The flared temper over Amotekun is betraying a direr Yoruba distemper: “self-determination”.

But as Amotekun is different things to different lobbies (as Ripples argued in Amotekun!, January 21), “self-determination” too could be a code for a rainbow of meanings: re-federalization, confederation or even outright secession, depending on placid, frenzied or even frazzled tempers.

Why, the giddiest, of the Yoruba “self-determination” lobby, is already dreaming and crowing “Oduaexit”, after Brexit, Britain’s exit from the European Union (EU)! Trust the excitable Nigerian to crunch and gobble the latest global slogans!

Still, a caveat: nothing is wrong with self-determination — absolutely nothing.

Indeed, it is both fundamental and legitimate, particularly in a federation, yet to find its true soul, since its dawn with the Lyttleton Constitution of 1954.

Besides, the same theory valid for Nigeria’s independence from colonial yoke, could well be valid for Nigeria’s radical re-tinkering: if the omnibus isn’t delivering value and joy, to its restive components.

Remember Jeremy Bentham and his greatest happiness of the greatest number?

So, in pursuit of that common happiness, nothing really should be off-limits — even secession — if rigour is the criterion; and whatever goal in view, is achieved by democratic means. Mass happiness and citizen satisfaction, after all, confer legitimacy on any political territory.

So, the angst is not about “self-determination” per se, but the gung-ho, rabid Yoruba nationalism fuelling it all.

Behind this preening, leering, ethnic back-slapping, set in a boisterous orgy of mutual-serenading, is a rather vacuous premise: grab ye first the Republic of Oodua and you have a Utopia of utopias, where everyone lives happily ever after!

This costly conceit is not supported by history, far or near.

Ay, Amotekun has brought about rare Yoruba unanimity. But even the most casual follower of Yoruba history would know the Yoruba always band together in periods of great peril.

What happens before and after a major crisis, however, is far less predictable. Which is why the frothing ethnic pride, driving this fervent “self-determination” push, after the Amotekun breakthrough, appears rather curious.

Let’s start with near-history. The great Obafemi Awolowo social revolution, that made the old Western Region a clear pace-setter and the envy of all in the Nigerian federation, peaked when the British were still in charge (1951-1959).

By Awo’s own account in Adventures in Power 2: The Travails of Democracy and the Rule of Law, by November 1960 — a month after independence — a North/East high-wire plot was on, by parliamentary deputies, to clamp down on the West.

Most of the plotting deputies, that launched an anti-West debate in the House of Representatives, were from the North and the East, goaded on, with frenzy, by their regional leaders.

But no less active, in that plot, were Awo-loathing Yoruba elements, hiding behind partisan differences to cock a snook at Awo.

Sure, their main target was the uppity “Mr. know-it-all” Federal Leader of Opposition. But they seemed not to particularly care that the West, their region, could end up as grand collateral damage — which was what happened.

At the depth of that debacle, the West had birthed iron-clad camps of Awoists versus anti-Awoists — the anti-Awoists not unlike the scorned anti-Christ in Christian orthodoxy.

That division has more or less defined the Yoruba political orthodoxy till this day. The regnant Awoists, clearly in the majority, look down on the other camp: at best, as leperous conservatives to be kept at arm’s length; at worst, as a scum of anti-people reactionaries, always at the ready to undo, with alien conspiracy, the Awo political estate.

But to the Yoruba conservatives, the distaste is mutual: many so-called Awoists are pretentious ideological vacuums, barren without vomiting Awo’s inherited manna.

Still, both camps, progressive or conservative, boast pan-Yoruba elites. But their followers are much more skewed, sketching out some rough neo-Kiriji massing of partisan alliance: the Ijebu-Ekiti-Ijesa-Ondo, widely against the ethnic Oyo, with the Egba boasting decent sprinkles in both camps.

Neo-Kiriji! That echoes the Kiriji War (1877-1893), that fierce late-19th century intra-Yoruba conflict that raged for 16 years, and ended in a stalemate because the British moved in to impose order. That pushes the discourse back into the far-history of Yoruba harmony or crisis.

At its zenith (1608-1800), the bulk of the people that the Oyo Empire subjugated and plundered were fellow Yoruba: from Metropolitan Oyo, to the adjoining Yoruba vassal states in the heart of motherland, to the far-flung coastal Egba/Egbado corridor, which linked Oyo merchants to the sea.

After its decline (which started circa 1754 and peaked in 1836), the main victims of the rising Ibadan military hegemony, to shore up a falling Oyo, were also fellow Yoruba.

Indeed, the mass rebellion that triggered the Kiriji War, arose from wanton rape: in Oke-Imesi, the Ibadan Ajele (viceroy) there, Oyepetun, had raped the wife of Fabunmi, an intrepid local, who in rage lobbed off the randy viceroy’s head.

The Ibadan response was war, not to condemn rape but to teach Fabunmi and audacious folks a stern lesson — Kiriji!: an onomatopoeia of booming guns, wreaking great slaughter! Again, the Ekiti-Ijesa Parapo military alliance, arrayed against the imperial Ibadan, were fellow Yoruba!

Even the coastal Ijebu, that shut out Oyo-Ibadan subjugation, played the neo-Sparta of that troubled era — Sparta, that impenetrable Greek city state with mythical military might and a healthy suspicion of aliens!

The Ijebu sealed their borders and made hay, golden middlemen, trading in coastal slaves, with foreign vendors; and arms and ammo, with the Yoruba interior. Again, the bulk of the victims here were fellow Yoruba. It took the Ijebu defeat in the Anglo-Ijebu War of May 1892 to open up the Ijebu country.

But why this long foray into history? For starters, Yoruba solidarity isn’t historically given. That, however, is much mitigated today, given the general peace that has held from the 20th century till now.

But much more important, there is a bogey — Nigeria — on which neck every intra-ethnic foible is hanged; and the past is over-romanticized as lost utopia. That would appear the delusion driving this current Yoruba ultra-nationalism.

Nigeria is yet to be anyone’s dream — which it can be, when well-structured and well-run. But it has been the unsung bogey, to which every problem is adduced. That is delusional.

The Yoruba should try every constitutional means to secure their region. But that should not automatically equate Oduaexit, as many are mouthing.

Renascent Nigeria, a continental power with immense size, and global pride of the Black race, is a much more strategic turf, for the Yoruba to play.

Even Awo, dubbed a “tribalist” by his malevolent opponents, was anxious to unleash his cutting ideas on Nigeria, rather than limit them to an ethnic cocoon.

He knew it was a far better deal, than an Oodua Republic, which could just be a blip, even if brilliant, on the global map.

By Olakunle Abimbola