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Yoruba to gain from Jonathan’s re-election, say Mimiko, campaign group

By Iyabo Lawal, (Ibadan) and Tunji Omofoye, (Osogbo)
08 March 2015   |   9:08 pm
ONDO state governor, Dr Olusegun Mimiko has said that the Yoruba ethnic nationality has more to gain from President Goodluck Jonathan government if they voted for him in this month poll.     He stressed that the President has more to offer the Yoruba nation than others contesting with him adding that Jonathan would meet…

ONDO state governor, Dr Olusegun Mimiko has said that the Yoruba ethnic nationality has more to gain from President Goodluck Jonathan government if they voted for him in this month poll.

    He stressed that the President has more to offer the Yoruba nation than others contesting with him adding that Jonathan would meet the yearnings of the people of the region in his second term administration if re-elected in the election

    Mimiko,in an interview with reporters in Ile-Ife,Osun state noted that  part of the demands of  the Yoruba  including fiscal federalism and devolution of power  are already contained in the recommendations of the National Conference which President Jonathan promised to implement first year of his second term.

      He said that the Peoples Democratic Party {PDP} was using conferences organised in the southwest to address issues critical to the collective desire of people in the zone having realised the level of their political consciousness and sophistication.

    According to Mimiko,the PDP would defeat the main opposition All Progressives Congress {APC} by sweeping at least 75 per cent of the votes in  the presidential election rescheduled for March 28.

     His words,’’APC is well grounded in propagenda. As a matter of fact, it will not be an exaggeration to say that the sub-structure and the super structure of their programme is propaganda,propaganda,propaganda”

    He said the noise being made by the leaders of the opposition party would not lead them anywhere stating that all the PDP tried to do with the recent offensive in the south west is to leverage on the political consciousness of the people to direct their mind to the concrete and important issues involved in the general elections.

      He said Nigerians should appreciate the courage displayed by president Jonathan in convoking the National Conference without undue interference when it lasted.

       ‘’We have used the conferences to remind the Yoruba that for so long the critical platform of desire of Yoruba has been the national conference and we have always been the advocate of true federalism in this country. If you read Awolowo’s book he was a foremost advocate of true federalism’’,he said.

     He said the change the opposition APC is clamouring for are contained in the recommendations of the national conference.

    Meanwhile, the southwest coordinator of Goodluck Jonathan Campaign Organisation noted that the PDP was not favourably disposed to the use of electronic card reader in the general elections because it had not been tested and because there are more questions to be answered on the use of the electronic device.

     He claimed that the Yoruba race has fared better in the last four years of Jonathan’s administration in terms of recognition, appointment and provision of infrastructure in the South West states. 

   Speaking against the backdrop of claims by some groups in the zone that the race was suffering the most painful degradation under Jonathan, the Director, Media and Publicity of Jonathan re-election, Alhaji Kehinde Olaosebikan said all the known painful, vicious and fatal degradations, neglects suffered so far since 1999 by the Yoruba were inflicted on them by the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Bola Tinubu and former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

    Olaosebikan said while Obasanjo saw no reason in giving Yoruba its due shares in the federal appointments during his eight year tenure, President Jonathan has been forthright in ensuring that Yoruba get its fair share which led to his support for  Mulikat Adeola Akande, an Ogbomoso lady from Oyo State to become the Speaker of the House of Representatives, a move ferociously scuttled by some Yoruba leaders.

   He said, “just like he has been doing to other parts of the country, President Jonathan has been very fair to the Yoruba race giving them deserving top government appointments and attending to the infrastructural decay in the South West occasioned by the eight years of total neglect the region suffered in the hands of former President  Obasanjo.

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