Ismaeel Uthman
THE agitation for the conduct of a referendum in Yoruba land has been gathering momentum in the State of Osun.
Posters to create awareness and sensitise the people on the need for the referendum have flooded Osogbo, Ilesa and Ile-Ife.
The posters were sighted at Dele Yes Sir roundabout, Old Garage, Ilesa Garage, Africa and Stadium in Osogbo. It was gathered that the posters were also pasted at May Fair and Lagere, Ile-Ife and Roundabout in Ilesa.
The Yoruba referendum, being championed by a group, Yoruba Referendum Committee is based on the agitation to have a referendum that will bring about true federalism in which Nigeria will be governed by members of a Federal Presidential Council.
Speaking with newsmen yesterday, a member of the group, Barr. Shenge Rahmon, said their activities are aimed at popularising the idea of restructuring among the people of the South-West region such that the people will influence the decision-makers in bringing this to reality.
He said: “Yoruba Referendum Committee is a group on its own, it was brought into being to create awareness and campaign for the popularisation of the need to have popular acceptance of the question of restructuring of Nigeria. Of course, it cannot be done in a violent manner nor can it be done by the unilateral declaration of just one person or a group of persons.
“The question of self-determination of any people will only come as a result of the self-exercise for self-liberation of the people, not the pompous or arrogant declaration of a few persons. The people must be involved.
“We are not secessionists, the content of the posters shows what we want to do to get popular approval by way of a referendum of the real federalisation of Nigeria and we cannot wish away the existence of the political establishment: governors, legislature and political forces while seeing the people as a dominant factor in this process.
“It is left for the political forces to align with the demands of the people when we have actually got our people to accept the idea to seek a referendum in such a manner that it will be impossible for the political contestants in Yoruba land to disregard or show indifference to the real question of the day — self-determination.
“We have seen series of examples like this in Catalonia, Ireland, Scotland, of course, ours is a non-violent one.
“From the benefits outlined in the posters, we said we want Nigeria to be governed by a Federal Presidential Council instead of one single president. Each region will choose its candidate in the Presidential council and you will discover that over the years, one single federal election at the centre has always been a cause for a terrible struggle to outdo each other which has always involved mindless violence, killings, abuse of power and occasional cause to the extermination of opposition forces and we think enough is enough.”
According to Rahmon, only a referendum within the Yoruba states in the country will ignite a driving force for the self-determination agitations as the current structure is weak to respond to the yearnings of Yorubas for development and all-inclusion in the present nation state arrangement.
He said the Yoruba Referendum committee wants a “Federal Nigeria, through a valid Federal Constitution, to be known as The Union of Nigerian Constituent Nationalities, with a Federal Presidential Council, whose members will be selected or elected from each of the Nationalities as Federating Units and from whom a Head of State will be selected or elected as the primus-inter-pares with an agreed term.”
Rahmon added: “We want Yorubaland, geo-politically known as the Oduduwa Region and consisting of the present states of Ekiti, Eko, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, Oyo and all Oodua lands in Kwara, Kogi, Edo and Delta States to become an autonomous Nation in a Union Of Nigerian Constituent Nationalities and recognizing all persons in the Diaspora, of African descent who claim Oduduwa/Yoruba ancestry, either through cultural affiliation or genealogical connection.”
