“One of the reasons why the Yorubas have not led a protest against President Buhari is that the Yorubas were misled four years ago to supporting Buhari and, that is the tragedy of Nigeria today. People like Bola Tinubu mislead the Yorubas, and a lot of the so called Yoruba progressive joined in this Tinubu’s misled. Now, many of them who supported the president four years ago have seen that they made a mistake and have retraced their step back ,while those who are deeply entrenched with Buhari are the Judans of the Yoruba’s race” This is the outburst of SenatorFemi Okurounmu who was elected as a Senator for Ogun Central constituency of Ogun State, during the start of the Nigerian Fourth Republic, running on the Alliance for Democracy (AD) platform. He held office from 29 May 1999 to 29 May 2003.
By Daniel Njienue,January 30,2019,interview/comments
OGUN-Speaking with our Editor-in-Chief, Mark C. Orgu, is Senator Femi Okurounmu last night in a telephone interview, who stressed the need for free, fair and credible election, and warns against violence and dictatorship. Asked why Nigerians have not largely protested the style of President Muhammadu Buhari‘s APC led government, he said
“Why should one think that Nigerians do not have the capacity to protest against Buhari imperialist govt. what does it take to have the capacity, it is the consciousness of the people, and they just have to be educated, that democracy involves participation. And what is expected of the people is for them to put the government on their toes all the time; to do this is by matching on the street, and if the people keep sitting down and laments, the government would continue to do whatever they want, then the government would not be held to account for their actions”
“However, the pride to pay for democracy is by demonstration on the street to demand good governance, and that is what is obtainable all over the world. People airs their grievances by demonstration, look out what is happening in France, the yellow feast demonstration has been on for months now, demanding good policy and better living and the government is listening to them. In other parts of the world, even in the United States, people comes out to demand for their rights, that is part and parcel of democracy”
Continuing, the fourth republic Senator noted “that since the inception of Nigeria’s independence, the Yorubas have been in the front font of democracy movement, while other tribes just talk and sit in their houses, the yorubas agitate for civil rights, democracy and so on. It is always the Yorubas that leads protest, and when they do not, nobody does. One of the reasons why the Yorubas have not led a protest against President Buhari is that, the Yorubas were misled four years ago to supporting Buhari and, that is the tragedy of Nigeria today. People like Bola Tinubu mislead the Yorubas, and a lot of the so called Yoruba progressive joined in this Tinubu’s misled. Now, many of them who supported the president four years ago have seen that they made a mistake and have retraced their step back, while those who are deeply entrenched with Buhari are the Judans of the Yoruba’s race
Speaking on the division of Afenifere, he said there is no division in Afenifere, stating that it is the same people who are supporting Buhari, four years ago and are still supporting him now, that calls themselves Afenifere, they are same people who championed the support for Buhari four years ago ,they are the fake Afenifere, like Sen Olabiyi.Durojaiye, he is not an authentic Afenifere, he is a Osoba and Tinubu’s follower, and has a juicy appointment in Buhari’s government, so he must support him, they are just protecting their bread and butter.
“If the elections were to be free and fair, Buhari cannot win in the South west in spite of the noise Buhari’s supporters and Tinubu are making, you can see the indication from the Osun governorship election won by the PDP candidate before INEC got directive from above to declare the election inconclusive and then organized a shady re-run which APC rigged.
Sen. Okurounmu advised Nigerians to vote for a presidential candidate that can secure their lives and properties, stressing that lives are been wasted like chickens. “ Nigerians should vote for a candidate who can improve their economic condition, people should ask themselves whether within the last four years of Buhari and now, if anything has changed in their lives, investors have left the country, we should vote for a candidate that would bring back investors, with production so that food can be cheaper, people should vote with the intention of getting jobs, and get their lives secured”
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