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2023: Yoruba Groups Plan To Vote Pro-Restructuring Candidate
A coalition of 57 Yoruba groups has vowed to ensure that the 2023 presidential election produces a candidate that will restructure the country and resolve “the lingering national question”.
A coalition of 57 Yoruba groups has vowed to ensure that the 2023 presidential election produces a candidate that will restructure the country and resolve “the lingering national question”.
In a communique co-signed by Sunday Akinnuoye, Femi Agbana, and Ganiat Toriola, its representatives, the coalition said the forthcoming presidential election must produce a pro-restructuring candidate or the country risks an uprising.
The groups said political parties should know that the coming election will be different and will not be about the All Progressives Congress (APC) or the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) but about the people.
It added that it will take over the process and the campaign to ensure the will of the people triumph in the entire Yoruba region.
“We want this election to be different. The campaign will not be by money bags but by the masses, from home to home, street to street and valleys to mountains. Our people will speak with one voice this time” the groups said.
“We shall ensure this does not happen. The Yoruba people must decide their presidential candidate and work genuinely for him.”
“We wish to see the national question resolved immediately before the next election, but given the balance of strength, the presidential election may still hold without the country addressing the critical issue of self-determination.
“If this happens, Yorubaland will rise up to mobilise for any candidate that genuinely wants to restructure Nigeria in the first six months of the post-Mohammed Buhari era.
“We are meeting with other nationalities across Nigeria and the human rights community. We do not want the next election to be determined by the oppressors, but by the oppressed, not by the slave owners but by the enslaved with a new defiant spirit of resistance against an unjust system.”
“We have studied what happened in Latin America and in Europe lately. The people rose up and voted according to their conscience. They voted for their true representative. This seldom happens in Nigeria but in 2023, there will be a radical change. The people will speak and the world will hear them loud and clear. If a popular election is annulled or the candidate delisted, the resistance will be more than June 12,” it added.
“We have resolved to ensure only one credible Yoruba candidate emerges, a decent person that we can hold to his or her words, a responsible family man who fears God and respects the people, a candidate that is of high moral standing who is genuinely committed to resolving the knotty national question.”
Some representatives of the coalition include Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC), Oodua Nationalist Coalition (ONAC), Agbekoya, South West Students Coalition (SWSC), Oodua Muslim-Christian Youth Dialogue (OMCYD), Oodua Liberation Movement (OLM), Apapo Oodua Koya (AOKOYA), Oodua Self Determination Alliance, (OSDA), Itsekiri Salvation Front (ISF), Network of South West Vigilante, (NSWV), Oodua Hunters Union, (OHUN).
Former lawmaker, Senator Shehu Sani, has described the planned increase in electricity and telecom tariffs as unconscionable.
The statement comes after the telecoms regulator last week approved the increase in mobile tariffs.
The federal government also recently said that plans were ongoing to increase electricity tariffs “over the next few months.”
However, Sani, who said the government’s plan is unreasonable, insisted that it should be halted.
The ex-lawmaker also expressed his support for the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) over the scheduled protest against the government’s proposal, calling it a welcome development.
“The planned increase in electricity tariffs in the midst of poor power supply and the proposal to increase telecom tariffs is unconscionable and should be halted. The scheduled labour union protest is a welcome development,” he posted on X.
The United States President, Donald Trump, has revealed his decision to cut off all future funding to South Africa, citing poor treatment of “certain classes of people.”
Trump made this known on Sunday in a post on Truth Social, his social media platform.
According to Trump, South Africa was seizing land and mistreating some citizens without concern for the violations of their rights.
“South Africa is confiscating land and treating certain classes of people VERY BADLY.
“I will be cutting off all future funding to South Africa until a full investigation of this situation has been completed!” Trump wrote.
Reports suggest that the American leader may be defending White South Africans, some of whom have alleged that the South African policy is unfair to them.
There are indications that the federal government will on Monday meet with the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, to stop the planned Tuesday nationwide protest against the 50 percent telecommunications tariff hike.
A reliable source familiar with the matter, who preferred anonymity, disclosed this on Monday morning, noting that the meeting between the NLC leadership and the federal government is scheduled for 5 p.m. on Monday.
The source said the meeting was a “dialogue on matters of national interest as it affects Nigerian workers.”
According to the source, it will be an inter-ministerial meeting with the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), purposely to resolve issues raised by the NLC concerning the federal government’s approved upward adjustment to telecommunications tariffs, which the NLC, its allies, and others are vehemently opposing.
This comes as the NLC is already mobilizing workers for a mass protest tomorrow (February 4) against the 50 percent tariff hike approval.
On Thursday last week, in a letter to affiliate unions and state councils, NLC General Secretary Emma Ugboaja urged them to mobilize other Nigerians to send a serious message to the government.
The planned protest follows the 50 percent telecom tariff approval by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) on January 20, 2025.
The approval had sparked widespread rejection among telecom subscribers.
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