Yoruba
leaders yesterday, said the only genuine change the nation craves for at the
moment is that of the constitution and not of personality at the helm of the
country’s affairs.
They,
therefore, resolved to work assiduously to ensure that the recommendations of
the national conference get translated to concrete realities and back President
Goodluck Jonathan’s re-election.
Notable
Yoruba personalities in the region said this in Akure at a post National
Conference Summit with the theme “2015 Elections and the Yoruba Nation.”
They
included Chief Ayo Adebanjo, the Chairman, Presidential Advisory Committee on
the National Conference; Senator Femi Okunrounmu; Dr Kunle Olajide, Yoruba Unity
Group; Dr Fredrick Fasehun, Chairman, Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN);
Otunba Gani Adams, Coordinator of Odua Peoples Congress (OPC); Afenifere
Secretary, Yinka Odumakin; Prof Dupe Olatubosun; Dr Olusegun Mimiko; Minister
of State for Works, Dayo Adeyeye amongst others.
The
chairman on the occasion, Chief Adebanjo said a vote for the candidate of the
All Progressives Congress (APC) in the forthcoming Presidential election, Gen
Muhammadu Buhari is a death sentence to the implementation of the confab
report.
Adebanjo
pointed out that the change Nigerians were calling for was that of a structural
change in the constitution not personality.
“
Who is succeeding Goodluck Jonathan? We must examine his antecedents. What we
need is a change in the constitution not from Jonathan to Buhari. If a
southerner is not allowed to implement the 633 resolutions in the report of the
confab, no Northerner will change it.”
He
noted that the resolution had taken side with the people as the issue of state
police, devolution of power, resource control, creation of local governments
and rotational Presidency had been taken care of.
According
to him, the template for all the changes that Nigeria as a nation needs was
embedded in the report of the conference submitted to the President. The
National Chairman of Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) Dr. Fredrick Fasehun, said
four more years of President Jonathan was acceptable than 8 years of Gen Buhari
which would be a nightmare.
“Gen
Buhari will introduce nightmares, dictatorial policies if Nigerians vote for
him in the coming Presidential election.”
Fasehun
said his party adopted Jonathan “because he is the only good thing that is
available to Nigerians now.”
He
said the APC leaders were standing the truth on the head by their campaign of
corruption, saying the incidence of 53 suit cases filled with new currency
overruled by Buhari from Customs check was still fresh in the memories of
Nigerians. The Coordinator of the Odua Peoples Congress, Otunba Gani Adams said
a vote for Jonathan was a vote for a better Nigeria as the constitution would
be structurally changed.
Adams
noted that the country would be doomed if the report was thrown into the
dustbin by those who do not believe in the confab.
Governor
Olusegun Mimiko said the Confab report when implemented, “will create room for
each state to have its own constitution, its own police force, its own prison
service, create its own local governments, build its own airports, seaports and
railways.”
In
addition Mimiko said: “ In the economic domain, solid minerals that had been
the exclusive preserve of the Federal Government since independence, have now
been brought to the concurrent list.
“States
can now create employment and develop at their own pace. With all that, it
liberates everybody, it opens up the political space.
“For
these reasons, in a rational and reasonable society like ours, I
don’t
expect anything less than the enthusiasm in wanting to implement
the
report.
“I
believe that the President, who set up the conference, wanted a transformed Nigeria
and in his closing remarks at the end of the National Conference, made it clear
that the people of Nigeria had great roles to play in implementing the report.”
The
governor noted that those skeptics, who alleged that the Confab
was
a ruse and a Greek gift and that delegates were on a jamboree had
been
proved wrong.
“Now
that they are scheming to hijack power so as to throw the confab report to the
dustbin of history, I am sure that they will be proved wrong again.”
He
said that “the report will not gather dust because it contains many things that
will bring joy to Nigerians.
Meanwhile,
a communiqué issued after the over six hours meeting of the yoruba
leaders commended the President for yielding to their yearnings and generality
of Nigerians by conveying the 2014 National Conference.
The
yoruba nation, in the communiqué said it is committed to a united
and indivisible Nigeria based on the principle of Justice, equity and rule of
law with ample respect and understanding for cultural, religious and linguistic
differences
“
That we resolved to fully back and work for the re-election of President
Goodluck Jonathan in the Presidential election as only this could guarantee the
implementation of the Confab recommendation.
Those
who signed the communiqué also include PDP governorship candidate in Ogun State
Prince Gboyega Nasir Isiaka, former Deputy Governor Ekiti state Biodun Olujimi,
Prince Dayo Adeyeye, Eng Jide Adeniji Chairman FERMA and Kola Are of the Yoruba
Self Determinant Group amongst others.
Credit:
The Sun
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