POLITICS: Afenifere, Tinubu and 2023 polls

The Yoruba have excellent wise sayings for every situation. The race puts you on the lane of circumspection and precautions with their apothegmatic remarks to help you take informed decisions in different circumstances. With their axioms at the back of your mind, you are never lost in taking rational decisions to guide your steps.

One of such axioms says: “Omo eni kii se’di bebere ki a fi ileke si idi omo elomiran.” (You don’t give to another man’s daughter the waist beads meant for your own daughter on account of her big waist).

The moral: do not cut off your face to spite your nose. It is not wise to give to someone else what your own deserves because you find a fault with your own.

Another adage says: “Omo eni kii buru titi, k’a fi f’ekun pa je.” (However obstinate your child may be, you do not cast him to the leopard to devour).

Again, the Yoruba teach self-restraint in times of anger. “Inu kii bi ‘ni ka gbe omo eni sinu eerun. Bi inu ba ro, inu eerun ko ni ro.” (You do not, in a moment of anger, dump your child into the colony of soldier ants. When your anger subsides, the soldier ants’ sting will not go).

For the pan-Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, this is the time to apply the race’s axioms for the welfare of the people. It appears that the organisation has so far violated these dicta in this electioneering period. It is doing so in utter insensitivity, and without sparing a thought for the future.

The puzzle is: should Afenifere reject a Yoruba presidential candidate and embrace an Igbo flag bearer?

Without mincing word, the ethnic mouthpiece, posing as a national platform, has unleashed a curious contradiction by deviating from the vision and practices of its illustrious founding fathers.

In a dimension, it smacks of ideological confusion that a regional progressive platform is protecting the interest of another region while jeopardising its own.

The highly decimated organisation has breached its own code. It has also forgotten its glorious past: its cherished history, antecedents, struggles, travails, exploits, vision, mission and its place in the Southwest and beyond, including Kwara, Kogi and Republic of Benin, where the Yoruba have kith and kin.

Afenifere cannot be insulated from politics. It is a regional socio-political group. All the chieftains of the group are politicians. They are expected to operate under the progressive umbrella, in accordance with the teaching of its indomitable progenitor, the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo.

But, in this political season, Afenifere, unlike in the past when it floated the Alliance for Democracy (AD) and later the Democratic Peoples Alliance (DPA) in the Southwest, is now “partyless.”

It is currently pursuing a divisive agenda in the region and setting an unusual precedent by identifying with a political tendency without first building a consensus at home.

Although Afenifere was formed principally to defend the interest of the Yoruba, and by extension, its sons and daughters, the group is trying to illogically tamper with the political interest of many of its members by assisting outsiders to attack their aspiration.

The position of Afenifere Leader, Pa Rueben Fasoranti, on the 2023 elections is never at variance with the opinion of the vast majority of Yoruba people. A role model and mentor, the elder statesman is not a leader who can deviate from the pursuit of the best for the race.

Fasoranti came as a unifier. He was given the mandate to deputise for the former leader, Senator Abraham Adesanya, when complaints about domination by the “Ijebu Mafia” filled the air. In post-Adesanya era, it was reasoned that the leadership of the group should “rotate” or be “zoned” to “Ekiti/Ondo axis”.

It is noteworthy that the old man of Akure and one of the finest Yoruba breed, an accomplished education statesman, incorruptible and selfless politician, and highly esteemed, reticent community leader, once resigned as leader of the group over what he called indiscipline.