The Aare Onakakanfo of Yoruba land, Otunba Gani Adams, has said that the Yoruba nation needs to adopt a new paradigm shift towards restructuring.
Speaking at a two-day Summit and interactive session of the Ooodua Progressive Union (OPU) in Hamburg Germany, Gani Adams said, “As the 2019 general elections draw nearer, there is the need for the Yoruba to adopt a new paradigm shift,” he said.
Read the full communique below
The summit notes that:
1. Yoruba Culture and Tradition, dating back to centuries, must never be desecrated on the premise of modernisation.
2. The summit condemns any Yoruba who refers to himself as an Oba in Diaspora. Any Yoruba can be leader of Yoruba organisation, group or association but it is against Yoruba Culture to refer to yourself as Oba in Diaspora. Our traditional institution is sacred and we won’t allow anybody tarnish our image. We urge Yoruba Obas to condemn this in its entirety.
On the urgent need to restructure Nigeria, the summit notes:
3. Restructuring simply means reorganisation, not disintegration
4. Nigeria, as a sovereign country blessed with human and natural resources, should be a first-class state in the comity of nations
5. Nigeria, as the most-populous black nation, should be leading the crusade for restructuring globally
6. Recent inventions globally have clearly shown that restructuring is the only way out of the crisis in Nigeria
7. For years, patriotic Nigerians have been agitating for restructuring but a few elements in the society are against this for selfish reasons
8. Those calling for restructuring should not be seen as enemies of state but as partners in progress.
9. Whether now or later, restructuring is a must if the country must move forward
10. APC is the ruling party in the country and it must fulfil one of its promises – restructuring – which it made before it got into office in 2015
11. Diversification is another name for restructuring which should be implemented immediately
12. This is due to the fact that many countries will change from petrol/diesel vehicles to electric-only vehicles soon
13. The big question our leaders should answer is: when this happens, what happens to our oil?
14. When majority of countries in the Western world have no need to buy our oil, how will governors, who send their Finance Commissioners to Abuja every month, pay salaries?
15. Those kicking against the idea of restructuring should be seen as enemies of the country.
16. Governance in Nigeria – security, monetary policy, resources, education, infrastructure, etc – must be decentralised for Nigerians to have a sense of belonging.
17. If this is not done soon, there will be no justice, equity and fairness in the polity and it will continue to lead to resistance.
18. Nigeria cannot afford to isolate itself from the rest of the world in upward development trajectory.
19. The time for restructuring is now.
