Predictably, there is disquiet in the South-West after the Yoruba Self-Determination Movement, led by Prof Banji Akintoye and Chief Sunday Adeyemo, alias Sunday Igboho, sent an open letter to President Bola Tinubu, seeking a peaceful breakaway of Yoruba people from Nigeria.
The letter came on the heels of the failed attempt by some armed agitators to seize Oyo State Government House and the state House of Assembly in Ibadan.
29 of the agitators have been taken before a magistrate’s court in Ibadan which ordered that they should be remanded in prison custody.
Akintoye and Igboho dissociated themselves from the violent action.
The pan-Yoruba socio-cultural and socio-political organization, Afenifere, immediately responded to the call, last week, describing it as undesirable, self-serving and unnecessary “at the moment at least”.
The National President of Soludero Hunters’ Association, Oba Ajijola Akintola Anabi, toed the path of the Afenifere when he took exception to the call for the exit of Yoruba from Nigeria.
A former governorship aspirant on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ondo State, Mr Tunji Light-Ariyomo, on his part, said it was doubtful that Akintoye and Sunday Igboho would take that route at this time.
But an octogenarian, Pa Dele Aladekomo, Mr Adeola Fehintola, an Oyo State-based legal practitioner, and the Convener, Yoruba Commitment Forum, Otunba Tayo Onayemi, lauded the Yoruba Self-Determination Movement letter to the president.
In the open letter, dated April 17, 2024, and signed by Akintoye, Igboho and one Ola Ademola, the group said, “We have the honour to send to Your Excellency this important letter on behalf of the many millions of Yoruba people at home in Yorubaland in Nigeria and in the Yoruba Diaspora in almost all countries across the world.
“We send this letter as a follow-up to our earlier letter, dated August 06, 2022, which we delivered to your predecessor, President Muhammadu Buhari, in his exalted position then as President of Nigeria.
“Since 2015, the Fulani have been killing widely among the other peoples of Nigeria, including us Yoruba, destroying farms, villages and other assets, kidnapping men, women and children, extorting large amounts of money as ransom from friends and family of the kidnapped, and repeatedly asserting their intention to seize the homelands of all the indigenous peoples of Nigeria to turn all into a Fulani homeland.”
It said in the Middle Belt, horrendous blood-letting was going on with many families forced into Internally Displaced People Camps while many of their villages were seized by the Fulani and renamed as Fulani villages.
“In our Yoruba homeland, our people are resisting somewhat better, but the Fulani attacks and killings and kidnappings are unrelenting and are coming daily, leading to horrific instability, and forcing most of our farmers to abandon farming altogether, thereby dooming Yoruba people to years and years of famine”, the group said.
It further alleged that an unofficial estimate showed that Fulani had killed as many as 29,000 Yoruba people since 2015 till date, adding that the aforementioned reasons were enough for them to seek breakaway from Nigeria. “All these actions by the Fulani are, to us Yoruba, a sufficient reason for our seeking to separate our Yoruba Nation from Nigeria. Most of us, Yoruba have no confidence in the ‘restructuring’ that some of our most respected Yoruba leaders (such as our fathers in our highly exalted Afenifere) are advocating.
“And our reason is that we know that restructuring cannot keep the Fulani marauders away from our homeland. Since, after restructuring, the Fulani would still be Nigerians like us, and would still have full citizens’ rights to come in large numbers, and with weapons and intent to kill and destroy and seize land, to our homeland.
“The Fulani elite seem to be saying in effect that they intend to make Nigeria ungovernable for President Tinubu, and that they would never accept any official action of his.
“We are acting for and on behalf of our 60 million Yoruba people of the Ekiti, Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, and Oyo State, respectively, plus the Yoruba Local Government Areas of Kogi and Kwara State, and the Itshekiri homeland of Delta State, all together constituting the Yorubaland in Nigeria, hereby most humbly place our crowning request before Your Excellency as follows:
“That the Nigerian Federal Government shall, within the next two months, but not later than June 15, 2024, inform us Yoruba Self-determination Movement that the Nigerian Federal Government has graciously agreed to our proposal for negotiation and that they have set up a negotiation team that will meet and have a dialogue with our Yoruba Nation’s negotiation team.
“That the Nigerian Federal Government shall invite the United Nations, African Union and the Economic Community of West African States, to send observers to the negotiation meetings.”
It, therefore, promised to forward the list of its negotiation team to the government as soon as it received a message in response to its request for the negotiation.
Perceived marginalization
Afenifere faulted the group’s position on many grounds.
First was the reason adduced for the request to exit Nigeria which was based on the perceived marginalization that the Yoruba are suffering in Nigeria.
It maintained that the problems bedevilling Yorubaland and Nigeria as a whole “are not merely because multi-ethnic groups make up the country”.
Rather, Afenifere, according to the National Publicity Secretary, Comrade Jare Ajayi, the country’s multifarious problems can be traced to a lack of good governance.
The group went on, “There is no doubt that the lot of Yoruba can be better than it presently is. But whatever deprivation Yoruba may be experiencing today in the Nigerian nation is not due mainly to the fact that they are Yoruba.
“The deprivations they are suffering could be traced to the general misgovernance that corporate Nigeria had been subjected to over the years if not decades.
“Meaning that marginalization, deprivation, injustice, misgovernance etc that Yoruba may be experiencing today is, if truth is to be told, not peculiar to Yoruba alone.
“We are not, by this submission, claiming that Yoruba are getting the best or should not be better served.
“Far from it. What we are saying is that it would be unfair to use the excuse of the deprivations in the land as an alibi to want to leave Nigeria. “What we should clamour for is good governance that will enable every segment of the society to have a better lease of life”.
Doubtful call
Tunji Light-Ariyomo, a former APC governorship aspirant, told Sunday Vanguard at the weekend, “l was under the impression that it was a woman, Mrs. Onitiri-Abiola, that made the call in a widely circulated video.
“Many reliable news channels also featured stories about some Yoruba Nation agitators, purportedly acting under her instructions, storming Agodi Secretariat in Ibadan with dane guns, pump action rifles and charms to declare the Republic of Oduduwa.
“It is doubtful that Prof. Banji Akintoye and Chief Sunday Igboho would take that route at this time. If indeed they have, it would be most unfortunate.
“This is because the issues at stake are all-encompassing and every Yoruba person, from Ijumu in Kogi State and parts of Niger State to the creeks of Ilaje and even Itshekiri, to Idiroko in Ogun State and the lands of the Egun people in Badagry, is a bonafide equal stakeholder.
“If they intend to opt out of Nigeria, the majority of those people will express their concurrence. But I am very sure that most Yoruba only came across this news just like that.
“More importantly, the majority of the Yoruba believe in the leadership of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu who is the current President of Nigeria.
“They believe in the leadership of the elder statesman, Pa. Reuben Fasoranti, the current de facto head of the Yoruba race as leader of Afenifere.
“I don’t think any of these two leaders are in support of the quest to exit Nigeria. This is also applicable to our traditional rulers. Is the Oonirisa in support? The Ewi of Ado Ekiti, is he in support? The Alake of Egbaland or the Deji of Akure Kingdom, are they in support?
“I concur that this is not the Nigeria of our dreams.
“I concede that our country has foundational structural flaws that continue to hamper growth and development.
“Amos 3:3, a prominent verse in the holy book, says ‘Can two walk together except they agree?’
“Hence, I agree that Nigeria needs to fix its fundamental problems, agree to a template for equitable and egalitarian coexistence among its ethnic nationalities and tribes, and embrace a model of governance that does not condone wastages and profligacy or impose the will of one ethnic group upon others. We can look at models of governance in other countries – nations with more than one primary ethnicity like the United Kingdom etc.
“The UK is officially four countries with each having its relative autonomy. England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland even attend international sporting events in their names!
“The consensus forged in support of appalling evil today in Nigeria derives its strength from identity politics.
“If an Ijaw woman steals billions of Naira, you could suddenly see many Izons rallying in her support.
“If an Igbo man steals billions, you could easily see many Igbo youths rallying in his support. Ditto the Yoruba, the Hausa etc. “Ethnicity is a powerful sentiment, just like religion. If we however evolve a model of governance that ring-fences ethnicity, it would no longer be an issue. It would then stop being a weapon that could be conjured at will by looters of our common patrimony.
“So, my counsel is that we work with other regions across Nigeria to evolve a model for the country of our dreams”.
‘Drop the issue for now’
Also speaking on the letter, the National President of the Soludero Hunters’ Association, Anabi, said he took exception to the call for the exit of Yoruba from Nigeria.
He said, “I will implore Prof Akintoye to please drop the issue for now because the current president is a Yoruba man and the best thing for us is to support him to make the country surmount its numerous challenges.
“But I will call on all our leaders to look into the complaints of Professor Akintoye and Sunday Adeyemo and tackle them because no one is blind to the evil that Fulani herders continue to perpetrate.
“President Tinubu should please help us to empower local security men like hunters so that we comb all forests and flush out all criminal elements that make it difficult for our people to farm.
“We should drop this call for our good so that it doesn’t lead to another bloodshed because it’s not all that easy to exit a nation without violence”.
Meanwhile, Fehintola, an Oyo State-based legal practitioner, on his part, noted that
Akintoye deserves attention.
“First, we have to consider his antecedents as an academic and a veteran politician with rich ideological clout”, he said.