The Governor of Ondo State and Co-ordinator of the southwest Tinubu-Shettima Campaign Council Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, has faulted the position taken by the pan-Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, in support of Peter Obi of the Labour Party.
The Chairman of the South West Governors added that they are not speaking on behalf of the Yoruba people.
The Governor was reacting to the alleged endorsement by Afenifere, Akeredolu pointed out that Afenifere is divided, and he emphasized that the group’s opinions do not reflect those of the Yoruba people.
Despite the prevalence of political prostitution in the nation, Tinubu, according to Akeredolu, has always been a progressive.
He made this known while speaking on “Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the Business of Nation Building”, during a Twitter Space session.
Speaking on the Muslim/Muslim ticket, the governor stated that skills and knowledge, not race or ethnicity, are what matters to the country.
He pointed out that by appointing individuals from all ethnic backgrounds around the nation to his government, Tinubu has fostered national cohesion.
“We are left with an Obi and Asiwaju. Then you will weigh the two. Some of us have made a decision about Asiwaju. And the decision is based on what he has to offer,” he said.
Akeredolu recalled that Asiwaju Tinubu was part of the founders of NADECO and participated in the struggle that led to the return of civil democratic rule in the fourth Republic.
“Tinubu’s contributions in the NADECO struggle can not be denied. As you know, when the 1993 presidential election was held, MKO Abiola was deemed to have won that election. But the military junta canceled the election and set up an interim government.
“Asiwaju Tinubu and few others felt they weren’t going to take it. They formed the NADECO and fought the military. They stood on June 12. Then the whole country conceded that the next President must be from the Southwest. That is why in 1999; only former President Olusegun Obasanjo and Chief Olu Falae ran for the election.
“You cannot deny Asiwaju his role. He ran away from the country and set up the Radio-Kudirat. Those were the struggles we had before the Fourth Republic came up. Asiwaju has shown integrity. Asiwaju’s form of politics has taught us that political prostitution is unnecessary.”
In his reaction to Akeredolu outburt,the General Secretary of Afenifere, Chief Olusola Ebiseni, in a statement, issued in Akure, said that the group position was irreversible.
Ebiseni said that the choice of Obi “was a well-considered corporate decision debated for over a year of regular monthly meetings, validly conveyed in the best tradition of the organisation.
“Those who seek equity that the rulership of Nigeria is not the exclusive preserve of the North must also do equity by not seeking to score the same goal for themselves by foul means.
The groups statement reads ” To start with, we wish to reiterate the principled stance of the Afenifere that the next President of Nigeria should be from the South, and all things equitably considered, from the South East, for which we consider Mr. Peter Obi, by his verifiable records as a two-term Governor of Anambra State, most competent and suitable.
“It is a well considered corporate decision debated for over a year of regular monthly meetings, validly conveyed in the best tradition of the Organisation.
“While we have our respect for Governor Akeredolu, and his colleagues of the Southern Governors Forum, which he leads, on their stand that it is only equitable that the next President of Nigeria, after the 8 years of Buhari of Northern Nigeria extraction, should come from the South, we will not lend our support to those who betray that cause for the lucre of Vice Presidential porridge or those who see equity only from the parochial prism of their own ethnic benefits.
“We wish to state for the umpteenth time, that Afenifere is not an apolitical Yoruba sociocultural Organisation but, from its inception, a political machinery as the embodiment of the worldview of the Awolowo School of Thought on how Nigeria, a country of ancient and entrenched nationalities, may best be equitably, inclusively and peacefully governed.
“These thoughts are encapsulated in the theory and practice of True Federalism in its equitable and logical dimensions. This philosophy, which has inexorably becomes the Yoruba view, also defines Afenifere’s position, either as the initiator of NADECO, on restructuring and the need not to deny the South East their turn of Nigeria Presidency.
“Those who strive to abridge or diminish the full effect of this covenant, on the altar of partisan or cheap tribal interests, cannot claim to speak for the Yoruba and Afenifere is not in competition with them.
“The Yoruba know the Organisation which speaks for them, taking hard decisions which others may initially despise but come round to embrace in the fullness of time. Let it be said that Afenifere is not alone in this decision that the next President of Nigeria should be from the South and South East specifically.