…‘It’s A Shame You Kept Quite On Fulani Killings”
The Governors of the South West States cannot in all sense of responsibility speak for the over 80 million Yoruba people all over the world, a Pan Yoruba group said on Monday. AOKOYA said the Sunday resolution opposing Yoruba Republic was not unexpected given the narrow self-serving prism the governors view the future of their people having secured leadership through vote buying and other fraudulent practices.
AOKOYA said the resolution of the Governors promotes the destructive and parasitic interests of Fulani hegemony that is bent on vanishing the Yoruba Nation. The group said it is a shame that the resolution was criminally silent on the killings, abduction and the takeover of Yoruba territories by armed Fulani bandits.
“It is appalling that the Governors who claim to be representing Yoruba people made this empty and anti-people resolution in the Month of May, exactly 34 years after the death of Chief Obafemi Awolowo. The Governors did consult the people they govern before claiming to speak for the same people. Not even members of their Houses of Assembly were contacted. They spoke for themselves and not for Yoruba Nation.”
On Sunday Yoruba state governors expressed opposition to the clamour for O’odua Republic. Apapo O’odua Koya, (AOKOYA) a coalition of several pan Yoruba groups said the governors are representing their selfish political and economic interests and not the wish to majority of Yoruba people.
‘You are Governors of All Progressives Congress, (APC) not Yoruba Governors. You represent Mohammadu Buhari’s political party, not a party of the Yoruba people. Your mandate and that of Buhari is the same. That mandate is anti-Yoruba in content and form”, AOKOYA said.
AOKOYA said the Governors have a poor understanding of the realities, the fears, and the objective situation in the territories they claim to govern. The group said the demand for Yoruba self-determination is not expected to be supported by the primary beneficiaries of a rogue state.
AOKOYA said the current generation of Yoruba Governors lead without ideas and are surrounded by largely criminal aides who lack innovation and are driven by self-interest with the exception of a few.
‘The Governors know they will no longer collect illicit funds like security votes which they do not account for. The Lagos Governor alone collects N2billion security votes every year which he does not account for. They live in a whole city, free food, free electricity, free housing, about 24 vehicles, free medicare for them and their families all for presiding over the misery and agony of the people they continue to impoverish,” AOKOYA in a statement signed by its official, Col Abimbola Sowumi (rtd) said. The group said the Governors and their family members enjoy police escort and in their tinted cars, will never appreciate the irreversible momentum of the clamour for Oduduwa Republic.
AOKOYA said since 1999, about 20 years, all the six South West Governors put together have not been able to achieve what Chief Awolowo achieved in seven years. “There is no industry established by any one of them since 1999 that employs up to 500 people except in their private business set up with public funds but for private profit. None of the states has a common cassava or vegetable farm. All they do is to prepare budgets every year with insignificant impact on the masses.”
AOKOYA said the Governors sustain their rule through force, bribery and disbursement of crumbs to loyalists adding that ‘none of them can walk on the streets without heavy police protection the way other democratic leaders like the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo or the Governors of the defunct Unity Party of Nigeria, (UPN) walked on the streets in their dominion.
“The governors bought their votes. They did not secure legitimate votes of the Yoruba people. Every vote obtained was through brazen corruption. Every vote was bought with cash between N2000 to N5000. It shows how their mandate was secure through fraud and day light robbery”, Sowumi said. He added that none of the state governors scored 20 percent of the registered voters in their states whereas, not a single one enjoys the mandate of 10 per cent of the population in their states. “You are men of the trash bin of history. You will soon be irrelevant in the history of Yoruba people as you have chosen to stand against the popular will of your own people.’
Source: Press Statement May 24, 2021
