As the 2023 Presidential Election approaches, the Leader of Yoruba Cultural Group, Afenifere, Chief Ayo Adebanjo has once again reaffirmed that in the spirit of fairness, equity and togetherness, it is the turn of the South East to produce the next president in Nigeria.
Adebanjo, who stated this today at Wheatbaker Hotel situated in Ikoyi Area of Lagos berated the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), for giving its presidential ticket to Atiku Abubakar, a Fulani man, stressing that the party just demonstrated insensitivity for wanting a Fulani man to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari, a Fulani man.
Justifying his call for Igbo presidency, Adebanjo explained, “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 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 Northwest and by the zoning arrangement that has governed Nigeria since 1999, power is supposed to return to the south imminently.
“The southwest 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. The Igbo people of the South-East have never tasted presidency in Nigeria. 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 marginalize and exclude them from the power dynamic.
“Peter Obi is the person of Igbo extraction that Afenifere has decided to support and to back. He is the man we trust to restructure the country back to federalism on the assumption of office.
“We will not compromise this principle of justice, equity and inclusiveness because one of our own, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu is a frontline candidate.
“It is on this same principle, we condemn the PDP for sponsoring Atiku Abubakar, 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.
“On our part, we are certainly not alien to sacrificing personal interests in the quest for a national coalition to put Nigeria on the proper pedestal.
“In this regard, the starting point is southern solidarity for which we first enacted a handshake across the Niger, which had dovetailed to the Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum. We enjoin the labour movement, students, youth organisations, women associations, and every institution whose foundation is built on fairness and justice to join hands in this task of enthroning a democratic government by supporting Peter Obi.
“If we are sincere and honest about keeping Nigeria together in peace, the slogan henceforth should be to keep Nigeria one, everyone should be Obi/Datti compliant.’
“In the final analysis, let it be said that we have no apologies but due courage of our conviction that Nigeria can only prosper in righteousness.
For me, in the twilight of my sojourn on earth at 94, it is too late to derail me on the track of true federalism and national inclusiveness on which I have travelled for over 70 years of my life as one of the few surviving initial prophets. I prefer to ascend on a chariot of fire, fueled by justice and equity.”
