A nation, not a tribe

A nation, not a tribe
on october 20, 2013 at 2:00 am in news
By Femi Fani-Kayode
I was born on October 16, 1960 and consequently I
celebrated my 53rd birthday last Wednesday. It was
a quiet low-key affair in which, as is customary
with me, I spent most of the day in fasting, prayer
and sober reflection, surrounded by my loved ones,
thanking the Lord for granting me yet another year
of life and for delivering me from the hands of my
numerous detractors and enemies.
I also took the time to thank my dear wife and soul
mate, Regina, for standing by me through thick and
thin and for being such a blessing and my darling
children who have had to put up with a father that is
fast becoming one of the most controversial,
misrepresented and misunderstood figures in
Nigerian modern history- a title which I neither
crave nor relish.
It is because it is my birthday that I decided to
share a few home truths today that will gladden the
hearts of some but that may sadden others. Yet the
truth must be spoken and even if my voice is
drowned by the cacophony of dissent and rancour
that sometimes trail such literary interventions, let it
be on record that on this day the seed of truth and
liberation was planted and the idea of a new
beginning for a people that I have come to love
more than life itself, my people, the Yoruba people
of south western Nigeria, was berthed. And for
these views, these ideas, these contributions and
these philosophies, as disagreeable as they may be
to some, I offer no apology. One of the basic truisms
of nationhood is that we as a people must
appreciate our roots. We cannot despise our roots
and set them aside and expect to flourish. We
cannot deny our family and claim to be a
responsible member of the wider society. Yes we
are Nigerians but every Nigerian has a foundation
and a root out of which he sprouted.
*Fani-Kayode
There is no such thing as a Nigerian who did not
come from somewhere or who did not come out of
a nationality that is a constituent and vital part of
the wider nation.  Nigeria is blessed with many
proud, strong, distinct, noble, enlightened and
sophisticated nationalities that make up the whole
and each of them brings something or other to the
table.
From the Fulani to the Hausa, to the Nupe, to the
Bini, to the Ijaw, to the Igbo, to the Kanuri, to the
Idoma, to the Tiv, to the Urhobo, to the Itsekiri, to
the Bacahama, to the Ishan, to the Igbira, to the
Igalla, to the Efik, to the Ibibio, to the Isoko, to the
Shuwa arab, to the Kataf, to the Kwale, to the Jaba,
to the Zuru, to the Kilba, to the Kalabari, to the
Ikwere, to the Gula, to the Gwari, to the Margui and
so on and so forth, we all have something to offer
and we all have a sense of self-worth and self-
respect which was established and cultivated many
years before Nigeria even came into existence.
None of us must ever forget that beautiful root from
whence we came for without it we become
worthless.
For Nigeria to be great each, and every one of its
nationalities must first flourish and they must all be
in a position to achieve their full potentials. I am a
Yoruba man and I take immense pride in that. And
contrary to the views of many, the Yoruba, like all
the other wonderful nationalities that reside in the
Nigerian space, are not a mere tribe.
One of the most unfortunate aspects of not being
properly educated is the fact that those that suffer
from that affliction often accept everything that their
slave and colonial masters and ethnic overlords tell
them and, without thinking, they swallow the fables
and labels hook, line and sinker. When a supposedly
educated person insists on labelling a nation of
highly advanced people, who have existed for
thousands of years as a distinct race, who have had
their own empires, who are the most educationally
and culturally advanced on the African continent,
who have a single language with approximately 20
different dialects within them, who have contributed
more to the industrial, commercial and intellectual
growth of Nigeria than any other, who have a rich
and illustrious history and heritage which few in
Africa can match, who number at least 50 million in
Nigeria alone and who constitute the largest number
of African people living in the diaspora on earth,
whose people have spread all over the world and
have strong historical, cultural, religious and ethnic
roots in Benin Republic, Ghana, Togo, Haiti, Brazil,
Cuba and many other places, whose people have
settled into and legitimately lay claim to Ilorin,
Kaaba, Akoko
Edo and other parts of northern and mid-western
Nigeria, whose offspring and progenitor established
many kingdoms including the Bini Kingdom, whose
pantheon of gods and traditional religion of ifa is
respected and practised in many parts of the world,
whose historical, philosophical, religious and
cultural contributions to Ancient Egypt are well
known and well documented, whose level of
sophistication and exposure to the knowledge of
western education is second to none and whose
sense of liberalism, justice, decency, hospitality and
fairness is not understood, appreciated or
reciprocated by any other ethnic group or nationality
in Nigeria and so much more and that supposedly
educated person still insists on calling such people,
despite their sheer numbers and their homogenous
geographical setting, a mere “tribe”, then you know
that that person is truly misguided.
You may call others a tribe if you so choose but not
the Yoruba. We number as many people as almost
the whole of the UK or France and far many more
than three quarters of the countries on the
European continent and our history dates back as
far as that of the Celts, the
Normans, the Vikings, the Romans, the Greeks, the
Egyptians and the Anglo-Saxons. Our forefathers
are amongst those that went to the best institutions
of higher learning and citadels of excellence in the
world like Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh and
Durham universities as far back as the early 1800s
and they became the first lawyers, doctors,
scientists, intellectuals, poets, writers, journalists,
philosophers, priests and free thinkers on the
African continent. Little wonder that our former
colonial masters resolved in their hearts that we
must never be allowed to take power at the centre
because they saw us as their equals as opposed to
being their serfs. We were right at the top whilst
others were still living in villages in the deepest and
darkest parts of the African forest. We forged and
built great empires that we
nurtured and protected with all that we had.
Ours was not a primitive inheritance but a noble
and righteous one that was established by the
Living God and the hard work of our forefathers.
And it is the memory of those great and powerful
forefathers that I invoke today when I ask how far
has our noble heritage taken us in the contraption
called Nigeria? How have we fared as a people? For
better or for worse? Our children ask us, ‘’Was it
always like this’’ and who ‘’were’’ the Yoruba? They
no longer ask who ‘’ARE’’ the Yoruba but who
‘’WERE’’ the Yoruba? Sadly that is our plight today-
a people whose children regard them as ‘’once
were’’ and no longer ‘’are’’.
We are still who and what we once were and it shall
always be so no matter what Nigeria and the world
does to us. We are a nation, not a tribe. And we are
a nation that is craving for recognition and
nationhood. A nation borne  out of centuries of
sacrifice, hard work, perseverance and diligence
and whose foundation is unsullied, noble and pure.
We are a nation within a nation that is beginning to
berth and that is eagerly waiting to be born.
Today we invoke the spirits and rekindle the
memories of our forefathers and we weep for our
people. What do we tell them about how we fared
after they left us and went into eternity? This
struggle belongs to our generation yet the question
needs to be asked- have we lived up to expectation
as they did? Have we asked the relevant questions,
provided the appropiate answers and fought the
good and noble fight as they once did? We
remember with great pride, great men and women
of Yoruba stock that have passed on and we reflect
on their noble struggle through the ages.
Men and women that stood up when it mattered the
most and made a difference like Samuel Ajayi
Crowther, Sapara Williams, Richard Akinwande-
Savage, Kitoye Ajasa, Cissie Obasa, Eric Moore,
Herbert Macauly, Joseph Egerton-Shyngle, Curtis
Adeniyi-Jones, Adeyemo Alakija, Theophilius
Adebayo Doherty, Victor Adedapo Kayode, Akinola
Maja, Joseph Akanni Doherty, Kofo Abayomi,
Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, Wuraola Esan, J.C
Vaughan, H.O. Davis, Adegoke  Adelabu,
Jeremiah Obafemi Awolowo, Samuel Ladoke
Akintola, Remilekun Adetokunbo Fani-Kayode,
Frederick Rotimi Alade Williams, Bode Thomas,
Adesoji Aderemi, Odeleye Fadahunsi, Oduola
Osuntokun, Emmanuel Okunsanya Okunowo, Moses
Majekodunmi, Adetokunbo Adegboyega Ademola,
Benjamin Oluwakayode Osuntokun, Josiah
Olawoyin, S.L. Edu, Samuel Shonibare, Matthew
Abonmagbe-Okupe, Dauda Adegbenro,
S.O.Gbadamosi, Adeniran Ogunsanya, T.O.S
Benson, Augustus Meredith Adisa Akinloye,
Adekunle Fajuyi, Samuel Ademulegun, R.A.
Shodeinde, Olusola Saraki, MKO Abiola, Bola Ige,
Micheal Ajasin, Abraham Adesanya, Ganiyu
Dawodu, Adewale Thompson, Solanke Onasanya,
Kudirat Abiola, Emmanuel Omotehinwa and dozens
of others that are too numerous to mention.
These names shall never be forgotten and those
who bear them should hold their heads up high for
theirs is a noble lineage.  Yet many ask what is
next for this great and illustrious nationality and this
berthing nation called the Yoruba? How do we
achieve our full  potentials and become that which
God has ordained us to be? Can this be done within
the confines of the Nigerian state? Some have
argued, quite rightly, that the way out is to have a
Sovereign National Conference that will renegotiate
the terms of our unity and revisit
the very question of our existence as a nation. Yet
the truth is that the forces that control the centre in
Nigeria and that have controlled it since 1914 will
never allow that to happen without a fight.
It is their intention and desire to keep us together as
one in a flawed and failed unitary state with it’s
federal facade in perpetuity regardless of the grave
damage that such a venture has wrought upon our
people over the last 99 years. Successive
President’s  in the last few decades have offered
government-sponsored national conferences none
of which are sovereign and each of which could not
possibly solve our fundamental problems or
properly answer our nationality question.
The mantra has always been that the unity of
Nigeria is ‘’not negotiable’’ and our resolutions were
always subject to their approval or the approval of
some unrepresentative and questionable National
Assembly which hardly represented the interests
and views of the numerous nationalities in our
country. We have one year to go before we achieve
100 years of being together as one entity and I
believe that it is time for us to have a rethink and
determine how we want the next 100 years to be. It
is time for us to question all these so-called
‘’settled issues’’, ‘’no-go areas’’, ‘’non-negotiables’’
and ‘’givens’’.
We can no longer be satisfied and content with the
failed answers and ideas of a vain and fanciful unity
that exists only in our minds and in our
imaginations. An illusionary unity that our fathers
and forefathers held so dear and even fought a civil
war to maintain and uphold. Given the nature of
those that control the centre today and their unholy
intentions for the rest of the country we must revisit
that question of unity and we must ask ourselves
‘’at what price?’’
The world is not static- it is dynamic and it is
changing fast. Kingdoms come and kingdoms go.
Empires fall and empires rise. Nations break and
new nations are formed. The world is changing and
the great people and numerous nationalities that
make up Nigeria must espouse that change, accept
it and not be left behind. What was good for
yesterday may not be good for today. And what is
good for today may not have been good for
yesterday.
That is where we are today- on the threshold of
change. And I believe that the time for that change
is now. It is a new dawn, a new day and a new era.
And I fervently believe that the God of heaven and
He who sits above the circles of the earth is about
to do something new, something refreshing and
something very dramatic. Why? Because we are a
nation, not a tribe