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Afenifere Backs Obi’s presidency

Afenifere, a pan-Yoruba sociopolitical organisation, reiterated its support for Peter Obi’s bid for the presidency and vowed to uphold the values of justice, equity, and inclusion.

This was said by the leader of Afenifere, Ayo Adebanjo, at a press conference held at the Wheatbaker Hotel in Lagos State’s Ikoyi neighbourhood on Monday

To retain Nigeria as number one in 2023, according to 94-year-old Adebanjo, every Nigerian must be “Obi-Datti compliant.” Along with Datti Baba-Ahmed, Obi is vying for Aso Rock’s top position.

“The South-West has produced a president and currently sits as vice-president, the South-South has spent a total of six years in the presidency, but the Igbo people of the South-East have never tasted presidency in Nigeria, and now that the power 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 marginalise and exclude them from the power dynamic brutally.

“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 frontline candidate,” he said.

Adebanjo’s remarks come a day after Bayo Onanuga, the APC’s director of media and publicity, attacked Adebanjo for publicly endorsing Obi, a former governor of Anambra State, claiming that the Afenifere leader speaks for himself and not for Yorubas.

In order to keep Nigeria united and quash separatist sentiment, Adebanjo, who on Monday maintained his group’s stance on Obi, suggested that the country’s next leader come from the South-East.

“We urge the labour movement, students, youth organisations, women associations, and every institution whose foundation is built on fairness and justice to join hands in this task of enthroning a democratic government by supporting Peter Obi.

“If we are sincere and honest about keeping Nigeria together in peace, the slogan henceforth should be ‘To keep Nigeria one, everyone should be Obi/Datti compliant.’

“In the final analysis, let it be said that we have no apologies but due courage of our conviction that Nigeria can only prosper in righteousness.

“For me, in the twilight of my sojourn on earth at 94, it is too late to derail me on the track of true federalism and National inclusiveness on which I have travelled for over 70 years of my life as one of the few surviving initial prophets, I prefer to ascend on a chariot of fire, fueled by justice and equity,” Adebanjo added.

The foremost Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, has earlier expressed support for Obi.

The Northern Elders Forum, on the other hand, declared that it is still assessing the front-runners and that it is willing to endorse any of them, including Tinubu, Obi, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party, and Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria People’s Party.

READ THE FULL STATEMENT BELOW:

PRESS CONFERENCE BY CHIEF AYO ADEBANJO, LEADER OF AFENIFERE, ON THE 26TH OF SEPTEMBER, 2022, 11:00 AM,

AT WHEATBAKER HOTEL, IKOYI, LAGOS STATE.

WHY AFENIFERE SUPPORTS SOUTH EAST PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE FOR 2023 PRESIDENCY.

Before the political parties conducted their primaries, a journalist asked what my view about the 2023 general election is? I answered and said the country should be restructured before the general election, and he followed up by asking if there should be an election, which zone should the Presidency come from? And I unhesitatingly said, of course, the South East.

After the primaries and the candidates emerged with Asiwaju Bola Tinubu from the South West, APC, Atiku Abubakar on the platform of PDP and Peter Obi on the platform of Labour Party, and I announced Afenifere’s support for Peter Obi, not a few Yoruba leaders question why I should be supporting Peter Obi, a candidate of Igbo extraction against Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, a Yoruba.

I took my time to explain that the presidency is not a contest between the Yorubas and the Igbos, and to a large extent, I convinced many.

But ever since, social media has been filled with comments tending to ethnicism the campaign instead of making it issue-based.

Afenifere has therefore decided to address you today and, through you, educate the public on the ideological and equitable principles which have influenced our decision.

Let me state here for the benefit of those who may not know that Afenifere is the Yoruba interpretation of the social welfarist ideology of Action Group, a political party founded by Chief Obafemi Awolowo and his colleagues in 1951 with strong advocacy for federalism as the best form of government to give the federating units the requisite autonomy to thrive and peacefully compete among themselves for the ultimate development of Nigeria.

The system was eventually agreed to by our founding fathers, Sir Ahmad Bello, Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, and Chief Obafemi Awolowo, and endorsed by the Colonial Secretary, Sir Oliver Littleton, in 1954 and embodied in the 1960 independence constitution.

This is the modest contribution of Afenifere in shaping Nigeria into a federation where no person or ethnic nationality is oppressed.

In the countdown to the 2023 General elections, long before the parties conducted their Conventions to elect their National Executives and candidates, we had insisted and still advocate restructuring before the elections proposing a synthesis of the identical Resolutions of the 2014 National Conference and the APC El Rufai 2018 True Federalism Committee. We did this as Afenifere and on the broader spectrum of the Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum (SMBLF). We did this when politicians, in spite of the monumental crises confronting the nation, carried on as if the attainment of power was all that mattered, the SMBLF unanimously proposed that the minimum condition for a peaceful transition from the disastrous 8years of Buhari’s government headed by a President of northern extraction was to have the next President from the South.

This position was also supported by all the southern governors, irrespective of their political parties, at a meeting held in Asaba, Delta State.

Incidentally, this North/South consideration which is at the very root of our amalgamated federation is also the most important testament of all political parties in Nigeria. 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 appointment, and the composition of the executive committee of a political party only to jettison it in the most important question of rulership of the federation.

In this quest for peace, based on equity and inclusiveness, the Yoruba took the first turn at the zoning arrangement in 1999, and that led to the emergence of Chief Obasanjo, the current Vice President is a Yoruba man, and equity forbids us from presuming to support another Yoruba person for the presidency in 2023. The current President is a Fulani from the Northwest, and by virtue of the zoning arrangement that has governed Nigeria since 1999, power is supposed to return to the south imminently. The southwest, 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 the South-East have never tasted presidency in Nigeria, and now that the power 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 marginalise and exclude them from the power dynamic brutally.

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 frontline candidate.

It is on this same principle we condemn the PDP for sponsoring Atiku Abubakar, a Northern Fulani Muslim, to succeed General Muhammadu Buhari, another Fulani Muslim who will soon complete 8 years of uneventful and disastrous rule. One can imagine such a high degree of political insensitivity.

On our part, we are certainly not alien to sacrificing personal interests in the quest for a National coalition to put Nigeria on the proper pedestal.

In this regard, the starting point is Southern solidarity, for which we first enacted a handshake across Niger, which had dovetailed to the Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum. We enjoin the labour movement, students, youth organisations, women associations, and every institution whose foundation is built on fairness and justice to join hands in this task of enthroning a democratic government by supporting Peter Obi. If we are sincere and honest about keeping Nigeria together in peace, the slogan henceforth should be

‘To keep Nigeria one, everyone should be Obi/Datti compliant.’

In the final analysis, let it be said that we have no apologies due to our conviction that Nigeria can only prosper in righteousness.

For me, in the twilight of my sojourn on earth at 94, it is too late to derail me on the track of true federalism and National inclusiveness on which I have travelled for over 70 years of my life as one of the few surviving initial prophets, I prefer to ascend on a chariot of fire, fueled by justice and equity.

Thank you all

And may the good Lord bless Nigeria

Signed

CHIEF AYO ADEBANJO

Leader of Afenifere

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