Nonagenarians battle for the soul of Afenifere
The abrogation of the positions of acting and deputy leader in the leadership cadre of the apex Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, is throwing up many questions. In this report, SEYE OLUMIDE, Southwest Bureau Chief, looks at the issues that prompted the development.
The lingering face-off between the two nonagenarian leaders of the apex Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, Pa Reuben Fasoranti and Pa Ayo Adebanjo, whom he (Fasoranti) relinquished leadership authority to as acting leader of the group in 2021, may have been tactically resolved with the abrogation of the positions of acting and deputy leader.
The group, however, constituted an Elders’ Caucus to manage its affairs while retaining the position of a national leader, who would lead until death calls.
Following this unanimous decision, which was raised at the group’s quarterly meeting, held in Akure at the residence of Pa Fasoranti last Thursday, Adebanjo ceased to be the mainstream Yoruba group’s acting leader, while Fasoranti remains the organisation’s substantive leader.
A communique signed by the organisation’s National Publicity Secretary, Jare Ajayi, explained that the elders’ caucus would be responsible for advising Fasoranti on sundry issues.
Members of the elders’ caucus are R.F. Fasoranti as Chairman, Ayo Adebanjo, Oba Olu Falae, Senator Cornelius Adebayo, Senator Femi Okunrounmu, Basorun Seinde Arogbofa, Senator Kofo Bucknor- Akerele, Archbishop Ayo Ladigbolu, Lt.-Gen. Alani Akinrinade (rtd), Maj.-Gen. Olu Bajowa (rtd), among others.
Before last Thursday, the two nonagenarians took extreme positions on whether the group is a socio-political or socio-cultural organisation. They, and their loyalists, also toed separate paths during the last general election, especially on who to support between the presidential candidates of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), President Bola Tinubu and that of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi.
Fasoranti and his loyalists maintained that Afenifere is a socio-cultural body but the Adebanjo faction insisted that the group is a political body. The Fasoranti side also believed that with where Nigeria is today, it is expedient for it to support its own while the Adebanjo side insisted that the baton of power should move to the Igbo and not the Yoruba nation.
Although Tinubu defeated Obi to emerge President, Adebanjo, who had based his position on fairness, justice and equity, expressed open sympathy and support for Obi, even up to the Supreme Court; a decision that irked many Yoruba people, who wondered the type of inducement that could have prompted such an unflinching support for an easterner at the expense of his fellow Yoruba man in the power game of Nigeria.
Some had alleged that what prompted Adebanjo goes beyond the principle of justice, fairness and equity but a personal dislike for Tinubu, while others said the nonagenarian had always been looking for a means to take a pound of flesh from the former governor of Lagos State over the shabby treatment he (Tinubu) inflicted on Afenifere in the past.
An investigation by The Guardian revealed that majority of those parading themselves as loyalists of Pa Adebanjo all the while took the decision with the thinking that it would be wrong to backstab an elderly person not necessarily because they believe it makes sense to ditch a fellow Yoruba man and support an Igbo for the presidency, knowing full well the unfavourable disposition of the Southeast to Southwest in the politics of Nigeria.
It was learnt that many of those who played along with Adebanjo would have played the game differently and it was not clear if some of them had been romancing with the camp of Fasoranti.
The last three years had left the group more polarised than it had ever been since it was founded in the 50s to fight and advance the cause of Yoruba people; making the once-respected Afenifere to become a shadow of itself, with many respected Yoruba sons and daughters choosing not to identify with it.
Pa Reuben Fasoranti
Deputy/Acting Leader Positions Abrogated
The decision taken last Thursday was said to have been planned for the group’s meeting last September when the youth in the organisation threatened to pull out unless Adebanjo is removed as acting leader. It was gathered that it took the wisdom of Oba Falae to calm frayed nerves after which a reconciliation committee met with Adebanjo. It was learnt that Adebanjo refused to entertain the committee.
But another committee was said to have been set up, which comprises Olusegun Mimiko, Iyiola Omisore, Demola Folarin and Dare Babarinsa, which Adebanjo also refused to meet with.
Another effort towards reconciliation was also made, which involved the Fasoranti group and the Adebanjo group selecting five people each to broker a truce. It was however gathered that on the day the meeting was supposed to hold, Pa Adebanjo directed his loyalists not to attend.
Some members of the Fasoranti side reportedly met with Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State to intervene in the issue, which prompted the governor’s move sometime last year to reconcile Afenifere. But he was stylishly rebuffed.
It was also gathered that Mimiko, Bishop Ladigbolu and Arogbofa also attempted to reconcile the group but were also forced to jettison the effort.
These efforts could be what Mimiko referred to last Thursday when he disclosed to journalists after the meeting in Akure that all efforts and avenues had been explored to reconcile the group to no avail, hence the decision to abrogate the position of acting and deputy leader.
Genesis Of The Impasse
When Pa Fasoranti relinquished authority to Adebanjo, he must have done that on the basis that it was appropriate for him to yield ground for a more youthful and energetic person after 13 years in the saddle. However, the genuineness of his intention then could be questioned as there were more younger and energetic people within the group apart from Pa Adebanjo, who was also in his 90s then.
Since 2021, the organisation has been polarised along Fasoranti and Adebanjo factions with differences based on socio-political and socio-cultural ideologies. The Adebanjo faction has continued to maintain that since Pa Fasoranti has handed over authority, integrity and the ethos of Yoruba Omoluabi behooves on him to allow the new leader to function uninterrupted, while the faction loyal to Fasoranti insisted that the authority was delegated to Adebanjo in acting capacity and that the principle behind the leadership in Afenifere is until death.
Justifying his position that Afenifere remain a socio-political group, Adebanjo insisted that the principle behind the establishment of Afenifere was political during the First Republic when the defunct Action Group (AG) was the major party in the Western Region. But after the military coup of January 1966, all political parties were proscribed, which compelled AG to transform to a socio-cultural organisation. The Fasoranti faction, however, posited that Afenifere functions as a socio-cultural body, which warehouses all Yoruba persons in all political parties but with the sole agenda to seek the good, advancement and progress of Yoruba land and by large, Nigeria.
It held that since Yoruba are members of all political parties, it would not be appropriate to say that the organisation is affiliated solely to one party.
Another sharp division among loyalists of the two nonagenarians is the accusation by Adebanjo’s camp that the other faction is insincere and somehow dishonest. They were quick to recall that when the late Pa Abraham Adesanya, the predecessor to Pa Fasoranti, abdicated power, “Pa Adesanya never came out again to make public statement like Fasoranti is currently doing. Pa Adesanya left Pa Fasoranti to direct the affairs of Afenifere as he wanted.”
They also pointed out that when the former governor of Ondo State, Pa Adekunle Ajasin, abdicated power to Pa Adesanya as Afenifere leader, due to old age, the Second Republic governor never interfered in the leadership directives of Adesanya until he passed on.
They contended that Pa Fasoranti, who in his own wisdom and volition conceded leadership to Pa Adebanjo, cannot act contrary to what his two predecessors did when they handed over the mantle of leadership.
They also faulted Pa Fasoranti and his loyalists for saying that Afenifere is not political. “What did they say when the same Afenifere supported former President Goodluck Jonathan, a People’s Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate in 2015? Were they also not part of Afenifere when the organisation backed former President Muhammadu Buhari during the 2007 presidential election against the late President Umaru Yar’Adua? In 2019, the same Afenifere supported former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who was the candidate of PDP against Buhari.”
Those sympathetic to Pa Fasoranti, however, insist that neither Ajasin, Adesanya nor Fasoranti attempted to lead Afenifere astray like Adebanjo was trying to do. To them, Adebanjo cannot place the interest of other zones above that of the Yoruba.
Tinubu Factor In The Crisis
There are insinuations that President Tinubu may have had a hand in the latest development in Afenifere, especially the removal of Pa Adebanjo in acting capacity. The Organising Secretary of Afenifere, Abagun Kole Omololu, has, however, clarified that, “the development is not about Tinubu as you can see that not everybody in the committee has political affiliation. Pa Adebanjo and Senator Femi Okunrounmu and others were part of the committee. All we are after is the interest of Yoruba and Nigeria. I can tell you specifically that the Presidency knows nothing about it.”
He also dismissed, as unfounded, the allegation that some hawks, who have political ambitions and are looking forward to using Afenifere to negotiate for something with President Tinubu, were the ones that instigated Pa Adebanjo’s removal.
“That’s just a cheap blackmail and far from the truth,” he declared.
[Guardian]
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