Yoruba elders meet, strategise ahead of 2019

A group of Yoruba leaders, some of them members of the ruling APC, are seeking ways for the region to unite and present a common front ahead of the 2019 elections

Major political leaders in the South-West on Saturday gathered at the launch of a forum christened Yoruba Patriots Movement (YPM) where they declared as unacceptable the failures of the present administration in different areas of governance and insisted on its age- long demand for the restructuring of Nigeria.

A former national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Bisi Akande, who was the chairman of the meeting called on all leaders in the South West regardless of their party leaning and political positions to unite, positing that Yoruba people must speak with one voice and present a common political agenda ahead 2019 general elections.

Leaders present at the meeting included Doyin Okupe, Saka Balogun, Adegboye Onigbinde, Busari Adebisi, Senator Ayo Adeseun, Frederick Faseun and Yemi Farounbi.

Others were Gen Raji Rasaki, Dr. Kunle Olajide, Senator Femi Lanlehin, the Secretary to Oyo State Government, Olalekan Alli, who represented Governor Abiola Ajimobi, among others.

In his contribution at the meeting, Olajide said, “Everywhere around us, there is evidence of government failure. Power generation for a population of 170 million people is below 2000 megawatts. Inflation rate is all time high at 18 per cent while mass unemployment of able bodied youths is a time bomb waiting to explode. The state of the nation is simply and squarely unacceptable to the Yoruba nation.

Read also: Buhari treats Ndigbo as second class citizens, Ohanaeze cries

“Yoruba nation suffered inevitable collateral damage from the twin eve of military intervention and oil boom which befell Nigeria. Military politics was characterized by politics without principles, ideology and character. Hence the colloquium is aimed at deliberating a new agenda for the Yoruba nation, starting from where we are today, where we want to be and how we want to get to where we want to be.”

The group, in a three-point communique issued after the meeting, called for a Yoruba summit which will protect the interest of the region at the national level, a ‘Yoruba Economic Agenda’ that will enable it look at ways to liberate the region from dependence on federal allocations.

It also called on all Yoruba socio-political groups to register under the YPM, which will be an umbrella body to protect Yoruba interests.

This is coming just as the new leadership of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, recently decried the present administration’s treatment of the eastern part of the country as second class citizens in Nigeria and promised to meet with the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and the Movement for the Emancipation of Biafra (MASSOB), two of the major groups in the region calling for secession, to fashion the best way to resolve the Igbo question in Nigeria.

 

 

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