Prof. Banji Akintoye, an 84-year-old renowned academic, historian and author, has emerged as the fourth Yoruba race leader.
The three individuals before him were Nigeria’s former Premier of the former Western Region, Chief Obafemi Awolowo ; former Ondo State Governor Pa Adekunle Ajasin ; and former Socio-Cultural and Political Organization leader Pa Abraham Adesanya.
Akintoye, who was a senator in the Second Republic from 1979 to 1983, surfaced as the fourth leader at yesterday’s All Yoruba Groups Worldwide Assembly meeting at Gloryview Hotel, Bodija, Ibadan.
The meeting was attended by delegates from at least 48 Yoruba emancipation organizations worldwide.
Notable Yoruba leaders ‘ nominations were made to fill the vacancy at the meeting, but Akintoye had the majority’s support to emerge as the new leader.
Since the death of Pa Adesanya on April 27, 2008, Baale of Ekotedo, Ibadan, Taiye Ayorinde, who chaired the meeting, said that the office stayed empty and that the Yoruba were disunited, including traditional leaders, because there was no ruler dictating the path that the Yoruba race should gravitate.
According to him, to become the leader of the Yoruba race, he contacted Afenifere leader Pa Ayo Adebanjo, but he rejected the overture on the basis that his age would not allow him to assume responsibility.
The meeting’s chief convener, Victor Taiwo, described Akintoye’s choice as phase one of the assignment, adding that phase two would feature the leader’s official investiture through an elaborate ceremony involving all the governors in the South West, monarchs, political office holders, the diaspora’s Yoruba, organizations, and the public where a scepter of office would be presented.
He said setting up an institutionalized secretariat to coordinate and articulate Yoruba’s multiple problems and find a healthy place for each organization would be the project’s stage three.
“From this point, we are good to go in tackling and resolving all the multifarious challenges on the ground under a single veritable leadership and harmony of coordination among the entire groups and the people of Yoruba race,” Taiwo said.