FROM THE CHAMBERS OF THE NOAH’S ARK
(OODUA REDEMPTION ALLIANCE / YORUBA WORLD ASSEMBLY)
1. Greetings:
There is no doubting the fact that my once-upon-a-time weekly broadcast has changed its toga of weekly exercise to the indefinite term of regular. And at a point, the regular seems to be becoming seldom. But allow me to still name it regular since I am not yet getting off the shores. However, let it be known that all my actions are dictated by inspirations but not by a definite rule.
At this point, let me say that I have been seriously inundated with innumerable calls and messages from across the world raising concerns and anxiety over the long silence from my end and expressing their hunger and thirst for the delicacy from my stable.
Truly it has been a relatively long time - since the month of May 2021. So, to you my lovers across the global hemisphere, I say many thanks to you all. It’s been due to very busy schedules here and there. Aside this, there is time for everything in life. So, I greet and welcome you all to my word again.
2. Dedication:
I most humbly and honourably dedicate this piece to three super patriots viz.
A. To our revered Baba Prof. Banji Akintoye who has committed his entire life to the struggle for the emancipation of the Yorubas regardless of his advanced aged at 86/87 and in defiance of the concomitant hazards involved.
B. To our heroic brother Chief Sunday Igboho who I believe God has deliberately kept away from the reach of the enemy forces just for a while.
C. And to Olorogun Pop Babatunde Ade-Banjo one of the most veritable veterans and pioneers of the Yoruba emancipation project with whom I have worked at the same wavelength for close to three decades now. Happy celebration on your 73rd birthday today Egbon.
3. The sworn disunity among the Yorubas: My consolation.
There is no blinking the fact that Yoruba race has been in a terrible mess within the enclave called Nigeria. Today, we have found ourselves in a terrible squelching quagmire struggling had to pull ourselves out. But much as some of us are making the efforts for the pull-out, so we are getting more sunk in the marsh. And the clamour for the lifting crane to enhance our pull has been high - Unity! Unity!! Unity!!!.
Unity, yes. All the scriptures in the world preach unity. Aside the scriptural lores, commonsence dictates practical relevance of unity in the actualization of all positive developments in human endeavours. But why Yorubas have been a different people with the word ‘unity’ missing in their dictionary has remained to me a snag. And truly, without any contest, there has never been a moment of durable unity among the Yorubas. Rather, we have been behaving to ourselves like a piece of walnut whose divides don’t see eye-to-eye. This is why the longest civil war in the history of human creation was fought by the Yorubas against themselves - the Kiriji war that lasted good 15 years. And our great sage Obafemi Awolowo saw this egregious trait in them when he said: ‘The Yorubas are highly progressive but badly disunited’.
When I came on board the Yoruba emancipation struggle over 27 years ago, I immediately realized the monster I was to fight in achieving my aim. I was conscious of the disunity factor as being well rooted, and I felt I should or I could change the tide. And so, I was grimly determined to effect the climacteric. Thus for 25 good years of my 27 years in the full-time service of Yoruba nation, I have dedicated myself to fostering unity among the Yoruba leaders and impliedly the Yoruba people. But today even though I lament our situation, I do not regret dissipating so much energy on the unification efforts. After all, there are no discoveries without explorations just as there is no history without events.
Even though all my efforts over the decades have failed to effect the desired and desirable result, I, however, hold my head high up today that a good discovery has been made there from. What is that discovery?
Before I go into the exposition, let me not reel out the steps I have taken or the catalogue of efforts I have made so far, as somebody has always come up to unfurl my credential for the world to see.
For the umpteenth time and without blowing my own trumpet, I am quoting my highly revered and fatherly figure, that Yoruba patriot extra-ordinaire by name Chief Tola Adeniyi once again as he so put it across the world:
'No Yoruba man or woman, living or dead, has made as much efforts to unite the Yoruba leaders as Dr. Victor Taiwo' – Akogun Tola Adeniyi at a public forum in Canada.
My last effort having failed at the establishment of what would have made the greatest unity instrument for the Yorubas in history namely the defunct YORUBA WORLD CONGRESS, I was sure the issue of unity in Yorubaland was irredeemable over which I shed bitter tears. Thus when His Imperial Majesty Oba Babatunde Enitan Ogunwusi Ojaja II, the Ooni of Ife invited me in the month of March, 2021 to call a meeting bringing all Yoruba organizations and leaders together in unity, the Ooni will remember today what I told him that he was looking for the horse’s horns which did not exist. Unity in Yorubaland did not exist. But when he shouted on me to go do what he instructed me to do, I most obediently obeyed the royal order and did my best to the appreciation of the world via the auspicious event of 25th March, 2021. In spite of the inspiring turn-out and glowing glamour that went with it, some leaders still refused to attend the meeting.
In spite of the Ooni’s appreciation of the great event, he still was not comfortable with the absence of three notable leaders, and so instructed me to repeat the exercise in order to get the three leaders involved. I did, and still they were not forthcoming. This was the event of 6th May, 2021 which I deliberately venued for the Ooni’s palace in Ile-Ife. Therefore, I must now have been vindicated by Ooni over my earlier submission to him. And from thence, I decided to hang up finally on the unity project.
But not too long after this event, some patriots from the Diaspora came from the blues with their hot desire to effect the seeming ineffectable – to unite the Yoruba leaders. Perhaps they could succeed where I have failed.
At this juncture, I want to most gladly reel out my words of limitless appreciation of and to the group of fantastic men and women forming what I tagged the G8 and G3 for initiating and collaborating on the actualisation of the most desirable instrument. Thus, my gratitude goes to the members of the G8 viz.
Olori Modupe Eko
Mrs. Toyin Ojobaro
Chief Remi Olowoloba
Mrs. Felicia Arike Ojo
Mr. Babatunde Aliyu
Mr. Kayode Emola
Mrs. Mandy Oriyomi and
Regent Awoniyi.
I also salute the G3 viz.
Babalaje Femi Kuti
Mrs. Egbinade Sanda and
Baba Aropo Ire.
When these angelic beings mooted the idea of the project, they invited me as a mentor, and we all sunk out entirety into the project for several months. The main object was to establish a central voice and a central vault for the enhancement of the Yoruba emancipation.
And the climax came on the 7th of August, 2021. What a fantastic meeting well attended by Yorubas from across the world! Yoruba must have gotten it right this time. We must have hit a success of the hitherto eluding pursuit. My joy touched the sky and percolated far beyond. Hurrah!
But what did we see? Just before the reverberating echo of the chorus of hallelujah simmered, a sledgehammer was whacked on the new baby from some certain quarters. Wow! All within 24 hours! But was the baby dead or still recoverable? The G8 are still on the mending mission. I pray they succeed.
But from my own end, all the events have moulded into a big discovery for me. What is the discovery? The philosophy my late friend Dr. Tai Solarin imparted to me suffice:
'You're u don’t need a multitude to change the world. All you require is a single valiant who will take a giant stride, and others will follow'.
Truly indeed, Obafemi Awolowo realized that the Yorubas were badly disunited, but he knew his onions, made up his mind to go the Tai Solarin philosophy, ignored the disunity factor and went along to establish himself and his leadership for the uplift of the Yoruba nation – the Western Region. Today, all the books have it that the record Awolowo laid in his mere eight fleeting years of governance would never have been beaten by any mortal else in the whole universe. The great Awo!
In a nutshell, my discovery is that I do not anymore see the Yoruba disunity as a bane for our propulsion. As a matter of fact, I now say to hell with the so-called unity. I declare it a persona non grata. A needless being.
And my highly respectable father figure, His Excellency Ambassador Dr Yemi Farounbi, shared my sentiment on the new discovery when he said as follows:
'I believe that the unity of the Yoruba is a long-term race and no one can state when it will be achieved. I guess that’s why Chief Awolowo never sought for this and only worked for a majority of just 52.3% in 1959 election'.
Thus, for that leader, for any serious-minded leader who know his onions, what he should rather do is literally call the bluff of the Mr. Unity, set his agenda right, roll the wheel to the road and ignite the engine. Before you know it, the ‘progressive but badly disunited Yorubas’ will file up and go with him to transform our Yoruba nation into one of the greatest and one of the super-power countries in the world – my dream.
4. Invitation to a book launch:
One other person among several others' whose comment on me really threw me off balance and saturated my faculty most aside Akogun Tola Adeniyi’s is my fellow compatriot and good friend Comrade Wale Adeoye who I am also quoting inter alia for the umpteenth time:
'Hmmm; thank you Comrade Victor Taiwo ….. you have put in so much, you have invested time and energy, you have been a covert operator investing your life and your blood. Your name is already written in gold because apart from all your numerous efforts there is no living or dead Yoruba person that has written so much on Yoruba self-determination like your excellent self …'
Yes, I can confirm that verdict when I say many thanks to my brother Wale once again.
One of my book works which people have rated as yet the best is the one entitled “NIGERIA ON GUNPOWDER” which I wrote some 27/26 years ago but which will remain valid till eternity. As a matter of fact, I am always ashamed of myself as I am always bombarded with calls from across the world asking to know how to procure the book all for me to perpetually tell them it is out of stock. Google the Amazon books today, you will find it displayed as out-of-stock all because I never had the money to do the reprint until some angels from my organisation - Oodua Redemption Alliance - took it upon themselves to lift the book from the dark dungeon. Now, the reprint version of the book is out again for global re-launch, and consumption.
To savour the aroma of the book in advance, I have therefore, chosen to lift the prelude of the book and a part of the Foreword written by that egg-head known as The Honourable Justice Adewale Thompson.
The Prelude:
PRELUDE TO THE REPRINT EDITION
One philosophy goes that; “If you want to turn a people into perpetual slaves, cover up their history”. History is a cogent subject in the curricula of all institutions all over the world because it is the instrument of revelation that gives you the knowledge of the genesis of events, objects or places, leads you through the evolutions to the present, and enhances your projections for the future.
But Nigeria being an odd country ruled by strange, unconventional human beings, the History subject, for all the repugnances in the world, was removed from her school curricula. Why, you ask? In order to enslave the present and coming generations so they don’t learn about the past of their country let alone being instigated into agitating for their future. But alas!, if any odd-thinking set of people think it is possible to obliterate history, they are nothing but jesters or buffoons.
This book will lead all the present and future generations into knowing the past of Nigeria whose leaders have steadily precipitated the country to the edge of the precipice of which we have all found ourselves today and only waiting to be tossed into the abyss.
This book was written between the years 1994 and 1995. But, owing to the lack of fund for its publication, it couldn’t be published until December 1999.
At the publication of the book, the printed copies vamoosed from the store in a fleeting moment as they were bought up and circulated around the world.
And, how the book got to the shelves of Amazon – the number one booksellers in the world - still remains a mystery to me till today.
The crack damage for its evacuation from the store was done by Professor Tony Afejuku of the University of Benin who, upon reading the book, came to Ibadan, visited the publisher’s store, chartered a vehicle and removed the entire stock. Since then, the aspiration to get the book reprinted upon its hot demands from across the world has remained a will-o’-the-wisp until now - some 22 years after.
From the above revelation, the book must be of special stuff. Yes, it is. With all modesty and without being self-judgmental or self-appraising, I have the confidence to submit that this book remains the best compendium of the political history of Nigeria ever written by any author in the world. It is a classic. It is unprecedented and its record may never be beaten. Yes, until I am challenged and got my argument defeated by proven evidence, I want to lay claim to the exceptionality of the book which I predict to be compelled for adoption for all strata of tertiary education up to the PhD level for the purpose of the impartation of knowledge of the evolutionary trends of Nigeria someday. It is the panoptic relay of the history of events in Nigeria from the primordial age up to 1995 or 1999 which also serves as a valid material for the future projections of the country.
The following narrations will lay credence to the above seeming vaunting.
Sheriff Folarin was the journalist with the Nigerian Tribune Newspapers assigned the coverage of the book launch in 1999 to whom I gave a copy of the book free. Sometime later when we met, he had become a lecturer at the Department of History in the University of Ibadan, and he told me the story of an inspiring event that transpired.
A female American professor had come all the way from the United States to the University of Ibadan desperately looking for a book entitled NIGERIA ON GUNPOWDER. Nobody could help her until Sheriff gave her the relief of her life when he rested the woman assured that he would make the book available to her as he possessed one. You may just imagine the possible display of euphoria by the professor. I gave Sheriff another copy for replacement.
I was in the creeks with the Niger-Delta freedom fighters one day when a friend there introduced me to a cluster of young graduates who had come for enlistment into the cadre. ‘This is my friend from the West, Mr. Victor Taiwo. He is a great author’. And instantaneously two of the young men rose on their feet and asked if I was the author of NIGERIA ON GUNPOWDER, and I solemnly and shyly answered in the affirmative. They were frozen almost to coagulation in disbelief. They both said they read my book in their different universities. Great! What an inspiration!
Maxwell Adeleye a PhD student at the Babcock University, Ilisan, had always known me, though less than a year of our acquaintanceship, to be an author, right, but never could he have connected me to the book NIGERIA ON GUNPOWDER. This night he called me to know if I was the author of one book entitled NIGERIA ON GUNPOWDER. I said, ‘What about it? Yes’. And he was flabbergasted. He, thereafter, narrated to me how his professor in the lecture class was naming the best authors across the world and he mentioned one Victor Taiwo from Nigeria and Africa deriving from a book entitled NIGERIA ON GUNPOWDER which he read. ‘Victor Taiwo… Victor Taiwo … Victor Taiwo… could it be the same Victor Taiwo that I know?’, Maxwell intoned? 'But I never knew he wrote any book entitled NIGERIA ON GUNPOWDER or that he is such a magnificent figure in the world of academics. He would inquire perhaps there was another Victor Taiwo ‘Yes, I am’, I told him. What a height of appreciation and adoration from Maxwell. The list of such testimonials is endless.
This is the book you are having the grace of reading now.
In the course of the reprint exercise, some people had counselled that I review the book to be able to meet the latest developments. No, I said. You don’t review history. History is always about the past events running to the universal creation. And so, I am not touching anything in the book. If there is, therefore, the need for the updating of the Nigerian historical events, it has to be another daunting exercise beginning from where I stopped. I only pray I have the grace to effectuate the updating.
You are, therefore, welcome to the evergreen compartment of knowledge.
At this juncture, I cannot but appreciate to high heavens some members of my organization – Oodua Redemption Alliance – who made this reprint exercise possible via their financial droppings. To Professor Ayotunde Bewaji, Dr. Felix Akinpelumi, Hon. Adebayo Odusanya, Pastor Mrs. Folayemi Adesan, Prophetess Nike Mary Brakner, Mr. Jimi Klementi Ogunmakin, Pastor Stephen Akinsola Akinwumiju, Mr. Musa Jimoh, Dr. Olaiya & Mrs. Roseline Ogidan, Mrs. Christiana Adegbotolu, Mr. Simeon & Mrs. Omolara Olakanmi, Mr. Dele Olakanmi, Mr. Basiru Okesola, Mr. Matthew Owoyemi and Mr. Supo Adenegan.
And to the fatherly and patronly trio who have been a steady source of inspiration to me namely; Elder Dr. Taiye Ayorinde (Baale of Ekotedo, Ibadan), Ambassador Dr. Yemi Farounbi and Akogun Tola Adeniyi, I have my eternal gratitude to you all.
And to all the members of Oodua Redemption Alliance (ORA) worldwide, I pay a great salute to you all for your unalloyed loyalty to me and commitment to the cause of Yoruba race.
My gratitude to you all knows no bounds. Thank you all, thank you all, thank you all.
Victor Olu Taiwo
Ibadan.
11th August, 2021.
Now the foreword in part:
"The author’s catalogue of events is thorough and authentic. I immediately formed the opinion that it should be used as textbook for secondary schools and tertiary institutions in any region which cares to inform the coming generations of the events of the past as guide to the present so that when they become leaders of tomorrow they will not be left in ignorance about what happened in the past which must or must not be emulated…
"This book should not just be read as a novel. It must be studied and used as an encyclopedia of Nigeria’s political history from pre-colonial to colonial times, from independence to the age of the generals. The facts and figures have been so carefully assembled that one cannot but applaud the author’s doggedness or indefatigability.
"The author has presented an unbiased account of the roles of our founding fathers - Zik, Awo and Sardauna.
This stance depicts a maturity which distinguishes the author from the rank of partisan politicians whose views are cacophonic, depending on which side they have their leaning…
"Finally, the author, who wears the image of the humble and conscientious graduate when Nigeria has neglected in preference for the kleptomaniacal ignoramuses, has demonstrated on the book that our drive for education is not in vain and thereby rekindled our hope that they will be capable of managing the future".
The Honourable Justice Adewale Thompson.
I, therefore, most cordially invite all lovers of Yoruba race and all lovers of intellectualism to the event of the launch of the book coming with all velocity via zoom modality under the arrangement posted below.
And my resolve is to plough back the proceeds so generated into human and food security in Yorubaland.
The sales outlets are as follows:
A. Amazon.com USA
B. Toptek Arsenals, Nigeria
+234 9013473498, +23408121631696
C. University of Ibadan Bookshop (Google for contacts)
D. The author - +234 8126923916
E. The Publisher - +234 8059525342
Thank you and God bless you all.
DR VICTOR TAIWO
President, Oodua Redemption Alliance &
Secretary-General, Yoruba World Assembly
+234 08126923916 (Hotline & Whatsapp)
