The idea of a Yoruba homeland is rooted in antiquity. The Yoruba Diaspora have maintained, and never broke, ties to their historic homeland since time immemorial.The Yoruba say: Iṣẹ aje sọmọnu bi oko Ile labo simi oko.
Legend has it that the world began in Yorubaland.
In the beginning, there was only the sky above (ruled by the god Olorun) and water below (ruled by the god Olokun). Obatala, another god, brought soil down from the sky and placed it down to form a patch of solid earth. Thereafter, other gods (Orisa), directed by the Ifa oracle, spread the soil to all corners of the earth to form the six continents Africa, Asia, Australasia, Europe, North America, and South America.
There is some historical evidence to support this narrative.
The peoples of West Africa were the first humans to develop from primitive hunter-gatherers to agriculturalists. To become agriculturalists, they first developed the ability to change the chemistry of metals to make farming implements.
A Yoruba homeland will get us recompense for slavery and for other things
Between 1400 and 1800, about 10 million Yoruba mostly men and children were forcibly transported to the Americas as slaves. We Yoruba built America with our blood and sweat but we are yet to receive any recompense, which would go some way to amend for the harm done to us and to our future. Our descendants, Black Americans, are yet to receive any reparation, which would go some to amend for the wrongs that America did and has continued to do to them. In contrast to the Yoruba, Holocaust survivors received billions of dollars. World War 2 internees were paid $1.5 million. Why should we not receive recompense and reparation for the damages of slavery? And for the resources that these took out of our land? We Yoruba can get these monetary entitlements, but only if we are an independent nation.
In 1888 Queen Victoria and Alaafin of Oyo signed a treaty.
The Treaty included a trade agreement. The object of which was to develop the resources of Yorubaland by means of a most-favored-nation trade status between Great Britain and Yorubaland. The Alaafin would receive a yearly fee for signing the treaty. He was paid £31.5s for the year 1890.
In 1913, trade with the British Empire was £8.5 million out of £13.5 million.
In 1917, trade with the Empire was £12 million out of £14.5; of £2.2 million with foreign countries, America took £1.8 million. No export from the north during this entire period.£6 million was taken from us to service the Imperial war debt. In today’s figures, we are talking £1 trillion for loss of separate development and £1 trillion for loss of resources.
A Yoruba homeland will motivate the Diaspora as it did the Jews
Two things were sacred to the ancient Yoruba family and home. When a person misbehaves, the Yoruba would ask: ‘Nibo loti jawa, to lokun lọ́run?’ meaning ‘Where did you stray from without a leash?’
The leash was what tied the Yoruba person to the land. The leash was the family and the home. The Yoruba have an ‘international certificate’ like the Jews; the ‘certificate’ is the emblem of suffering and dispersal.
The Jews use their ‘certificate’ to extract as much as they can from their host countries. We Yoruba do not. Why?
90% of Jews say the state of Israel plays a part in their Jewish identity 70% see Israel as central. In other words, it is the existence of the state of Israel that motivates them. Their strength lies in their identity as people from the Israeli homeland. Their power lies in the existence of a homeland. The existence of a homeland motivates the Jews to seek every avenue to advantage and enhance themselves in their country of residence. It makes them seek political power in their country of residence. So, 120,000 Jews in London have 10x as many MPs as 120,000 Yoruba in London. What does that tell us?
We can be as politically effective in the UK as the Jews, but only if we have an independent homeland as the rallying point.
Nigeria does not motivate anyone.
There has never been a Nigeria nationalism. There will never be a Nigeria nationalism. Why?
Nigeria is contrived, a mere geographical expression.
Nigeria is unloved by its inhabitants; they have nothing in common with one another. The Niger barrier has never been breached,
Nigeria is unloved by its leaders; to them, Nigeria is merely a vehicle for corruption and looting.
Nigeria has been bad for the Yoruba
Between 1952 and 1959, Yorubaland was the most developed and the most successful region on the whole of the continent of Africa, perhaps even on earth.
Developing countries like South Korea and Malaysia came to Ibadan to learn Awolowo’s methods. If that trend had continued, Yorubaland would today be comparable to South Korea and to Singapore. Although much of Nigeria’s wealth comes from Yorubaland, the region remains impoverished. Yorubaland provides 75% of Nigeria’s wealth the equivalent of N10 trillion per year. We Yoruba feed the rest of Nigeria to our own detriment. Under the guise of its ‘federal character’ policy, Nigeria’s government takes resources from Yorubaland to give to the north, put unqualified northerners in charge of everything, and limits opportunities for the Yoruba. Nigeria’s government kills off Yoruba industries, makes them redundant ,or causes them to be abandoned. Nigeria has all but destroyed the education system, the pride of the Yoruba. Yoruba youths flee Nigeria in droves for greener pastures abroad where they thrive and prosper.
To prosper economically, morally, politically, and socially, Yorubaland must be rescued from Nigeria, and become an independent nation of its own.
Nigeria’s other ethnic peoples hate us
No ethnic group would make political alliances with us Yoruba even though we are probably the largest ethnic group in Nigeria. Following the 1959 elections, NPC had 134 seats, NCNC 81, AG 73, Others 24. Winning post 156 seats. The turnout was NCNC 2.6 million votes, AG 2 million, and NPC 1.9 million. Awolowo offered Azikiwe the opportunity of a coalition government of the progressives, Zik turned him down to go cap in hand to the Fulani. Even though hundreds of the NCNC votes came from Lagos and Ibadan, and not a single vote from the north. Awolowo proposed dividing each region into two to allay the fears of the minority groups Midwest from the west; Middlebelt from the north; Southeast from the east. The minorities of the north and east would have none of it. Thoroughbred Yoruba who aspires to lead Nigeria is either imprisoned or murdered.
1963 - Awolowo was jailed to leave the Yoruba leaderless.
1993 - Abiola was killed to leave the Yoruba leaderless.
Any Yoruba who campaigns for better life for the people is targeted for assassination.
· Elderly Mrs Ransome-Kuti was thrown from the second floor of a building.
· Dele Giwa was murdered by a letter bomb.
· Sunday Igboho had his home raided by armed DSS thugs and only escaped death by a whisker.
Nigeria condones and encourages despicable human rights abuses in Yorubaland including ethnic cleansing, genocide, pillaging, raping of women and girls, and terrorizing. The Yoruba are in an abusive relationship in Nigeria. Why should we continue in this abusive relationship?
Nigeria is a failed state
There is no effective government in northern Nigeria because of bandits and terrorists. They control several local government areas where they have established their own governance structures and collect taxes. They kidnap school children for ransom. They destroy churches and murder priests and worshippers. There is widespread insecurity in southern Nigeria too because of the activities of Fulani herdsmen killers. These savages open graze their cows to destroy farmlands, use their AK47 rifles to kill anyone who protests, and make relatives watch as they rape women and girls. The situation is further exacerbated by the ineptitude, and the connivance, of the Nigerian armed forces and ,police as well as by widespread corruption.
Nigeria’s economy is in crisis.
The economy shrank by 1.8%, the steepest since 1983. At the end of 2021, the GDP will only approach the level of 2010, fully reversing 10 years of economic growth. High inflation and high youth unemployment exacerbate the crisis. The global demand for crude oil will progressively decline. Many of the constraints imposed in the wake of the COVD-19 pandemic will be permanent. Terrorist activities by state-sponsored Fulani herdsmen killers and by the Nigerian armed forces have shrunk economic activities in southern Nigeria that will take a decade or more to recover, if ever.
Nigeria currently has no constitution.
Between 1999 and 2001, the legislatures of the 12 Arewa States made new laws to extend the provisions of the Sharia; firstly, to include criminal law and secondly, to establish a dedicated Hisbah militia to police that law. What they did was self-determination. The Arewa people determined for themselves how they were going to be governed. They rejected the supremacy of the 1999 constitution; sections 252 and 272 of which restricted the Sharia to civil law. The Arewa people rejected the universal sovereignty of Nigeria.
Not one agency of the state is responsible to the citizenry.
All elections since 1959 have been rigged.
Nigeria is ruled with impunity.
All constitutions since 1963 have been written by the northerners. One constitution after another has been designed to institutionalize and regularize this impunity. Nigeria was constructed and structured to limit the rights of citizens, and stifle the individual’s capacity to develop, grow and prosper. The status quo is not an option for the Yoruba people. Support, sign, spread, donate, share, retweet http://chng.it/QJp8yJ6hPs Target: 100,000 signatures. Signatures cost nothing! And you don’t even have to be Yoruba to sign!