*IDENTITY POLITICS AND THE NECESSITY FOR A RADICAL BREAK FROM CONVENIENT NARRATIVES:_The Okun Question in So-Called Northern and North-Central Nigeria
_By Emmanuel Adebayo ABANIDA_
For too long, the Okun people have lived with an identity contradiction that has neither served their history nor advanced their development. We have been administratively classified, politically managed, and psychologically conditioned into spaces that do not reflect who we are, where we came from, or where we naturally belong. This essay argues that the time has come for a radical departure from convenient but damaging narratives—both those imposed on us and those we have internalised for comfort, access, or patronage.
This is not an emotional appeal. It is a historical, political, and developmental argument.
*WHO ARE THE OKUN PEOPLE—REALLY?*
The Okun are Yoruba people, linguistically, culturally, historically, and civilisationally. This is not a matter of debate among serious scholars. Our dialects, social organisation, naming systems, cosmology, festivals, kinship structures, and worldview are unmistakably Yoruba. The differences between Okun and other Yoruba groups are no more profound than those between Ijesa and Egba, Ekiti and Oyo, or Ijebu and Ondo.
Yet, through a mixture of colonial convenience and post-colonial political calculation, Okunland was detached from its natural civilisational space and reclassified—first into Northern Nigeria, later into North-Central Nigeria, and sometimes casually lumped into the “Middle Belt.”
This misclassification has come at a high cost.
COLONIAL ENGINEERING AND POST-COLONIAL COMPLICITY*
It is true that colonial rule distorted identities across Nigeria. Boundaries were drawn to ease administration, not to preserve history. However, colonial error alone does not explain the persistence of Okun marginalisation. What sustained it is post-colonial elite complicity.
From the late colonial period through independence and into the present, Okun elites repeatedly chose access over assertion, patronage over principle, and silence over self-definition. While other groups negotiated their place with clarity—some asserting minority status, others demanding autonomy or strategic alignment—the Okun elite often settled for personal advancement within systems that structurally disadvantaged their people.
This pattern did not begin yesterday. It runs from the pre-independence era, through the Awoniyi/Daniyan period, to the present political class. The result is predictable: a people without a clear political identity will always be managed, never respected.
THE MYTH OF THE “NORTH” AND THE PROBLEM OF FALSE BELONGING*
The concept of a monolithic “North” has always been more political than historical. It was constructed to sustain power, not to reflect diversity. For many Middle Belt groups, this imposed identity came with subjugation. For the Okun, it came with dislocation.
Unlike many Middle Belt ethnicities whose political struggle is rooted in resistance to emirate domination, the Okun predicament is different: we were never North to begin with. Our forced inclusion has produced an identity limbo—neither fully accepted as Northern, nor allowed to function organically as Yoruba.
This explains several enduring anomalies:
Chronic underdevelopment despite proximity to resource-rich zones
Weak federal and state bargaining power
Persistent insecurity and land pressure
Educational and institutional stagnation (e.g., stalled tertiary institutions)
Cultural erosion and identity confusion among younger generations
OKUNLAND, THE MIDDLE BELT, AND THE NECESSITY OF CLARITY*
It must be stated clearly and respectfully: while Okunland shares certain political experiences with Middle Belt communities—particularly marginalisation and neglect—it is not historically Middle Belt. Our struggle is not one of autochthonous resistance to caliphate expansion; it is one of civilisational misplacement.
True solidarity is built on honesty, not convenience. Okun people weaken both themselves and Middle Belt advocacy when they blur this distinction for short-term political comfort. A people cannot be everything to everyone and still be anything to themselves.
IDENTITY, DEVELOPMENT, AND THE COST OF AMBIGUITY*
Development follows identity. Regions that know who they are plan with confidence, mobilise with cohesion, and negotiate with strength. Regions that are unsure drift.
Ebira land offers a useful contrast. Despite facing its own challenges, it has demonstrated greater strategic coherence and elite coordination. Okunland, by contrast, often speaks with multiple voices—each seeking favour from different power centres.
The result is stagnation.
When insecurity spreads, it spreads faster in spaces without strong political identity. When land is encroached upon, it is easier where ownership is politically weak. When institutions are downgraded, it happens where protest is muted.
A CALL FOR A RADICAL SHIFT*
The moment demands more than lamentation. It demands a deliberate, elite-led reorientation grounded in history and future-focused pragmatism. This includes:
Clear affirmation of Okun Yoruba identity—without apology or antagonism.
Strategic cultural re-education, especially among youth.
Elite consensus building around Okun interests rather than personal advancement.
Coordinated engagement with Yoruba institutions while maintaining healthy relations with neighbours.
Firm resistance to narratives that trap Okunland in artificial political categories that do not serve its development.
This is not a call for secession, hostility, or ethnic chauvinism. It is a call for self-definition, which is the foundation of dignity.
CONCLUSION: THE DANGER OF COMFORTABLE SILENCE*
History is unkind to peoples who refuse to define themselves. Others will always define them—for exploitation, for convenience, or for domination.
The Okun people stand at a crossroads. We can continue to inhabit a politically convenient fiction, trading silence for crumbs. Or we can choose clarity—calmly, intelligently, and strategically—and begin the long-overdue work of reclaiming our narrative.
Identity is not nostalgia.
It is infrastructure.
Until Okunland accepts this truth, development will remain accidental, security fragile, and our future negotiable by others.
The time for polite ambiguity has passed.
@adeABANIDA (JP; mnim; FBSN; BSc-1; MB.BCH; AFMC.Path; MPH; PHD; Dip/Theology&Bible Studies; etc..), from Bunu in Kabba/Bunu LGA, Kogi State, is a public health physician, retired federal director of disease control and Immunization, trained medical sub-editor, public policy enthusiast and essayist, theologian, non-partisan, and an adjunct professor of public health epidemiology and mathematical modelling of disease outbreaks; etc...