GUEST COLUMNIST by Seun Kolade
When Afenifere recently announced its support for Peter Obi’s presidential candidacy, under the auspices of the labour party, not a few were taken by surprise, for various reasons. Perhaps the most vocal have been political associates and supporters of former Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the presidential candidate of APC. Tinubu’s supporters argued, in effect, that the fundamental principle of self-preservation dictated that Yoruba’s leading socio-political organisation must give support to “one of their own”, in spite of any grievances they may have about Tinubu’s flaws and past failings.
The argument went further: to discountenance Tinubu’s candidacy is to work against Yoruba interest. The logic of self-preservation advanced by Tinubu’s supporters, is peculiarly ironic, given Tinubu’s open and frequent repudiation of the Yoruba cause over the years. When Yorubaland reels under incessant attacks of terrorists and kidnappers, Tinubu said and did very little. Lagos state, which he still rules by proxy, is the least engaged of all the southwestern states in the collaborative efforts to combat terrorist activities in the land, including through the formation of Amotekun
In spite of all desperate efforts by his followers to whitewash his profile, the man has shown over the past decades that he is a ruthlessly ambitious operator who is ready to sacrifice anything and anyone in the pursuit of his personal ambition. He is interested in self-preservation only to the extent that it applies to his personal ambition. Yoruba Nation can go to blazes. In mocking the death of Fasoranti’s daughter and openly repudiating Yoruba causes time and again, he was deliberately ingratiating himself to the Northern power brokers who style themselves as the custodian of political power in Nigeria. This is the same with his incoherent response to the END SARS protest. Indeed, he probably consider the backlash to his silence and perceived complicity as a badge of honour with which he can woo the Northern political elite.
As for the so-called “OBIDIENTS” feeling pleasantly surprised with Afenifere’s endorsement of Obi, they easily forget that Afenifere has always taken a moral stand, often against the current of popular opinion. They warned against Buhari’s candidature back in 2015, when many unsuspecting citizens were swindled by a dubious narrative of a “born-again” General Buhari. They supported Jonathan on the basis of the latter’s support for a sovereign national conference, something that was ultimately undertaken too late to make a difference.
Afenifere is a human organisation with its own flaws and weaknesses, but on the most important issues of the day, it has demonstrated, time again, its moral authority and capacity to see through and beyond the artifices and machinations of temporary political considerations. It is the moral conscience, not only of the Yoruba, but the Nigerian nation. It has nothing to prove. And this is why the next point is important: Afenifere supports Obi’s candidacy not merely because he is Igbo, but because he is the one candidate that has openly and credibly committed to restructuring, and he is the only candidate with which Afenifere and the coalition of southern and middle belt leaders can work to achieve the restructuring of the Nigerian pseudo-federal nation-state.
