‘Instead Of Restructuring, Let Us Have Biafra, Oduduwa Republic’ – Yoruba Group Tells FG

A South West group, Yoruba Liberation Command, YOLICOM, has called on the Federal Government to declare Biafra and Oduduwa independent nations instead of yielding to the call for restructuring.

Speaking in Lagos, spokesperson of the group, Opeoluwa Akinola, said it was time for the Yoruba nation to exit Nigeria which is “dominated by the Fulani north.”

Akinola maintained that Nigeria will never be genuinely restructured by the present crop of political leaders.

The group also said it is in support of Nnamdi Kanu’s pursuit for restoration of Biafra.

According to Akinola, “We totally reject the idea of restructuring as proposed. It is an attempt to restructure Nigeria on their own terms and not on the terms of the people. Nigeria will never be genuinely restructured by the present crop of political leaders who are themselves beneficiaries of the same skewed system.

“Even if the country will be restructured, it will pass through the National Assembly, which was created during the era of military rule of the Fulani to ensure an upper hand for the Fulani North. The National Assembly is an organ of the Fulani and their agents, so also is the Nigerian military, which has continuously been used to repress, intimidate and humiliate Nigerians.

“You will agree with me that the self-determination groups in Nigeria are the engine of our history today. We have the largest population with which all the members of the main political parties in Yorubaland combined together cannot equal. Our members are not in these movements for personal gains like we have in the political parties. Our members are in these organisations to make sacrifices and if necessary lay down their lives for the Yoruba nation.

“For the past three months, we have been consulting with all the Yoruba self-determination groups, meeting poor and malnourished Yoruba people, talking to our people in the villages, towns and on the hills and mountains in the rural communities of Yoruba nation.

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“In the light of the foregoing, and in response to the occurrences in Nigeria of the past few months, including but not limited to the releases, utterances and comments certain groups representing the Igbo nation in Nigeria, IPOB (The Indigenous People of Biafra, (IPOB) Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra, (MASSOB) among others to the effect that they desire to leave Nigeria and cease to be called Nigerians; and certain groups representing the (AREWA) people of Northern Nigeria, to the effect that the Igbo people should vacate the territory of Northern Nigeria before October 1st, 2017.

“That we support the aspirations of the Igbo Nation irrespective of the unfortunate hate speeches, infantile savage utterances of a certain Nnamdi Kanu, who appears to have singled out Yoruba Nation for ridicule and revulsion. We take solace in the fact that we work with many large-hearted, better-exposed, principled and consciousness Igbo leaders who have a richer sense of history and understands better the complex nature of nation building and who also realize that importance of alliances, networking in statesmanship and international friendship and solidarity. We look forward to a viable and mutual relationship to the future Igbo nation, based on cordial respect within the framework of international best practices.

“We as a people want Oduduwa Republic. We have no apology for this. That the Yoruba people wish to see an end to the over 100 years of bitter acrimony, ethnic rivalry, savage killings, blackmail of the Yoruba nation by some recalcitrant ethnic groups, herdsmen killings, forcing millions of our people to stop going to farms and the excruciating burden of coming from a country with the stigma of terrorism.

“That our people have endured for a century the misery of Nigeria, her destruction of our values and the inestimable cultural genocide inflicted on our heritage by the rogue Nigerian country. It is time for the Yoruba Nation to exit from this axis of evil. That we totally reject the idea of RESTRUCTURING as proposed by the Nigerian state and the political elite. It is an attempt to restructure Nigeria on their own terms and not on the terms of the people. Nigeria will never be genuinely restructured by the present crop of political leaders who are themselves beneficiaries of the same skewed system.”