Our former colonial masters, Britain, wrote the history of Africa and Africans from the eurocentric point of view, relegating us to the backwaters of development namely, that we are a backward race…hewers of wood and fetchers of water.
Unfortunately, neocolonialism, entrenched after colonialism and promoted by colonial interests, saw a willing tool in the hands of a particular race that sought (and still seeks) to see and portray Nigeria as a mere accident of history…a continuation of the colonial interest.
Fast-forward to the pre-independence and early independence eras, those who saw the Nigerian geographical space and its inherent potentials as their birthright got stuck on the false illusion that the country is theirs for the take.
These people, imbued with a false sense of ownership of the Nigerian landscape, were able to sustain the falsehood as planted in the highly rigged 1959 elections (as revealed by the late Professor Chinua Achebe in his book, “There was a country”) and are nurturing it to date.
Alas, the bubble burst, last Thursday, 9 January, 2020, as the South-West, for the first time, unitedly arrived at a consensus that “enough is enough” and announced the birth and berth, in the South-West, of Operation Amotekun, a regional security outfit that seeks to change and alter the porous national security architecture.
Ile ti a ba fi ito mo, iri ni yio o wo…
Operation Amotekun represents the voice of a people who are yearning for freedom from the shackles of oppression and a strong feeling of ostracization. It is a force that is greater than those behind the proposal…it has come to stay.
Governors Kayode Fayemi, Oluseyi Makinde, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, Dapo Abiodun, Babajide Sanwo-Olu and Gboyega Oyetola, you are the face of Yoruba land and its people. Your names will remain in the sand of time, if you can rise above personal sentiments, political and selfish interests and seek to promote the interest of the Yoruba race…
Your Excellencies, history will record you on the positive side of development, even as the entire people of the South-West look up to you. You cannot afford to fail us…not at this point of our chequered national history.
More importantly, the success of the south-western security initiative will surely go a long way to ensure security for other parts of the country that genuinely desire peace, a sinequanon for progress and development.
Kudos should and must be given to Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State and his Ondo State counterpart, Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, for not caving in to the federal pressure. Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State has said it that the surest way to go to ensure regional security is Amotekun. Their colleague-governors in Lagos, Ogun and Osun should also be more assertive in ensuring that the South-West Security Network comes into force and effectively, without any further delay.
Operation Amotekun is a practical ideology that must outlive my generation. The South-West governors and other critical stakeholders in the Oduduwa Nation should rise up to the challenge.
This is down to earth. Keep it up my brother