Eminent Yoruba leaders meet President Goodluck Jonathan with a list of their people grievances which include poor representation in the federal administration

President Goodluck  Jonathan, last Wednesday, played host to 22 eminent Yoruba leaders in the Presidential Villa,   Abuja. Those on the trip included Olu Falae, former finance minister, General Oladipo Diya, former chief of general staff, Jimoh Ibrahim, group managing director of Global Fleet, and Emmanuel Bolanle Gbonigi, retired bishop of the Akure diocese of the Anglican Communion. They had paid an official visit to the president with a demand for an urgent national dialogue aimed at the restructuring of Nigeria in the collective interest of all ethnic nationalities in the country.

 In an address presented on behalf of the delegation, Gbonigi told President Jonathan that such a national dialogue was necessary so that citizens of the country could make input into a new constitution that would be responsive to the character of the Nigerian nation. He said the 1999 Constitution was an imposition on the citizens by the military and it was beyond what the legislature could amend because of the fundamental and extensive issues that bother the citizens. “The vast majority of our people are demanding for a new constitution which will be of their own making. The changes required cannot be made only through the legislature because of the fundamental issues involved. The people need an opportunity to sit together at a conference and of their own accord, reach a consensus on the terms of their union as one indivisible country. They want to work out an arrangement which will make their diversity a source of strength rather than continuing in a forced unity that promotes distrust and mutual antagonisms,” he said.

The group advised the president to intensify efforts in the fight against corruption. It wants the government to struggle to win the anti-graft war, for by so doing, the cost of running government could be reduced. 

Some of their requests were the downsizing of government, eliminate wastages, embrace strong and efficient fight against corruption and immediately fix the rots in the educational sector of the country.

The group commended the on going move by President Jonathan to transform Nigeria, but protested the marginalisation of the race in the mainstream of the nation’s polity. They recalled that the Yorubas gave the president unalloyed support during the 2011 presidential election and how they now seem to have been completely shunted off the mainstream of powers in the Nigerian polity. “We are extremely unhappy that there are a very few Yoruba of note in key positions in the Presidency and the upper cadres of career and political appointments, including the leadership of the Yoruba in the judiciary, the key parastatals of education, the Nigeria Television Authority, NTA, the police and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC. We are dismayed by the dilapidated and neglected conditions of major infrastructure in the Yoruba area of the country, especially the federal roads. Our captains of industry are especially aggrieved by the blatant, unapologetic suppression of Yoruba business interests and the near-total absence of the Yoruba in the key business regulatory agencies. Mr. President, the above are some of the areas in which the Yoruba expect and demand your prompt intervention,” the eminent leaders stated.