COMMUNIQUE OF SOUTHWEST ELDERS CAUCUS
The Southwest Elders Caucus met and deliberated exhaustively about the state of the Nigerian Union and particularly about the challenges in Yorubaland and thereby resolved:
1. That the Nigerian Union deserves peace, harmony, equity and a strengthened bond of brotherhood that will galvanize our nation to greater development and prosperity.
2. That all Elders, patriots, all people of goodwill across our land should speak out with Holy courage and boldly about the perceived wrongs and the glaring imbalances in our polity.
3. The Southwest Elders Caucus is in accord with the immortal words of the late sage Chief Obafemi Awolowo who warned in 1983 that ”If the current democratic experience should collapse, those of you younger than I will never see democracy again in your lifetime no matter how long you may live.”
4. Surely we do not pray for the collapse of our democracy. But we urge for vigilance and constant monitoring of the affairs of the state.
5. We submit that the Nigerian Union has crossed a crucial threshold in the continuous struggle for a summative identity and national wholeness.
6. We insist that the recent general elections were fraught with screaming flaws, deliberate sabotage, treachery and outright banditry.
7. It is our resolve that the present electoral processes wherein result sheets are physically carried across the nation are absolutely primitive and apparently susceptible to all kinds of distortions.
8. The apparent distortions in Yobe, Borno, Rivers, Lagos, Adamawa, Kano and several other states diminish the purity of a fledgling democratic state.
9. We insist that we will never again tolerate the interference of outsiders in the affairs of the Southwest.
10. We urge the PDP Leadership to return to the First Principle of fairness, equity and justice. The Party must embrace men and women of selflessness and instinctive sacrifice rather than encourage little people who merely serve the hour.
11. We enjoin the PDP national leadership to start rebuilding the broken places, to start rectifying the wrongs so as to heal the still festering sores.
12. We support wholeheartedly the decision of our party to seek justice in the court of law rather than withdrawing into a shell of cowardice.
13. We believe and trust in the indivisibility of the Nigerian Union where merit prevails over mediocrity, where justice triumphs over inequity, where tribe and sectarian differences are promptly discarded for the greater good of the nation.
14. Finally we do agree with Preet Bharara, a Former US Attorney who had proposed that “the right thing must be done the right way for the right reason” This much we advise the Chairman and other management team of INEC to embrace.
Dated this day March 19th, 2019.
Lagos, Nigeria.
1. Chief Olabode George
2. Chief Ebenezer Babatope
3. Chief Okanlawon Soboyede
4. Senator Kofo Bucknor-Akerele
5. Elder Wole Oyelese
6. Dr. Remi Akitoye
7. Chief Joju Fadairo
8. Captain Tunji Shelle
9. Dr. Adegbola Dominic
10. Engr. Tony Ojesina
11. Elder Biodun Ejemai
12. Mrs. Dupe Adelaja
13. Hon. Dare Adeleke
14. Prince Uthman Shodipe-Dosunmu
15. Mr. Yinka Adelani
