The Yoruba leaders’ summit

Last week, leaders of the South-West geopolitical zone under the auspices of the Yoruba Unity Forum (YUF) converged on the Ikenne, Ogun State residence of the sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, to discuss the affairs of the South-West geopolitical zone within the national matrix. The summit, which had in attendance foremost traditional rulers in the South-West, was also attended by eminent personalities from all strata of the Nigerian society, and by leaders of sociocultural groups across the country.

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In a communique issued at the end of the summit, the leaders flayed the lack of positive skills, morality and loyalty among Nigerians which, in their view, made the country one of the most corrupt, violent and unsafe in the world. They condemned the fall in educational standards in the country, and the poverty and hopelessness which had compelled promising youths to flee the country in search of greener pastures. According to them, recent occurrences in the democratic processes had cast aspersions on the credibility of elections, even though the ability of the citizens to choose their leaders through free and fair elections remains the backbone of the democratic process.

According to the Yoruba Unity Forum, electoral processes had been marred by the partisanship of the electoral umpire, misuse of security forces, registration of underage and alien voters, violence, intimidation and vote buying. The forum was of the view that Nigeria is deeply divided along ethnic lines, and that to ignore this fact is to do so at the country’s peril. With regard to the Yoruba nation, the forum expressed the view that it must be ready to exercise its franchise in the upcoming elections by voting credible and selfless leaders whose mandate will be to move the nation forward.

Against the backdrop of the pervasive tensions in the polity and the widespread angst among Nigerians following the failure of governments at all levels to actualise the goals of national development, the Ikenne summit could not have been more timely. Nigeria is currently ranked the poverty capital of the world in spite of averments by the Muhammadu Buhari administration to the country, and there is no right-thinking Nigerian that would disagree with the position expressed at the summit that what is called democratic politics has taken a weird, chaotic and destructive shape, a monstrous concoction peculiar to Nigeria and largely unknown to most of the rest of the world, and that politics has become the place to achieve easy financial success. But the key issue relates to the strategies for achieving national rebirth, the most significant of which is the restructuring of the country.

Although the current administration has stayed faithful to its project of resisting any moves to change the current iniquitous structure that has stifled creativity in governance and encouraged indolence in the face of a large but unproductive central government to whom the states have become mere appendages, the fact remains that, as argued by Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the  Nigerian federation will succeed only to the extent that it is able, through rationally thought-out constitutional arrangements, to contain the centrifugal forces at work and subordinate them permanently to the cohesive and centripetal influences of politico-economic union and togetherness. In this connection, the position canvassed by the Yoruba Unity Forum, namely that the electorate should engage political aspirants at all levels on their view vis-a-vis the restructuring imperative, goes to the root of Nigeria’s preservation as a sovereign entity.  We assert without any fear of contradiction that any candidate for the position of governor, president or National Assembly member that is out of tune with the need to restructure Nigeria and return it to the path envisaged by the founding fathers and mothers is a flagrant anachronism.

In a major highlight of the summit, the foremost South-East sociocultural group, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, harped on the growing need for the unity of Southern Nigeria, submitting that the Yoruba and Igbo were one and should work together in next year’s electoral cycle to actualise the restructuring and repositioning of Nigeria. This is, we believe, a laudable effort and we urge members of the Yoruba Unity Forum not only to continue their quest for the restructuring of the Nigerian nation but also to engage more actively with leaders of the other geopolitical zones across the country and build on the emerging consensus on restructuring and national unity. Already, leaders of the Middle Belt zone, the South-South zone and the Northern Elders Forum have expressed enthusiastic support for a new Nigeria that works. This means doing all that is possible to make the component units of the Nigerian federation centres of development, innovation and creativity. This goal is both desirable and achievable.

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