OTUNBA Gani Adams is the National Coordinator of the Oodua People’s Congress, OPC. In this interview, he argues that failure by the Federal Government to address the continued attacks by Fulani herdsmen may lead to the South West seceding.

Excerpts:
By Dapo Akinrefon

On recent position of Yoruba leaders and elders
What we said at the meeting was that as citizens of Nigeria, we have right to protection. We realized that the Fulani crisis with our people has been on for close to 18 years and there have been lots of incidents that attest to that.

We also realized that most of the kidnapping in Ondo, Ekiti and Oyo states are being perpetuated by Fulani herdsmen. We took a decision that if the Federal Government fail to protect us, we have right to self determination.

Threatening of territories

We are not saying anyone should leave the South West because we want development and the contribution of non Yorubas cannot be quantified. But that does not mean that some of them should threaten our territories.
We have so many Yoruba people in the north and I have not heard of a situation where a Yoruba man will kidnap a commoner not to talk of a personality. They will not go beyond the boundaries. We cannot say because we want development, we should therefore allow our territory to be threatened.

It is uncalled for that the caliber of Chief Olu Falae, a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, should be kidnapped. After paying ransom, he was released and some few days later, the Fulani herdsmen still invaded his farm and destroyed his crop.

Any sensible race will not keep quiet over such an incident. Three days after the Yoruba summit, the kidnappers were apprehended by the security agencies. We have right to self determination and it is a position that we will continue to push if the federal government refuses to provide us with enough security. The South West is the economic nerve centre of the country and when you allow such security lapses in the South West, it will affect the country.

The former governor of Kano State, Senator Rabiu Kwakwanso recently justified the activities of the Fulani herdsmen, arguing that they need eduction, what is your take on this?

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/11/fulani-herdsmen-attacks-enough-reason-to-consider-secession-gani-adams/

Yorubas supreme leader have spoken...

The notion of remedial secession assumes that international law provides a right to secession for peoples subject to extreme persecution or unable to internally realize their right to self-determination. This theory postulates that if groups fall victim to “serious breaches of fundamental human and civil rights” through the “abuse of sovereign power,” then international law recognizes the right of the afflicted group to secede from the offending state.
The legal sources for this right derive primarily from UN General Assembly (GA) resolutions, although earlier sources from the inter-war period exist also. For instance, the Commission of Rapporteurs in the League of Nations’ Aaland Islands dispute found that “separation of a minority from the state of which it forms part . . . may only be considered as an altogether exceptional solution, a last resort when the state lacks either the will or the power to enact and apply just and effective guarantees.”35 Despite thoroughly discouraging secession, the Commission nevertheless provided legal space for a group to secede under extraordinary circumstances—where the state lacks the will or the power to protect the group at issue.

Peter Roethke. 2011

Amongst legitimate reasons to secede

Euro31:
Yorubas supreme leader have spoken...

who knows this tout called Adams, when there are more sensible elders in Yoruba land, how old is he self. Elder my foot

Fulani herdsmen are ISIS Time Bombs to replace bokoharam when it fades out of fashion.

Yorubas will be here to curse Gani Adams soon.

when our children who score 70% are denied admission, while some northern children who score 1% are offered same admission.

It is enough for me to seek secessatiom.

First, whay kind of a natiom are you building, when you promote those who failed, and demote those who passed?

Even the universal 40% minimum as pass mark is not even obeyed.

Nigeria is smear on the black race, a disgrace to humanity and curse on the face of the earth..

Those kicking against Biafra have a lot of work to do.

Comments are free my bro , only facts are sacred. As much as these elders have become a cannon fodder in the hands of the politicians, things will continue to fall apart and centre will not hold.

The issue of Falae is presently in the front burner of political discource necessitating several town hall meetings between the Fulani cattle reares and their host communities because of the outcry of AFENIFERE. There is a popular saying that"You may not be able to prevent a bird flying over your head, but you can prevent a bird building a nest on your head". The AFENIFERE leaders perhaps felt that" Iku ti on pa ojugba eni, owe lo npa fun ni (meaning the death that is killing our age mate is sounding a note of warning to us) and you cannot blame them for reacting to the kidnapping of their own.