Three days ago President Goodluck Jonathan held a meeting with prominent Southwest elders, especially those in thepowerful Afenifere and the Yoruba Council of Elders (YCE) in Ibadan – the heartbeat of yorubaland – opening a new window of opportunity for the support of pan-yoruba cultural groups to his 2015 calculations. AGBOOLA BAYO examines the issues at stake, in the president’s last minute stratagem, especially the 600 National Confab resolutions on restructuring.
Prominent Yoruba leaders from the Pan Yoruba socio cultural group, Afenifere, the Igbimo Agba Yoruba (Yoruba Council of Elders) and others from different groups and political parties last Thursday stormed Ibadan for the continuation of their quest for the implementation of some of the about 600 recommendations of the recently held National Conference with particular attention on their aged long clamour for the restructuring of Nigeria with special focus on true federalism as recently spelled out in the recommendations.
Convener of the summit and Ondo state governor, Dr Olusegun Mimiko while welcoming Yoruba leaders said the man purpose of the summit was to map “out the future of the Yoruba Nation through a thorough examination of where we are at the moment and where we are going to be if the resolutions of the 2014 National Conference are implemented”.
Governor Mimiko stressed that the choice of Ibadan, the political and administrative headquarters of the old Western Region for the summit and at the Premier Hotel “ is to reconnect with the recent history of the Yoruba people and the Western Region government where Ibadan was the capital,” saying, “here, the sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, whom I love to refer to as a recent ancestor of the Yoruba people, held court. I am further convinced that the decision to be here this morning has very strong imprints on the lieutenants of the sage who are here today ”.
“I am happy to welcome all of you, eminent and accomplished Nigerians, to this post National Conference Summit. I acknowledge your commitment to the development of the Nigerian Project and I thank you for being part of this summit which is aimed at mapping out the future of the Yoruba Nation through a thorough examination of where we are at the moment and where we are going to be if the resolutions of the 2014 National Conference are implemented. We are gathered here at and a city that has retained its prominence and reputation even after the creation of many states.
It is a great pleasure for me to receive all of you here today. It is a greater pleasure for me to play host to our fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, our contemporaries, indeed our kith and kin in Yorubaland, at this summit”.
Governor Mimiko stressed that the Ibadan summit was very crucial to the entire Yorubarace as the country prepares for the general elections during which the Yoruba people are expected to decide on whether or not to actualize the Confab recommendations by supporting President Goodluck Jonathan’s re ~election or vote otherwise and forget about the entire Confab resolutions
“Let me salute President Goodluck Jonathan for his bold and momentous move as well as his focused leadership which was demonstrated through his compliance with the agitations by Nigerians to debate their collective future. Convening the 2014 National Conference was indeed a historic assignment that we are proud of and as a people, we must do everything possible to ensure that the Confab recommendations get implemented.
“No doubt, Nigeria has passed through various stages of national dialogues before without being able to emplace a constitutional and political arrangement that is accommodating enough to sustain the dedication and patriotism of many. The constitutional and governmental experiments that we have had seem inadequate to capture the essence of those things that have the inherent capacity to unite us despite our ethnic and religious cleavages. The Confab report when implemented, will create room for each State to have its own constitution, its own police force, its own prison service, can create its own local governments, can build its own Airports, Seaports and Railways and in addition; in the economic domain, solid minerals that had been the exclusive preserve of the Federal Government since independence, have now been brought to the concurrent list. States can now create employment and develop at their own pace. With all that, it liberates everybody, it opens up the political space,”.
Afenifere National leader, Chief Reuben Fasoranti in his brief remark at the Ibadan summit emphasized the need for the Yorubarace to come together as one to be able to face the challenges ahead to ensure the realization of the restructuring of Nigeria.
The Deputy Leader of Afenifere, Chief Ayo Adebanjo declared that the Ibadan summit was for the important interest of the entire Yoruba race especially on the Yoruba belief and continuous agitation for the restructuring of Nigeria which President Jonathan too believes in unlike the contrary views of the All Progressives Congress (APC) leadership.
“Goodluck Ebele Jonathan is important to the Yoruba nation,we should know where we are coming from and where we are going. We want to restructure Nigeria, it is only the Afenifere that has been consistent in the clamour for the restructuring of Nigeria and that is the beginning of what led to the last year National conference of eminent Nigerians sitting down to decide on the way forward for the country .I heard some of those not in support of the Confab shouting Change,change around and Afenifere is saying the change we need is not the change of personality but change in constitution”
Another Chieftain of Afenifere and National Chairman of the Social Democratic Party (SDP),Chief Olu Falae in his contribution declared that there is no going back in Afenifere’s endorsement of President Jonathan’s as its Presidential candidate for the March 28 election.
Chief Falae who read out some aspect of the Confab recommendation to the summit maintained that only the implementation of the recommendations could meet the agitation of the entire Yorubarace and bail it out of the bondage they were put into by the military after terminating true federalism with the 1966 coup, saying, “no blackmail can make us change our position on supporting Jonathan”.
According to him,contrary to the insinuation by those opposing to the Confab that Afenifere leaders collected money to support and endorse President Goodluck Jonathan’s re election bid,the endorsement by Afenifere was as a result of the President’s commitment to the implementation of the recommendations of the last year’s National Conference which will adequately addressed all the grievances of the Yoruba nation.
“It is a pity that some people could be saying the Yoruba leaders in Afenifere collected money from President Goodluck Jonathan to endorse him. I am saying here that no Yoruba leader collected money from him to endorse him. How can we collect money to support. President Jonathan? In 2007,I supported General Buhari and even campaigned for him at the Adamasingba in Ibadan here because he promised to convey a National Conference and I did not collect money from him,I even raised money for him then. Why are they now insinuation such this time around. I want to make it clear here today that the Yoruba nation had a lot to gain in supporting and voting for President Jonathan in the coming election especially in ensuring the much needed restructuring of Nigeria as a country,”he said.
In his lecture at the summit entitled “Mapping out the future Post National Conference Summit,” Professor Dupe Olatunbosun said for more than two decades, the Yorubas under the leadership of the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo have been at the fore front of the agitation for the convocation of a National conference in Nigeria which was at last conveyed in 2014 by President Goodluck Jonathan, saying, “please allow me to congratulate the Yoruba nation in particular and indeed all Nigerians that at last, their desire to come together to dialogue how they should be governed came to reality,” he said.
Professor Olatunbosun while stressing that “convening the National Conference was a historic achievement” added that the fact that “over 600 resolutions passed by 492 individuals from North, South, East and West was by consensus, was indeed a very remarkable and unprecedented achievement in the history of our great country”.
“Without mincing words, the only way forward to guarantee the implementation of the Confab recommendations to ensure that the report which contains many things that will bring joy to Yoruba and to many Nigerians will not be thrown into the dustbin of history where it will gather dust, is to vote massively; all of us in the South Western Nigeria and beyond for someone who will implement the Confab recommendations come March 28,2015. There are two major contestants for the leadership of this great nation. Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan and General Muhammadu Buhari of PDP and APC parties respectively”.
In the communique issued at the end of the summit, the Yoruba leaders concluded that the recommendation of the conference, which said that “each of the existing six geo-political zones be equally divided into nine states, was in line with the core value of the Yoruba nation, in which equity is ranked high, that the President be commended for the successful conduct of the 2014 National Conference which perhaps can be described as a very bold and in fact the most courageous step ever taken by any president since the return of democracy in 1999 and that other profound recommendations of the Confab, particularly those that touch on devolution of powers, creation of states and community police service; making prison service a concurrent matter; allowing each state to have its constitution; decentralization of the powers over the establishment and management of railways, sea ports and airports; and development of solid minerals are central to the core interest of the Yoruba.”
They also stated in the communique that the conference recommendation of rotational presidency among the six geo-political zones and the rotation of the position of governor among the senatorial districts of each state were in accord with the political aspiration of the Yoruba race and that the race was committed to the unity of the country based on principles of justice, equity and the rule of law, with ample respect for cultural, religious and linguistic difference.
“We resolve therefore to fully back and work for the re-election of President Jonathan in the presidential elections as only this could guarantees the implementation of the Confab recommendations,”.
The Ibadan summit which was attended by the Afenifere Leader,Pa Reuben Fasoranti,YCE President General Adeyinka Adebayo, Chief Ayo Adebanjo,Chief Olu Falae,Chief Richard Akinjide (SAN),Dr Femi Okunrinboye, Dr Kunle Olajide, Bishop Ayo Ladigbolu Alhaji Shuaib Oyedokun, Chief Abiola Ogundokun, Senator Iyiola Omisore,Dr Muyiwa Oladimeji,founder of Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC),Dr Fredrick Faseun, Dr Doyin Okupe, the Minister of State for FCT, Oloye Jumoke Akinjide, Professor Wale Oladipo (PDP National Secretary), former Senate leader and PDP governorship candidate,Senator Teslim Folarin, Alhaji Hazeem Gbolarunmi, Otunba Gani Adams, former Oyo State governor,Otunba Adebayo Alao-Akala, among others could best be said to be one of the best assemblage of prominent Yoruba leaders in the recent time towards championing a common cause.