When a knotty matter farts in your mouth and laces it with a pinch of salt, you don’t want to swallow the gas of the fart nor do you want to spit out the salt. To spit or not to spit? Dilemma!
In Africa, when young people quarrel, the elders weigh in to resolve matters. However, when elders have a dispute, everyone runs for cover, leaving the resolution to other elders and the traditional rulers. It is not in the place of the young to rein in their fathers.
That said, we are all passengers in this boat of life. The actions and inactions of Afenifere’s Chief Ayo Adebanjo and Pa Reuben Fasoranti can have ripple effects in my neck of the woods, the Southwestern part of Nigeria. Perhaps a dissection of the issues at stake will be in order?
‘Afenifere’ is a Yoruba word that can be translated as ‘well-wisher’, the Yoruba version of the Xhosa/Zulu ‘Ubuntu’, which can be described as a philosophy encompassing the essential human virtues of fellow-feeling, compassion and humanity. The original Afenifere was founded in 1950 by Chief Obafemi Awolowo and his colleagues. As Chief Ayo Opadokun notes, Egbe Omo Oduduwa, the Yoruba cultural organisation, had decided not to take part in politics and approved of Chief Awolowo’s pioneering efforts to form a virile political organisation,
Wikipedia describes the present day Afenifere as “a socio-cultural (I say socio-political) organisation for the Yoruba people of Nigeria, with Chief Abraham Adesanya as its leader and Chief Bola Ige as deputy leader. Other founding members were Pa Onasanya, Chief Reuben Fasonranti, Adegbonmire, Okurounmu Femi, Ganiyu Dawodu, Olanihun Ajayi, Olu Falae, Adebayo Adefarati, Alhaji Adeyemo and Ayo Adebanjo.”
Afenifere presents itself as the voice of the southwest of Nigeria, the same way the Ohaneze claims to speak for the Southeast, the Arewa Consultative for the North, the Middle Belt Forum for the Middle Belt, the Pan Niger-Delta Forum (PANDEF) for the South-South.
Afenifere is deeply political — so political that in 1998 when the Alliance for Democracy political party was formed, it adopted the Afenifere agenda as its official manifesto. A lot of water has since passed under the bridge. There has been an interplay of forces over the years. In November 2008, a faction of Afenifere in Ijebu Igbo, Ogun State, led by Chief Ayo Adebanjo, installed Chief Reuben Fasoranti as the new chairman of the group to the displeasure of leaders of the factional Afenifere Renewal Group (ARG).
According to Ayo Opadokun, “AFENIFERE remains the only one of its kind that precedes Nigeria’s political independence and has gone through circumstantial, existential, external treats, assaults and self-inflicted injury of fractionalisations, (Papa Fasoranti/Adebanjo; Late Senator Fasanmi; Senator Durojaiye; Afenifere Renewal) and still counting in spite of its current limitations over time.”
Chief Fasoranti was able to maintain cohesion and stability within the group until a couple of years ago when, in an act of true statesmanship, on account of old age (at 94), he stepped down from his leadership position and appointed Chief Ayo Adebanjo as Acting Leader. Adebanjo has been piloting the affairs of Afenifere since then, and he seemed to have been doing a good job of the assignment until the current crisis.
In Afenifere, younger elements are allowed to have their say, but the elders chart the navigational route. That style is based on the age-old wisdom that whereas a child can have more clothes than his elders, he cannot possibly have as many rags as they do.
So, what is the problem now?
Politics. Raw, ruthless, political acrobatics!
Chief Adebanjo is 94 years old, but he exudes the energy of a septuagenarian. I haven’t had the privilege of meeting either him or Chief Fasoranti one-on-one, but I think their lives are open books. Fasoranti has lived a full life of service to his people and is generally perceived as a man of integrity. Adebanjo is equally revered as a principled leader. Even those who accuse him of having a short fuse concede that they would rather buy a fairly used car from him than from his critics.
When Adebanjo announced to the world after an Afenifere meeting held in his Ijebu-Igbo home, that the socio-cultural group had thrown its weight behind the candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, many members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) were flustered. Some of them spun the yarn of Afenifere’s ‘irrelevance’ and ‘electoral worthlessness’ in the media. They said that the Afenifere group did not command more than the individual votes of its members.
But secretly, they were planning to undo the damage. Many of them brazenly resorted to ethnicity. The Yoruba saying, “Omo eni o le sedi bebere ka fileke sidi omo elomiran” (when you have a child with a rotund waist, you can’t be seen adorning another person’s child with your beautiful beads) became their sing-song.
In fairness, in a country where ethnicity has been brought to the centre-stage; in an environment where people tend to see themselves first as tribesmen and tribeswomen before considering their Nigerianness, it is tempting to succumb to the primordial pull of ethnicity.
Not Adebanjo. Having been involved in Nigerian politics since 1951, he has seen enough to know that justice is a handmaid of peace. Thus, he has always been steadfast in reaching out to other ethnic nationalities and encouraging collective action to ensure that everyone has a sense of belonging. In this connection, he canvassed that the Nigerian presidency be ceded to the Southeast zone which has not had the privilege of producing a president since the return of democracy in 1999.
The Tinubu camp has struck back by holding a well-publicised event in Chief Fasonranti’s Akure home at which the former Afenifere leader prayed for him. What attracted controversy was that the invitation to the event was issued by ‘Conscience of Yoruba Nation’, not by Afenifere. The bulk of the dignitaries present were high-level chieftains of the ruling APC from the Southwest zone, and were said not to be regular attendees at Afenifere meetings. So, although they gathered under the auspices of Conscience of Yoruba Nation, they claimed to be Afenifere after the event and issued a communique in Afenifere’s name.
Apparently, the goal was to give the impression of a split in Afenifere, as if there were now two factions led by Adebanjo and Fasoranti respectively. Some even floated the story that Pa Fasoranti had come out of retirement to resume his role as Afenifere leader. It was such an unkind sleight of hand to use on a 96-year-old man!
When he understood the unspoken intention of the politicians involved, Fasoranti caused a press statement to be issued by his Personal assistant, Adedapo Abiola: “I have Papa’s permission to announce that he didn’t say that Chief Ayo Adebanjo is no longer the acting leader of Afenifere or that all future Afenifere meetings should henceforth be held at his residence in Akure”, said Abiola.
In case there was any doubt, he added: “Papa’s main concern is the interest of the Yoruba in the complex political situation in Nigeria. It is also his concern that Afenifere should survive in dignity and remain a purveyor of the interest of the Yoruba race.”
There goes the Kabiyesi theory of Afenifere leadership!
Political analysts are not surprised. It is in the nature of politicians in desperate quest for power to throw everything — even their core socio-political fraternity — into the ring. Mercifully, Afenifere survived this one. There may be more to come.
To remove any doubt about where he stands, Chief Adebanjo reiterates his position in a quote made viral by Sunny Igboanugo:
“As you already know, I am already 94 years old. I’m already at the ’departure lounge of life… You will suffer, particularly the youths of this nation, if you fail to vote for Peter Obi. We know what we are saying. Like a thief, in the night, Tinubu made attempts to bribe some for endorsement. But he failed. The Obi-Datti choice has no money to spend, but they will spend ideas. Let Nigerians take up their thinking cap, forget ethnicity and vote for the Labour Party. Obi is the right man for the country.”
Now that Chief Fasoranti himself has confirmed that there’s only one Afenifere headed by Ayo Adebanjo, perhaps those who are trying to create the other ‘Afenifere’ will realise that a person who wants to survive an inferno shouldn’t be wearing a skirt made of dry grass.
- Wole Olaoye is a Public Relations consultant and veteran journalist. He can be reached on wole.olaoye@gmail.com, Twitter: @wole_olaoye; Instagram: woleola2021
