Àwùjọ Ọmọlúwàbí
(for Yoruba universal self-determination)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
REGIONALISM IS NOT THE DESTINATION OF THE YORUBA PEOPLE
Àwùjọ Ọmọlúwàbí, a universal self-determination group for Yoruba sovereignty, notes with grave concern the renewed campaign by a coalition of ethnic nationalities presenting regionalism as the solution to Nigeria’s persistent constitutional, political and developmental crises.
The Western Region recorded remarkable achievements, including free primary education, agricultural development, industrial investment, broadcasting advancement and the construction of enduring public institutions. These achievements demonstrated the administrative competence, creativity and developmental capacity of the Yoruba people. They were not proof that regionalism guaranteed genuine sovereignty. They showed what the Yoruba could accomplish even within a constitutionally constrained federation.
We respect the right of every nationality to advance its preferred political arrangement. However, we firmly reject any attempt to present regionalism as a universal settlement binding upon the Yoruba people. Those advocating its restoration must confront Nigeria’s constitutional history honestly. Regionalism is not an untested idea. Nigeria operated regional governments under the constitutional arrangements preceding and following independence. Although that system enabled significant development in some regions, it neither eliminated federal dominance nor resolved the fundamental national question.
Under the First Republic, the regions possessed substantial powers, but they were not sovereign states. Defence, external affairs, currency and significant security institutions remained under federal control. The Nigeria Police Force was federally controlled, leaving regional governments dependent upon a security institution over which they lacked ultimate command. The federal declaration of a state of emergency in the Western Region in 1962 further demonstrated that regional autonomy could be displaced by federal power during political conflict.
Historical accuracy also requires clarification that the President under the 1963 Constitution was principally a ceremonial head of state. Effective federal executive power rested primarily with the Prime Minister and the Federal Government. Nevertheless, the constitutional structure still gave federal institutions considerable influence over matters affecting the regions. Regionalism therefore produced autonomy without sovereignty and responsibility without complete control over the institutions necessary to protect that autonomy.
The regional era also left unresolved problems of minority protection, interregional rivalry, population disputes, revenue allocation, ethnically aligned political parties and federal interference in regional political crises. Its developmental achievements cannot erase the bitterness generated by the Western Region crisis, the federal emergency of 1962, the disputed elections of the First Republic and the eventual collapse of the constitutional order in January 1966.
Nigeria’s subsequent history provides an equally sobering lesson. The multiplication of states did not extinguish domination. The concentration of powers and resources at the centre has weakened the constituent nationalities, encouraged dependency and reduced historically coherent peoples to administrative units competing for federal allocation. State creation fragmented Yorubaland without transferring genuine sovereignty to its people.
Àwùjọ Ọmọlúwàbí therefore declares that regionalism may be the preferred destination of some nationalities, but it is not the final aspiration of the Yoruba people. A renovated regional structure that remains subordinate to federal authority would merely repaint the walls of an unsettled constitutional house. It would not answer the deeper questions of identity, security, political consent, resource control and national self-determination.
The Yoruba people constitute a historic nation with a common civilisational heritage, related languages, established systems of governance, distinctive cultural institutions and a long tradition of political organisation. Our people existed before the Nigerian state and cannot be compelled to regard an arrangement created by colonial convenience as permanent and beyond democratic reconsideration.
Àwùjọ Ọmọlúwàbí stands firmly with the Yoruba people and proclaims that only an independent Yoruba nation, possessing the full sovereignty of nationhood, can ultimately satisfy the legitimate aspirations of our people and the growing demands of Yoruba youths for dignity, security, accountable government and control over their collective future.
Such sovereignty would enable the Yoruba nation to design its own constitution, determine its economic priorities, control its natural and human resources, establish appropriate security institutions, protect its language and cultural inheritance, develop its education and health systems and enter relations with other nations on the basis of equality rather than subordination.
Our demand is not founded upon hostility towards any ethnic or religious community. It is a democratic claim to self-government. We envisage peaceful relations, open trade, regional cooperation and mutual respect among all the peoples presently inhabiting Nigeria. Independence does not require isolation, hatred or violence. It requires consent, negotiation, constitutional dialogue and an orderly democratic process through which the people may determine their political future.
We particularly call upon Yoruba youths not to surrender their future to arrangements negotiated without their meaningful participation. They deserve more than a return to a constitutional system designed for the political realities of the 1950s. They deserve a country in which their votes matter, their communities are secure, their talents are supported and public institutions are accountable to them.
We call upon Yoruba traditional institutions, professional bodies, intellectuals, workers, students, market associations, religious leaders, community organisations and members of the diaspora to begin a disciplined and inclusive conversation about the constitutional, economic and institutional foundations of Yoruba nationhood.
We also urge those promoting regionalism to desist from speaking as though every ethnic nationality has accepted their proposal. No coalition of political elites possesses the authority to determine the future of the Yoruba people without their freely expressed consent.
Nigeria’s history teaches a clear lesson: limited regional autonomy can produce development, but it cannot provide the security and final authority that accompany sovereignty. The Yoruba people must not exchange the present centralised arrangement for another structure in which decisive powers remain elsewhere.
Our position is unequivocal. We reject violence. We reject ethnic hatred. We reject forced constitutional arrangements. We support peaceful self-determination, democratic consultation and the emergence of an independent Yoruba nation founded upon justice, equality, competence, cultural dignity and the Ọmọlúwàbí ideal.
The future of the Yoruba people must be decided by the Yoruba people.
ÀWÙJỌ ỌMỌLÚWÀBÍ
For justice, dignity and Yoruba self-determination
Sgd
Taiwo Odumosu, Esq., LLM Professor Olakunle Folami
National General Secretary National Organising Secretary
