Asiwaju of Yoruba. Adebanji
Akintoye
He was born in Ado-Ekiti in the Palace of the Ewi of
Ado-Ekiti - on the "right" hand from the palace of Ewi of Ado-Ekiti,
and on the "left" hand from the family of the High Chief 'Osolo' of
Ado-Ekiti. His father was Chief James Akintoye, the Osolo of Ado-Ekiti.
His grandfather was Faparusi,
the Osolo of Ado-Ekiti, one of the great warrior-rulers in Ekiti in the 19th
century.
He is, now, 89 years of age.
He was educated at the Emmanuel
School (Anglican), Ado-Ekiti - where he started in 1942.
From there he went to Christ's
School, Ado-Ekiti - a BIG NAME in secondary school education in the days of
yore.
Four months after completion of
secondary school, he passed the DIFFICULT entrance exam into the prestigious
University College, Ibadan (then an affiliate of the University of London). He
obtained the B.A. (Honours) degree in History in 1961. His passion was to
return to Christ's School (his Alma Mater) to teach, which he did.
One afternoon, as he was
teaching the Advanced Level students of the school, he heard a great COMMOTION
as students ran to where he was teaching, and BANGED on the door! What was
happening? he asked. As he went out to see them, they carried him shoulder-high,
saying that there had been news from the University of Ibadan that Banji
Akintoye had been ADMITTED for POST-GRADUATE studies at the University, whereas
he never applied for post-graduate studies! The University had unilaterally
admitted him; they had willingly offered him admission even though he did not
apply! THEY WANTED HIM! The students of Christ's School Ado-Ekiti had seen this
news in the newspaper, and that was what led to that commotion!
Thus, Banji Akintoye returned
to the University of Ibadan for his Ph.D. His Ph.D program and thesis was on
the HISTORY OF THE YORUBAS! - containing the history and wars in Yorubaland in
the 19th century. He wrote the leading book of history, the most respected book
of HISTORY of the Yorubas of that period, till date! - titled "REVOLUTION
AND POWER POLITICS IN YORUBALAND: Ibadan Expansion and the Rise of Ekiti
Parapo." To write that book, he had to learn a bit of the Portuguese
language - so as to be able to read and understand certain documents in the
archives of the nation of Portugal, documents that had been written earlier
concerning the Yorubas by Portuguese expeditions that came to this part of the
world long before then. He also had to learn a bit of LATIN language in order
to research into documents concerning the Yoruba race, documents that were in
Rome, and especially at the archives of the Papacy of the Roman Catholic Church
(Vatican). He also had to stay in London for several months, in order to study
and research into British archives concerning the things they had written about
the YORUBA RACE. But, all of that was not enough. To write that book, he also
had to GO ROUND THE ENTIRETY OF YORUBALAND - to research into the HISTORY of
the Yorubas. He personally met with a lot of people who had witnessed those
wars and were still alive at the time of his research! And he interacted with
them and interviewed them. As a demand for and of this research, it is ON
RECORD that there is NO CITY, TOWN OR COMMUNITY in the entire Yorubaland that
Banji Akintoye has not visited or been to! NONE! He has literally treaded the
entire Geographical space of Yorubaland - from Community to Community!
He did not know that DESTINY was beckoning on him!
He further, in his research on Yoruba history, he
further went to all Yoruba towns and Communities in what is now Benin Republic,
as well as in Togo.
His professors at the University of Ibadan were
extremely pleased with the work he had done on Yoruba history in his Ph.D
research and thesis. It was not only a foregone conclusion that he thus
obtained his Ph.D, but, also, his professors wanted him to remain in Ibadan at
the University as a teaching and research person (University don or lecturer).
However, Banji Akintoye had other plans. A new University had just been
established by the very vibrant Western Nigeria Government under the leadership
of the great Yoruba leader - Chief Obafemi Awolowo. The university was
University of Ife (before it was later taken over by force by the military
domineering Federal Government and re-named Obafemi Awolowo University). It was
a new University that was built to be one of the best in the whole world - it
was a "Yoruba" innovation that was to catch the attention of the
whole world, and Banji Akintoye wanted to be a part of that "new thing."
He did not know that destiny was beckoning on him!
Meanwhile, he had also been involved in politics, at
the international level, even from school in the 1950's at the University
College, Ibadan, where he was involved in the "World Universities
Service," "United Nations Students Association," "All
Nigeria United Nations Students Association," etc.. He was
President/Chairman in the University,...
In 1959, as he observed the late sage, Chief Obafemi
Awolowo, in his political campaigns, Banji Akintoye saw a "drawing"
within himself towards supporting the late sage. He said within himself,
"This man deserves the support of someone like me." By himself, he
went to Chief Obafemi Awolowo and said to him "I want to be a member of
your Party."
DESTINY was beckoning on him!
Chief Obafemi Awolowo's Political party was known as
the "Action Group" (AG). Banji Akintoye worked with about 2 other
students to establish the Action Group Students Association at the University
College, Ibadan.
In the brief period that he worked at the Christ's
School, Ado-Ekiti, before returning to Ibadan for his post-graduate studies, he
was instrumental in establishing the Action Group Youth Association.
While he was still a post-graduate student, he was
prevailed upon to be the Vice-President of the Action Group Youth Association,
while Chief Ayo Fasanmi was the President.
As if that was not enough, he was called upon from
Ado-Ekiti, while he was still a post-graduate student in 1964, to represent his
people in Ekiti at the House of Representatives in Lagos (which was the capital
of Nigeria at the time). But that election was rigged to the extent that the
President, Nnamdi Azikiwe, refused to announce any winner because the election
had been massively rigged in the North; and the West, in alliance with the
N.C.N.C party of Azikiwe were asked to boycott the elections.
Following that was the 1965 elections in the West (for the Western Parliament) which was also massively rigged because the Fulani-Controlled Federal Government of Abubakar Tafawa Balewa had massively pokenosed into the politics of the West - leading to the military take-over in 1966! Banji Akintoye was agitating, alongside others, against the injustice of rigging!
In 1974, he became a full professor at the
University of Ife. He also became the Director of the Institute of African
Studies at the University of Ife.
He contracted the services of a renowned
European-trained photographer in Nigeria, who produced photographs of the great
University of Ife, while Banji Akintoye wrote the narrative of a new book:
"Ife University in COLOUR: scenes from Africa's Most Beautiful
Campus." The University was so impressed that they bought the book off the
authors!
As soon as Chief Obafemi Awolowo was released from
Political prison in 1966, the very following day Banji Akintoye went to see him
to recommit himself to following the sage, after the interruption of the prison
period.
Professor Banji Akintoye inherited a mantra from his
grandfather - and that mantra is: Serve others, and not just yourself alone.
By the time the Second Republic was to begin, Banji
Akintoye was among those at the University of Ife, who spearheaded the
formation of Chief Obafemi Awolowo's "Unity Party of Nigeria" (UPN).
As a matter of fact, the Political MANIFESTO (the order of programs and
POLICIES) of the great UPN was written by Banji Akintoye!
Chief Obafemi Awolowo sent Banji Akintoye to
Singapore for the purpose of studying the success story of that country so that
the same could be done here at home.
Again, Chief Obafemi Awolowo sent Banji Akintoye to
Argentina to study how that country came from a lowly status to becoming the
world's greatest producer of BEEF!
Again, Awolowo sent Banji Akintoye to Brazil to go
and study how that country came about a system of good industrialization.
As the Second Republic approached and campaigns were
in top gear, Chief Obafemi Awolowo sent Banji Akintoye to organize the Unity
Party of Nigeria in Benue State. While he was on that assignment, he was
further detailed to go to the then Cross River State (which included the
present Cross River and Akwa Ibom) for the same purpose - to organize Awolowo's
Unity Party of Nigeria in those places.
He was still in Cross River State when his people in
Ado-Ekiti nominated him to contest for the Senate seat. That was how Banji
Akintoye became a Senator.
However, the military again took over the Government
of Nigeria. Nigeria kept going in the NEGATIVE direction. Meanwhile, the sage,
Chief Obafemi Awolowo, had passed on in the year 1987. By the year 1990, with
TEARS in his eyes, Banji Akintoye saw that Nigeria had been plunged into
darkness and the darkness was getting deeper. With tears in his eyes, he
decided, painfully, to relocate to the United States of America, and to fend
for himself as a Visiting Professor. Before leaving, he told Mrs. H. I. D. Awolowo,
wife of the late sage, that he was relocating briefly to the U.S. for about 2
years - but, within himself, he really didn't think that he would ever be back
again. Nigeria, as led and manipulated by the Fulani oligarchy, had gone beyond
redemption. He made that decision in the year 1990.
He was to be in the U.S. for the next 25 years!
Little did he know that Destiny had not released its
hold on him!
As time went by, the MAXIMUM DICTATOR, Sanni Abacha,
took over the control of the Government of Nigeria and RULED with Terror!
People were being assassinated right, left and centre! The Yorubas, in
particular, were under serious attack. This was the period that Abiola's wife,
Kudirat was killed... and, later, Abiola himself. The Yorubas were under siege!
Within himself, something told Banji Akintoye, far
away in the U.S., that 'you cannot be here while your people are under siege,
and suffering, back at home. It's time for you to rise!'
This nudging within him came to a climax in the year
2006; thus, he called a meeting of a few Yoruba intellectuals and told them
that he could no longer continue watching his people, the Yorubas, being
oppressed back in Nigeria without him doing something. He asked if they would
join him in forming an association to work together for the emancipation of the
Yoruba people. Thus, Oodua Foundation was formed.
Oodua Foundation started making research into what
the future holds for the Yorubas in Nigeria, and what is the way forward!
Very soon, Oodua Foundation had members from all
over the world! Such that for any meeting, people would come from Australia,
Canada, Europe, China, India, and so on. Their focus was on how the Yoruba
would be extricated from the destruction that Nigeria had become! It got to a
point that they started inviting political leaders from Yorubaland - e.g. Chief
Bisi Akande, Chief Bode George, etc., - to attend those meetings of Oodua
Foundation in the United States. Oodua Foundation thereafter started writing petitions
to the governments of Lagos State and other Yoruba states to let them know that
research indicated that certain things were happening to the Yorubas under
their watch and what the END RESULT would be if actions are not taken to stop
such negative drift.
By the year 2015, the members of Oodua Foundation
told Banji Akintoye, pinpointedly, that HE WOULD HAVE TO RELOCATE (RETURN) TO
YORUBALAND if he did not want his people to go into extinction!
So, in 2015, the Oodua Foundation appointed 6 people
to accompany Banji Akintoye back to Yorubaland!
With these 6 people, Banji Akintoye travelled round
the whole of Yorubaland, visiting and discussing with traditional rulers,
elders as well as politicians - like Bola Tinubu, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, Chief
Fasoranti, Chief Bode George, Chief Olu Falae, etc., etc., telling them to work
in such a way as to see what good those Yorubas in government or close to
Government might be able to bring to Yorubaland. It was accepted.
However, as time went on and it was in the news how
Fulani herdsmen were infiltrating Yorubaland and other horrible atrocities
(even before it got to the present scale), it was finally decided that
Professor Banji Akintoye should PERMANENTLY relocate to Yorubaland! That was in
December of the year 2015.
Upon returning, he was VERY SAD to see what was
actually happening to Yorubas in their own land. Immediately, he liased with
the Afenifere, of whom he had been a part long before relocating to the U.S.
They asked him to be the Chairman of their Political Committee, which he
accepted. As reports of Yoruba women being raped and other atrocities being
committed against the Yoruba poured in, the Afenifere commissioned Banji
Akintoye to embark upon a RESEARCH as to why, how, and from what quarters such
atrocities against the Yoruba were coming. It was his terrain - RESEARCH! As a
matter of fact, he's the one who had suggested that such research needed to be
done as you cannot be fighting against an enemy that you didn't even know!
Banji Akintoye embarked on this research and
presented his report! In carrying out the research, he even went BEYOND
NIGERIA, as he had heard reports that the organization of the attack against
the Yoruba were in fact co-ordinated from outside Nigeria in the West African
sub-region!
From his research, he came to the CONCLUSION that NO
HUMAN BEING CAN SAVE NIGERIA FROM ITS PREDICAMENT!
He came to the CONCLUSION, also, that Nigeria being
so terminally HOSTILE to Yorubas and to Yorubaland, he, Banji Akintoye, is BACK
HOME, not to fight for Nigeria, but to fight for Yorubaland.
Banji Akintoye is the Leader of YORUBA WORLD
CONGRESS. He is also the leader of ILANA OMO OODUA (literally meaning:
pathfinding for the Yorubas), where he has the title of ALANA OMO OODUA
(literally meaning: the PATHFINDER for the Yoruba race).
He is also the Leader/Chairman of the Nigeria
Indigenous Nationalities Alliance for Self Determination - a coalition of the
peoples of South-West, South-East, South-South, and Middle-Belt of Nigeria -
peoples that are seeking for deliverance from the EVIL that Nigeria is, and who
are now enforcing their Sovereignties and self-actualisation.
On the 16th day of December, last year (2020), and
as Leader of the Nigeria Indigenous Nationalities Alliance for Self
Determination, Banji Akintoye announced to the whole world, via a World Press
Conference, as well as letters written to the Federal Government of Nigeria,
the United Nations, the Governments of the United States, and so on, that the
Peoples of South-West, South-East, South-South, and Middle Belt of what had
been known as Nigeria, REJECT the 1999 Constitution and therefore call for
Indigenous Nationalities in the space called Nigeria to write their own
Constitutions and also called upon the Federal Government of Nigeria to come to
the negotiating table where the Indigenous Peoples of Nigeria would state
whether or not they still want to have anything to do with Nigeria.
The Federal Government of Nigeria did NOT respond.
Banji Akintoye, as Leader of the Indigenous Peoples for Self Determination,
went ahead on Wednesday, 17th March, 2021, to report to the whole world that
the Federal Government of Nigeria had failed to respond to the 90-day notice
given to it by the Indigenous Nationalities for Self Determination. He
thereafter outlined a process by which the Indigenous Peoples of Nigeria from
the South-South, South-West, South-East, and Middle Belt would henceforth free
themselves from the oppression called Nigeria. He called, on the platform of
the Indigenous Nationalities for Self Determination, he called for Ethnic
nations to perfect the instruments of their Sovereignty - their geographical
map, their Constitutions, as well as embark upon and intensify EFFORTS towards
having REFERENDUMS and PLEBISCITES in order to tell the world whether they
still want to remain in Nigeria or not. He also stated that the 1999
Constitution having now become defunct and TERMINATED, the peoples of the
Southern and Middle Belt of Nigeria should get galvanized to carry out the
necessary steps to actualising self-determination. He said carefully made steps
towards this end would be made
For the Yoruba Nation in particular, Banji Akintoye
has stated that there's no going back - the Sovereignty and Self-Determination
and Self-Governance of the Yoruba Nation is non-negotiable
At 89 years of age, Destiny has gone full circle in
LAYING HOLD upon Banji Akintoye!