Guardian

March 2, 2005

Afenifere asks South West delegates to
defend Yoruba agenda
By Clifford Ndujihe

SOUTH West delegates to the National Political
Reforms Conference (NPRC) have been enjoined to pursue the age-long aspirations
of the Yoruba at the talks.

The admonition came from the pan-Yoruba group, Afenifere. Its National
Publicity, Secretary Mr. Yinka Odumakin said on Monday that the prevarication
over a common Yoruba agenda notwithstanding, the ethnic body had always sought
regionalism and parliamentarians, federal and state police and restructuring.

In a statement entitled “Reforms Conference: South West Delegates and Need
for Fidelity”, Odumakin said that the Yoruba agenda was in pursuit of equity in
the polity.

He said: “The Yoruba nation has been about the only one among the biggest
nationalities that has never questioned the corporate existence of Nigeria, not
even at the peak of the angst against the annulment of the June 12 (1993
presidential election presumably won by the late Chief M.K.O. Abiola).

“The Yoruba have never sought to dominate anybody and we only demand that no
one be encouraged by the structure of Nigeria to dominate us,” Odumakin said.

Were it not for “lack of fidelity to common cause, selfish considerations,
succumbing to blackmail, over pandering to the whims of a powerful individual
and excessive powering by some few ultra conservatives”, who rigged themselves
to power, Odumakin said arriving at a common Yoruba agenda would not have
elicited a series of meetings.

In spite of the “undemocratic manner” in which delegates were picked to the
conference, the Afenifere official remarked that there was still a presence of
dependable men and women from Yorubaland who could pursue the interests of South
West.

He, however, warned those who want to force a paradigm shift on behalf of the
Yoruba people to be aware of the consequences.

“Our admonition therefore is that a Representatives Assembly of Yoruba must
clear any agenda that departs from what the race has always stood for,” he
added.

Odumakin stressed the need to “redeem” the conference by allowing the
delegates to discuss all issues freely.

“We should not play the ostrich by pretending that the rest of the world is
not watching us. When we ere forging Electoral Act, manipulating the 2003
elections and calling arson and felony in Anambra, a ‘family affair’, we thought
others were not watching us. It was when our president was refused entry into
Togo that we realised that we had forfeited the moral right to prevent other
people from having their own ‘family affair’. Subsequent apology and stepping
down of Faure Eyadema notwithstanding, the point was sufficiently made to us.

“The very reason why Obasanjo is still organising a confab today is that all
the past conferences did not address the necessary issues. If this one goes the
way the convener wants, it must have been an exercise in futility and it can
only mean that the real conference would still come”, he said.

Defending the quest for regionalism, parliamentarians, state police and
restructuring, the Afenifere spokesman said the country witnessed a tremendous
growth in the First Republic when they were practised.

He said that it was trite knowledge that there is no one federal constitution
in the world apart from Nigeria whose police is an exclusive affair. “Also, if
the federating bodies have law making bodies, why must they not have the police
to enforce the laws?” he queried.