The leader of the Yoruba Global Movement known as Yoruba World Congress (YWC) or Ilana Omo Oodua, Emeritus Professor Banji Akintoye, has urged the Yoruba and the Igbo people to put away rivalry and work together to achieve their ‘deserved destinies’ in the world.
Prof Akintoye spoke on Friday at a webinar with the theme, ‘Yoruba And Igbo Conference: Speaking With One Voice’ organised by the Fatherland Group said God’s time has come for the Yoruba and Igbo to put together their enormous capabilities and achieve for themselves their true destinies. as has been prophesied by the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo..
He called on the two ethnic groups to stop allowing themselves to be used against one another but to start collaborating for an agenda.
Akintoye 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.
“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.
The leader of Ilana Omo Oduduwa recalled how the late nationalist and statesman, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, held his wrist one day and told him ‘the Yoruba and Igbo would work together to be free.’
“Awolowo said, ‘You (Yoruba) and Igbo must work together’. And then he upgraded his talk to something like a prophecy; he said, ‘You and the Igbo will work together, it is the only way you can be free in the world’. It is the only way we can be free in the world. It is the only way we can achieve what we deserve in the world.
“‘You and the Igbo must work together’. I am quoting him (Awolowo) as much as I can remember. ‘I am not saying it is going to be easy but I am saying it will be done. You and the Igbo will work together, it is only when you do that that you will achieve your goals in this world, your deserved destiny’.”
Akintoye added that God’s time has come for the two ethnic groups to rise and realise their true destinies.
“When God’s time comes, it comes. God’s time has come in the lives of the Yoruba and the Igbo nations of Nigeria. And when God’s hand is stretched forth, nothing can bend it. Yes, God’s time has come in the affairs of the Yoruba and Igbo and we better realise it – all of us, young and old, politicians and so on.
“This is the time when the Yoruba and the Igbo people must learn to join hands together to put together their enormous capabilities and achieve for themselves their true destinies in the world.”