Twenty six pan-Yoruba groups on Wednesday in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, adopted the Governor of Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi and his Osun State counterpart, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, for the gubernatorial elections scheduled for next year in their states.
The groups, under the aegis of O’odua Nationalist Coalition, said the adoption was informed by the need to protect the “integrity of the Yoruba nation and prevent a decline of the growing public trust in governance at a critical moment in the race’s history.”
ONAC is a coalition of several Yoruba and Itsekiri cultural and political groups.
The group said it has “unprecedented stake” in the elections of the two states, adding that the two states’ elections will determine whether “repression, gangsterism and despotism that have been expunged across Yorubaland will return or be finally vanquished.”
ONAC said the adoption came on the heels of the group’s plan for the O’odua Millennium Youth Summit scheduled for early February.
The groups’ meeting, which began sundown on Tuesday, ended at dawn on Wednesday in Ibadan, regarded as the political capital of the Yoruba nation.
Over 200 delegates from across the South West states attended the all night meeting.
In the communiqué issued at the end of the event and signed by the 26 groups, including the O’odua People’s Congress, O’odua Liberation Movement, Oodua Students Coalition, Yoruba Farmers and Artisan Movement, the Covenant Group, the Pro-National Conference Organisations, (PRONACO-South West), Yoruba Federalist Coalition and 20 others, the groups said the adoption will strengthen democracy and ensure sustainable development in the South West region.
The communiqué was read by Mr Akinwunmi Adebola, a lawyer.
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