The Yoruba Party in the UK (YPUK) is a political party operating exclusively in the UK. It is not affiliated to any Nigerian political party. It does not participate in political activities in Nigeria. However, YPUK members are inheritors of the Yoruba legacy; they have the sacred duty to defend, protect, and uphold their Yoruba inheritance.
A military coup is not political activity. All military coups in Nigeria since 1966, and there have been many of them, have severely damaged the Yoruba legacy. YPUK members, as inheritors of the Yoruba legacy, will express their view on the recent attempted coup by Northern elements of the Nigeria military.
A military invasion of Nigeria is not political activity. Since 1945, the end of WWII, America has bombed or invaded more than 200 countries in every continent, leaving in their wake widespread destruction and desolation, and complicating the problems they claim they went in there to solve. If Trump, America’s president, carried out his threat of military invasion, it would severely damage the Yoruba legacy. Motive is irrelevant. YPUK members, as inheritors of the Yoruba legacy, oppose the Trump threat.
Proximity provides evidence that the attempted military coup and President Trump’s gun-blazing threat, two seemingly disparage and separate attacks on Nigeria, are in fact related. The coup attempt by Northern military officers would not have been without the blessing and connivance of the Western powers, and when that became a non-starter, President Trump threatened a more direct attack for a problem that is not new. At the root of these extra-political attacks on Nigeria is fear from the progressive degrading by President Tinubu, who came into office in 2023, of the military dominance that Northern Nigeria has enjoyed over the south since amalgamation in 1914.
The military dominance by the north created two serious, seemingly intractable, problems for Nigeria. One, military patronage was the source of political power for Northern Nigerian politicians, and the source of subjugation of southern politicians. Without it, northern politicians have no innate political leverage in Nigerian politics. Two, military patronage was the head and heart of Islamic terrorism in Nigeria, and of the lawlessness of Fulani elites and organisations. Divested of it, as confirmed by Abacha, ex-Nigerian president, Islamic terrorists would not be able to operate and cause chaos in Nigeria.
What members of YPUK would say to military leaders from Northern Nigeria is this, the age of military dominance of Nigeria by the north is over for good. Get over it. There is no option other than to fully embrace the new emerging demographic reality of Nigeria’s military leadership. The north had used its military dominance to rule Nigeria for nearly 50 out of 65 years of post-independence existence with only pain, suffering, and tears to show for it. By all indices, Northern Nigeria underperforms significantly behind the south. The Christians that your compatriots are busy slaughtering are the ones, and the only ones, with the mindset and the capability to raise standards for the north. Without the Christians, the north is doomed, destined to remain retarded.
What members of YPUK would say to Mr Trump is this, before you embark on yet another unwinnable war, ponder the following statistics. Over 2 million Yoruba were forcibly transported to America during 400 years of transatlantic slavery where their descendants still live. The official language of both America and Nigeria is English. In the year 1917, America took over Germany’s trade with Nigeria to the tune of £1.8 million (ie £2.7 billion in today’s money). Despite these familiarities, America today seriously underperforms compared with China when it comes to trade with Nigeria. Why? Because while China’s foreign policy objective is ‘build-build-build’, America’s foreign policy objective is ‘bomb-invade-sanction’. America needs to change otherwise no Nobel Prize for Trump in 2026. A similar sum of money for Nigeria, ie $60 billion, that Trump recently gave to Argentina would go a long way; it could be used to develop the marine economy of the 500km long Yoruba coast with its deep sea, and create thousands of new manufacturing jobs in America which America desperately needs.