The Yoruba Standpoint, a South West summit on restructuring, held Thursday at Lekan Salami Stadium, Adamasingba, Ibadan, the capital of Oyo State.
The summit had in attendance prominent political, traditional, religious and professional Yoruba leaders. It also had in attendance some representatives from the South-South and South East invited to participate, with the North visibly absent from deliberate exclusion by the organizers.
Some of the foremost participants include, Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose and the Ooni of Ife, Oba Enitan Ogunwusi.
Others are, Aare Afe Babalola, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, Chief Olu Falae, Dr. Olu Olajide, Chief Reuben Fasoranti, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, Dr Olusegun Mimiko, and Dr Tokunbo Ajasin.
The summit also featured Prof. Tunde Adeniran, Senator Babafemi Ojudu, Yinka Odumakin, Chief Osinbogun, Otunba Gani Adams, Chief Ade Ojo, Sen Ike Nwachukwu, and Chief John Nwodo.
Curiously, All Progressives Congress (APC) Governors in the region, including the Governor of Oyo State, Abiola Ajimobi, and prominent leaders of Yoruba extraction were missing.
Recall that the summit which was announced on September 3 by the secretary of the planning committee, Yinka Odumakin, had been said to represent a strategic effort towards unifying the zone on the important issue of restructuring regardless of party affiliation.
Odumakin had also stated that the north was not included in its special invitation to non-South West leaders because it had not gotten invitation from the region in the past.
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He had said that invitation was specifically sent to all Yoruba-speaking areas in the country and other zones like the South East and South-South.
The Afinifere chieftain had revealed that invitations had gone out to the six state governors, National Assembly members, elders, opinion leaders and groups.
He said, “Massive Mobilisation has commenced in Yoruba-speaking areas of Nigeria with our governors, National Assembly members, opinion leaders, various groups, individuals and the rest of them. We have commenced this process to ensure we have an all-inclusive summit where all opinions will be represented and since we are talking about Yoruba affirming its joint position on the most popular issue in Nigeria today, which is restructuring of the polity, the Yoruba summit is across board”.
Odumakin revealed that, “aside from Yoruba within the South west, we have also extended invitation to Ohanaeze Ndigbo, we have also invited PANDEF to come and show solidarity with us at the summit.
He said the North was left out because, “we have not received any invitation from the north in the past”.
“The major goal of the Yoruba summit is to articulate our position, unify our thoughts on the restructuring debate so that henceforth, we will have a position of the Yoruba and all groups and individual shall speak from the same page. That is the goal of the summit.
“Our expectation is to have a robust gathering where issues will be articulated, a position taken and from there, we will negotiate with other regions in the country”, Odumakin concluded.
Some analysts will not be surprised by the exclusion of the North from the summit, as they would argue that historically, it had been the region opposed to the restructuring of the country because of perceived threat to its interests should Nigeria be restructured.
The summit was attended by Yoruba people from the six south-west states as well as from Kwara and Kogi states.
A communique issued at the end of the deliberations, recalled with nostalgia, “the great strides made by the Yoruba nation in the years of self-government up until the abrogation of the federal constitution in 1966 evident in mass literacy, novel infrastructural strides and giant leaps in all spheres of human development”.
It also noted that “the crisis of over-centralization has led to mass misery across the country with poverty levels at 72%, unemployment rate at 65% internal immigration and internal displacement, security threat in form of Boko Haram, herdsmen and organized crime”.
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The summit also lamented that Nigeria is careering dangerously to the
