2015: Group urges Yoruba to join presidential race, favours Gen Akinrinade

Determined to pursue the restructuring of Nigeria in 2015, a group in the South-west, O’Odua Nationalist Coalition (ONAC) has enjoined Yoruba leaders not to ‘siddon look’ as the race for 2015 presidential election gathers momentum by the day.
In a statement signed by its Assistant Publicity Secretary, Mr Ayoola Ajayi, the Coalition urged the leaders to put forward a credible candidate like General Alani Akinrinade to vie for the presidency with the ultimate aim of effecting the restructuring of the country.
According to Ajayi, the group believes “Elections are short-term solutions while restructuring of the country offers an enduring solution to the contradictions of Nigeria, a country that continues to stifle the populace”.
He stated further that the current move of alliances of political forces in Yorubaland will make meaning if only it will halt the continuation of what he described as “Nigeria’s garrison” structure, and not to substitute one iron hand with another iron hand in silk clothing.
The group recalled that never has history produced any meaningful alliance between the Hausa-Fulani North and the Yoruba nation, saying that the greatest thinker in Yoruba land, Pa Awolowo did not at any time attempt an alliance with the largely reactionary and feudalistic North.
“The alliance of the Yoruba people should be with progressive and pro-restructuring forces in the middle-belt, the South-South and the South-East. The Hausa-Fulani North will forever repel any attempt to restructure Nigeria. Our alliance should not be with feudalists. Any alliance with the Taliban will be ferociously repelled by the Yoruba population. ONAC will embark on a house-to house campaign against the ‘Talibanisation’ of the South West, the group stated.”
Ajayi also said that “more than any time before now, Yoruba people must speak up and ensure the race is not sacrificed on the altar of Northern political interests. We urge Yoruba people to work towards producing a presidential candidate of Yoruba origin. That is the best we can trust.
“The agenda of the candidate should be the restructuring of the country, resource control and self determination. We do not see how an alliance of the Yoruba people with the Fulani North which has inherited and misused power since 1804 will address the fundamental problems facing the Yoruba nation. The agitation among most of Yoruba people is that they are tired of Nigeria.
“Any political party that canvasses votes based on the principle of self- determination in Yorubaland, the Middle-Belt, South-South and the South East will be speaking the language of the people. Anyone still talking of a united, indivisible Nigeria to the ears of many Yoruba people is not in tune with the hues and cries of the people of the South West,” ONAC said.
The group also cautioned people of the Niger-Delta against the consequences of supporting a Presidential candidate based on sentiment. It said in the Niger-Delta, the campaign for President Goodluck Jonathan’s emergence in 2015 has blindfolded the genuine crusade for resource control and redistribution of oil of which 83 percent of the oil wells are controlled by the Hausa-Fulani North.
“One of the greatest tragedies in history is that our brothers in the Niger-Delta who we have worked together over the years to present a common agenda of resource control today see the emergence of President Jonathan in 2015 as the beginning and end of all their calamities without a critical thinking about what will happen to the Ijaw nation after the next six years assuming the President wins the next election at all cost”, ONAC stated.