Over 5 million Yoruba sign petition to UN for self-determination
Babalola Ojo
Over five million people of the South West across the world have signed a petition addressed to the United Nations demanding for self determination.
Millions of Yoruba and Itsekiri people signed the petition.
The five million mark has generated wide excitement at home and abroad.
The online petition was launched barely one year ago by several Pan Yoruba groups and individuals including but not limited to Prof Banji Akintoye, the leader of Ilana Omo O’odua.
The petition was driven through
www.ominirayoruba2022.org .At least 5,456,000 people signed the petition as at Saturday, May 28, 2022.
The promoters are still calling on millions of Yoruba to sign the petition. It is expected to reach at least 20million Yoruba people by the end of the year 2022.
“This is a victory for the Yoruba people all over the world. The number of people that voted for all the current South West Governors including Kwara,Kogi, Edo and Itsekiri Delta is not up to five million people. Infact its about three million people that voted for the South West Governors. That over five million Yoruba have signed for Yoruba self determination is historic” Kabir Kehinde Adaranijo, a lawyer and one of the promoters who is based in the United States told Irohinoodua in a chat.
He said millions of Yoruba people in rural areas do not have access to the internet adding that the figure would have been more than five million if other Yoruba in rural areas are enlisted
“The United Nation requested 10% of the Recorded Population of the Yoruba People in Nigeria to sign a petition so as to prove that they are ready to have Self Determination from Nigeria. The Population of Yoruba People as recorded by Nigerian Fraudulent Census is 32 Million. The 10% of 32 Million is 3.2 Million and presently, more than 5 Million Yoruba People have signed The Petition and it has been presented to the United Nations Today Friday 27th May , 2022, ” said Seyi Ranti one of the promoters of the petition.
Irohinoodua findings indicate that Chapter 1, Article 1, part 2 states that purpose of the UN Charter is: “To develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples, and to take other appropriate measures to strengthen universal peace.”
The petition cannot be enforced by the UN but it is certainly a moral boost for those advocating for self determination in Nigeria. Most countries across the world have signed to the UN self determination Charter but this does not necessarily translate to acceptance.
Article I of the Charter of the United Nations explains the principle of self-determination. “The principle was first incorporated under the 1941 Atlantic Charter and the Dumbarton Oaks proposals which subsequently evolved into the United Nations Charter.”
Historically, the concept was first expressed in the 1860s, and spread rapidly thereafter.
During and after World War I, the principle was encouraged by both Soviet revolutionary, Vladimir Lenin and the US President Woodrow Wilson.
Having announced his Fourteen Points on 8 January 1918, Wilson on February 1918 invited the world when he said: “National aspirations must be respected; people may now be dominated and governed only by their own consent. ‘Self determination’ is not a mere phrase; it is an imperative principle of action.”