The Yoruba Self Determination Movement (YSDM) has identified the sovereignty of Yoruba nation as the only solution to build a prosperous Yoruba nation.
The General Secretary of YSDM, Moses Abiodun Ojo, who stated this in a statement, maintained that the Yoruba nation of their dreams will go a long way to secure the borders, homeland and protect their people and heritage.
He assured the Yoruba people that the Yoruba self-determination struggle is on course and moving surely towards its victorious goal but said the group will engage with the government through lawful and peaceful means and not through violence.
Ojo said nothing would sway the group from its vision as they are absolutely, resolutely, and strictly for a sovereign Yoruba Nation separate from Nigeria.
He said “Let me say here that the leadership of the YSDM is actively engaged in some diplomatic moves with some well-meaning stakeholders of our struggle.
“The reasonable suggestion for each ethnic nationality to retain their rights to self-determination as discussed by the apostles of regionalism may be an interesting idea.”
He however called on the Yoruba people to make conscious efforts not to be fooled yet again, no matter what color the chameleon may wear.
“Let us be wise and be unified against the enemies within. Let us be wise and unified in the quest for the ultimate good, success and prosperity of our Yoruba nation”, he said
According to him, the Yoruba people of Southwest Nigeria must understand that it is suicidal to toy with a heavily funded, intensively armed, and fiercely terroristic people like who are resolved to use violence to seize our ancestral homeland from us and turn it into theirs.
“In the history of the world, they are the only nation that has never had a homeland of their own, and they have decided now that Nigeria is their last hope of establishing a homeland for a change.
“So now, we are confronted by a new antic by some former disciples of the Yoruba Nation’s self-determination struggle. These people have now put on their political hats to promote this distraction called Regionalism or Restructuring.
“Probably, the Federal government of Nigeria’s carrots of fourteen new states to be created in Nigeria is getting some of our politicians salivating. It does not matter to these politicians that Regionalism negates the Yoruba sovereign Nation, the sovereign nation that they were promoting until only yesterday.
“The campaign of regionalism is now, suddenly, their tool of choice to deceive and fool our innocent people.
“It is unpatriotic and thoughtless for greedy politicians, who until yesterday were given important roles in the Yoruba Nation struggle, who until yesterday were singing songs of the Yoruba self-determination struggle, to now face our people and ask to be accepted as captains of a sudden new venture of saving Nigeria intact.
“The Yoruba Self Determination Movement (YSDM), under the leadership of Emeritus Professor, Banji Akintoye, is issuing a public statement on the deadly distraction that the new campaign of Regionalism poses to the continued existence of the Yoruba race.
“Given recent developments in the political theater in Nigeria and their intended impact on the Yoruba nation, it is urgently necessary for our Yoruba people to receive from the Yoruba Self-determination Movement an official policy statement that is clear and unambiguous.
“One Yoruba adage says that when a child falls, the child stares ahead, but when an adult falls, he looks back at what caused him to fall to avoid falls in the future. In other words, experience is the best educator.
“However, persons who are incapable of learning from the mistakes of others should not be considered credible intelligentsia that can provide moral and political leadership to their people. Yes, they may be university-educated persons, but their cognitive content is deficient in its application to real life situations.
“It is a well-known lesson of human history that a civilized nation that comes under attack by a less civilized people and that blissfully goes on with its usual life, paying no significant response to the attack, almost always falls and perishes.
“The story of how the nomadic came to dominate the religious and political life of the large, civilized and formidable Hausa Nation of Northern Nigeria is a well-known story today – the story of how they indoctrinated Hausa youths to eliminate the Hausa traditional leadership and hand Hausa land over to them, while the Hausa adult population paid no attention to their youths.
“One option to the poison is a sovereign Yoruba Nation separate from Nigeria, strongly defending its homeland and people, developing its homeland into a prosperous country in the service of all its citizens, and living at peace with all its neighbors.
“Some youths had spoken before about the need to work for a separate sovereign Yoruba nation, but with Prof. Akintoye now leading the struggle, hopes grew rapidly for the new Yoruba country.”