Like Northern elders, Yoruba group kicks against review of 1999 Constitution

Pan-Yoruba Summit Group (YSG), has kicked against the planned review of the 1999 constitution set to be embarked upon by the Nigerian Senate.

They said; “there is now a unanimity from all sections of the country to jettison the 1999 Constitution and fashion a new one acceptable to all Nigerians.”

The group in a statement signed by its Publicity Secretary, Mogaji Gboyega Adejumo, on Tuesday said that reviewing the 1999 Constitution without restructuring the polity will spell doom for the country.

YSG in the statement said; “We are aware of all the tricks and delay tactics that can be used to dampen the clamour for restructuring of this country, mostly on this review embarked upon when 2023 is around the corner.”

On its position on restructuring and the posturing of the National Assembly, YSG said: “NEF’s recent comments on the planned review of the constitution by the Senate, shows “there is now unanimity from all sections of the country to jettison the 1999 Constitution and fashion a new one acceptable to all Nigerians. The banditry and insurgency ravaging the North, coupled with the dire state of the economy may have concentrated the minds of our northern brothers to what we have been saying all along, we need to sit down together to determine anew how different sections of our country would live together.

It added, “Therefore, for this moment and for a future uncertain, for posterity and the prescient nature of our wisdom in foretelling a coming catastrophe, as was wont of our late sage and Leader Papa Obafemi Awolowo, we have come to this irreducible, irreplaceable conclusions, that:

“The ship of state is veering off precariously into a precipice, and that Nigeria is at the very edge of a political subsidence.

“We are persuaded that nothing short of restructuring can save this country. Any attempt to go ahead with elections in 2023 without addressing the issue of Restructuring would spell doom for Nigeria.

“Notwithstanding the interests of some elements in our midst, It would be presumptuous to assume that the masses of the educated Yoruba Nation will dive headlong into being part of the 2023 elections, when all elements of its execution — the military, paramilitary, INEC, the judiciary have been rigged and appropriated by a single very tiny minority Ethnic Group in a small corner of the country.

“The emerging resolve of the Yoruba not to be part of vassal state that Nigeria has become, is better managed with due accommodation before any further degeneration and obvious consequences. Our quest shall henceforth be to mobilize the masses of our peoples not to participate in any further elections until the goal of Restructuring or Self-determination is attained.

“The Yoruba Nation is therefore, making the clarion call for confidence building steps to taken by the Buhari regime immediately, especially as the historic 60th Anniversary of Nigeria as an independent nation beckons on October 1, 2020. Steps towards an urgent meeting of all nationalities have to be taken now to determine the nature of our relationships.

Unless this peaceful step is heeded to, so that Nigeria heads in the right direction thereafter, the clear alternative would be for self-determination quests to proceed rapidly without any further restraint. It has become patently untenable for the Yoruba Nation to tolerate further incompetence and impunity as has been foisted on all other Ethnic Nationalities across Nigeria,” the statement concluded.