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Tag: Yoruba leaders

  • Polls: Yoruba leaders reject Jonathan’s endorsement

    Polls: Yoruba leaders reject Jonathan’s endorsement

    Akinrinade, governors, others denounce interim govt plot

    Yoruba leaders have rejected the purported endorsement of President Goodluck Jonathan for second term by some leaders of Afenifere, the Southwest’s socio-political organisation.

    The leaders, who converged on the Parliament Building, Oyo State Secretariat, Ibadan, yesterday to present the common aspirations of the Yoruba nation for the future, also condemned Monday’s violence perpetrated by Oodua Peoples’ Congress (OPC) in Lagos.

    A faction of the Afenifere,  a forthnight ago, met in Akure, the Ondo State capital, to endorse Dr. Jonathan for a second term, saying he plans to restructure the country through his convocation of a national conference. Critics of this point of view insist that all Yoruba demands at the conference were turned down.

    In a tacit rejection of the endorsement, Yoruba Assembly Convener Gen. Alani Akinrinade, a one-time Chief of Defence Staff,  in his welcome address, enumerated the qualities of the leadership the Yoruba desired.

    He said: “We, the Yoruba are too sophisticated to follow one leader or adopt one political belief. What is required of us is to share a common developmental aspiration and values much more than what obtains now in the present Nigeria.

    “We cannot afford a leadership that is absent of developmental foresight, that lacks innovative thinking and is not capable of producing the right responses and answers to the challenges of multi ethnic and multi-cultural politics in the country.

    “The absence of imaginative leadership in Nigeria in developing the right responses to the Boko Haram insurgency and its terrorist plan to decimate the nation is one we must collectively confront.

    “For us Yoruba people, a Nigerian leader must be ready to make the necessary sacrifies and imbibe core value-laden attributes. The national leader that Yoruba people want and would support should subscribe to a body of beliefs based on our perennial and tested values of honour, dignity, integrity, industry, patriotism, which are encoded in the concept of Omoluabi.

    “The leadership the Yoruba want should be the body of men and women who are believers and are ready to live according to the tenets of Omoluabi and work for its continuous propagation and effectiveness. It is this embodiment of values that should guide us in the process of who we vote for in the 2015 general elections, not corrupted endorsements.

    “To achieve our demands, I call on all Yoruba people to ensure that we use our votes wisely during this 2015 general elections by voting for those who make good their promises and vote out those who falter. We must take this once-in-four-years opportunity and use our votes to successfully empower or reject individuals based on their performance, principles, values, developmental aspirations and good character.”

    On the OPC protest in Lagos, Gen. Akinrinade said: “The ugly Lagos example of Monday 16 March 2015 appeared an open threat to our space, a society that is naturally and cultural embracing whose receptive nature is now being abused. It was a further demonstration of a sponsored and organised violence with the intent and potential to attack and pollute our peoples’ values and democratic existence. This trend will continue, unless every federating unit is opportune to achieve its highest potential within the Nigerian nation without hindrance.”

    Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola said any Yoruba man who carries a gun to kill his fellow Yoruba is a bastard, because the Yoruba people signed an agreement on 23rd September 1896 not to fight each other anymore.

    “We should counsel our youth against violence and we should tell our leaders who are collecting money from desperate politicians to have a re-think because whatever bribe offered them will be exhausted one day.”

    Aregbesola added: “I don’t know why any reasonable Yoruba leader will ask us to vote for an inept and an incompetent government that has failed to rescue over 200 girls that were abducted almost a year ago.”

    Oyo State Governor Abiola Ajimobi regretted that the Jonathan administration had relegated Yoruba to the background. He said of the first 50 positions in the country, Yoruba occupy only two.

    Ajimobi said now is the time for us to vote in a government that will protect our interest.

    The vice presidential candidate of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, thanked the Yoruba and Nigerians for enduring bad government in the past 16 years.

    Osinbajo said: Those in government also know that all is not well with the country and the people they govern.

    He urged Nigerians, particularly unemployed youths, to be resilient because there will be change on March 28.

    Afenifere deputy leader Senator Ayo Fasanmi advised Nigerians, particularly the Yoruba, to reject money being offered by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to entice them to vote for the party. He wondered why a government whose tenure would terminate in two months was still appointing ministers.

    Former Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi said true federalism and devolution of power were given priority in the APC manifesto. He advised the Yoruba to always stand up to fight for their rights.

    Fayemi said: “We should not turn ourselves into slaves or beggars all in the name of survival. The Yoruba are the leading light of the country; we should not relegate ourselves to renegades.”

    Former Osun State Governor Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola advised the Yoruba to always be their brothers’ keepers. He said our problem is rooted in political differences. We should not allow politics to divide us, he advised.

    Leader of Afenifere Renewal Group (ARG) Hon Wale Oshun said the Yoruba had always been in the forefront of the struggle for true federalism and devolution of power.

    The Secretary-General of the Yoruba Unity Forum (YUF), Senator Tony Adefuye, said the Yoruba leaders promoting Jonathan are not protecting the interest of the race.

    According to Adefuye, the YUF, made up of Afenifere and others visited Jonathan twice on the marginalisation of Yoruba in appointments to federal positions. Jonathan never did anything to correct the anomalies, he said, adding: “what is the basis for endorsing him?”.

    Sen. Olabiyi Durojaiye advised the Yoruba to vote for the presidential candidate who would serve their interest.

  • Yoruba leaders in Kano preach unity

    The leadership of the Yoruba community in Kano (YCK) yesterday urged its members to embrace peace and harmony and avoid anything that would bring about rancour and bitter acrimony.

    The former president-general of the YCK, Chief Jimpat Aiyelangbe assures the YCK,that he would ensure he resolve the crisis in the Ondo State indigenous group.

    Speaking on behalf of the YCK President, Dr. Sura Adesokan, his Vice President Alhaji Yunusa Olarenwaju said what was on the association’s agenda was to enure that the elders were united, adding that, “the leadership in the past three years had achieved a lot, especially in crisis resolution.”

    Speaking in the same vein, another Yoruba leader, Chief Jerry Agunbiade challenged the members to rally round the YCK in its effort to develop the body.

    Agunbiade noted that what the body needed at this time was collective prayers and concerted effort from the YCK,which would enable them achieve a lot for the collective interest of its members.

    Former President Dr. Jimpat Aiyelangbe said whatever problem facing the YCK should be solved in the spirit of love and understanding.

    Abdulatef Adeyemi , Public Relations Officer of YCK said the body had continued to ensure the welfare of Yoruba resident in Kano, while urging members to remain law-abiding and loyal to constituted authorities.

  • Give South-west youths a voice

    SIR: I wish to observe on the Yoruba leaders of thoughts meeting held in Ibadan in Thursday February 27, on the issue of the agenda to be pursued by the Yoruba at the conference. While I have no doubt that the people at the meeting were eminent Nigerians of Yoruba stock, majority of who have distinguished themselves in public and private concerns and qualified to represent Yoruba at such conference, the absence of youths or failure to give the youths prominent role to play at that Yoruba leaders of thoughts meeting was disappointing. This is because issues to be discussed at the constitutional conference are issues for the future which have telling effects on the youths and fewer effects on the elders.

    Are our elders telling us that there are no youths in the South-west who can represent the region at the constitutional conference or they do not trust them? The irony is that most of the elders at the meeting were at some of the constitutional conference convoked to usher in Nigeria’s independence as youths probably under 30s. Not only that, many of them came into public offices in their 30s and early 40s. If the Yoruba leaders of those days could breed them as successors, why is it difficult for them to breed those who will succeed them and nurture them in their life times?

    I don’t need to belabour myself in showing the ages of the governors in the South-south, South-east and northern parts of the country to drive my point home. The failure on the part of South-west elders to replicate this is acceptance of failure on their part as parents.

    It is high time South-west youths wake up from their deep slumbers and take their rightful place in the affairs of the land. Obviously, fear of the future has forced them to run away from politics and seek for civil service and other professional jobs. The irony is that those who direct political affairs would continue to lord it over them in spite of the lucrative nature of their various vocations. They would have themselves to blame if they refuse to go into politics with their sound education which the South-west is reputed.

    • Adewuyi Adegbite

    Apake, Ogbomoso.

     

     

     

  • Yoruba leaders endorse agenda for conference

    Yoruba leaders, groups and traditional rulers converged yesterday in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital and ratified the agenda to be presented at the National Conference.

    They unanimously took a hard stance against any delegate of Yoruba extraction who advocates positions contrary to the popular agenda.

    The ratification took place at the Grand Yoruba Summit held at the House of Chiefs in the Parliament Building of the Oyo State House of Assembly.

    The summit was organised by the Yoruba Agenda Committee, chaired by Chief Olu Falae.

    Gen. Alani Akinrinade (rtd) is the committee’s vice-chairman. The secretary is Dr. Kunle Olajide.

    Leaders of thought from Edo, Kogi and Kwara states attended the summit. The Itsekiri in Delta State were represented by a delegation, led by Mrs. Rita Lori Ogbebor.

    They took their turns to voice their concern for the Yoruba nation in Nigeria and endorsed the 15-page document.

    Falae explained that the agenda, which was prepared by the coalition of Yoruba leaders and groups, was only a review of the Yoruba agenda developed in 1994 and presented at the 1995 National Conference.

    The 15 specific issues on the agenda include: a new constitution; true federalism; regionalism with fiscal federalism in varying degrees; the role of traditional rulers; and the status of Lagos and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

    The Chief Host, Governor Abiola Ajimobi, said contrary to President Goodluck Jonathan’s view that the 1914 amalgamation of the Northern and Southern Protectorates by Lord Luggard was not a mistake, the amalgamation has earned the country several pains and calamities.

    He said: “As you all know, the Yoruba people, like every other ethnic nationality that make up this country, did not willingly join the behemoth that was to later become Nigeria. We were coerced by the British overlords in the evergreen magical marriage of inconvenience called the amalgamation of 1914.

    “Since then, Nigeria has presented as the forcefully conjured seeds in the walnut pod, what our people call ‘Omo inu awusa’. Different world-views, different ideologies, different cultures, different political beliefs, yet we were soldered into one component by the British colonial masters.

    “This forceful marriage has earned us several pains and calamities. It led to the 30-month old civil war, where the Yoruba suffered needless casualties in the course of fighting for the unity of Nigeria. The most recent calamity of our forced togetherness is the pain of being tagged as citizens of the same country with the senseless killers of children who are inflicting needless pogrom in the North.

    “I imagine that when a Yoruba man walks up to fellow humans in the world and he introduces himself as a Nigerian, what comes to the mind of his naïve audience would be that he shares the same humanity, the same human and national space with those blood-thirsty hounds called Boko Haram. It is the pain of the forced identity of 1914.

    “The Yoruba are one of the most blessed ethnic nationalities in the world. Blessed with human and natural resources, we demonstrated during the First Republic that we could hold our own in the comity of other republics.

    “The current pseudo-federalism that we practice merely gathered, as our people would say, the hen and dove under the same cage. It breeds redundancy, cheating and parasitism; it is a recipe for chaos. This is why we strongly canvass a return to that system, under which our forefathers proved their mettle to the rest of the world as brilliant administrators of men and resources.

    “For the Yoruba, no system is potent enough to bring out the best in us as true federalism. Forget political party configuration, there is no Nigerian who honestly did not suspect the current decision of the federal government to convoke a national conference.

    “We have been fooled in time past, only for our time, resources are being wasted on the altar of political leaderships strategising to hold on to power. As Yoruba sons and daughters, you will recall that our forefathers were never easily held captive. They were not because they learnt to look before they leapt.

    “That was why we were circumspect about the call for a national conference a few months before the general elections. However, as you elders have taught us, the art of knowing when to flee and when to fight are twin qualities of a valiant warrior at the war-front.

    “Yoruba people will participate at this constitutional conference armed with our own arsenal. At this conference, Yoruba must strongly canvass the return of the country to regionalism. We must ask that Nigeria becomes again a union of federated regions where each of us will be at liberty to restructure the current artificial state structure that we have.

    “We must canvass a return of the regions of the federal union to their separate constitutions as was present in the 50’s and 60’s. Personally, I am in favour of a presidential system of government, but it would seem that the consensus of our fathers and mothers here gathered is that Nigeria should return to the parliamentary system of the First Republic. We must all learn to subordinate our personal preferences to collective preferences.”

    Akinrinade explained the content of the agenda in simple language.

    Chief Olaniwun Ajayi moved for the adoption of the agenda and it was seconded by Oba Elijah Oyelade, the Salu of Edun Abon in Osun State.

    It was unanimously adopted by all in attendance.

    Southwest governors were represented at the summit.

    The Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sinuwade, was represented by traditional rulers in Osun, led by the Apetu of Ipetumode, Oba James Adegoke.

    The Olubadan, Oba Samuel Odulana, was represented by Chief Omowale Kuye. Traditional rulers from other Southwest states were present.

    Also in attendance were former Ogun State Governor, Chief Olusegun Osoba; All Progressives Congress (APC) Interim National Vice-Chairman, Southwest, Otunba Niyi Adebayo; Senator Femi Okurounmu; Chief Reuben Fasoranti; Chief Ayo Adebanjo; Otunba Gani Adams; Prof. David Noibi; Hon. Wale Oshun; Prof. Bunmi Ayoade from the Oodua Foundation in the United States (U.S.) and Alhaji Lateef Jakande.

    Others were Sen. Anthony Adefuye; Dr. Tokunbo Awolowo-Dosumu and Mr. Felix Adenaike.

    Mrs. Ogbebor said Itsekiri are Yoruba, even though they are geographically located outside the Southwest. She lauded the Yoruba for providing leadership for the country and for never threatening to secede.

    The agenda at a glance

    The 15 issues to be discussed at the National Conference by the Yoruba are:
    •Structure of federalism: each of the current six regions may create states as allowed by regional constitution without reference to other regions or the centre.
    •Regional legislative, exclusive, concurrent and residual list.
    •Westminster model of the parliamentary system of government. Ceremonial President and Prime Minister as Head of State.
    •Fiscal federalism/resource control
    •Law enforcement in regions should be on the residual list.
    •Establishment of constitutional court to have jurisdiction over inter-governmental cases and petitions arising from National Assembly elections. Appeal should lie from constitutional court to the Federal Supreme Court.
    •All elections to be organised and conducted by regional/zonal electoral commissions.
    •Conclusions at conference to lead to an autochthonous constitution. That is, the outcome shall be subjected to a referendum.
    •Structure of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT): Abuja should remain the FCT with all the federal institutions. However, Abuja should not be accorded the status of a region or federating unit.
    •Status of Lagos: there shall be appropriate budgetary provision that is part of the first line charge in the Federation Account.
    •Discussion of the composition of all national commissions, boards, parastatals, department and agencies at the conference.
    •Immunity for president, prime minister, regional ceremonial head, regional premier, governor and deputy governors should be circumscribed and made only to cover civil processes.
    •Pension matters should be split between the Federal government and regions.
    •Representation in the Central Union Government shall be equal on zonal basis.
    •Each region should be allowed to establish a Traditional Rulers’ Council.

  • Demand regionalism at conference, Ajimobi urges Yoruba leaders

    Demand regionalism at conference, Ajimobi urges Yoruba leaders

    Oyo State Governor Abiola Ajimobi has urged Yoruba leaders to demand the re-introduction of regional government at the forthcoming National Conference.

    He spoke at the second preliminary meeting on the Yoruba position at the forthcoming conference.

    The meeting was held at the Ishara-Remo, Ogun State country home of an Afenifere chieftain, Sir Olaniwun Ajayi.

    Ajimobi canvassed the adoption of the 1960 Constitution with minor adjustments to suit the present day Nigeria and its peculiarities.

    He urged Yoruba leaders to focus on advancing the course of the region at the conference.

    Ajimobi stressed the need for the constitution of a technical committee that would coordinate and aggregate the official position of the Yoruba at the conference.

    He said the committee should consist of experienced technocrats, who have held sensitive positions within and outside the government, adding that all Southwest states should be equally represented.

    Ajimobi, who decried the disparity in the allocation of revenue to states, urged the elders to focus on why the government at the centre should have less allocation and states.

    Former Secretary to the Government of the Federation Chief Olu Falae lauded Ajimobi’s developmental strides in Oyo State.

  • Adebanjo Vs new Yoruba leaders

    Pa Ayo Adebanjo’s interview in The Punch last week confirms why whatever he says has an attentive audience among his Yoruba people whom he along with other revered elders have served creditably for upward of 50 years. As was in his character, he stated without ambiguity the unanimity of thought on the recurring issue of the national question by his Yoruba people. According to him, it is “only a mad man who will oppose dialogue”. Yoruba position has always been that the national question can be resolved only through a national sovereign conference.

    However, some of his admonitions: that his Yoruba people should trust President Jonathan; that Awo never went into coalition with strange bed fellows; that ACN ought not to associate with Tom Ikimi who served Abacha’s despicable regime as well as Muhammadu Buhari who although is incorruptible but a non-progressive religious fundamentalist; that the Yoruba will not vote APC because of APC leaders’ visitation to Babangida and Abdulsalami Abubakar who should be jointly held responsible for the killing and prevention of a Yoruba son from ruling the country.

    I think Pa Adebanjo’s above declarations did serious damage to the Yoruba cultural advancement and political consciousness.

    Adebanjo no doubt knows that trust is earned among the Yoruba. But here we have President Jonathan who seems to be at war against Nigerians since his election, who provides refuge to corrupt elements, whose open display of politics of ‘the end justifies the means’ is on display at both the national and state levels; this is a president who has tucked away inside his locker, the reports of past dialogues, the Uwais electoral reform report, the Ribadu report among piles of others from the National Assembly unattended to. I am sure Pa Adebanjo knows that as much as we hold our leaders in high esteem, they are incapable of influencing who the Yoruba people trust. Awo himself as far back as 1952 said that the Yoruba will not vote for you because you are Yoruba if they cannot see an added value you are going to add to their lives.

    But the Yoruba knew Abiola, who used the old western state scholarship to study accountancy in Britain, but was to later deploy his newspaper to mislead and wage war against Awo the leader of the progressives, was an enemy of the progressives. The Yoruba knew the difference between him, Babangida and Abacha, and other military apologists who made their fortunes through the state was that unlike others, Abiola ploughed back what he took to solve social problems across the country, a strategy that earned him a landslide victory in the 1993 election. Yoruba that contributed to that victory and fought to defend his mandate on principle can be trusted to make an informed judgment if and when confronted with making a choice between PDP and APC in 2015.

    Yes from hindsight we can say Awo was right to have resisted marriage of convenience in 1959. At least Pa Adebanjo accepted in the interview under focus that he along with our other respected elders (Afenifere) were misled by Babangida and Abdulsalami to support Obasanjo. As it turned out, Obasanjo and his self-serving mainstreamers only used Yoruba to build private empires and private universities while destroying the public institutions our revered leaders including Adebanjo put in place. The South-west mainstreamers used our people as stepping stone to join their counterparts in the east and the north who according to Alabi Isamah have jointly ruled our country since independence.

    But it is doubtful if Awo who applied a lot of intellectual rigour to finding solution to Nigeria’s problems will in 2013 still stick to a 1959 failed experiment as being canvassed by Adebanjo. Were he to be faced with similar choice of canvassing true federalism where each group can control her own destiny as against marriage of convenience as occurred between NPC and NNNC, he would most probably be compelled to embrace today’s Afenifere Renewal Group option, designed to achieve the same objective without danger to the health of the Yoruba people who can look up to a pan Nigerian national party that can serve as a balance of terror to desperate PDP hawks interested only in self preservation.

    And finally perhaps as a result of Pa Adebanjo’s unhidden war with the Afenifere Renewal Group that was accused of removing the carpet from under their feet, he would rather endure PDP than support any group ACN is linked with. For instance while insisting he “has no good word for the PDP,” which for him “are intolerable”; he also says he cannot ask PDP to be thrown away because like PDP, APC is an amalgam of strange bedfellows. Since according to him APC is a coalition designed only to uproot PDP from power, “he is not ready to move from frying pan to fire”. In other words, Pa Adebanjo is by inference saying we should allow PDP to continue its 14 years of mismanagement, of corruption and of national and international embarrassment. If this represents the view of the old Afenifere that Adebanjo speaks for, then it is clear there is a disconnect between our revered fathers and the over 40 million Yoruba whose today’s tenor, tune and tone they are unable to decipher.

    Now as it was in the first and second republics, the omen is potent. PDP is deploying state resources, logistics and security apparatuses to undermine the efforts of the governments of the Yoruba states that pose no threat to the party’s ongoing looting but only want to be left alone to manage their own affairs. PDP Abuja headquarters that has been busy suspending elected PDP governors for alleged anti-party activities have been fueling intra-party feuds in Yorubaland. They recently hailed Opeyemi Bamidele’s efforts at destabilising his party in Ekiti. In Ondo, Mimiko who was aided to retrieve his stolen mandate from PDP by Ahmed Tinubu has today become more PDP than PDP. Because of the strategic importance of Ondo State and its capacity to destabise South-west, Mimiko, a governor on the platform of Labour Party, had the singular honour of nominating PDP minister from Ondo. In line with PDP and the President’s perfidious brand of politics, in place of PDP candidate in the last Ondo State election, it was Mimiko that got massive Abuja support. Three days after his victory, Mimiko was in Abuja celebrating the birthday of the president’s wife. Dr. Frederick Fasehun who was recently engaged in public altercation over pipeline monitoring contracts with its other splinter Oodua group seems to be going ahead with state support to register his Unity Party of Nigeria in spite of existing decrees and laws banning use of names of banned political parties.

    Response to our unresolved national question requires new approach beyond hiding behind principles, philosophy ideology within a system where other actors behave like gangsters, guided by neither rules mores nor culture, and where even the judiciary has come under severe assault. Adebanjo has already expressed joy that PDP was uprooted from Yoruba land, without asking for the methodology the new generation of Yoruba political leaders like Chief Bisi Akande, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Wale Oshun, Niyi Adebayo, Segun Osoba and other young Yoruba intellectuals adopted to achieve the feat.

    Without resorting to “operation wet e” they have retrieved stolen mandates in Edo, Ondo, Ekiti and Osun from Obasanjo and his PDP Yoruba mainstreamers. They have gone ahead to mobilize, winning elections in Ogun, Oyo and Edo states. The young men at the helms of affairs in these states are said to be setting the pace of development for other states to follow. What more can our revered fathers ask for? If protecting this new achievement requires cohabitation of the new political leaders with our yesterday’s perceived enemies or those without the progressive badge, they have earned our trust to decide on our behalf. I am sure Awo in whose name the old and ‘renewal’ Afenifere fathers and sons swear will be happy in his grave that “in the destruction of the noble line, there is always a survivor”.