Ayo Adebanjo, the acting Leader of Afenifere, the pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, has lambasted President Muhammadu Buhari, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, and Bola Tinubu for their political opportunism and selfish-interests.
Referencing Mr Tinubu’s 2023 presidential ambition, even though the so-called national leader of the All Progressives Congress has not publicly declared his ambition, Mr Adebanjo asserted that the dream would fall through.
The new Afenifere leader also slammed Mr Tinubu and Mr Osinbajo as two-faced politicians for failing to advocate restructuring under Mr Buhari’s regime.
“But they are deceiving themselves that Buhari would hand over to him (Tinubu) since they supported him (Buhari),” said Mr Adebanjo. “I have said it openly before, and I would say it again that Buhari is deceiving Tinubu and Tinubu is deceiving Buhari.
“If Tinubu contests the primary in APC today, he will fail.”
In an interview published by Punch on Sunday, Mr Adebanjo derided the so-called gentleman agreement between Mr Tinubu and the president.
He explained, “I’m not telling you what people say. I want you to write what I say and when it happens, let us see who is right. People talk about an agreement between them, but Buhari is deceiving him, and he (Buhari) has an agenda of his own. All the time we have been shouting that Nigeria would break, what has Buhari said? What has he said to assuage those fears or to tell people it won’t happen?
“We just have to keep talking. That is why people are being killed, and he sits in the Aso Rock. People were killed and kidnapped, and he said we should make friends with our neighbours, and another time, it was to appease kidnappers with government money. We are all witnesses. Why are we all living in denial? If the people in government are living in denial, what about the victims? If you live in denial, you will die in it. Young people won’t say Adebanjo didn’t warn them.”
Mr Adebanjo also accused Mr Buhari of planning the complete takeover of the country by Fulani, attributing the rampaging of killer herdsmen across the country, particularly in the southern part of the country, to the president’s private agenda even though Mr Buhari had clearly stated in his inaugural speech in 2015 that he belonged to nobody and everybody.
“If it’s not living in denial, (Governor Rotimi) Akeredolu asked herdsmen to vacate Ondo state forests reserved because of kidnapping and rape. They tried to change the narrative that he said Fulani people should leave the West. When they are talking like that, they don’t refer to the offence their people have committed. That is why I said Buhari has a private agenda.
“If people can’t see, I have said enough. If people don’t make the government realise that they are no fools, they would be taking them for a ride. But some people kept quiet because they were getting the crumbs on the table,” added Mr Adebanjo.
Concerning the vice president, the Afenifere leader expressed his disappointment about Mr Osinbajo’s volte-face regarding restructuring. He disclosed that Mr Osinbajo’s father was a vocal advocate of restructuring Nigeria, and Mr Osinbajo too was a staunch advocate of restructuring until he became the vice president.
Said Mr Adebanjo, “The vice-president and Tinubu are in the same boat. They are a product of restructuring. The current vice-president, who was the Commissioner for Justice and Attorney General of Lagos state, took the government of (former President Olusegun) Obasanjo to court over the local government funds, and he won the case up to the Supreme Court.
“What has changed now? That is the man who now turns around to say, what do you mean by restructuring? Some of them even said those of us who are asking for restructuring are looking for a job. When I told him that his father and me were followers of Awolowo, he has not answered me. He was born into it, and he emphasised it as the Attorney General. Has the situation changed now that he is in Aso Rock, or there is something in the Aso Rock that turns their mind?”
