The newly-appointed leader of the Yoruba race, Professor Banji Akintoye, on Thursday met no fewer than thirty-six self-determination groups within the Southwest states in order to address insecurity in the region.
The meeting, which was held in Ibadan, the Oyo state capital, was summoned in oder to tackle insecurity, especially, kidnapping and killings in the region.
The meeting christened Yoruba World Congress (introductory conference) was facilitated by the Akintoye, to harmonise their thoughts on the way forward for the region, especially in the wake of the security and economic challenges facing the region.
Some of the groups at the meeting included, factional leaders and members of the Oodua Peoples Congress, the Agbekoya’s, Yoruba Liberation Movement, The Yoruba Afenifere Youth Council, among others.
Speaking on the essence of the meeting, Akintoye said it was important to introduce his organisation to the various self determination and social cultural groups so as to harmonise thoughts on how to defend and promote the interest of the Yoruba nation in the context of Nigeria.
He recounted his efforts way back in 2006 where he founded the Oodua Foundation as a think tank organisation of Yoruba intellectuals from all over the world who has been studying the impact of Nigeria on the Yoruba nation.
Akintoye said “In today’s conference, we the founders and members of the Yoruba World Congress have assembled first to introduce and to highlight our Yoruba World Congress.
“We are gathered to send a clear message to the Yoruba people and to the other peoples of Nigeria that we Yoruba people are a great ancient civilization, the most educated people Africa, and a people with widespread and enormous influence in the world.
“We are sending notice to those who harbor dangerous and destructive ideas of conquering and subduing other peoples of Nigeria that our Yoruba nation is far beyond their capabilities to subdue.
“While we will continue to honour our tradition of hospitality to foreigners in our land, we will not hold back any effort to force out from our land any foreigners who come with the intent to hurt, to kill, to maim and to destroy.
“We do not harbour any ambition to subdue any people or to seize any part of their land, and we will make it absolutely clear to the world that nobody can seize any inch of our land.
“We also serve notice that we have arisen now to resist and reverse the trend toward retrogression in the life of our nation in Nigeria. We will mount a multifaceted operation to stop our language from continuing to decline. We will mount powerful operations and campaigns to revive our agriculture, and to revive our industrial development that has been deliberately stopped in Nigeria.”
