2023: South West’II present nationalist as presidential candidate – Olajide, YCE scribe

The Secretary-General, Yoruba Council of Elders (YCE), Dr Kunle Olajide has said that power should return to the southern part of the country after the completion of President Muhammadu Buhari’s tenure in 2023 in the interest of unity and justice.

Dr Olajide who did not reveal the political party said that the south-west will be approaching the election with the sole aim of presenting a candidate that would be acceptable to all Nigerians.

The 75-year-old medical doctor who stated this while speaking during an interview with TribuneOnline in Ado-Ekiti at the weekend noted that ahead of the 2023 presidential poll,  Yoruba would not promote any ethnic agenda, rather individual from the zone with clear cut ideas for the development of the region and the nation at large.

“I must say that the rotation is between the North and the South. The north is about to complete its 8 years in President Muhammadu  Buhari, so it should come to the south.  We are part of the south and no legislation as regards the particular zone but each zone is entitled to aspire and the Yoruba nation is aspiring like the south-south and the south-east.

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“There is no single zone that can make itself independent of Nigeria. So each of the aspirants in the zones should work hard to convince other Nigerians that he should be elected their president. Yoruba leaders are tired of having ethnic oriented leadership. We want a national leader and we are prepared to give Nigeria one in 2023. So, that is why we are not promoting ethnic agenda,” he said.

The YCE scribe lamented the current system of government where states would depend solely on allocations from the federal government to survive every month, disclosing that the country is witnessing a unitary form of federalism.

While reiterating the need for restructuring, he maintained that the country would only progress across all sectors if states are allowed to exploit resources for their own development.

He said: “This monthly going to Abuja for federal allocation cannot be sustained. You collect all the revenue from Lagos, Oyo, Ogun states, the south-south region, you take them to Abuja and people from those regions now go to Abuja cap in hand begging every month to take peanuts back home, that is not a way to run federalism.

“Too much money is in the hand of the federal government which is apparently not the best. In the first republic, we had only about 14 on the exclusives legislative list. The rest were residual for various regions. We have to go back to that, each region explores your resources, pay taxes to run a few things under the federal umbrella. That is the only thing that can bring some progress. We must come to that reality.”