A socio-cultural group, Coalition of Oodua Self-Determination Group (COSEG), has condemned the election that produced 84-year-old professor of History, Adebanji Akintoye, as the new Yoruba leader, stating the Yoruba leaders don’t emerge through elections.
This is coming after the last election which held in Ibadan last Thursday. They described it as a sham and ploy to create unnecessary bickering in the region, the group maintained that in the history of Yoruba leaders, none has ever emerged through an election.
Chairman of the coordinating council of COSEG, Comrade Dayo Ogunlana at the end of the group’s monthly meeting, said in a statement that those who organised the “sham election” are not in any way empowered to engage in such a “delicate matter”.
According to Ogunlana, since the days of Chief Obafemi Awolowo till the era of Pa Abraham Adesanya, no election was held “but they all emerged as leaders naturally and the people accepted them wholeheartedly.
“The purported election of a supposed Yoruba leader is an affront that can not stand anywhere. All the past Yoruba leaders were never elected but thrown up naturally. So we were surprised when some political lackeys of failed politicians in the region organised a political meeting, dubbed such a Yoruba meeting and elected a reputable Yoruba son as the leader.
“This sham cannot stay and we wish to inform the whole world that what took place in Ibadan was a meeting of some failed politicians. Where in history were they told Yoruba leaders were elected?
“Actually we would have kept quiet over the matter because we are sufficiently knowledgeable to know that such a charade can not stand but several calls from prominent Yoruba sons and daughters across the globe made this intervention necessary.
The group pointed out that Prof. Akintoye is a great son of Yoruba Land, who has paid his dues but added that the process, which produced him, was fraught with irregularities “which we can’t overlook as the organisers of the show of shame are out to destroy him, Yoruba virtues and the race itself.”
