S/West Muslim youths urge FG to ignore calls for Yoruba Republic
Muslim Youths under the agies of National Council of Muslim Youth Organisations (NACOMYO) and the Muslim Students’ Society of Nigeria (MSSN) yesterday urged the federal government to ignore those calling for secession of Yoruba people from Nigeria.
The groups at a jointly organised press conference in Ibadan, the southwest political headquarter, described the agitation of a section in the southwest for secession as “individualism”, saying that it did not represent the voice of Yoruba people.
Speaking on behalf of the groups, the Amir, MSSN B-zone, Qaasim Odedeji, said: “Muslim Youths of Yoruba extraction condemn in stronger term any agitation for secession or creation of Oduduwa Republic.”
The groups appealed to all Nigerians to put all hands on deck towards ensuring the development of one Nigeria.
He said “both organisations are the true representatives of the Muslim students as well as the entire Muslim youths in the southern part of Nigeria which includes Oyo, Ogun, Ondo, Lagos, Osun, Ekiti and Yoruba parts of Edo and Delta states.
“We have, in the recent time, followed the activities of some Yoruba ethnic groups in their agitation for secession from Nigeria and establishment of what they call ‘Oduduwa Republic’. In their agitation, a group called ‘Yoruba World Congress’ led by Prof Banji Akinloye and ‘Yoruba One Voice’ claim that Nigeria has failed the Yoruba nation and therefore the need for secession and creation of Oduduwa Republic becomes imperative.
“The secessionist groups have not only chosen a name for their proposed republic, they have also designed its currency which has been paraded on social media. In order to gain a global attention for their agitation, Yoruba World Congress has planned a rally to be held on the 1st day of October, the Nigeria Independence Day.
“It is a good development that many other Yoruba groups and some eminent personalities in Yorubaland have dissociated themselves from secessionists agenda and their planned October 1 rally.
“We however, to make our voice louder and speak in one voice, as the major Muslim Youths of Yoruba extraction, condemn in stronger term any agitation for secession or creation of Oduduwa Republic.
It is our considered view that the agitation is not only unwarranted and uncalled for, it is also ill-motivated and devilish.
It is a call for war and bloodshed and we, as critical stakeholders will not allow individuals or group of people acting in their own selfish and parochial interest, to drag us into unnecessary war.
“It becomes more worrisome and the need for our intervention when the secessionists, in their cunning way of claiming support of Muslims suddenly gave birth to a ‘Yoruba Jamatru Islam’ a faceless group existing only in the imagination of their fake sponsors. Gentlemen of the press, we, like many other Nigerians, are worried and concerned that Nigeria as a nation despite its endowment with human and natural resources, has become beset of poverty and insecurity as evidenced by acts of terrorism, kidnapping, banditry, thuggery, cultism, ritual killing in all parts of the country, we however, do not believe that secession is the answer to our multi-facet problems.
“Rather, it is capable of throwing the nation into another round of war and bloodshed as the experience of such agitation as recorded in the agitation for sovereign state of Biafra, Soviet Union/ Russia and recently the Sudan experience is nothing to write home about. It has always been a bad tale.
“When we are also not oblivious of the constitutional right to freedom of expression, we also believe it is clearly wrong to speak on behalf of the entire Yoruba people on such a serious issue like secession without the consent and approval of critical stakeholders that our organisations represent.”