REFLECTIONS: JUNE 12 AND THE YORUBA POLITICAL CLASS
As usual, I have been up since 3a.m. The going on in the country is giving me concerns. I can’t really sleep and when I have this kind of restlessness, I opted to read and or listen to the PAST such that I may or can find timely and timeless clues needed to address my PRESENT concerns and thereby gain insight, yea, both mental succor and physical stamina to handle the how to and what can shape my FUTURE.
It is based on the foregoing that I once again elected to peruse Jimi Disu’s Blog the early hours of today which is instructively or coincidentally June 12 – those who appreciate history and would appropriate the spoken and unwritten story thereof knew what this date/day meant in the political anal of this country – in search of materials (written or voice) that one could glean from and may well grasp insight into what tomorrow may and can bring.
And amongst several materials posted/hosted on Jimi Disu’s blog was the less than fifteen (15) minutes recorded edition and uploaded version of the somewhat ‘heated ’interview granted by Chief Henry Ajomale, the Chairman APC in Lagos State, which I had the privilege to have listened to the LIVE broadcast, during the Discourse with Jimi Disu on Classic 97.3 FM on that fateful Sunday afternoon.
Any curious mind would beg to know the correlation the interview has in addressing the personal restlessness that gripped me on my bed and the public restiveness in the land – Biafra agitation in Southeast, Militancy in Southsouth, Kidnapping in Southwest, Boko Haram in Northeast, Banditry of the marauding Fulani Herdsmen in Northwest, Settler-Indigene impasses in Northcentral and myriads of shenanigan and charades that are engulfing the political landscape and heating up the body polity which is affecting me and mine
Well, I picked the interview so as to sufficiently hear one of the key figures and by construct, a representation of the social elite and political class in the country and read between, beneath and beyond the lines of what was said in order to better situate the messages and mindsets of the political leadership and put in context, the shape and shade of that which was, is and to come, which and/or who directly and otherwise impact and/or impede the recent and rancorous past in our political history and are still around and may perpetually be on ground (and online) in dictating and/or directing the course of things both today and tomorrow in this political space and national lives.
And since politics and its attendant harbingers and jobbers had by default, designed some ways and will for a while, if not forever, have significant say in how I lead and live my life, I retrospectively sought to know how the political class and our social elites, by their fruit – through their words and actions – are handling present issues and poised to harnessing the course of events that are gradually and ultimately shaping our lives as a people with special focus on the political leadership (elders or elites as they would love to be called) within the Southwestern (Yoruba) region of Nigeria.
Like many listeners, callers and commentators to what went down before, during and after that interview, I was stunned and appalled at the insensitivity and the bravado put up by the political leadership as aptly but sadly represented by the ‘oga at the top’, sorry, top notch politician. Situations where the followership seeks to engage the leadership on matters of public concern and national interest but the former get rebuffed by the latter in a circus of ‘I am not your mate’ is unacceptable and unfortunate. This sort of disposition by and from the political leadership that downplays everything sensitivity and sensibility in an egalitarian society as well as anything equity and equality in a democratic setting speaks volume as such does not augur well for the body polity.
It is begging to ask: Should ‘things fall apart’ in this political enclave called Nigeria, is this the kind of abrasive stance and abusive stand from ‘political elders’ sorry, elites what we would get and live by, bargain and settle for in the utopian and illusory ‘Odua Republic’? G-d forbid!!! If what was on display is anything to go by, then the Yorubas are somewhat ‘doomed’ to live with and be led by curst political actors nay, gladiators that will not show rounded sensitivity and showcase humility in service when graced and privileged by the divination of celestial forces and machination of terrestrial armies to hold political power and civil authority ‘in trust’ for the people.
I made the foregoing troubling assertion on both the political class and the masses in Yorubaland in view of the seemingly but roundly warped ‘superiority mentality’ that ‘we know and can do better if not best than others/them’ where and when it comes to political leadership and matters of public service in the event of the disintegration of the Nigeria state (may the gods forbid this from happening) which may lead to smaller nations like Biafra, Arewa, Odua etc.
For a while, the political class in Yorubaland has come to believe and relish in that awkward disposition that good governance is defined by and should be the provision of physical infrastructure such as tarred roads, building blocks of classroom, painting of public buildings, and other social jamborees. However, and more recently, there was a deconstruction of this narrowed way of defining and gauging good governance and political leadership when certain of the Yorubas opted for the gospel of ‘stomach infrastructure’ to crowning yet another political aberration believing that a political albatross was being dethroned – double jeopardy.
Suffice to note that good as the physical and ‘stomach’ infrastructures appear to giving credence to politicians and politicking in this clime, both are not the real deal as our somewhat shrewd Yoruba leaders are wont to make them look and make us believe. If anyone seeks to contest this assertion, such should dissect the depth of messages and manifestos of politicians and political parties in developed democracies and advanced economies and would clearly see (if well-schooled and informed in the nuances of politics and public service are) that what we touted as sterling political leadership and celebrate as dividends of democracy in this part of the world are not really the big deal after all.
In the kingdom of the visually impaired, the man with one but good chromatic feature, will overly parade himself as the imperial personae of the sightless. But the Yorubas are not and cannot be enmeshed in this characterization of the blind nor lump into the comity of the visionless. In all ramifications, particularly in this clime, Yorubas have strong visuals of what then want both for the now and their envisioned future, as well as for themselves and in considerations of others that care and dare to see and go with them.
Some are today out on the streets telling any of the political class that cares to listen that ‘our mumu don do’. But I dare say that in the first place and from the outset, we are not ‘mumus’. Yes, the Yorubas are not mumus and greater percentage of Nigerians are not morons. If our civility is being taken for docility, then the political leadership is either feigning to be pathetically naive and/or claiming to be sycophantically misled. For the Yoruba elites or any political class to either assume and or posit that the cautious discretion and the more civil dispositions of the(ir) masses – that would rather but peacefully engage their ‘elders’, nay elites in the bid to correcting the perceived and real anomalies in governance – to mean a people conquered is but a gamble that will backfire – ask Gadaffi and others like him.
The critical mass of the Yorubas are acclaimed to be well educated, sophisticated, civil and cultured. These attributes will (and may) one day be the undoing of bad leadership and poor governance where and when the people show their revulsion, which may well not be easily controlled and quickly contained. It is expedient to note that the position of a larger masses of the Yorubas that are not brazenly calling for the disintegration of Nigeria – unlike the Igbos are wont to do and more recently the Arewas – and their reservation towards the preservation of this amalgamated geo-political enclave called Nigeria should not be misconstrued for wholesale acceptance of the insensitivity and stupendous if not outlandish posturing of certain of the elites and politicians holding powers and positions at various levels and arms of government in the nation.
Unlike the May 30 ‘sit-at-home’ protestation of the Igbos, June 12 is and should be an auspicious date/day to sit back and reflect on the political direction of the country and how impact of the destinies of Yorubas and everyone. It is worthy of note that without June 12 (1993 Election), there may not well be May 29 (Democracy Day), and maybe October 1st (Independence Day) may well have taken mere phase and place in the political calendar and social life of this nation and her people – for a man, a Yoruba man of means and substance, either wittingly as a volunteer or accidentally as a martyr paid the ultimate price for democracy to have it place and take its course (no matter how warped we choose to profess and practice it) in today’s Nigeria.
Therefore, let all well-spirited ‘Omo Odua’ continue to contribute to national discourse and development through political reengineering and social engagement in ways that engender united and functional society and not in manners that promote division and confusion as being championed by some under the guise of restructuring and secession. These are the injunctions laden in June 12. They are the instructions the political class, particularly in Yoruba land as well as for leaders of thoughts in this country to embrace so as to give rest to the restlessness and restiveness across the Niger and in Nigeria.
This is my reflection on the state of the nation as I choose to first remove the log of wood from my (own people’s) eyes while attempting to pinpoint the dusty and rusty plank in the eyes of others. It is when and where the political class sees and treats the people as mates (on the premise of equity and equality) in the scheme of things that the bird will peacefully nest and progressively rest on the tree and in the branch thereby saving the nation as well as ourselves the foreseeable but avoidable dismemberment of the country and the throes that may befall all afterwards – may the gods forbid such as the good God helps and bless us all.
– Gbenga Taylor
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