LET me be clear from the outset. Bola Ahmed Tinubu, former governor of Lagos State and a leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, is constitutionally eligible to run for president of Nigeria. Eligibility, however, does not mean suitability. But that’s a subject for future columns if he formally decides to run for president in 2023. Of immediate interest, however, is the big falsehood being peddled by those fronting the campaign for his yet-undeclared presidential ambition.
Falsehood? Yes, because under the banner of SWAGA, acronym for “South-West Agenda for Asiwaju”, Tinubu’s acolytes are touring the length and breadth of the South-West, telling Yoruba leaders and traditional rulers that a Tinubu presidency would advance the collective interests of the Yoruba, or the South-West agenda.
To be sure, the South-West agenda is the Yoruba’s long-standing call for political restructuring.
From demand for sovereign national conference under President Olusegun Obasanjo and advocacy for national conference under President Goodluck Jonathan to current clamour for restructuring under President Muhammadu Buhari, the Yoruba have been at the forefront of agitations for restructuring, for genuine federalism.
For the Yoruba, restructuring is an article of faith, a desideratum. They clamour for regional autonomy within a federal structure to allow their region to develop at its own pace, as it once did under self-rule when Chief Obafemi Awolowo laid the foundations for its prosperity.
That goal is bigger than, and transcends, the personal ambition of any individual, especially an individual that lacks strong commitment to the agenda. And truth is, Tinubu pays no more than lip service to restructuring, treating the issue as a political football.
In 2014,Tinubu rallied his party, APC, in strong opposition to the Jonathan administration’s national conference. The APC later rejected the conference report, widely believed to be capable, if fully implemented, of moving Nigeria closer to genuine federalism.
Restructuring requires both political and elite consensus. Thus, once APC, then government-in-waiting, opportunistically rejected the Jonathan national conference, its report was dead in the water!
Source: Vanguardngr.com
Okay
Hmmm