Peter Obi: Afenifere Sec-Gen Reveals How Yoruba Leaders Sanctioned LP Candidate

…Says Fasoranti Blessed Tinubu In Personal Capacity

The Secretary General of Afenifere, Sola Ebiseni, has explained how the apex Yoruba socio-political group arrived at its decision to endorse Peter Obi for the 2023 presidency and why Bola Tinubu’s endorsement by Pa Reuben Fasoranti cannot be ascribed to the group.

Ebiseni said reports alleging that the current Afenifere leader, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, announced Obi’s endorsement without the approval of the decision-making organ of the organization were false.

He stressed that the recent meeting where Fasoranti endorsed Tinubu, the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, was convened at the instance of a group known as the Conscience of Yoruba Nation (COYN) and not the Afenifere.

“I was here some time ago to disabuse the minds of Nigerians about the lies being peddled around that the endorsement of Peter Obi was a unilateral decision of Chief Ayo Adebanjo,” Ebiseni said during an Arise TV interview monitored by THE WHISTLER on Tuesday.

“By the grace of God, I am in a position to speak on what Afenifere has been doing in the last close to two years. The first root toward taking a decision (on who to endorse for president) was charted by one of our leaders, Senator Femi Okunrounmu on the 29th of July, 2021. Serious and rigorous debates (were held) …. sometimes we do not agree because Afenifere is constituted by people of diverse political interest.”

Ebiseni said unlike the “2 hours of Jamboree” referred to as Tinubu’s endorsement by Yoruba leaders, Obi’s endorsement by Afenifere underwent a rigorous process.

“Is that an endorsement? baba (Fasoranti) has the power to bless anyone…but it does not distract the decision that Afenifere has taken by endorsing Peter Obi,” he said, noting that the socio-political organization picked Obi as its candidate after a series of meetings held for 14 months. “The decision of Afenifere was finally announced at a press conference on the 26th of September 2022. The press conference was addressed by Chief Ayo Adebanjo and all of us were present.”

He added, “The meeting that was held in Akure (where Tinubu was endorsed) was not an Afenifere meeting. In Pa Fasoranti’s house, we have a tradition, when an important guest is to visit Pa Fasoranti, he will call some of us (who are) his immediate political children (and) some are residents of Ondo State.

“…those who met with Pa Fasoranti in Akure are two groups. Those who would normally sit with baba (Fasoranti) — Chief Olu Falaye, Chief Seinde Arogbofa, and Chief Korede Duyile — were there on baba’s side. The rest that you saw were government officials, including deputy governors of Ondo, Ekiti, and Oyo, and national leaders of APC, Chief Bisi Akande, Iyiola Omisore, and Chief Olusola Oke who does not subscribe to the Afenifere. They were all there supporting the presidential candidate of their party, Tinubu. It was not an Afenifere meeting.

Ebiseni recalled that Fasoranti had transferred the leadership of Afenifere to Adebanjo after he realized that he was no longer physically fit to lead the group, hence the former cannot be said to be the leader of the group but “more or less a ceremonial leader”.

According to him, 95-year-old Fasoranti then tasked Adebanjo with the responsibility of ensuring that attempts by a section of the country to “monopolize power” is not allowed for the sake of justice and peace in the country.

“He (Fasoranti) now says at ‘at 95, I am hardly able to continue (and) to that extent, I have found in us a man – using his words – who has been in the trenches all his life. He said Chief Ayo Adebanjo would from now take over from me and he would be assisted by a deputy, Oba Olaitan, and he charged us to ‘give them more support than you have ever given him’, and that ‘I remain Afenifere for life’. Baba never said he remained the Afenifere leader.

“And since then, the structure of Afenifere is that its decisions are taken at three different levels. One, is a national Exco, that prepares the agenda for the national caucus and then the general meeting of the Afenifere congress. From that day on, all those meetings shifted to Ayo Adebanjo, at whose instance the meetings are held and he presides over those meetings in his house.”

Ebiseni warned that if either Tinubu or Atiku should win the 2023 presidential election, the nation would be setting a trajectory of rotation of power between the Yoruba and Fulani ethnic groups.

“Peter Obi’s candidacy is a revolution to change Nigeria, it is part of the restructuring, that Nigeria would be restructured in such a way that every ethnic nationality will have a sense of belonging. And let me tell you, the youths know this better than you are.

“Peter Obi is a metaphor for South-South, a metaphor for the South-East, and a metaphor for the Middle Belt. Goodluck Jonathan’s presidency was an aberration, If Yar’Adua had not died, nobody would have gone to the creeks of Bayelsa State to pick Jonathan,” he added.