Last week I wrote about the Kenyan uprising and how their youths stunned the world by protesting for good governance. This protest quickly turned into a revolution, provoking the government into rapidly responding and rescinding the Finance Bill scheduled to take effect on 1 July 2024.

The Kenyan youth won the hearts and minds of the security agencies and indeed the entire country, but they must not fail to also win the battle. I say this because history has demonstrated repeatedly how easy it is for us as Africans to become complacent after achieving only a tiny victory. We lose sight of the bigger picture, and end up ignoring the real problem whilst focusing on the insubstantial.

I know many Africans would argue that the majority of African countries are independent; however, I beg to differ. Our rulers know where the ultimate power is seated, that the current government structures in Africa were not set up to give Africans true independence, but rather a façade to appease the credulous.

To be truly independent, a country needs to have autonomous control of all its God-given resources: human, economic, materials, mineral. This was the basis of the African nationalism movement in the 1950s that culminated in the granting of independence to many African countries; and yet even today, the people of Africa do not have this liberty.

The proponents of independence for African countries sought an independence that placed Africa on a level playing field with the rest of the world. But the other global players, especially Europe and America, were pursuing their own agenda, to perpetuate their exploitation of Africa. This is the reason that many leaders in Africa today have become the puppets of other, more powerful nations, both in the West and the East.

I am impressed that the youths of Kenya did not settle for mere street protests, but sought to target the economic interests of their elected officials. This strategy reached the politicians where it hurt the most, giving them a vested interest in addressing the demands for accountability.

As the revolution is cooling off, my advice to the Kenyan youths is to guard against becoming complacent with the enormous strides they have achieved thus far. They must maintain this momentum, mobilising themselves in small groups, with education and enlightenment as their watchwords.

For the revolution in Kenya to have been a success, its youths must educate themselves and their peers on how they got into this mess in the first place. Once they understand the underlying causes of their problem, they must tackle them earnestly and systematically, leaving no stone unturned.

They must engage in activities that promote justice, both in their communities and at the national level. It is only justice that can build a nation; without it, no nation can truly survive. The neo-colonialists know this, which is why they seek to undermine it by enticing African politicians with material largesse, bribing them to sell their country and its resources for tawdry trinkets.

I will implore the Kenyan youths not to squander their hard-fought victory by now resting on their laurels and hoping that the politicians will do the right thing. They must unwaveringly maintain the pressure on these politicians, until good governance, the bedrock of democracy, is ubiquitous throughout their nation. That is the only way that victory can be truly ascertained.

For us Yoruba, hoping and praying to achieve our own independent nation, I believe that we, too, must hold our elected officials to account. We must be resolute in our single-mindedness and determination to achieve genuine independence for our people. We must ensure that we build an independent Yoruba nation that is truly free to make its own choices and provide justice for all.