Yoruba Self-Determination Movement responds to Sultan of Sokoto on Sharia establishments in Southwest

• Rejects the notion that Sultan is the leader of Muslims in Yorubaland

Feb 02, 2025

By Ayinde Adeleke

The Yoruba Self-Determination Movement (YSDM) has responded to the Sultan of Sokoto’s statement on establishing Sharia courts in the Southwest.

In a statement, the YSDM emphasized that the Sultan’s statement was made in a manner that implies the Yoruba people are subordinate to him.

“We have read your statement that was sent to the public through the Deputy National Adviser of the Nigeria Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs, Imam Haroun Eze… Your representative chose to make your statement to the Yoruba people as if you are an overlord of the Yoruba people,” the YSDM stated.

The YSDM rejected the notion that the Sultan is the leader of Muslims in Yorubaland, stating that most Yoruba Muslims do not recognize him as their leader.

“There is no provision in the tenets of Islam that lays the duty on our Yoruba Muslim people to accept you as leader of Islam while we Yoruba are still part of Nigeria,” they argued.

The YSDM also criticized the Fulani people for their actions in Yorubaland, including killings, destruction of property, and kidnappings.

“They accused the Sultan of failing to speak out against these atrocities. “In the past ten years, your Fulani people have killed countless thousands of Yoruba Muslims in all parts of Yorubaland, have destroyed the farms, villages and other assets of Yoruba Muslim farmers, have raped and killed countless Yoruba Muslim women, and have kidnapped, and extorted millions of Naira as ransom for, countless kidnapped Yoruba Muslim men, women and children.”

The YSDM argued that the Fulani people’s attempt to impose Sharia law on Yorubaland will never succeed, citing the Yoruba people’s strong culture of family, lineage, and kinship relations.

“We Yoruba are a people who honor family, lineage and kinship relations as very important to a normal, stable and prosperous society… We do not accept the view that family, lineage and kinship relationships should be subdued to religion.”

The YSDM advised the Fulani people to abandon their “born-to-rule” mentality and instead seek to coexist with other nations as equals.

“We suggest to you in love that this is what you should be paying your attention to rather than trying to insult other people by trying to force Islamic fundamentalism and Sharia Law on them?”

YSDM stated, “We Yoruba wish you well. We Yoruba wish you Fulani well – even though we have taken our decision to separate our Yoruba nation from a Nigeria that has been pulverized in sickening detail by lawlessness, anarchy, economic mismanagement, irresistible power of public corruption, economic collapse, Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism, interethnic animosities and violence, and wrenching, almost all-pervading, poverty.”