The Congress for Rights of Ondo Nationalities, CROSN, has condemned self-styled promoter of “Ohanifere”, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, saying his actions are not driven by any nationalistic instinct, principle or altruism.
The rights group in a statement by its National Chairman, Abiodun Fanoro, and General Secretary, Tunde Aiyenumelo, warned that Chief Adebanjo is trying to deceive the Yoruba people and Nigerians to buy into his “vindictive and conspiratorial engagement with the South-East’s Ohaneze Ndigbo over the 2023 Presidential Election.”
CROSN, however, warned Chief Adebanjo to refrain from further taking undue advantage of the Yoruba cultural respect for elders in the pursuit of his narrow and selfish political enterprise.
It noted that Chief Adebajo had been noted for such selfish political enterprise since Asiwaju Bola Tinubu fell out with him in 2003, when Asiwaju was the Governor of Lagos State.
It stressed that Tinubu had refused to be cajoled to sell his state to then President Olusegun Obasanjo, who had successfully used the leadership of the Adebanjo-led faction of Afenifere to give Obasanjo the much needed home credence by buying over some South-West states for his second term bid.
The group added that what Adebanjo was touting as nationalistic ideology, principle of fairness, justice and equity, was “a continuation of his personal vendetta against the Buhari/Tinubu ticket in 2014, when Adebanjo used his faction of Afenifere vindictively to work against Buhari/Tinubu, while strongly backing then President Goodluck Jonathan in the 2015 presidential election.”
CROSN further revealed that Adebanjo had never forgiven Tinubu for the role he played in the emergence of late Pa Ayo Fasanmi’s faction of Afenifere and for remaining one of the main financier till today.
It noted that the self-acclaimed leader of Afenifere is also angry over the formation of the youth-wing of Afenifere Renewal Group, led by Asiwaju’s admirer and follower, Wale Osun.
The group said: “Is it not an act of mischief and malice pointedly directed against Tinubu and APC, when even Ohanaeze two days before the public unveiling of the Ohanifere contraption publicly said it was yet to adopt or anoint any presidential candidate (including Peter Obi) or any political party. So why is Pa Adebanjo crying more than the bereaved, if there is nothing personal and mischievous about the whole jamboree?”
CROSN further contended that all the years of Pa Adebanjo’s sojourn with Obasanjo, Jonathan and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, brought nothing but deficit to the Yoruba nation and her people, adding that there are no democratic dividends that could be pointed to.
According to the rights group, “Pa Adebanjo’s Afenifere made it its policy to work against Asiwaju Tinubu regardless of the presence of Yoruba’s interest, long time ago when Tinubu foresaw the dead end awaiting the Alliance for Democracy and led the move that resulted in the formation of the Action Congress, which metamorphosed into the Action Congress of Nigeria, fore-bearer of the All Progressives Congress. It urged Baba to stop pretending, and to realise that we his children are old and enlightened enough to know and access all these facts of history.”
“We thank God for the grace of healthy old age he is enjoying, but at the same time, he should apoligise to the Yoruba people that he failed to use this grace to attract any good thing, progress or development to the Yoruba nation. Baba should let the whole world know what dividends his years of misadventure with Obasanjo, Jonathan and the PDP, has attracted to the Yoruba nation. During the administration of Jonathan, Baba watched how the Yoruba nation was not in the first 15th position in the country. Enough of his politics of retribution, night is here!”
