By Pa Ademisoye Alawode Awoyemi
The drama that happened at Akure, where the Presidential candidate of APC, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu went to be blessed by Pa Reuben Fasoranti has, in no small measure, further divided the AFENIFERE, and by implication, the strongest voice of the Yoruba race.
The Yoruba adage that if a household is peaceful, there is probably no bastard in that house or the bastard in the house has not grown up, came to my mind when the drama was unfolding. It seems to me that the Yoruba household has suddenly woken up to see the bastard in the household has grown to become a giant. That giant is now bent on destroying all the semblance of decorum and serenity in the household.
The Yoruba belief about omoluabi principle was thrown overboard and decency and circumspection were trampled upon in the ugly incident. Pity.
People suddenly lost their senses of reasoning. Lies were freely rationalised and truth lost its essence to illogical, irrational thinking.
People ought to ask themselves where is the faction of the Afenifere which Tinubu sponsored and financed in the years when Pa Fasoranti was actively leading that body? At what point did Tinubu once agreed with the Afenifere led by Fasoranti when he was actively leading Afenifere?
At that time, one Ekiti politician, Ayo Fasanmi was the leader of the Afenifere which Tinubu supported. Once the real Afenifere spoke, Tinubu’s Afenifere would counter it.
Everybody was informed when Pa Fasoranti willingly relinquished leadership of the group to Pa Ayo Adebanjo. The man had been calling meetings of Afenifere and he had been speaking for the group.
Those trying to vilify Ayo Adebanjo for backing Peter Obi have quickly forgotten the fact that the group had been saying the Presidency of Nigeria should rotate to Igboland, long before Pa Fasoranti surrendered leadership of Afenifere to Ayo Adebanjo.
It was Late Yinka Odumakin as the spokesman of the group, that first made this decision known. That Pa Adebanjo kept faith with this collective decision by supporting Peter Obi was because Obi was the face of Igbo’s search for the presidency in 2023.
Tinubu divided Afenifere under Pa Abraham Adesanya. He supported establishment of YCE. Not only that, he floated Afenifere Renewal Group. He also killed the Alliance for Democracy, the political wing of Afenifere and the party that gave him the ticket to become governor of Lagos.
The renewal group he created became weak when Yinka Odumakin retraced his steps back to the main Afenifere. Tinubu later floated another Afenifere in which Fasanmi was the leader. When he now needed the blessing of Afenifere, he went to bring back a retired leader to come and lead the group.
Pa Fasoranti knew Tinubu too well to fall for his divisive politics. Was this not the man who was defending the Fulani killers of Pa Fasoranti’s daughter. He said “where are the cows?” At the time people were mourning the killing of Pa Fasoranti’s daughter. Even when eye witnesses said those who killed the woman were Fulani.
Police investigation and eventual prosecution of the culprits proved Tinubu was wrong.
Tinubu is a man who would use anything to climb to his desired height. Immediately he reaches where he intends to reach, the ladder he rode to the top would be destroyed.
He would create another one and keep it to himself. Whoever in future desires to climb to the same height, must kowtow to him and climb on his terms.
The story of Solomon Grundy