The O’odua Nationalist Coalition ,(ONAC) has called on Yoruba people to
prepare for their own sovereign nation in the face of the lingering
problems and conflict built around the national question that has stunted
the growth of Nigeria for over a century.
This conflict has again reared its head, 50 years after a civil war that
inflicted pain and misery on the Yoruba people apart from distorting the
development plan of the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo for the South West.
ONAC is made up of 18 Pan Yoruba groups including the Oodua Peoples
Congress, (OPC), Oodua Liberation Movement, (OLM), Oodua Republic
Coalition, (ORC), Yoruba Revolutionary Congress, (YORC), Oodua
Muslim-Christian Dialogue Group , (OMDG), Yoruba Students Nationalist
Front, (YOSNF), Oodua Hunters Union, (OHUN) and 11 other groups. The
statement was signed by Micheal Popoola, Oluwole Suleiman and Mrs Aduke
Fadahunsi on behalf of the coalition.
The group called on Yoruba people in the territories of the Hausa-Fulani
North to be guided by a strong sense of history and the fact that they
will not be spared by those who claim to be their hosts. We advise them to
begin to make alternative plans for the inevitable upheaval being promoted
by the Fulani oligarchy.
The group said the North has always been the aggressor because of the
region’s loss of power and the unhidden desire to make Nigeria the
irreversible extension of the Fulani emirate. What we see is violent
conflict of civilisations which can only be resolved when each region go
her own way. In the bid to keep Nigeria as one country, millions of people
have been killed and the lives of children wasted, the future pauperized
and the potentials of Yoruba young men and women bottled or chained with
fetters of iron.
“Today, we make the historic declaration that Yoruba people are ready for
our own Oduduwa Republic. We have watched events these past days. The
cloud is getting thicker. The poisonous rain appear ready to fall. It is
time for the Yoruba people to be ready to defend our homeland from being
seized by local imperial elements and their collaborators. We assert
Yoruba self-determination and sovereignty. We shall work for it. We will
actualize it,” ONAC said in the statement issued at the
weekend.
The groups said the Yoruba people have suffered unprecedented hardship in
the form of human and material destruction since 1960 when the country
attained independence.
“Our leaders beginning from Chief Obafemi Awolowo were jailed on trumped
up charges. 28 leaders of Yoruba were imprisoned unjustly. Chief M.K.O
Abiola was murdered. The industrial bases built by Awolowo were destroyed
by the military rookies appointed to control the South West region, our
culture destroyed and the future of our young people put asunder. Today,
many Yoruba people have become scavengers across the world fleeing from a
hostile, bloodletting and malicious country that hold no promise of good
and abundant life for the long suffering and exhausted population.
The group stated further “we call on Yoruba people all over the world to
prepare for a sovereign nation for the people of the South West. We are
over 50 million and far more than the population of 140 countries in the
world. Yoruba will be the third biggest nation in Africa and about the
28th biggest nation in the world. We are big and knowledgeable enough to
be a sovereign nation. We assert the Yoruba self-determination without any
further delay.”
The Pan Yoruba group said with the position of Northern youths asking
Igbo to quit the North, the outright demand for Arewa sovereignty by the
Northern Elders Forum, (NEF), and the legitimate demand for Biafra by
Igbo, the call for a Niger-Delta Republic “It is time for the Yoruba
people to stand for Oodua Republic without any further delay. Yoruba
people this time will not support any attack on Self determination.We
shall mobilise the masses and prevent Yoruba people from being used for
any attack on the long suffering indigenous peoples of the South East and
the South- South”
ONAC said the quit notice issued by the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum,
(AYCF) and the Northern Elders Forum, (NEF) was not against the Igbo alone
but also against the Yoruba since Igbo is not written on the forehead of
residents in the North.
ONAC stated “ This is not the first time we have called for Oodua
Republic. In April 2015, we organized a massive rally demanding for Oodua
Republic. But today, this demand has become even more crucial than any
other thing.
SIGNED
Oluwole Suleimann
Michael Popoola
Mrs Aduke Fadahunsi