Yoruba Council Of Elders Renews Call For Restructuring, Says Only Way To Solve Nigeria’s Problems

By Ayodele Oni

Council of Yoruba Elders, (CYE) has renewed its call for the restructuring of the country.

The Council, at the end of its meeting in Ibadan, Oyo state, noted that it is the only way “we can begin to harness our intellectual and other resources endowed us with by God to give a better life to our people.”

In a resolution at the end of the meeting, signed by Victor Tsiwo, Secretary and Lanre Ogundipe, publicity secretary, the council maintained that “Now, we of Yoruba Council of Elders, have determined to change the tide for the total turn-around of our situation by clamouring anew for the restructuring of the country whose agitation President Tinubu was very much a part of before he became the president.

“We, therefore, resolved that the only way out of the geo-political bastardy and economic menace we are battling with in the country is the restructuring of the country whose renewed efforts we are launching out today.

“This is why the Council of Yoruba Elders is now calling on all the delegates of Yoruba extraction who took part in the Confab to rise in unison, excavate the report, put it on the table for us to examine and see how much it will benefit the progressive Yoruba people.”

The council also deliberated on other issues such as economy, insecurity, high cost of goods and services, unemployment and fuel crisis, urging President Bola Tinubu to address their downward trend.

“We reviewed the state of the economy and it is very lamentable that the suffering the masses are passing through is fast becoming unbearable so much that the rate of deaths by suicide due to hunger and hopelessness is quite unprecedented in the history of this country.

“A lot of reports reaching our office on daily basis regarding the effect of the renewed Fulani herdsmen attacks on our farmers,  the ravaging of our farmers’ plantation fields, the abductions of our people for ransom by bandits and the indiscriminate killings of our people most especially in Ondo and Oyo states respectively have become a sort of nightmare to us.

“It was a kind of relief for us when we witnessed reduction in the menace immediately after the government changed hands in May, 2023, but quite unfortunately what we are witnessing now is resurgence in a high profile.

“It is also an understatement to say armed robbers are literally on the rampage in the land.

“The rate at which inflation on foods and general goods and services is sky rocketing is very much disturbing to the nerves so much that deaths by hunger are no more news to the ears.

“The rate of unemployment in the country has literally become paradoxically a norm and terribly alarming.

“So, out of sheer hopelessness for our youths at securing employments, they find solace or alternative means of survival in yahoo businesses, kidnapping of their fellow citizens for ransom and several other criminal activities.”