- We are for fairness, equity, national inclusiveness
- ‘On Igbo Presidency Afenifere stands’
Pan- Yoruba Socio-Political Group, Afenifere has lambasted the Northern Elders Forum, NEF, for condemning its position on the Igbo presidency in 2023, insisting that it has no apology.
It declared in a statement by its General Secretary, Chief Sola Ebiseni in Akure, Ondo State that the group’s position is in the “interests of fairness, equity and national inclusiveness and without apologies.
Afenifere leader, Chief Ayo Adebanjo had earlier canvassed an Igbo Presidency in 2023 for fairness and equity.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today, on March 3, he had said that it is the turn of the Igbo to produce the next President of Nigeria in 2023.
According to the 94-year-old elder statesman, it is in the spirit of federal character and equity for the Igbo to produce the next President of the country.
But reacting, the Director, Publicity and Advocacy, Northern Elders Forum, NEF, Dr, Hakeem Baba-Ahmed had blasted Adebanjo for canvassing for an Igbo president in 2023.
Ahmed had said that ” the real politicians, who know and understand the depth of the Nigerian nation and what it will take to lead it know that it is talk like this from Adebanjo, and not the identity of the next President, that represents threats to our future.
However, Afenifere in its response via a statement by Ebiseeni, entitled” 2023 Presidency: Who Does Baba-Ahmed Speak For? said that ” the current struggle of the Afenifere, its leaders and strategic partners for better Nigeria, through its restructuring along with the foundational federal architecture, is a task in tandem with its ideology, principled tradition and ethos.
“The guiding insistence of Chief Ayo Adebanjo as Leader of the Afenifere, on Igbo Presidency in the interests of fairness, equity and national inclusiveness, is without apologies to those who have never been credited with any original and positive idea in the nation’s history but thrive on the unfounded divisions amongst the indigenous tribes of Nigeria.
“The stakes of Chief Ayo Adebanjo, veteran Awoist and patriot who for all of his 94 years on earth have been committed to the ideals of peaceful coexistence among the diverse groups of Nigeria, HIS ONLY COUNTRY, cannot be expected to be the same with a 65-year-old man who has another country to which he is indigenous and inevitably more loyal.
“Baba-Ahmed’s unprovoked vituperations on a man, his father’s age mate, is a strange and eloquent testimony of his imported culture. His usual references to and threats of some ill-defined northern interests which determine its voting habits show how much Baba-Ahmed understands Nigeria as a country whose leadership has never been a product of any regional political decision
” Chief Ayo Adebanjo, over the weekend, reiterated his position, shared by the majority of well-meaning citizens, that the next President of Nigeria, after Muhammadu Buhari of the North, should emerge from Southern Nigeria and specifically expressed a preference for a person of South-Eastern origin.
“It is this patriotic view, expressed within the context of a deep analysis of the country’s political history, that Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, in his characteristic uncouth language, dismissed as a laughable threat targeted at the North (his own north) which he said would continue to vote according to the dictates of its interests.
” It is instructive that the same view expressed by Chief Ayo Adebanjo of the Afenifere on the need for power-shift, is shared by the Ohaneze Ndigbo for the South East, PANDEF for the South-South, the Middle Belt Forum which influence straddles the North Central mainly and the substantial parts of the remaining northern zones of North West and East.
“It is therefore clear that Baba-Ahmed and those he claims to speak for are only dwelling in their myopic and minority positions about Nigeria and its politics.
“We are not strange to the kind of tantrums by those who have never been credited with any ideals for Nigeria.
“When Nigeria was in the search of a suitable form of Government, Ayo Adebanjo, now 94 and his Afenifere compatriots, in their youths, after painstaking research and analyses, came up with the idea of federalism.
“We note the laughable crocodile tears of Baba-Ahmed and his group on the current pervasive and intractable state of insecurity in Nigeria and the call for the resignation of President Buhari as if any clear-thinking Nigerian is so impressed.
Ebiseni added that “This volte-face lamentation, is borne out of the poverty of ideas and most hypocritical of those who have resisted all ingredients of true federalism, including the imperative of State Police as a panacea for insecurity.
Adebanjo had argued that the South-West produced former President Olusegun Obasanjo who led for eight years and Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo who has served for almost eight years.
He added that the South-South had also produced the President in the person of Goodluck Jonathan who was in office from 2010 to 2015.
The Afenifere leader said all the while, the South-East had been denied the Presidency.
“How can you say rotation in the North and South, and when it comes to the South, it would be South-West and South-South every time? Is the South-East not part of the South? What is the moral we are talking about?
“Is it not the South-West that has served Obasanjo for eight years, Osinbajo for another eight years as Vice President? South-South has served its own. Is the South-East not part of the South? That is the question we should answer,” he said.
Adebanjo said the federal character concept was introduced to accommodate the North.
He, therefore, wondered why concessions could be made for the South-East which had been marginalised.
The Afenifere leader added, “Is it not to accommodate the North that we put the federal character in the constitution, to accommodate less developed areas?
“It doesn’t help the unity of this country if anybody is talking about merit now. It is because of the heterogeneity of the country to keep us together that the question of this rotation comes in, to accommodate ourselves as much as possible. Why do you want to overlook that now? Coming to the South for the 2023 presidential candidate is the equity, moral, and principle, except we are deceiving ourselves.”
Questioning those who think the South East does not deserve the seat, and hinging his argument on federal character and equity, Adebanjo said the amendments to the constitution were not people-centred.
According to him, the country adopted federal character to cater for weaker parts of the nation, a move he maintained, has helped to foster unity among Nigerians.
Talking about merit when it comes to the 2023 presidential election would hurt the gains made so far, he said.
“It doesn’t help the unity of this country if anybody is talking about merit now. It is because of the heterogeneity of the country; to keep us together that the question of this rotation comes in; to accommodate ourselves as much as possible,” Adebanjo explained.
“Why do you want to overlook that now? Coming to the South for the 2023 presidential candidate is the equity, moral, and principle, except we are deceiving ourselves.”
The Afenifere leader also faulted the just-concluded constitutional amendment by the National Assembly, describing it as insincere.
“There is no sincerity in the amendment,” he said a day after lawmakers voted on over 60 proposed amendments.
As far as he is concerned, the amendments did not carry the people along and thus were not a reflection of the true yearnings of Nigerians.
“Who are those making the amendment? Those are the beneficiaries of fraud in the Constitution,” he said. “How are you amending a Constitution you didn’t take part in. Did we make it? What is our input? A Constitution that tells lies about itself.”
But NEF had said they were not moved by the leader of Pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, Adebanjo’s warning that any attempt by a northerner to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023 will spell doom for Nigeria.
Speaking through Baba-Ahmed in Abuja, it described Adebanjo’s threat as laughable and vowed that the North would continue to vote according to the way its interest dictates.
According to him: “Politicians from all parts of the country are talking to each other, trying to deal with the challenges of putting together the next set of leaders, while a man of over 90 years old is threatening all of us.
“It will be interesting to know how many Yoruba support Adebanjo’s position.
“But the number of serious and credible politicians from the South-West and other parts of Nigeria suggest that he is really just on his own.
“The target in this crude, lazy politics is the North, and it is not impressed. It will vote, like all parts of Nigeria, exactly the way its interests dictate.
“A President that emerges out of crises or the shadows of threats will only compound the problems of a nation that needs to create a confident and secure future.”
