What is attached to the soil becomes part of the soil*
The Latin Maxim: ‘ Quicquid plantatur solo, solo cedit’ simply means what is attached to the soil becomes part of the soil.
All legal practitioners reading this piece must have come across this in their undergraduate days when learning about land and property . It is a legal interpretation of what is a fixture or a chattel in property. A fixture is something that is affixed to the land and has to be left in a property for the person that acquired the property whereas a chattel is something that you can remove and does not pass to the buyer. The purpose of the principle is to ensure that a purchaser of land does not acquire title or ownership of something which is not intended to pass with the land.There have been several litigations on this matter as to when a chattel can become a fixture and what appears to be a fixture is actually a chattel.
In 1979, when General Olusegun Obasanjo handed over power to the civilian government, National Party of Nigeria (NPN) had won majority of the States; Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) under Chief Obafemi Awolowo won 5 States out of 19 States and Nigerian Peoples Party under Nnamdi Azikwe (NPP) won 3, PRP under Aminu Kano won 1 and GNPP under Ibrahim Waziri won 1
Free Education was one of the Cardinal programmes of UPN and Once the new government was installed in Oyo State , Uncle Bola Ige became the first Civilian Governor of the State, his government acquired the Old schools by paying off the owner of those schools and acquired more lands in different parts of the state for the purpose of building new schools to accommodate huge numbers of students who took advantage of the free education to enrol that year. Many young boys who had been learning one artisan jobs or the other decided to return to school. They had the potentials but for lack of funds would not have considered it at all , their parents were not able to send them to school because they cannot afford the fees. UPN therefore provided the platform for them to maximise their potentials.
Many new schools were established, one of them was Community High School Oluyoro Ibadan they were provided buildings at the Queen of Apostles Oluyoro . It was a mixed school.
In December 1983, Major General Muhammad Buhari terminated the democratically elected civilian government of Alhaji Shehu Shagari. Prior to that time, Bola Ige had lost election to Chief Omololu Olunloyo in an election marred by rigging but in any event , Chief Olunloyo was sworn in as Governor of Oyo State. He tried to continue with the free education initiated by the Unity Party of Nigeria though not in NPN manifestos. However, Buhari had teargased Shagari regime out of power and so all the State Governors were replaced by the military junta. The military administrators suspended free education in all the States where UPN were operating before the coup.
Community High School Oluyoro was then merged with us in Oke’ badan and were distributed into different classes. Their ladies were amalgamated with the Queen of Apostles.
When they were amalgamated with us , we looked down on them as inferior to us , may be because we were an established school and had taken our place amongst reputable schools. Some of those new schools had not made their bones in any field and the pioneer had just been passed to us. We were their host, it was like we were even doing them a favour for allowing them to be with us. They were also independent and had formed close bond of their own. They therefore sticked together to protect their identity. They saw us as arrogant bunch of people and therefore they did not integrate with us. We did not include them in our football team and they too did not attempt to join. We did not allow them to be captain in any of our classrooms but they recognised their own captains and took order from him.The only common thing between us was that we shared the same classroom. They had brilliant and many outstanding students amongst them and one of their outstanding students that I can remember and remain my friend till today is Rafiu Akinyemi, Rafiu was very proficient in English language , both oral and written. We are in the same political party today and we remain good friends. One Elegbeleye was also famous amongst them but I was not close to him.
One of their ‘capos’ Taofeek Rasheed, their Senior Monitor is a childhood friend of mine and we were living in the same area then . We both lived together in Germany and we are both living in the UK now.
One day, our classmate ‘ Ropo’ committed a punishable offence in the school and one of our teachers was asking in the assembly whether ‘Ropo’ was on line up, no one answered and he started beating all the senior boys but Taofeek refused to be caned. He has been exhibiting his stubbornness from their school and carried it to Oke’ badan as well. His colleagues were not happy at his refusal to be caned thinking that by his attitude, he may bring the name of their school to disrepute but he insisted that he should not be caned because he has done nothing wrong. The teacher took him to the principal due to his recalcitrant but he gave a reasonable explanation that he was from Community school and did not know who Ropo was and therefore he cannot be punished for what he knows nothing about . He was exonerated and was not beaten. He was full of smiles when he left the principal office and boasted to his colleagues that he has ‘shown them’ what stuff he was made of.
The division between those of us originally from Oke badan High School and the Community continued till we finished in the school, they did not recognise our teachers and did not see them as their teachers, we did not recognise their teachers too. They did their valedictory ceremony separately. So in that little enclave of ours at Oke’ badan, we were not able to live together as one school. We were in fact two schools sharing the same geographical location. The union was forced on us by the authority and we refused to be united
Today, they have their own alma mater and we have our own too, on this occasion what is attached to the soil did not or refused to become part of the soil.
Now I think of our country ‘Nigeria ‘ the amalgamation that conscripted us together in 1914 made us one nation. Prior to that time the ethnic group had been existing independently with their own kingdom and culture. They organised inter- trade links between each other and had fought wars against each other. The Yoruba -Fulani war at Osogbo of 1950 is one of the examples of the resistance of the Yorubas against Fulani domination. The war between the yoruba (ife) against the Ugbo ( I am not sure whether it was the present day Igbo) and the roles of Moremi in saving the Yorubas from the Igbos are well recorded in history. The British lumped us together for administrative convenience without any attempt to genuinely bring us together as one entity, it was like time bombs. It was on that premises that we gained independence. The seed of amalgamation and independence were sown on shaky grounds and the foundation was not solid.
NYSC was also introduced on 22 May 1973 (after the civil war of attempt self determination by the Biafrans) to Foster unity and integration amongst the youths, having realised that there was no integration between the major ethnics group. It did not produce the desired result that the founders envisaged. In fact the killings of NYSC members in the recent years in the Northern part of Nigeria points to one direction only; it has outlived its usefulness, if there was any. The Fulanis see themselves as Fulani first and distinct from Hausas before Nigeria and so are the Igbos, ditto for the Yorubas too.
Is it because the amalgamation was not by mutual agreement but by imposition or we cannot live together as one country? The same way Oke’badan boys and community boys did not see themselves as one school .
The division between the ethnic group is fundamental and a threat to Nigeria Unity . Despite over 100 years of amalgamation, the unity has always been under threat. In the case of Nigeria, what is attached to the soil refused to become part of the soil. It is time to allow the people of Nigeria to decide whether they want to remain as a single entity or not.
I do not seek conformity on this topic but I seek intellectual discussion that will proffer solution to this quagmire that we find ourselves. I have spoken.
Until I come your way next week , may God deliver us from all trouble of this perilous time.
Niyi Aborisade is a lawyer Human Rght Activist and an Historian.
