In continuation of its efforts to ensure there is restructuring of structures in Nigeria by collaborating with all the Houses of Assembly of the six states that make up South-Western Nigeria; Oyo, Osun, Ekiti, Ondo, Ogun and Lagos, a pan-Yoruba group, the Yoruba Koya Leadership and Training Foundation, known as Yoruba Koya Movement, led by Senator Femi Okunrounmu, recently visited the Ogun state House of Assembly to advocate the need for adequate legislation on restructuring.
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This is in furtherance of its campaign to sensitise the people for active participation in the clamour for restructuring as a region and in the demand for restructuring of Nigeria’s political, economic and social structures for real development.
The tour embarked upon by the group is focused on sensitising all elected Yoruba parliamentarians on why the restructuring of Nigeria’s political, economic and social structures must be implemented now for the sake of the generation yet unborn. And the recent visit to Ogun state is the second as the movement had last month visited the Lagos state house of Assembly.
Receiving the Yoruba Koya delegation, the Speaker of the Ogun State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Suraju Ishola Adekunbi, said the practice of true federalism will accelerate regional development and enhance rapid growth to every part of the nation through promotion of healthy rivalry among the various regions.
Commending the Yoruba Koya for promoting an egalitarian society through nation building, the Speaker assured that the Assembly would ensure holistic consideration of the proposed bill presented to it by the group for the betterment of the nation. He recalled that the Assembly unanimously supported devolution of power during the third and forth 1999 Constitutional amendment, adding that the nation witnessed tremendous development during the era of regional government which remained a point of reference for the Yoruba nation.
Senator Femi Okunrounmu, who led the Yoruba Koya Leadership and Training Foundation to the House, presented to the speaker, the position of the organization on restructuring as well as four copies of the draft of proposed Nigerian Constitution written by Yoruba Interest Group, Voice of Reason (VOR).
He explained that the clamour for true federalism through restructuring by the Yoruba elders is neither tribalistic nor aimed at bringing about division in the nation.
Earlier in their separate remarks, former Senators Okunrounmu and Tokunbo Okubanjo of Ogun Central and Ogun East Senatorial Districts as well as the Convener of Yoruba Koya, Otunba Deji Osibogun opined that the visit was to sensitize the lawmakers on the need for the actualization of restructuring of Nigeria’s political, economic and social structures for the sake of the generation yet unborn.
They advocated the need for regions to be autonomous, with each of the federating units given the opportunity to control its resources for socio-economic advancement, stating that the step would address the issues of inequality, federal character and distribution of national resources.
Recalling the nation’s post independent history of the regions, the elder statesmen made remarkable reference to the efforts of the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo positing that it was on the basis upon which the British granted independent to the country stressing that restructuring was essential to the socio-economic development of the nation.
The Yoruba Koya movement’s campaign is based on the belief that there is a need for the Yoruba nation to rise up to its responsibility of ensuring sustainable development for its people and stand as a united entity in the fight against bad governance in all the six states in South-Western Nigeria.
The group condemned the current infrastructure decadence and poor economic growth in Yoruba land as a result of bad governance and expressed the belief that the Yoruba nation deserves much more in the current national politics.
And as the Yoruba Koya movement continues its tour of Houses of Assemblies to further its cause, there is a call for all South-West people to join the campaign to demand for restructuring.
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