18th March, 2015
As the battle to win the hearts of the people of Southwest continues ahead of the general elections, two separate fora to mobilise the Yoruba people for the coming elections have been fixed for Thursday, 19 March in Ikeja, Lagos and Ibadan, Oyo state.
In Lagos, Governor Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State and the Southwest Coordinator of the Goodluck Jonathan Campaign Organisation will lead his Yoruba supporters to drum up support for the re-election of President Goodluck Jonathan.
The Lagos summit tagged: ‘Tomorrow Begins Today, Grand Finale of the Post National Conference’, will hold at the Airport Hotel, Ikeja, and is expected to be attended by Afenifere chieftains, leaders of the Oodua Peoples Congress, OPC and other Yoruba leaders sympathetic to the re-election of Jonathan for a second term on 28 March.
Also, in Ibadan, a chieftain of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) and former Chief of General Staff, Retired Lieutenant-General Alani Akinrinade, has scheduled a summit of Yoruba people for Thursday to chart a course for the tribe.
The Ibadan summit which is being organised by the Yoruba Assembly of which Akinrinade is the convener, takes place at the Parliament Building, Secretariat, Ibadan.
The theme of the summit is: ‘Yoruba People: Our Aspirations and Minimum Demands From The Central Government of Nigeria.’
Expected at the summit are Yoruba Obas and Leaders of Thought, Yoruba sub-ethnic groups in Nigeria, Yoruba Professionals and vocational groups, Yoruba industrialists, retired Yoruba military and judicial officers, former and current state governors of Southwest states and former and serving members of both the national and state assemblies, among others.
The two separate gatherings have lend credence to the popular perception in the country that the battle for the country’s presidential election will be decided in the southwest.