A PAN-YORUBA organisation, Afenifere Renewal Group, ARG, has alleged
that there is a calculated attempt to relegate the Yoruba to the
background in the polity.
In a state in Lagos by its National Chairman, Mr Olawale Oshun,
entitled: “A cry from the wilderness: The nation has to listen”, the
group faulted moves to marginalise Yorubaland from mainstream politics.
Oshun argued that there are reports of ethnic cleansing aimed at
Yoruba saying “the Yoruba demand to know why discrimination against us
is on the increase.”
He said “we note with verifiable evidence at our disposal, that most
routine appointments and recruitments into the public service under this
administration completely short-change our people.
For instance, out of the 792 cadet officers recently recruited for
training at the Custom Training College, CTC, in Kano, only 45 cadets
were recruited from the six South Western States of Nigeria, compared
with 263 cadets recruited from the North West Nigeria. In the same
recruitment exercise, the North Central Zone got 168 cadets, North East
157, South South 91 and South Eastern Nigeria was allocated 68 cadet
officers. The evidence before us therefore shows that 5.8 percent of the
recruited cadets are from the South West while the North West took the
lion share of 33.1% of the lot. We ask: What exactly is happening
here?”.
He also lampooned the Goodluck Jonathan-led administration for
failing to nip corruption in the bud adding “Nigeria is
currently buffeted by corruption in a scale witnessed only under the
dark and evil military dictatorships of Generals Ibrahim Babangida and
Sani Abacha.Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) has become the official
headquarters of grandmasters of corruption. In an environment where a
model of articulate leadership and responsible governance should be
expected, given the enormous powers and resources available, what we
have instead, is an organised and well-commanded conspiracy of the
political and economic elite, against the Nigerian people, to keep them
in perpetual poverty and misery, through high-level corruption,
profligacy and financial impunity.”