Afenifere, Obasanjo meet on preferred presidential candidate

The pan-Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere, yesterday held a closed-door meeting with former President Olusegun Obasanjo at his Abeokuta private residence.

Those in the team were Dr. Tokunbo Awolowo-Dosunmu, Senator Femi Okunrounmu, Prof. Banjo Akintoye, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, Dr. Amos Akingba, Hon. Oladipo Olaitan, Ayo Adebanjo and Modupe Adelaja.

There was no clue about what was discussed at the meeting but it might not be unconnected with the current political development in the country, particularly the emergence of President Muhammadu Buhari and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar as the leading presidential candidates in the 2019 elections.

The Afenifere’s spokesman, Yinka Odumakin, who spoke with journalists, said the group would soon announce to the public which of the presidential candidates they would support.

Even though Odumakin was evasive on who they would likely support between Buhari and Atiku, from what he said, it was certain that they would throw their weight behind Atiku.

He said: “The 2019 election is going to be interesting, the most important thing for us is restructuring and clearly you should know that Afenifere will always support a candidate that is ready to restructure the country because without restructuring, we are going nowhere.

“So, the choice is clear. We will make the announcement soon.

“Restructuring of the country is Atiku’s major campaign message while Buhari has often times stated that restructuring is not the major problem confronting Nigeria.

“Some few months ago, former President Obasanjo came to Lagos to visit Pa Ayo Adebanjo and we discussed some issues and today we are here too as well to visit him and appreciate his visit to Lagos the other time.

“We are trying to further the friendship so that there can be harmony in Yorubaland so that our people can know that leaders across divide are coming together to discuss the way forward.”