I support continuity in Lagos State because the APC Government under the leadership of Governor Raji Fashola, one of the proud alumni of Igbobi College who has performed creditably against all the odds and all the obstacles deliberately placed on his way with impunity by the PDP Federal Government at Abuja. Only “Lagosians” that are out of their minds or are driven by the wild rumors being circulated by the PDP and even by some members of the APC that a vote for Ambode is going to be a vote for Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu to continue to extort Lagos State and because Ambode’s selection was conceived and championed by Tinubu.
Yoruba “Lagosians” must call a spade a spade and stop next Saturday with their votes. I will continue to stress that Democracy does not achieve its ultimate goal under a one party dictatorship however benevolent. If the newly- elected APC Government does not deliver what it promises Nigerians by 2019, I would be leading the effort to have it replaced with the new political coalition some Igbos are already suggesting as a better alternative or antidote to the new opposition APC that has given the Igbo and the Ijaw-dominated PDP a black eye in Nigeria with their historic victory last Saturday.
They now argue in desperation for the South/South, the Middle Belt and the Southeast to come together to take back the Federal Government away from the Hausa/Fulani/Yoruba gang-up before Buhari and Osinbajo’s inauguration. Can you believe that? I wish them luck in their new venture but I want to tell them loud and clear with this article that the Yorubas are not ready to surrender the freedom, power and leverage that God and Nigerians have just delivered to the Yorubas to play a more dominant role at the federal level in more than 50 years.
The Igbos must learn to deal with their paranoia because they are just too envious and scared of the Yorubas to let them be in any coalition Government with the Hausa/Fulani and the northerners in Nigeria who have become a constant factor or a recurring decimal in the Nigerian equation. I want to remind Nigerians that APGA, the Igbo-dominated party was invited to be part of the opposition parties that merged to become the APC. The APGA dominated by the Igbos of the Southeast pulled out of the merger in the last minute because they did not want to give the Yorubas a winning formula to get themselves out of the box the Igbos have put them for more than 50 years. I am open to any new realignment of political forces in Nigeria as long as it helps to advance or promote the progress of the 6 Geo political zones of Nigeria. Why must the Yoruba zone always remain in opposition from one election circle to another? That is the million Dollar question I put to some of my friends in the Southeast.
I support continuity in Lagos State because the APC Government under the leadership of Governor Raji Fashola, one of the proud alumni of Igbobi College who has performed creditably against all the odds and all the obstacles deliberately placed on his way with impunity by the PDP Federal Government at Abuja. Only “Lagosians” that are out of their minds or are driven by the wild rumors being circulated by the PDP and even by some members of the APC that a vote for Ambode is going to be a vote for Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu to continue to extort Lagos State and because Ambode’s selection was conceived and championed by Tinubu. I have news for “Lagosians” They are being misled and misinformed by the P.D.P. “Lagosians” who think like that would be swallowing hook, line and sinker the falsehood being peddled around by the PDP to mislead “Lagosians” of Yoruba origin to vote for their Uncle Tom, Jimmy Agbaje of the P.D.P. I dare say that such “Lagosians” would be throwing out the baby with the bath water if they allow such sentiments to becloud their judgment in casting their votes for Jimmy Agbaje who does not deserve the Yoruba vote because he is in the wrong party that does not wish the Yorubas well. I can tell you that as a pundit of Yoruba politics and as a Nigerian who wants the best for Lagos as the nerve center of Yoruba civilization and culture we want to keep and defend for generations yet unborn.
Most Nigerians decisively voted for the APC last Saturday. They have reaffirmed what the majority of Nigerians have come to know and believe that the P.D.P Government has outlived its usefulness and has overstayed its welcome in Nigeria. The PDP Federal Government has completely marginalized the Yorubas in the last 16 years by pitching its tents with the Southeast and the South/South much to their own peril in this election. The time has come for the Yoruba to break the yoke and we are not going to do that by giving the PDP an opportunity to take over the crown jewel of Yoruba pride. The PDP has been rejected in much of the North and the Southwest. They should not be given a safe Haven in Lagos of all places. Jimmy Agbaje must be rejected next Saturday to send a powerful message to the PDP they are not welcome in Lagos, the foundation pillar of the Yorubas second only to Ife Oodua our ancestral home.
The PDP won the battle in the two geopolitical zones of the South/South and the Southeast last Saturday, but it completely lost the war in the three northern zones in the North and in the Southwest and rightly so.
The Igbos of the Southeast were the greatest beneficiaries of the Jonathan Government because Jonathan voluntarily and deliberately delivered to them the keys to the Nigerian Treasury. They used the key for the close to 6 years of Jonathan as President, if the truth must be told. I know the Igbos would like to eat their cake and have it, but the rest of the country should not stand idly by as the Igbos attempt a somersault as their expectations from the presidential elections have not panned out. They attacked Buhari calling him a stark illiterate and they insisted he must produce his School Certificate or be disqualified.
They had to know Buhari could never have risen to the rank of a General if he was as daft as they were suggesting. In the meantime they got the top echelon of the Nigerian Military to deny they did not have any record of Buhari’s certificate just to protect Jonathan and to give the false impression Buhari was academically inferior to a Jonathan with a Ph.D. But Nigerians did not buy their argument. The Military has now found the certificate now that Buhari has been elected President. Some heads must roll in the Military if the APC is to survive.
The Igbos were hoping to continue to keep the Yorubas on the sidelines of Nigerian politics but the Yorubas have now taken the center stage with the opposition coming to power in Nigeria for the first time in more than 50 years as I hinted before. The Yorubas would be insane to quickly forget the prolonged harm the P.D.P has done to the Yorubas in the last 16 years but more so in the last 6 of President Jonathan.
It is not a sheer coincidence that President Jonathan and the PDP made a last ditch effort to make atonement and to mend fences with the Yorubas when they targeted the old Afenifere group with millions of Naira to secure their endorsement. Jonathan committed a horrendous error of judgment by hedging all his bets on the wrong faction of the Afenifere group who could not salvage the sinking boat of Jonathan as the results of the election in the Southwest have clearly shown. Olusegun Mimiko whom Jonathan has relied upon to deliver the Southwest has become a liability in Yoruba politics by believing he could come from behind to displace Asiwaju Tinubu and Chief Bisi Akande and the other Yoruba leaders in the Afenifere Renewal group like Lieutenant General Alani Akinrinade and so many other prominent Yoruba leaders and youths who knew the old Afenifere was backing the wrong horse in the presidential race.
Mimiko to all intent and purposes has lost the little credibility he had with a cross section of his base in Ondo State the day he deserted the Labor Party for PDP. He definitely lost me and people who think like me that day. His crossing over to the PDP and the way he did it totally destroyed the unity and credibility of the PDP members in Ondo State who had no choice than to embrace the Tsunami of support for change in Nigeria that came with the nomination of General Buhari and Osinbajo as flag bearers of the victorious APC.
Nigerians were totally fed up with Jonathan and the PDP and they wanted them replaced by all means. The only exception were the South/South and he Southeast where the PDP was able to massively rig the elections in favor of Jonathan because Jonathan gave them a free hand to use the Military, the Police and State Security to do what they needed to manipulate the returns and not get caught.
Rigging is a lot harder to do in places where the candidate is very unpopular. That was how Jonathan lost very badly in much of the North and the Southwest. Jimmy Agbaje as the P.D.P flag bearer in Lagos has ipso facto becomes the enemy of the Yorubas because the friend of the Yoruba enemy has to be viewed as an enemy if you get my analogy. Jimmy Agbaje cannot love the PDP and love the Yorubas at the same time because the PDP does not love the Yorubas. If you accept that analogy it would be completely stupid and unwise for the Yoruba “Lagosians” to vote for Jimmy Agbaje on Saturday now that we all know that the PDP has lost out to the APC at the Federal level. It makes no sense at all.
Yorubas who hate Ahmed Tinubu for whatever reasons must seek other avenues and means to punish Tinubu who is definitely going to caution himself now that he is going to be working with a President who hates corruption like poison and will not tolerate any of his party members tarnishing his reputation as an incorruptible leader. I have known Buhari from the time he was only a Captain in the Nigerian Army. He is truly an honest man that is going to clean up the Augean stable of Nigerian politics by checking some of the corrupt elements in the APC as well.
Voting for Jimmy Agbaje because you hate Ahmed Tinubu would be counter-productive and remains a step in the wrong direction because Tinubu is not the one running. It is Akinwunmi Ambode who, by the way, deserves to massively win in Lagos on Saturday because he wants to continue to improve on the Fashola glaring success in Lagos. Ambode has a far better chance to do so because he would be working with a friendlier Federal Government controlled by his own party at the Federal capital.
Yoruba “Lagosians” must remember that as they go into that polling booth on Saturday. If the PDP offers you money to vote for them, please take the money because it is part of our stolen money but go into that polling booth to vote your hopes and not your fears. Use your vote wisely and vote for Akinwunmi Ambode. Yoruba“Lagosians” must remember that the Igbos in Lagos were going to massively turn out for Jimmy Agbaje not because they love the Yorubas but because they want to use him to achieve their hidden agenda to turn Lagos into an Igbo city down the road and to turn Lagos into a no man’s land as time goes by.
The Igbos’ hidden agenda is to share Lagos with the Yorubas and to argue that Lagos belongs to them as much as it belongs to the Yorubas. If care is not taken Igbos would flock to Lagos in such high numbers that they would outnumber the Yorubas and take over the total control of Lagos under the one man one vote democratic system Nigeria has embraced. Yoruba “Lagosians” should not lose any sleep over their decision to check mate the Igbos’ plan because the state of Israel, the bastion of Democracy in the Middle East has pursued pretty much the same policy since 1948 to maintain and sustain the purity of their Zionist regime by controlling the number of Arabs that would be allowed to become citizens of Israel. I am an alumnus of the Yeshiva Jewish University of New York and one of the reasons I went to the great University was to learn more about the Jews and what drives them and I did.
The Jews are under no illusion that the Arabs are bent on not just taking over Jerusalem, their ultimate goal is to reduce the Jews to a minority in the land they believe God had given to them from the dawn of creation as confirmed in the Bible. Yorubas have the same kind of emotional attachments to Lagos and must resist any attempt to dislodge the Yorubas from the political control of Lagos. It is that simple.
Some have called me a tribalist who does not like the Igbos for having the courage of my conviction to state this position with clarity. Some have indeed described me as a broken clock forgetting that a broken clock is right twice in a day. If you know me well and if you check me out real good you will know I am just a good student of Professor Ozodi Osuji who calls it as he sees it regardless of whose horse is gored. I can never be an Igbo hater and I will explain that in a moment if you bear with me.
If the Yorubas in Lagos do not want the Igbo agenda on Lagos to become a reality, they must turn out in huge number on Saturday to vote for the APC again and to make Akinwunmi Ambode, the successor to Raji Fashola who is on his way to becoming either the Attorney General of the Minister of Works or the Minister in charge of Mines and Power while Rotimi Amaechi becomes the Petroleum Minister in the APC Government. Yes I agree with General Obasanjo that Soludo could still be a good material for Finance Minister but making him a successor to Okonjo-Eweila could be seen by many as mistake in this new dispensation. I completely agree that Soludo is a solid economist and would be an asset in the Buhari cabinet in some other position not Finance Minister.
I have heard some Nigerians suggest that Jonathan ought to be nominated as a candidate for the Nobel Peace award for quickly conceding victory to Buhari. That suggestion was arrant nonsense. Those who understand how the Nobel Peace nominees are picked would know it was an overkill to recommend Jonathan for the award. It was true that his call to Buhari to concede defeat has helped to begin the healing process for some of his supporters who would have taken up arms on his behalf.
But if you understand the mentality or psyche of Nigerians as I do, you will understand that Nigerians are pathological pander bears who hate to be in the opposition. Shakespeare was thinking about Nigerians when he wrote that “Success has many a parent, but failure is an orphan” that nobody wants to identify with.
The Igbos and the Fayoses and the Mimikos of this world including the old relics of the Afenifere group in Nigeria including Fani Kayode, Okupe, Abati and the rest of them have started to sing a different tune. They have started to distance themselves from Jonathan because they know that power has changed hands in Nigeria. If those individuals know that for a fact, the Yoruba “Lagosians” cannot pretend or afford to close their minds to the Apocalyptic realignment of forces that the Buhari/Osinbajo victory is bound to inject into Nigerian politics as we speak. Old enemies have suddenly become friends because power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
A Yoruba vote for Jimmy Agbaje next Saturday, I repeat is a move to permanently put the Yorubas back in chains and to quickly put back the yoke the Yorubas have unanimously rejected on March 28 when their collaboration with the Hausa/Fulani finally has put the opposition in power at the Federal level for the first time in Nigerian history.
Nigerians won’t know if the Hausa/Fulani/Yoruba Collaboration is a better alternative until they try the experiment. The Igbos don’t want that for sure. They think it is a bad deal to have the Yorubas playing any dominant role in ant Federal Government of Nigeria. I strongly believe that the Hausa/Fulani/Yoruba collaboration represents a major breakthrough or shift in Nigerian politics as I would prove with the remaining segments of this article.
Massively voting for Ambode next Saturday is a big part of the plan to make the Yoruba a major player in the Federal Government of Nigeria. We all must rise to the occasion and do it with passion. It is in the best interest of all Yorubas to do that.
I hate to sound like a Femi Fani Kayode who made a similar case in one of his brilliant articles I have read. I am not a fan or a follower of Fani Kayode who blows hot and cold in order to remain relevant in Nigerian politics. I am not interested in any favor from the Buhari Government or any Government in Nigeria because I have had my time. I feel the empowerment to call it like it is without fear or favor and regardless of what anyone may say about my motivation. I strongly believe, however that Fani Kayode hit the nail on the head in one of his articles when he said that the Igbos have a hidden agenda to lay claim to Lagos if we let them. Becoming joint owners of Lagos as the commercial and financial capital of Nigeria is a huge advantage they hate to see the Yorubas have because Lagos is the New York of America, all things considered. Even though the Igbos would not tolerate any Yorubas or Hausa/Fulani making any claims to Onitsha or Enugu, they would nonetheless want to own a chunk of Lagos or Kano as commercial centers of Nigeria if we let them.
The move to make Lagos a no man’s land moved up a notch higher last Saturday when no less than 5 Igbo candidates got elected into the House of Representatives as members representing Lagos and the Southwest. Those members would go to the Parliament not to speak for the Yoruba interest but for their own interest as “Lagosians” of Igbo origin. They are going there to advance the agenda of their own people and to further make a claim they have been making for quite some time that Lagos is a no man’s land. I say foul over the bar. Lagos belongs to the Southwest in perpetuity just as Anambra belongs to the Southeast without any question. “Me chi onu” in Igbo language which I translate to mean “Hold your peace and say nothing” cannot and should not be tolerated by the Yorubas on who owns Lagos. The Yorubas do without any question.
I won’t be writing this at all if the same development or observation has occurred in any part of the Southeast in particular or any other zone in Nigeria. I make this pertinent observation as a back drop to the fact that our highly respected Nigerian, Ogbuefi Nnamdi Azikiwe was right on his way to becoming the first Premier of Western Region way back in 1954 because the Yorubas in large numbers had voted for him. The development was a first in Nigerian history and what happened last Saturday in Lagos, the nerve center of the Yoruba civilization was another first in the history of Nigeria. 5 Igbo Parliamentarians have been elected in Lagos to the House of Representatives. I don’t want the Igbos and the Yorubas knocking heads in Lagos like the Igbos and the Hausa/Fulani did in all of the urban centers of Nigeria during the civil war era. Leave the Yorubas to govern the Southwest and the Igbos to govern their Southeast as it has always been
Imagine what would have happened to the Yorubas if Nnamdi Azikiwe’s had been allowed to become the first Yoruba Premier in 1954. I know some of my Igbo friends would have been going around telling anybody who will listen that the Western Region was once an Igbo colony and it would have been a hard sell for any of us to refute or deny the claim. Just like Onitsha or Enugu would always remain the nerve center of the Igbo civilization, Lagos must remain the crown jewel of the Yoruba nation.
One of the ways to guarantee that is to remind the Yorubas to be aware of what is at stake and to let their votes reflect that awareness next Saturday. I say that because the Igbos like the Jews, are everywhere and they never hide their intention to control or make their presence felt anywhere they go. It is just in their DNA to want to dominate the economy of their hosts as once acknowledged by Ahmadu Bello, the first Premier of northern region. I totally agree that we all can peacefully co-exist and get along in Nigeria, but we all must do so by respecting one another and not getting too greedy or too possessive.
I love and respect the Igbos for their resourcefulness and hard work. Many of my friends are Igbos I grew up with in Akure my home base. I cannot now count the numbers of my relations married to Igbos in Nigeria. My first son is married to an Igbo dazzling beauty from Orlu Division in Imo state with my support and approval. My niece, Kabiyesi, the current Regent of Akure is married to a Bendelite Ibo gentleman from Useluku. Don’t be surprised if you find a Chukwuemeka Ojei becoming Kabiyesi Adumila Olori Alade Ajiwa jiwa Ileke, the Deji of Akure at some point in the foreseeable future. 3 of my adorable grandchildren, Motunrayo Onyinyechukwuka meaning God’s gift has an Igbo mother. Afolake Chiamaka meaning God is beautiful is another one of my beautiful grandchildren and so is Adefolarin named Chima meaning God knows best is my grandson. They all have their roots traced back to Umuagwu in Orlu Division. My last daughter, a medical doctor was named at birth as, “Aka Olisa” meaning “the hand of God” was given an Igbo name by me. I am as an Igbo as any of you. So I cannot be accused of some “Igbophobia” but I tell the bitter truth that some people don’t want to hear.
I come from a city in Nigeria that loves the Igbo so much that our people tried to dissuade the Igbos from leaving Akure during the Biafran war and we made sure that all of their properties were kept intact for them till their return from Biafra. My personal physician is an Igbo doctor named Obiorah Anyaoku one of the best physicians in New York. Any of you reading this should feel free to call me whatever names you like for writing this piece. I owe nobody any apologies for writing what I know to be the truth
I am writing it because it is the truth and somebody has to step up to the plate to speak the truth to power in Nigeria before we run into a problem that could possibly lead to a major distrust and war like happened with Biafra.
.I painstakingly look into the election returns in Lagos and other states in the Southwest in the last presidential election as a historian and I came away with some impressions I want to share with my fellow Yorubas in preparation for the last batch of elections next Saturday in Nigeria but with particular reference to Lagos where Jimmy Agbaje of the PDP is in a close race with Akinwunmi Ambode of the APC.
The two gentlemen are qualified to run for Governor of Lagos State. I know both of them fairly well. Jimmy Agbaje is a very handsome, eloquent and articulate businessman and orator who can sell you a dead cockroach and you will laugh all the way to the Bank thinking you have hit a jackpot. I am opposed to him, however in this election and I suggest that the Yoruba “Lagosians” as a voting block should not vote for him next Saturday for all of the reasons I have articulated above and because his election seeks to negate or undo the change that Nigerians and most Yorubas have embraced when they massively voted the PDP out of power last Saturday in what has gone down as a watershed or milestone in the electoral history and map of Nigeria.
I won’t be writing this if Jimmy Agbaje had never left his Labor Party to become the governorship candidate of the PDP, the same party that has kept the Yorubas in bondage and in the periphery of power at the Federal level for too long. The same PDP wants to continue to do so against the better judgment of our people across the board. A Yoruba vote for Jimmy Agbaje next Saturday would be a vote to again put the Yorubas on the margins in Nigerian politics after fighting so gallantly to put the Yorubas back in contention as a force to reckon with in Nigerian politics. Awolowo spent all of his adult life fighting to achieve the Tsunami we all witnessed in Nigeria last Saturday
Under the PDP Government, corruption has eaten so deep into the very fabric of our nature in Nigeria. Insecurity has gripped the nation with the incursion of Boko Haram under a very weak and incompetent President and Commander-in-Chief who has reduced the Nigerian Military to its weakest position in 50 years. That more than 20,000 Nigerians have lost their lives to Boko Haram and that more than 200 young girls still remain in captivity till now are good reasons to take out the PDP and to issue Jonathan a red card like they say in Soccer. I shed no tears for Jonathan losing the last election because he deserved to lose.
State Governors play a vital role in governance in Nigeria and whichever party controls the majority of them clearly has an edge. The job of the incoming President and Vice President would be far much easier if they can count on many more state Governors to carry out their policies at the state level. The Yorubas therefore cannot afford to lose Lagos to the opposition PDP at this crucial moment in the history of Nigeria.
There is a good reason to vote for continuity in Lagos because the Fashola Government in Lagos has performed creditably. I take special pride in Fashola because he was my student at Igbobi College and a pride to that citadel of excellence in Nigeria. Fashola has been voted the best performing Governor in Nigeria by acclamation and consensus. If fact Lagos would do a lot better under Ambode as Governor because for once in Nigerian history, the Lagos state Government would no longer be persecuted and discriminated against by the Federal Government in Abuja.
The Federal Government and Lagos state Government working together as partners in the same party could predictably open up new opportunities for collaboration that has eluded Lagos State in the last 16 years of the PDP dominance of the Federal Government with nothing to show for it.
The PDP Federal Government has deliberately marginalized the Yorubas and our potential to become the economic power house of Nigeria as I would show with the remaining segments of this article
The Fashola Government and all the APC governments in Nigeria would have succeeded in solving the problem of power failure in their states if the Federal Government had allowed them to operate outside the so-called national greed and to do things their own way without let or hindrance. There was a point that the PDP Government under Obasanjo had refused to release the allocations due Lagos in particular and to most of the APC states in general and the Jonathan Administration had foolishly continued the same policy...
The PDP Government refused to approve or fund the creation of 20 additional Local Governments in Lagos State until Umaru Yar Adua came on board. If the Lagos Government and the Federal Government had belonged to the same party, a lot of the bureaucratic red tapes would have been avoided and Lagos State would have been able to move forward at a faster pace to develop Lagos. It makes no sense to cede Lagos to the PDP at a time the PDP has been dislodged from its Olympian heights at Abuja. The Yorubas would be insane to let Lagos state fall into the PDP column at this moment in time. It would be a monumental mistake that must not be allowed to happen
I am advocating that an APC Governor captures Ondo State as well for the same reason so Ondo State Government would no longer be hindered from moving forward on her plans to build industries with foreign partners to create jobs and employment in Nigeria on the huge Bitumen project in Agbabu in Ondo State. I had to know what Ondo State has been losing because I was the pioneers Director for rural development in Ondo State under late Okhai Mike Akhigbe as Governor. Okhai Akhigbe and other Ondo State Governors including Pa Adekunle Ajasin, Adebayo Adefarati Olumilua wanted to move on the project but the Federal Government would not let them because Ondo State as an Awolowo country and has always belonged to the opposition . The Bitumen deposit in Ondo State alone is enough make Nigeria the richest country in Africa and to shift emphasis from oil and liquefied gas as the only revenue source for Nigeria.
The white sand in Ilaje Igbokoda area of Ondo State would have been another source for Glass industry to thrive in Nigeria but the Federal Government would not support the effort to tap the resources. Buhari and Osinbajo should be aware of this fact and do something about it to change the “status quo” Nigeria is sitting on a huge deposit of mineral resources that are not being tapped. You could almost weep for the country. The Ilaje Ese Odo area of Ondo State up to Zion Pepper and Moguyanje and Obejedo in Ondo State up to Agbagada and Ijaw Arogbo has a huge deposit of oil that has been totally ignored.
I map out the whole area for development as the pioneer Director of rural development in Ondo state from 1986. I am sitting here in New York thinking about all these wasted assets that Nigeria should have tapped into. I plan to do a write up for Vice President Osinbajo who is also an Igbobian. He needs to know about all of the things I am talking about in this write-up.
I care less about what anybody may call me for speaking up with this article. I live in a free country where freedom of expression is the Law and not just a mere slogan. I love Nigeria and the other geo political zones that make up the country but I do not love them more than myself and I do not love them more than I love my passport to being identified as a Nigerian.
I was first and foremost a Yoruba man before becoming a Nigerian. I share pretty much the views held by Obafemi Awolowo the greatest Yoruba leader after our progenitor Kabiyesi Oodua. My being a Yoruba man does not and must not in any way compromise my ability to be a patriotic Nigerian. The fact that I live abroad does not mean that I do not love Nigeria. That I am not a politician and that I live far away in America is not a reason to dismiss what I say with the wave of the hand.
I find some solace in an Hausa proverb which has captured my fancy as I write this article, “Gajere ba Yaro Ba” meaning that the mere fact that a man is short and small in stature does not determine his actual age, wisdom and maturity. That I make some of the points I make in this article must not be misconstrued to mean that I have animosity against the Igbos for competing with the Yoruba and the Hausa/Fulani to always get their own slice of the Nigerian national cake. That is not to say that I do not recognize the rights of other minority groups in Nigeria to also compete for and share out of the same national cake. I really do.
Yoruba “Lagosians” must troop out in large numbers next Saturday to cast their vote for the APC and Akinwunmi Ambode as the next Governor of Lagos State. Ambode in terms of experience in Government and public service is far more qualified to provide the continuity in Lagos State. His roots are traced back to Epe in Lagos State and he has the experience and the sound credentials to be a good Governor.
I must not end this article without paying tribute to some of the policies started by Ahmed Tinubu to appoint a few Igbos living in Lagos like Igbokwe and others to his cabinet. He did not stop there. He has also made sure that Yorubas from other towns in the Southwest who have were born and have lived all their lives in Lagos were not left out of Tinubu and Fashola’s cabinet. Most of them like Alake and Governor Rauf Aregbesola have since left Lagos to go back to their own states in the Yoruba Southwest to make a difference.
The Igbos must not overstay their welcome by asking for more and more like Oliver twist is what I am talking about. If only the Igbos can demonstrate the same kind of awareness and gesture in their own territory and backyard in the Southeast, Nigeria would be a far more stable and fair-minded country.
I would condemn any Yoruba man who makes any claims to an Igbo territory just like the Igbos want to do in Lagos. Lagos belongs in perpetuity to the Yorubas and we are not going to allow any revisionists to change that.
Vote the APC and Akinwunmi Ambode next Saturday as the next Governor of Lagos State by a huge margin.
I rest my case.