Group Seeks End to Negative Campaigns among Osinbajo,Tinubu’s Supporters

The Yoruba Leadership and Peace Initiative (TYLPI) has decried the  current campaign of calumny emanating from the support groups of  Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, saying it will not augur well for the Yoruba in particular and Nigeria as a whole.

Tinubu and Osinbajo have indicated interest in the presidential ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the 2023 election. However, allegations and counter allegations of betrayal, greed and perceived heavy moral burden have been going on among their supporters.

But rising from a roundtable which  examined the issues concerning Yorubaland and the 2023 polls, the group, TYLPI, in a statement, warned that the bitterness fueling the mudslinging by the supporters of both aspirants portends grave danger for the social and political health of the region.

While noting that both Osinbajo and Tinubu were once allies, TYLPI said the tempo of the campaign of hate from the two sides could trigger chaos unless urgent steps were taken to end it.

It therefore urged both parties to cease hostilities in the interest of Yoruba land and the nation as a whole.

TYLPI also appealed to traditional rulers, religious leaders and all leaders of opinion in Yorubaland to rise to the occasion and call those behind the campaigns to
order.

According to the statement, the current bitter exchanges would, if unchecked, raise the political temperature in the South-west and could degenerate into the kind of civil disorder experienced in the defunct Western Region in the 1960s.

TYLPI, a think tank of Yoruba professionals, entrepreneurs and intellectuals, lamented that the ongoing brickbats were diverting attention from the significant issues that were of current concern to the Yoruba race.

According to the group, such issues as restructuring, devolution of power, state police, resource control, justice, fairness and equity in the Nigerian state,  had been swept under the carpet in the current diatribe between the supporters of the two contenders.

The group said the Yoruba race and indeed the Nigerian nation were experiencing serious existential challenges and implored men and women of goodwill to do all in their powers to stave off anything that could create further tension in the polity.

It said both Osinbajo and Tinubu were eminently qualified to contest for the presidency and that their decision to go for it should not cause rancour among their supporters.

TYLPI further appealed to the two politicians to rein in their supporters and allow peace to reign in the land.

The group urged Osinbajo and Tinubu to refocus their campaign on issues that would bring about positive development in the country, restore peace,  activate economic turnaround and generate solutions that would improve the lot of the common man in the country.