The pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, yesterday, tackled former Osun State governor, Bisi Akande who said the Yoruba group is dead.
Reacting to Akande’s comments, Afenifere’s National
Publicity, Prince Justice Faloye, the Yoruba group is not dead but evolving
across generations.
Recall that Akande, in a recent interview with Edmund Obilo,
said that former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation,
late Bola Ige, created Afenifere, noting
that the assassination of Ige in 2002 saw the death of the Yoruba group.
Akande had said: “That was the beginning of the crack ( in
Afenifere) but the end came with the death of Bola Ige. The death of Bola Ige
was the death of Afenifere. He found it and he took it away.”
When the interviewer said, “But Afenifere is not dead,” Akande
said, “I don’t know, but it is not the Afenifere we formed.”
However, Faloye, in a statement titled ‘Afenifere can never
die’, dismissed Akande’s comments insisting that the former National Chairman
of the All Progressives Congress, APC, departed from Afenifere’s ideological
position.
The statement reads: “Afenifere is not a human being with
limited lifecycles, but a universal philosophical essence of Justice and
egalitarianism that must undergo rebirth, to address current generational
issues.
“The concept and political space of Afenifere of ‘Abundance
for All’ will always be relevant, especially in democratic dispositions. What
we are currently seeing is the ideological shifting of chaff from wheat.
“Afenifere started 71 years ago but following the coup and
military rule, it temporarily became a socio-cultural group since all political
agencies are banned under military rule. But once Nigeria returned to democracy
in 1979 and 1999, those with social democratic and welfare ideals created
political parties to get power in order to fulfil those egalitarian ideals.
“In 1979, Afenifere created the Unity Party of Nigeria, and
in this current disposition, it was instrumental in creating the Alliance for
Democratic, AD, Social Democratic Party, SDP.
“What has been happening in this current disposition can be
traced back to Afenifere rebirth in the ‘90s agitation for democracy, when due
to political expediencies under General Ibrahim Babaginda (retd), Afenifere was
forced to align with various people to avoid banning.
“Unfortunately, some of the new entrants like Tinubu never
shared the Afenifere ideology but joined the ranks in their quest for power,
pretending to be progressive welfarists and social democrats. Upon getting to
power in 1999, these pseudo-Afenifere began to show their true character and
departed from Afenifere ideological position.
“By 2003, Tinubu as Lagos Governor officially broke ranks
with the real Afenifere, which involved some people moving away to form
factions that were Afenifere in name but not character. In every election cycle
ever since then, those with prebendalistic ambitions join Tinubu which is
practising dictatorial neo-liberal economics, instead of social democratic
welfare economics according to the name of Afenifere.
“They deceitfully replaced Afenifere political ideology and
identity with a socio-cultural tag of ethnic irredentism to explain away their
selfish prebendalism of Awalokan. It is about them and their families
converting and sharing our commonwealth, not about empowering and uplifting the
common man.
“However, as some leave, more informed knowledgeable and
pro-people younger people are rising to push Afenifere egalitarian ideals as
dictated and empowered by Ayo Adebanjo and Oba Oladipo Olaitan.
“So when the likes of Bisi Akande say Afenifere is dead, he
is talking about the passion for the people of some in his Prebendalist
generation dying, not Afenifere, the ideology and political space. Afenifere is
currently evolving and being purified to take control of our manifest destiny
to uplift the greatest amount of people ever.
“Afenifere like the world and universe can’t die but will
continue evolving in generational cycles to higher levels of political
evolution and existence.
“Afenifere is by no means dead but evolving across
generations. We have the tutelage of elders like Prof Onigbinde, Shonibare and other notable personalities
that grew under the tutelage of the likes of Awolowo, Bola Ige and Baba
Adesanya. Afenifere lives on.”
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