2023: Why We Are Supporting Peter Obi And Not Tinubu, Atiku – Afenifere

 

The leader of Afenifere, a pan-Yoruba socio-political group, Pa Ayo Adebanjo has maintained that the group is supporting Peter Obi in the 2023 presidential election.

 

Adebanjo said this as he maintained that the group will not support Bola Tinubu or Atiku Abubakar.

 

The Afenifere chieftain had earlier declared support of the group for the LP presidential candidate in an online radio programme, ‘Yoruba Gbode’, where he said, “Peter Obi can rule independently without the influence of those criminals in the government, stressing, “Tinubu will only give continuity to Buhari’s incompetence.”

 

In a statement made available to The PUNCH on Monday, September 26, 2022, titled, “Why Afenifere Supports South East Presidential Candidate for 2023 Presidency” in response to the spokesperson for the All Progressives Presidential Campaign Council, Mr Bayo Onanuga’s Facebook post accusing him (Adebanjo) of speaking for himself and not the group, Adebanjo said, “Before the political parties conducted their primaries, a journalist asked, what is my view about the 2023 general election? 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.

 

Adebanjo explained that the presidency is not a contest between the Yoruba and the Igbo, adding that Afenifere is a Yoruba interpretation of the social welfarist ideology of the then Action Group, a political party founded by Chief Obafemi Awolowo and his colleagues in 1951 which advocated federalism as the best form of government to enable the federating units the autonomy to thrive and for peace to ultimately dwell in the country.

 

Continuing, Adebanjo asserted that the group was contributing to shaping Nigeria into a federation where no person or ethnic nationality would be sidelined or oppressed.

 

 

The nonagenarian maintained that the quest for peace based on equity and inclusiveness had resulted in Yoruba taking the first turn of zoning arrangement in 1999 that brought in former President Olusegun Obasanjo, and the North taking a turn, rotating back to Yoruba being the Vice President under a President from the northwest axis while the South-East is marginalised.

 

He, however, appealed for presidential power to be ceded to the Igbo people of the South-East since power has rotated back to the South for equity.

“To keep Nigeria one, everyone should be Obi-Datti compliant,” he added.