2015: Yoruba urged to produce Presidential candidate
picks Gen Akinrinade as likely candidate
Self-determination groups in the South West have urged Yoruba leaders to sponsor a Presidential candidate that will campaign on the restructuring of Nigeria in 2015 so as to halt the sustenance of the country's “murderous unitary structure.” The group lists pro-democracy heroes, General Alani Akinrinade as one of the best candidates that the Yoruba people can pick in the 2015 race.
In a statement issued in Ibadan on Tuesday, the O'Odua Nationalist Coalition, (ONAC) said winning the 2015 election should be secondary while the restructuring of the country should be the most important agenda of the South West people. “Elections are short term solutions while restructuring of the country offers an enduring solution to the contradictions of Nigeria, a country that continues to stifle the populace.” In the statement signed by the group's Assistant Publicity Secretary, Mr Ayoola Ajayi, ONAC said the current move of alliances of political forces in Yorubaland will make meaning if only it will halt the continuation of “Nigeria's garrison” structure, and not to substitute one iron hand with another iron hand in silk clothing.
The group said that never has history produced any meaningful alliance between the Hausa-Fulani North and the Yoruba nation, saying that the greatest thinker in Yoruba land, Pa Awolowo did not at any time attempt an alliance with the largely reactionary and feudalistic North. ONAC stated “The alliance of the Yoruba people should be with progressive and pro-restructuring forces in the middle-belt, the South-South and the South-East. The Hausa-Fulani North will forever repel any attempt to restructure Nigeria. Our alliance should not be with feudalists. Any alliance with the Taliban will be ferociously repelled by the Yoruba population. ONAC will embark on a house-to house campaign against the Talibanisation of the South West.”
The group stated “more than any time before now, Yoruba people must speak up and ensure the race is not sacrificed on the altar of Northern political interests.” ONAC stated “We urge Yoruba people to work towards producing a presidential candidate of Yoruba origin. That is the best we can trust. The agenda of the candidate should be the restructuring of the country, resource control and self determination.” ONAC stated “We do not see how an alliance of the Yoruba people with the Fulani North which has inherited and misused power since 1804 will address the fundamental problems facing the Yoruba nation. The agitation among most of Yoruba people is that they are tired of Nigeria.” The group said that the Yoruba people are desperate to control their cultural, economic and political future.
“Any political party that canvasses votes based on the principle of self- determination in Yorubaland, the Middle-Belt, South-South and the South East will be speaking the language of the people. Anyone still talking of a united, indivisible Nigeria to the ears of many Yoruba people is not in tune with the hues and cries of the people of the South West,” ONAC said in the statement. The group cautioned people of the Niger-Delta against the consequences of supporting a Presidential candidate based on sentiment. It said in the Niger-Delta, the campaign for President Goodluck Jonathan's emergence in 2015 has blindfolded the genuine crusade for resource control and redistribution of oil of which 83 percent of the oil wells are controlled by the Hausa-Fulani North.
“One of the greatest tragedies in history is that our brothers in the Niger-Delta who we have worked together over the years to present a common agenda of resource control today see the emergence of President Jonathan in 2015 as the beginning and end of all their calamities without a critical thinking about what will happen to the Ijaw nation after the next six years assuming the President wins the next election at all cost” adding that if the country is not restructured, the Ijaw nation stand to suffer the worst form of humiliation and repression after the exit of their own son.
SIGNED Mr Ayoola AJAYI