Nigeria 2023: Tinubu’s Camp In Disarray As Afenifere Disowns South West Presidency

<p><em>Nigeria 2023<&sol;em><br &sol;>&NewLine;<strong><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">OpenLife Nigeria<&sol;a><&sol;strong> has gathered that Pan-Yoruba socio-cultural and political organisation&comma; Afenifere&comma; has said it was not desperate to have a Yoruba man as Nigeria’s president in 2023&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The group said it would rather favour a president that emerges from any part of the South&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The group’s position was in contrast with that of <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;reubenabati&period;com&period;ng&sol;">Yoruba Council of Elders &lpar;YCE&rpar;<&sol;a>&comma; which said it supported a president of Yoruba extraction&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The two leading Yoruba groups made their positions known during separate interviews on Friday with Saturday Sun&comma; following consultations being made by some APC governors&comma; which was exclusively reported by this newspaper last Saturday&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Special Adviser to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State on Development Agenda for Western Nigeria &lpar;DAWN&rpar;&comma; which is South West Affairs&semi; Mr&period; Adekunle Olayinka&semi; Special Adviser to Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State on Social Investment Programmes &lpar;SIP&rpar;&semi; Victor Kolade&semi; and Senior Special Assistant to Governor Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State&comma; Adesina Popoola&comma; and Chief Oladipo Oladosu&comma; a frontline politician in Osun State&comma; among others&comma; had met in Ibadan recently under the aegis of Next Level Consolidation Forum&comma; to ensure that South West is rock solid to produce the president for Nigeria in 2023&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;They insisted that presidential power must come to the South West in 2023&comma; and the acceptable person that the Yoruba would present for the office would be decided as time progresses&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;But in an interview with Saturday Sun&comma; National Publicity Secretary of Afenifere&comma; Mr&period; Jare Ajayi&comma; said&colon; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;First of all&comma; the presidency in 2023 must shift to the Southern part of the country&period; We insist on that&period; For whether it should be South East&comma; South South or South West&comma; we want the best person&comma; who will do the job&comma; correct all the anomalies that the country is going through&comma; and ensure that Nigeria move forward to where other countries are in the 21st Century and beyond&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;That is the kind of candidate that we are looking forward to&period; To be specific&comma; when we get close to that time&comma; we will decide&period; As far as we are concerned in Afenifere&comma; whoever that emerges as president in 2023&comma; will have problem in running the country if Nigeria is not restructured&period; There must be serious tinkering with the present structure in such a way that it will be pro-people&comma; rather than how it is now&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;There must be restructuring before 2023&period; The question of where the president will come from is secondary&period; But the president must come from the Southern part of this country&period; What we are running on the country today is more or less a unitary government&comma; which concentrates too much power at the centre&period; So&comma; we are calling for decentralization and genuine commitment to the rule of law and federalism&period; We are insisting that these must take place before the 2023 elections&period;”<br &sol;>&NewLine;Secretary-General&comma; YCE&comma; Dr&period; Kunle Olajide&comma; told Saturday Sun that he would be &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;very delighted if Nigerians decide to elect our kinsman as president in 2023 for a number of reasons&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;If you look at the landscape of Nigeria&comma; without being immodest&comma; Yoruba people appear to be the most liberal and most accommodating in Nigeria&period; Traditionally&comma; Yoruba culture is that at all times&comma; we must do what is right and you must insist on fairness and equity for all&period;”<br &sol;>&NewLine;Olajide stated further that the APC governors that have been making consultations should let the council know what they are doing&period; He added that the Yoruba that are interested in contesting for president in 2023 should come out clearly and declare their intention&period; This&comma; he said&comma; would allow the council to lend its weight to it&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Of course&comma; we will support it if we are all of the opinion and believe that the person has a national clout to emerge as president and to be embraced by all parts of this country&period; But we want to know who are the Yoruba people that are showing interests&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Olajide also commented on the preference of the council between restructuring and the election&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Personally&comma; and I know that is going to be the opinion of the council&period; We prefer restructuring or having a brand new constitution&comma; because whoever emerges as president will have idiosyncrasies&period; But the constitution is the grundnorm on which he has to work&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The preference of every Nigerian&comma; in my humble opinion&comma; should now be true federalism&comma; at least limit human frailties of whoever emerges as president&period; But election is a matter of the constitution&period; We will have the election in 2023 by God’s grace&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>&lbrack;Sun&rsqb;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;