Restructuring: Yoruba leaders threaten boycott of 2023 polls
Prominent Yoruba leaders have threatened to boycott the 2023 elections unless the country restructures.
The leaders also decried the state of the nation, saying, “The ship of state is veering off precariously into a precipice, and that Nigeria is at the very edge of a political subsidence.”
This was contained in the communiqué issued at the end of the meeting of the Yoruba Summit Group.
Yoruba leaders including Afenifere leader, Pa Reuben Fashoranti, Pa Ayo Adebanjo, President, Yoruba World Congress, Prof. Banji Akintoye, Aare Onakakanfo, Gani Adams, former Ondo Governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, Dr. Tokunbo Awolowo-Dosunmu, among others participated in the meeting.
In the communiqué signed by Mogaji Gboyega Adejumo, the leaders said, “We are persuaded that nothing short of restructuring can save this country. Any attempt to go ahead with elections in 2023 without addressing the issue of restructuring would spell doom for Nigeria.”
The group decried the lopsided appointment in the country and the state of insecurity.
The communiqué said: “The emerging resolve of the Yorubas not to be part of vassal state that Nigeria has become, is better managed with due accommodation before any further degeneration and obvious consequences. Our quest shall henceforth be to mobilise the masses of our peoples not to participate in any further elections until the goal of Restructuring or Selfdetermination is attained.
“Notwithstanding the interests of some elements in our midst, It would be presumptuous to assume that the masses of the educated Yoruba Nation will dive headlong into being part of the 2023 elections, when all elements of its execution - the Military, Paramilitary, INEC, the Judiciary have been rigged and appropriated by a single very tiny minority Ethnic Group in a small corner of the country.”
The leaders called the Muhammadu Buhari administration to take “confidence building steps” ahead of the 60th Anniversary of Nigeria as an independent Nation on October 1, 2020.
“Steps towards an urgent meeting of all nationalities have to be taken now to determine the nature of our relationships. Unless this peaceful step is heeded to, so that Nigeria heads in the right direction thereafter, the clear alternative would be for self-determination quests to proceed rapidly without any further restraint. It has become patently untenable for the Yoruba Nation to tolerate further incompetence and impunity as has been foisted on all other ethnic nationalities across Nigeria.”