The Yoruba people of South-West Nigeria have been urged by Ladi Adebutu, a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain in Ogun State, not to be self-centered and to support the party’s presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar in the general elections of 2023.
Adebutu gave a speech on Monday in the Ogun State capital of Abeokuta as part of a drive to win supporters before the elections in 2023.
He claims that no one from the North-East has ever been the first citizen of Nigeria, unlike former President Olusegun Obasanjo and acting President Ernest Shonekan, both of the South-West geopolitical zone.
The Yoruba people’s coexistence with other groups in Nigeria is what Adebutu, who code-mixed the Yoruba and English languages, wanted to discuss today.
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“Earlier, I told some people to support Alhaji Atiku Abubakar as the next president for the peace of Nigeria but some people turned deaf ears; they insisted that it is the turn of the Yoruba people but the Yoruba people have been in power for a number of times.
“Our father Olusegun Obasanjo was in power. Our father (Ernest) Shonekan was also there. Let’s not be selfish. Is it only Yoruba that exists? The truth must be said.”
Adebutu also asserted that some people had lost their moral character as a result of a pot of porridge.
“We are unable to separate Yorubaland from the rest of Nigeria. In response to calls for secession from some parties, he stated that Yorubaland must stay part of Nigeria.
Between 1999 through 2007, when Obasanjo was president, Atiku, a native of the northeastern Nigerian state of Adamawa, served as vice president.