Obi: Afenifere doesn’t speak for Yorubas – Akeredolu
Chairman of the South West Governors’ Forum and Governor of Ondo State, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, has dismissed the position of the Pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere backing Labour Party (LP) candidate, Peter Obi saying they are not speaking on behalf of the Yoruba.
The governoralsoassured Nigerians that the Presidential Candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, will ensure that true federalism thrives in his presidency Obi: Afenifere doesn’t speak for Yorubas –Akeredolu if voted into power.
While emphasising that Tinubu’s will bring a new vista into governance, Akeredolu said the APC candidate understood the serious issues affecting the country. The governor stated this over the weekend while speaking on the topic: “Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the Business of Nation Building”, during a Twitter Space session.
Akeredolu who is also the Southwest Coordinator of the Tinubu/Shettima Campaign identified true federalism as one of the strong pillars that can be used to build a prosperous nation. He said “If voted into government, Nigerians will see that we have someone in place that had gone through democratic tutelage. He has been governor.
He led a party. “Asiwaju has deep knowledge about the problems of this nation. He has been part of the struggle to ensure that democracy is enthroned and that a true federal system runs in the country.”
But responding to the governor’s claim, Afenifere fired backinsistingthattheyspeak for the Yoruba race and not Akeredolu. In a statement by its Secretary General, Sola Ebiseni, Afenifere said: “Yoruba knowtheorganisationwhich speaks for them, taking hard decisions which others may initially despise but come round to embrace in the fullness of time.”
The group insisted that Obi is the best choice for the country in 2023. It said: “To start with, we wish to reiterate the principled stance of the Afenifere that the next President of Nigeria should be from the South, and all things equitably considered, from the South East, for which we consider Mr. Peter Obi, by his verifiablerecords as atwoterm Governor of Anambra State, most competent and suitable.
“It is a well-considered corporate decision debated for over a year of regular monthly meetings, validly conveyedinthebesttradition of the organisation.
“While we have our respect for Governor Akeredolu and his colleagues of the Southern Governors’Forum, whichhe leads, on theirstand that it is only equitable that the next President of Nigeria, after the eight years of Buhari of Northern Nigeria extraction, should come from the South, we will not lend our support to those who betray that cause for the lucre of VicePresidentialporridge or those who see equity only from the parochial prism of their own ethnic benefits.”
(News Telegraph)
