Afenifere speaks on endorsement of Peter Obi, says no animosity for Tinubu

 

LAGOS, Nigeria – Secretary General of the Yoruba socio-cultural organization, Afenifere, Mr. Sola Ebiseni has said that his group came out to endorse candidate of the Labour Party, Mr. Peter Obi for the sake of justice so that there will be peace in the country and that it has no animosity for Ahmed Tinubu, the Presidential candidate of the All Progressive Congress, APC.

Ebiseni who was speaking on Arise TV said Afenifere is made up of very experience politicians in their 80s and 90s  and that the decision to endorse Obi was taken after years of rigorous debate that power must come to the south  and that the group believes that the south that deserve the power should be the region that has not had got power since the return of democracy.

He said the group endorsed the communique of the Southern Governors, when they met in Asaba that no governor should accept to be Vice President for any northern candidate and insist that power must come to the south.

According to him, in putting beads in the waste of your child, “You look at the waste of the child, the bead you put on the child has to be your own bead not that of another person”, he said, adding that the Nigerian president is not yet the bead of Yoruba.

“When it is the turn of Yoruba to have it, we will fight it”, he said, noting that Asiwaju remains  a member of Afenifere and remains  one of the most respected Nigerian of Yoruba extraction.

“Even when Ganiyu Dawudu will not support his candidate when he was to be the governor, we said he deserves it more. It is an issue of peace in the federation, that comes first. The leaders of Afenifere are people in the late 80s and 90s, it is constituted by seasoned politicians, many of them are BOT of political parties, former governors, etc.

“But the peace of the Nigerian state comes first”, he said, adding that Chief Ayo Adebanjo speaks for Afenifere and  indeed for the Yorubas. According to him, “even when Afenifere formed NADECO and was championing the fight for release of MKO, some leaders of Afenifere were in Abacha’s govt and it was never unanimous. It was a decision taken after years”, he said.

He said Afenifere has no animosity for the Presidential candidate of the All Progressive Congress, APC, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

“There is no animosity for Tinubu, it is based on principle. If you look at the trajectory since 1999, the presidency of Nigeria is always becoming one side of the north and one side of the south”, which he said does not show justice and living in peace.

“Afenifere insists on a nation where everyone will have genuine sense of belonging, whatever stops the north from producing the next president should also stop anybody from another part of the south”, from running for the President”, he said