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Osinbajo, Obasanjo Are Reasons Why Afenifere Won’t Support Tinubu, Atiku – Adebanjo

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VP Osinbajo, Obasanjo Are Reason Why Afenifere Won't Support Tinubu, Atiku - Adebanjo
Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, Yemi Osinbajo and Ayo Adebanjo
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The leadership of Afenifere has revealed that Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and former President Olusegun Obasanjo, are the reasons why the pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation would not be supporting presidential candidates from other regions of the country other than the South-East.

Naija News reports that Afenifere had months ago declared their backing for an Igbo presidency in the 2023 elections.

The Southwest group was, however, criticized for its decision which many described as unnecessary.

However, in a statement made available to newsmen on Monday, September 26, Afenifere leader, Chief Ayo Adebanjo explained categorically why the socio-cultural group has decided to support Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, against the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

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Adebanjo reiterated in the statement that neither Tinubu nor the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, would be supported by Afenifere.

Afenifere according to Adebanjo, stood on justice and fairness and believe in true federalism and the Federal Character principle.

The Afenifere leader recalled that he was lampooned following his public declaration that the group is not in support of Tinubu or Atiku’s ambition. He said some Yoruba leaders, in particular, questioned his action for promoting the Igbo presidency rather than Tinubu, a Yoruba man.

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Adebanjo said it took him time to explain to those criticizing him that the presidency is not a contest between the Yorubas and the Igbos.

“But ever since, social media has been filled with comments tending to ethnicise the campaign instead of making it issue-based. Afenifere has, therefore, decided to address you today and through you educate the public on the ideological and equitable principles which have influenced our decision,” he said.

Obasanjo And Osinbajo Are Why Afenifere Won’t Support Tinubu Or Atiku

Explaining his statement on why Tinubu cannot be supported, Adebanjo said Afenifere and the Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum had before now unanimously proposed that the minimum condition for a peaceful transition from the disastrous eight years of Buhari’s government headed by a President of northern extraction was to have the next President from the South.

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He noted the position was supported by southern governors, irrespective of their political parties.

He recalled that the Southwest had taken the first turn at the zoning arrangement in 1999 when the country was led by Chief Olusegun Obasanjo. He also noted that the current Vice President is a Yoruba man and equity forbids us them to presume to support another Yoruba person for the presidency in 2023.

Adebanjo said: “The current President 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 six years in the Presidency, but the Igbo people of the South-East have never tasted 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 marginalise and exclude them from the power dynamics.

Adebanjo, therefore, condemned the ceding of the PDP presidential ticket to “a Northern Fulani Muslim to succeed General Muhammadu Buhari, another Fulani Muslim, who will soon complete eight years of uneventful and disastrous rule. One can imagine such a high degree of political insensitivity.”

He stressed that the group would not jettison equity, inclusiveness and justice just because one of their own [Tinubu] was in the contest.

“We will not compromise this principle of justice, equity and inclusiveness because one of our own Asiwaju Bola Tinubu is a frontline candidate,” Adebanjo said.