Yoruba leaders, under various organisations and groups, have highlighted the need for unity and peace, in order to achieve self-determination and restructuring without bloodshed.
The leaders made the call during the 135th-anniversary celebration of the Kiriji Peace Treaty, also known as the Ekiti-Parapo War, organised by the Yoruba World Assembly (YWA) and held at the House of Chiefs, State Secretariat, Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.
The Kiriji War, also known as the Ekiti Parapo War, is a 16-year-long inter-ethnic civil war within the Yoruba people, specifically among western Yorubas, who were mainly Ibadan and Ijebu people and eastern Yorubas, who were the Ekiti and the Ijesha people.
While speaking with newsmen, the Chairman of the Afenifere Renewal Group, Comrade Olawale Osun, said that the obligation of the Yoruba assembly is to educate the southwestern part of Nigeria to stand up to the inactivities and the inaction issues preventing the development of the region.
Osun stated: “We have been collaborating with one another before today. We have been sending out the messages to all Yoruba people that it is time to come together to confront our problems, to confront the enemies within together and to face the needs of our people. This, of course, can only be undertaken by those we elected into office, to remind them, whether they are lawmakers or executives, that they owe the Yoruba people an obligation.”
In his remark, the Chairman of the Nationalities Alliance for Self-Determination (NINAS), Prof. Banji Akintoye, represented by Tunde Hamzat, called for a regional referendum to be conducted and further advised the southwestern part of Nigeria to dwell in unity in order to achieve self-determination agenda.
Akintoye emphasised that the struggle for self-determination or restructuring remained legitimate but must be achieved devoid of bloodshed, calling on the Federal Government to summon all the regional leaders in the country to a roundtable to renegotiate the structure of the country.
He noted: “We want a credible regional referendum to be conducted. There is need for us to really engage the government and we will continue to so. Not only because it is right, it is also legitimate and we are deploying non-violent means.”
On his part, the Director-General of the Developmental Agenda for Western Nigeria, (DAWN)Commission, Comrade Seye Oyeleye, admonished youths to ensure the collection of their voters’ cards so as to actively engage in the coming election and ensure they are not used by politicians as political thugs, maintaining that the Commission was in support of genuine restructuring, as advocated by some.
The leaders present at the event were: Hon. Wale Oshun of the Afenifere Renewal Group (ARG); Ambassador Yemi Farounbi of the Yoruba Self-Determination Groups; Baale Ekotedo, Taiye Ayorinde of the Yoruba World Assembly (YWA); the Secretary-General of Yoruba K’oya, Kola Onadipe; Mr. Seye Oyeleye, Director-General of the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) Commission and leaders of O’odua People’s Congress (OPC), among others.
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