Stop blackmailing me, deceiving Yoruba for personal interest, Akintoye tells Tinubu

• Says Tinubu only after personal interest, not welfare of Yoruba people
• Restates no alternative to independent Yoruba nation

The Leader, Yoruba Nation Self-determination Struggle, Prof. Banji Akintoye, yesterday, warned the presidential candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Bola Tinubu, against deceiving the Yoruba and stop blackmailing him because of his ambition.

Akintoye, a Professor of History, said Tinubu was using an interview he Akintoye granted to a newspaper to blackmail him, saying the APC candidate is only after his personal interest and not that of the Yoruba people.

He alleged that Tinubu is using what he told him about Alaroye newspaper two years ago to blackmail him, saying the former Lagos State governor is creating a legacy that his great-grand children would be ashamed of. These were contained in a statement made available in Ibadan by his media aide, Mr. Maxwell Adeleye.

According to him, Nigeria is not for the Yoruba people anymore. Yoruba people contesting elections in Nigeria are doing a terrible thing to their families. There is no alternative to an independent Yoruba nation.

Akintoye said: ‘’Our brother, Tinubu, you are fighting for yourself alone when your whole family is perishing. There is fire on our roof as a nation. It is unbelievable that any Yoruba man would do to his people what you are doing to our people now. You have been carrying around a video of an interview that I granted Alaroye in the campus of Obafemi Awolowo over two years ago. They asked me that if there was no struggle for self-determination and you want to recommend a Yoruba person for President of Nigeria, whom would I recommend? And I said yes! If that is so, I would recommend Tinubu, without any hesitation. But that is if the times are right. The times are not right, you know. I do not endorse any Yoruba man, Tinubu or any other person for any elected position at all in Nigeria at this time. I stand fully and without looking back, with the Yoruba struggle for self-determination. That’s the truth of the matter”

He added: ‘’Dear Tinubu, please don’t deceive yourself. You cannot deceive our people. You think you can carry that kind of video around and deceive our people? Our people are smarter than that. The world is watching you. Our history will judge that at a time when our nation needs to stand up and defend itself, you started to bring up an agenda.

“You are asking us to vote for you. We will not vote for you. Whether it is for the Presidency or the Senate or House of Representatives or whatever, we will not vote for you. We would have taken our country out of Nigeria by then. So, we advise you to return to your people. I am advising you now, return to your people and wash your soul clean. You are doing a thing that is unpardonable.

‘’Tinubu, you are destroying the Yoruba future. You are creating a legacy for yourself that your children’s children will be ashamed to know in the future. We ask you to return. You can still save yourself now and your future. We are determined to take our country. And I am standing solidly with the young people who are running around trying to take their country.