Akintoye insists Yoruba Nation wants ‘separate country’, but not through violence
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Despite Bola Tinubu from the South West becoming President, Yoruba Nation agitators want a separate country for self-determination, not restructuring, their leader Banji Akintoye has insisted – against the wishes of Afenifere, another Yoruba group seeking nothing more than restructuring the current contraption called Nigeria, alias Naija (also spelt 9ja), a failed state wallowing in lawlessness.
Tinubu in the past canvassed for restructuring but has stayed away from the topic since he became the top man in Aso Rock, and last week the police and the army both descended heavily on Yoruba Nation activists who caused anarchy in Ibadan.
Akintoye, a Professor of history, made his point on Arise Television where he enthused the goal of Yoruba Nation will surely be achieved.
He argued if restructuring is implemented, the same Fulani herders who have killed more than 29,000 Yorubas will remain in Nigeria and continue their atrocities.
He wondered why there is so much noise about agitation for Yoruba Nation while people look away from Fulanis who threaten to take over the seat of power.
Akintoye acknowledged the role of Afenifere in restructuring but insisted the only solution to the senseless killing, maiming, raping, and kidnapping of Yorubas is to carve out a separate Yoruba country out of the present Nigeria.
Said he: “Our fathers in Afenifere are doing the right thing talking about restructuring so that we can go back and live our own life the way we used to live it prosperously.
“But we, another group of people larger than they, are now saying self-determination is the answer, not restructuring. Why? because when you restructure you’re still in Nigeria and those people who are killing, maiming and raping our women and daughters remain in Nigeria.
“The only solution to that is to separate from them; to have our own country where we can make laws and determine who to admit. But if we restructure, they still have the right to come to Nigeria and still perpetrate the evils they do.”
Akintoye, however, took exception to the violence displayed by the Onitiri-Abiola group who swooped on the Oyo State Government House in Ibadan last week.
“The ideas of the self-determination movement and Yoruba Agitation led by Modupe Onitiri-Abiola are not the same.
“We started the movement for the liberation of the Yoruba Nation under the existing law of the international community. People don’t seem to recognise the rights of indigenous people that there is a law that every nation that permits any nation that wants to separate from a nation they belong to now to do so.
“The movement that I lead is intellectually sophisticated. No single member of the movement, even though we are in millions, will do what Mrs Abiola-Onitiri did. She and her people are on their own. They are not part of us and we are not part of them.
“Our struggle for self-determination has been pursued peacefully. We started in 2019 and this is 2024. That is roughly five years now and no single record of violence. We’ll achieve self-determination peacefully.”
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