The Yoruba Liberation Command (YOLICOM), a coalition of Yoruba self determination groups has called a sovereign Yoruba state out of the present Nigerian federal structure.
Address a world press conference yesterday in Lagos in commemoration of the end of Yoruba civil war 132 years ago, the group called for a United Nations (UN) supervised referendum to determine the peaceful dissolution of Nigeria where each nationality group within the country could safely, and without let or hindrance choose the path of its own destiny.
YOLICOM through its spokesperson, George Akinola, demanded the immediate withdrawal of all armed Fulani herdsmen already stationed in Yoruba towns, villages and street corners, adding that they should withdraw peacefully in their own interest.
The restructuring of the country, the group noted, was no longer necessary as it had become a political weapon used by gladiators to delude Nigerians into a strind of fraudulent elections whose outcomes were predictable.
Nigeria, according to the group, had failed the Yoruba nation in all aspects of human developments and therefore, called on all Yoruba to prepare for the big challenge to self determine their future and be ready to make the highest sacrifices for the sake of the present and posterity.
“We the Yoruba are no longer interested in the Nigerian project. The task ahead of all young people in Yorubaland is to work for the self determination of Yoruba people as a sovereign nation”, YOLICOM declared, adding “…the Yoruba people hereby reiterate our desire for self determination as enshrined in the United Nations Charter on Peoples and Human Right.”
The group which observed that Nigeria had become the private property of Fulani ethnic group cited series of injustices in the land to include skewed political appointments, imbalance in the nation’s security architecture and nepotism in the management of the economy.
The fore-going, it stated clearly showed the parochial prism from which the government of President Muhammadu Buhari viewed the social, economic and political realities in the country adding that it undoubtedly was responsible for the free reign of the armed Fulani herdsmen that had turned Nigeria into a theatre of war.
Comparing the Yoruba nation with other countries of world, YOLICOM contended that the Yoruba was bigger than many of the richest and most influential countries of the western world and many African nations.
Arguing that the unenviable situation in the country had resulted in the emigration of the ever swelling stream educated Yoruba to various parts of the world, the group claimed that Yoruba descendants worldwide were close to 200 million which it added had made the idea of a ‘Trans-Atlantic Yoruba nation” grow in the Americas.
“We must, therefore, exit this falling Nigeria edifice to claim the promising potential of a great Yoruba nation before the nascent series of implosions increases beyond the present intensity. An Oduduwa Republic of one people, one language, one culture… is possible and imminent”, YOLICOM concluded.
Tunde Adeleke Lagos.
