O’odua groups back Tinubu on Ekiti, Osun elections
The O’odua Nationalist Coalition, (ONAC) has expressed support for the warning issued by the former Lagos State Governor, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu who said that those planning to rig the elections in the twin states of Ekiti and Osun will be met with people’s resistance.
“Rig and roast is an old slogan of the people of the South West. It is our tradition to quickly roast those who want to bury our people alive. It is our cherished custom to tell vicious tyrants that appear deaf and dumb to our yearnings for a free and fair election that those who make peaceful change impossible make violent change inevitable”, the statement signed by Mr Popoola Ajayi , ONAC’s Director of Publicity stated.
ONAC said that PDP members in Osun and Ekiti have been boasting that their candidates will be declared winners even if they lose in the election, the same manner those candidates emerged in the PDP primaries. It added “We hear of threats of killings and murders. It comes to a stage in life that when the future of a people is at stake, such threats no longer matter, more so that the victory of such people will only visit greater destruction and death on our people.
ONAC said “We endorse the position of Senator Tinubu. On this issue, he spoke the mind of the generality of Yoruba people. It is our five thousand rich history to resist oppression and tyranny in all forms. Today’s Federal Government mirrors exactly the draconian regimes of the past that took the Yoruba people for granted to the peril of the entire Nigerian federation.’
It stated further that the South West has been quite but watchful, “not because we cannot react to the series of oppression our people have witnessed under the Federal might. We assure the Federal government that our people in Ekiti and Osun state will use all legitimate means to defend the gains of democracy no matter how little.’
The Pan-Yoruba group said that President Goodluck Jonathan, his wife and entire PDP leadership are desperate to win Osun and Ekiti, even if the people living in the two states no longer exist.
“This is a self-defeatist boast. It is empty, because no arsenal in any military formation is more than the will of a people. Our forefathers, our five thousand years of history, our resilience, our global networking and our unbroken spirit, will make the wicked agenda to impose rogues on Yoruba people fail woefully. We in the Yoruba movement think rigging the election in the two states has the potential of making the Presidential election impossible and we see any rigging as a crisis that may snowball into a national crisis.” The group said it was left for President Jonathan to decide whether he wants to rule over Yoruba people forcefully in his own terms or in the terms of our peoples’ freewill based on informed choice.”
ONAC can say authoritatively that our members played a crucial role far more than Mr President did in the campaign against repression of Ijaw people, Mr President’s kinsmen in the past 20 years adding that the Yoruba people are shocked that Mr President does not seem to understand the enormity of his party’s decision to foist disgraced and rejected people on the South West.
ONAC, which is a coalition of several Pan-Yoruba groups said though the current political parties have serious limitations in meeting the expectations of Yoruba people, but that the option left for the South West is not the imposition of murderers and rogues as office holders.
The group stated “the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) wants to plunge Nigeria into greater calamity under the direct supervision of President Goodluck Jonathan. The destruction of public trust in government in Northern Nigeria is partly responsible for hopelessness and anarchy in some parts of the country. The peace in the SouthWest is because the current political leaders enjoy some level of public trust. It is this same peace that Abuja wants to scuttle.”