Nigeria is the Trojan Horse that the Fulani have employed for the invasion of Yorubaland.

·      In 1960, Ahmadu Bello, Sardauna of Sokoto and premier of Northern Nigeria, proclaimed that Nigeria was the estate of their grandfather, Othman Danfodio.

·      In 1999, Abdusalami Abubakar, Nigeria’s Military dictator, proclaimed a Fulani feudal constitution, which effectively imprisoned non-Fulani Nigerians.

·      In 2018, Bada Ahmadu, president of the Fulani Nationality Movement, proclaimed that Nigeria was the only country in the world that God gave to the Fulani.

·      In 2020, Abdullahi Bodejo, president of Miyetti Allah Association of Fulani herdsmen, proclaimed that all land in Nigeria belonged to the Fulani.

·      In 2022, Nigeria’s Fulani elite openly invited Fulani Islamic terrorists from other countries to invade and forcibly take Yoruba land.

We Yoruba are in disarray because our Ọba are not providing leadership. Leadership by the Ọba easily defeated Othman Danfodio’s jihad at Ilọrin as reported by Clapperton in 1826.  It has become necessary for our Ọba to clarify the position of the Yoruba people. We believe that the Ọba could and should do so by making a Declaration of Emancipation of the Yoruba Nation. There is no legal impediment under Nigeria or international law. There is no real local or international downside to a Declaration. Timidity or lack of self-belief is the only thing preventing our Ọba from making the Declaration. It is now self-evident that only we the Yoruba people can embolden our Ọba. So how do we do it?

1.    Pressurise

We follow the example of Funmilayọ Ransome-Kuti and the Ẹgba women by setting up pickets on the palace grounds. The Ọba’s palace is the property of the people; the people cannot be expelled from it.  Camps would be erected to accommodate campaigners. Banners would be flown. Billboards and posters would be erected. Leaflets would be handed out. All to explain why the Ọba should make a Declaration. Many organisations are able and willing to pay for or provide the leaflets, banners and billboards.  Celebrities and elites could be invited to address pickets. Freedom of assembly laws provide for picketing that was peaceful, non-violent and law-abiding. Imagine that you set up pickets simultaneously in every major city in Yorubaland.

The Ọba themselves are not immune to propaganda. We must employ all media to remind the Ọba that their primary allegiance and responsibility is to the Yoruba Nation. We must make the Ọba realise that they too are in the last chance saloon. If the Fulani savages do not get them, the Nigerian government will get them eventually.

2.    Respect

The Fulani respect their Emirs. The Yoruba talk disparagingly about their Ọba. This must stop, and stop now. Most Yoruba have an emotional attachment to the Ọba. To insult the Ọba is to insult the Yoruba. The office of the Ọba is a constitutional one, governed by Yoruba constitutional law. The Ọba is an institution, not a person. The Ọba is the unifying force for the Yoruba whereas politics is not, and religion is not. Our duty as Yoruba people, as Ọmọ Alade, is to respect and support our Ọba.

We must make our support for the Ọba absolutely clear to the rest of Nigeria and to the world at large. Yoruba organisations and elites must make the pledge perhaps through overt media campaigns.

3.    Social contract

This means establishing a system for rewarding the Ọba. We must never again allow our ẹ to be paid pittance as they are today, which has made them easy prey for politicians. We must promise to establish a ‘civil list’ system for remunerating our Ọba.

 We must pledge as quid quo pro a return to the Yoruba Constitution (Ẹda ara) which put the autonomy of the Ilu (city state) and the ẹ at the centre of governance. The Yoruba Nation was comprised of several different groups – Benin, Ẹgba, Ijẹbu, Ijẹṣa, Itṣẹkiri, Ọyọ and so on - organised as a collective of autonomous city states, a confederacy. No Yoruba group ruled over another. No Yoruba group was superior to another. This is the ‘Constitutional Ọba’ democracy that was successfully practised by our forefathers and to which we must now return. The ‘Constitutional Ọba’ was a 2-arm government of Ọba + Council of Oloye. There is nothing at all old fashioned about this; the British, our colonial masters, practice a ‘Constitutional Monarchy’, and so do a number of other modern progressive countries.

We must pledge once and for all to abandon the western parliamentary and presidential systems of government, which have been unmitigated disasters for us. Parliamentary system killed off the progressive government of Western Nigeria and got Awolowo, our leader, jailed. Presidential system got us Buhari and an ‘elected dictatorship’.

We will have our Yoruba Nation. There is absolutely no doubt about it. It is in the interest of our Ọba to be at the front of the quest. The Ọba would regret it if they sat on their hands.