March 28 Is Yoruba Census
There is a peculiar mess going on in Yorubaland today that is galling but not totally shocking. It is the sheer opportunistic attempt by some people to misinform our people on the outcome of the 2014 National Conference.
In the worst face of cant and sophistry, these few delegates to the conference have resorted to blatant lies to sway the unwary from the path of freedom for a fluke change promised by Nigeria’s largest assembly of the greedy in the history of party politics.
When Goodluck Jonathan announced he was going to take the boldest decision by any leader of Nigeria since 1960, the naysayers said it was a “diversion” by the “clueless”. They didn’t reason that it takes a construction company that has got clues to “DIVERSION” sign when there is danger ahead of motorists.
By the time the conference took off, they said it was not going to work as the Convener lacks the will to see it through. They were shamed when the conference was successfully concluded with 623 resolutions all by consensus.
They quickly composed another silly song: Jonathan has no record of implementing any report and this would be no exception. They were she’llshocked when the Federal Executive Council on the 18th of March on a memorandum to it by Mr President approved the 2014 confab reports 100%. They became dazed. When they recovered from the stupor, there was no trick left in their bags except to resort to desperate lie to the effect that the conference report rejected the demands of the Yoruba nation. By telling such cheap lies, these people have shown themselves as unworthy men who cannot be trusted by our people for falsifying the truth before our very eyes.
I assert with all sense of responsibility that contrary to the propaganda of APC and its allies, the Confab adopted all the issues Yoruba delegates took to the conference, either in full or in part.
We went to the conference with a demand that Local Governments should no longer be a federal issue but a residual matter for states to determine their numbers, funding and operations. The conference approved this and what it means is that the lopsided creation of LGs would no longer be a basis for sharing revenue.
One of our major demands is the need for multi-level policing as obtains in every proper federation. This was accepted by the conference to redress the challenges of a unified police.
The conference substantially devolved powers to the Federating units by altering the revenue sharing formula with 58% to the states and 42 % to the centre, taking items like railways, solid minerals, electricity, airports etc away from the exclusive list to the concurrent list with each state having its constitution. In deepening our federalism, the conference recommended parity of states in each of the six geopolitical zones and rotation of the presidency among them.
The two items Yoruba took to the conference that were not taken in full were p a rl i ament a r i ani s m and regionalism but we achieved them in parts. The conference accepted a hybrid form of parliamentary and presidential system. It also gave rights to states to merge or demerge with conditions precedent.
The full recommendations are available at :ww w.2014nationalconference report.com.
These are what we have pursued within Nigeria for over 60 years and the neo-Afonjas want us to turn our backs on them at a time they are within our reach.
Senator Tony Adefuye, who was striped naked by Yoruba youth in 1998 at MKO’s funeral for his perfidy in the Abacha years, is among these Afonjas and he has said that only “Yoruba bastards” will vote for autonomy which Jonathan has committed to with the conference reports.
Yoruba people will line up on March 28 to make their choice and the postmortem would show the corner where “Yoruba bastards” are herded. Just reminds me of the late Orlando Owoh’s lines: “e je ka se census, ka mo mo ale ka mo Omo Oko (let’s have a census to determine bastards and the freeborn”. Our census cometh!
