Don decries multiplicity of Yoruba emancipation groups

A group, Egbe Ilosiwaju Ile Yoruba, has been formally inaugurated for the sustained agitation for the realisation of the Yoruba nation, with the body saying it came for the purpose of protecting the dignity, freedom and safety of Yoruba citizens all over the world.

At the formal launch of the Egbe Ilosiwaju Ile Yoruba in a ceremony held at the Wole Soyinka Arts Theatre, University of Ibadan, on Monday, representatives of several of Yoruba emancipation groups converged and stressed the need for unity and leadership in the quest for the realisation of the Yoruba nation.

Speaking at the launch of the group, a university don and professor of plant science, Professor Oluyemisi Akinyemiju, stressed the need for unity among the Yoruba, and noted that the multiplicity of emancipation groups was not healthy for the agitation.

Prof Akinyemiju, while addressing the gathering said lack of unity and lack of leadership were the major problems militating against the Yoruba nation.

He said: “I sympathise with the initiators of all of these organisations. One of the problems that is necessitating all these movements is the lack of unity within the rank and file of Yoruba people, especially the Yoruba elite. The politicians are the worst, everybody is for himself and nobody seems to appreciate the problem the Yoruba nation is facing.

“For a leader to emerge in Yorubaland, that leader has to be intellectually sound – he doesn’t have to be a professor but you have to have a deep understanding of where we are coming from, where we are and where we are going. Secondly that person must be a zealot and must have determination to save Yorubaland from the chaos that we are and thirdly, that person has to have resources or have access to resources.

“That individual must not be selfish; he must be determined enough to salvage Yoruba from where we are. The lack of unity among us has enabled so many associations. Yoruba nation associations are over 200 today. I associate with a number of them to see if there can emerge the kind of character that can bail Yoruba out of the mess.”

Prof Akinyemiju lamented the accumulation of wealth by some leaders of the people, especially political leaders saying this was not healthy for an egalitarian society.

The convener of Egbe Ilosiwaju Ile Yoruba, Dr Wumi Babalola Okocha, in a speech, said the group was out to promote the Yoruba people; saying “we want the Yoruba to come together because the suffering is too much. We had Yoruba before Nigeria so what went wrong?”

On what informed the founding of the group, Babalola-Okocha said “We are trying to bring our people together to realise that the suffering is too much and let us ask for our own nation; let’s ask for our own country. Yoruba race is large, we are so many and we are nearly everywhere so let’s have a body; let’s have a country. That is all we are asking. We are not fighting. Let us have a Yoruba nation. We are negotiating, not fighting, let’s have our voice.”

Also speaking, the representative of Yoruba Global Coalition based in Dubai, UAE, Barrister Abiodun Olopade, explained that the Egbe Itesiwaju Ile Yoruba was a response to the need to rekindle unity and vigour among Yoruba progressive movements and bring them  under one umbrella.

Olopade said: “People have done a lot as individual groups; they’ve gotten to a situation whereby to move further seems a bit difficult and things are beginning to go down. So, in order to avoid death of the progressive movement, that is why people have come together to call it Egbe Ilosiwaju Ile Yoruba.”

He said work to achieve the Yoruba nation was going on mostly underground “because you cannot just declare as this might be misconstrued. Work is ongoing all over the world and people are out there for the same purpose.”

Sheikh Abdulrahman Aduraniigba, in his speech on the occasion, noted that Yoruba is more than 50 million and deserved their freedom, saying “we must cooperate and be united, and also be law-abiding and also defend our citizens. We must not do anything that could bring another war in Nigeria.”

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