Yoruba leaders endorse Jonathan, insist on confab report implementation

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.