Human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, has described the agitation for Oduduwa Republic as a joke taken too far by some people.
Falana said this in his contribution to a debate on a WhatsApp platform on Sunday.
The top lawyer was reacting to the proposed protest on October 1, 2020 by a group led by a Professor of History, Banji Akintoye.
According to Falana, he was no aware that any referendum had been conducted where it was agreed that the Yoruba people of the South West should opt out of Nigeria.
He wrote: “Which Oduduwa Republic? Are these ethnic champions not carrying this funny joke too far? Where did the Yoruba people conduct a referendum to opt out of Nigeria?
“Mid West was carved out of Western Region. Western State was split into Oyo, Ogun, Osun, and Ekiti States because of alleged domination of certain Yoruba leaders.
“Have the Ekiti people mandated Professor Banji Akintoye to send them to Ibadan?
“Members of the ruling class in the South West zone are either campaigning for restructuring or balkanisation of the country.
“It is a campaign for power devolution without responsibility.
“It is a dubious struggle that does not address the security and welfare of the Yoruba people.
“The beneficiaries of free education policy are today the promoters of commercialisation of education.
“So, they have turned the children of the poor to area boys and thugs while their children are going to private schools at home and abroad.
“The ranches built in Oke Ako (Ekiti State) and Akunu (Ondo State) in the 1950s by the Western region under the premiership of Chief Obafemi Awolowo have collapsed.
“Hence, the regular clashes between herders and farmers.
“Lagos State which is part of the South West Zone is the 6th largest economy in the whole of Africa.
“The South West Zone is richest in the country.
“But the level of development is nothing to write home about because the federal and state governments have adopted the ideology of underdevelopment sponsored by the IMF and World Bank.”
