By Femi Fani-Kayode
One of the lessons that Bola Tinubu and those with him will soon learn is that it is a very dangerous thing and an exercise in futility to stand against a moving train.
Those that met in Lagos yesterday only represented their own narrow mindset and band of thinking and their political party.
They didn’t represent the position of the Yoruba people. There are 70 million Yorubas in the world today and Tinubu does not speak for or lead most of them.
He only leads part of the APC in parts of the SW and those that are with him are mainly members of the fading ruling elite.
If there is a referendum on self- determination in the South West tomorrow these characters would be flushed down the toilet and thrown into the dustbin of history.
The way to counter those that want to exercise their right of self-determination and leave Nigeria is not to act as if they do not exist, impose your will on them, dismiss them with contempt and attempt to publicly rubbish and dismiss their legitimate concerns and aspirations but instead to try and understand where they are coming from, assuage their fears and anxieties, negotiate with them and give them guarantees about their place and role in a new and restructured Nigeria.
Outside of that it is only a question of time before they break away and determine their own future. Tinubu does not control the streets of the SW: the Yoruba nationalists and separatists do.
Those that met in Lagos only represent a tiny group of those in the South West. They cow tow to, beg and lobby the separatists behind closed doors and they condemn and disown them before the world. Such intellectual dishonesty, doubkespeak and cowardice is reprehensible.
Deep down in their hearts they want to break off from Nigeria as well but instead of having the courage of their convictions they tell the world otherwise simply because they want Bola Tinubu to be President.
They forget that the prospect of a Tinubu Presidency disgusts the Yoruba nationalists and the majority of people in the South West. Such a Presidency will not stop the the separatists: it would only strengthen and embolden them.
Worse still it would be a disaster for Nigeria.
• Fani-Kayode is a former Aviation Minister.