Oodua Foundation, a think-tank
organization of academics and professionals with its headquarters in Delaware,
United States, has urged the international community to dissuade President
Jonathan from doing anything that would start a new area of major violence in
Southwestern Nigeria.
The Foundation made the plea on May
23 to the Chairman of the United States Senate Subcommittee on African Affairs,
Senator Chris Coons, Oodua said in a press statement on Monday.
“We hereby alert the world about the
beginning of a reign of violence in our Yoruba homeland in the Southwestern
Region of Nigeria. The attention of the
whole world has been focused on Nigeria since April because of the terrorist
organization, Boko Haram, its devastation of the Northeastern Region of
Nigeria, and particularly its abduction and enslavement of nearly 300
schoolgirls. Leading countries of the world are already engaged in helping
Nigeria to find and liberate the girls.”
It noted that while that horrible
situation was continuing in the Nigerian Northeast, an outbreak of violent
uprisings that could soon call for bigger interventions of the international
community was being provoked in the Southwest, drawing attention to last
Saturday’s violence at an APC political rally in which one person was reported
to have been killed.
“Ekiti State is part of our homeland
in Nigeria,” the group stressed. “We do not want to see any State become the
scene of great conflicts, killings and destruction, or the destination of
international peacekeeping forces. Whereas the Oodua Foundation is decidedly
non-partisan, it cannot afford to ignore any acts by any party that would
substitute the BULLET for the BALLOT in what is officially a democratic
dispensation.”
Text of the statement:
OODUA FOUNDATION
INTERNATIONAL HEADQUARTERS
1800 N. BROOM STREET
SUITE 109
WILMINGTON, DE. 19802
U. S. A.
PRESS RELEASE
JUNE 9, 2014
We, Oodua Foundation, are a
think-tank organization of academics and professionals from within the 45
million people of the Yoruba Nation of Southwestern Nigeria. We are resident in
countries across the world, and our headquarters is in the state of Delaware,
USA.
We hereby alert the world about the
beginning of a reign of violence in our Yoruba homeland in the Southwestern
Region of Nigeria. The attention of the whole world has been focused on Nigeria
since April because of the terrorist organization, Boko Haram, its devastations
of the Northeastern Region of Nigeria, and particularly its abduction and
enslavement of nearly 300 schoolgirls. Leading countries of the world are
already engaged in helping Nigeria to find and liberate the girls.
But even while this horrible
situation in the Nigerian Northeast continues, there is now being provoked in
the Southwestern Region of Nigeria an outbreak of violent uprisings that could
soon call for bigger interventions of the international community.
According to various reports, federal
Mobile Police shot teargas and guns into a large crowd of unarmed citizens who
were carrying on a peaceful rally for their political party, APC, in Ado-Ekiti,
capital city of Ekiti State, Saturday, June 7. One APC member is reported to
have died of a gunshot to the head, while some others were wounded, and some
vehicles were damaged.
The background to it all is that a
gubernatorial election is due in Ekiti State on June 21. APC is the main party
opposing President Jonathan’s party, PDP, in Ekiti State. The incumbent
governor, Kayode Fayemi, belongs to the APC. Fayemi had won the Ekiti
gubernatorial election in 2007, but had been declared the loser by the National
Electoral Commission, and the PDP candidate was declared winner. Fayemi fought
for three years in court and got the verdict reversed.
In recent months, Ekiti APC members
in particular and Ekiti citizenry, in general, have become extremely nervous
about stated PDP determination to use federal power again to rig this year’s
election. Recent changes in personnel of certain federal agencies (such as the
Electoral Commission and the federal police) follow the same pattern that had
facilitated the 2007 rigging. It is common knowledge that the Electoral
Commission and the Police commonly help to rig elections in various parts of
Nigeria for the benefit of the persons in control of the Federal Government.
Most Ekiti people fear that any attempt to rig the gubernatorial election this
time will cause far too much violence in their state. A similar situation
obtains next door in the state of Osun where another governor, Rauf Aregbesola,
who again eventually secured his electoral mandate through court actions, is
also up for reelection in August.
In the light of the growing
probability of violent conflicts in these states, we of Oodua Foundation issued
a statement urging President Jonathan to ensure that the elections will be
free, fair and peaceful. (A copy of the statement, which was advertised in
Nigerian newspapers, is attached to this Press Release).
A delegation of Oodua Foundation
visited the office of the Chairman of the United States Senate Subcommittee on
African Affairs, Senator Chris Coons, on May 23, 2014. The delegation raised
this matter among others, and urged that the international community should
dissuade President Jonathan from doing anything that would start a new area of
major violence ----- in Southwestern Nigeria.
The police attack on a citizens’
rally in Ado-Ekiti, and the killing of an Ado-Ekiti citizen, appear to have now
set the stage for the massive violence that we of Oodua Foundation had warned
against. But it is not too late for members of the international community to
persuade President Jonathan to change course and opt for free, fair and peaceful
election in Ekiti State, as well as elsewhere.
Ekiti State is part of our homeland
in Nigeria. We do not want to see any State become the scene of great
conflicts, killings and destruction, or the destination of international
peacekeeping forces. Whereas the Oodua Foundation is decidedly non-partisan, it
cannot afford to ignore any acts by any party that would substitute the BULLET
for the BALLOT in what is officially a democratic dispensation.
We insist that Yoruba politicians are
culturally able to compete decently and peacefully among themselves in any
election, and then rally around the winner for the good of their people. As in
other parts of Nigeria, the corrupt hands of the persons in control of the
Nigerian Federal Government are the hands that can generate crookedness and
violent conflicts in these coming elections, especially in Ekiti State. They should be stopped.