Yoruba Leaders Have Failed Their People

Participants at the summit on Yoruba Development Agenda held yesterday in Ibadan, capital  of Oyo State, submitted that current leaders of the Yoruba race had failed their people.

Among those who held this view were: the Osun State 2007 governorship candidate under  Action Congress (AC), Engineer Rauf Aregbesola, and his counterpart in Oyo State, Senator  Isiaka Ajimobi; former Commissioner of Health in Osun State, Lai Oyeduntan; an astute  politician and business mogul, Barrister Bisi Adegbuyi, Dr. Femi Obayori, Mrs. Gladys  Ogunleye and Gbolahan Lawal.

Aregbesola condemned the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP)-led government in the South  West, stressing that PDP is a curse to the South West region.

According to him, PDP government had brought more calamities to the South West than  imagined before their advent, pointing out that it is suicidal working with the PDP  government in any part of the nation.

His words: “PDP is a party of thieves. Our woes in the South West is that PDP is ruling  us. Since PDP came into power, there has been no peace, poverty has tremendously  increased, no infrastructure, bad roads are everywhere because they will not construct  roads and the one they construct are substandard.

“Obasanjo’s administration was not a blessing to the West because his administration made  us to lose control of power and value in our region.”

All the speakers who took turn to speak opined that for the Yoruba race to regain its  lost glory, it has to pay attention to qualitative education, health, good governance,  provision of infrastructure and security.

Delivering a keynote address, on the theme of the summit, “Yoruba Value: A  re-awakening-Agenda for 2011 and beyond”, a USA-based scholar, Dr. Wale Adebanwi,  advocated for a revolution as the only way out of the nation’s logjam, adding that all  hopes were lost for things to ordinarily improve.

Adebanwi said: “All the indications of hope are virtually absent; there is absence of  national leadership, the National Assembly carries on as if we are in the 1970s when we  were awash with petro-dollars with hardly anything to do with it. Most political parties  operate less efficienly than the boys scout movement. Many banks operate like organized  crime syndicates. Most of those who have several issues with the law and ought to be in  jail are the ones making laws in our legislative houses and signing them in the  government houses.”

He urged the Yoruba race especially the leaders to come together and work as a team  irrespective of their political affiliations.

“All these must be at the back of our mind as we deliberate today on what is to be done.  We cannot rescue Yorubaland in isolation. We need to dig into Yoruba theories of power  and social relations to understand this and proceed from the cultural wisdom at our  disposal.”

—Gbenro Adesina/Ibadan