PDP faults recent endorsement of Tinubu by certain Afenifere leaders calling it Gestapo-like

PEOPLES Democratic Party (PDP) election campaign officials have faulted the recent endorsement of the All Progressive Congress (APC) presidential candidate Asiwaju Bola Tinubu by several leaders of the Pan-Yoruba socio-political group Afenifere.

In February next year, Nigeria goes to the polls to elect a new president, with the ruling APC selecting former Lagos State governor Asiwaju Tinubu as its candidate and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) going for former vice president Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. Former Anambra State governor Peter Obi and ex-Kano State governor Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso are the candidates of the Labour Party and New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) respectively.

In the run-op to the polls, several Afenifere leaders have thrown their weight behind Governor Obi, saying it is only fair that Yorubas back him because he is of Igbo extraction. Although not constitutional, Nigeria's component parts have a gentleman's agreement that the presidency will rotate between the north and the south of the country.

President Muhammadu Buhari's tenure will end next year  and being a Fulani northern Muslim, it is expected that the next president will come from southern Nigeria. Since the return to democracy in 1999, the southwest has produced President Olusegun Obasanjo and the south-south President Goodluck Jonathan, so come 2023, the presidency should automatically go to the Igbo-speaking southeast geo-political zone.

Apparently, however, yesterday, Afenifere leader Pa Reuben Fasoranti and several other southwest leaders endorsed Asiwaju Tinubu. He was endorsed at a meeting which took place at Pa Fasoranti’s residence in Akure, the Ondo State capital, although several leading Afenifere members, including Pa Ayo Adebanjo and the general secretary Chief Sola Ebiseni, were absent from the meeting.

Reacting to the development, Dr Daniel Bwala, the Atiku/Okowa Campaign Organisation spokesman, said the absence of Pa Adebanjo and others was an indication that the endorsement was faulty. He also faulted the Afenifere leaders for inviting only Asiwaju Tinubu among all other presidential candidates to an event where they could have hosted frontline candidates and listened to their plans for the country.

Dr Bwala said: “In what seems like the crawling of a rat at night to steal meat from the pot, Tinubu paid a strange visit to Pa Fatoramti. Strange because it was not an organised setting of the usual meeting of the highly respected Afenifere, needless to say the leader of the group Pa Adebanjo and the secretary were obviously absent when he went to visit in a Gestapo manner.

“First off, the Afenifere we know has through their leader made known their position as to who they support and it was certainly not Tinubu. Secondly, if it were a meeting seeking to know the right person to support or endorse amongst the candidates it ought to have at least invited the leading candidates to hear their take on what plans they have for the country that caters to the interests of Afenifere.”

In addition, Dr Bwala also described Asiwaju Tinubu as a tribal evangelist. He said the former Lagos State governor’s comment that he would bring the trophy home, at the meeting was a clear ethnic insinuation and divisive remark.

“So to Tinubu, the race to become the president of Nigeria is a trophy to be won and taken to his ethnic enclave. He was not only wrong in his tribal insinuation that not a single Yoruba opposed the ticket but he also lied because lots of Yorubas took strong objections to the same faith ticket and to his divisive and religious politics.

“To say that his ticket is supported by all Yorubas is, to say the least disingenuous, false and condemnable. Tinubu has made no secret about his tribal championship and utter disregard for other ethnic people in southern Nigeria. This to say the least, is sad and terribly troubling and Nigerians should rise and condemn this rhetoric at the polls.”