By Banji Ayoola
The pan Yoruba socio-cultural and political group, Afenifere, has cleared the controversies surrounding the Sunday October 30 visit of the presidential candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu to the Akure, Ondo State home of its immediate former leader, who also doubled as the ex-leader of the core Obafemi Awolowo school of thought and political family, Pa Reuben Fasoranti and the blessing by the elder-statesman of Tinubu’s bid. Afenifere’s Secretary General, Chief Sola Ebiseeni said that the Akure meeting was not an Afenifere’s meeting, but a blessing to both Afenifere and Fasoranti. He said that there is no division or crisis within Afenifere as widely reported.
He also explained why it is in the overall interest of all Nigeria’s ethnic nationalities to elect the candidate of Labour Party, Mr Peter Obi as Nigeria’s next President in the 2023 presidential election. In his words: “When you see what is going on, Peter Obi is metaphor for South South, metaphor for South East, metaphor for the Middle Belt. Jonathan presidency was an aberration. If Yar’Adua had not died, I bet you, nobody would have gone to the creeks of Bayelsa State to pick Jonathan. We don’t go out and say we speak for Yoruba people. Yoruba people will say we speak for them. In Yorubaland, the principle of equity is entrenched. For those of us who are Yoruba, even the institution of our obaship is arranged according to the ruling houses. When it is the turn of Ojijigogun, no Osupa would contest it in Akure; when it is the turn of Alagwe, Uraye would not contest it; when it is the turn of Kulajolu, I bet you, Uwete would not contest. I am talking about the ones that I know. That is equity from the beginning. So the six geo political zones that we have today are the six ruling houses of Nigeria’s presidency.
Ebiseeni spoke in an interview on The Good Morning Show programme on Arise Television, which was anchored by a former Editorial Board Chairman of The Guardian, Dr Reuben Abati. The interview was monitored by The Radiance. Following is the full interview:
On Sunday, Mr Dare Babarinsa who is also a member of Afenifere and other Yoruba groups was a guest on Arise News This Day programme and he made one major point that Chief Ayo Adebanjo unilaterally endorsed Mr Peter Obi of the Labour Party without carrying along other stakeholders who represent the leadership cadre in Yorubaland and that the meeting that was held in Akure at the residence of Pa Fasoranti endorsing Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu was a meeting of both Afenifere and other stakeholders in Yorubaland and that he thinks one person cannot make a choice on behalf of the entire Yoruba group. What do you say to that?
I was here sometimes to disabuse the minds of Nigerians about the lies being peddled around that the endorsement of Peter Obi was a unilateral decision of Chief Ayo Adebanjo and by the grace of God I am in a position to say what Afenifere has been doing in the last close to two years. I said the first route towards taking a decision was charted by one of our leaders, Senator Femi Okunrounmu on the 29th of July 2021. Serious, rigorous debates; sometimes we did not agree because Afenifere is constituted by people of diverse political interest. My own political interest is in the public domain; but at the end of the day, we never agreed notwithstanding the comments individuals made.
Afenifere’s final decision was finally announced at a press conference on the 26th of September 2022. The press conference was addressed by Chief Ayo Adebanjo and all of us were present. I do not want to talk about my brother, Dare Babarinsa. I know that in the last two years he surfaced in Afenifere meeting one time and some of our members felt that he should be co-opted into the political committee of Afenifere; and that was the last I have seen of him. The meeting in Akure to all intents and purposes; or let me say this Afenifere does not say it is speaking for all the groups and associations in Yorubaland. We speak for Afenifere.
The meeting that was held in Akure was not an Afenifere meeting, but it was a blessing to both Afenifere and Pa Fasoranti. I would tell you this. In Baba Fasoranti’s house, we have a tradition. When an important person is to visit Chief Fasoranti, he would call some of us his immediate political children, some of us who are resident in Undo State. I have been there several times. By the way I am almost like a member of Pa Fasoranti’s family. He trained my children. They lived in his house. My children went to his school and it is just a gate that separates his school from his residence. Four of my children were there. My children literally lived with him; so I know the inner workings of Pa Fasoranti’s house.
When there is an important guest to visit Baba, he would call some of us who are immediately around. The normal faces we see there are Chief Olu Falae, Basorun Seinde Arogbofa, Chief Korede Duyile and some of us. We would welcome such people. That does not translate to Afenifere meeting. Why do I say it’s a blessing in disguise?
Pa Fasoranti was appointed leader of Afenifere November 2008 at the death of Chief Abraham Adesanya. It was in that same year that those who went to Fasoranti today separated from Afenifere and formed what they called Afenifere Renewal Group and never had anything to do with Chief Fasoranti throughout his reign from November 2008 to 16th March 2021. They never had anything to do with him. As a matter of fact, they set up different dissident organizations to supplant his leadership. How is it therefore a blessing? On Saturday or thereabout they now came to the same Fasoranti that they never accepted as leader. They worshiped at his altar; they removed their cap and allowed him to place his hand on them in repentance. What they have come to do is repentance; to accept the fact that they erred; and normally Chief Fasoranti invited some of the people that sat with him.
How is it therefore a blessing to Afenifere? Before now, the impression had been created that Afenifere is not relevant in the scheme of things; Afenifere cannot dictate for the Yoruba; Afenifere cannot do this; nut surreptitiously, they went through the background to seek the face of that Afenifere because they know that the soul of the Yoruba Nation resides in Afenifere. It’s not today. So it’s a blessing to Baba Fasoranti that at the twilight of his life at 96, those who never believed in him came to him to worship at his altar, bow down their heads and removed their caps.
Who is the leader of Afenifere as we speak? Why I asked that question is that on November 1st 2015, Pa Fasoranti resigned from Afenifere. What happened after? Did he come back after his resignation, and who is the leader now? Secondly did Pa Ayo Adebanjo and Pa Fasoranti ever speak before those that came to Akure came to visit. Because Pa Ayo Adebanjo said that he called Pa Fasoranti that some people are coming, was there any of such call?
November 2015, Chief Fasoranti wrote to resign. It was this same group of people that harassed and harangued the old man to the point of virtually giving up and said no, I won’t take this nonsense. Chief Fasoranti is an old retired principal who mentored so many people and he has the mien of a Pope. He cannot hurt anyone. It got to a stage that he could no longer take nonsense from this same group who has come to him now in recompense and he said he was giving it up. He tendered his letter of resignation. It was Chief Ayo Adebanjo, Chief Olanihun Ajayi and co that came around and said no, you are our leader, stay, don’t allow these dissidents to to force you out of office. And he was brought back; he presided over the meeting. His resignation was never accepted by his lieutenants. Rather they surrounded him and weaned him from the hawks that had gone to form Afenifere Renewal Group and the likes of it.
So he was in office until one day. By the way Afenifere holds compulsory meeting every last Tuesday of the month. It has become conventionally statutory that such meetings are held, but alas, 16th of March, 2021, Chief Fasoranti invited all of us to a general meeting of Afenifere which would have held 30th of March, being the last Tuesday. We were all there. Everybody was shocked. Baba started reading a prepared speech to us and towards the end, he said that Chief Ayo Adebanjo stood out because of his efforts as a staunch member of the Afenifere whose name is now virtually synonymous with Afenifere and a defender of the Yoruba cause and an avatar of the Awolowo shool of thought and set the task before us.
Baba mentioned why a section of the country from the North had consistently wanted to monopolise power against the South which has been resisted. And he now said at 95, I am hardly able to continue. To that extent I have found in us a man – using his words – who has been in the trenches all his life. He said Chief Ayo Adebanjo would from now take over from me, and he would be assisted by a deputy, Oba Olaitan. And he charged us and said give him, give them more support than you have ever given me, but I remain Afenifere for life. Baba never said I remain Afenifere leader they are quoting now.
And since then, the structure of Afenifere is that decisions are taken at three major levels. One, the national exco that prepares agenda for the national caucus, and then the general meeting of Afenifere, which is congress. From that day on all those meetings shifted to Chief Ayo Adebanjo. At his instance those meetings are held, and he presides over those meetings in his house.
Okay Chief. Let me go back to the conversation with Mr Babarinsa. This is tied to Yorubaland. A king is not buried while alive. He said we had this kind of situation before when Pa Ajasin decided to appoint Pa Abraham Adesanya as the Acting Leader, meetings continued to be held in Owo. They had the de facto leader and the leader was still there. But following the death of Pa Ajasin, Pa Adesanya was chosen as the leader, and then the meetings moved to Ijebu Igbo. But in this particular case, Pa Fasoranti is still alive, he remains the leader. Pa Adebanjo is the de facto leader, the acting leader; but that immediately Pa Fasoranti decided to step aside, Pa Adebanjo moved the meetings straight to Ogbo Ijebu. That is part of the problem. In this case would you admit that Afenifere is factionalised. We have a leader who is working with another team. Abagun Kole Omololu has been the one issuing some statements recently as the organising secretary of Afenifere. You are on Papa Adebanjo’s side as Secretary of Afenifere. So there is clearly a division. What is the way forward?
There is no division. When you talk about meetings being moved from Akure to Ogbo, who is complaining? Should the meetings be held in Dare Babarinsa’s house? Is Fasoranti complaining? How does Dare Babarinsa become the spokesperson of Fasoranti? Has Fasoranti complained to anybody? Let me give you the scenario. Some of the people you mentioned, Abraham Adesaya, when he was to take over, he was in his seventies. Pa Fasoranti was much more younger. Today we have leaders in Afenifere whose names I don’t want to mention, when they do not come to meetings and I go to them as their son and say Sir, we’ve not been seeing you in meetings; they would say Oh Sola, I am missing something, it’s not easy for me to move from my place again.
Those who were saying that Chief Ayo Adebanjo never enjoyed coming to Akure, are they fair to him? We thank God for the good health that He has given these old men. Are you fair to him a 94 year old man? Let me tell you. Those who say that do not know the workings of Afenifere. Once the Acting leader is appointed, the leader becomes more or less ceremonoial, and that was what I was trying to explain to you that those who met Pa Fasoranti in Akure are two groups of people. Those who would normally sit with Baba – Chief Olu Falae, Basorun Seinde Arogbofa and Chief Korede Duyile were there on Baba’s side.
The rest that you saw were government officials – Deputy Governors of Ondo, Ekiti, and Oyo; national leader APC Chief Bisi Akande; my brother Senator Iyiola Omisore, national secretary APC; my brother and friend Chief Olusola Oke who does not subscribe to Afenifere. They were all there supporting the presidential candidate of their party. It was not an Afenifere meeting.
Since Chief Ayo Adebanjo became the leader, I am privy to about five occasions. When Baba Fasoranti was celebrating his birthday, Chief Ayo Adebanjo led Afenifere people from Lagos, Ogun. They were in Akure for three days celebrating the leader. They went from Akure to Iju Itaogbolu where a chapel was dedicated in his honour.
At the time when Pa Ayo Fasanmi was being buried – you remember, it was this same Afenifere Renewal people who went to Akure last Saturday that created the friction between some of these old men, that separated Chief Ayo Fasanmi from his colleagues and appointed him a factional leader of Afenifere. When Pa Fasanmi died, the children came to Chief Ayo Adebanjo and said as the National Leader of Afenifere, come and be the chairman or the father of the occasion. When Chief Ayo Adebanjo was going, he stopped in Akure in the Leader’s house, and both of them went to Iyin Ekiti where they celebrated Chief Ayo Fasanmi.
On return, both of them met. You don’t pry into their communications. And what did we see at the next meeting? We saw a son of Pa Fasoranti, my brother Kehinde Fasoranti as a member of the national exco. And Chief Ayo Adebanjo said that he consulted with Baba and said give me one of your own sons to be one on the national exco.
When recently there was a terrorist attack on a church in Owo as recent as three months ago, Chief Ayo Adebanjo left Lagos, led some leaders of Afenifere in Lagos, and as usual with him, he would not step into Ondo State without paying courtesies to Baba Fasoranti. He was in Chief Fasoranti’s house. It was from there that all of us went to commiserate with the Kabiyesi the Olowo of Owo. Chief Falae was in that entourage with all of us. it is the crisis in the imagination of people who believe so.
There is no crisis in Afenifere. A lot of statements were credited to Baba, and when they were going viral, in order not to destroy Afenifere, Baba issued a statement through his PA that we regard as his son Biola and he said that it has come to the attention of Baba that some statements were being credited to him in a section of the media and particularly the social media, and Baba wishes to say that he never said that Chief Ayo Adebanjo is no longer the Acting Leader of Afenifere. Nor did he say that Afenifere meetings should come back to Akure but that the concern of Baba really is Yoruba interest. So the status quo is returned and maintained.
There was this interview that was going viral. Did Baba Fasoranti at any point grant an interview, or it was an old one that was recirculated? Or some people say it is mischief?
I like to add the last word – mischief. The press statement issued by Baba has taken care of all of that. And you are asking me if there was a telephone conversation. Don’t allow these people to drag you into impossibilities. I heard it like you heard it because you don’t pry into their talks, their relationship. Who am I to be asking whether Baba Fasoranti speaks with Pa Adebanjo? Was there an endorsement? Was that endorsement an Afenifere endorsement? I would have loved you to ask that as the second lead of your question.
Like I told you, the meeting that held was not an Afenifere meeting. The notice of that meeting was issued in the name of a WhatsApp group Conscience of Yoruba Nation. I am sure Dr Abati would be on that platform. So many people are there. You don’t need to be a politician. I don’t know if Rufai is as political as Dr Abati because I know at a time he wanted to be Deputy Governor. Those who express political inclination of any type, they gather them in the WhatsApp group and my brother Kole Omololu says he is the director general. He issued a notice and told people – please we are going to hold a meeting in respect of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s presidential bid, and Papa Fasoranti has agreed to host and preside over that meeting. The duration of that meeting is 11am to 1pm, two hours.
My brother, I told you here that there was one that was debated from 29th July 2021 to 27th of September 2022 – fourteen months debate compared to two hours jamboree. Is that an endorsement? Baba has the power to bless anyone.
I give you an example, and we are speaking on an international platform. In 2019, Afenifere endorsed Abubakar Atiku. Several others still came and Baba prayed for them. Specifically Ibrahim Shekarau, former governor of Kano State who is a friend to one of our leaders. They are comrades in the education profession. He brought them and then Baba listened to Shekarau. After Shekarau, David Jonah Jang former governor of Plateau State came. My brother late Mailafia came. So many people would still go to Chief Fasoranti for blessing. It does not detract from the decision that Afenifere has taken endorsing Peter Obi.
You said earlier that you don’t pry into their conversations, and I have heard other younger Afenifere members say so. How democratic really is Afenifere because once the elders take a decision, it’s binding on the rank and file. Number two. Is there a plan to integrate younger people into Afenifere, because as it is, Pa Fasoranti is 96, Pa Fasoranti is 94. when you check other people…
Afenifere is generational. When the Awolowos of this world started, they were in their thirties, forties. They grew into it. I was born into Afenifere. My father was our village head. Afenifere started with obas and baales. Our house was the sanctuary of people who were running away from wetie and all of that. So we were born into it and grew into it. How old was old was my late friend and brother Yinka Odumakin who was the National Publicity Secretary. How old was Dayo Adeyeye when he was National Publicity Secretary? So it is growing. You have listened to Dele Farotimi here. How old is he? Afenifere is even populated by younger people if you do not consider me young.
Look at this scenario. It is very important for us. Why do we choose Peter Obi in the first place? It is important to emphasise it based on the speech of Pa Fasoranti. Baba Fasoranti in his handing over speech said one of the tasks confronting us is to stop a section of the country from the North dominating Nigeria. Look at it. The domination, bring it down to Shehu Shagari, to Yar’Adua, to Buhari. Can’t you see a section of the country? If you come to the South you see it from Shonekan, Obasanjo and Prof Osinbajo down the line, and you now say Yoruba l’o kan. How do you run a country like that? Nigeria is a federation.
Let me tell you the scenario of what would happen in 2023. If the presidential candidate of PDP wins, you would have created the impression in this country that notwithstanding your feelings, a person of northern extraction can be president of Nigeria regardless of whatever anybody says. If the presidential candidate of APC wins, you would have created a trajectory of rotation between the Yoruba and the Fulani.
Peter Obi’s candidacy is a revolution to change Nigeria. It is part of restructuring that Nigeria would be restructured in such a way that every ethnic nationality will have a sense of belonging. It’s about equity, justice, fairness.
When it is their own narratives, they are Yoruba. Patricia Etteh was harassed out of being House of Reps Speaker by these same people if you do not know that. It is in Pa Akande’s book. Mulikat Adeola Akande was already made the Speaker of the House of Reps. And I read in Pa Akande’s book that Jonathan consulted with him and Asiwaju to say we have zoned the speakership, the number four in the federation to the Yoruba and we found this lady suitable. Those who call themselves Yoruba, who say oh if you do not vote for Asiwaju now you are not representing Yoruba interest went behind, formed alliance against Mulikat Akande and brought Tambuwal as the speaker. Is that protecting the Yoruba interest?
Can Afenifere mobilise votes in any direction?
If Afenifere cannot, why are they after Afenifere? In 1999, Afenifere stood for Chief Falae against another of their own son Gen Obasanjo. What was the result? Falae had over 80 percent of the votes in Yorubaland. That is much of the respect that the Yoruba people have for Afenifere. When you talk of the Yoruba interest, what is the Yoruba interest? Yoruba interest is first and foremost that we live in a federation where there will be peace.
When you see what is going on, Peter Obi is metaphor for South South, metaphor for South East, metaphor for the Middle Belt. Jonathan presidency was an aberration. If Yar’Adua had not died, I bet you, nobody would have gone to the creeks of Bayelsa State to pick \Jonathan. We don’t go out and say we speak for Yoruba people. Yoruba people will say we speak for them. In Yorubaland, the principle of equity is entrenched. For those of us who are Yoruba, even the institution of our obaship is arranged according to the ruling houses. When it is the turn of Ojijigogun, no Osupa would contest it in Akure; when it is the turn of Alagwe, Uraye would not contest it; when it is the turn of Kulajolu, I bet you, Uwete would not contest. I am talking about the ones that I know. That is equity from the beginning. So the six geo political zones that we have today are the six ruling houses of Nigeria’s presidency.
Who has Afenifere endorsed for the 2023 presidential election?
Peter Gregory Obi, the presidential candidate of Labour Party. That is equity, that is fairness, that is inclusiveness, that is restructuring.
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