…As Yoruba leaders strategise

By Ola Ajayi

IBADAN—NOTABLE Yoruba sons and daughters met in Ibadan yesterday, to discuss ways of reclaiming the lost glory of the zone.

The one day summit which held at the Cultural Centre in Ibadan, lasted several hours with illustrious sons and daughters of the zone bemoaning the state of things and proffering solutions on how the zone would not lag behind in the scheme of things come 2011.

According to the former President, Nigeria Bar Association, NBA, Mr. Rotimi Akeredolu, all the Yoruba people did not need to follow the same direction, but as the leading beacon of hope, should not lose the political ideology left behind by the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo.

To him: “It is not compulsory that we must all be in the same political party or follow the same direction to achieve a Yoruba agenda, but our ideology must merge so that we could be able to form what would be regarded as a Yoruba agenda.”

The summit which was organised by the Afenifere Renewal Group, witnessed a large turn-out from all the South West zones.

The Chairman of the group, Mr. Wale Oshun, regretted that the zone had suffered serious setback in the education sector, saying only 53 candidates out of those that sat for the NECO examination had five credits in one of the states in the zone. This, he said, negated the focus of Chief Awolowo.

Oshun, while speaking on the theme of the summit, “Yoruba Values: A re-awakening-Agenda for 2011 and Beyond, said: “Yoruba must ensure that the one man, one vote slogan works so that correct representative of the Yoruba people would emerge to represent us. It is correct representative that would have the pleasure of working with other similarly elected representatives to restore hope, democracy and restructure governance and the constitution in a way that it
would enable us have confidence in whom we have and restore all the abused values that used to give us pride”.

He condemned the “unfaithful way federalism is being practiced. Why should the Central Government in Abuja insists on the exclusivity of the management of the security when all evidence point to the total collapse across the length and breath of the country, except in Lagos State where the bulk of funding and logistics are provided by the Lagos State government. The success of the security policy in Lagos State has shown the need for community and for state
command of security agencies.