I write this letter to you in good faith. By now, some of us who are lush and ceaseless writers can proudly claim to be one of the concerned stakeholders searching for workable and amicable solutions to Nigerian intractable, self-induced, and hydra-headed problems. I am proudly a Nigerian of the Yoruba tribe and Yorùbá po´nnbélé descent. I cherish everything about Nigerian richness but I am miffed with her unconcerned leadership to secure our people. In the last few weeks, some of us have keenly watched your controversial activities concerning the state of anomie (insecurity) in Yorùbáland, alas, Nigeria.
Your rise to Wikipedia’s page and the littering of Google algorithm is an excellent opportunity to be well sought after in a nation bedeviled with so much confusion and sad contradictions. Some of your brave contemporaries have been on what I call necessary trouble on our collective road to nowhere before! But there is a caveat to your activism methods of agitation. You talk too much! And most of your prattle is too illogical and disrespectful of the system you are “legitimately” fighting. We believe from your disquietness that you want to liberate Yoruba from the claws of the evil-Herdsmen. We are solidly behind everyone with moves to save innocent people from bloodshed.
Every victim of the evil Fulani herdsmen appreciates and commends your boldness and activism. Still, some of us who know your antecedents are cautiously optimistic that your agitation will not be another surrogate of politicians and business as usual. Please, do not fall expediently into the hands of unconscionable politicians. You can see them already carpeting and cross carpeting from one party to another maneuvering for 2023. At the end of the day, they’re all the same birds of a feather flocking together. You will be used and dumped like the other victims of the Nigerian polity. Be a good representation of the unique Yorùbá large kin. The good people of Yorùbá sincerely identified with your agitation to wake the sleeping giants up to secure our people. But you seem to have veered away from the main course by disrespecting Yorubaland’s revered and humbled Oba—the ??`ni of If?`, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ògúnwùsì.
It is pertinent to note that the humble and intelligent Oba Adéyeyè Enitan Ògúnwùsì knows his onions. He is a good representation of our cultural heritage anywhere in the world. His Royal Highness, Oòni of Ifè, was not obligated to tell you as an individual what he went to do at Aso Rock, Abuja. Ooni of Ife, the Ojija II, is a quintessential monarch with an exemplary king to all human races, including Obas, Sarkin Zazzaus, Emirs, Obis, etc., in Nigeria. The incorruptible Oba Ògúnwùsì was a wealthy businessman before he was enthroned to his progenitor’s majestic throne. It is sacrilegious and a misnomer to have allegedly accused the humbled man that he went to collect a brown envelope from Abuja. Brown envelop for what? And from who? It is even unfathomable to expect the ‘stingy and frugal’ man in Abuja to give out money like his predecessors used to do to every corrupt man of yesterday. This is not the time to fight the right people and ourselves in Yorubaland.
My brother, this brotherly advice is timely! Pelepele di owo yin. And softly, softly Yoruba people intelligently run the race against adversaries to win-remember the late sage Chief Obafemi Awolowo. Remember that you are a brave child of circumstances brought to the fore by the land’s insecurity. You mutated into the national spotlight by happenstance, and you should use the opportunity responsibly to prod the aged minds of our ineffectual leaders. I strongly admonish you to tread your self-venturesome with smartness and care. Yoruba people are brilliant and good at diplomatic ventures. Other resourceful and geopolitical tribes ruefully take Yoruba diplomacy for weakness, whereas Yoruba people know their strategies and onions. You know this; I know it-we all know it. As brilliantly distinct as the late Chief MKO Abiola, he was cajoled into standing in front of a moving train by the same people enabling you to fight a winnable fight with another innocent ethnic group. They all abandoned Abiola when he needed them the most!
At this juncture, you need strategy and advice from our experienced and responsible Yoruba elders to fight the herdsmen’s insurgency and other crimes. The Honorable Governor Ekiti of Ondo state’s approach is a workable strategy to dealing with the insurgency of the killer squad-herdsmen. The lives of our people are too sacrosanct to be wasted at the altar of political expediency. Let us follow the power of examples of our elders and their reasonable advice. This fight for life and death in our enclaves is the responsibility of everyone irrespective of our domiciliary. Let us not capitalize on the failures of this government on security to take laws into our hands. Unless the recalcitrant man in Abuja begins the inevitable process of truly restructuring Nigeria to go back to the regional government system, he is just postponing the evil days. It won’t be good for his legacy as well.
Mr. Sunday Igboho, the Diaspora Nigerians, and Yorubas share your onerous goals and objectives. Still, they do not share a “necessary lawlessness” to rid our enclaves of the killer herdsmen and evils. Henceforth, ensure to talk less and strategically liaise more with other stakeholders in Nigeria and the Nigerian diaspora. Let us find a way of addressing this national cancer that is metastasizing the troubled system’s fabric. Do not bring Yoruba down to the killer squad’s level by hurting all other law-abiding citizens in our territory. The consequences might be calamitous to no one’s favor.
Thanks in anticipation of this onerous gesture as we are all on the same venture and famished road to bringing peace and tranquility back to our homeland.
Balogun wrote from Arizona, USA. [email protected]
