YORUBA leaders from various vocations and representing different groups all declared on Thursday that President Goodluck Jonathan is the candidate of the race for the March 28 presidential election.
Among the leaders were Governor Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo; the Afenifere leader, Chief Ayo Adebanjo; national chairman of Alliance for Democracy (AD), Senator Mojisoluwa Akinfenwa; former Governor Gbenga Daniel, President, Oodua People’s Congress (OPC), Dr Frederick Fasehun.
Others included the former deputy national chairman of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Olabode George, Minister of State for Works, Dayo Adeyeye; Minister of State for Foreign Affairs II, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro; Dr Kunle Olajide, Professor Dupe Olatubosun, Senator Kofoworola Bucknor-Akerele, among others.
The leaders made this position known when they spoke at the post-national conference summit, with the theme: “Tomorrow Begins Today,” held at the Airport Hotel, Ikeja.
They said the decision was arrived at because President Jonathan demonstrated that commitment to convoke the national conference, which recommendations they said, if implemented fully, were in line with the demand of the Yoruba to return the country to true federalism as was the case before the 1999 military intervention.
In his opening remark, Governor Mimiko, who expressed appreciation for President Jonathan’s commitment and sincerity in convoking the conference, where 653 recommendations were arrived at, said the president remained the candidate of the Yoruba, irrespective of propaganga from people he called the Yoruba irredentists.
According to him, for past years, the Yoruba had been in the struggle for liberty and freedom as championed by the sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, who he said advocated for a truly federal constitution and recognition of the right of the minority in the country.
The governor observed that the full implementation of the recommendations of the confab report, which included the devolution of powers and resources, reduction of powers and funds available to the Federal Government, establishment of multi-level policing, the states having power to create the number of local governments they desire, if fully implemented, was the sure way to go and make the country greater in the comity of nations.
Mimiko drew the attention of the gathering to a text message just being sent around, urging that people should forward the pin no of their PVCs to a strange no, while he cautioned them against doing such.
According to him, it could be another ploy by some desperate politicians to hack their PVCs and deny them their voting right on election days.
Chairman on the occasion and leader of pan-Yoruba socio-political group, Chief Adebanjo, who also enjoined Yoruba to vote Jonathan in the presidential election, said he was supporting the president for no other reason other than the fact he had championed the cause that was purely in the interest of the Yoruba.
The president, he said, was able to convoke the national conference despite numerous opposition and the belief in some quarters that the exercise was going to end in chaos, adding that Jonathan had also promised to implement the 653 recommendations of the conference fully.
The Afenifere chieftain declared that it was in Jonathan’s presidency that Yoruba’s interest would be better served, warning that the Yoruba should shun those he called revisionists who wanted to draw the race backwards in pursuit of the personal selfish interest.
Secretary of the Yoruba caucus at the national conference, Dr Kunle Olajide, while also expressing appreciation to President jonathan for convoking it, stated all what the Yoruba took to the exercise sailed through.
He listed some of the Yoruba agenda to include creation of additional states, multi-level policing and a situation where states would have their constitution to operate with.
Olajide said Jonathan had what he termmed an uncommon democratic credential, which many did not know, saying that people were eager to possess their permanent voter cards (PVCs) because they now knew that under him (Jonathan), votes must count.
Minister of State for Works, Mr Adeyeye, said there was the need to restructure the country.
He expressed optimism that the recommendations at the confab, if fully implemented, would bring about a better country run under a true federal system of government.
The minister, who recalled that the military jettisoned the federal constitution for unitary system when it came on board in the country, said the confab was “suggesting that we go back to the basics in order to grow and develop the country rapidly.”
In his own remark, the secretary of Afenifere, Mr Yinka Odumakin, expressed the belief that that with the successful conclusion of the confab, Yoruba had moved away from bondage and now on their way to freedom.
He said the summit held in Lagos was aimed at sensitising the Yoruba people to vote for President Jonathan, who allowed the confab to hold as against the All Progressives Congress (APC), who boycotted the conference and also campaigned vigorously against it.
Former governor of Ogun State, Chief Gbenga Daniel, who also added his voice, described the quality of attendance at the forum as an attestation that the Yoruba nation had eventually found its voice.
The former governor said it was a tragedy that the minority had continued to oppress the majority in Yorubaland, adding that the congregation of the forum lend credence to the fact that the Yoruba nation had decided to take their destinies in their hands.
Daniel insisted that the Yoruba nation had nothing against the Hausa/Fulani, adding that this was fully demonstrated by the sage, Chief Awolowo, when he made Mohammed Kura his rumnning mate in the 1983 elections.
He also declared that Jonathan remained the candidate of the Yoruba for 2015, contending that when it was the turn of Northern zone, the Yoruba, through their leaders, would definitely pick a choice.
“Our future lies in that election. We must not fail, if we are to realise true federalism which President Jonathan represents,” he added.
Minister of State, Foreign Affairs, Senator Obanikoro, explained that his decision to support the PDP governorship candidate in Lagos State, Mr Jimi Agbaje, was informed by the need to form a common front in the party’s quest to wrest power from the APC in the state.
Obanikoro said this had become necessary since the ruling party had turned the state into a personal estate for few party members, to the disadvantage of the average Lagosian.
While expressing confidence that PDP would emerge victorious at the forthcoming polls, the minister, however, called on Lagosians to join the party in liberating the state from the oppressive administration of the ruling party.
At the end of the summit, a communique was read and approved by the gathering of eminent Yoruba in attendance.
In the communique, President Jonathan was commended for conveying the national conference based on the agitation of Yoruba for many years.
The summit applauded the successful conduct of the confab as well as what it described as the laudable resolutions arrived at, which would allow creation of additional nine states
It said Lagos must be given support, while each state must be allowed to have its constitution and that the presidency would be rotated among the six geopolitical zones in the country, among others.
Culled from Nigerian Tribune