The Yoruba Self-Determination Movement has ratified Banji Ayiloge as Vice-Chairman at the council meeting held on Saturday, 18th December 2021.
After the vetting of about five great men for the position of the vice-chairman, Mr Banji Ayiloge was presented to the council for ratification.
Banji Ayiloge; is a respected political economist, journalist and Yoruba nationalist. He is a visionary who believes that the salvation of the Yoruba people lies in taking their destiny into their own hands.
As an activist for the Yoruba cause, he says that “no nation can develop by paying lip service to human development capital, requisite infrastructure, and industrial development”. He proposes a purposeful education, adequate infrastructure, and a massive industrial development to employ the Yoruba youths after the Yoruba has freed itself from the domination of outsiders.
He sees a correlation between the government’s lip services to robust infrastructural development and the dearth of jobs for the youths. The less the government does for the people, the more minor the civil service jobs, and consequently the more negligible the commercial and industrial engagement throughout the land.
Banji Ayiloge, an activist and rights advocate, founded the Nigerian Peoples Forum based in New York in 1990. Through this organization, the group joined the NADECO ABROAD, became a member of the UDFN and NALICON – all organizations that fought for the return of civilian administrations in Nigeria during a protracted military regime.
He also became the National Secretary of Egbe Omo Yoruba ( Association of Yoruba Descendants in the U.S. and Canada). During his tenure, Egbe Omo Yoruba established the Yoruba House in Washington DC – serving as the headquarter of the struggle against the military regime. The organization launched the Yoruba radio to broadcast directly to our people at home.
He is fondly remembered as the war-time National Secretary of the Egbe. Egbe Yoruba compiled the first comprehensive Yoruba Agenda – styled the Yoruba Position; it served as the first blueprint for other Yoruba organizations. He co-produced and co-hosted The African Peoples Forum – cablecast on the public channel in the New York area.
He is a developmental economist who acquired in-depth knowledge regarding economic policies and the underlying theories relating to the world economy, economic growth, and development. He possesses a deep understanding of the critical relationship between economic ideas and political decisions, theories of international trade, and other economic developmental issues. Others include the analysis of global economic policies and foreign policy, international law and economic development: political risks’ management, International politics, and qualitative methods.
Mr Banji Ayiloge acquired a thorough knowledge of Communications theories and practice, including writing for publication (print and broadcast) and anchoring programs on radio and television. Provided needed leadership and spearheaded the mobilization of our nationals during a critical period in the nation’s history.
Banji was born at Ijare, Ondo state, where he had his Elementary Education, his secondary education at Akure and Igbara-Oke, before attending the Nigerian Institute of Journalism in Lagos in the seventies. He worked for the Federal Ministry of Communications and later the DAILY TIMES group, THE NEW NIGERIAN, and after the LAGOS RADIO/TELEVISION as a senior reporter before traveling to New York. He attended the New York Institute of Technology, graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree (B.F.A) in Communication Arts and a Master’s Degree in International Political Economy and Development from Fordham University in New York.
Banji Ayiloge has been married to his wife of more than four decades. The marriage has been blessed with four children and grandchildren and still counting.
YSM believes he will work well with the chairman; Prof. Banji Akintoye in all areas needed to liberate the Yorubas, and the realisation of an independent Yoruba Nation.
