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Did General Adeyinka Adebayo Write This? by xtayle(m): 11:36am On Jun 23, 2016 |
Open Letter To Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu
By General Adeyinka Adebayo
Iyin-Ekiti
My dear Asiwaju,
I am compelled to write this open letter to you
because of the state of affairs of the Yoruba
nation. Firstly, I wish to acknowledge that fate
has put you in a prime position to determine to a
large extent the direction that the Yoruba people
will go. The indisputable truth is that one may
quarrel with your politics but your sagacity is
never in doubt. Even those who don't see eye to
eye with you agree that you are imbued with
unusual native intelligence, uncommon people
skills and unrivaled foresight. You, more than any
other person, has been the game changer since
the advent of democracy in 1999. It is for these
reasons that I have chosen to direct this letter to
you.
My singular purpose is to tug at the strings of
your heart. I am not writing to appeal to partisan
considerations but to see, if per chance, I can
pour out my heart to you in a manner of
speaking. God has blessed you even beyond your
wildest imagination. You have installed Senators
and Governors. You have removed Governors and
even a President. You have also installed a
President. There is nothing you have wished for or
desired that you didn't get. Fortune has smiled on
you. Goodwill follows you everywhere you go. You
have done very well- more than most men ever
will. However, there is one area that is begging
for your urgent attention. This area may well
define you and all you have ever achieved. This
matter, in my opinion, is the only difference
between you and the late sage, Chief Obafemi
Awolowo. Let me restate for the purpose of
emphasis that this is the area in which the late
sage and Leader of the Yorubas stand head and
shoulders above you. It is the reason his name
has been a constant denominator in our regional
and national politics. It is the reason politicians,
friends and foes invoke his name for political
advantage and personal glory. It is also the
reason why we can't stop talking about him
almost thirty years after his death. What will
anyone say about you thirty years after you have
transited?
Asiwaju Sir, you may be wondering what I'm
talking about? It is the issue of legacy. According
to Peter Strople, 'Legacy is not leaving something
for people, it is leaving something in people'.
Legacy is building something that outlives you.
Legacy is greater than currency. In the words of
Leonard Sweet, ' What you do is your history.
What you set in motion is your legacy'. You can't
live forever, Sir. No one can. But you can create
something that will. Enough of speaking in
parables- I shall now speak plainly.
When destiny brought you on the scene, we were
enamoured because you championed the case for
true federalism. It was your belief then that the
Yoruba nation will fare better under a restructured
arrangement than under the type of unitary
government we run while pretending by calling it
a federal government. Everyone knows that there
is nothing federal about our government at all. If
truth must be told, the Yoruba nation has fared
very badly since the advent of our new
democracy. And this is not about holding power
at the centre.
Let me bring this home: someone passed a
comment recently that he would want Biafra to
become a reality because he knows the Igbo
nation will survive. That comment led me to
deeper introspection as I wondered if the Yorubas
can truly survive. Let me cite my first example.
From Oyo to Osun, Ogun to Ondo, Ekiti to Kwara
and Lagos, hardly will one see any serious
industry or manufacturing concern owned by a
Yoruba person. I am not talking about portfolio
businesses or one-man business concerns. Most
industries in Oyo State are owned by the
Lebanese. The native business and industry gurus
who dominated the landscape- Nathaniel Idowu,
Amos Adegoke, Lekan Salami, Alao Arisekola,
Adeola Odutola, Jimoh Odutola, Chief Theophilus
Adediran Oni and others- are all gone with no
credible replacements. I'm sure you remember the
tyre factory of the Odutolas and how Jimoh
Odutola was even asked by the Governments of
Kenya and Ghana to set up a similar factory in
their countries. Chief Theophilus Adediran Oni,
popularly called T.A Oni & Sons started the first
indigenous construction company in Nigeria. He
willed his residence- Goodwill House, to the Oyo/
Western state government, to be used as a
Paediatric Hospital, which is now known as T.A
Oni Memorial Children Hospital at Ring Road in
Ibadan. This sprawling family Estate and
residence was cited on a 15acre piece of land, 65
rooms, with modern conveniences, Olympic
Swimming Pool and stable for Horses, etc.
People like Chief Bode Akindele started companies
like Standard Breweries and Dr Pepper Soft drink
factory at Alomaja in Ibadan. Broking House built
by the late Femi Johnson, an insurance magnate,
still stands glittering in the mid-day sun as an
epitome to a rich history that Ibadan has. The
most serious and only notable Yoruba
entrepreneur we have now is Michael Adenuga. I
say this quite consciously because most of the
other names are oil and gas barons. Most of
what stood as testaments of industry in Oyo
State are gone- Exide Batteries, Leyland Autos
and many others. In its place are shopping malls
and road side markets but no nation develops
through buying and selling alone- especially when
you're not actually producing what you're selling.
Hypermarkets and supermarkets have taken over
because of the need to feed our insatiable
consumer-appetite and foreign tastes. In one
instance, an ancient landmark in the form of a
hotel was demolished to pave way for a mall.
That is how low we have sunk. If our past is
better than our present- if we always look back
with nostalgia frequently, then there is a problem.
The case of other states is not different. Osun's
case is pathetic. Ditto for Ondo and Ekiti. Ogun
State can boast of some factories at Sango-Otta
and Agbara axis but most of them are not owned
by the Yorubas. There is no significant
pharmaceutical company owned by any Yoruba
except for Bond Chemicals in Awe, Oyo State-
and its wallet share is very insignificant. For
Lagos State, more than 70% of the manufacturing
concerns and major industries in the State are
owned by the Igbos. If the Igbos were to stop
paying tax in Lagos State, the IGR of Lagos State
will reduce by over 60%. In contrast, Sir, go to the
South East and look at the manufacturing
concerns in Onitsha, Aba and Nnewi. Please don't
forget those were areas ravaged by civil war a
mere forty something years ago. The Igbos have
certainly made tremendous progress but the
Yoruba nation has regressed. I wish to state that
this letter is not meant to whip up primordial
considerations or ethnic sentiments but just to
put things in proper perspective.
Asiwaju, I will like to also talk about the state of
education in the Yoruba nation. Our education has
gone to the dogs. We have a bunch of mis-
educated and ill-educated young men and women
roaming the streets. Ibadan, for instance, had the
first University in Nigeria and the first set of
research centres in Nigeria ( The Forestry
Research Institute, the Cocoa Research Institute
(CRIN), The Nigerian Cereal Research Institute
Moor Plantation (NCRI), the NIHORT (Nigerian
Institute of Horticultural Research), the NISER
(Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic
Research), IAR&T (Institute of Agriculture,
Research and Training), amongst several others).
Ibadan was the bastion of scholarship with
people like Wole Soyinka, JP Clark, D.O Fagunwa
and Amos Tutuola as residents. In the May/June
2015 West African Senior Secondary Certificate
Examination, Abia came tops. Anambra came 2nd
while Edo was 3rd. Lagos placed 6th while Osun
and Oyo was 29th and 26th. Ekiti was 11th, Ondo
State was 13th and Ogun State was 19th. In
2013 WASSCE, only Lagos and Ogun States were
the Yoruba States above the national average. If
we do an analysis of how Lagos placed 6th in
2015, you will discover that it was substantially
because of other nationalities resident in Lagos.
For proof, please look no further than the winners
of the Spelling Bee competition which has
produced One-Day Governors in Lagos State.
Since inception in 2001, other nationalities have
won the competition six times (Ebuka Anisiobi in
2001, Ovuwhore Etiti in 2002, Abundance
Ikechukwu in 2006, Daniel Osunbor in 2008,
Akpakpan Iniodu Jones in 2011 and Lilian Ogbuefi
in 2012). Sir, there is something seriously wrong
about our state of education. From the vintage
times of Obafemi Awolowo who initiated 'free
education', we have regressed into a most
parlous state.
Let me talk about roads, housing and
infrastructure . The first dualized road in Nigeria,
the Queen Elizabeth road from Mokola to Agodi in
Ibadan was formally commissioned by Queen
Elizabeth in 1956. The first Housing Estate in
Nigeria is Bodija Housing Estate (also in Ibadan)
which was built in 1958. The state of roads in the
Yoruba nation has become pathetic. Our
hinterland are still largely rural. Even some state
capitals like Osogbo and Ado-Ekiti are big villages
when you compare them to towns in the South
East. How many new estates have been built over
the last decade? Even Ajoda New Town lies in
ruins.
We have abandoned the farm settlement strategy
of the Western Region and only pay lip service to
agriculture. Instead of feeding others like we once
did, others now feed us. We plant no tomatoes,
no pepper and the basic food that we require. The
Indians have bought the large expanse of water
body that we have in Onigambari village. The
water body in Oke Ogun of Oyo State can provide
enough fish to feed the whole of the South West.
From being a major cocoa exporter many years
ago, one can point to just a few vestiges of
factories that still deal with Cocoa in the Yoruba
nation. 80% of Cocoa processing industries in the
South West have been shut down. The Chinese
have taken over the cashew belt at Ogbomoso in
Oyo State. They have even edged out the
indigenes as brokers. They now come to the
cashew belt to buy from the local farmers, sell on
the spot to other Chinese exporters who now
process the cashew nuts and import them back
into Nigeria at a premium. Sir, there are only 7
major cashew processing plants in Nigeria and
you can check out the ownership. The glory has
departed from the Yoruba nation.
Apart from Asejire, Ede, Ikere Gorge and Oyan
dams built ages ago, where are the new dams to
cater for increased population and water capacity
for the Yoruba nation? How have we improved on
what our heroes past left us? Maybe apart from
certain areas in Lagos State, others can't even
supply their citizens with pipe-borne water.
Our youth which we used to take pride in are
largely a mass of unemployed and unemployable
people. Have you noticed the abundance of street
urchins, area boys, touts and 'agberos' that we
now have all across the Yoruba nation? Have you
noticed the swell in the ranks of NURTW (I mean
no disrespect to an otherwise noble union)? Have
you noticed the increase in the number of Yoruba
beggars? There was a time that it was taboo for
a Yoruba man to beg- but no more. The spirit of
apprenticeship is dead. There was a time that
people who learn vocational skills celebrate what
we referred to as 'freedom'. While that is largely
moribund now in the Yoruba nation, the Igbos still
practice it with great success.
The only thing we can boldly say the Yoruba
nation controls is the information machinery- the
press. We own largely the newspapers- the
Nation, Punch, Nigerian Tribune, TV Continental
and a few others. It is because of our control of
this information machinery that we have rewritten
the narrative in the country with the misguided
self-belief that things are normal and we are
making progress. A look beyond the surface will
prove that this is so untrue.
We are largely divided. For the first time in the
history of the Yoruba nation, religion is about to
divide us further- and it is starting from Osun
State. You are married to a Christian. My own
father-in-law is an Alhaji. That is how we have
peacefully do-existed but the fabrics are about to
be torn to shreds because of poor management of
issues. Afenifere has been reduced to a shadow of
itself. OPC that once defended Yoruba interests
has gone into oblivion. Yoruba elders have been
vilified in the name of politics and partisanship. It
is no longer news to see teenagers throwing
stones at their elders because of their political
indoctrination. Even under the late sage, Chief
Obafemi Awolowo, the Yorubas never belonged to
just a single party- yet our unity was without
blemish. Now, our values have gone down the
drain.
Asiwaju, I believe I have said enough. The task is
Herculean but I believe Providence has brought
you here for such a time like this. It is time for
the Yoruba nation to clean up its acts. What do
we really want? How can we quickly right the
wrongs? The Yoruba nation is in a state of
arrested development. The Yoruba nation is
gasping for breath and crying for help. Will you
rise up to the occasion? I am aware you
understand that all politics is local and charity
begins at home. Our fathers gave us a proverb:
'Bi o'ode o dun, bi igbe ni'gboro ri'. I know there
are no quick fixes but I also know that if there is
anyone who has the capacity to do something
about our current situation, that person is you.
This should be the legacy you should think of.
Your legacy is our future.
Yours Very Sincerely,
Adebayo Adeyinka
Iyin-Ekiti
Yoruba Ronu oooooooo. |
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