Nigeria Content Online

The deplorable
state of power supply cannot be solved by privatisation but through
“determination, commitment, and eradication of corruption,” according
to a communiqué issued on Monday at the end the seventh All Yoruba
Youth Conference, which held in Lagos.

The conference,
organised by the Coalition of Oodua Self-Determination Groups (COSEG),
called “on the Jonathan-led federal government to stop forthwith the
planned privatisation of Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN).”

The communiqué also
asked Attahiru Jega, the chairman of the Independent Electoral
Commission, to “as a matter of urgency, remove Mrs. Adebayo Ayoka, the
present resident electoral commissioner posted to Ondo State, after her
shameful and disgraceful conduct of the elections in Ekiti State,
because her dignity and integrity have been ruined by the judgement of
the Appeal Court.”

The group described
President Jonathan’s “antagonism to the convocation of a Sovereign
National Conference” as anti-people, and warned that it will only
support a presidential candidate “that is ready to implement, to the
details, the Yoruba Charter.”

Where are the leaders?

The conference featured several lectures that highlighted national issues and agenda for 2011.

Wahab Shittu, a
lawyer, in his lecture titled ‘Misuse of Oversight Roles of
Legislatures in Modern Democracy’ asked lawmakers to focus only on the
business of lawmaking and desist from impeding governance under the
clout of oversight functions.

However, Dipo
Fanimokun, who represented Alani Akinrinade, a retired army general and
the occasion’s chairman, drew attention of the gathering to the dearth
of “worthy leaders” in the Yoruba nation.

“Almost every
occasion that has to do with Yoruba will have General Akinrinade as one
of the dignitaries, whether in Ondo, Ekiti, or Lagos. This is
worrisome, and we have started asking ourselves where the leaders are,”
he said.

Other lectures
included ‘The Contribution of Women in National Development” by Abiola
Akiode, a lawyer and the executive director of Women Advocates Research
and Documentation Centre; and ‘Youth Crises and Our Collective
Challenge’ by Kayode Olagunju.

Mrs. Akiode posited that there has been a “historical injustice” against the womenfolk, which must be corrected.

“Women have played
great roles in national development but their contribution is hardly
given appropriate prominence in history books,” she said, drawing
analogies from the example of late Kudirat Abiola.

“Until we begin to talk about women’s roles prominently, and men and
women begin to sit together to discuss national issues as ‘our issues’,
there cannot be appropriate progress in Nigeria,” she said.