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Politics of Monday, 26 September 2022

Source: www.legit.ng

Again, Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere choose Peter Obi over Tinubu

Chief Ayo Adebanjo, Peter Obi Chief Ayo Adebanjo, Peter Obi

Acting Leader of pan-Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, has clarified the group’s decision to back the presidential aspiration of Mr Peter Obi of Labour Party (LP), saying it was in line with ideological and equitable principles Afenifere was known for as well as the social welfarist ideology of the defunct Action Group (AG) founded by the sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo.

Chief Adebanjo gave this clarification on Monday, September 26 at a World Press Conference, which took place at Wheat Baker Hotel, Ikoyi, Lagos, adding that Afenifere’s decision truly aligned with the defunct AG position which upheld strong advocacy for federalism as the best form of government to give the federating cubits the requisite to thrive and peacefully compete among themselves for the ultimate development of the country.

This was just as the elder statesman noted that backing Obi, who hails from the South-East, as the next president of Nigeria is its modest contribution to shaping Nigeria into a federation where no person or ethnic nationality is oppressed, recalling that the group had insisted and still advocated restructuring, the countdown to the 2023 General Elections, and long before the parties conducted their conventions to pick their candidates.

Adebanjo argued that it was based on the quest for peace, equity and inclusiveness that a Yoruba and Southerner, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo took the first turn at the zoning arrangement in 1999, becoming the president, saying that the sitting president, Muhammadu Buhari is a Fulani from North-West “and by virtue of the zoning arrangement that has governed Nigeria since 1999, power is supposed to return to the South imminently.”

“The South-West as I have pointed out has produced a president and currently sits as VP, the South-South has spent a total of 6years in the presidency, but the Igbo people of South-East have never tasted presidency in Nigeria, and now that the poet is due back in the South, equity demands that it be ceded to the Igbo.

“We cannot continue to demand that the Igbo people remain in Nigeria, while we at the same time continue to brutally marginalize and exclude them from the power dynamic.

“Peter Obi is the person of Igbo extraction that Afenifere has decided to support and back, he is the man we trust to restructure the country back to federalism on the assumption of office.

“We will not compromise this principle of justice, equity and inclusiveness because one of our own, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu is a front-line candidate,” Chief Adebanjo.

Speaking further, Adebanjo condemned the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for sponsoring Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, a northern Fulani Muslim to succeed President Buhari, describing the move as a high degree of political insensitivity.

“The principle of federal character enshrined in the constitution dictates that the government of the federation or any part thereof shall not be concentrated in any ethnic group or a combination of such groups.

“It is, therefore, preposterous to adopt this principle for employment in public service, admissions in educational institutions, political appointments, the composition of the executive committee of a political party only to jettison it in the most important question of rulership of the federation,” he said.