The Federal Government has been encouraged by the Yoruba Council of Elders to urgently create a climate that will allow all people who were forced into exile in the past because of brutal regimes to return.
The personages of Professor Banji Akintoye and Chief Sunday Igboho, who were persecuted for demanding proper and dignified treatment of their law-abiding kinsmen, are among those in exile, according to the Yoruba elders.
The elders spoke in a communique that was made available to journalists on Saturday and was signed by YCE scribe Elder Oladipo Oyewole and Publicity Secretary Elder Niyi Ajibulu at the conclusion of the council’s meeting of the Secretary-General and state secretaries, which was held in Ado Ekiti.
Oyewole and Ajibulu said that the meeting also discussed the presentation of the book “Yoruba Renaissance, Challenges and Prospects,” and that YCE had expressed displeasure at the declining degree of acceptance of Yoruba language, culture, and civilization.
They referred to the book as “a timely enunciation of Yoruba history and contemporary affairs which succinctly illuminates both recurring and emerging challenges and prospects to the Yoruba experience” and said it was written by renowned educator Sir Egunjobi.
They urged the federal government to reiterate its obligation to guarantee equal protection to all of the nation’s residents and constituent groups.
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The former president “should definitely apologise and make restitution,” according to the Yoruba elders who took issue with Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s last week move against several traditional rulers in Oyo State.
“The YCE takes exception to the recent treatment of humiliation meted out to various traditional rulers of Oyo State by Chief Obasanjo upon the claim of status as a former Head of State,” the elders said. This misbehavior is an egregious insult to Yoruba tradition and culture and is therefore condemned.
“To begin with, the book presentation visits shall be made to the governors of the Yoruba states in due honor of their statuses as the chief executive officers of their various states,” Oyewole and Ajibulu stated.
They claim that the book “Yoruba Renaissance, Challenges and Prospects” is a compilation of initiatives taken to guarantee the Yoruba people’s enviable status as leaders in the “arrangement” known as Nigeria. It explores a variety of frontline activity facets, including historical, social, economic, and political ones.
