My take on this cry of marginalisation, 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 consessions at the center. I do not think that those who are gained ascendancy at home consider the Yoruba to be marginalised! What real significant difference would occupying any of those positions 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 Yorubal elites occupied those positions, what siginificant difference did it make to the ordinary Yorubas and other citizens who lived in the south west?
In reality, has this so-called marginalisation 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 autonomous of the center because of being governed by parties (which) 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 marginalisation as in most of the cases of marginalisation pushed and politicised 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 marginalisation 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 has been radically altered since GEJ? Is that why the Niger Delta is ‘No longer marginalised’? 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 marginalisation 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 criminalised; 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 marginalised; and it is this truly marginalised citizens 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.
