According to Article 4 of the UN Charter, application for membership was to be made by a state, a physical geographical entity. But that application was made on behalf by a human person. Article 4 does not prescribe the person who was competent to make that application for membership on behalf of the said geographical entity. It becomes even more intriguing in the case of a Non-Self-Governing territory.
Article 4 of the UN Charter did not prohibit a Non-Self-Governing territory from making a successful application for membership. To this end, it is noteworthy that UNGA Resolution 1514 (XV) says:
‘3. Inadequacy of political, economic, social or educational preparedness should never serve as a pretext for delaying independence.’
UNGA Resolution 73/104 reaffirmed:
‘…the right of the peoples of the Non-Self-Governing Territories to self-determination in conformity with the Charter of the United Nations and with General Assembly resolution 1514 (XV), containing the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, and with other relevant resolutions of the United Nations, as well as their right to the enjoyment of their natural resources and their right to dispose of those resources in their best interest…’
The Yorubaland is a Non-Self-Governing territory within the enclave of Nigeria. The Yoruba people did not consent to the incorporation of their territory into Nigeria. That was done unilaterally by Britain, an alien power, which simply transferred its colonial powers to Nigeria at independence on 1 October 1960. The Yorubaland lost the limited self-governance that it enjoyed as the Western Region of Nigeria after Nigeria’s military dictators introduced unitary government to Nigeria in 1967.
Before Britain took over, the Yorubaland existed as a collective of several autonomous self-governing Kingdoms. Whenever a Yoruba-wide matter arose, a Yoruba-wide leader like the heroine Moremi spontaneously emerged for the occasion, and was universally accepted.
At investiture, a chief of the Yorubaland automatically is conferred with two separate mandates, namely, a cultural mandate and a traditional mandate. The cultural mandate, which might also be called the governance mandate, derived directly from the title holder’s councillor or legislative (Ijoba) heritage. The obligation was to protect the integrity of the Yoruba polity, formally and forcibly, by whatever means. The traditional mandate, which might also be called the leadership mandate, derived from the nobility (Oloye) and the elevated status of the title holder. The obligation was to assert and defend, at every opportunity, supremacy of the Yoruba sovereignty. Indeed, the British colonialists right at the outset recognised this traditional mandate of the Yoruba chief in regard to land tenure.
Menendez CJ in Report of the Northern Nigeria Lands Committee Cd. 5103 p66 (1910) wrote:
‘The idea underlying tenure in the native community is that land is the property of the people, and that their Chief is a trustee of the people…’
Lord Haldane in Amodu Tijani v Secretary of Southern Nigeria (1921) A.C 399 said:
‘Land belongs to the community, the village or the family never to the individual. All members of the community, village or family have an equal right to the land, but in every case the Chief or Headman of the community or village, or head of the family, has charge of the land…’
A Yoruba chief, such as, the Baasegun Alabe, possessed an inherent mandate to represent the Yoruba people on any platform, inside or outside of Nigeria. This would include representing the Yoruba case to the United Nations.