‘You Are Arrogant’ – Afenifere Slams Northern Elders Over Comment On Southern Presidency

The pan-Yoruba sociopolitical organisation, Afenifere, has berated the Northern Elders Forum over its comment on the Southern governors’ demand for power shift in 2023.

The Northern Elders Forum (NEF) had warned the governors to stop demanding that the presidency must return to the south in 2023.

Instead, the NEF asked the governors to give convincing reasons and present the right candidate before the North can support a Southern president.

But in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Jare Ajayi, Afenifer maintained that NEF and the other Northern groups were hypocritical in asking the governors not to make demands.

The group also berated NEF for saying that the positions held by the Southern governors on the 2023 presidency and open grazing were undemocratic.

The statement reads: “If anything, it is their position that is undemocratic. It is a fact, for instance, that by 2023, the North would have been in power for eight years consecutively. What is wrong in letting the South also produce the president if only to ensure equity and fairness?

“They know very well that the intensity of insecurity in the North is far greater than in the South. Furthermore, they know that the power to control government agencies that could checkmate insecurity is not in the hands of the governors. 

“So, asking them to face insecurity issue only is to be unfair to them, especially when it is known that it is the power at the centre that is hampering the governors’ efforts at dealing with insecurity in their respective states.”

Afenifere also slammed some Northern groups’ claim that they would not concede the presidency to the South unless the Southern governors go back on their resolve to ban open grazing.

“The condition being given by these Northern elements is even contradictory. They are asking Southern governors to tackle insecurity on the one hand and on the other, they are asking them not to ban open grazing when it was crystal clear that open grazing is one of the major causes of insecurity in the country presently. How more hypocritical can a set of people be?” 

It said the “retrogressive mindset” that was reflected in the statements credited to the Northern groups was the reason why restructuring must take place, and soon. PANDEF insists on power shift Also, the South-South socio-cultural umbrella group, PANDEF restated its support for power shift to the South in 2023 and threw its weight behind the Southern governors on their decision to ban open grazing, urging Northern leaders to wake up to the modern reality of ranching,” he said.