•There’s an attempt to split Afenifere, says Adebanjo; Disagree over support for Tinubu, Obi

•Yoruba Ronu, The Patriots Roundtable hail Fasoranti for backing Tinubu

By Dayo Johnson & Dapo Akinrefon

A leadership crisis has rocked the pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, as Pa Reuben Fasoranti, yesterday, insisted that he remains the leader of the group.

But Pa Ayo Adebanjo, who took over from Fasoranti, alleged that there is an attempt to split the organisation.

Tinubu had visited Pa Fasoranti in Akure, weekend, where the former Lagos State governor was endorsed.

He also insisted on endorsing the candidacy of the Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, saying the organisation never endorsed the Labour Party, LP, candidate, Mr. Peter Obi.

How Fasoranti stepped down in 2021

It will be recalled that in March 2021, Pa Fasoranti stepped down as Afenifere leader, citing old age.

He also named the deputy leader, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, as the acting national leader of the group, while the former financial secretary, Oba Oladipo Olaitan, the Alaago of Kajola Ago in Atakumosa East Council Area, Ilesa, Osun State, was named the group’s deputy leader.

Fasoranti had said: “The development became necessary as the group needs, more than ever before, to have an improved organisation with a more effective approach to combat the monstrous invasion of our culture and pride as a people.

“Only a more alike and active leadership can achieve this. At 95 I am hardly able to provide such and so it is time for me to step aside.

“At this junction, I am proud to announce Chief Ayo Adebanjo, a politician of the Awolowo school of thought, as Acting leader of Afenifere and Oba Oladipo Olaitan, the Alaago of Kajola Ago in Atakumosa East Local Government Area, as the Deputy Leader.”

I remain Afenifere leader —Fasoranti

But speaking in a viral video monitored by Vanguard, yesterday, Fasoranti said: “I am still the leader of Afenifere. Afenifere has not endorsed Obi, we are endorsing Jagaban (Bola Ahmed Tinubu) for the presidency.

“You can see the trend, the approval and the acceptability. You could see what happened when Tinubu came to meet me in Akure. The media carried the whole thing.

“Adebanjo cannot warn me not to welcome Tinubu. Can he do that successfully?

“What happened was that Adebanjo took a stand and I took a stand. I didn’t call him and he didn’t call me. We never spoke about the visit.

“As you can see, Jagaban is accepted and we approve of him. Obi has no stand in our mind at all.”  

There’s an attempt to split Afenifere, says Adebanjo

But in a swift reaction, Afenifere leader, Pa Ayo Adebanjo, yesterday, faulted Bola Tinubu’s visit to Pa Fasoranti, saying the comments trailing it are an attempt to divide the group.

Speaking while appearing on Channels Television’s Politics Today, Pa Adebanjo, who earlier endorsed Peter Obi, said: “Nothing is going on other than an attempt to split Afenifere to which I will not be a party.

“It is a sort of conspiracy among those who want to see Afenifere divided. They have been on this plan for over a month ago and my members came to me to alert me about it and I said, ‘Don’t talk about it. It would be a diversion. All we want now is an election on issues.”

He said Pa Fasoranti had called to inform him about Tinubu’s planned visit adding that the former Afenifere leader was initially not open to receiving the APC candidate but he persuaded him to do so.

Adebanjo said: “I will tell you the story and I won’t go further. Pa Fasoranti phoned me on Friday that Tinubu had phoned him and that he wanted to come and see him and he wanted to say no. I said no, don’t do that, you are an elder statesman. If he wanted to see you, why not?

“As far as he is concerned, Obi’s endorsement is based on the principles of equity as the South-East has not produced a president since the return of democracy in 1999. Since the South-West and South-South have produced the president, he said it is the turn of the South-East.

“South-South has had its own and I said it is remaining the South-East.”

Yoruba Ronu, The Patriots Roundtable hail Fasoranti for backing Tinubu

Meanwhile, a Yoruba group, Yoruba Ronu, yesterday, hailed Pa Fasoranti for endorsing Tinubu.

In a statement by its chairman and Director of Communications, Prince Diran Iyantan and Steve Otaloro, respectively, the group said: “Pa Fasoranti has proven beyond doubt that the interest and the unity of purpose of the Yoruba come first before any other thing.

“Accordingly, Baba believes we are Yoruba before we are Nigerians. Therefore, the aspirations and wishes of the people of the Yoruba race should take pre-eminence at all times.

“That is what he has demonstrated by endorsing the candidacy of Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the coming presidential election.

“We thank him very much for throwing his weight behind Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as this is the wish and expectation of all Yorubas worldwide. This is complete radiance in the hearts of all sons and daughters of Oduduwa”

“This singular action of the leadership of the Afenifere group has deepened the sense of the average Yoruba man on the unity of the Yoruba race.

“Pa Fasoranti’s action has renewed our hope in the existence of the common interest of the Yoruba for a better tomorrow for the Yoruba and all Nigerians.”

“Indeed, we, at Yoruba Ronu, also project the view that Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is best placed to win the presidential election. This was the reason we are the first group to declare our support for him immediately he declared his intention to run for the presidency”, it stated.

Similarly, a group, The Patriots Roundtable, yesterday, said Pa Reuben Fasoranti has given Tinubu the deserved home-based approval noting that without recognition from your home base, a politician is without value.

In a statement by its National Coordinator, Uthman Shodipe-Dosunmu commended Fasoranti for endorsing Tinubu for the 2023 presidential election.

The statement reads: “We are not surprised with the pivotal decision of Chief Reuben Fasoranti, Leader of Afenifere, who stands in firm nobility of purpose; stern and steady; true to himself, true to his people and true to a great ideal. He has chosen to embrace his own. He has chosen to embrace the Asiwaju. It is the right thing to do.

“Like all enlightened partisans in the political fray, we at the Patriots Roundtable acknowledge the old aphorism that all politics is local. One must start from home. One must first be defined by local reckoning. Without recognition from your home base, the politician is without value, without a necessary wider substantiation.

“Chief Fasoranti has given the Tinubu Presidential Ticket this deserved home-based approbation which is necessary to galvanize the larger national embrace.

“We take cognizance of the fact that the Yoruba Patriarch and the Leader of Afenifere is a man of principled, decisive candour.

“Chief Fasoranti is a leader who is woven in a rare moral gravitas that no money can purchase, that no power can intimidate into untoward complicity.

“Fasoranti is a study in emblematic quiet strength; persistent and unyielding, defiant of those who will steer the fortunes of the Yoruba people to a narrow, provincial, unproductive goal.”