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| Nigeria's President Jonathan |
By Jaye Gaskia
My take on this cry of marginalization, is that for all intents
and purposes, it is a cry that is even among the Yorubas, quite a sectional,
and perhaps self serving one!
A section of the Yoruba elite who have lost out at home are now
trying to whip up sentiments in order to win concessions at the center. I do
not think that those who are gained ascendancy at home consider the Yoruba to
be marginalized! What real significant difference would occupying any of those
position by the political elite making the the claim, make in or to the lives
of ordinary Yorubas? When under the OBJ presidency a section of the Yoruba
elites occupied those positions, what significant difference did it make to the
ordinary Yorubas and other citizens who lived in the south west?
In reality, has this so-called marginalization led to the
undermining in any way, much less fundamentally, the business interests of the
Yoruba elites for example?
Is the south west being at this moment governed by non Yorubas?
Has it at any time in its history been governed by non Yorubas? I can even make
bold to stir the hornet's nest and make what may be considered, a controversial
assertion: 'The Yorubas, within the context of the politics of Nigeria, have
made progress whenever they have been autonous of the center because of being
governed by parties who are in the opposition at the federal level; than when
they have been governed by same party as that at the center or by parties in
alliance with the governing party at the center!
This claim of marginalization as in most of the cases of
marginalization pushed and politicized by the political elites is at its heart
very self serving. And in this particular instance of the Yoruba, at this
moment in time, even more self serving than most!
We heard a lot from the political elite of the Niger Delta before
GEJ's ascendancy about the marginalization of the Niger Delta [which is true in
reality; but by which the elite meant their exclusion from access to the spoils
of the federal center]. So is it that the fundamentals of the Niger Delta have
been radically altered since GEJ? Is that why the Niger Delta is 'No longer
marginalized'? Will the marginalization return the moment the Niger Delta elite
lose their current first class access to the spoils of office at the federal
center?
In reality, the real marginalization is of the under-privileged
non elites, whose slum dwellings are routinely demolished; who are routinely
evicted from urban centers; whose livelihoods sources are routinely
criminalized; and whose living conditions have been permanently made hellish
and unbearable. Or take the youth, among whom unemployment and unemployability
has reached pandemic proportions! These are the real marginalized; and it is
this truly marginalized citizen across the country who need to come together
and organise themselves politically and autonomously of this light fingered
thieving ruling class; in order to take the necessary political Action to Take
Back Nigeria; and achieve our National Liberation and Social Emancipation.
