The lack of the knowledge of history and its trends affects our critical thinking and long term strategic planning, otherwise it should be clear that Yoruba have a higher chance of being Islamized in a separate nation-state than Nigeria, especially since the percentage of Muslim Yorubas is around the national average, which makes it easier in a mono-ethnic state to islamize.
I don’t support the status quo of Islamic and Western hegemony, but neither do I support the various separatists movements that will merely lead to the exacerbation of the problems they are running from in Nigeria.
The reason is Yorubas already have a high Muslim population, who could justifiably push for Islamization in a new Odua state whereby Abrahamists, both Christians and Muslims, suppress our traditionalists. Islamization being a process whereby Islamic interests push for a more ‘representative’ system, which basically is the right to rest on their worship day, Friday instead of Sunday, laws that reflect Islamic culture aka Sharia etc.
Unlike Ifa, Buddhism and other world religions, cultural imperialism is fundamental to Abramhamic religions as they seek to impose their laws and values over the wider society. They seek to convert ‘unbelievers’ and despite mouthing the doctrine of religious tolerance, it is only for things or perspectives of other sons of Abraham, not Original African practises and sons of Odua and Ifa.
Like White racists that deny racism, Yoruba Abrahamic elite say religion is not an issue in Yorubaland but refuse to officially recognize a single traditional festival as a public day, traditionalists don’t enjoy freedom of worship without harassment, their shrines are attacked in anti-fetish Pentecostal campaigns, Muslims destroyed Moremi statue in Offa etc
Looking back to the first historical account of Christians and Muslims taking over an Original African enclave, Egypt, Coptic Christians handed over the Egyptian army to invading Islamists, to secure a coalition indirect rule arrangement which last for 250yrs before Arabs instituted total Islamization.
This 250yr cycle of Oya global structural change was repeated in West Africa, first in Bornu Lake Chad area, before moving to Hausaland, then down into Nupe, Jukun and eventually Yorubaland. It starts with the first mosque, 250yrs later the Muslims grow to a point that they demand a more representative government system, either through compromise or Jihad aided by foreign Muslim powers, then 250yrs later they push for total Islamization.
Usually when a society moves into the second stage, its Muslims setup a mosque in an adjoining territory, where a new process is incubated. Around 750AD Bornu had its first mosque, by 1000AD it moved from Kanem to Bornu with a more Muslim friendly government and by 1250AD became fully Islamized. Hausaland started the process around 1250AD, around 1500AD it started a coalition government of traditionalists and Islamists, and from 1750, the Fulani Islamists inspired a Jihad to totally get rid of the last vestiges of Original African culture to become fully Islamized.
In Yorubaland, the spread of Islam has been a bit more complex because of the existence of other citystates and power centers, in addition to the Oyo Empire on its north and western borders. The Nupe Islamists attacked early 1500s, setting up the first mosque in 1560 in Oyo. Though the first mosque was for foreigners, Islam grew in Oyo and by 1660, the first Yoruba mosque was created. Following the 250yr cycle, Fulani with the help of the Islam friendly Yorubas, challenged and destroyed Oyo, but the people were able to reengage their cultural origins by moving into the forest.
So now instead of having a totally Islamized Yorubaland, we have a situation whereby Islamists strike a compromise in the former Oyo traditional structures, while having to plant new seeds in Ekiti and Ondo states.
Currently, we see manifestations of the Islamization cycle as Tinubu, a Muslim strikes a deal with Conservative North that can only lead to Islamization, just as we see Oluwo of Iwo, the oldest Muslim town, attack Yoruba culture and traditions, declare himself an Emir and wrestles the control of the mosque and Muslim leadership.
The two other interest groups, Western/Christian and Original African, are left with no choice but to react. Just like in 1966, the West will use Original Africans who they still view as their dumb Southern slaves, this time in a religious War, to blackmail and sabotaged the North. Like in 1966, when the British allowed the French and Portuguese to arm Biafrans, the coming war will be armed through the ex-generals, but once the Islamists agree to reinstate the indirect rule arrangement, they will stop the flow of weapons to the South and allow the North to recapture them.
The millions of deaths will just be collateral damage. The Western Powers will go back on their promises to the Nigerian separatists because they would always choose fellow Abrahamists by origin/blood to Abrahamists by colonization/attache.
Moreover, the Fulani are fellow Abrahamic imperialists easier to collaborate with in the exploitation of Original Africans and their resources than Original African sellouts that can’t be trusted not to become ‘populists’. Also, they can’t let the Southern protectorate secede, not only because they will lose the luxury Fulani foremen (since they cope well in Ghana and all other Black nations), but because the breakup will leave their Northern protectorate vulnerable to French takeover since ex-French colonies surround it and would become the only access to sea.
So, instead of we Original Africans allowing ourselves to be used as pawns on the British and Fulani chessboard, we must be very pragmatic. The Southern Christian elite instinctively know that they must come together to fight the Islamists, however their platform can’t beat the Islamists and it is very likely that they will eventually compromise like they did in Egypt.
The Original African traditional power centers were caught in a tailspin, as they allowed themselves to be distracted by their Christianized intelligentsia and academia claiming to fight the war on their behalf. It is now that we see the traditionalists coming together to define their cultural sphere, which the political class can eventually transform into a political platform.
However, the Original African cultural resurgence might be a tad too late as Western educated Christians head into a global proxy war, they will have no control and will be left high and dry. Nevertheless, the traditionalists must continue to serve as the voice of reason since Yorubaland might become engulfed in religious strife as mosques and churchs are bombed in reprisals attacks. The traditionalists might become the source of a Bolshevik Russian type of revolution, but based on cultural justice and not class or economic justice.
Ultimately, the Odua proponents have no power to bring about a breakup, so they will work with the Christian Western Powers. The likelihood that they win a separate nation-state is slim, and if they do, it will be indebted to the Christian Powers that armed it, like 1800s Argentina and Uruguay, balanced by the demand for increased Islamization, which will lead to the clean out of Yoruba culture pushed by the likes of Oluwo of Iwo, before they finally attack themselves and the Islamists win like they did in Egypt.
The prognosis of Igbos is not very different with the IGALA and Jukun to their north and Niger delta to the South. Northern Igboland will eventually fall to Islamization.
So, what is the pragmatic way to change the status quo of Islamic and Western hegemony in Nigeria? Well let them bring the war, support it to an extent that their mutual destruction is assured, then play our own game. Now, this is where the mindset is very fundamental. If we go into the war with hopes of separatist states, we won’t be able to present a formidable coalition to control the war to our advantage. Also, if we go into the war as Christians, Islamists in Southwest and Middlebelt would sabotage the effort and will have to be fought on home turfs.
The Church can never be the tool of true Black liberation, at best it could be a tool of assimilation and effemination of the Black Race, at worst it could be a tool of imperialistic control like in Haiti, Congo etc. African liberation can only be through true African spirituality so we should let the Abrahamists outdo themselves in the Abrahamists Ogun way before we step out in the Osun way.
There are those who wrongly discount Nigeria as a mere geographic expression, failing to recognize Ifas long time wisdom that there are no coincidences in life. God, the Universe, put the two largest original African groups together in Nigeria to fight and protect his true Eden and his cultures from the Abrahamic bloodhounds. We either team up and repel them, or be scattered and hunted down.
It is our manifest destiny, that in our quest for cultural Justice against Fulanization, to unite Original Africans to free Nigeria, Africa and the world from the clutches of Abtahamic hegemonic forces. Otherwise humanity is doomed once it’s source is overran.
