From Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan
Crisis has hit the self-determination movement for Yoruba nation in Nigeria as the arrowhead of the struggle, Prof Banji Akintoye, has purportedly dumped the apex Yoruba self-determination organisation, Ilana Omo Oodua Worldwide (IOO) for the foreign-based Yoruba Self-Determination Movement (YSDM).
Besides, Akintoye has written a letter to President Muhammadu Buhari, requesting for a direct negotiation with a view to realising self-determination for the Yoruba. He also called for the establishment of sovereign nation-state. He wrote the letter On the platform of a United States of America based foundation, known as Yoruba Self-Determination Movement (YSDM), on behalf of the Yoruba people.
In the letter, he said the self-determination agitators want the Federal Government to set up a negotiation team that would meet and dialogue with Yoruba nation’s representatives latest Friday September 30, 2022.
But the letter, dated August 6th, 2022, has generated ripples within IOOW on why Akintoye allegedly took the unilateral decision, without consulting with strategic stakeholders in the movement. It was argued that Akintoye did not write the letter on the platform of IOOW that agitators have known him with, but on the platform of YSDM.
The Communications Manager for the Leader of IOOW, Mr. Maxwell Adeleye, said he was not aware of the letter.
As gathered, IOOW, known as the apex body of Yoruba self-determination groups, was formed with chapters established in all continents of the world. But YSDM was said to have been formed in July 2021 by some Yoruba Elites, who are mostly based in the Diaspora. The formation of YSDM reportedly took place in less than two weeks after the popular Yoruba nation activist, Sunday Adeyemo, fondly called Sunday Ighoho, was arrested in Cotonou, Benin Republic.
The letter written by Akintoye read in part: “Rather, not only has unity proved impossible to achieve, outright anarchy has taken over. We Yoruba therefore seek to discontinue our association with Nigeria, and to do so in an orderly and peaceful manner. Because we are an ancient civilization with solid modern achievements in education today, and a people with an old tradition of accepting and interacting smoothly and productively with various peoples throughout our history, we can live harmoniously with ethnic and cultural diversity in the same country.
“But we have painfully concluded that sustained attacks by one ethnic group on us and other ethnic groups in the same country, and a plan of conquest and subjugation by one ethnic group against the other groups in the same country, represent a conclusive negation of the existence and legitimacy of Nigeria. We can no longer bear the pain and indignity of living in constant fear and mourning, like a conquered and subjugated people, in our homeland.
“We have been attacked by heavily armed marauders and militias, who have been invading our homeland for many years from the Northern part of the country of Nigeria to which we belong. These marauders have relentlessly killed our people, destroying farms and villages, raping and killing our women, kidnapping our people, and extorting large amounts of money for ransom.
“There are no official numbers for our Yoruba people who have been violently killed in these atrocities (because the government shows no real concern about the killings), but a rough estimate of 29, 000 is now generally circulating among us, an estimate which many of our people believe to be too low. (t is important that even the Sultan of Sokoto has once said that the killings across the country are being under-reported). These atrocities have forced an estimated majority of our farmers to abandon farming altogether a development that is now pulling our nation down into a devastating famine, and into unimaginable poverty.
“Meanwhile, in what we Yoruba believe to be the preparation for this final Fulani aggression in our Yoruba homeland part of Nigeria, tens of thousands of heavily armed Fulani mujaheedin, reinforced by Boko Haram, ISWAP, Al Qaida and Al Shabaab terrorists, have occupied countless locations in our Yoruba forests and are being supplied there with food and weapons by air from hidden sources in Northern Nigeria.
“Mr. President, we therefore dutifully draw your attention to the fact that since we launched our agitation for our Yoruba nation’s self-determination in the year 2019, we have unfailingly pursued the agitation through peaceful means. Our people have established over one hundred self-determination organizations, each solemnly committed to contributing in peaceful and law-abiding ways to our self-determination agitation.
“The Yoruba Self-Determination Movement (YSDM) respectfully writes this letter to you for and on behalf of the indigenous Yoruba people of the southwest of Nigeria, inclusive of the Yoruba citizens of the six states of the Yoruba southwest zone (Ekiti, Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Osun and Oyo States ) and the Yoruba citizens of parts of Kogi, Kwara and Delta States, all south of the Middle Niger River in Nigeria.
“The Yoruba Self-Determination Movement is a movement comprising well over one hundred Yoruba Self-Determination organizations based at home in the Yoruba homeland in Nigeria and abroad in most countries of the world. The Yoruba Self-Determination Movement collaborates the said many Yoruba Self-Determination organizations in the highest services of the Yoruba Self-Determination agitation and struggle.
“Mr President, the Yoruba Self-Determination Movement now serves you notice of the decision of the Yoruba people to assert their right to self-determination, which right of self-determination is an inalienable and unquestionable right of every indigenous nation in the world, and which right is enshrined in many international instruments that provide for the system of order of the modern world.
“Upon asserting this right of self-determination, we Yoruba nation shall be free to determine our political status, pursue our economic, social and cultural development according to policies chosen independently by us, and to live under the government independently chosen and ordered by us.”
Akintoye purportedly acted against the run of play by asking the “Nigerian Government for an audience and negotiation in his 20-page letter to President Buhari, where he affirmed that having possessed vast population, natural, human and mineral resources, the Yoruba people have decided to assert their rights to self-determination by leaving Nigeria.
“Furthermore, Akintoye, in what a United Kingdom-based member of Ilana Omo Oodua, who prefers anonymity, said could make the Nigerian Government to begin to massacre peaceful Yoruba nation agitators at home, said the Yoruba Sovereign Nation now has an Interim National Government in place and he shall be revealing the members of the Interim National Government to Buhari during the meeting he proposed to hold with Buhari, which he demanded should hold before 30th September, 2022.
The source in IOOW stated further that Akintoye’s conduct is a betrayal of trust and a fraud against the members of Ilana Omo Oodua. He said it is unfair for Akintoye to take the status and legitimacy that Ilana Omo Oodua has worked hard to build for three years and hand over everything to a group of some Elites known as YSDM that has less than 20 real members.
“Also, Akintoye stays abroad with his wife and all his children and he is saying no to a referendum in Nigeria alongside some commercial agitators in diaspora. Baba is indirectly inviting Nigerian soldiers to come and exterminate peace-loving Yoruba people in the homeland, who are demanding for their rights to self-determination through the conduct of a referendum. “