2023: Breaking The Third Year Debacle & 30th Year Circular Syndrome Of “Afonja Clans” Among Yoruba.

 

“It appears that the gods of Yoruba land quietly modeled him to stand against the tide when in 2003, as the Last Man Standing among equals in Southwest; he trounced every attempt by the High Priest of Afonja dynasty to take over Lagos state from the AD”

PEGASUS REPORTERS, LAGOS | FEBRUARY 14, 2022

Undoubtedly, the Yoruba nation of Nigeria is the single largest black race in the world. With a population of her sons and daughters scattered among 90 countries in the world, it’s estimated that the Yoruba population worldwide is nearing 500million people. In Cuba alone, it’s estimated that over 90% of the population is of Yoruba descent while Brazil has about 50% as Yoruba. It’s therefore not unexpected that such a prominent race from Africa reputed as the cradle of mankind will not be entrusted with a divine mantle of responsibility by the creator in its primary source; Nigeria.

The story of Afonja, a Yoruba high chief with loyalty to Ile-Ife, and how he betrayed that loyalty by inviting the Fulani to help him against his king and the eventual loss of what is today Kwara state to the emirate system is well known and need not be retold here. Suffice to state that for want of a better definition by me, of what will climax as another 30-year circle of internal betrayal among the Yoruba in 2023, the Afonja Syndrome is already rearing its ugly neck.

It will be recalled that since the creation of the geographical spread of the country called Nigeria, the Yoruba race, with the exemption of Olusegun Obasanjo who was not actually their favorite, has been elected under a democratic system as Nigeria as head of state or president. A look at the history of this phenomenon shows that the failure of Yoruba to attain that height has been a result, more of internal squabbles among themselves backed with the support of others outside their race. The first attempt was when the late sage and Yoruba leader, Pa Obafemi Awolowo sought to be the prime minister of an independent Nigerian republic. It’s on record that he didn’t fail in that attempt only because of the joint effort of the Northern People Congress, NPC, and the National Council of Nigerian Citizens, NCNC which teamed up against his party, the Action Group, AG, he was sent to jail by the Balewa government because of the betrayal by fellow Yoruba politicians like Samuel Ladoke Akintola, Richard Akinjide, Akinloye and many others who couldn’t stand his intellects, astuteness, and professionalism. It was more of a failure by a race to stand together to put forward their best for a younger Nigeria that was barely three years old!

No matter how we may present all the perspectives of the history of the struggle between Nigeria’s founding fathers during the pre-republican constitution of 1963, no one will deny the fact that today’s Southwest of Nigeria attained the Wild-Wild West status because of the internecine bitter struggle among politicians of Yoruba extraction of the zone in those tumultuous years.

With the military takeover of governance in 1966 and the nation under military jack-boot for a period of 16 years in 1979, I have deliberately overlooked analyzing praetorian interregna because they are undemocratic and the system which is pyramidal in nature. Yet history testifies that whenever a very qualified Yoruba is set to be in the driving seat of the national government business, there are men of Yoruba extraction lurking in the alley of destruction haunting and willing to hunt him down. This strange phenomenon, it has been observed, strangely to repeat itself as a 30 years circular syndrome if we took 1963 when Obafemi Awolowo, the Action Group nationalist leader was betrayed by fellow Yoruba politicians in the NCNC of Nnamdi Azikiwe when the country attained republic status in 1963.

When the military decided to hand over to a democratic government in 1993, we are all aware of the dubious role played by key Yoruba men like Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and a handful of the hate-infused members of the Association for Better Nigeria, Yoruba in the opposition and the military. Though many will interpret this as payback day for the winner of the June 12 election, Chief MKO Abiola, it should be remembered that the concern now, is the timing of the syndrome that is exactly 30 years when a repentant MKO Abiola worked tirelessly as a National Party of Nigeria’s, NPN, the chieftain to throw the cog in the wheels of Awolowo road to victory as the flag bearer of the Unity Party of Nigeria, UPN who was earlier betrayed by the Akintola, Akinjide, and Akinloye!

Following this analysis, it will be another 30 years again in 2023 since Yoruba agreed to disagree on granting one of their best a place of history to handle the affairs of Nigeria. Currently, the seemingly indisputable contender to the exalted position of Nigeria president in that year is Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the Jagaban of Borgu and National leader of the All Progressives Congress, APC the ruling party. Strangely, the most vociferous attacks against his quest and sustained vilification are from his tribesmen. This is the definition of the Afonja phenomenon which many are hoping will not be allowed to take place this time because of the enormous political costs the nation suffers when the Afonjas have their way.

In 1963, after the defeat of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, it will be remembered, Nigeria started the decline into the mess and left-behind nation that it is today. With crises here and there which culminated in the unfortunate first military coup in 1966 and eventually a costly Civil War, attendant human cost and social and political dis-aggregation, that left little or no trust among the people of today Southern Nigeria, can Nigeria allow another betrayal by the Afonjas in Yorubaland.

The immediate cost of a similar betrayal of the June 12 victory won by MKO Abiola and the acts by the same tribe of Judas’ has been documented as in the monumental cost of prosecuting the struggle for the botch actualization of that watershed victory, as the nation lost some of her finest politicians: MKO Abiola and Gen Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, while those who were spared were left to waste away by aging and retirement as a result of another 30 years interregnum when the phenomenon is expected to re-enact itself again in 2023. Incidentally, unlike MKO Abiola who was instrumental to the failure of Chief Awolowo’s ascendancy to the presidency in 1983 which again falls into the calculation of the third year phenomenon, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a social democrat by political persuasion and a builder of men and infrastructure, administratively, is a product of the struggles against the Afonja phenomenon.

It appears that the gods of Yorubaland quietly modeled him to stand against the tide when in 2003, as the Last Man Standing among equals in Southwest; he trounced every attempt by the High Priest of Afonja dynasty to take over Lagos state from the AD. Incidentally too, as the arrowhead of the National Democratic Coalition, NADECO, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, also stood against the military junta of Generals Ibrahim Babangida and Sani Abacha till the military under General Abdulsalam Abubakar bestowed the presidency, again on Obasanjo, the High Priest of the Afonja clans of Yoruba, a man who has always stood against Southwest interest in Nigeria.

As the tides move toward another 30 years of Afonja syndrome, will the Yoruba betray Nigerians again? Will it not lead to another round of crises as of the past two instances? Will Nigerian survive another betrayal?

May peace prevail in 2023?

May the spirit of truth win our conscience!

May the ancestors of Oduduwa nation intervene to settle the internecine struggle amongst its children.

May Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Jagaban Borgu come out victorious with the support of Nigerians with a clear conscience.

The victory march has begun!

©Mallam Oyakhamoh Y. Carl-Abu’Bakar is the National Director of Media Matters, Tinubu Peoples’ Network, (TPN)

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