By Dickson Omobola

The Yoruba Revolutionary Movement, YOREM, on Saturday, threw its weight behind the upcoming national protests scheduled for August 1-10, 2024.

In a briefing yesterday, addressed by National Coordinator, Wale Balogun, the group dismissed allegations that the protests are targeted against Yoruba interests, calling it a “mischievous state-sponsored propaganda.”

YOREM stated that the protests are a collective struggle against suffering, hunger, and hardship in Nigeria, just as it urged Yoruba youths, students, artisans, and professionals to participate.

Balogun, while condemning the use of the Oro cult as a political weapon to intimidate voices of dissent, urged Yoruba people and Lagos residents to defy and resist the illegal curfew imposed by the “political Oro.

The coordinator faulted compromised pro-democracy and self-determination elements for sabotaging the protests and urged Yoruba people to shun and shame them.

He also noted the rich political tradition of the Yoruba in resisting oppression and exploitation, citing historical examples of resistance against colonialism and military dictatorship.

YOREM dissociated itself from compromised civil society organisations and self-determination activists who have pitched their tent with the oppressors, and endorsed the genuine aspirations of the Yoruba for peaceful protests against anti-poor policies.

He said: “Our organisation YOREM, stands for the revolutionary dismantling of the rotten system in Nigeria.

“Thus, it is mischievous to divide would be protesters on ethnic lines by saboteurs and those who never shared our aspirations to either find Nigeria anew or to peacefully dismantle the failed Federal union.

“We dissociate ourselves and people from the compromised civil society organisations who have pitched their tent with our oppressors and are now using money to rent a crowd and misguided opportunists to march in support of predators.

“Be that as it may, we of YOREM believe and endorse the genuine aspirations of the Yoruba to a peaceful protest to vent their displeasure against Emilokan anti poor policies that undermine our progress, social wellbeing, security of lives and property.

“The Yoruba have a very rich political tradition of saying no to oppression and any manifestation of retrogressive policies. That was why our fathers were at the forefront of the struggle against British colonialism.

“That was why Herbert Heellas Macaulay, a Yoruba was the founder and leader of the first political party in Nigeria, the Nigeria National Democratic Party through which two representatives were elected into the colonial legislative council in Lagos from 1922 under the Clifford constitution.

“Self-serving Yoruba/Oodua self-determination activists also need to be reminded that Nigeria first newspaper Iwe Irohin a Yoruba tabloid was established not only to educate and promote Yoruba cultural heritage but to mobilise our people against the then emerging colonial exploitation.”