Akintoye and Igboho’s call for breakuP caused division among Yoruba groupings.
The echoes of the Yoruba Nation’s separation from Nigeria reverberated as the visible proponents of the call, Professor Adebanji Akintoye and Chief Sunday Adeyemo, also known as Sunday Igboho, submitted a petition to the United Kingdom Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, in their quest to leave Nigeria.
According to reports, other Yoruba individuals who accompanied Sunday Igboho included Vice President of Ifeladun Apapo, Mr Fatai Ogunribido, General Secretary of Yoruba World Media, Alhaja Adeyeye, Prophet Ologunoluwa, Diaspora Youth Leader, and Paul Odebiyi, a Yoruba Nation Movement member.
Professor Akintoye and Sunday Igboho have been working together on a push for the Yoruba ethnic community to split from Nigeria.
The eminent historian believed that the pact struck with Nigeria had expired and that Yoruba should leave Nigeria.
Professor Akintoye further claimed that a former Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai(rtd), visited Igboho while in prison and promised to give him billions of naira if he dropped his campaign for Yoruba secession. Confirming the letter, Sunday Igboho’s spokesperson, Mr Olayomi Koiki, stated that it was truly submitted to the UK Prime Minister, but declined to reveal its contents to Vanguard. In a terse communication to Vanguard, Koiki replied, “We can’t give the content of the letter, but it has to do with our quest to leave Nigeria.
Though the Federal Government has been silent on the repeated call, the duo, like incurable optimists, have never abandoned up.
Akintoye’s previous message
In another lengthy post, Akintoye recounted perceived Fulani atrocities and concluded that the only way to end the perceived unfairness is for Yoruba to remove the umbilical cord that has tenaciously tied the various ethnic groups together since Lord Lugard’s amalgamation in 1914. Every September 23rd, mark this day.
He stated: “Our entire Yoruba country, our Obas, the Fathers of our nation, and our State Governors, should adopt this Yoruba Unity Day for all of our states.
YYoruba is one of the most truly united nations in the world. The foundations of our Yoruba national unity are robust and solid. All of us Yorubas are proud of our culture.
Yoruba has a considerable advantage in important aspects.”He went on to state the position of Yoruba in the country is extremely visible saying, “We are proud of our nation’s particular supremacy in vital things, like love of community harmony, serious acceptance of religion tolerance and concord, acceptance of hospitality toward strangers and foreigners, avoidance of cheap behavior in the pursuit of anything, love of enterprise and achievement, a fundamental belief that power in society belongs to the people and that government exists only to serve the people’s well-being, a sincere belief that everyone, young and old, has the right to be respected as well as the right and duty to contribute his or her wisdom to the affairs of his or her society, an essential nobility of character.
Our seeming difficulty in reaching consensus on issues is not a symptom of a lack of unity; it is the result of our strong belief that every individual has some wisdom (no matter how small) to give and thus deserves to be heard. In short, we are an old civilization that, for millennia, has put a high value on self-respect, respect for the individual, the duty of mutual respect, and the duty of intentionally thorough consideration in topics affecting humanity and society. It is impossible to discover an unreasoning and emotionally heated group among the Yoruba.”
Alleged atrocities by Fulani bandits
The proponent of self-determination argued that “there is a good reason to fear that the Nigerian situation could destroy our Yoruba nation.” In the rural areas of our homeland, where most of our people live, the Fulani people, who are determined to seize land for their own homeland, are killing our people on a daily basis, have killed an estimated 29,000 of our people, are raping our women, kidnapping men, women, and children, extorting millions of Naira in ransom for the kidnapped, and are destroying farms, food barns, and villages. For almost nine years, they have been pressuring our farmers to forsake farming, and most of them have abandoned farming and are migrating with their families to the Republics of Benin and Togo. Our country faces the fate of a severe food shortage for years to come. This terror is intensifying. It has escalated to the murder of our Obas by the Fulani.
Akintoye’s call is in order—YCF, OUPA.
Surprisingly, two groups from the zone, the Yoruba Commitment Forum, led by Otunba Tayo Onayemi, and the Oduduwa United People Association, formed by Chief Jimoh Taofeek, supported Prof Akintoye. In his submission, Chief Taofeek stated that the only lasting solution to the Fulani herders’ invasion of Yoruba land is the split of ethnic groupings in the country.
He stated that the only way to provide a long-term solution is for each interested region seeking disintegration to do so peacefully, through national discourse, and in compliance with international conventions.
This single act, if implemented, will, in my opinion, strongly create an avenue for inter-regional positive competitions that will adequately strengthen security, promote peace and stability, and enhance rapid growth and development in all aspects of natural, physical, and human resources within each region, thereby adding more meaningful value to the economy.”
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