2023 divides Afenifere, Yoruba elders, others

Leading socio-political groups in the South-West are singing discordant tunes on the 2023 Presidential election and zoning of candidates.

The Pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere; Yoruba Council of Elders (YCE), Agbekoya Farmers’ Society (AFS) and the apex Yoruba self-determination group, Ilana Omo Oodua (IOO), are divided over the zone that should produce the next president for Nigeria in 2023. They are also not in agreement over the conduct of the election.

Leader of Afenifere, Pa Ayo Adebanjo, has been consistent in demanding that the Igbo should be allowed to produce the next president of Nigeria in the spirit of justice, equity and fairness. He has also suggested that all the presidential aspirants from the South West should withdraw for the presidential aspirants from the South East.

“I was taught politics of fairness, justice and equity. Have the Yoruba not produced the president and the vice president? Have the South-East got it? If you were in the shoes of the Igbo and the presidency is coming to the South and it is going back to the Yoruba, is that fairness and how would you feel? I love Nigeria to be one. Anything short of that; you are pushing the South-East out of Nigeria,” he said in an interview with Saturday Sun.

Meanwhile, Afenifere, on Wednesday called for a government of national unity to midwife a new democratic government in the country. The organisation in a communiqué signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Comrade Jare Ajayi, after a meeting held at country home of its Acting National Leader, Pa. Ayo Adebanjo, said such government would salvage the country from the issue of insecurity among others.

The group noted that for Nigeria to progress, it must first be restructured before the 2023 general elections. But to the Ilana Omo Oodua under the leadership of an Emeritus Professor of History, Banji Akintoye, Pa Ayo Adebanjo of Afenifere only expressed his opinion on the 2023 presidency.  Communication Secretary of the organisation, Mr Maxwell Adeleye, told Saturday Sun that IOO does not even want the 2023 general election to hold, let alone arguing on the zoning of the presidential position to the South West, South East or South South.

“We in Ilana Omo Oodua have made our position known a long time ago that we don’t want the general election to hold in 2023. If the election will not hold, what is the argument about zoning all about? We are working to stop it legally and we pray it will never hold,” he said.

Secretary-General of YCE, Dr Kunle Olajide, said he was opposed to the position of Pa Adebanjo. He stated: “The office of the presidency of Nigeria is political. In other words, a president of Nigeria must play his politics right with people from all parts of the country.

“Whoever wants to be president must play his politics right with all parts of this country. He must be able to reach all parts of the country and fulfil additional requirements to be president.”

Also, Agbekoya Farmers Society (AFS), a union of Yoruba farmers, said the call by Pa Adebanjo for candidates from the South-West to withdraw from the presidential race was a personal opinion.

National Secretary of AFS, Prince Adegbenro Ogunlana, told Saturday Sun that the call was not binding on any Yoruba person or group. He said it was not logical for Yoruba to abandon their own sons or daughters contesting for highest office in the land and support someone else.

“To us Agbekoya, what we care for is restructuring of the country and that is what we have been agitating for. But if there is going to be election in 2023, I do not subscribe to the fact that everybody else should withdraw and leave the presidency to only one part of this country. I don’t support Pa Ayo Adebanjo’s position on that matter,” he said. (Saturday Sun)