Following the incessant, unprovoked attacks and invasion of their farmlands by some Fulani herdsmen, some Yoruba leaders held an emergency meeting in Ibadan, Oyo State, capital and threatened to review its status in the Nigerian federation, including secession.
Themed, “National Insecurity and the Menace of Fulani Herdsmen in Yorubaland,” the meeting held in the House of Chiefs Section of Parliament Building of Oyo State Secretariat was presided over by former governor of the Western Region, General Adeyinka Adebayo who warned that the Yoruba will not tolerate the present structure of the country which undermined self-actualization of the people of the South West.
Reports from the meeting said failure to restructure Nigeria using the 2014 National Confab report might force the Yoruba people to review their place in a political arrangement that cannot guarantee the protection of their citizens.
Factional leaders of the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC), Dr Fredrick Faseun and Otunba Gani Adams were unanimous in saying that the time to “leave Nigeria” and assert the sovereignty of the Yoruba people is now.
The meeting strongly condemned the “invasion and killing of people in Yoruba territories” by the Fulani herdsmen. The participants also decried the continued oppression of the Yoruba in their homeland by some Fulani herdsmen.
The participants bemoaned the cases of incessant rape, destruction of economic crops that form the bedrock of the livelihood of locals, the armed violence unleashed by the nomads coupled with the consequent cultural disequilibrium the displacement of people from crisis-ridden Northern Nigeria have brought to communities in Yorubaland.
He added that subsequent governments in Nigeria have come into power waving slogans that end up leaving the country worse than they met it.
They demanded an immediate end to lawless nomadic activities in the South West warning that any community which cannot establish ranches for their flock should retreat from Yoruba territories.
At the event were prominent Yoruba leaders from academia, politics and the Diaspora. The sponsors of the meeting were Yoruba Council of Elders (YCE), Oodua Foundation, Afenifere and the Yoruba Unity Forum (YUF). Some of the participants included Oyo State Deputy Governor, Otunba Moses Alake Adeyemo, who represented Governor Abiola Ajimobi; Sola Ebiseni, who represented the Ondo State Governor, Olusegun Mimiko, Pa Olanihun Ajayi, Pa Ayo Adebanjo, Pa Supo Sonibare, Prof Banji Akintoye, Prof Toun Ogunseye, the first woman Professor in Nigeria.
Others were Dr Fredrick Faseun, Otunba Gani Adams, Dr Kunle Olajide, Chief Shuaib Oyedokun and the former military governor of Lagos State, Brig-Gen Raji Rasaki, among others.
The Afenifere Renewal Group (ARG) and many other pan-Yoruba groups were however absent from the summit.
Meantime, the spokesman of former president Goodluck Jonathan’s Campaign Organisation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode hailed the Yoruba peoples meeting in Ibadan, warning that the zone cannot be a sacrificial lamb to any other zone of the country.
He also warned that the South West may resort to self-help if the government fails to protect them.
In a statement after the meeting, the former minister of Aviation said if and when the people of the South West were pushed to the wall, they would then know exactly what to do, adding that the killings, cases of rape and kidnap must stop.
