Foremost Yoruba socio-political group Afenifere is currently a divided house over the presidential ambition of Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the flagbearer of the All-Progressives Congress and his Labour Party counterpart, Peter Obi.
The group is divided between two critical stakeholders of the party, Pa Reuben Fasoranti on one hand and Chief Ayo Adebanjo on the other hand with both elder statesmen taking opposing sides on who to support among the two candidates during the 2023 Presidential Election in February 2023.
While Chief Ayo Adebanjo, the perceived leader of the group has been explicit about his support for Obi, Pa Fasoranti has come out gun-blazing to declare that as the ‘authentic’ Leader of the group, he and the group are fully in support of Tinubu while distancing the group from Ob’s ambition.
Fasoranti in an interview on Tuesday categorically stated that the group never endorsed Peter Obi has been reported in some quarters and that whatever endorsement Adebanjo is giving Obi is on a personal level.
Fasoranti declared that Adebanjo did not have the capacity to endorse any candidate on behalf of the group adding that he (Fasoranti) is still the leader of the Afenifere and the only one who had such power.
“I am still the leader of Afenifere. Afenifere has not endorsed Obi, we are endorsing Jagaban (Bola Tinubu) for the presidency,” he thundered.
“As you can see, the trend, the approval and the acceptability. You could see what happened when Tinubu came to meet me in Akure.
“The media carried the whole thing. Adebanjo does not have the capacity to warn me not to welcome Tinubu. Can he do that successfully?
He also countered Adebanjo’s narrative that he warned him not to welcome Tinubu, saying they didn’t place a call across to each other as Adebanjo is claiming.
“What happened was that Adebanjo took a stand and I took a stand. I didn’t call him and he didn’t call me. We never spoke about the (Tinubu’s) visit. As you can see, Jagaban is accepted and we approve of him. Obi has no standing in our mind at all.”
Earlier, Adebanjo while laying claim to being the leader of the group had disclosed that he was the one who convinced Pa Fasoranti, to receive Tinubu.
He said Pa Fasoranti had called to inform him about Tinubu’s planned visit. He said the former Afenifere leader was initially not open to receiving the APC candidate but he persuaded him to do so, a statement Fasoranti has since denied.
“I will tell you the story and I won’t go further,” he said. “Pa Fasoranti phoned me on Friday that Tinubu had phoned him and that he wanted to come and see him and he wanted to say no. I said no, don’t do that, you are an elder statesman. If he wanted to see you, why not?”
He added that Tinubu’s visit to Pa Fasoranti and the comments trailing it is an attempt to divide the group.
During his appearance on Channels Television’s Politics Today, Chief Adebanjo who earlier endorsed Labour Party (LP)’s Peter Obi said the latest move was aimed at splitting the group.
“There is nothing going on other than an attempt to split Afenifere to which I will not be a party,” he said on Monday.
“It is a sort of conspiracy among those who want to see Afenifere divided. They have been on this plan for over a month ago and my members came to me to alert me about it and I said, ‘Don’t talk about it. It would be a diversion,” the Afenifere chieftain added. “All we want now is an election on issues.”
It would be recalled that Adebanjo had based his reason for endorsing Obi on the principle of equity and federal character as enshrined in Nigeria’s constitution.
Adebanjo is of the opinion that since the south-west “has produced a president and currently sits as VP; the south-south has spent a total of six years in the presidency, but the Igbo people of the south-east have never tasted presidency in Nigeria”.
“Now that the power is due back in the south, equity demands that it be ceded to the Igbo,” he said.
