Nigerian ''independence'' 1st of October.
Some facts, reality and glaring anomalies that we should recognise and tackle.

Who we are; who we are should not be defined by anyone but us!

Since I was born, I've been told that I'm Nigerian; the nationality of the people from that land mass around the River Niger which was created from the amalgamation of various kingdoms by the British and the name coined and enforced by some Brit called Lugard, I'll throw up in my mouth if I use the word "Lord" before his name, and his mistress in 1914.

97 years on, everyone that was every born or came out of that region will be known as Nigerian. - A heavy mental blow dealt to people from various kingdoms and identities. A chain that will bind their fates together in an unholy way for almost a century.

How do I wake up every morning knowing that what defines me as a person was enforced on me by a slave master cum colonial ruler?

How do I live the day knowing that my identity isn't actually mine but rather what some bunch of foreigners have willed me?

How do I go to bed knowing that even if this identity didn't represent me, I was already chained to it and breaking from it would be one form of war or another?

Travelling through the mountains of South America, I suddenly began to reason; if a Frenchman is from France, an Englishman from England, a Spanish man from Spain, a Portuguese from Portugal then why aren't I, a YORUBAMAN from YORUBA KINGDOM??

Why has this identity of mine which is primary been kicked into second place?

Why has the Nigerian tag overruled who I am, who I was and who I'll always be?

Nigeria may stay or fall, but I'll always be a YORUBA MAN!

Now, with all due respects to people from every other beautiful and unique kingdom that make up Nigeria;
Does it mean that without Nigeria we shall not be able to live in peace and harmony?

What were our lives like before 1914 or before the invasion of the Europeans?

Weren't we living in our kingdoms and relating with each other based on our norms and values?

We all need to realise some hard truth, that for many years we have been avoiding and running away from.
This union called Nigeria wasn't made by our own accord! THIS IS STILL SLAVERY!

This is nothing more than the slave master gathering up all his slaves, bonding them together with his slaver master powers, making them work and live together for years, creating an identity for them and after a while stepping aside.

Those slaves still are bound by the curse of that slave master! And the people that make up Nigeria are still bound by the curse of the British and later brought in his American buddies for the feast, the feast of flesh and blood!!

The greatest form of freedom is that of the MIND and the attainment of a new level of consciousness as our own people, as independent people as free people is our only way forward!

For 51 years since the so called independence, which during the last one I asked "Independence from what exactly?", we have been entrapped, enslaved and bound within this union, running helter-skelter like sheep without shepard.

For 51 years, we have watched our lives, hopes and resources plundered, as this was never our home? The nation was never ours in the first place, it was that of the colonial master- It was his nation, his creation and his large backyard he got his oil, minerals, tested his medicine, economic and political experiments in!

It was his own little playground and the so called rulers his sheep dogs. Sheep dogs that he could command and control.

Which is why we see that our so called leaders aren't there for the benefit of the people.

As the people- Nigerians is an abstract concept which doesn't exist in any real sense, but rather for the reason of exploitation, oppression, control and repression!

Take a look around you today and tell me what exactly it means to be a Nigerian, take a look around you today and tell me if it actually means anything to us other than that geographical location- something like a foreign product manufactured in China which is exported for the use of others but still carries the tag - Made in China, so Nigerians are a foreign concept conceived by the British and manufactured in the area called Nigeria!

In 51 years, we have been plagued by our differences in every form, our differences which existed in most parts before the formation of Nigeria but never so violent and barbaric, those have now become the order of the day.

People who were once free in their kingdoms, with their norms and traditions, languages etc have now become slaves in this Nigeria, their resources being looted, their lands being ravaged and raped by the day and their children being torn from the souls of their communities!

The time has come for us to wake up from this slumber and free ourselves from this bondage!

The time has come for us to re-define this unholy union.

The time has come for us to break off these chains, send slavery and colonisation finally packing from our minds, return back to our kingdoms.

If we feel the need as a people to unite, then WE and only WE should sit down and determine this, no one else!

If we feel, we've had enough, then fine; we go our separate ways with mutual respect for each other and return to our kingdoms!

By Teekay Akin [Akinyemi Adeseye]
17/10/2011 FreedomMovementVoice