A Pan Yoruba group,
O’odua Nationalist Coalition, (ONAC) has called on Yoruba people to prepare for
their own sovereign nation, “Oodua” Republic, following the lingering agitation
for the breakup of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
It will be recalled
that a Coalition of Northern Youth Groups, last Tuesday, at a press conference,
warned the Igbo to leave the North within three months.
In response to the
warning, Indigenous People of Biafra (IPoB), one of the groups spearheading the
agitation for the separation of the South-East from Nigeria, has asked Igbo and
other southerners resident in the North to start packing to leave the region
A statement issued by a
Yoruba group at the weekend and signed by Oluwole Suleimann, Michael Popoola,
and Mrs. Aduke Fadahunsi, and made available to Vanguard, stressed the need for
the creation of Yoruba sovereign nation, Oduduwa Republic.
The group stressed that
it became necessary in the face of the lingering problems and conflict built
around the national question that has stunted the growth of Nigeria for over a
century.
“This conflict has
again reared its head, 50 years after a civil war that inflicted pain and
misery on the Yoruba people apart from distorting the development plan of the
late Chief Obafemi Awolowo for the South West,” the group stated.
ONAC is made up of 18
Pan Yoruba groups including the Oodua Peoples Congress, (OPC), Oodua Liberation
Movement, (OLM), Oodua Republic Coalition, (ORC), Yoruba Revolutionary
Congress, (YORC), Oodua Muslim-Christian Dialogue Group , (OMDG), Yoruba
Students Nationalist Front, (YOSNF), Oodua Hunters Union, (OHUN) and 11 other
groups.
The group also called
on Yoruba people in the territories of the Hausa-Fulani North to be guided by a
strong sense of history and the fact that they would not be spared by those who
claim to be their hosts. “We advise them to begin to make alternative plans for
the inevitable upheaval being promoted by the Fulani oligarchy.
“The North has always
been the aggressor because of the region’s loss of power and the unhidden
desire to make Nigeria the irreversible extension of the Fulani emirate.
“What we see is violent
conflict of civilisations which can only be resolved when each region go her
own way. In the bid to keep Nigeria as one country, millions of people have
been killed and the lives of children wasted, the future pauperized and the
potentials of Yoruba young men and women bottled or chained with fetters of
iron.
“Today, we make the
historic declaration that Yoruba people are ready for our own Oduduwa Republic.
We have watched events these past days. The cloud is getting thicker. The
poisonous rain appear ready to fall. It is time for the Yoruba people to be
ready to defend our homeland from being seized by local imperial elements and
their collaborators. We assert Yoruba self-determination and sovereignty. We
shall work for it. We will actualize it,” ONAC said.
The groups said the
Yoruba people have suffered unprecedented hardship in the form of human and
material destruction since 1960 when the country attained independence.
“Our leaders beginning
from Chief Obafemi Awolowo were jailed on trumped up charges. 28 leaders of
Yoruba were imprisoned unjustly. Chief M.K.O Abiola was murdered. The
industrial bases built by Awolowo were destroyed by the military rookies
appointed to control the South West region, our culture destroyed and the
future of our young people put asunder. Today, many Yoruba people have become
scavengers across the world fleeing from a hostile, bloodletting and malicious
country that hold no promise of good and abundant life for the long suffering
and exhausted population.
The group stated
further “We call on Yoruba people all over the world to prepare for a sovereign
nation for the people of the South West. We are over 50 million and far more
than the population of 140 countries in the world. Yoruba will be the third
biggest nation in Africa and about the 28th biggest nation in the world. We are
big and knowledgeable enough to be a sovereign nation. We assert the Yoruba
self-determination without any further delay.”
ONAC maintained that
the position of Northern youths asking Igbo to quit the North, the outright
demand for Arewa sovereignty by the Northern Elders Forum, (NEF), and the
legitimate demand for Biafra by Igbo, the call for a Niger-Delta Republic; “It
is time for the Yoruba people to stand for Oodua Republic without any further
delay. Yoruba people this time will not support any attack on Self
determination. We shall mobilise the masses and prevent Yoruba people from
being used for any attack on the long suffering indigenous peoples of the South
East and the South- South”
ONAC said the quit
notice issued by the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum, (AYCF) and the Northern
Elders Forum, (NEF) was not against the Igbo alone but also against the Yoruba
since Igbo is not written on the forehead of residents in the North.
ONAC concluded: “This
is not the first time we have called for Oodua Republic. In April 2015, we
organized a massive rally demanding for Oodua Republic. But today, this demand
has become even more crucial than any other thing.”
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