We Won’t Vote For You, Support Yoruba Self Determination Struggle, Akintoye Tells Tinubu

The Leader of Yoruba Self Determination Groups, Prof. Banji Akintoye, has asked the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, to abandon his ambition to lead Nigeria and join the struggle for Yoruba self determination.

Akintoye, who was a senator in the Second Republic said Yoruba people would not vote for Tinubu or any politicians seeking elective position in 2023 because they would have Yoruba Nation by then.

He said this in a statement on Thursday where he lambasted Tinubu for allegedly circulating a video of an interview he granted to Alaroye, a Yoruba newspapers in 2019 to ” deceive the people to get their support.”

Akintoye said it was disingenuous for Tinubu and his allies to dig up the interview and make it appear as a fresh one just to weaken the support of the people for the struggle for self determination and woo the people to support his presidential ambition.

The statement read in part, “Our brother, Tinubu, you are fighting for yourself alone when your whole family is perishing. There is fire on our roof as a nation. It is unbelievable that any Yoruba man would do to his people what you are doing to our people now.

“You have been carrying around a video of an interview that I granted Alaroye on the campus of Obafemi Awolowo over two years ago. They asked me that if there was no struggle for self-determination and you want to recommend a Yoruba person for President of Nigeria, who would I recommend? And I said yes! If that is so, I would recommend Tinubu, without any hesitation.

” But that is if the times are right, the times are not right, you know, I do not endorse any Yoruba man, Tinubu or any other for any elected position, any position at all in Nigeria at this time. I stand fully and without looking back, with the Yoruba struggle for self-determination for our own country, for Yoruba nation now!

“That’s the truth of the matter. Dear Tinubu, please don’t deceive yourself. You cannot deceive our people. You think you can carry that kind of video around and deceive our people, our people are smarter than that. The world is watching you.

“Our history will judge that at a time when our nation needs to stand up and defend itself, you started to bring up an agenda. A personal agenda of your own before them. You are asking us to vote for you. We will not vote for you. Whether it is for the Presidency or the Senate or House of Rep or whatever, we will not vote for you. We would have taken our country out of Nigeria by then. So, we advise you now to return to your people. I am advising you now, return to your people and wash your soul clean. You are doing a thing that is unpardonable.

“Tinubu, you are destroying the Yoruba future. You are creating a legacy for yourself that your children’s children will be ashamed to know in the future. We ask you to return. You can still save yourself now and your future. We are determined to take our country. And I’m standing solidly with the young people who are running around trying to take their country.

” Oh! you might say they are fighting themselves, that’s what young people do everywhere. That does not mean that they don’t want their country, they want their country. And the Lord God, the creator of all nations, has given them that country, and very soon, the Lord will deliver their country into their hands. Then it will be their duty to settle down and begin to do for their people the kind of government that Yoruba people have been giving to their people from the beginning of time, a government whose objective is the improvement of the life of the people of our nation.”

Akintoye expressed the confidence that Yoruba Nation would soon be achieved and that the people would build an advanced country which would become the envy of the whole world.

“It will come. I have confidence in our young people. They will gather together and build for our people the most advanced country in the world. They will surprise the world. I have confidence in them. That is my message. And that’s the message of the overwhelming majority of Yoruba people.

” I have no personal animosity towards any Yoruba person seeking election. But I am sorry for you. You are creating a legacy that your children’s children will be ashamed to know about very soon in the future of the world. My advice? Turn around and come to support your people. This is the time to show that you are a man. You have men. You have the heart of men,” he added.