I write in response to ‘Yoruba: From ancestors to architects’ by Abiodun Komolafe published in THE NATION respectively on 20 and 27 September 2025.
Mr Komolafe’s treatise admonishing the Yoruba as ‘workshy’ was totally lacking in context. Mr Komolafe appears to be one of those Yoruba elites who believe that the pious who for whatever reasons found themselves in hell could always establish a paradise enclave for themselves at one corner of it. That is just a pipe dream. There are no angels in hell.
From observations that I have made as a senior medical doctor, and as the Baasegun Alabe, the ‘workshy’ to which Mr Komolafe alludes was stress induced. The stress arose from the political environment, the context missing from Mr Komolafe’s thesis.
The existence and nature of the stress are best contemplated by comparing the political environment pre-independence with the political environment post-independence. The pre-independence environment was from 1952 to 1959, when the Yorubaland acquired self-government. The post-independence environment divided into 3 periods: 1960 to 1966, 1966 to 1999, and 1999 and beyond, when the Yoruba lost self-government.
In the period 1952-1959, Nigeria had not yet happened to Yorubaland. Britain, Nigeria’s overlordship, had given up its political power. At that time, the Fulani and the Igbo who passionately hated the Yoruba, and whose sole ambition was to destroy the Yoruba, had no political power over the Yoruba. Britain retained some economic power with which it supported the Fulani and the Igbo, for example, to the tune of over 3 million pounds each in 1959 whilst giving the Yoruba a paltry half a million. Awolowo and the Yoruba very easily overcame the financial constraints and made spectacular achievements. Yorubaland flourished in the 1950s only because the Fulani and Igbo had no political power to prevent or stop it.
In the period 1960 to 1966, Nigeria happened to Yorubaland. The British political constraint was removed on 1 October 1960. Nigeria became independent. The Fulani and Igbo took over the overlordship of Nigeria from Britain, and began stressing the Yoruba into the psychological state of timidity. The Fulani and Igbo abrogated to themselves the power to decide the fate of the Yoruba, and they exploited that political power. In 1962, the Nigerian government declared a state of emergency in Yorubaland. In 1963, the Nigerian government jailed Awolowo for 10 years on trumped up charges. Also in 1963, the Nigerian government carved out the Midwest from Yorubaland.
In the period 1966 to 1999, the military interregnum, a more toxic version of Nigeria happened to Yorubaland. Following the military coup of 15 January 1966, the Fulani dissolved their partnership with the Igbo, assumed overlordship of Nigeria, and began stressing the Yoruba into the psychological state of docility. The Fulani abrogated to themselves the power to decide the fate of the Yoruba, and they expressed that power by targeted assassination of several prominent Yoruba leaders, particularly under the Babangida and Abacha regimes. The list is long: July 1998 – MKO Abiola; June 1996 – Kudirat Abiola; October 1995 – Alfred Rewane; November 1996 – Suliat Adedeji; June 1994 – Admiral Babatunde Elegbede; October 1986 – Dele Giwa; December 2001 – Bola Ige, and so on. Others like Professor Akintoye and Sunday Igboho fled into exile to escape assassination.
In the post-1999 period, a chronic version of Nigeria happened to Yorubaland. On 29 May 1999, the Fulani imposed their military constitution on Yorubaland. The Fulani took total political control of Nigeria, and began stressing the Yoruba into the psychological state of submissiveness. The Fulani abrogated to themselves the power to decide the fate of the Yoruba, and they expressed that power by terrorism. They used Fulani ‘herdsmen’ to kidnap, wantonly destroy farms, murder farmers and rape Yoruba women folk. In 2021, Fulani savages butchered Dr Aborode who had returned to Nigeria to set up mechanised farming on 400 acres of land at Igangan. In 2022, Fulani barbarians carried out the shooting and bombing of a Catholic Church in the city of Owo killing more than 80 worshippers.
The timidity, docility, and submissiveness are components of one psychological disorder, the Nigeria Stress Disorder (NSD). NSD is a variant of the well-established Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (cPTSD). NSD is a pandemic that continues to plaque the Yoruba till today. It can be only cured by removing Yorubaland from the noxious environment of Nigeria. To this end, Nigeria itself could declare Yorubaland an autonomous region or alternatively, the Yoruba themselves could leave Nigeria.
Mr Komolafe’s thesis fails because it lacked this contextual analysis.