A rejoinder to Senator Adefuye's statement that only a bastard Yoruba will vote for President Jonathan

Dear Senator Anthony Adefuye,
I read with alarm your castigation of Yoruba people who support the

re-election of President Jonathan. A healthy democracy allows for

debate and dissent, not the disparaging of those one disagrees with.

Democracy also allows persuasion to a point of view, and if

unsuccessful in the effort, to agree not be disagreeable.

My support for the re-election of President Goodluck Jonathan hinges

on his support for the recommendations of the National Conference, and

many Yorubas share this view.
I am old enough to remember the pre-independence and

post-independence, but pre-military, years of Nigeria's regional

system of government when each region was self-reliant. The promise of

Nigeria at independence was truncated by military intervention. The

military abolished the federal system, balkanized the regions,

abandoned agriculture, and focused on an unrelenting exploitation of

the oil resources of the Southsouth.
Today, all the states in the nation and the federal government are

funded by oil revenues. You cannot underestimate the enormous

resentment of the people in the oil producing states to this state of

affairs. Add to this, their environment is polluted, farmers and

fishermen cannot ply their trades, but the region gets only a small

fraction of the oil revenues.
Do you think that is fair and just?
General Buhari was head of state before, and so he has a record in

office. I will only focus on his economic record. The economy

plummeted when he was in office as head of state. His party has not

endorsed the recommendations of the National Conference, and there is

no prospect that he will implement them. Why should I support the

continuation of a unitary system of government that badly needs to be

reformed?
The Southwest region is the second largest economy in Africa. When the

God-given talents and resources of Yorubas in Nigeria and in the

Diaspora are pooled via taxation, transformation of the region will

occur. Implementation of the recommendations of the National

Conference will facilitate this, and enable the Southwest to be able

to support three additional states, namely, Ijebu, Ibadan/New Oyo, and

Oduduwa.
Ijebu, one of the original provinces in Nigeria before independence,

and the only one of them that has not become a state so far, has a

prospect of becoming a state in President Jonathan's second term. As

an Ijebu man, why should I not support his re-election? Why should the

Ibadan people and those clamoring for Oduduwa state not support his

re-election?
The promise of President Jonathan's second term in office is in the

implementation of reforms that will bring justice to the oppressed

peoples of the Southsouth and encourage each region to develop its own

resources to become self-reliant as it was before military

intervention in Nigeria.
I do hope you can understand why I endorse wholeheartedly the

re-election of President Jonathan without having received a kobo for

this support, and also why I do hope millions of Yoruba people,

including Ijebus, Ibadan people, and those who want Oduduwa state,

will vote massively for President Jonathan for a second term in

office.
Thank you Senator Adefuye for reading.
Sincerely,
Abitunde Taiwo