Professor Banji Akintoye, the Worldwide Leader of Yoruba Global Movement, Ilana Omo Oodua, has urged the Yoruba and the Igbo people to put away rivalry and work together to achieve their ‘deserved destinies’ in the world.
The member of the Senate during the Second Republic said the destinies of the two ethnic groups are intertwined as prophesied by the late sage, Obafemi Awolowo.
Akintoye said God’s time has come for the Yoruba and Igbo to put together their enormous capabilities and achieve for themselves their true destinies.
He spoke on Friday at a webinar with the theme, ‘Yoruba And Igbo Conference: Speaking With One Voice’ organised by the Fatherland Group.
He called on the two ethnic groups to stop allowing themselves to be used against one another but to start collaborating for an agenda.
His comments came at a time when there are political permutations for Southern presidency ahead of the 2023 general elections.
The Yoruba leader further said the civil war was a horrible time in the history of Nigeria, especially in the relationship between the Igbo and the Yoruba ethnic nationalities but called on both parties to dump the past in the garbage of history and work hand-in-hand to realise their destinies.
He said, “It has been horrible, it is time for us to turn around and begin to behave like the great nations that we are.
We are not fools to be led in the nose, to hate one another, to be constantly pitched against one another, to seek advantage against one another in what is called the federal arrangement and the national cake. It is folly.
“It is time the Yoruba and the Igbo developed their own agenda of where they want to be and what they want to do and how they can collaborate to achieve their purposes.”
Akintoye said some progress has been made in the collaboration between pan-cultural groups like the Ohanaeze Ndigbo and the Afenifere, adding that the Yoruba and the Igbo should stop disturbing themselves on federal character and should not “continue to rival one another for shares in the Government of Nigeria” or the national cake when they can hold their destinies in their own hands.
“Sharing from the government of Nigeria is not the destiny of a great nation like the Igbo, it is not the destiny of a great nation like the Yoruba. Developing their own destinies which Ahmadu Bello said we will not let them develop is the quest and it is time they began to do that,” he added.
Comments