“70 Million Yorubas Exiting Nigeria for A New Yoruba Nation Come October 1st, 2022.”

“If Nigerians are tired of staying together, they should be prepared to accept divisions instead of remaining in agony and disappointment with one another. – – – We are always talking that the Nigeria state is not working and asking how can we make it work. And if the best option is to call for separate countries, why not?”

The Yoruba Nation people rallied at the Protest Island of the 77th United Nations General Assembly that took place from the 20th through the 26th of September, 2022 at United Nations General Headquarters in New York, chanting and dancing in a peaceful protest while demanding an exit from Nigeria. The Yorubas were among other protesters demanding a better government from their respective nations. The Yorubas all came out in unison with white and green attires; of buba, sokoto, agbada and fila and with their flags, all depicting the beautiful Yoruba culture. 

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The protest got more weight especially during the speech of Muhammadu Buhari, Nigerian Head of States at the UNGA 77 on Wednesday 22nd of September. The protesters represent many self-determination organizations serving the indigenous Yoruba people of the southwest of Nigeria, inclusive of the Yoruba citizens of the six states of the Yoruba southwest zone ( Ekiti, Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Osun and Oyo States ) and the Yoruba citizens of parts of Kogi, Kwara and Delta States, all south of the Middle Niger River in Nigeria.

Prophet Ayodele Ologunloluwa, Chairman Yoruba Nation Diaspora Mega Rally Worldwide.

Evang Babajide Ige. Drone Pilot.

Evang Babajide Ige. Drone Pilot with NYPD officers.

Samuel Idowu in Agbada Attire-Yoruba Nation.

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As they continue in their struggle for their own Yoruba Nation and to show the importance and seriousness of this fight, they have created well over one hundred Yoruba Self-Determination organizations based at home in Yorubaland in Nigeria and abroad in most countries of the world. While each of the organizations exists and performs it valuable functions in the Yoruba Self-Determination struggle, the Yoruba Self-Determination Movement provides for them all the needed service of collaborating and unifying their voices in a few critical areas of the struggle. 

In fact, a letter was written to the Nigerian President Buhari on August 08, 2022 and which most importantly says “Mr President, the Yoruba Self-Determination Movement, acting on behalf of our Self-Determination organizations and our Yoruba nation, now serves you notice of the decision of the Yoruba people to assert their right to self-determination, which right of self-determination is an inalienable and unquestionable right of every indigenous nation in the world, and which right is enshrined in many international instruments that provide for the system of order in the modern world. Asserting this right of self-determination gives us Yoruba nation the freedom to determine our political status, pursue our economic, social and cultural development according to policies chosen independently by us, and to live under the government independently chosen and ordered by us.”

They want the creation of their own Yoruba Nation and

 in the light of the worsening and painful plight of Yoruba people in Nigeria, the Yoruba people have resolved on self-determination for their Yoruba nation.  In further pursuit of the decision, over five million members of Yoruba adult population have, within a short time, signed a Petition to affirm without equivocation their support for creating an independent Yoruba Nation-state.

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According to the Yoruba Self-Determination Movement under the leaderships of Prof.  S. Adebanji Akintoye (Nigerian Senator 1979-83).Alana, Ilana Omo Oodua; Chairman, Yoruba Self-Determination Movement,

 Chief Sunday Adeyemo (a.k.a. Sunday Igboho):

 Prof. Adewale Adeniran, Deputy Alana, Ilana Omo Oodua: and Mr. Banji Ayiloge, Vice Chairman, Yoruba Self-Determination Movement, throughout the past sixty years of independent Nigeria, the Yoruba, having attained to a considerably higher level of modern education and other modern developments than all other Black African nations before the coming of European colonialism and the amalgamation of hundreds of peoples to form the country of Nigeria, have patriotically and consistently made positive efforts to impact the lives of the other nationalities of Nigeria with their high standards. However, their efforts have not yielded any much of good results for their people or for the other different ethnic nations, owing to serious divergences in cultural and value orientations, amounting to a clash of cultures. Yoruba people have now decided to manage their own affairs and to command unencumbered control over their lives and destiny. They are denied the opportunity to exercise their God-given rights in a Nigeria that is dragged down by a ponderous, ineffective and bloated central government that is regularly burdened by contentious religious involvements, by a powerful culture of public corruption, and by the savage efforts of one ethnic nation to subjugate the others.

Leader of Yoruba Nation Prof. S. Adebanji Akintoye

Photo Publicity/Yoruba Nation

Chief Sunday Adeniyi Adeyemo Igboho.  The agitator for YORUBA NATION. Photo Publicity/Yoruba Nation.

Many great scholars and leading Nigerians have expressed concerns during the discussions leading to the independence of Nigeria from Britain in the late 1950s, Yoruba leaders at the time strongly advocated for the inclusion of a secession clause in the constitution, but they were overruled by the colonial administration. For instance, Professor Ango Abdullahi, former Vice-Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University, generally respected as the foremost intellectual from Northern Nigeria, said the following in a public interview in 2017, “If Nigerians are tired of staying together, they should be prepared to accept divisions instead of remaining in agony and disappointment with one another. – – – We are always talking that the Nigeria state is not working and asking how can we make it work. And if the best option is to call for separate countries, why not?” 

Other leading Nigerians have also expressed serious doubts about the wisdom of keeping the many peoples of Nigeria as one country. Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the then foremost Yoruba leader and one of the foremost negotiators of a federal system for Nigeria, wrote at the time that “Nigeria is a mere geographical expression – – -” and that “if a member of a Federation became predominantly anarchistic, the other members of the Federation should, if they disagreed with such, be able to discontinue their association with the country.”

 Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, the man who, as Prime Minister, headed the Nigerian federal government in the years immediately before and after Independence, said on a number of occasions before and after Independence, “Since 1914, the British Government has been trying to make Nigeria into one country, but the Nigerian peoples themselves are historically different in their backgrounds, in their religious beliefs and customs, and do not show themselves any willingness to unite. Nigerian unity is only a British intention for Nigeria.” Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa also once said during a visit to the University College Ibadan in 1964, that the toughest part of Nigeria’s insurmountable problems was the fact that the three largest Black African nations (the Yoruba, Hausa-Fulani and Igbo, each of which should be a separate country) were being forced together in one country. Even Sir Ahmadu Bello, the foremost leader of Northern Nigeria before and after Independence, once described the Amalgamation of 1914 as “the mistake of 1914.” In August 1966, General Yakubu Gowon who had, only a few weeks before, become Nigeria’s Military Head of State, made the following very deep statement: “Suffice it to say, putting all considerations to test – political, economic, as well as social – the basis for Nigeria’s unity is not there.”

In addition, in a memo in early February 1969, only nine years after Nigeria’s independence, the IC (Intelligence Community advising the US Government on the Biafran war) asserted that ‘further disintegration of Nigeria was likely’ and that the Western World might have to live with a ‘loose confederation’ or ‘formation of several completely independent countries.’ Thus, in the light of this, what the Yoruba have now chosen is the formation of their own independent Yoruba country separate from Nigeria.

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Moreover, the Yoruba people have now painfully, and upon very careful and deep thinking, concluded that the false hope of unity promoted by the British colonial officials and imposed on all of them at Independence has not been achievable in the past sixty years of Independence. Rather, not only has unity proved impossible to achieve, outright anarchy has taken over. The Yoruba therefore seek to discontinue their association with Nigeria, and to do so in an orderly and peaceful manner.

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Significantly, the Yoruba, are a well-defined and universally recognized indigenous nation or distinct ethnic group with substantial cultural and linguistic homogeneity. It is a well-known fact that the Yoruba have a rich history of accommodating foreigners and strangers in their homeland and extending to them the respect and protection required of civilized peoples, without prejudice to their rights over their territorial space and culture. Throughout their history in Nigeria, they have always respected and advocated for fundamental freedoms and human rights for all Nigerians and all Nigerian peoples. They are known worldwide for religious tolerance.  Because they are an ancient civilization with solid modern achievements in education today, and a people with an old tradition of accepting and interacting smoothly and productively with various peoples throughout their history, they can live harmoniously with ethnic and cultural diversity in the same country. But they have painfully concluded that sustained attacks by one ethnic group on them and other ethnic groups in the same country, and a plan of conquest and subjugation by one ethnic group against the other groups in the same country, represent a conclusive negation of the existence and legitimacy of Nigeria. They can no longer bear the pain and indignity of living in constant fear and mourning, like a conquered and subjugated people, in their homeland.

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Furthermore, the Yorubas have most painfully watched as their traditionally prosperous Yoruba nation is being impoverished. Unhappily, a significant percentage of their people have become street beggars and scavengers, a practice alien to their cultural heritage and which has contributed to their effort o exit Nigeria and form their own Nation. This is apart from the fear of the probable extermination of their people through the unprovoked and persistent aggression by another ethnic group with which they are living together in the same country. They have been attacked by heavily armed marauders and militias, Boko Haram, ISWAP, Al Qaida and Al Shabaab terrorists, who have been invading their homeland for nearly eight years now from the Northern part of Nigeria to which they belong. These marauders have relentlessly killed their people, destroyed farms and villages, raped and killed their women, kidnapped their people, and extorted large amounts of money for ransom. These terrorists have occupied countless locations in Yoruba forests and are being supplied there with food and weapons by air from hidden sources in Northern Nigeria.There are no official numbers for the Yoruba people who have been violently killed in these atrocities (because the government shows no real concern about the killings), but a rough estimate of 29, 000 is now generally circulating among them, an estimate which many of their people reject as too low. (t is important that even the Sultan of Sokoto has once said that the killings across the country are being “under-reported”). These atrocities have forced an estimated majority of their farmers to abandon farming altogether – a development that is now pulling their nation down into a devastating famine, and into unimaginable poverty.

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In their letter to the Nigerian President, according to their leaders, they mentioned some of  the following “Mr. President, we know you are aware of the following international instruments that affirm the right of our Yoruba nation – and the right of every people in the world – to self-determination:

a. The United Nations Charter of 1945 which states that the purposes of the United Nations include “to develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples….”

b. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) of 1966 in Article 1, common to both covenants, which states that “all peoples have the right to self-determination. Under that right, they can freely determine their political status and pursue their economic, social and cultural development”.

c. The United Nations Declaration on The Rights of Indigenous Peoples,2007, which states as follows:

Article 3

“Indigenous peoples have the right to self-determination; by that right, they freely determine their political status and pursue their economic, social, and cultural development.”

Article 4  

“Indigenous peoples, in exercising their right to self-determination, have the right to autonomy or self-government in matters relating to their internal and local affairs, as well as ways and means for financing their autonomous functions.”

d)      Article 20 of the AFRICAN CHARTER ON HUMAN AND PEOPLES RIGHTS  which states as follows:

“All peoples shall have the right to existence. They shall have the unquestionable and inalienable right to self-determination. They shall freely determine their political status and pursue their economic and social development according to their chosen policy.”

In an effort to support their request and aspiration, on June 2022, they put before their people a Petition in support of self-determination and sovereign statehood for Yoruba nation. Within a short time, FIVE MILLION members of their adult population signed the Petition to affirm their acceptance and support of its clear demand for self-determination and sovereignty for Yoruba nation.

Photos Niyi Fote/TheNews2 

And in the conclusion of their letter to Nigeria President, it states  “Mr. President, along the lines of our peaceful approach and responsible respect for the law, we reiterate our wish to engage in direct negotiation with the Federal Government of Nigeria, for the important and unavoidable purpose of sharing assets and liabilities, as the final phase of our peaceful realization of our Yoruba nation’s self-determination  and sovereign nation-state. For this purpose, we propose as follows:

1. That the Nigerian Federal Government, in view of the serious urgency of the situation, shall, within the coming days, but not later than Friday September 30, 2022, inform us that they have graciously agreed to our proposal for negotiation and that they have set up a negotiation team that will meet and dialogue with our Yoruba nation’s representatives.  

2. That as soon as we receive the communication from the Nigerian Government, we shall forward the list of our negotiation delegates to the Nigerian Government.

3. That the Nigerian Government negotiation team and our negotiation team shall meet to appoint co-chairpersons, and to agree on a date for the first negotiation meeting, the procedure, and the venue.

4. That ECOWAS, the African Union, and the United Nations shall be invited to send observers to the negotiation meetings.

   Mr. President, we eagerly and most respectfully await your response to our proposal as spelt out above.

   Mr. President, we include below in this letter a Map of Yorubaland in Nigeria, depicting our desired sovereign Yoruba Nation-State.

Your Excellency, please accept the assurance of our dutiful respect, our goodwill, and our best regards.

Yours faithfully,”

By Niyi Fote-Editor in Chief /TheNews2 

New York-USA.