The Okun people in Kogi State and the Yoruba in Kwara State have resolved to join their kith and kin in the South-West geo-political zone.

The Okun people have resolved to press for the re-adjustment of their political boundary at the National Conference which opens in Abuja on Monday November 17.

This is contained in a 16-point communiqué issued last week in Kabba, Kogi State, at a special conference of their umbrella socio-cultural organization, Okun Development Association. 

The conference presided over by former Health Minister, Professor Eyitayo Lambo, was convened to articulate the position the Okun people will canvass at the National Conference.

They also reaffirmed their Yoruba culture, values and territory which, according to them were congruent with the South-West “without any natural or ecological barrier”.

The Okun people are in Yagba West, Yagba East, Mopamuro, Ijumu and Kabba/Bunu Local Government Areas of Kogi State while the Oworo form half of the population of Lokoja Local Government Area.

The Okun people, who spoke with Sunday Trust at the weekend, said they would get better treatment in all aspects of life if they joined other Yorubas in the South-West.

They complained of marginalisation in government employment and distribution of social amenities. Yori Afolabi, who is representing Ijumu state constituency in Kogi State House of Assembly, stated that the Okun people who had no cultural affinity with the north were put in the region by mistake.

Also speaking, Chief Clarence Olafemi believed that joining their Yoruba speaking nation would be of benefit for them.

Olafemi, who was the former acting governor and speaker of the state, said the Yoruba speaking minority were agitating to join other Yorubas in the South-West because of the current marginalization.

“If infrastructures are evenly distributed, no one would want to leave. For instance, if you look at the budget of Kogi State, you would be amazed of the paltry sum given to the Okun and Ebira. Since the creation of the State, one ethnic group has been ruling the State. Let every tribe have a say in the governance of their State. The agitation is as a result of unfair imbalance in infrastructure distribution and permanent dominance of one ethnic group over the others. When we were in Kwara, an Ebira man from the minority became the governor. This cannot happen in Kogi. I believe we would fare better if we leave because there would be no segregation as we would be speaking the same language,” he said.

Also, one human rights activist from Okun land, Idris Abdul Miliki said Okun people ought to be among the major ethnic groups. Miliki said they were rather being treated like a minority, noting that the Yoruba dialect of an Ijebu, Oyo and Egba man was not different from that of an Okun man from Kogi State.

The Executive Director, Centre for Human Right and Conflict Resolution, said people would definitely move to where they thought their interest would be better protected.

In the same vein, the Kwara South Consultative Forum have said the Yoruba in Kwara State should be aligned with their kinsmen in the South-West where they would have their own administrative unit.

Speaking with Sunday Trust, the Secretary of the forum, Otunba Simeon Daramola said the clamour was not out of animosity but the need to identify with their kiths and kins in the South-West with whom they shared similar language and culture. 

The forum had, on February 15, held a stakeholders’ conference in Omu-Aran, headquarters of Irepodun Local Government Area where they advocated the creation of state to represent the interest of Yoruba in Kwara and Kogi States.