Onitiri-Abiola and the madness in Ibadan
Oba Isaac Babalola Akinyele, the Olubadan of Ibadanland, sat on his throne. There was an august visitor to be received by the monarch. He had in attendance some of his prominent chiefs like the Otun Olubadan, Chief Kobiowu, and the Ashipa Olubadan, Chief Akinyo. From the political class, Oba Akinyele invited the colourful Adegoke Adelabu of the Penkelemesi fome. It was an important occasion for Oba Akinyele. One of his subjects, a woman of no mean repute, had requested to see the monarch. Adunni Oluwole was not just an ibadan indigene. She was a force among the political elite of her time. Her pint-size notwithstanding, Adunni was a political juggernaut, she had her own political party, the Nigerian Commoners Party (NCP). The clamour for independence was at its highest then. Adunni Oluwole was futuristic She suspected that if given independence, majority of Nigerians would suffer in the hands of the few that would take over from the colonial masters. So, while others were asking for independence, Adunni was of the opinion that the British should not hand over power until the masses were bold and educated enough to confront the monsters that the political class represented. To achieve her aims, she moved from one palace to the other: from one town to another, canvassing and mobilising the people against the clamour for independence. The Yoruba called her party Egbe K’Oyinbo maitilo. In the course of her crusade, Adunni wrote to Oba Akinyele, seeking the permission of the Olubadan to come and address ibadan people on why they should not support those asking for independence. On her arrival, Adunni told Oba Akinyele and the people gathered that if the whites were chased away and the politicians took over from them, the common people would suffer untold hardship. To avoid that, she asked the Olubadan to use his influence and mobilise his subjects not to support the transfer of power from the British colonial masters to the Nigerian slave drivers. But she was not allowed to finish her message. Chief Adelabu (Penkelemesi) was reported to have
interrupted her abruptly, almost to the
point of physical assault before Oba
Akinyele restrained him. Oba Akinyele
recognised the toughness of Adunni’s
resolve but nevertheless asked that
Adunni should be taken out of the
palace and banished her from ever
entering the palace. The late
Professor Kole Omotoso recorded
Adunni’s encounter with Adelabu in a
more dramatic form in his book, one
of the most authoritative documentations of the Nigerian
politics, Just Before Dawn (page 200-
201). Omotoso called the book faction
(fact and fiction). But the Adunni story
is fact. Though she died before
Nigeria gained independence, events
after the 1955 episode have since
justified Adunni’s prediction that after
independence, a few would become
masters and dictators over the majority.
The Yoruba political, social and cultural setup is egalitarian in nature.
It is a race known to have given equal
opportunities for both sexes to
actualise their potential, in the
traditional setup, the position of
lyalode (leader of the women folks),
has been as prominent as that of any
male chieftaincy title. In some Yoruba
towns and villages, occupants of the
lyalode chieftaincy play important
roles in the selection of obas. This
also underscores the respect
accorded women on esoteric matters
because the women folk are regarded
as an important part of the tripod
which governs an average Yoruba
community (Oba-in-council, the awos
and the owners of the night-our
mothers). It is therefore not out of
place for women in Yorubialand to rise
and speak whenever occasion
demands. The likes of the legendary
Efunsetan Aniwura, the lyalode of
Ibadan (1829-June 30, 1874),
Efunroye Tinubu (1810-1887), lyalode
Bisoye Tejuoso (1916-1996), Chief
(Mrs.) Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti
(1900-1978), Mama Hannah Idowu
Dideolu Awolowo (1915-2015), who
after the passing of her husband,
Chief Obafemi Awołowo in 1987, held
the Awolowo political dynasty and the
entire Yorubaland intact, and the
most recent, lyalode Alaba Lawson
(1951-2023), came to mind as some
Yoruba matriarchs who used their
positions, positively, to project the
Yoruba nation to the world.
With the rich culture of decency that
the Yoruba women folk have attracted
to themselves and the race, one
cannot but be worried that in the 21st
century, a Yoruba woman can afford
to wage a senseless war against her
land under the guise of fighting for an
independent nation for the Yoruba
race. I am talking here about the last
Saturday invasion of the Dyo State
Secretariat by some miscreants who
claimed to be soldiers fighting for the
actualisation of an independent
Yoruba nation. More appalling in the
whole meshugaas, is the claimed
declaration of the Democratic
Republic of Yoruba (DRY), by Modupe
Onitiri Abiola, one of the widows of
MKO Abiola. Shortly after the invasion
of the Oyo State Secretariat, Onitiri
Abiola’s video of the declaration of her
fanciful DRY hit the internet.
In the four minutes and forty-two
seconds video (the version I got), the
woman said among other things, in
plain Yoruba Language: “We are
indigenous people. We are sovereign
people, we are ethnic nationalists. We
have decided to secede from Nigeria
on November 20, 2022. And today,
April 12, 2024, we decided to finally
leave Nigeria. I, Modupe Onitiri-Abiola,
proclaimed the sovereignty of the
Democratic Republic of Yoruba today,
Friday, April 14, 2024. From today
henceforth, Yorubaland has
commenced its own republic. By that
virtue, it is now become the newest
nation in the world. The video was
obviously recorded a day before the
invasion of the secretariat. After
watching the video, I have been trying
to situate what actually prompted her
and her backers to embark on such a
mission
at this point. I have been
trying to fathom which Yoruba nation
she was talking about. I checked
her
pedigree, the only thing I could get is
her conjugal relationship with the late
No doubt about the fact that Nigeria
as it is composed now, needs
restructuring. Nobody, especially
anyone who has been following the
political trajectory of Nigeria since the
collapse of the First Republic on
January 15, 1966, will be comfortable
with the way things are in the country.
The current political dispensation, has,
since its inception on May 29, 1999,
foregrounded, more than any
administration before it (civilian or
military), those things that divide us
more that any hope of unity.
As much as we agree that we don’t
have the best of structures at the
moment, it is unthinkable that the
solution will be a broad day-light
secession! The truth is that the last
set of nationalists that have ever
traversed the Nigerian political
landscape were those lofty politicians
of the last five years of colonial rule
and the first three years after
independence in 1960. Before the
January 15, 1966, coup led by the late
Major Chukwuma Nzeogwu, it was
obvious to all discerning minds that
Nigeria was “a mere geographical
expression”, as espoused by Chief
Awolowo in 1947. There is nothing to
show that the country has grown into
nationhood. Fifty-four years after we
fought
a needless civil war that
claimed over two million lives from
both sides, all in a bid to “keep Nigeria
one” in spite of the glamourous
insertions in our various
constitutions
the affirmative cliche of Nigeria being
“one indivisible and indissoluble
Sovereign State we have
demonstrated that we have not leamt
anything from our history.
My greatest concern in the current
matter is that it happened in
Yorubaland. With our sophistication,
cosmopolitan outlook and
enlightenment, it beats one’s
imagination that a group of people
would wake up, arm themselves
and
march to the Oyo State secretariat to
“Take over
the place. One of the
things that came to my mind is that if,
for instance, those DRY ‘soldiers’ had
succeeded in taking over the Oyo
State Secretariat, what follows? Would
that have meant that their gang
members in Ekiti, Ondo, Osun, Ogun
and Lagos States would replicate the
same? How many men do they have?
What is the size of the arsenals? What
a joke! But who do we blame for this
charade? How long have we been
asking that the Yoruba elders should
put their house in order? How long
have we been clamouring that
Afenifere should detach itself from the
apron of Yoruba political marauders-
the very ones who believed in
restructuring before they got to power
but would not touch the same
ideology with a 10-foot pole while in
government?
Above all, the last Saturday incident in
Ibadan is a wake-up call to the nation’s
leadership. They should be worried
that that type of thing can happen in
Yorubaland. Whether it resembles
gate, or it does not resemble it, one is
advised to set a trap for it (O jo gáté
ko jo gáté àwòn las dee de). Who
knows who has copied the template?
How many of us in Yorubaland ever
thought that something close to that
could happen in our backyard? When
the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB)
started its agitations, what name did
we not call them? The nation must do
something before we have a conflagration in our hands. Beyond
punishing those behind the Ibadan
saga, and I think they should be
thoroughly punished we must
address the factors that are
responsible for such a reprehensive
behaviour. It should not be dismissed
as one of those things. It is obvious
that Nigeria needs restructuring in all
aspects. Any further delay will bring
more of Onitiri-Abiola’s type of
proclamation. Truth is, many are
waiting in the wings to follow suit. It
was the igbo the other time. It is
Yoruba now. Who knows who is next?
