We found the tweet of Ebirigbonka@ Ebiri disgusting and laughable directing Yorubas to stone Rauf Aregbesola for his current position on party issues and his stand as opposition on the national discourse.
It is important to state very clearly and foundamentally that as Yorubas we cannot be in one party devoid of opposition.
The president ,Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is not the president of Yorubaland but the president of Nigeria and as such any Yoruba man has the right to belong to any party he wishes to be and no one has the right to force anybody to belong to any party he doesn’t want to, no matter the closeness or relationship they build or must have built.
It is important for all to know that a twin who has history of same birth cannot be forced to belong to same party likewise a family relation. That is the beauty of our constitution and nature.
President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is as important to our race as ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola. The truth in Nigeria Today is that we have Yorubas that have distinguished themselves in so many ways. Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu,Rauf Aregbesola, Otunba Gbenga Daniels ,Babatunde Raji Fashola , Babajide Sanwoolu are key to our race and found important to the development of Yorubaland because of the roles they have played.
They have different qualities that made them distinct. We cannot now say that ,since they are not together in a party because of political differences,one should now be sacrificed or stoned for another. Never and never. We will never take this.
Rauf Aregbesola is accessible,
kindhearted,humble and very simple.He is someone that has paid his dues in development of Yoruba race.we cannot forget his passionate role in uniting the 2 opc groups while war raged among them. The surviving leaders in Late Frederick Iseotan Faseun and Gain Adams led groups can bear us witness. He never felt un-bothered and played a fantastic role assigned. No one will allow such person to go down or be disgraced.
He coordinated in no small measure the development of Lagos and spearheaded the development in osun state. He is infact a Yoruba leader of substance nothwithstanding the way anyone sees it. As a minister, we were not blind,he touched lives and represented the race very well not minding what his foes are spreading.
He helped and assisted so many Yorubas since they could access him easily without any difficulty because of his humility ,simplicity and postures.
Betrayal is a big word that people use to favour thier lines of positions . Relationship and it’s successes at times are complimentary .
As COSEG, we will continue to try and much as possible to reconcile Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu with ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola and we pray that one day God will answer our prayers.
Political differences is normal and whenever interest key in, it becomes personal and no one can dictate how someone especially someone that is not a kid to live his life.
We must therefore put a stop to the threat or call to disgrace, embarrass Rauf Aregbesola .we condemn entirely the call of Rauf to face the wrath of Yorubaland as canvas by Gbonka Ebiri. Which wrath? for which offence? When has it been an offence for someone to belong to a political affiliation of his choice. The joke has been taking too far and must stop.
We warn in strong terms whoever uses Ebirigbonka@Ebiri and his likes to stop the threat and calls for the maiming, stoning or otherwise of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola. It’s an insult to a race that has history and that is well read. We don’t joke with the safety ,security and wellbeing of Yorubas leaders in the status of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola.
We will conclude with this Yoruba adage that says ” oju orun teye fo,Lai fara kanra”. What this means is that the sky is so big and enough for birds to fly without interfering or obstructing each other or one another.
Whilst another adage says, you can take a horse to a river but can’t force it to drink from the river.
Yorubas are rich in adage and most times ,we are being guided by them,so ,let us be guided by these words of wisdom.
Hence,let us stop our opportunistic postures of destroying these yoruba leaders at thier ages and encourage prosperity for our race from them.
Dayo Ogunlana
Chairman Coalition Of Oodua Self Determination Groups
(COSEG) coordinating committee.
