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The Yoruba Self-Determination Movement, led by Prof Banji Akintoye and Chief Sunday Adeyemo, popularly known as Sunday Igboho, has issued an open letter to President Bola Tinubu, advocating for the peaceful separation of the Yoruba people from Nigeria.
Dated April 17, 2024, the letter was jointly signed by Prof Akintoye, Sunday Igboho, and Ola Ademola, representing the collective aspirations of the Yoruba Nation. In the letter, they urged President Tinubu to initiate negotiations within the next two months to facilitate the peaceful exit of the Yoruba people from Nigeria.
This call for secession comes in the wake of recent events, including an armed incursion into the Oyo State Government House by agitators attempting to assert Yoruba sovereignty. Despite their dissociation from the violent action, Prof Akintoye and Sunday Igboho underscored the urgency of addressing the Yoruba people’s desire for self-determination through peaceful means.
The letter, made available to our correspondent in Ibadan on Sunday, emphasized the collective will of millions of Yoruba people both within Nigeria and across the global Yoruba Diaspora. It urged President Tinubu to heed the aspirations of the Yoruba people and engage in constructive dialogue to facilitate a peaceful transition.
The Yoruba Self-Determination Movement’s appeal underscores the growing sentiment for autonomy and self-governance among the Yoruba populace. As discussions around the future of the Yoruba Nation continue, stakeholders are urged to prioritize dialogue, mutual respect, and peaceful resolution.
“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 for the purpose of turning all into a Fulani homeland.”
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 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 plus 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.”
