RACE FIRST, YORUBA FIRST

YIF NEWS

Our fellow sons and daughters of Oodua, we are greeting you in the name of Alajobi. It is of high time we unit regardless of where we were born, how much money or wealth we have acquired. lt is time we unite no matter which organization we belong to or our status in our various communities , field of endeavor, education, social status, and political affiliate, religion, illiterate or literate. We are one under God indivisible and of the same ancestral creed in the name of Oduduwa. “The tree of success is shedding its green leaves in our backyard. We are wondering why because a tree will not shed its leaves unless they are dry. We are wondering why but we do not know that the tree does not have roots anymore.”
The brook that forgets its source will dry. People that forget their origin will lack sense of unity, integrity, ideology, knowledge of self, respect for their ancestors and loyalty. Our fellow Yoruba people, please wake up from your sleeping mats, floor, bed, mattress or whatever you may be sleeping on to think and begin to fight our common enemies; poverty and disunity.
In each of us, Yoruba mind will be the basis of creating anything Yoruba. Nothing Yoruba is created without Yoruba’s mind is Creative. We as descendants of Oodua must embrace a philosophy of self-love and selflessness as opposed to self-hatreds and self destructions. We must celebrate our originality as opposed to thoughtless imitation of others.
A people that stay aloof of his cultural heritage will perish with her tradition, culture, spirituality, politics, social and economic values. A person that extracts a fractional but very cardinal aspect of his/her tradition from his/her day today living is like a person who intentionally cuts off his right and left legs and chooses to ride around on a wheel chair. That person is not normal any more but sure needs help.
What happened to the people who invented and processed their foods? What happened to the people who invented their money and named stars of heaven? What happened to the people who invented their textile? What happened to the people who were part of the beginning of civilization and inventors of weapons of war? What happened to the people who invented and practiced the doctrine of law that was copied by Western World? What happened to the people who invented ‘Kurufi’ that was perfected as Missiles by the Westerners? What happened to the people that invented arithmetic ‘ayo game’? The list goes on.
It is not farfetched to conclude that the lack of fundamental structure of the various components of Yoruba life especially on the religious fronts led to collapse of our society. The elimination of cultural ineptitude among Yoruba people is a necessary condition of substantive progress; and the affirmation of Yoruba humanity especially among Yoruba is a sufficient and imperative condition of this progress.
For more than 2,000 years Yorubas had survived one invasion and conquest after another. However, none is more permanent than that of the physical captivity of slavery and the mental devaluation of colonialism-experiences that permanently destroyed the memories of what our ancestors were before foreign contacts.
While it is imperative to recognize that Yoruba people were not the only people that experienced acts of aggression and domination, what is unique to our experience is the habit of regarding the actual as normal and acceptable. Instead of seeking to replace it with ideal ; against the view of human life, as vain and hopeless; against banality and the sense of vanity; in a state halfway between sleeping and waking; in a dream of powerlessness and state of uselessness.
Before the devastating episodes of slavery and colonialism, Yoruba people were far from been self sufficient in Agriculture, with vibrant commerce and viable industries, from Textile Mills to Food processing and Iron works. Yorubas were then amongst the greatest scientists and chemists in the universe. See and read, ‘The Stolen Legacy’.
Today, Yoruba land is a combination of hamlets, huts, villages, towns and cities with a GNP that is far less to city of Houston, Texas in USA. We have the buying power within Nigeria and the continent of Africa as a people but we are not aware of our market potential even with the port of Lagos alone for Yoruba businesses. We Yoruba people of today may exercise the liberty of preserving the anguish of the past if only we use the same to create a powerful future. We no longer have the equivalence to justify our past in our development.
From the time of Lamurudu to the time of Oduduwa, from the time of Onipopo of Popo to the time Alaketu of Ketu, to the time of Oranmiyan, from the time of Afonja to the time of Ogedemgbe, from the time of Moremi to the time of Kurunmi, from the time Oba Adesoji Aderemi to the time of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, and other ancestors of Yoruba land, Yorubas have endeavored to build bridges of cooperation amongst her people. Today, we must advance the mission by destroying our own suspicion of one another, and commence to fight with our common enemy.
What is our common enemy? Poverty of the mind, absolute poverty and temporary poverty is our common enemy. Omoluabi Investments Group Ltd will soon have answer to the question. Omoluabi will say ‘NO’ to poverty! Until now, we have constantly talked and deliberated on our dilemma without undertaking equivalent action to rectify it. All we have done is to moan and misery or blame the government in spite of the part played by ourselves in our economically backward state. We Yorubas are valiant people with the senses of pride. What can we do now? We must therefore close the era of rhetoric and commence with the process of reforming and reparation. If Chief Obafemi Awolowo could do it exemplarily, we should be able to do it better. Our challenge is to seek and unite every Yoruba sons and daughters living in the continent of Africa and the Americas and Europe for this common course. We must congratulate the efforts of the founders of this great organization that may eventually become an institution. All we need are institutions to advance the spirit of our vision. Our fellow Yorubas; what is a man without knowledge of himself? We have tradition, the sacred laws of the people left by our fathers to guide our lives.
Our mission is to embark on social and cultural civilization of Yoruba sons and daughters in the continent of Africa and in the Diaspora. To institute viable and cultural growth of our members and children. To establish sound and very effective communication basis with all sons and daughters of Yoruba people in Africa and beyond her shores. Yoruba Indigenes Foundation is ready to champion and dance to our ancestral drum of unity. The philosophy of YIF is committed to train and educate future Yoruba leaders from the grass root imbued with knowledge of self, ability, integrity and leadership with strong focus on Yoruba history, culture, tradition, heritage, world affairs and training in technology.