The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Southwest

  • Ignore Afenifere’s endorsement of Atiku, group tells Southwest

    The Buhari/Osinbajo Continuity Group (BOCOG) has urged the Southwest to ignore Afenifere’s endorsement of Atiku Abubakar as its presidential candidate.

    According to it, Afenifere has put itself in the position of a biased umpire, unmerited of its status. It added that Afenifere Group, being an offshoot of the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s legacy, should premise itself on accurate calculations and logical stance.

    A statement by the Director of communications,

    Steve Otaloro, reads: “BOCOG hereby calls on the Southwest people to ignore the position of the Afenifere, as it is scheduled to back the wrong horse as done in the 2015 election where the group endorsed Goodluck Jonathan.

    “BOCOG appeals to the young and the old vote for President Muhammadu Buhari on the premise that his grand economic policies and fight against corruption in the last four years have paid off well.

    “Another error identifiable with the position of the Afenifere Group is it does yearn for integrity, which is lacking in Atiku Abubakar, but a common denominator in the character of President Buhari. BOCOC is committed to the institution of good governance in Nigeria which president Buhari represents; that is the area Afenifere should concern itself with, mostly.

    “Nigerians should endeavour to vote for Buhari to allow him complete his fight against corruption, our greatest pull-back in the country.”

  • Why Atiku can’t get support from Southwest

    In this piece, Moses Ipadeola highlights the factors that will shape the presidential election in the Southwest on February 16.

    As the nation continues the steady march towards the February 16 Presidential Election, one big question that has been agitating the minds of the people of the Southwest geopolitical zone of the country is what they stand to benefit by voting for either of the two main contending parties – the APC and the PDP. This is a question that falls within the purview of analysts to examine and present an overview of what to expect from the zone in the coming election.

    One of the main grouses of the people of the Southwest against the PDP is the way the party treated the people of the zone during the Jonathan administration of 2009 to 2015. The people believe and rightly so, that they had been shortchanged not only in the siling of infrastructural projects in the zone but also in appointments to public offices.

    Hardly can one point to any major project started and completed in the Southwest during the rule of Goodluck Jonathan or that of his predecessor, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo. Instead many projects initiated by the two PDP leaders have been abandoned halfway only to be taken over by the Buhari administration. Many of such projects have either been completed by now or nearing completion by the current APC government of President Buhari.

    For example, the Lagos/Ibadan Expressway construction was to be done through a concessionary arrangement that flopped. That all important project very vital to the socio-economic well-being of the South westerners has now been taken over by Buhari and is getting near completion stage and more interestingly, this big undertaking is now being executed through direct government funding.

    Similarly, one of the busiest roads in Nigeria, the Ibadan/Oyo/Ogbomosho Expressway which was started by the PDP government of Chief  Olusegun Obasanjo was abandoned at Oyo leaving the Oyo/Ogbomosho section uncompleted since the past 16years. It is Buhari government that is now working towards the completion of the project.

    One other major project that has continued to gladden the hearts of the Yoruba people is the standard gauge railway project directly linking Lagos with Ibadan, the political Capital of the Southwest. This project was started by Jonathan but nothing was done on it until Buhari came on board. While on a state visit to China, Buhari renegotiated the project with the Chinese authorities. Work is progressing at a high speed right now on the project.

    You can just imagine a rail journey from Lagos to Ibadan taking only 30minutes. And what about haulage of goods between the two great metropolis? Why will the Southwest then choose to show ingratitude to a party, APC that is doing much at the same time in the geopolitical zone?

    Right now Atiku is dangling the bait of restructuring to the region. But where are the details of his restructuring proposal? Will he do it, can he do it and is it going to be a project that will favour the people in that zone? Atiku came to Ibadan to canvass for the people’s support but merely touched the issue of restructuring on the surface. He merely browsed the issue and made no promise to complete ongoing projects that are of immense socio-economic value to the South westerners.

    Today, Alhaji Atiku’s most vociferous backer is Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, a former President who had once declared the PDP candidate as unfit to rule Nigeria because of what he described as his insatiable greed and corruption. But even then, the pertinent question is, does Obasanjo possess the moral or political compass by which he can direct the course of events in Yorubaland?

    Only recently, one of the most highly respected leaders of the Yoruba nation, General Alani Akinrinade, former Chief of Defense Staff, took a swipe at Chief Obasanjo and described his call on South westerners to vote for Atiku as “an insult to our collective intelligence”. He also blamed the media for according the ex-president undue attention, adding that they (the media) owe Nigerians the responsibility of “keeping this irritable man where he belongs – the waste bin of history”.

    The retired general then advised his comrade-in-arms to “allow Nigerians choose who they want and stop goading the citizenry for his own selfish interests”. Alani Akinrinade has spoken the minds of most Nigerians, especially people of the Southwest. General Akinrinade is seen and regarded as a highly influential and respected leader whose views on any issues are usually taken as representing the collective interests of the Yoruba.

    Now, if Atiku thinks he can rely on Obasanjo’s support to win Southwest votes, then he has missed the point. He must be living under a great illusion that Obasanjo’s political clout in the zone is sufficient enough for him to withstand PMB’s rabbit punch in the February 16 election. The Yoruba people have never regarded Obasanjo as a true son of theirs and many PDP leaders and supporters in the zone regard his much orchestrated support for Atiku as constituting a big albatross on the neck of his former vice.

    Reasons why the duo of Obasanjo and Atiku cannot influence voters in the Southwest cannot be far-fetched, given the antecedents of the two leaders while holding the highest offices in the land. Neither of the two of them can point to any project or undertaking of significance that can qualify them for the people’s support or gratitude.

    During Atiku’s eight-year vice-presidential tenure, people of the Southwest said they did not see the positive impact of his performance or activities either as a political juggermet or as the all-powerful No. 2 man who could influence the establishment of important national projects in the zone. The name “Atiku Abubakar” is heard in Yorubaland only when he comes calling for electoral support and not for the commissioning or laying of the foundation stone of any public or private projects in any area of the zone. He did not even honour the invitation to witness the heavily attended installation ceremony of the incumberant Olubadan of Ibadan Land, Oba.

    As for the former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, the Yoruba can never forgive him for the ignoble roles he had played in the affairs of his own people. According to General Alani Akinrinade, through Obasanjo’s “clandestine maneuvers in 1979, he foisted on Nigeria a reluctant Shehu Shagari at the expense of cerebral Obafemi Awolowo”. Through the same undemocratic practice he caused the removal of a popular governor, Senator Rashidi Ladoja from office in 2007.

    Though Obasanjo was foisted on Nigeria as President by the military to atone for the great loss suffered by the Yoruba in the aborted June 12, 1993 Presidential Election and the state murder of its winner, Chief M.K.O. Abiola, the main beneficiary of those sordid events, Obasanjo did not for once publicly appreciate the sacrifice made to bring him back to power, fame and world recognition.

    For this and many more, including his unfriendly attitude towards the famous Awolowo family, Obasanjo is and will for many years to come remain a political outcast among the children of Oduduwa.

    It is however to the eternal credit of President Muhammadu Buhari that what Obasanjo ungratefully refused to do for his own people in his eight years of misrule, PMB did it in under two years, and that is the official recognition and proclamation of M.K.O. Abiola as winner of  the 1993 Presidential Election! This great and courageous act of patriotism on the part of President Buhari is more than enough to endear him to the hearts of South westerners and dismiss the vituperations of Obasanjo as the tantrums of a rejected leader.

    By now Atiku should be reminded of the inglorious antecedents of his former boss, his own reputation as a corrupt and ineffectual leader and accept the re-election of President Muhammadu Buhari in February 16 Election as a fait-accompli

     

  • Buhari, Osinbajo supporters make final push in Southwest

    SUPPORTERS of President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo have launched a final push in the Southwest beginning from Friday in their ongoing grassroots campaign to consolidate the duo’s ‘grip’ on the zone in the February 16 presidential election.

    Under the latest strategy, pro-Buhari organisations are to be consolidated under the Presidential Support Committee (PSC), as the Presidency has appointed Senator Robert Ajayi Boroffice as the main coordinator with a mandate to harness legitimate resources in the remaining four weeks before the poll to further brighten the chances of the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate and his deputy.

    The decision was reportedly reached at a crucial meeting held in Abuja by the leadership of the PSC after appraising activities of the various campaign groups, with the stakeholders agreeing to raise the bar ahead of the elections.

    Former Akwa Ibom State Governor and serving senator Godswill Akpabio is the national chairman of the PSC. The national coordinator (South) is Senator Babalola Akin Odunsi.

    Their first assignment is the inauguration of the executives of the Southwest zone as well as the coordinators for Lagos, Oyo, Ogun, Osun, Ekiti and Ondo on Friday at the Premier Hotel Ibadan, Oyo State, with Governor Abiola Ajimobi as host.

    In a bid to further fortify the team, APC candidates for National Assembly and governorship standard-bearers in Oyo, Ogun and Lagos states, as well as other influential faithful from the Southwest form the nucleus of the final phase of the campaign. They are to collaborate with other supporters and loyalists of Buhari and Osinbajo to seriously engage in a blitz of campaign strategies that include door-to-door campaign, one-on-one discussion and group discussions.

    According to the deputy national chairman (South), Odunsi, the Presidency appointed Senator Boroffice to oversee and coordinate the activities of the Buhari support groups and organisations in the Southwest for actualisation of the 4+4 Agenda of President Buhari to consolidate the gains of the APC-led federal administration since May 29, 2015.

    Confirming the new development, PSC zonal secretary, Dele Olanubi, who is an engineer, also explained that major stakeholders such as the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Political Matters Honourable Gideon Sammani and other presidential aides serving in advisory committee to the PSC would be part of the inauguration.

    Olanubi added that the PSC was mandated to coordinate the activities of support groups to guarantee a resounding victory for Buhari and Osinbajo at the poll, urging “Nigerian not to allow those who only think and plan in Dubai and want to sell NNPC to their foreign friends to take Nigeria back to the Egypt”.

    Boroffice has promised to use his experience as a legislator and grassroots’ politician to mobilise maximum votes in the history of Southwest for Buhari. Others have assured of working assiduously to galvanise the critical mass in the Southwest for the APC ticket.

    PSC Publicity Secretary in the Southw1est, Honourable Doyin Johnson, (coordinator of Asiwaju Frontlines), affirmed that Buhari had “further convinced Nigerians that he is an upright man known to be a truthful, visionary and courageous leader.”

    He said the main opposition PDP presidential candidate Alhaji Atiku Abubakar had no business being in the race.

    He added that “Nigerians have since become wiser”, even as he advised the youth to use their voting strength to vote massively for Buhari and other APC candidates because of the party’s visible landmark achievements.”

  • ‘President will get 95 per cent of Southwest votes’

    A group of grassroots residents of the Southwest, the Southwest Frontiers For Buhari 2019, has said the region will give President Muhammadu Buhari between 90 and 95 per cent of the valid votes that will be cast in the February 16 election.

    The Frontiers comprises of farmers, artisans, politicians, non-politicians, traders, religious leaders, community leaders, youths, market men and women in the six states of the Southwest.

    The group said it had no grouse about the candidacy of former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) aspiring for the highest office in the land.

    But it noted that the opposition and its candidate had no moral ground to condemn the Buhari-led APC administration, which it said had been correcting the anomalies the PDP created in its 16 years of misrule.

    Speaking after an executive meeting of the group at Mapo Hall, Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, the group’s Coordinator Ayodele Joseph noted that in less than four years, the APC had proven to the world the “maladministration, misrule and plundering of the nation’s treasury, perpetrated by the PDP in their 16 years of being in power”.

    The coordinator noted that another four years under President Buhari would nail corruption and set the nation on the right path.

    Joseph told reporters after the meeting that the Frontiers would battle the PDP in the forthcoming elections because of the confidence the people have in the ability of the President to make things work.

    He said the group, whose membership cuts across all political parties and age groups, is not necessarily for politicians or members of a particular political party.

    The coordinator stressed that the Frontiers is peopled with those who believe in the integrity and good intentions of the President to restore the nation to the path of honour and integrity among the comity of nations.

  • APC women, youths mobilise for Buhari, Osinbajo in Southwest

    Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, was practically locked down yesterday as female and youth members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) gathered to mobilise for the re-election of President Muhammadu Buhari and his running mate, Prof. YemiOsinbajo.

    Women and youth groups from the six states of Oyo, Lagos, Ondo, Ogun, Ekiti and Osun stormed the Obafemi Awolowo Stadium (formerly Liberty Stadium) in different customised APC uniforms to express their support and persuade others to join the second-term bid of the president and his deputy.

    To the women, Buhari’s support for the various market groups with financial aids and social investment facilities, including Tradermoni, Marketmoni and N-Power as well as the administration’s other achievements in infrastructure, security and anti-corruption make their re-election deserving.

    The delegates were led by the wives of the state governors, including EreluBisiFayemi (Ekiti), Mrs.BolanleAmbode (Lagos), Mrs.OlufunsoAmosun (Ogun), Mrs. Betty Anyanwu-Akeredolu (Ondo), Mrs.KafayatOyetola (Osun) and Mrs. Florence Ajimobi (Oyo), who doubles as the chief host and Southwest Zonal Coordinator of the group. Wives of the governors of Kebbi and Nassarawa were also in attendance alongside the national and zonal women leaders of the governing party.

    To support the women, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, represented by a former deputy governor of Lagos State, Mr. Femi Pedro, Governors KayodeFayemi (Ekiti), GboyegaOyetola (Osun), AbiolaAjimobi (Oyo), former and serving deputy governors, Ministers of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed and Health Minister, Prof. Isaac Adewole, among other party stalwarts, were also in attendance.

     

     

  • Southwest plans Buhari’s re-election

    The Southwest has begun plans to ensure a smooth campaign and the reelection of President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.

    The Ogun State All Progressives Congress (APC) Coordinator, Akintunde Farouk, stated this at the inaugural meeting of the “Project 4 plus 4 Buhari/Osinbajo 2019 Presidential Election” in Lagos.

    According to him, the committee hopes the people will receive them well and reelect President Buhari and Vice President, Osinbajo.

    He said: “We are strategising on how to mobilise for President Buhari who has really done well for the country. The 4 plus 4 project means that the president and vice have done the first year for change, and the other four years we are anticipating is for consolidation of all they have achieved.

    “We are confident that people will reelect President Buhari because everybody can see and feel what he has achieved. This is the first Christmas Nigerians have celebrated without queuing to buy fuel.

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    “We now have reasonable peace, so we are confident that Nigerians want consolidations and are in high spirit and hope to give him a second term.”

    The National Youth Leader, Safiriyu Babalola, said his role in the committee is to coordinate 25 million youths’ endorsement for the President. He said the president has empowered the youths and market women.

    Women Ambassador Princess Bola Kazeem said they are encouraging the women by educating youths and women to abstain from political thuggery, violence.

  • PDP plots to cause friction in Southwest

    Slyvester Ayodele writes on the plot by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to cause friction and disunity among Southwest All Progressives Congress (APC) leaders during the general elections.

    When some politicians who are renowned for looting Nigeria and causing her to bleed flew to Dubai in October, last year, we all thought they went there to strategise on how the infrastructural projects and social programmes of the Nigerian government can be improved.

    We were expecting them to come back to Nigeria to show us plans, even if insincere, of how the current infrastructural projects in the country can be expanded, but they came back with nothing less than one of the things they are known for: mudslinging.

    One person they have tried so much to taint is Vice President Yemi Osinbajo. They have tried everything; from accusing him of embezzling public funds; to attempting to break the cordial relationship between him and APC National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

    A reliable source close to the PDP hierarchy mentioned the plan to destabilise the Southwest by planting mistrust between VP Osinbajo and Asiwaju Tinubu.

    We do not take Nigeria for granted and so we want to state the facts about their accusations.

    The first thing is that the House of Representatives never accused the vice president of corruption or embezzlement of funds. The only accusation is that the funds he approved for the emergency situation in the northeast were not budgeted.

    The truth however is that the funds in question, meant to pay for food supply to internally displaced persons, was an emergency and was approved in two tranches.

    The first was five billion naira which was drawn via the National Food Security Programme, for which request was raised by the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria as the facilitator of the programme, in a letter dated May 25, 2017.

    This was at a time when the displaced persons and their host communities faced severe food shortages throughout the North East, as a result of successive poor harvests and abandoned farmlands.

    It was at a time the World Food Programme (WFP) had issued a warning that it would be reducing its vital support to about 1.8 million IDPs by more than 80%.

    There was an immediate need to distribute grains to IDPs, and the only way to obtain the 30,000 Metric Tonnes required was to resort to the National Food Security Progamme (NFSP) earlier established by the Federal Government as a means of shoring up its strategic grain reserves.

    The second tranch was 800 million naira approved for the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) for bagging, transportation, tracking, security, and contingency costs to handle the grains for the IDPs.

    On account of the emergency nature of the procurement, these presidential approvals were well within the clear constitutional authority of the then Acting President Osinbajo.

    Now to the plot to create mistrust between Osinbajo and Tinubu and their supporters: the Vice President is not unmindful of his roots and will never bite the finger that fed him, or as the Yorubas say ‘A kii ge ika ti o ma a n funni onje’.

    It was Asiwaju Tinubu who put Osinbajo’s name forward as the Vice President when then presidential candidate Muhammadu Buhari asked him to nominate people for his running mate slot. Tinubu was asked to nominate three people, but chose just Asiwaju one person – Yemi Osinbajo. For someone who has raised leaders in Lagos and other state in this country, and who could easily count 50 people worthy of the VP slot to pick just one shows the level of trust reposed on

    Osinbajo. That trust is not one the VP has ever broken or will ever break.

    During his time as a commissioner in Lagos, Osinbajo was exceptionally known for integrity and loyalty, in and out of the office.Osinbajo’s loyalty is so legendary that he had to seek the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Pastor Enoch Adeboye’s permission and blessing before accepting the Vice Presidential candidate slot of the All Progressives Congress.

    Nigerians can count on that loyalty from someone who took an oath of office to defend their rights. He has been loyal in his discharge of his duties in Abuja.

    Those behind the plot to stain Osinbajo’s stellar life and record are PDP stalwarts in the southwest with friends in the All Progressives Congress who can’t stand Tinubu.

    Yes, we have intelligence that some high-ranking people in the APC are collaborating with ‘looting-minded’people in the opposition to cause a rift between Osinbajo and Tinubu.

    Their next plan is to cause another rift between Osinbajo and President Muhammadu Buhari.

    They believe that once the cordial relationship between Osinbajo and Tinubu is destroyed, the Tinubu house will collapse.

    The PDP sympathizers in the southwest mentioned in the plan are the minister of power, works and housing Babatunde

    Fashola and Ekiti State governor Kayode Fayemi, who fancy their chances in the 2023 elections should Tinubu part ways with Osinbajo and refuse to support him.

    The plan is to demonise Osinbajo and project him as overly ambitious.

     

  • Row over Osinbajo’s push for Buhari in Southwest

    Vice President Yemi Osinbajo sparked a huge controversy at the weekend when he asked his kinsmen in the Southwest to support President Muhammadu Buhari’s re-election bid next year.

    He was quoted as saying that the re-election of the President for another four-year term will pave the way for the Southwest  to vie for the presidency after the expiration of Buhari’s tenure.

    The opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday accused Osinbajo of positioning himself to succeed Buhari in 2023, describing it as an ambition that can never materialise.

    A source close to the Vice President dismissed it all as “amusing”.

    The PDP also accused the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) of promising to give the presidential slot to the Southwest and the Southeast in 2023.

    It said Osinbajo’s position contradicted that of Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) Boss Mustapha who, it said, assured the Southeast of the slot if the Igbo would vote Buhari next year.

    In a statement, PDP spokesman Kola Ologbodiyan said the vice president’s 2023 presidential bid will end up a pipe dream

    But the vice President cleared the air last night. He said he had no ambition to take a shot at the presidency in 2023 as alleged by the PDP.

    A source close to Osinbajo said that the PDP and its foot soldiers were free to amuse themselves.

    The source told The Nation: “Osinbajo has never focused on ambition but only passionately gets assignments given him done and done well. He is not talking of 2023 for himself at all.

    “He has a leader and is known as a loyal person by all Nigerians. The PDP and its foot soldiers can, however, continue to amuse themselves and lie as they have always done.”

    Ologbodiyan said that President Buhari, who Osinbajo is banking on for the 2023 ambition, will be defeated in the February 2019 election.

    The PDP statement reads: “It’s laughable that Prof. Osinbajo is swimming in wishful thinking, even when it has become obvious that he and President Buhari will no longer have any political relevance after May 29, 2019.”

    “Prof. Osinbajo thinks he can sweet-talk and cajole the people of the Southwest to shed their already established support for the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar.”

    “Our ambitious vice president in his political hallucination, has failed to realise that the Southwest is politically sophisticated and cannot fall for his gimmicks and self-serving venture.

    “What should rather occupy Prof. Osinbajo’s mind, now that it is clear that he is leaving office in May, 2019, is how to answer for the (alleged) mindless looting of our patrimony, particularly the alleged looting of huge part of the funds meant for food and welfare of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the Northeast, while he was Acting President in 2017.”

    The chairman of the House of Representatives Committee that investigated the diversion of the IDP votes said the Osinbajo’s name was not included in the panel’s report.

    The PDP also criticized the Tradermoni scheme as a way of diverting “funds in the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) to finance the wasteful lifestyle of APC leaders and his benefactors.”

    Many Nigerians have, however, lauded the Federal Government for introducing theTradermoni programme, which they see as a direct answer to poverty in the land. Under the programme, traders get at least N10,000 without any collateral.

  • Osinbajo to Southwest: Re-elect Buhari to have presidency in 2023

    From Vice President Yemi Osinbajo  to the Southwest yesterday came a piece of advice: vote President Muhammadu Buhari in the February 2019 election to stand a good chance of producing his successor in 2023.

    Osinbajo spoke in Oyo during a visit to the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi.

    The vice president said onus is on the Southwest to show that  it wants to produce the president in 2023.

    Buhari, according to him, has performed well to deserve a second term in office.

    “The 2019 election is our own. We are not looking at 2019 but 2023,” he said.

    “If we get it in 2019, Yoruba will get it in 2023. Because if we don’t get it in 2019, we may not get it in 2023 and it may take a very long time to get it.

    “We need to look at tomorrow and not because of today. What we are doing now is for tomorrow and not for today.”

    He said Buhari has shown that he has  zero tolerance for corruption.

    His words: “What I know about Buhari is that he is an honest man. What he says he will do, he will do it.”

    He urged the people of the Southwest to reject the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

    “Now, they are regrouping. These are the people that ruled for 16 years and they say they want to come back again. They are corrupt. Though, it is still difficult because no man or woman can build a house without a foundation,” he said.

    Oba Adeyemi earlier in his address described Vice President Osinbajo as a cerebral lawyer who has excelled in his profession.

    He said, “He is a good lawyer. The case he instituted on behalf of Lagos State when the federal government withheld the local government allocations in Lagos State during the Obasanjo regime, he won the case. And it was Yar’Adua that paid the money. The load you are carrying is big, Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa, you will succeed.”

     

  • Why Southwest should support Buhari, by Afenifere

    Pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation Afenifere has urged the Yoruba to support President Muhammadu Buhari’s 2019 re-election bid because of his “landmark achievements.”

    It said the Southwest had never had it “so good” following the “juicy federal appointments given to Yoruba sons and daughters.”

    These were contained in a communique by Mr. Awa Bamiji, issued at the end of its national caucus meeting at Senator Ayo Fasanmi’s House in Osogbo, the Osun State capital

    The meeting, according to Bamiji, also considered the “historic convocation of the Yoruba Summit that will reflect every shade of opinion within and outside Nigeria by January in Ibadan.”

    He noted that after the meeting, the Afenifere leadership visited Osun State Governor Gboyega Oyetola, who pledged his administration’s support “towards ensuring that every dream of Afenifere becomes a reality for the good of Yoruba Nation.

    “Thursday January 17 was suggested for the convocation of the Yoruba Summit at Ibadan. Elders’ Committee was formed while each state was requested to submit five names each of which various committees would be raised for the summit.”

    At the event were Senator Ayo Fasanmi, Gen. Alani Akinrinade (rtd), Chief Pius Akinyelure, Senator Biyi Durojaiye, Prince Tajudeen Olusi, Chairman, Odu’a lnvestment Limited, Engr Sola Akinwunmi, who represented Chief Bisi Akande, and Chief Akin Fasae who represented Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi.

    Others were Prof. Bayo Ademodi, representing Ondo State Governor Rotimi Akeredolu, Awa Bamiji representing Oyo State Governor Abiola Ajimobi and Chief Iyiola Oladokun, Elder Yemi Alade, Chief (Mrs.) Monisola Oloro (Nee Fayemi), among others.