A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Hon. Moshood Salvador, on Tuesday hit back at some Yoruba leaders opposing the race’s interest in 2023 Presidency, saying if it’s the wish of God for a Yoruba man to be the next President of Nigeria, they cannot stop him.
Salvador, a former chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Lagos state, said it is wrong for any Yoruba leader or elder to oppose a Yoruba man from becoming the President.
He addressed a press conference on Tuesday against the backdrop of the statement reportedly made by a leader of the pan Yoruba group, Afenifere, Chief Ayo Adebanjo.
Adebanjo had said the 2023 Presidency should be ceded to the South East just as he said the National Leader of the APC, Chief Bola Tinubu would be day-dreaming about becoming the President in 2023.
He said rather than speaking on the 2023 Presidency which is a premature discussion, the elders should proffer solutions on issues affecting the country and the Yoruba race in particular.
He said any Yoruba leader opposing the aspiration of a fellow South-westerner was not worth being called a Yoruba leader.
According to him, it was the same set of Yoruba leaders who in 2019 supported the opposition Vice-presidential candidate against their son, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo.
He said the argument of Pa Adebanjo that the Southeast has never produced a President was false, noting that it is on record that the first President of Nigeria, Nnamdi Azikiwe, was from the region.
He described the posture of the Yoruba leaders as “rabble-rousing, inciting, offensive, illogical and terrible”.
Speaking further, Salvador said no Yoruba leader has empowered the people more than Tinubu, saying it was Tinubu who brought the Southwest to the “centre of governance”.
He reiterated that it is the people and not the Afenifere leaders that would decide who becomes the President.
“These leaders forget that Nigeria is practising party politics and in a party politics, any candidate can emerge. It is left for the party and the Presidential candidate to reach out to other tribes for support. It is the people who now decide who become the President”, he said.
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