2023 Elections: Yoruba Council Of Elders Declares Support For Tinubu

A socio-cultural group of Yoruba elders under the auspices of the Yoruba Council of Elders (YCE), has thrown its weight behind the presidential ambition of the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu.

The Council disclosed that it arrived at the decision after a special executive session which held over the weekend.

In a statement signed by the Secretary General, Chief Oladipo Oyewole, the Council said it is convinced that Tinubu’s track record as a former governor of Lagos State, his detribalised disposition, his resourceful capacity to manage well and his love for humanity, stand him in good stead to lift Nigeria from the precipice in which it had been dangling.

While expressing what it described as “full understanding” of the changed atmosphere surrounding the scarcity of fuel and currency swap, the YCE called on all for restraint and more patience to allow the Federal Government resolve the problem, as promised by President Muhammadu Buhari.

The statement reads in part: “Rising from a special Executive Session on 1st Feb. 2023, the Yoruba Council of Elders described the reluctant effect of current fuel scarcity and currency swap across the nation as excruciating and unbearable for the entire citizens of Nigeria at home.

“The elders are watching the continued development with concern and expect government to be more proactive in speedily resolving those serious issues in the interest of the Nigerian populace and not to, in any way, mar the fast approaching general elections.

“The Council is also worried about the ethnic colouration being introduced into presidential electioneering. The Elders believe that it is unethical and dangerous for the zoning arrangement long in use by politicians for ethnic balancing among the diverse entities constituting Nigeria to be continuously manipulated by any group at its whims and caprices.

“In the opinion of the elders, only an experienced, well tested, courageous and generally acceptable Nigeria citizen can halt the seeming drift into disintegration which the country has been drifting for the past years.

“Yoruba Council of Elders assert that the Yoruba, as a major stakeholder in the Nigeria enterprise, should not be pushed aside in the politics of the nation, noting that the phenomenon of foisting unprepared, weak and incompetent leaders on hapless Nigerians through the constant machinations of inveterate yoruba ill-wishers will not be tolerated ever again.”

Olusola Akintonde