YCE berates organisers of Yoruba Nation mega rally in Lagos

• Condemns timing of protest
• Says more than 90% of Yoruba are fed up with Nigeria

The Senior Elders Forum of the Yoruba Council of Elders (YCE), yesterday, frowned on the protest that took place at Ojota in Lagos, which resulted in the death of some young Nigerians.

The elders, however, chided the organisers for exposing the youths to danger while they stay abroad and watch them on the television.

The senior elders, who spoke through the former National President of YCE, Col. Samuel Adeleye (rtd), in a statement made available to journalists in Ibadan, advised the youths not to allow themselves to be used by those who stay in their comfort zone abroad and tell them to face bullets at home.
IN another development, the senior elders forum of the YCE has said more than 90 per cent of the people in the South-West are fed up with the “concoction called Nigeria.”

According to them, except for a negligible few who are eating mere “crumbs that fell from their masters’ table,” a greater percentage prefer to renegotiate the amalgamation of Nigeria.

“We heard a report that the protest was organised by people outside the country. This made us a bit unhappy because those people who organised the protest did not come to lead or supervise it so as to prevent it from being violent. We can’t allow our youths to be used as cannon folders,” the statement stated.

“If we had an inkling that they were going to hold the protest, we would have advised they don’t do it because Nigeria is in a dangerous situation, especially now that the election is just about 45 days. At the moment, whoever organised that protest, chose a wrong time. This is a highly volatile and sensitive period. People should do more of planning and thinking,” the statement added.

The elders said they had warned the Federal Government never to postpone the February general elections, noting that such move could usher in chaos and anarchy into the country.

They reasoned that postponing the election would only mean postponing the evil day, adding that somehow in the future, the country will still have to be confronted with that problem.

The apex Yoruba non-political association said that the Afenifere, being a socio-cultural group, reserved the rights to express its opinion but Yoruba people know which direction they will follow in the election.

On the letter written by the former President Olusegun Obasanjo supporting the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, the YCE urged people in the zone to dismiss it with a wave of hands, saying that it has become habitual of the former President to write letters but Nigerians, especially the Yoruba, are wiser now to choose the person they want to lead them.