The Yoruba nation risks exposing its people to terrible circumstances and fortunes should they cast their votes for General Mohammadu Buhari (rtd.), the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the February 14 election.

This is the belief of elders of the Yoruba nation that have been commenting on the possibility of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the National Leader of the APC, railroading the people to vote for the party’s candidate.

Speaking on the sidelines of the meeting between the leaders of pan-Yoruba group, Afenifere, and President Goodluck Jonathan in Akure, Ondo State, on Tuesday, elders of the Yoruba nation were unanimous in their decision to support the candidature of President Jonathan because of his belief in the unity and equality of all component groups that make up the country.

They also alleged that Buhari’s antecedents show him as disrespectful to the culture, history and leadership of the Yoruba nation.

Alhaji Sulaimon Olumolade, a cocoa merchant from Ibadan, Oyo State, who was at the meeting, recalled how Buhari had imprisoned past leaders of the Yoruba nation like Pa Lateef Jakande, former Governor of Lagos State, Chief Adekunle Ajasin of Ondo State and Bisi Onabanjo of Ogun State. He noted that these Yoruba leaders were jailed by Buhari even when the panels set up to investigate their tenures in office between 1979 and 1983 did not find them to have corruptly enriched themselves before Buhari overthrew them in a coup.

Olumolade said: “Buhari was wicked to the Yoruba nation. How does he expect us to vote for him when we have not forgotten the treatment he meted out to Pa Ajasin and Chief Onabanjo, two men that he could not find guilty of corruption but whom he still detained for over 20 months? We do not have such a short memory. We do not want someone who disrespects our people as President.”

Another elder, Demola Ibiwoye, declared that it would be difficult for any true Yoruba man to vote for Buhari because his antecedents speak of disrespect for the people of the region.

“Buhari suspended the Ooni of Ife, Oba Alayeluwa Okunnade Sijuade, because he travelled to Israel with the late Emir of Kano. Who do you think would vote for such a person who has no respect for traditional authority? We the Yorubas rever our kings a lot and will vote against a man who has demonstrated such disrespect for our traditional rulers,” Ibiwoye stated.

News Express reports that Afenifere during the meeting endorsed President Jonathan for the February 14 election.

•Photo shows Buhari.

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