Factional leader of the Yoruba socio-cultural group, Pa Ayo Adebanjo has been in the news lately for the wrong reasons. He wants to be dignified with the relevance he neither has nor deserve.
Characteristically, the 94-year-old woke up from the wrong side of his bed recently and became the mega trumpeter for the Labour Party candidate, Peter Obi eulogizing him as the messiah Nigerians have been waiting for.
Pa Adebanjo’s continued asymmetric assaults on Afenifere got to a ridiculous level when he claimed that Obi is the umbilical cord that holds the tenuous thread that links all the six geo-political zones in Nigeria and if Nigerians fail to elect him president in 2023 the country will collapse.
According to Adebanjo, if the presidency must return to the South, then it should be the turn of the South East. He claimed that the region has not been given the opportunity to rule the country and they should be allowed the privilege. He also described Peter Obi as a competent person from the region and noted he has what it takes to fix the country.
“Peter Obi is the person of Igbo extraction that Afenifere has decided to support and to 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 the 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.’
“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,” Pa Adebanjo said during a press conference on Monday.
I know for a fact that the nonagenarian has turned Afenifere into his personal estate as factional leader. I also know that there was nowhere Afenifere, as we know it, met and took a decision to adopt Peter Obi as a candidate for the 2023 presidential election.
I respect the age of Pa Adebanjo, but he cannot turn Afenifere into his personal franchise for any political alliance. No way!
I must also ring it to Pa Adabanjo’s ears that we had had Afenifere leaders like the Great Obafemi Awolowo, Pa Adekunle Ajasin, Pa Abraham Adesanya and great men like the late Bisi Onabanjo, Bola Ige and others too numerous to mention here, but none of these Yoruba sons had ever been as controversial and cantankerous as Pa Adebanjo. None of them ever pointed to their fathers’ houses with the left hand like Pa Adebanjo is doing.
It’s not in my character to write or have opposing view on any matter against a man old enough to be my grandfather but due to popular demand, I will make attempt to put the records straight about the decision of the Yoruba people concerning the 2023 election..
It’s on record that the Yorubas have always been at the forefront of the struggles for independence of this country and formed the first political party in the history of the country in 1923 by Herbert Macaulay.
Action Group was also formed in 1951 by Chief Obafemi Awolowo who equally mid-wifed the formation of Afenifere. This socio cultural group has been in existence since then surviving different kinds of crises.
Afenifere is more or less the mouthpiece of the Yoruba people just as other regions parade Ohanaeze, Arewa People Congress, respectively..
Dear Pa Adebanjo, I respectfully say that, although it’s within your right to support Peter Obi; Yorubas, both at home and abroad, will not support you because we have our son on the ballot and it will be impossible for us to abandon this project which we have all seen as a Yoruba project.
I can say without missing words that the only physical presence of your candidate is on social media platforms.
I have taken my time to find out your past political history and not disappointed with my findings. It has always been in your character to support the opposition party against the popular position of your people. You did this against the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo and later came back to him. I can also confirm that your personal aggrandizement has led to Afenifere losing its vibrancy because you refused to accept the leadership of Pa Reuben Fasoranti who I met in Owo about five years ago.
Baba Adebanjo, your philosophy of equity, justice and fairplay which are reasons for supporting Peter Obi in the 2023 election, can’t stand the test of time and political scrutiny. Baba, you cannot at the twilight of your life become another Arthur Nzeribe, Peter Obi’s kinsman, who truncated Bashorun MKO Abiola’s overwhelming electoral victory in 1993.
Unknown to you sir, the Yorubas have a collective agenda and for the first time in a long while we shall be speaking with one voice because our common project and candidate is Asiwaju Bola Alhmed Tinubu. We are not asking you to support him just that it will be very painful that at your old age, despite your experience and your exposure, you will be betraying your people into your grave.
By the time you will be reading this piece sir, I want you to find a place in your heart to forgive me in any way my writing must have offended you. As a man old enough to be my grandfather, I don’t have any reason to join issues with you or any elderly person for that matter because old age is an institution which we must all respect as Africans.
I am not also writing to plead with you in any way to abandon the candidate of your choice in the name of equity, justice and fairplay. But, I just want to convey the collective desires of the Yoruba people to you that you are a lone ranger in this Peter Obi journey. May be you and your household sir!
Just as we have few kinsmen of Peter Obi who are supporting Bola Alhmed Tinubu, you have the right to support Obi. Unfortunately Peter Obi does not possess single traits of nationalism in him. He is an ethnic champion who does not employ other people except Ibos in his company. He doesn’t have any national outlook as a presidential candidate and his political party is only known on the social media platforms. He is largely surrounded by people without grassroots connections and political relevance.
It will therefore be too sad that you will be betraying your people who will mostly surround your grave side when you are no more. This might be unpalatable error in your lifetime.
Suffice to add sir, that the history of the Yoruba people will sure be hostile to betrayers and your ilk who tend to have mortgaged their conscience on the altar of stomach infrastructure, apology to Ayo Fayose.
.Otunba Sola Olatunji, Chairman of the Ikale Heritage Development Association, writes from Lagos