The former head of the main body of the struggle for Yoruba self-determination, Ilana Omo Oodua Worldwide, Professor Banji Akintoye, has advanced the reasons why he resigned from his post.
the punch reports that the former leader of the Yoruba Nation handed over the baton of leadership to his former deputy, Prof. Wale Adeniran, citing old age and a weakened body system as their reasons.
But in a letter addressed to Adeniran and seen by our correspondent on Thursday, Akintoye explained that he did not resign to evade responsibility for the crisis rocking the self-determination group.
Read the full content of Akintoye’s resignation letter below:
“Dear Wale, I am writing this letter to you in your role as President of Ilana Omo Oduduwa to congratulate you and the newly elected Ilana Executive Council.
“I am also informing Ilana through you of my departure from other responsibilities at Ilana. I urge you and everyone else not to think of this step as a consequence of the recent difficulties at Ilana. As you know better than anyone, I have been looking for over a year to say goodbye to Ilana because combining Ilana’s duties with the duties of the very high demands of the Struggle for Self-Determination has been too heavy for me. at my age. I am very honored that you, as the person closest to me at Ilana, most of the members of Ilana, and all of the Ilana committees, have been urging me for months not to leave Ilana because, according to all of you, Ilana is my special ‘baby’ in the whole struggle for self-determination. But you will remember that at a special meeting of leaders of the struggle for self-determination from around the world about a month ago, you and all the other participants in the meeting kindly agreed that I should resign my duties at Ilana due to my large accumulation. of duties to the higher levels of the entire struggle.
“As for our current difficulties on Ilana, I’m sure I would testify that I’m not leaving because of them and that, in general, even the greatest of difficulties never makes me quit. I am imbued with the God-given confidence that I can endure all things and resolve the most torturous complications among men, because God in his mercy has given me the gift of a heart that loves all people in all situations.
“Still, I must ask you to forgive me for leaving Ilana in her current state. I wanted to leave Ilana immediately after the special meeting of world leaders about a month ago, but I decided to help them work through some of the current difficulties before I left. Unfortunately, things have not improved as quickly as I had hoped, and now they must face a situation where some of our extremists are still compounding the difficulties. However, I have a great deal of confidence in you, including confidence that you will find ways to bring our Ilana back to the path of commitment, unity, and strength.
“Finally, I must congratulate and thank you for your very high quality of leadership in this fight for our beleaguered nation. I must congratulate and thank you, in particular, for having endured with strength and integrity the frequent vilifications and false accusations. We who have bravely come out to liberate our Yoruba nation and save it from being destroyed by the destructive forces of Nigeria are coming under a lot of fire from our own people. No doubt we will soon be hearing from some regular detractors that it was you who conspired unfairly against me and forced me to leave Ilana, but we must not let those words bother us in any way. By the grace of God we will win this war and liberate our Yoruba nation and thus give our nation the freedom it desires to become a highly respected modern country in the world.
“Of course, you know that I will always be available to you, to you personally as a friend and close collaborator at the highest levels of the Struggle for Self-Determination, and to Ilana as Patron and Mentor in the way that I am Patron and Patron. Mentor of other Self-Determination Organizations.
“I thank God for his leadership qualities in you and I thank you for giving yourself so generously to our fight for our nation. Please accept my best wishes to you and your family.”