The pan-Yoruba sociocultural and political organisation, Afenifere, has described as unnecessary, undesirable and self-serving, the call for the exit of Yoruba from Nigeria.
DAILY POST recalls that Professor Banji Akintoye, leader of Ilana Omo Oodua and Mr. Sunday Adeyemo, aka Igboho, were reported to have, on April 17 this year, sent a letter to President Bola Tinubu in which they wanted the President to within the next two months, set up a negotiation team that will midwife the exit of Yoruba people from Nigeria.
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The National Publicity Secretary of Afenifere, Jare Ajayi, in a statement issued on Monday, faulted the duo’s position on many grounds, saying the reason for the request to exit Nigeria was on the basis of perceived marginalisation that Yorubas are suffering in Nigeria.
The group maintained that the problems bedeviling Yorubaland and Nigeria as a whole are not merely because multi-ethnic groups make up the country.
It noted that the country’s multifarious problems can be traced to lack of good governance.
The group said: “There is no doubt that the lot of Yorubas can be better than it presently is. But whatever deprivation Yorubas may be experiencing today in the Nigerian nation is not due mainly to the fact that they are Yorubas.
“The deprivations they are suffering could be traced to the general misgovernance that corporate Nigeria had been subjected to over the years if not decades.
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“Meaning that marginalisation, deprivation, injustice, misgovernance etc that Yorubas may be experiencing today is, if truth is to be told, not peculiar to Yorubas alone.
“We are not, by this submission, claiming that Yorubas are getting the best or should not be better served. Far from it. What we are saying is that it would be unfair to use the excuse of the deprivations in the land as an alibi to want to leave Nigeria.”
Afenifere said what it clamours for is good governance that would enable every segment of the society to have a better lease of life.
On the claim by the Yoruba nation that the request was done on behalf of Yoruba people at home and in the diaspora, Afenifere wondered when a referendum was conducted.
It added: “Yorubas have contributed so much to Nigeria. So much that our intention presently is not to move out but to get what is wrong with the country to be made right. We believe that President Tinubu has what it takes to right those wrongs.
“This is why we are giving him our absolute support, especially since he has given us the assurance that he will not veer off the path of doing the best for Nigeria.
“President Tinubu has assured us in words and in his body language that he will restructure the country. He is a man of honour. We believe that he will do it. And do it effectively at the right time – which will be very soon, by the grace of God.”
