent announcement of free-education up to junior secondary school level (JSS III) by the Federal Government will only make Nigeria a laughing stock among the Committee of Nations because a country where trillions of dollars are stolen and stacked in various bank accounts across the world must be able to explain to the world why education could not be made free all levels.

THE STATE OF THE NATION:
Since the annulment of the June-12 1993 presidential elections, Nigeria has not known peace.  What we have now can best be described as fragile peace.  Everybody has suddenly become ethnic.  The northerners that had ruled for 34 out of the 39 years of our nation's existence now claim to be marginalised by a government of 150 days! 

The Igbos are prepared to return to the Biafra again; the Ogonis are smarting from the annihilations they have suffered over the years in the hands of IBB; the Ijaws are lamenting what is happening to their environment, their sources of livelihood have been so much soiled with oil that there are no fishes to catch and no fresh water to drink. 

The Junkuns are slugging it out with the Fulanis while the Elemes and the Okrikas, including the Annangs and the Owerris are not content with their border demarcations. 

The Hausas and the Yorubas in Sagamu and Kano suddenly discovered they are strangers in the lands where they have lived and traded for decades. 

Suffice it to say that we the Yorubas in general believe that we have been used, abused, and our development slowed down and are therefore not content with the scheme of things in Nigeria.  What all these boil down to is the need for us all to sit down and renegotiate our corporate existence. 

Maybe we should refresh the memories of all here present that this had been our primary demand from the governments of Abacha, and Abdusalami Abubakar, and make it now from that of President Olusegun Obasanjo.  The window-dressing attempted with the current democratic arrangement is fragile and shall not offer the long-lasting solution desired to this problem. 

More skirmishes can be expected in the future, so much as shall threaten the corporate existence of this country.  It is our pertinent desire to see true federalism come to being in Nigeria.  This call emanates from the good things that happened to the West under the able-leadership of our mentor and great leader, late Papa Obafemi Awolowo and his able assistants. 

During the 60's, the economy of Western Nigeria was better than those of Malaysia, Indonesia, and even South Korea.  Alas, the difference is clear, today. The military instituted an un-negotiated unitary system of government which is not acceptable for true economic development and co-existence of sister states of the Federation. 

If we can not have true federalism, nor have a Sovereign National Conference (SNC) convened by the government of President Olusegun Obasanjo, then we implore all Yorubas to be alert and vigilant, as we shall then have no other choice than to announce the inevitable, a Sovereign Oodua Republic, in the nearest future.

The Northern Governors:
We wish at this juncture to respond to the statement made by the representatives of the northern Oligarchy, the northern governors, advising the Federal Government to prohibit government official from hobnobbing with the GOD-sent Oodua Peoples Congress, describing the activities of the OPC as a threat to peace and security.

We of the Oodua People's Congress hereby make it categorically clear to the people of the world that the threat to peace, security and unity of the corporate existence of Nigeria today is the handwork of the Hausa-Fulani Oligarchs.  Of the 39 years of the existence of Nigeria, the North ruled and dominated other ethnic nationalities for 34 yeas.

Northern Domination:
During this period our destiny and those of other ethnic nationalities was taken away from our hands systematically and placed in the hands of few greedy and self-centered gangs whose interests the northern governors are now serving. The unguarded statement of the northern governors is a confirmation of the vicious and evil attacks unleashed against the OPC members in particular and the Yorubas in general in other to wipe us out from our GOD-given land during the regimes of Abacha's stooges e.g. Buba Marwa and his Operation Sweep, in Lagos State.

When the northern oligarchs through their military wings were hanging Ken-Saro-Wiwa, killing our prominent leaders like Pa Alfred Rewane, Kudirat Abiola, MKO Abiola and incarcerating many others, while so many of us were forced on exile, no northerner saw these acts as indeed bona fide threats to peace and security of the nation. For the northern oligarchs to now accuse the OPC of threatening national peace and security is like they are becoming jittery of the evils they had committed against us, as they know there is no place for them to hide, as justice is being sought by the people.

Yet these same oligarchs are behind the supplies of bows and arrows, arms and ammunitions, which have been stockpiled at various places in Yorubaland for, use against us.

In 537 BC, King Belshazzar of Babylon found himself in the position of the Northern Oligarchs of today and as he was entertaining his guests in an arrogantly elaborated feast, there was the handwriting on the wall "THY KINGDOM IS DIVIDED AND GIVEN TO THE MEDES AND PERSIANS". King Belshazzar died that same night and his kingdom collapsed because instead of REPENTANCE and REMORSE he was adamant and unyielding to the INEVITABLE LAW OF CHANGE.

Sharia:
The Sharia court system, currently adapted by Zamfara state, to us, is another step towards self-determination, but would have been better discussed at the Sovereign National Conference.

We want to ensure everybody that our mission remains:

SELF DETERMINATION AND REGIONAL AUTONOMY OF THE YORUBA NATION TO ENSURE SOCIAL EMANCIPATION WITHIN A TRULY FEDERATED NIGERIAN STATE IN WHICH ALL THE COMPONENT ETHNIC NATIONALITIES ARE GUARANTEED SELF DETERMINATION WITH AUTHORITY TO MANAGE THEIR OWN RESOURCES AND AFFAIRS.

In this regard the issue of Sovereign National Conference cannot be over-emphasized. Its convocation will afford every ethnic Nationality, big or small, the opportunity to come together and discuss to determine the terms of their co-existence in a friendly atmosphere and manner. We cannot achieve this through the National Assembly methods of "Yes" and "No". Issues that concern every nationality must be respected. Our unity cannot be and should not be a forceful one. We will NEVER accede to that!

We call on all ethnic nationalities to be vigilant and be prepared for the convocation of SNC in the nearest future.

Ipe Oodua:
The news organ for OPC shall be known as the "Ipe Oodua" - Oodua's Call. It shall be a monthly magazine for a start and shall circulate not less than 2000 copies monthly. The medium of communication shall be Yoruba. It shall be launched within the next few weeks and we hereby implore members and all to book their copies in advance.

Conclusion:
The Oodua People's Congress – a Pan-Yoruba Movement has resolved not to allow anybody in anyway to halt our progress any more. While it is not in our interest to dominate any other ethnic nationality, we stand to resist any such dominance on us and are devoted to retrieve all that is ours.

President Olusegun Obasanjo's administration is achieving what the so-called "born-administrators" could not achieve in 39 years of misrule.  To this effect, we warn all evil-planners to steer clear of any attempts on the person and life of this emerging patriot.

We sincerely thank you all for your attention and time granted this conference. Our demand from government, once again, is true Federalism, or the convening of a Sovereign National Conference to re-negotiate the corporate existence of Nigeria. Anything short of this is a demand for our Oodua Republic, which is a must!

You are all welcome.  Thank you!

BEING THE TEXT OF THE PRESS CONFERENCE ADDRESSED BY THE OODUA PEOPLE'S CONGRESS ON THE 26TH OCT. 1999 IN LAGOS.

This article was forwarded by Soboyejo Awosika-Coker