By Bolarinwa Ayoola
Liberalism, in itself, encompasses the freedom to practise alternative ideologies outside a prevailing ideology or culture. It promotes hospitality, maintains a soft view on land ownership, and accommodates a political landscape that is inclusive of non-aboriginal members of a society.
Yoruba land once thrived on liberal principles. These can be observed throughout the history of the land, its trade relations, and its political structure. In recent history, for instance, the relationship between the Oyo Empire and Nupe land was not limited to political alliances and marriages. Certain high-ranking chiefs of the Oyo Empire actually had Nupe ancestry.
Yoruba land is a land that accommodates everyone. It offers non-Yoruba people opportunities for assimilation and naturalisation, even before these principles were understood and taught in classrooms in Europe. Similarly, Yoruba land was built as a secular society. It accommodates other worldviews and shows respect for knowledge systems and religions that originate far beyond its borders.
Yoruba land has existed on these principles, which have profoundly influenced its history and evolution through various historical eras. However, the world known to the Yorubas in the past is fast disappearing, and consequently, the Yoruba people and their civilisation face an existential threat. For the survival of Yoruba civilization and its people, these threats must be identified, understood, and neutralized before irreparable damage is done.
In contemporary times, the average Yoruba person walks around without a proper understanding of their values. Many have little or no knowledge of their history, are neither concerned about cultural preservation nor bothered by political developments across Yoruba land. This development is not only detrimental to the progress of Yoruba land and its people but also dangerous to the survival of the Yoruba race.
The situations in some of the world’s leading Western liberal societies in the present era tell a tale of cultural erosion, moral decline, and political occupation. For instance, the United States, which used to be a predominantly Christian society, is now contending with ideological and cultural transformations, including the growing acceptance of LGBTQ identities and concerns about the changing religious demography associated with increasing Islamic presence. Similarly, concerns have been raised about cultural erosion and the growing Islamic presence in the United Kingdom, developments that continue to reshape the country’s culture and political landscape.
Despite the fact that Yoruba land was built on secularism and hospitality, political control of the land remained firmly in the hands of traditional institutions and political elites, even within the Nigerian union, until lately, when that grip appears to be loosening. Over the last five decades, the sharp decline in cultural practices, the expansion of Islam and Christianity, the demonisation of Yoruba ancestral knowledge, faith and beliefs, political struggles with non-indigenous people, and moral decline should raise serious concerns among all Yoruba people.
In a disturbing development, I endured watching an interview in which the Agura of Gbagura Kingdom in Egbaland attributed the throne of the kingdom to Islamic heritage rather than its Yoruba heritage. The monarch boasted about how Islam has been the identity of the throne for several decades. In a similar development, the Oluwo of Iwo land has continued his denigration of Yoruba traditions, culture, rituals, and beliefs, despite occupying a position that comes with the responsibility of promoting, preserving, and protecting the very traditions that form the foundation of the throne.
It is no longer shocking that many Yoruba monarchs belong to foreign faiths, answer foreign names, and project foreign religions, cultures, and identities while relegating Yoruba identity and beliefs to the background, sometimes with the utmost disgust. Within Yoruba society, the trend is not significantly different. Many Yoruba families have abandoned Yoruba beliefs, culture and their Yoruba names in favour of religious identities, paying little or no regard to the fact that names carry ancestral history and cultural identity.
In a troubling development, a large section of the Yoruba population has failed to understand the importance of conservative politics or simply refuses to participate in it. During the 2023 general elections, many Yoruba youths became active participants in the Obidient movement, which, thrived on hostility towards Yoruba land, the Yoruba political class, and Yoruba political interests. This contributed to the loss of Lagos during the presidential election and the loss of some seats in the House of Representatives to non-indigenes, including the Oshodi-Isolo Federal Constituency.
The Omoluabi ethos that defines the Yoruba people continues to decline in the face of cultural erosion driven by the overwhelming influence of foreign cultures and religions. The loss of identity and ancestral history validates the concerns of those who believe that the loss of vital elements of Yoruba culture will result in the collective loss of the ancestral memory of the Yoruba people. Similarly, the disconnection from conservative politics will ultimately result in the loss of the land and civilisation of the Yoruba people.
Times have changed, and the liberalism that once served as a foundation for Yoruba hospitality, religious tolerance, and accommodation has become outdated in the contemporary world. What was once regarded as a virtue is increasingly becoming a tool for invasion, cultural erasure, and the gradual displacement of indigenous identity. The world has changed, the political realities have changed, and the threats confronting indigenous civilization have changed. Yoruba people must therefore recognise that the liberal principles upon which their society was built cannot continue to be applied without reconsidering their consequences in the present era. A civilisation that refuses to adapt its political and cultural principles to changing realities risks becoming a victim of its own virtues.
Yoruba people must embrace conservative politics that prioritises the preservation of their ancestral heritage, cultural identity, indigenous knowledge, traditional institutions, and political interests. Conservatism should not be understood as a rejection of hospitality or an attempt to deny other people the freedom to practise their faiths and cultures. Rather, it should represent a conscious commitment to protecting the civilisation, values, and ancestral foundations of Yoruba land against forces that seek to undermine or erase them. Yoruba people must understand that the preservation of their civilisation requires deliberate political participation, cultural consciousness, and the protection of their collective interests.
Beyond cultural and political preservation, Yoruba people must urgently rethink their land ownership policies and develop legislation that protects ancestral land from permanent alienation, particularly through outright acquisitions by non-Yoruba interests.
Land is not merely an economic commodity; it is an ancestral inheritance, a territorial foundation of identity, and a heritage that must be preserved for future generations. The prevailing practice of selling ancestral land without adequate consideration for its long-term consequences exposes Yoruba communities to gradual territorial displacement and the permanent loss of their ancestral inheritance.
The concern is not that non-Yoruba people should be denied the opportunity to live, work, invest, or acquire legitimate interests in Yoruba land. Yoruba civilization has historically accommodated people from different backgrounds. However, hospitality and accommodation should not translate into unrestricted permanent alienation of ancestral territories. There must be a distinction between granting people the opportunity to occupy and develop land and permanently transferring the underlying ancestral interest in such land.
Yoruba people must therefore begin to reconsider outright land sales and adopt long-term leasing arrangements as a preferred alternative, particularly in transactions involving non-Yoruba individuals, corporate entities, and large-scale commercial or institutional developments. Instead of permanently transferring land ownership, customary landholding families and communities should be encouraged to grant defined periods of occupation and development through legally enforceable lease agreements.
A comprehensive land-use and tenure regime should be established to regulate land acquisition, occupation, development, and transfer of land rights. Under this framework, government-approved occupation by non-Yoruba interests should be granted for clearly defined periods, with enforceable tenure conditions and provisions for the reversion or reclamation of the land upon the expiration of the approved tenure. Such arrangements should apply to future transactions and be implemented through appropriate legislation and provide transparent procedures for registration, renewal, compensation where applicable, and reclamation.
This would ensure that land does not become permanently alienated simply because it was once granted for commercial, industrial, residential, or other development purposes. Renewals should be subject to fresh approval and compliance with established conditions rather than an automatic entitlement to indefinite occupation.
The objective should not be to deny legitimate investment or discourage economic development, but to ensure that development does not come at the expense of the territorial inheritance of the Yoruba people. Land policies must recognise the intergenerational responsibility of Yoruba communities to preserve their ancestral territories. What one generation inherits should not be recklessly disposed of at the expense of generations yet unborn.
Yoruba traditional institutions, state governments, customary land holding families, and cultural organisations must recognise that territorial preservation is as important as cultural preservation. A people who lose their ancestral territories gradually lose the material foundation upon which their identity, history, and civilization are sustained. Yoruba land must remain an inheritance to be administered and protected, not a disposable commodity to be permanently surrendered.
While Yoruba people should continue to demonstrate tolerance towards other faiths and accommodate people of different cultural backgrounds, such tolerance must not become an instrument for the denigration of Yoruba culture, beliefs, traditions, and indigenous knowledge. There must be strong legislation and institutional frameworks against the deliberate denigration, destruction, and suppression of Yoruba ancestral heritage.
Religious freedom and cultural accommodation should not translate into the freedom to ridicule, demonise, or erase the indigenous identity of the people whose land and civilisation provide the foundation for such hospitality. Yoruba traditional institutions, political elites, and cultural organisations must recognise their responsibilities in this regard and ensure that the preservation of Yoruba heritage is treated as a collective obligation.
The Yoruba people must therefore draw a clear distinction between hospitality and cultural surrender, religious tolerance and the denigration of ancestral beliefs, and liberalism and the abandonment of their collective interests. The preservation of Yoruba civilisation cannot be left to goodwill or the assumption that the liberal principles of the past will automatically protect the people in the contemporary world.
Yoruba people must develop the political consciousness, legislative protections, conservative institutions, and territorial safeguards necessary to protect their identity, ancestral memory, land, and civilization. The survival of Yoruba civilization requires more than the celebration of its glorious past; it requires deliberate action to secure its future.
While liberalism has its own advantages, care must be taken in contemporary times to prevent Yoruba people from becoming victims of their own liberalism. Yoruba people must not allow liberalism to become the instrument of their own cultural, political, and territorial destruction.