BY DAUD OLATUNJU
ABEOKUTA – FORMER Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, and presidential candidate of Alliance for Democracy, AD, in the 1999 election, Chief Olu Falae, Thursday, said Yoruba leaders should be blamed for the marginalisation of the region at the federal level.
This came as Yoruba leaders urged President Goodluck Jonathan to reverse the marginalistion of the Yoruba people. Falae spoke at the meeting of the Yoruba Unity Forum, YUF, held at the residence of the late sage, Obafemi Awolowo in Ikenne in Ogun State.
According to Falae, President Jonathan alone should not be blamed for the Yoruba humiliation, but, the people in the region over their disunity.
”The marginalisation of Yoruba we are talking about is a direct cause of disunity among the Yorubas. Efforts at reconciliation gave birth to Yoruba Unity Forum.
“Disunity has brought us humiliation; we have been humiliated because of our disunity. Politicians in other regions know the person to talk to for their ambition.
“They know that a man in Lagos can rubbish whatever we discuss here; the politicians will deal with them. This organisation grew out of efforts of reconciliation. A party controls five states but,did not get the desired recognition because of disunity.”
A communiqué at the end of the meeting, read by publicity Secretary of the Forum, Dr. Kunle Olajide,
appealed to aggrieved leaders in the region to embrace the forum for the development of Yoruba race.
The communiqué signed by Chief HID Awolowo and Rt. Rev. Bolanle Gbonigi, chairman and deputy chairman respectively of the forum, urged President Goodluck Jonathan to take urgent steps to reverse the marginalistion of the Yoruba people in the South West.
According to the Forum: “The Yoruba people are progressively being sidelined both in political appointments and placements in the ministries, government departments and other agencies of government. The YUF is particularly disturbed by the recent appointment made by the Presidency, which has further aggravated the marginalisation, as no Yoruba person was considered worthy of any of the appointments.”
Present at the meeting were mama HID Awolowo, former Minister of Mine and steel, Sarafa Ishola, Rev. Bolanle Gbonogi, Senator Anthony Adefuye, Senator Femi Okunrounmu, among others, while none of the past or present governors attended the meeting.
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