Akintoye congratulates Tinubu, re- affirms decision to negotiate political space for Yoruba
• Restates Nigeria not sustainable as vehicle to translate Yoruba’s energy into devt • Says one Yoruba man’s presidency can’t alter bondage, retrogression of people
AFOREMOST Yoruba leader and Chairman of Yoruba Self- determination Movement ( YSDM), Prof. Banji Akintoye, has congratulated President Bola Tinubu on his assumption of office as the 16th President of Nigeria. Akinto ye, however , reaffirmed the decision of Yoruba to negotiate with Nigeria the creation of its own and separate autonomous political and economic space outside the framework of the Nigerian state. In a statement by his Assistant Director of Programmes, Dr. Olatunde Amusat, Akintoye said the people remained fiercely convinced of the reality of the non- sustainability of the Nigerian state as a vehicle for galvanising and translating the inherent creative energies of Yoruba people into a developmental thrust.
The history professor maintained that the Yoruba nation would never submit itself to unending citizenship in a Nigeria that is irretrievably held in the dungeon of more and more poverty and hopelessness.
The Yoruba leader stated that the political realities of one Yoruba man’s presidency over Nigeria could not possibly alter the continued bondage and retrogression of Yoruba people in the cauldron of the heavily devalued Nigerian state.
He added that the Y oruba people ha ve suffered in Nigeria’s ever- intensifying cauldron of inter- peoples hatred.
The statement reads in part: ‘” On this historic occasion of the inauguration of our beloved brother , Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Commander- in- Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria, I, Prof. Banji Akinto ye, Chairman of the Yoruba Selfdetermination Movement, for and on behalf of the overwhelming majority of Yoruba people at home and in the Diaspora worldwide, deeply and sincerely rejoice with him on the fulfillment of his political ambition to preside over the affairs of the Nigerian state.
“Therefore, none of us citizens of Nigeria can say that he does not deserve the same elevation for himself today. “Indeed, his elevation to the Presidency of Nigeria against all the odds that we Nigerians are painfully familiar with, and against all the man- made contortions of order that characterise Nigeria, demonstrate clearly the tenacity of spirit that characterises his political career.”
He said the Y oruba have, therefore, concluded that they ha ve the legitimate right and the duty to separate the Yoruba nation from Nigeria.