‘No Gov Has Replicated Awo’s Achievements’

The coordinator of Afenifere Renewal Group, ARG, USA chapter, Taiwo Oladotun Ogunleye has said that no governor in southwest Nigeria has measured up to the performance of the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, since the country returned to democracy in 1999.

Ogunleye said this during a chat with Political Platform on the group’s forthcoming lecture tagged: “Fostering Regional Cooperation and Integration in Southwest Geopolitical Zone”, a follow up to the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria, DAWN, slated for Hotel St. Regis, 3071 West Grand Blud, Detroit, Michigan, USA, on 17 November.

“If you look at the time of our father, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, till today, no Yoruba governor has measured up to his standard in the Southwest. It is a legacy that all Yoruba men should follow. But what are we doing now? Our leaders have become part of the old fraudulent nation.

“In Yoruba land, if a child comes home with a new cloth, his/her parent will beat such child and ask where he/she got it from. But these days, nobody asks questions from their children. Today, we are going to the level of a failed Southwest because of a bad leadership that was brought from other parts of the country,” he said.

The lecture, according to him, is to carry Yoruba in diaspora, particularly in America, along in what the parent body is doing in Nigeria.

“The essence of that lecture is to carry Yoruba nation abroad along on the ideas of Chief Obafemi Awolowo on why good governance, service to humanity and working for the people is the right way in governance.

“It is also to see how the Yoruba nation can work together to achieve a common goal in terms of security, youth employment and provision of social amenities for the people.

“If you can recollect, our parent body, the Afenifere Renewal Group, ARG, Nigeria, launched what is called Development Agenda for Western Nigeria, DAWN. Ours is a follow up to carry Yoruba in the diaspora, particularly in the United States, along in what our parent body is doing. The lecture is on regional cooperation and integration in the Southwest.”