FORMER Interim National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Chief Bisi Akande has accused some ‘selfish and greedy’ Yoruba leaders of being responsible for the retrogression and underdevelopment that the Yoruba race is currently witnessing. Chief Bisi Akande Akande noted some South West leaders, in military uniforms, collaborated with the north to destabilise the Yoruba political strength, marginalise its people and expropriate their common patrimonies like University of Ife, the western Nigerian Television (WNTV) and the Liberty Stadium. The former governor of Osun State spoke weekend, at the unveiling of Karele Oodua Logo and Investiture of Karele Oodua Ambassadors organized by the Ministry of Home Affairs, Culture and Tourism in the State. Karele Oodua is a pilgrimage-like initiative aimed at getting Yoruba people in Diaspora to return to their ancestral land to learn, understand and see what the African Traditional Religion encapsulates. Akande noted that the selfish Yoruba leaders also took part in annulling the June 12, 1993 Presidential election won by Chief MKO Abiola to take him out Nigeria’s presidency. He said: “After the independence, for reasons of rank promotions, our leaders in military uniforms collaborated with the north to destabilize our political strength, to marginalize our people, to expropriate our patrimonies like the University of Ife, the western Nigerian television, the Liberty Stadium and to hound our elites and youths into graves and into exile for another layers of Yoruba in Diaspora. “They assisted in annulling Abiola’s election. Since the beginning of this Republic, the same leaders, for reasons of greed and self aggrandizement, cringed to the north and the East for political influence to continue to depress and degrade the authentic aspirations of the Yoruba people with a sermon that the Yoruba should join the mainstream politics of Nigeria. “The consequences of all these corrupt actions of our Yoruba leaders in collaboration with other greedy and corrupt Nigerian leaders is the total crash of the Nigerian economy which gave rise to the present urban and rural slums and infrastructural decay together with its accompanied various criminals ravaging our society today. “The emphases of the economic destructions have resulted in more migration of most Nigerian Youths into most ugly exile to the Diaspora since the beginning of this century. Each community has its criminals.” “It is a fraudulent and ungodly tradition to join the corrupt North and East of Nigeria in throwing Nigeria into an economic perdition and begin to call on those of us who are innocent to give chorus to your songs in blaming the criminal consequences on a particular religion or ethnicity.”
