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Akintoye added that an activist, Sunday Adeyemo, more commonly called Sunday Igboho is not committing any crime under Nigerian law or the international community for leading a self-determination movement for the Indigenous Yoruba people
Prof. Banji Akintoye, Yoruba self-determination movement, Ilana Omo Oodua leader, has explained that the Yoruba self-determination struggle published a Manual since 2020 to guide the activities of the struggle and it is already with the Nigerian president.
Akintoye added that an activist, Sunday Adeyemo, more commonly called Sunday Igboho is not committing any crime under Nigerian law or the international community for leading a self-determination movement for the Indigenous Yoruba people
Akintoye’s comments were in response to criticisms from Fulani leaders, including Prof Garus Gololo, who have accused Igboho of being a criminal.
However, Akintoye maintained that Igboho’s actions align with international law and the Nigerian constitution, which guarantees the right to self-determination.
The historian also provided context to Igboho’s intervention in Igangan, where he helped to expel Fulani militants who had been terrorising local communities.
Akintoye, in an article he wrote, described the Fulani agenda as a quest for territorial expansion and domination, which has resulted in violence and displacement of indigenous populations.
He wrote, “Prof. Gololo thinks that seeking self determination for one’s nation is a crime. This highly educated compatriot of ours is grossly wrong in that view. Demanding self determination for one’s nation is entirely in accordance with the provisions of international law and of Nigerian law. The United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People affirms that indigenous peoples have the right to self determination, and that members of an indigenous people have the right to seek to retrieve their nation’s self determination from the country that their nation currently belongs to, provided that they do it without violence or disruptiveness.
“The African Charter of Human and People’s Rights fully affirms exactly the same. Now, since Nigeria is a member of the United Nations and the Africa Union and a signatory to these two international laws, both laws are parts of the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Former Nigerian President Buhari, speaking at the United Nations General Assembly in 2016 and 2017, acknowledged that if any nation in Nigeria seeks self determination peacefully, through a peaceful organisation, then the Nigeria state would have no other option than to negotiate with such a nation. President Buhari even added that it is immoral to deny self determination to any nation that peacefully seeks it.
“Therefore, since the Yoruba Self Determination Struggle is well known to be an avowedly and consistently peaceful and law-abiding movement, Sunday Igboho as a leader of it is breaking no law of Nigeria. No activist in the struggle for Yoruba self-determination and separation from Nigeria is breaking any law.
“As Prof. Gololo may not know, the Yoruba Self-determination Struggle published a Manual in 2020 to guide the activities of the struggle and t inform its Yoruba people and the rest of the world, about its chosen path to the self-determination of the Yoruba nation. Copies of this manual, titled YORUBA NATION CHOOSES THE NOBLE PATH TO ITS NOBLE GOAL, was sent to the President of Nigeria and to the Secretary General of the United Nations. In response to Prof. Gololo’s massively fiery attack against Sunday Igboho on social media, the highest organ of the Yoruba Self-determination Struggle has directed that the Manual be further widely disseminated – and that a copy must be made to reach Prof. Gololo.”
“Our Yoruba Self-determination Struggle is a peaceful, law-abiding, civilised and competent movement. We know our rights. We are charitable towards others. But we don’t tolerate unjust persecution of our people. We want our Fulani compatriots to give up their campaigns of falsehood against one of our foremost leaders, Sunday Igboho.
“By the grace of God, we Yoruba shall soon peacefully depart from Nigeria and begin, under our own patriotic and dedicated leaders, to live the life of progress and high-quality prosperity that we Yoruba love very much. We say proudly to the world that our new country shall be a friendly and helpful neighbour to all its neighbors, a country decently upholding the dignity of the Black Race, a country that all other countries in the world shall respect and confidently do business with,” the historian added.
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