Efforts to create a separate nation in the South West are currently facing a hiccup as leaders of the Yoruba nation agitation are facing allegations of funds mismanagement, lack of transparency and corruption within the leadership.

The Yoruba self-determination struggle is being championed by the defunct Yoruba World Congress (YWC), an umbrella body of all Yoruba self-determination groups in Yorubaland and the diaspora.

The struggle for Yoruba nation which has been an age-long demand became intense in 2019 when Second Republic Senator Banji Akintoye took over the mantle of leadership as the new Yoruba leader.

However, last Saturday, the newly appointed chairman of Ilana Omo Oodua, Prof. Wale Adeniran, announced he was stepping aside amid allegations of funds mismanagement levelled against him.

Adeniran said he was stepping aside about three weeks after he had taken over the leadership of the self-determination group following the resignation of its former leader and Second Republic Senator Banji Akintoye.

Adeniran took over on December 17 amid an intractable crisis of ego worsened by allegations of mismanagement of funds.

But in a video which circulated on Saturday morning, Adeniran said he stepped aside as chairman and member of the group and as a participant in the Yoruba nation struggle.

His resignation preceded that of the spokesman of the group, Maxwell Adeleye, who also quit the forum and called for accountability.

“I am withdrawing from the agitation under its current leadership. I remain committed to the ideal of having an independent Yoruba nation out of Nigeria but I won’t be participating under the current management. I will be willing to work with like-minded people who truly want freedom and liberation for the Yoruba people, but not under the current leadership of Yoruba self-determination struggle,” he said.

Reports say that Ilana Omo Oodua (meaning “Making the Paths for Descendants of Oodua) is the primus inter pares in the Yoruba self-determination struggle and it has proclaimed a Yoruba nation out of Nigeria and written the United Nations and other global bodies to recognise the struggle.

The group singlehandedly secured the release of Yoruba nation agitator, Chief Sunday Adeyemo, popularly known as Sunday Igboho, and rose against the federal government over his alleged persecution.

But over time, there has been a wide gulf among the proponents; the situation that has made the struggle for the actualisation of Yoruba nation a seemingly tall order.

Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State, who is also the Chairman of South West Governors’ Forum, said recently that the Yoruba nation struggle is dead, noting those behind it were enemies of the Yoruba.

“Those clamouring for Oodua nation will not succeed. People have not laid down their lives for this country for unscrupulous individuals to scuttle it. This country is very important to some of us. We recognise the right of the people to protest or agitate, but if the police feel your actions are treasonable, they will arrest and prosecute you,” he said.

Adeniran later replied Akeredolu, insisting there was no going back in the struggle for the actualisation of a Yoruba nation.

“It appears Akeredolu and his fellow Yoruba governors are beginning to get paranoid seeing the popularity of the agitation for Yoruba/Oduduwa nation among the Yoruba populace at home and abroad,” he said.

Adeniran reminded Akeredolu that the right to self-determination was enshrined in the United Nations Charter.

He added that other international instruments that affirm the right of a people to self-determination include the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights [ICCPR] of 16 December, 1966, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights [ICESCR] also of 16 December 1966, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples of September 13, 2007, the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Banjul Charter) of 21 October, 1986, among others.

These laws, covenants and declarations affirm the fact that every indigenous nation, such as the Yoruba nation, has “the inalienable right to self-determination” and “the right to determine their political status,” he argued.

He said: “Therefore, it is foolhardy or outrightly foolish for any governor, whether “arakunrin” or “arabinrin” to engage in the delusion of stopping or standing in the way of those of us agitating for the creation of a sovereign Yoruba nation, a nation of about 60 million people with the highest literacy rate in black Africa.

“Prevalent internal dynamics presage the imminent and inevitable break-up of Nigeria and the birth of new countries therefrom. It is irreversible.

“We who are agitating for a sovereign Yoruba nation separate from Nigeria know what it takes to birth our new country. We have embarked on it, and there is no looking back.

“However, the point must be made that, as repeatedly stated by Professor Banji Akintoye, the face and father of the Yoruba nation agitation, we shall go about it peacefully and in a law-abiding manner.”

But recent developments show that the body championing the course is in disarray to continue the struggle amid allegations of high-handedness against the leadership. Furthermore, the 2023 politicking has polarised the agitators with the emergence of a former governor of Lagos as the APC presidential candidate.

Tinubu enjoys massive support in the South West and the majority of his supporters believe the continued agitation for Yoruba nation may jeopardise his chance of clinching the presidency.

Adeniran while stepping down from all the activities of the group cited allegations of funds mismanagement as the reason for his decision while challenging anyone who sent money to him or to the group to come forward with receipts of such a payment indicating the amount and the date it was paid.

It was learnt that a Cotonou-based Bureau De Change Agent/Personal Assistant of Professor Banji Akintoye, Mr Kabir Adebayo, fondly called Obalola, alleged that 70 per cent of the money being sent by supporters of self-determination struggle worldwide goes into Professor Wale Adeniran and his wife’s accounts.

Adeniran had denied Obalola’s claims, saying he was being blackmailed over some issues that he refused to compromise on which he didn’t mention.

In the video, he called on well-meaning Yoruba leaders to set up a committee to conduct a thorough investigation into the allegations and the report of the investigation must be made public.

He said the decision to step aside was to allow for “unfettered investigation” and in line with the practice in developed countries when leaders step aside in the midst of corruption allegations.

In the video made in Yoruba and seen by the media, he said: “I challenge anyone who sent money to me personally or to the Ilana Omo Oodua or the Yoruba nation struggle; they should please send us a receipt indicating the amount paid and the day it was paid.

“I urge the entire Yoruba nation worldwide to set up a committee to investigate the allegations. To allow for this investigation from this hour, I step aside as chairman of Ilana Oodua, member, Ilana Oodua, and a participant in the Yoruba nation struggle so as to allow for unfettered investigation of all these allegations.

“Because in all developed parts of the world, what people do when faced with such allegations is to step aside to allow for a thorough investigation. This is exactly what I have done. I thank you all and at the conclusion of the investigation, the report should be made public for all sons and daughters of Yoruba nation to see it. Nothing must be concealed.”

Experts speak on implication to the struggle

Political scientists, Kayode Esuola and Gbade Ojo, said the secrecy and lack of structures in the way the organisation operates is a major setback to the struggle.

Ojo of the Department of Political Science, University of Ilorin, said, “In any human collectivist, you cannot but notice human frailties. The problem with the agitators is the fact that there is a lot of secrecy with the way the organisation operates so only those inside can confirm whether there were sharp practices or not.

“But whether the personalities involved in the struggle are not interested or have become lukewarm, the struggle continues; it is of the mind until the warped federal arrangements are corrected through restructuring and genuinely reinventing the polity. The system has a way of bringing a new set of people to the fore.”

Esuola on his part blamed the challenge facing the organisation on “infiltration by politics and politicians.

He said, “That can happen to organisations, really, but the sad thing with the Yoruba nation is the lack of structures to handle it.

“All social movements are as strong as they are rooted in the grassroots. The Yoruba nation has been top-down. The top guys have freely used it for political plays.’’

Another Yoruba group, the Yoruba Welfare Group, said Yoruba nation is a fraud, and this explains why it cannot stand.

“2023 is Yoruba’s real agenda and we will not vote based on religion or ethnicity but competency,” YWG chairman, Comrade Abdulhakeem Alawuje, said.

YWG insisted that even if the group continues with 1000 leaders, it would still not stand the test of time. (Daily Trust)

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