A cross-section of Yoruba elders, including Dr Tunji Braithwaite and Dr Frederick Fasehun, under the aegis of the Yoruba Self-Determination Groups, met in Lagos on Thursday to formulate a fresh agenda for the Yorubas in the proposed National Conference.
According to reports that the meeting was coming on the heels of the adoption of an agenda for Yoruba states by another section of Yoruba elders.
Some prominent Yoruba elders under the aegis of the Yoruba Assembly for National Conference had on Feb. 17 at Ishara in Ogun, adopted a proposed agenda for the Yoruba toward the conference.
The agenda from the assembly would be presented to a cross-section of Yorubas from the six states in the South West geo-political zone for ratification and approval on Feb. 27 in Ibadan, Oyo State.
But the Self-Determination Groups at the Lagos meeting entitled: “Pan-Yoruba Agenda for the 2014 National Conference” came up with a fresh 21-point agenda for the national conference on behalf of the Yorubas.
The agenda they formulated would be officially presented to the media on Feb. 21.
Speaking with newsmen after the conference, Braithwaite said that the agenda by the assembly on the national conference was not binding on all Yoruba people.
“It cannot be binding but we will make sure that there is no disharmony,” Braithwaithe stated.
He stressed that all divergent views in Yoruba land must be recognised before the proposed conference.
“This is one opportunity in a lifetime as it will alter many things in the current arrangement in the country hence the need to recognise all views.
“The outcome of the national conference cannot be predicted but the conference must hold and nobody or group can manipulate it.”
He also harped on the need for younger people to get more slots as they constituted about 80 per cent of the Nigerian population.
Braithwaithe noted that the 2015 polls would not be meaningful until Nigerians were given an acceptable new constitution developed by Nigerians at the conference.
Also speaking, Fasehun, founder of the Oodua People’s Congress (OPC), said that many self-determination groups were not represented at the meeting where the agenda for Yoruba land was formulated.
“There are 29 groups here today, including my group OPC that were not invited for the meeting at Ishara on Monday where an agenda for Yoruba land for the proposed conference was adopted.
“The groups here were the ones that fought for topics in the agenda for the national conference.”
He said that the meeting of the self-determination groups was to come up with their own agenda for the national conference.
Faseun, however, said that the group was not opposed to the harmonisation of all agendas for the Yoruba at the conference.
“The decision here is not hostile, it would harmonise with the larger Yoruba interest,” he added.
