Afenifere’s support for Obi receives commendation at home and abroad
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Afenifere leaders have received applause from a coalition of South East groups for declaring support for Peter Obi’s run for Aso Rock despite the presence in the race of Bola Tinubu from the South West.
The Yoruba in the South West have produced both the President and Vice President since Nigeria returned to democratic rule in 1999.
Ayo Adebanjo led other senior Yoruba leaders to announce the unprecedented support the South East at a press conference in Lagos on Monday to birth a New Nigeria of competent leadership through Obi.
The endorsement has received kudos and commendations from groups North and South as well as from Diaspora Nigerians and others on the international scene.
The Coalition of South-East Professional Network in Nigeria and Diaspora (CSEPNND) thanked Afenifere for its consistency, saying Ndigbo will never be ungrateful for the bold and courageous position which aligns with common sense and valued judgment.
“We, are overjoyed by the open endorsement of our illustrious son and candidate of the Labour Party (LP) for the 2023 Presidential election, Mr. Peter Obi, by a foremost socio-political organisation, Afenifere,” CSEPNND National President Chika Madumere, a Professor, said in a statement, per reporting by Vanguard.
“The endorsement did not come to the Coalition of South-East Professional Network in Nigeria and Diaspora as a surprise, considering the consistency of Afenifere on issues of equity, justice, fair play, restructuring, devolution of power, among other nation-building efforts.
“We make bold to say that, when the history of a New Nigeria is written, Afenifere and the entire Yoruba nation will occupy a pride of place, for refusing to maintain silence in the face of injustice, exclusion, and tortuous alienation.”
“About forty seven years after the much-touted “no-victor-no-vanquished declaration [after the civil war], the South East has continued to suffer alienation, exclusion, and relegation.
“This is despite Ndigbo’s visible commitment to a unified, prosperous, and progressive nation, considered blessed with human and material resources.
“While commending Afenifere, today led by the fearless Pa Adebanjo, we appeal to Nigerians, especially the voting population, to keep a date with history, by queueing behind the LP presidential candidate in next year’s poll.”
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Afenifere’s explanation for supporting Obi
“In this quest for peace, based on equity and inclusiveness, the Yoruba took the first turn at the zoning arrangement in 1999, and that led to the emergence of Chief [Olusegun] Obasanjo.
“The current Vice President [Yemi Osinbajo] is a Yoruba man and equity forbids us for presuming to support another Yoruba person for the presidency in 2023,” Adebanjo explained.
“The current President [Muhammadu Buhari] is a Fulani from the North West and by virtue of the zoning arrangement that has governed Nigeria since 1999, power is supposed to return to the South imminently.
“The South West, as I have pointed out, has produced a President and currently sits as VP, the South South has spent a total of 6 years in the Presidency, but the Igbo people of the South East have never tasted the Presidency in Nigeria, and now that the power is due back in the South equity demands that it be ceded to the Igbo.
“We cannot continue to demand that the Igbo people remain in Nigeria, while we at the same time continue to brutally marginalize and exclude them from the power dynamic.
“Peter Obi is the person of Igbo extraction that Afenifere has decided to support and back, he is the man we trust to restructure the country back to federalism on assumption of office.
“We will not compromise this principle of justice, equity and inclusiveness because one of our own Asiwaju Bola Tinubu is a frontline candidate.
“It is on this same principle, we condemn the PDP for sponsoring Atiku Abubakar, a Northern Fulani Muslim, to succeed General Muhammadu Buhari, another Fulani Muslim, who will soon complete 8 years of uneventful and disastrous rule.
“One can imagine such a high degree of political insensitivity.”
