The elders of the Yoruba people have disagreed over a letter written by Professor Banji Akintoye to President Muhammadu Buhari.
The letter includes a demand for the Yoruba people to peacefully secede from Nigeria.
The Yoruba Self-Determined Movement, represented by Akintoye’s letter to Buhari, urged a “peaceful breakaway” of the Yoruba people from Nigeria.
He stated that many Yorubas wanted to leave Nigeria because of the dire economic conditions there.
The letter read in part: “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 is an inalienable and unquestionable right of every indigenous nation in the world.
“Upon asserting this right of self-determination, we the 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”.
The argument is between those who are in favor of the Akintoye group’s proposal and those who are opposed, but the letter has caused a breach among Yoruba leaders.
One among those supporting the YSDM leader is Dr. Kunle Olajide, Secretary-General of the Yoruba Council of Elders (YCE). People were no longer able to visit their fields owing to insecurity, which was one of the justifications he provided for his choice.
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Olajide’s stance was echoed by Bashorun Sehinde Arogbofa, a former general secretary of Afenifere, who stated that wanting self-determination was not bad.
Ilana Omo Oodua, IOO, a member of the Yoruba self-determination group that Akintoye also led, claimed in a private interview with Sunday Vanguard that the history professor was attempting to exploit the group as a political bargain.
She said: “After serving Buhari a notice that the Yoruba people want to exercise their rights to self-determination and justified it, Baba, in the same letter, is demanding for a negotiation meeting. Who does that?
“How do you request for negotiation from someone that is oppressing you and has an immense advantage over you in terms of power, arms, sovereignty, money and everything?
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“What does Professor Akintoye have outside five million online petitions that warrant him to demand for a negotiation or worthy of being negotiated with outside his media noise?
“Buhari should be the one to reach out to us for negotiation, not Akintoye asking for a negotiation.
“What Akintoye did was against the run of play. When Ambassador Buratai visited Sunday Igboho in Benin prison for negotiation, he did not write the Nigerian government for negotiation, they came and Igboho turned them down. That is what is called a fighter and activist”.
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