Afenifere Leader, Fasoranti, Blesses Tinubu

The presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu, on Sunday in Akure, Ondo State capital met with the leader of the Afenifere, Pa Reuben Fasoranti, to present his manifesto to the leader of the pan-Yoruba socio political group.

Tinubu, who was received at the Akure Airport went to meet Fasoran in company with Chief Bisi Akande among other top APC leaders.

Fasoranti, in a photo that was sent out immediately was seen placing his hand on the bare head of Tinubu and obviously praying for him.

This action is contrary to the position of the Acting Leader of the Afenifere, Pa Ayo Adebanjo, who said the group would support the Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, instead of Tinubu.

Adebanjo had said the Igbo should produce the president of Nigeria in 2023 based on the principle of fairness and justice.

He had said , “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 is a Yoruba man and equity forbids us for presuming to support another Yoruba person for the presidency in 2023.

“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.

The Afenifere leader 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.

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

“Afenifere has no apologies but due to the courage of our conviction that Nigeria can only prosper in righteousness.

“To keep Nigeria one, everyone should be Obi/Datti compliant.”