The Yoruba Council of Elders (YCE) has joined a section of the pan-Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, in drumming support for President Goodluck Jonathan’s second term ambition. Assistant Editor LEKE SALAUDEEN examines the futility of the campaign in a region that has a reputation for rejecting inept leadership and its implications for the elections.
The Yoruba Council of Elders (YCE) has joined the train of President Goodluck Jonathan’s promoters in the Southwest, when it endorsed his re-election bid recently. Previously, the council had maintained a neutral position, saying the presidency.
But, members of the group led by Major-General Adeyinka Adebayo paid a surprise visit to President Jonathan at State House, Marina, Lagos, apparently to express its support for his second term bid. During the visit, members of the delegation commended the president for offering good leadership to the country. Besides, Gen. Adebayo-led a powerful delegation to the post-National Conference Summit organised by the leaders of the Afenifere and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at Premier Hotel, Ibadan.
Analysts have described the sudden volte-face of YCE as ridiculous, saying it has seriously undermined its integrity. They reasoned that YCE is supposed to be apolitical adding that aligning itself with a political party will make it lose its dignity.
Afenifere and YCE hinged their decision to support the President on their desire to see the recommendation of last year’s National Conference implemented by the man who convened the conference. But, the Deputy Leader of Afenifere, Senator Ayo Fasanmi, was not swayed by that reasoning. He asked whether it is only Jonathan has the exclusive ability to implement the report.
Fasanmi said: “Those who endorsed President Jonathan based their decision among other reasons on his commitment to implement the outcome of the National Conference. However, the outcome of the conference will require a constitutional amendment. Hence, it is the national and states assembly that have the power to incorporate the conference resolutions into the constitution. So, the President has minimal not pivotal role to play in this matter.”
Former Senate Minority Leader Olorunnimbe Mamora, aligned himself with Fasanmi’s position that the President does not have the exclusive right of implementing the recommendations of the conference. “The implementation cannot be done outside the National Assembly. The report is a public document that can be implemented by whoever wins the presidential election. The issue of true federalism, devolution of power and fiscal federalism recommended by the National Conference are contained in the All Progressives Congress (APC) manifesto. I can assure you that if Buhari is elected, he will ensure that the report is implemented.
On the directive that the Yoruba should vote for Jonathan in the re-scheduled March 28 presidential election, Afenifere chieftain Senator Biyi Durojaiye said it is illogical. He said, he could not understand the criteria or the rationale for the endorsement of Jonathan by both the Afenifere and the YCE, which directed the Yorubas to cast their votes for him.
He said: “I cannot understand the basis for endorsing an administration that had been criticised by the Afenifere leaders for marginalising the Southwest. What has changed now that they want the Yorubas to overlook? Is it because Jonathan has engaged some Yoruba elements to castigate former President Olusegun Obasanjo?
“I am amazed that some Yoruba leaders are asking our people to support a government that lacks good morals, that has the tenacity to hold on to power at all costs, that changes the rule of the game at its convenience, that plots to remove the chief electoral umpire.”
Fasanmi said it was too late for Jonathan to be making promises of appointing a Yoruba person into a high position after his re-election. “Despite the fact that Jonathan won five states in the Southwest in 2011 with 2.7 million votes, the people from this zone play minimal role in his administration. Even when he appointed Southwesterners into his cabinet, they were not assigned strategic portfolios,” he added
The Second Republic senator regretted that his colleagues, including Chief Reuben Fasoranti, Sir Olaniwun Ajayi and Chief Ayo Adebanjo spearheaded the endorsement without sparing a thought of the future. He said the Awoists calling on the Southwest to vote for President Jonathan have mocked their antecedent and rich history of struggle for a better Nigeria.
He challenged the Afenifere leaders to list the achievements of President Jonathan in the Southwest that could warrant their endorsement of his candidature. He said the Jonathan administration has marginalised the region in the distribution of appointments and amenities, wondering why the Afenifere chieftains are rooting for his re-election.
President of Yoruba Consultative Group (YCG), Chief Ayo Adegoke, advised President Jonathan not to be deceived by the political jobbers, who have been assuring him that they would win Southwest votes for him. He said President Jonathan should not expect bulk vote from the southwest in 2015. According to him, what happened in 2011 will not play out this time around.
Adegoke stated: “Jonathan got sympathy votes in the Southwest in 2011 not because of the PDP, but because he came from the minority group that had never ruled this country. The same Jonathan has squandered that opportunity and relegated the Southwest to the background in the scheme of things. When he was not allowed to take over the leadership of the country at the time the late President Umaru Yar’Adua travelled abroad for medical treatment, it was the people of Southwest that fought for him.
“Despite the goodwill the people of Southwest accorded him in 2011, what did they benefit from his government? Instead most Yoruba holding senior positions in civil service lost their jobs. Jonathan should not be misled by the self-serving groups like the Afenifere and the YCE that the Yoruba would vote for him. The so-called leaders lack electoral value; some of them cannot win in their wards.”
Adegoke described the Southwest as the traditional home of the progressives. I don’t see a situation whereby the Yoruba would for any reason this time around abandon the APC, which was co-founded by their leaders and other like minds across the country. He said the politics of the Southwest is based on principle and peoples interest. It is not possible for the people of this region to vote for the PDP, given the performances of the APC governors in the zone, he added.
A PDP chieftain confided in our correspondent that it will be herculean for the party to score the required 25 per cent in Southwest states during the presidential election in the Southwest let alone winning the states. He agreed that the Jonathan administration marginalised the region, in spite of the goodwill of the people towards him during the 2011 presidential election.
He said: “I share the view that we do not deserve Yoruba support this time around. The people of the Southwest voted massively for Jonathan in 2011. It is a general cake that has to be shared among those who contributed to its baking.
“We went to Abuja on this issue. All the PDP governors and leaders were there to confront President Jonathan. He promised to rectify the anomaly after 2015 elections. Apart from ministerial appointment, which is constitutional, what have we gained from Jonathan’s administration so far? We have nothing to show for the massive support he got from Southwest in 2011.”
A lawyer, Tolu Afolabi, said the self-appointed leaders of the Yoruba should know their limitations. He said: “Nobody appointed either the Afenifere or the Yoruba Council of Elders to speak on behalf of the Yoruba race. The Yoruba know what is good for them. They can decide for themselves. Those promising Jonathan Southwest votes are on their own.”
Afolabi noted that the leadership of the Afenifere and the YCE have betrayed the Yoruba race by endorsing an administration that marginalised their region in terms of appointments and infra-structural development. “At a time when the people of Southwest like other progressives across the country are yearning for a change they are asking us to vote for a government that has failed,” he said.
“The political setting that made people to vote for Jonathan in 2011, irrespective of party affiliation, has changed. The political leadership of the Southwest at that time interacted with their colleagues in government to give him solid votes, but that situation does not exist today. Jonathan and his foot soldiers should face the reality that the Southwest is a no-go area.
“The new political leadership in the Southwest represented by the APC has been consistent with the principle of protecting the general interest of the Yoruba, which Chief Obafemi Awolowo stood for all his life. That principle made him more popular in death. Awo is revered because of his landmark achievements in education, health, agriculture and rural development that stood him out among his peers. The so called Awoists should retrace their steps and stop ridiculing themselves.
On the claim by the Afenifere that they are supporting Jonathan because he is from the South, the lawyer said the group has betrayed Awo’s philosophy and his political approach. Afolabi said: “Awolowo never discriminated against the North in expanding his political empire. “Awo’s Action Group (AG) went into alliance with the United Middle Belt Congress led by the late J.S. Tarka and the Borno Youth Movement in the First Republic. The political horizon of the late sage widened in the Second Republic when he signed a pact with the Concerned Citizens of the North led by the late Major General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua in 1983. That explains why Awo was able to pick a Fulani man, Alhaji Muhammadu Kura, as running mate. The Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) performed better in the presidential election in the North in 1983 compared to 1979.
“It will be wrong of the Afenifere leaders to describe the coming together of the mainstream politicians of Yoruba extraction and their counterparts from the North as a sellout. Awo started it and he even predicted that the progressives of the North and the South would come together one day to rescue the country.”
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