By Nnamdi Ojiego, Dayo Johnson, James Ogunnaike Laolu Elijah
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 magistrates 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 U
