Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has affirmed that the Yoruba nation does not have any individual who can be regarded as the leader. Obasanjo stated this in his controversial autobiography entitled, “My Watch: Political and Public Affairs,” where he addressed what he called his “Nigerianness and Yorubanness.”
In chapter 31, entitled, “Campaigns and Elections,” Obasanjo said Nigeria did not need tribal barons as leaders.
He added that there was nothing like Yoruba leadership in Yoruba land.
The former President said, “Just as there was no single oba having sovereignty over the whole of Yorubaland, there was no individual as leader of the Yorubas in Yorubaland. As it was then, it remains till now.”
He noted that even among the Yoruba obas “there is equality, but mutual respect.”
Explaining further, Obasanjo said, “no crown is subordinate to another,” the former President said, adding that cities and areas were normally of different sizes.
He recalled that in the past, obas never saw one another, but sent messages through emissaries.
The Ota farmer said in the North, the majority of emirs accepted the Sultan of Sokoto as the direct descendant of Usman Dan Fodio.
He said the Sultan was accepted as the leader among Hausa/Fulani traditional rulers.
“The Yorubas did not have such a clear-cut and accepted hierarchy. Every oba maintains sovereignty over his domain,” he added.
Obasanjo explained that ‘baales’ (chiefs) were appointed by obas within their domains.
According to him, Awolowo presided over the meeting of the Yorubas in Ibadan.
“In the course (of the meeting), Chief Awolowo presided. His supporters then fixed the title of Yoruba leader upon him,” he stated.
Obasanjo said that some people, including Chief Adisa Akinloye, did not accept Awolowo as the leader of the Yoruba.
Obasanjo said that after he successfully ended the Civil War, some people began to extol his “Yorubanness.”
“I did not encourage this. ‘My Yorubaness’ and ‘my Nigerianness’ must go pari passu, and one must not stand in the way of the other,” he stated.
Explaining the relationship between the two, Obasanjo stated that his parents were from Owu in Abeokuta.
He wrote, “I bear Owu tribal marks. And better or worse still, I speak English with my Owu dialect. I have always maintained and felt proud of my ‘Owunness’, ‘Yorubannes’ and ‘Nigerianness’ in that order.
“They are all parts of my cherished identity. But I have always refused and I will always refuse to be constrained, diminished or reduced to the level of Yoruba leadership.
“Without being immodest, I am a national leader, an African leader and a world leader in my own way.”
The former President said that Nigeria needed nationalists, not tribal leaders.
He stated, “I strongly believe that Nigeria needs nationalists to propel it forward. Myopic tribal barons and tendencies will not take us too far.”
“Other countries like Tanzania, Kenya, Zambia, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Mali, Senegal, Cameroon, to mention a few, were not so deprived,” he noted.
He expressed the hope that Nigeria could still regain what it lost at independence.
Obasanjo further said, “If a person is born in the Yoruba, Igbo, Nupe tribes, it is important that he tries and grows up as a Nigerian with total commitment to Nigeria”.
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