A Yoruba nationalist group – Yoruba Parapo – has petitioned the United Nations, African Union and ECOWAS to supervise a referendum on the creation of an independent Oduduwa Nation.
The demand was contained in a letter dated October 12, 2026, signed by its Ambassador Extraordinaire, Olujobi Olushola.
The letter was addressed to the Chairman of the UN Special Committee on Decolonization (C24), with copies sent to the ECOWAS Chairman, the AU Peace and Security Council and the British Foreign Office.
The group, under its proposed “Velvet Divorce Model,” is seeking a plebiscite across Yoruba homelands to decide whether to exit Nigeria through a negotiated, peaceful separation.
The proposed referendum question reads: “Do you wish the Yoruba people to exercise self-determination and form a sovereign Oduduwa Nation within its True Map, in peaceful negotiated separation from Nigeria?”
According to Yoruba Parapo, the 1914 amalgamation of Northern and Southern protectorates by Britain was done without the consent of the peoples involved.
It argued that Yorubas constitute a distinct nation with common language, culture, traditional institutions and economic resources, listing Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ondo, Ekiti, Kwara South, Okun and Itsekiri as part of its claimed territory.
The group said insecurity, economic marginalisation and constitutional grievances have made it imperative to seek self-determination outside the framework of Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution.
“We do NOT seek war. We seek law,” the letter said, citing Singapore’s exit from Malaysia in 1965 and the peaceful split of Czechoslovakia into Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993 as precedents.
Yoruba Parapo urged the international bodies to facilitate the referendum and, if it succeeds, support negotiations between Nigeria and the proposed Oduduwa Nation on assets, debts, citizenship and borders.
It pledged total non-violence and expressed readiness to dialogue with the Federal Government under UN and AU mediation.
The group said it has filed an economic viability dossier termed “Transport 4-Pillar Blueprint” to support its case.
It anchored its demand on the UN Charter, Article 1 of the ICCPR and ICESCR, Article 20 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, and UN Resolutions 1514 (XV) and 2625 (XXV).
“History will record whether Yoruxit was done by gun or by pen. We choose the pen,” it stated.
- Media Report