Ibadan Professor Banji Akintoye, the National Leader of the Yoruba Self-Determination Movement, stepped up his demands yesterday for the region’s South West governors and monarchs to proclaim September 23 as Yoruba Unity Day in an effort to further distance the Yoruba people from Nigeria.
However, he said that suspected Fulani bandits have murdered at least 29,000 Yoruba people and that they are still raping women and torturing other people.
To commemorate the celebration of Yoruba Unity Day, he made this statement.
Renowned historian Akintoye underlined that the only choice left is to split Yoruba Nation from Nigeria due to the ongoing danger to lives and devastation of farmlands.
“We must break away from Nigeria and create our own country where we can exercise our sovereignty to secure our land and people, and where we can manage our economy in a dignified manner, as we Yorubas know best,” he declared, summarizing the only workable and sustainable solution to this terrible situation.
“In the rural areas of our homeland, where probably the majority of our people live, the Fulani people who are determined to seize land for a homeland of their own, are killing our people on a daily basis, having killed roughly 29,000 of our people, are raping our women, are kidnapping men, women, and children, and are extorting millions of Naira in ransom for the kidnapped, destroying farms, food barns, and villages,” he claimed, alleging that Yoruba Unity Day was being observed in Ile Ife and Ibadan.
“Obas, the fathers of our nation, should adopt this Yoruba unity day in their Councils of Obas in all our Yoruba States,” Akintoye urged, urging the governors and traditional rulers of the South West to declare the day a public holiday. I implore our governors to proclaim this Yoruba unity day for all of our states when they get together for their Southwest Governors meeting.
“We are seriously pushing for the separation of our Yoruba nation from Nigeria and the Nigerian disaster is different,” he said, urging other Yoruba people to join him in his fight for self-determination. We do not see the Nigerian issue through a narrow lens. It’s not sentimental. It is realistic and sound academically. Additionally, at least 80% of our Yoruba, both at home and in the diaspora, accept it. It’s reasonable to worry that the current state of affairs in Nigeria has the potential to destroy the Yoruba nation.
“There was some hope when our Governors created Amotekun some years ago to resist the Fulani rampages,” he added in reference to the formation of the security group Amotekun. However, he said that the Fulani individuals in charge of the Federal Government had orchestrated Amotekun’s ineffectiveness. Additionally, the Fulani terrorists are growing more daring in their crimes and brutality in our major cities.
“Our kinsman who was elected President of Nigeria is subjected to increasing levels of harassment, which includes threats of a full-scale regional uprising, threats of military overthrow, and even a defiant declaration of war.”
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