Renowned historian and leader of the Yoruba self-determination movement, Ilana Omo Oodua, Prof. Banji Akintoye, yesterday, backed Governor Rotimi Akeredolu’s insistence that the Southwest Security Group, Amotekun, should be allowed to bear arms and ammunitions by the Federal Government as obtainable in Katsina State.
The Ondo State governor in reaction to a viral video clip showing the equivalent of Amotekun Corps in Katsina State bearing arms approved by the Federal Government said such was against the principle of true federalism.
Akeredolu said, “denying Amotekun the urgently needed rights to legitimately bear arms is a repudiation of the basis of true federalism, which we have been clamouring for.”
Corroborating the position of the Ondo State governor in an interview yesterday, Akintoye said: “The position of the governor is true and this is what those of us who want Yoruba self-determination and those who want other independent nations like Biafra and people of Delta and Middle Belt have been clamouring for a long time.
“The British colonial masters unduly empowered the Fulani over Nigeria in 1960 but the Fulani don’t know how to rule other than to subdue all the other people of this country. But now that people are agitating and it is no longer working, the Fulani resolved to wage war and organised violence against all of us.
“The clear thing is that Nigeria is no longer viable. The fact that a section of Nigeria is waging a war against the rest of Nigerians has destroyed the legitimacy of one country. The answer is to let those who want their own country go.”
Akintoye added that Nigeria has become a very big source of insecurity to its own people. “It has become a source of killings and even genocide against many of its own people and it has become a source of huge insecurity against the rest of West Africa. The answer is let us sit down and talk about this thing because it is our life. It is not Fulani’s exclusive life but the life of all of us. Let us sit down and take our decision about different features and how we shall be able to live peacefully and in a friendly manner together hereafter.
“There is no sense in keeping this thing going that threatens the lives of its people and the life of other people outside of Nigeria. My good friend, Prof. Ango Abdullahi, said in an interview in 2017 or 2018 that if Nigerians are tired of living together, there is no sense in continuing to live in disappointment with one another. If breaking up the country and allowing the people to go and have their country separately is what will work, then let us do it,” he added.
The Ilana Omo Oodua leader said dialogue was no longer feasible in Nigeria because of the warring path a section of the country has allegedly taken.
Akintoye commended Akeredolu for the position he has taken, saying: “There has always been two Nigeria since 1960. There is a Nigeria of the underprivileged, who are the vast majority and there is a Nigeria that is deeply and viciously privileged. This is the time to bring it to an end.”
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