The Pan-Yoruba socio-cultural and socio-political organisation, Afenifere on Monday described the call for the exit of Yoruba from Nigeria as ‘undesirable, self-serving and unnecessary at the moment at least’.
Afenifere in a statement by the organisation’s National Publicity Secretary, Comrade Jare Ajayi emphasized that the problems bedeviling Yorubaland and Nigeria as a whole “are not merely because multi-ethnic groups make up the country.
The Pan Yoruba socio political and socio cultural organization stressed ” Rather, the country’s multivarious problems can be traced to lack of good governance.”
Afenifere in the statement faulted Prof Banji Akintoye, and Chief Sunday Adeyemo a.k.a Igboho on the purported letter to President Ahmed Bola Tinubu in which they want the President to within the next two months, set up a negotiation team that will midwife the exit of Yoruba people from Nigeria
The Pan Yoruba organization rejected “the reason adduced for the request to exit Nigeria which was on the basis of perceived marginalization that Yorubas are suffering in Nigeria.
“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”, it said.
Afenifere added, ” The deprivations they may be suffering could be traced to the general mis governance that corporate Nigeria had been subjected to over the years if not decades. Meaning that marginalization, 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. What we should clamour for is good governance that will enable every segment of the society to have a better lease of life”.
Afenifere stressed further that ” when, during the First Republic, the country Nigeria ran a semblance of true federalism in which each region was able to determine its own affairs, life was relatively better and the agitation for separation was not rife”.
Recalled that a group, “Yoruba Self-Determination Movement’ (YSDM) on Saturday in an open letter to President Bola Tinubu called for a peaceful secession of the Yoruba nation from Nigeria.
The letter was jointly signed by Prof. Banji Akintoye, Chief Sunday Adeyemo aka Igboho, and Otunba Ola Ademola, Vice-Chairman Yoruba Self-determination Movement
It requested in the letter dated April, 17 among others that the Nigeria Federal Government should agree to their proposal for negotiation within the next two months and set up a negotiation team to meet with their Yoruba nation’s negotiation team.
