A group under the auspices of the Yoruba Self-Determination Movement (YSDM), has written an open letter to President Bola Tinubu seeking a peaceful breakaway from Nigeria.
The group which described itself as leading figure in the self-determination struggle for a Yoruba sovereign state separate from Nigeria, said it is demanding to pull the Yoruba nation out of the present Nigeria through peaceful negotiations.
In the letter made available to journalists during a press conference in Ibadan, Oyo State, on Saturday, and addressed to Tinubu, the group gave several reasons for the quest to breakaway from Nigeria including attacks on Yoruba communities by herdsmen.
The letter dated April 17, 2024, was jointly signed by Prof. Banji Akintoye, the national leader of the YSDM; Chief Sunday Adeyemo aka Igboho, leader of the Yoruba National Defence and Otunba Ola Ademola, Vice-Chairman Yoruba Self-determination Movement, 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 most respectfully to Your Excellency 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 for the purpose of turning all into a Fulani homeland.
“In the Middle Belt, horrendous blood-letting is going on, very many families have been forced into Internally Displaced People Camps, and many of their villages have been 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. According to an unofficial estimate, the Fulani have killed as many as 29,000 Yoruba people in the years since 2015.
“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.
“Their spokespersons have said again and again unambiguously that their Fulani nation has prepared all its citizens to fight their current war of subjugation and land seizure for decades and even centuries to come.
“We Yoruba must not underestimate the Fulani; we must not condemn our people to Fulani killings, destruction, raping, kidnapping and extortion of ransom for decades or centuries to come. Our Yoruba nation may not survive such prolonged battering.
“Mr. President, another crucial matter that we Yoruba must bring before Your Excellency is the horrific and seriously disturbing character of the attitude and the utterly disrespectful approach of one of the nations of Nigeria, namely the Fulani nation, to the Federal Government and the sanctity, integrity.”
