On 16 January 2024, Ibadan was bombed. The Oyo State Governor, with no more than a cursory investigation, immediately diagnosed a mining accident. There does not appear to be anything that Nigeria could throw at the Yoruba that would cause the Yoruba to resist or revolt or even think. The Yoruba met every atrocity with a shrug of the shoulder or a turn to God to provide deliverance. Yet in actual physical terms, Nigeria could not defeat the Yoruba on the battlefield; the Fulani could not defeat the Yoruba on the battlefield. 

So, what is the problem? The problem is not really apathy (aibikita). The Yoruba cannot stop talking about how badly they are being treated in Nigeria. Instead, the Yoruba are docile (irọrun). This distinction is important because treatment is different. You can cure apathy with awareness but how do you cure docile? Perhaps we should start by identifying the cause or causes.

1.    British overlordship

In the Yorubaland of old, power was owned by the people and exercised by the people for the benefit of the people. Over the period of 46 years that they were in charge, the British conditioned the Yoruba to accept that power was to be owned and exercised not for the benefit of the people but for the benefit of their monarch and her officials. Power was owned by the British who acquired it corruptly, by force of arms or by subterfuge. The British showed no qualms in the nakedness with which they exercised that power. If the people, including the Ọba, the Yoruba ruler, did not do what the British officials wanted, the British punished them with deprivation of liberty or sometimes even with death.  

The British were not accountable to the Yoruba for their actions. The British extorted tax from the Yoruba and spent it without the consent of the Yoruba taxpayer. The British signed treaties with Yoruba rulers that they had no intention of honouring and did not honour. The British introduced into the Yorubaland a rigged system of justice in which an accused was a spectator and not allowed to properly participate in his own case. Where before there were city states autonomously organising their own affairs as they wished, the British put overarching super states – first the protectorate of Southern Nigeria in 1890, then amalgamation of Nigeria in 1914. The British did not obtain consent from the Yoruba people for any of this. Indeed, the British used the amalgamation primarily to rob the Yorubaland of its resources. 

The British imposed half a dozen or so constitutions on Yorubaland that did not allow the Yoruba to meaningfully participate in government until 1954, some 40 years after the amalgamation of Nigeria. The British rigged the 1959 election for Northern Nigeria, that was Nigeria’s first nationwide election. The British even rigged the census. Then finally, as they left in 1960, the British replaced their colonialism with indigenous neo-colonialism.

The consequences of the British overlordship for the Yoruba was their conditioning that they were powerless. The Yoruba could be governed by outsiders without their consent. Their lives could be determined by outsiders and there was nothing they could do about it. Outsiders could be as corrupt as they liked and the Yoruba could do nothing about it.

2.    Nigeria overlordship

Self-government from 1954 brought the Yoruba a lot of optimism. Although the British overlordship was still there, insiders were effectively in charge. The Yoruba saw overarching leadership provided for them by Ọbafemi Awolọwọ used power for the benefit of the people. Life was more abundant.

Then came independence and the emergence of the Nigerian overlordship, where again outsiders determined the fate of the Yoruba. The Yoruba found that they were again powerless as the 2 other regions ganged up on them. The East and Northern regions colluded to imprison Awolọwọ, the Yoruba leader. The East and Northern regions colluded to divide Yorubaland into two – West and Midwest. In 1966, the outsiders took total control. The Northerners no longer needed to collude with the Easterners. The Northerners have gone it alone doing exactly what they want.

The consequence of the Nigerian overlordship for the Yoruba was again their conditioning that they were powerless. Where the Nigerian overlordship was more pernicious and destructive was in the bastardisation of the Yoruba culture. The Yoruba culture was based on the philosophy of respect (ọwọ). The Yoruba person was taught from childhood to give respect to elders and to the competent. The Nigerian overlordship replaced respect with deference (Iforibalẹ).

When Ọbasanjọ at a meeting demanded that all the Ọba present stood up for him, he was asking for deference, not respect. Ọbasanjọ, just like the colonial officer, perceived himself to be above the Ọba. The junior staff was being deferential, not respectful, when he ran personal errands for his boss (Ọga). The civil servant was being deferential, not respectful, when he paid government money into the minister’s private accounts.

To conclude. The Yoruba are docile because of their conditioning under the 2 overlordships. And, it is by being docile that the Yoruba have subjugated themselves. Docile is a psychological state. The only way to end it is to remove the Yoruba from the Nigeria overlordship. Nothing else will do.