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| Yoruba diaspora DEEPLY worried of by floundering alliance with the North. Begs Buhari to reconsider |
“We look up to President Buhari to be faithful to his promise of change, and to avoid all beckoning of ethnic domination – the force which has been very instrumental in diverting Nigeria onto the path of conflicts, electoral fraud, instability and poverty,” Oodua Foundation, the most dominant group representing Yoruba diaspora begged.
Alliance between the two core North and Yorubas forged to push out Goodluck Jonathan appears to be cracking with the Norther overtly undermining Bola Tinubu, the Yoruba arrowhead in the alliance. Already there have been accusations and counter accusations from both regions. Buhari is suspected to have undermined Tinubus ambition to control Nigeria's legislature, while Tinubu is accused of trying to force Buhari to resign. The political battle has extended to the vise president Yemi Osinbajo who has essentially been sidelined in the affairs of governance. He is constantly locked out of strategic meetings by the orders of Buhari. Furthermore, Yorubas were the first casualty of Buhari's administration as the Yoruba accountant General of the Federation, Jonah Ogunniyi Otunla was unceremoniously fired by Buhari to be replaced by a northerner.
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The group led by Professor Banji Akintoye, a Senator in the Second Republic, this morning expressed deep concern over the alliance with the North which brought General Mohammadu Buhari.
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| Yorubas diaspora DEEPLY worried of by floundering alliance with the North |
“We Oodua Foundation and the entire Yoruba nation therefore hopefully expect positive outcomes this time around – even in spite of some disturbing happenings in the new government in the past two weeks. And we urge both sides in this alliance to stay fully loyal to their dedication to change, especially the obviously needed change in the structure of the Nigerian federation.
"We warn against allowing the forces of corruption and sectionalism to step from the shadows into key positions in the government for the purpose of serving their own squalid interests rather than the noble interests of Nigeria."
The statement added “We Oodua Foundation, a Yoruba think-tank organization with members in countries across the globe, and with headquarters in the United States, have been closely observing and analyzing the developments in the evolution of the executive and legislative arms of the Nigerian Federal Government since the swearing in of President Muhammadu Buhari on May 29. Our conclusions from our observations compel us now to speak up clearly for the Yoruba nation of the Nigerian Southwest – to speak up to Nigeria and to a world that is watching Nigeria closely.”
Excerpt of the statement is detailed below
We do not speak for any political party; we do not belong to, support or oppose any. We respect the voices of all Yoruba groups and individuals. Our organization exists only to promote and protect the interests of the Yoruba nation in Nigeria and outside Nigeria.
We the Yoruba people of the Southwest, by political tradition and culture, cherish truth, liberty, equity, justice and fair play as fundamental basis of governance. These are the age-long cardinal principles that have defined our Yoruba nation’s political tradition for centuries, and we Yoruba people remain committed to them as pillars of order, peace and stability in society.
As one of the largest nationalities in Nigeria, we have dutifully demonstrated our commitment to these principles, and to Nigeria’s success and prosperity, in all our contributions to the making of Nigeria. In that light, we have consistently and persistently proposed since the late 1940s that, because Nigeria is a country of many different nationalities, the only way to structure Nigeria for stability and success is to show careful respect to Nigeria’s various nationalities large and small and, therefore, to structure Nigeria as a proper federation in which each of the constituent units shall enjoy the right level of autonomy to manage its own unique concerns, competently promote its own development, and strongly make its own kind of contribution to the progress and prosperity of Nigeria.
Since the culture of elective representative government was begun in Nigeria, we the people of the Southwest and our leaders have sought partnership with the leaderships of other ethnic nationalities based on mutual respect, justice and the greatest good of Nigeria and Nigerians. In that light, many eminent political leaders of ours patriotically served in the leadership of political parties led by leaders of other nationalities. We also demonstrated this commitment to Nigeria’s success with open-mindedness when, in the final preparations for Nigerian independence in 1959-60, our foremost political leader, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, offered the position of Prime Minster in the Nigerian Federal Government to another leader from another nationality, while he himself was willing to accept for himself a lower position of Minister of Economic Development in the Federal Government. It was also in the same spirit of preserving and advancing Nigeria that our leaders worked with other nationalities to create the All Progressives Grand Alliance (UPGA) in the midst of the great crisis rocking Nigeria during the first years after independence.
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| Yoruba diaspora DEEPLY worried of by floundering alliance with the North |
In terms of socio-economic development, we Yoruba of the Nigerian Southwest have always loyally demonstrated great ambition for Nigeria’s progress, prosperity and power in the world. We have always regarded our well known ambition for socio-economic progress as our kind of service to Nigeria, our kind of contribution to the progress and greatness of Nigeria. We never desire or attempt to exclude other Nigerian nationals from our successes. Since we instituted Free Primary Education in our Region, countless thousands of children from other parts of Nigeria have come to benefit from our free schools. Our tradition of hospitality towards non- Yoruba nationals, our culture of religious tolerance and freedom, and the economic and business opportunities liberally provided by our many urban centres, all have made our Southwest the destination for millions of Nigerians migrating from their own homelands.
However, for all our nation’s contributions to Nigeria, what we the people of the Southwest have relentlessly been rewarded with is hostility, resulting in betrayal, as well as efforts to pull us down. Soon after independence, the powers of the Federal Government were maliciously employed to disrupt our Southwest, generate conflict in our Region, and eventually imprison our topmost political leader on totally trumped-up charges of treasonable felony. Even our other leader, Chief Ladoke Akintola, who took the step of forming an alliance with the group controlling the Federal Government, never enjoyed the full loyalty or respectful confidence of his apparent allies; and eventually, he ended up being violently killed.
Still, in spite of this sordid record of Yoruba experiences in Nigeria, when civilian elective politics was revived in Nigeria again by 1979, Chief Awolowo embarked on a massive effort again for Nigeria’s progress and prosperity. He worked with forward-looking Nigerians from all parts of Nigeria, and created a political party with an enormously ambitious agenda for Nigeria’s greatness. And when, as Presidential Candidate, he needed to choose a running mate, he persuaded his party to let him choose a promising professional from among the Igbo nationality which had been the most viciously hurt nationality in Nigeria – his reasoning being that such a step was necessary for healing a major part of the wound which the Igbo nation and Nigeria had suffered. But what did Chief Awolowo and all who worked with him get for their great ambition for Nigeria and their titanic efforts? By employing a patently crooked formula, the Federal Government of the day robbed his party of victory.
About fifteen years later, in 1990-2, Chief M.K.O Abiola invested his resources mightily in yet another effort to bring Nigeria together and heal the scars of yesteryears, scars that had been wantonly inflicted on the citizens and peoples of Nigeria through years of military repression. His reward for his great efforts and sacrifices was that his body was brought back home from Abuja.
Still, years later, when it seemed as if a citizen from the minority Ijaw nation, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, was on the verge of being robbed of his constitutionally legitimate right of succeeding to his late President, the people of the Southwest and their leaders supported him powerfully through street demonstrations and global campaigns. Unfortunately, throughout President Jonathan’s 6-year presidency, the people of the Southwest were treated with hate and spite.
We in Oodua Foundation, and informed people all over the world, have watched in the past three years as a section of the Yoruba political leadership has worked and sacrificed to knit together the current alliance with the core North, again out of the Yoruba ambition for a stable, strong and just Nigerian society. Those efforts have now produced a solid possibility of a Nigerian Federal Government dedicated to the welfare of all Nigerians, dependably set against the cultures of corruption, ethnic chauvinism, and process manipulations, a Federal Government capable of leading Nigerian out of poverty into a new era of prosperity and national dignity and greatness.
‘We look up to President Buhari to be faithful to his promise of change, and to avoid all beckoning of ethnic domination – the force which has been very instrumental in diverting Nigeria onto the path of conflicts, electoral fraud, instability and poverty.’
And we urge the Southwest leaders in this hopeful arrangement to maintain discipline in their ranks, so as to be able to render their very best service to change and prosperity. We urge Yoruba political leaders of all persuasions and partisan leanings to consciously give this new arrangement a good chance of success – in the interest of our Yoruba people and all other peoples of Nigeria. And finally, we alert the masses of our Yoruba people to remain vigilant, strong and resolute in the struggle for freedom – freedom for the Yoruba nation and for all other nationalities of Nigeria
Related Stories:
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- APC crisis deepens: NWC meeting deadlocked. Tinubu’s portraits and banners removed from party secretariat
- Fulani solidarity and the betrayal of Bola Tinubu: How the Yorubas were dribbled by the Northern Oligarchs
- How Buhari aided the emergence of Saraki to undermine Tinubu's political strength - The Nation
- The first strike! Buhari replaces Yoruba-born Nigeria's Accountant General with Hausa-Fulani underling
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