Facts are emerging on why prominent Yoruba leaders have vowed not to vote for the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), General Mohammadu Buhari (rtd.), in the March 28 presidential elections.
Prominent Yoruba leaders and groups, including the two factions of the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPF), the Afenifere Renewal Group and individual Yoruba leaders have sent in a flurry of support and endorsement of the candidature of incumbent President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)
Sources close to the pan-Yoruba cultural group, Afenifere, have blamed the leader of the APC, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, for the woes that befell the South-West region in the present administration, especially as it concerns the loss of the Speakership of the House of Representatives.
One of the sources claimed it was Asiwaju Bola Tinubu that sponsored current Speaker, Aminu Bello Tambuwal, against the only Yoruba candidate to the post, Mrs. Mulikat Akande.
“The truth is that it was Tinubu’s backing of Tambuwal that eventually tipped the scale against the Yoruba nation. Because of that, the Yorubas are nowhere in the pecking order of this government. We are not the president, we are not the vice, we are not in the Senate and we are not in the House of Representatives. How do we support someone so selfish that he has to sell the privileges of the Yoruba nation to outsiders?” the source, who does not want to be named, said.
He went on to list other alleged sins of Tinubu and was certain that no Yoruba person worth his heritage would support anything projected by the man that is also popularly called the Jagaban.
According to the source, “The truth is that Tinubu has practically usurped the economy of Yoruba’s richest state. As we speak, the economy of Lagos is Tinubu and Tinubu is the economy of Lagos. We believe in equity and fairness and we are convinced Tinubu does not represent this.”
The source added that the position of Prof. Yemi Osinbajo as vice presidential candidate of the APC would have been attractive enough to draw the Yoruba around the party, but argued that “the role played by Osinbajo in the usurpation of the Lagos economy and by extension all other APC-controlled states in the South-West makes this a difficult nut to swallow.”
“We are aware that Prof. Osinbajo has played a critical role in making Tinubu one of the richest Nigerians today,” the source said, adding: “As a lawyer, Osinbajo is a director in all companies directly or remotely linked to Tinubu. Even where you do not find Tinubu’s name on the board list, Osinbajo’s name would be there. This suggests that the APC vice presidential candidate is man that does the dirty money jobs for Asiwaju. If through him the economies of Lagos and some other Yoruba states have been taken over by one man, it therefore follows that as Vice President, the entire country may be heading in the same direction.
“Tinubu is a selfish man. Remember that after riding on the support of Afenifere and NADECO (National Democratic Coalition) to become governor of Lagos in 1999, the very first assignment he did after assuming office was to attempt to destroy our cultural group in order to make himself the undisputed leader of the Yoruba nation.”
On how they are working to ensure he is stopped this time around, the source said Afenifere and OPC are working together and sensitising the people to ensure that President Goodluck Jonathan comes of victorious in the region and in other parts of the country.
