Afenifere chides Tinubu over lopsided federal appointments in favour of Yoruba 

The Pa Ayo Adebanjo-led Pan Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere, on Friday, cautioned President Bola Tinubu over his bias and preference for Yoruba in federal appointments.

The group warned that such development could threaten inter-ethnic relationships and peaceful co-existence in Nigeria.

A statement made available to the media and endorsed by Adebanjo and the National Publicity Secretary, Prince Justice Faloye, condemned the development, just as they insisted that President Tinubu should correct the anomaly.

The group submitted that it is wrong for the people to link Tinubu’s style of governance to the generality of the Yoruba as stated in a write up authored by one Dr. Ugoji Egbujo and published in the October 26, 2024, edition of Vanguard newspaper.

The statement reads: “Afenifere is for all humanity to be treated with equity, and in Nigeria with 370 ethnicities, we can never condone the outrageous bias by President Tinubu to make Yorubas head of all arms of the criminal justice system (EFCC, DSS, Attorney General and Chief Justice); the economy (Coordinating Minister of the economy, CBN, Finance, Blue Economy, Digital economy, Trade, Industries and Investment, Bank of Industry, Solid Minerals); as well as the Forces (army, police, customs, immigration).

“We Yorubas are not that insecure or imperialistic to covet such a monopoly of power. Afenifere can’t use several decades to fight against Fulani hegemony only to support Yoruba or any other hegemony.

“Afenifere that bitterly complained of former President Muhammadu Buhari’s Northern hegemony can’t remain mute on ethnic hegemony, as being perpetrated by Tinubu.

“Buhari was accused of bias for North, with three regions, not to talk of Tinubu’s bias not for the South, but a single ethnicity and single region.

“Our progenitor, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, once threatened to curse anyone that tied Afenifere to Yoruba only. Till today, the proof of Afenifere is in its agitation for equity and prosperity for all, not cuddling with select rich and powerful for selfish benefits.

“Afenifere has clear-cut principles of being social democrats and not autocratic leaders. So, what President Tinubu’s government is doing politically and economically is not in the name and support of Afenifere and Yoruba people.

“By the virtue of our name, Afenifere, meaning those that want good for all humans, and as Omoluabi Yorubas, we won’t support any government that engages in undemocratic practices. Nor would we support a government whose first year pushed over 14 million people into poverty with anti-people policies.”

“President Tinubu is no stranger to Afenifere, but having backed him into power in 1999, and witnessed his 24-year precedents in Lagos, it would have been wicked and morally irresponsible to support him into power as President.

“This was why the true Afenifere supported the presidential candidate of Labour Party, Mr. Peter Obi, and was in charge of his presidential campaign headed by Akin Osuntokun, an Afenifere chieftain. Peter Obi’s greatest supporters were Baba Adebanjo, Afenifere leader and ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo. So it will be morally disingenuous to hold Yorubas accountable for the unraveling unforced errors of President Tinubu.

“Afenifere is disappointed by the moral disingenuity of many commentators that mix up Afenifere by ignoring Chief Reuben Fasonranti’s public letter of resignation signifying a smooth leadership transition to Chief Ayo Adebanjo and his deputy Oba Oladipo Olaitan, only for the retired leader to choose to follow President Tinubu in breach of the policy he left behind.

“This is not a new occurrence because ever since Tinubu’s betrayal of Afenifere principles once we empowered him into office, he has always sought, at every election cycle, to chip off the block of Afenifere for moral capital. However, the core of Afenifere remains steadfast to its principles and evident to all who genuinely care to know.”

The group added that just as President Tinubu has ignorantly disrupted and crashed the economy with removal of subsidies and devaluation of the naira, “he is ignoring the careful balance of power between ethnicities used to ensure peace and stability.”

Afenifere said though the creation of the Southwest Development Commission is appreciated, “Mr. President fails to understand that the Niger Delta Development Commission and Niger Delta Ministry were special concessions to an area that provides the mainstay of our economy, and suffers environmental degradation, to pacify the long economically disruptive agitations of Niger Delta militants.”

The group added: “The creation of other regional development commissions should never have interfered with the delicate Niger Delta ecosystem.

“The cancer of an ineffective constitution and electoral system that has arrested the economic and political development of Yoruba city state, Lagos and Yorubaland for the last 24 years has now metastasised to take over Nigeria. Like in Lagos, Tinubu’s governance format has been government of Tinubu by Tinubu for Tinubu. So, rather than blaming fellow victims, we Nigerians should understand that Tinubu’s  agenda is a one party state dictatorship.

“Though it was successful in Lagos, thanks to import and export business that kept Lagosians barely economically afloat, the process will engulf and destroy Nigeria with mindless economic policies and undemocratic practices.

“Ultimately, we call on all Nigerians to support our agitations for restructuring to true federalism and against local government autonomy being planned to take total control towards a one-party state.”