Yoruba have lost glorious era

Daniel, who spoke at a meeting of the South West Governors and Traditional rulers at the Government House, Abeokuta, implored the monarchs, who attended the parley to, “Use their exalted stools and ageless wisdom to mediate in the dysfunctional politics of the region, so that political disunity does not become our Achilles heels.” In the […]

Daniel, who spoke at a meeting of the South West Governors and Traditional rulers at the Government House, Abeokuta, implored the monarchs, who attended the parley to, “Use their exalted stools and ageless wisdom to mediate in the dysfunctional politics of the region, so that political disunity does not become our Achilles heels.”

In the address entitled: “Restoring A Lost Glory,” Daniel recalled how leaders of the region in the past, “Used the instrumentality of politics to give us leverage in the national politics of Nigeria,” lamenting that a hitherto leading player had become a spectator “as the world glides past.”

According to the governor, but for its relative presence in the world of telecommunication, all the other facets of the national economic life had been overtaken by other regions.

His words: “In the economic and industrial spheres; our once bubbling industrial estates are shadows of their old selves. From the lofty boardrooms to the common street trading, we have yielded ground, still losing pace with serious implications for the continued impoverishment of hitherto prospering people of Yorubaland.

‘”If in doubt, I invite our fathers and brothers to take a cursory look at the economic canvass of Nigeria and see how far we are faring. Is it the banks; is it the media; is it the commodity trading and merchandizing. Perhaps it is only in telecommunications that we seem to have some footholds.”

He therefore canvassed that the people of the region must come together irrespective of political affiliations to map out strategies and tactics on how to recover the lost grounds in the short run.

The Governor, who was apparently disturbed over the turn of events for the Yoruba race recalled with nostalgia how “Sapara Williams (a Yoruba man) was a Lawyer some 70 years before Louis Mbanefo wore the wig,” and how the race had the honour to produce the first Nigerian Judge to sit on the Supreme Court bench in the person of Justice Olumuyiwa Jibowu, among the other firsts scored by the people of the region.