Afenifere group alleges marginalisation of Yoruba

BY DAPO AKINREFON

A PAN-YORUBA organisation, Afenifere Renewal Group, ARG, has alleged that there is a calculated attempt to relegate the Yoruba to the background in the polity.

In a state in Lagos by its National Chairman, Mr Olawale Oshun, entitled: “A cry from the wilderness: The nation has to listen”, the group faulted moves to marginalise Yorubaland from mainstream politics.

Oshun argued that there are reports of ethnic cleansing aimed at Yoruba saying “the Yoruba demand to know why discrimination against us is on the increase.”

He said “we note with verifiable evidence at our disposal, that most routine appointments and recruitments into the public service under this administration completely short-change our people.

For instance, out of the 792 cadet officers recently recruited for training at the Custom Training College, CTC, in Kano, only 45 cadets were recruited from the six South Western States of Nigeria, compared with 263 cadets recruited from the North West Nigeria. In the same recruitment exercise, the North Central Zone got 168 cadets, North East 157, South South 91 and South Eastern Nigeria was allocated 68 cadet officers. The evidence before us therefore shows that 5.8 percent of the recruited cadets are from the South West while the North West took the lion share of 33.1% of the lot. We ask: What exactly is happening here?”.

He also lampooned the Goodluck Jonathan-led administration for failing to nip corruption in the bud adding “Nigeria is currently buffeted by corruption in a scale witnessed only under the dark and evil military dictatorships of Generals Ibrahim Babangida and Sani Abacha.

Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) has become the official headquarters of grandmasters of corruption. In an environment where a model of articulate leadership and responsible governance should be expected, given the enormous powers and resources available, what we have instead, is an organised and well-commanded conspiracy of the political and economic elite, against the Nigerian people, to keep them in perpetual poverty and misery, through high-level corruption, profligacy and financial impunity.”