Pan-Yoruba Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, has enjoined the Ekiti State governor, Mr. Kayode Fayemi, to stop blaming proponents of restructuring but should instead find the courage to face the Muhammadu Buhari’s presidency, who it described as the only “region” stonewalling its realisation in the country.
Afenifere added that this was even in spite of the Kaduna State governor, Malam Nasir el-Rufai Committee report, which it said now appeared a mere attempt to hoodwink the unwary.
The group gave the counsel on Sunday in a press statement made available to newsmen by its national publicity secretary, Mr Yinka Odumakin, in reaction to report credited to Governor Fayemi that restructuring idea would remain a mirage except its proponents in Yorubaland reaches out to other regions.
“Instead of shifting the blame on proponents of restructuring, a governor with testicular fortitude should have found the courage to reach to the only ‘region’ stonewalling the restructuring of Nigeria – the Buhari presidency, in spite of the El-Rufai Committee report which now appears a mere attempt to hoodwink the unwary,” Afenifere said.
Afenifere, in its statement titled: “On Governor Fayemi’s Mischief on Restructuring,” said it would ordinarily have ignored what it described as “unkind cut” from the Ekiti governor if it had come from any ignorant fellow, but quickly noted, “but His Excellency cannot be counted among the ignorant and could only have been mischievous in making such revisionism.”
The group, while going down memory lane, recalled that it was a known fact to many Nigerians under age 60 that the sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, crisscrossed the length and breadth of the country before they were born canvassing the issue of federalism that would benefit the whole nation and not only the Yoruba.
According to the group, since Awolowo departed to the great beyond, his disciples have never neglected the path of reaching out to all sections of the country at every point in time to build national consensus, adding that Yoruba delegates at the 2014 National Conference ensured they worked nights and days with leaders across Nigeria to build consensus which led to adoption of over 300 resolutions that would have moved Nigeria forward if implemented.
“Chief Awolowo’s extensive works among the minorities of the South and the North to the point of placing a lot of their leaders on the same level of allowances with Ministers in Western Region was part of his efforts to galvanise national consensus around federalism.
“Since the exit of the great leader, his disciples have never neglected the path of reaching out to all sections of the country at every point in time to build a national consensus.
“At the 2014 National Conference, for instance, Yoruba delegates worked nights and days with leaders across Nigeria to build a consensus which led to over three hundred resolutions that would have moved Nigeria forward if implemented, without the use of ballot once,” Afenifere recalled.
Besides, the group said in the last four years that the government of All Progressives Congress (APC), and which Governor Fayemi was part of, had made the idea of restructuring a “mirage in spite of deceiving Nigerians with Federalism on their manifesto in 2015,” proponents of restructuring in the South- West had worked with groups in other regions in the country.
The groups, according to it, include the Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum (SMBLF) and Northern Elders Forum (NEF), among others to promote the idea of federalism.
“The map of the last presidential elections with all the manipulations still showed the result of what has been achieved in this regard,” Afenifere said.
Afenifere, therefore, warned some Yoruba politicians from the region who it said might have lost their voices for self -preservation, and had become enslaved to “an anti-progress leadership” to be careful in insulting leaders from their region in order to impress their masters from outside South- West.
“If some politicians from the region are enslaved to an anti-progress leadership and have lost their voices for self-preservation, they should be careful in insulting leaders from their region to impress their masters,” Afenifere warned. (Nigerian Tribune)