by Femi Fani-Kayode
One of the basic truisms of nationhood is that we as a people must appreciate our roots. We must never forget who we are, where we come from and what we stand for.
I was born on October 16th in the year of our Lord 1960 and consequently I celebrated my 53rd birthday last week 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. May God bless them and all my numerous siblings, loved ones, friends, associates, collaborators, readers and well wishers for their encouraging words and constant love and support.
May God also bless my numerous haters, traducers and detractors for keeping me on my toes, for strengthening my resolve, for giving me a reason to exist and to fight on, for making me relevant and for enabling me to have one testimony after another. May God’s name be praised. In the name of God the great and He that is more than able, I bless and thank you all from the bottom of my heart. 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 must never forget who we are, where we come from and what we stand for. For example you cannot speak of Great Britain without a full recognition of the role, history and impact of the nationalities that make up that country and that are known as the english, the irish, the welsh and the scots. Without those four basic ethnic foundations and the extraordinary role that each and everyone of them has played in the history and evolution of their country, Great Britain is nothing and nothing good could have ever come out of her. 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. 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. A tree without a root and foundation cannot grow and is more often than not stunted- it can never be that which it was meant to be unless it’s roots and foundation are not only cherished and nurtured but are also, above all else, loved and valued. A man’s family, lineage and name makes him what he is in the wider society and guides him in all that he does.The minute he turns his back on his family and forgets where he is coming from he is little more than an illegitimate child. And no matter how successful he is in life an illegitimate child he shall remain until the day he dies. It is the same for those that treat their root or their primary nationality with contempt and that are prepared to sacrifice it at the drop of a hat. Such people deserve to be pitied. Like the biblical Reuben they are ”as unstable as water” and they carry a father’s curse.They are not only confused but they are a danger to themselves, their friends, their community, their nationality and to the wider nation.
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. They can take away our self-respect, compel us to forget our history, tell us that we are no different to anyone else, reduce us to the level of mediocrity and servitude, take the greatness out of our being, relish in humiliating us night and day and dash the hopes of our children and our loved ones for a better future and a brighter tomorrow. They can do all that to us but they can never take away our sense of self-worth, our dignity, our excellence in extravagance and our self-respect. As long as the breath of life remains in us we shall never forget who we are and what our purpose is on earth. 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. A nation that, like ”great Germany” in the late ’30’s and early ’40’s, will need ”lebensraum” (breathing space) and that will, one day by the grace of the Living God, provide hope and good quality leadership for the west African sub-region and the entire African continent. That is our destiny. No more and no less. And by God’s grace and the power of His might, we shall achieve it when our time comes.
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.
Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija,
Because you flatter yourself so much, and ride on your ego so fast, I think you views/visions are often blurred