General Olusegun Obasanjo is one of the greatest assets of the aspiring Oodua Nation. We need his involvement in more proactive way now and not tomorrow.
Characters like Iba Gani Adams the ceremonial Aare Onakankanfo of Yoruba Land and the very patriotic Yoruba lion named Sunday Igboho are needed to get us to where we need to be but not giving a more prominent role to individual Yoruba leaders like Obasanjo and Lieutenant General Akinrinade to mention a few would be a huge mistake going forward..
I have watched over and over again the two speeches delivered by General Obasanjo and US Congressman Wolf as a Workshop at the Wilson Center in the United States.
The two powerful speakers not only correctly dissected the problems of Africa but more so the problems of Nigeria as a microcosm for the whole of Africa.
They offered what I would consider to be great and sound solutions to many of those problems.
Obasanjo in particular identified three major problems in reference to Nigeria and he forcefully argued how those suggestions could apply mutatis mutandi to Africa as a whole.
The first problem he identified was the management of Diversity. The second was the management or the mismanagement of Population and the third was the management or the mismanagement of the Electoral System all of which have had a terrible impact on the management of the Economy around which everything revolves, if the truth be told.
My point as a Yoruba man is that most successful Foot ball Teams all over the World go to every Soccer Competition with their best players usually referred to as their “First Eleven” and they don’t go by quota system in picking who those best players should be .
They rely on skill and talent in picking such players but in Nigeria and in much of Africa they do the opposite and they end up doing very poorly at such competitions.
I have great respect for Iba Gani Adams and characters like Sunday Igboho. They and other Yoruba leaders like them do have some important roles to play in the correct agitation for a major restructure of Nigeria or a return to regional autonomy and a call for the total breakup of Nigeria if the ruling Oligarchy refuse to allow wiser counsel to prevail
I cannot think of any southerner better qualified and far more credible to make that case for us before our fastidious rulers at home and before the international community whose intervention and involvement we are all going to need as a last resort when the rubber meets the road.
I don’t care what grouse some of us may have with Obasanjo, I can tell you that guy is one Hell of a rock- solid leader compared to all of his peers in Nigeria dead or alive and he has the scars to prove it.
I have made the case before and I would make it again that the Yoruba intelligentsia and leaders must bend over backwards to involve individuals like Obasanjo in our current mission.
Obasanjo’s input could be invaluable and make a huge difference to the attainment of our ultimate goal thru negotiation rather that war, if we have learned anything at all from the painful and the costly Biafra War from 1967-1970.
Congressman Wolf correctly criticized the Media from the West for not paying enough attention to the Genocide going on in Nigeria and that the American Government is not doing enough to draw attention to the Nigeria situation before it gets any worse than it already is and that it surely going to be, if the present silence of the grave yard persists in the Western World.
This advice is only a tip of the iceberg. There would be more to come tomorrow and day after. I promise.
I rest my case.
Dr. Wumi Akintide.
New York.
