Enemies of the Yorùbás
If you are searching for the enemies of progress for the Yorùbá race, you need not look very far. All you have to do is look inward. Look inside, and you will see them. And there are very many of them. There is a Yorùbá saying that Bi ogiri ko ba la’nu, alangba ko le r’aye wọ bẹ. Literarily translated, it means, unless there is a crack in the wall, the lizard has no chance to get into it.
The home truth is that Yorùbás are the most treacherous group of people one could imagine. Yorùbás lack true leaders. Most Yorùbás leaders are self-serving, self-centred, and ever so willing and ready to sell their own people for money or for favour. They do not reflect on the future of the coming generations, so long as they make some money for themselves and their own families.
Betraying and selling their future.
Why Yorùbás remain slaves
The reason why Yorùbás continue to be slaves in modern-day Nigeria is because so many of those in leadership positions have allowed themselves to be corrupted and used against their own people. tales are told of Yorùbá Obas and Chiefs who are complicit in this. Traditional rulers who are bribed with money and favour to turn a blind eye when their subjects are treated like animals. It is hard today to find exceptions. There are tales of high-ranking Yorùbá military leaders who heartless and shamelessly, go behind to betray their fellow Yorùbá officers just to gain favour from their northern masters. There are tales of people with personal ambitions who create splinters of groups aimed at uniting Yorùbás, thereby weakening them.
There are politicians who for personal ambitions to high office will do anything, even if it means destroying the whole Yorùbá race, just to meet their ambitions. They have no scruples. There are Yorùbá governors and ministers who have shamelessly prostituted their integrity and sold out their conscience and their own people along with it.
The Traitors
The Yorùbá race is full of too many Judas Iscariot. At the local level, there are credible claims and proofs of Yorùbá people who are providing material and logistic support to herdsmen who are committing atrocities across Yorùbáland. It is a well-known fact that most of those who are all out to destroy Sunday Adeyemo are Yorùbás themselves. People who see him as a threat to their personal ambitions. Some, doing so out of envy.
While so many of such people are around, alive and active today, this phenomenon is not new. Treachery and disunity by individuals with personal ambitions have been the hallmark of too many Yorùbá leaders and elders in the past.
Consequences of treachery and disunity
In his paper titled: The Odùduwà Myth and the Farce of Yorùbá Unity, Dr. A.O. Adésọjí noted that:
One important consequence of disunity in Yorùbáland has been the inability of the Yorùbá to present a common front on national issues, as groups claiming to be speaking for the Yorùbá sing discordant tunes. ….. Even when it appears as if a consensus is to be reached, some elite—because of their privileged position and what they perceive as a threat to their continued political relevance—still criticise and condemn the common position taken by the majority.
As part of his conclusion, he noted:
In seeking to promote unity in Yorùbáland, there is a need for the elite to look more inward. This inward-looking process will involve self-searching on the part of the elite with the intent of purging themselves of selfish attitudes and behaviour………, the masses should refuse any overt or covert manipulation by the elite. Until this is achieved, the idea of Yorùbá unity may remain a mirage.
It is important that we clearly point out at to note at this stage that in seeking the rights for the Yorùbá people, a significant number of Yorùbás themselves are the biggest obstacles to achievement to objective.
Their place in history
History will not look kindly at the Yorùbás elders, the Obas, Chiefs, military and political leaders, and others who have sold out the Yorùbás people. And the struggle for the emancipation of the Yoruba race by the younger generation and the diaspora will continue despite the opposition from these people.