Yoruba leaders yesterday took a swipe at the All Progressives Congress (APC) for describing them as hungry contract seekers and dishonest people because of their endorsement of President Jonathan’s re-election bid.
Speaking with The UNION in separate interviews yesterday, Secretary of the Pan- Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, Mr Yinka Odumakin, Dr. Frederick Fasehun of the Oodua People’s Congress (OPC) and elder statesman, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, the Yoruba leaders describe the deriding statement signed and given to journalists on Wednesday by Director, Media and Publicity of the APC Presidential Campaign Organisation, Mallam Garba Shehu, as unfortunate and a disservice to the interests of his principals in Yorubaland.
Odumakin said the decision to endorse President Jonathan was based on principles and a realistic assessment of the agenda of the two foremost presidential candidates in the March 28 poll, Jonathan and APC’s General Muhammadu Buhari.
He said: “Our endorsement is a vote of our people for freedom which the national conference represents. It is quite unfortunate that Garba Shehu, a Fulani man, would think he knows what is good for the Yoruba people.And what he has said with such feudal arrogance is a disservice to his principal. There is a consensus among the Yoruba on the confab.
The APC never supported the Confab. He has deeply hurt the interests of his principal. His is a blatant attempt to force feudalism and continue what the Jihadists, Alimi and Uthman Dan Fodio tried without success to force on Yorubaland. We reject it.” According to him, “Yorubaland will not be part of a colonized, feudalistic contraption. On March 28, Yoruba people will vote for their freedom by massively rejecting the reactionary elements the APC is trying to force on our people”. In his reaction, Dr. Fasehun said the choice between the two presidential candidates was a matter of who represents democracy and true federalism. “We have endorsed Jonathan. We stand to be corrected.
We have always been advocating for peoples democracy and true federalism. The Southwest has endorsed Jonathan. If anybody has a better option, they should let us know”, he said. Adebanjo, who was one of the elder statesmen that represented the Southwest at the 2014 national conference, simply dismissed as “petty”, Shehu’s statement faulting the conference as basis of the endorsement.
He said: “If anybody who attended the conference said the Yoruba did not get what they took to the conference, that person is ignorant. I won’t join words with petty people on this. I leave it to people of Yorubaland to decide the fate of those who are talking.” It would be recalled that Shehu, presenting APC’s perspective, in a signed statement described Yoruba elders who endorsed Jonathan’s reelection bid as broke and did so to uplift their economy