SELF-DETERMINATION: Emeritus Professor Banji Akintoye, a well-known historian and the head of the Yoruba Self-Determination Movement, Ilana Omo Oodua, claims that the Yoruba ethnic group desperately needs its own homeland outside of current Nigeria.
Basic Facts
- Professor Banji Akintoye`s self determination group, Ilana Omo Oodua has written President Muhammadu Buhari asking to secede from Nigeria.
- The group have had a running battle with the Buhari government of what they consider unfair treatment from the government.
- Their quest for secession is owing to the activities of the criminal Fulani gangs whom they say the government have treated with kid gloves.
What We Know
The Ilana Omo Oodua group led by Professor Banji Akintoye have been fighting for an independent Yoruba nation, separate from the present Nigerian state. They have had a running battle with the Buhari government in the course of their numerous protest.
Professor Banji Akintoye have now written an official letter to President Muhammadu Buhari making it clear that the Yoruba ethnic group desperately needs its own homeland outside of current Nigeria.
In a letter to President Muhammadu Buhari dated August 6, 2022, Akintoye made this disclosure.
The purpose of the letter, according to him, was to officially inform the President of “the choice of the overwhelming majority of our Yoruba nation and people to exercise our right to self-determination to have our independent and sovereign country distinct from the republic of Nigeria.”
He said the letter was to formally inform Buhari “that we desire to commence this process of self-determination officially so as to establish our independent and sovereign country as soon as possible, hopefully in constructive dialogue with the Government of Nigeria.”
Notable Quotes
In his words, “We Yoruba people solemnly and unalterably reject any arrangement that would subject us to continued membership of Nigeria.”
The letter further reads:
“Even much worse, Mr. President, you and we do know that, consequent upon, and beyond, all these serious distortions and devastations, a bloody and generalized war is now imminent in Nigeria.”
“As these would-be conquerors and their allied terrorists continue to unleash their devastations on indigenous peoples across Nigeria, former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo (president 1999 – 2007), has publicly alerted the world that war has become inevitable, and is imminent, in Nigeria.
According to countless additional sources from all parts of Nigeria, including statements and threats by terrorist and bandit groups, this final war will be triggered by a massive invasion of Abuja by a combination of terrorist and bandit forces, followed by claims by these forces that they have taken over the authority of the Nigerian federal government, and followed by a general demand that the peoples in all parts of Nigeria should surrender their homelands, and that since the indigenous peoples will not surrender their lands to the Fulani and their terrorist allies, the war will spread all over Nigeria for years to come and lead to massive refugee floods from Nigeria into most parts of West Africa, generating massive disruption, poverty and human suffering across West Africa .”
In the letter he claimed that militias and marauders with heavy weapons had been entering our yorubaland for many years from the Northern part of Nigeria and attacking the residents and indegines.
In the letter, the Chairman of Ilana Omo Odua further said:
“That the Nigerian Federal Government, in view of the serious urgency of the situation, shall, within the coming days, but not later than Friday September 30, 2022, inform us that they have graciously agreed to our proposal for negotiation and that they have set up a negotiation team that will meet and dialogue with our Yoruba nation’s representatives.”
