History seems to show that the Yoruba Nigeria just love to court unnecessary controversy. While there is nothing wrong with having differences in opinions or even disagreements and preferences, the group goal should still be sacrosanct.
In 1951, the Ibadan People’s Party, led by Adisa Meredith Akinloye, joined forces with Obafemi Awolowo’s Action Group to gain the majority in the Western Nigeria House of Assembly to form the government of Western Nigeria.
The result of that alliance is the spectacular performance of the Awolowo Administration in the concluding years of colonialism and that of his successor, Ladoke Akintola, who was Premier throughout the First Republic.
But when the amity between Awolowo and Akintola broke down, the Yoruba lost the paradise that they had gained through schisms, infighting and intrigues that took the sails out of the winds of their meteoric progress.
After Akintola joined forces with the political machine of the Fulani oligarchs of Northern Nigeria, he, Awolowo and the Yoruba descended into political turbulence. While Awolowo was jailed, after a spell at the Lekki Peninsula, Akintola’s became a pariah, until he eventually lost his life in the unfortunate bloody military coup of January 1966.
The Afenifere is now travelling that route of destruction, reminiscent of the house that Jesus Christ says would fall because it is divided. The first civil war in the Afenifere house resulted in the Afenifere Renewal Group, an intellectual half-child that is yet to mature.
The next was the special-purpose vehicle that made nonagenarian Deputy Leader Ayo Adebanjo, the acting leader of Afenifere, when it seemed the older nonagenarian, Reuben Fasoranti, was becoming frail because of old age.
No sooner than the acting leader assumed office that divisive forces reared their heads in the House of Oodua. They could not borrow a leaf from the Vatican model that found a way to accommodate Pope Benedict XVI, who resigned for his successor, Pope France, to emerge.
Until Pope Benedict died in 2022, there were no open altercations between the two popes. But it looks as if the two nonagenarian leaders of Afenifere are being manipulated by followers for desperate upmanship gains unbeknownst to them.
Clearly, some mischief makers are profiting from making the Yoruba king dance naked in the market square, as the tug-of-war led the Fasoranti group to abrogate Adebanjo’s acting leader position, while Afemifere’s National Publicity Secretary, Gboyega Adejumo, insists that Adebanjo remains acting leader.
For emphasis, Adejumo added: “The General Assembly made (Adebanjo) the (Acting) Leader. And the General Assembly made him (Acting) Leader. And the General Assembly is the most powerful organ of Afenifere. We have the General Assembly, the Caucus, and the EXCO, and none of them is with Pa Fasoranti.”
The Afenifere, in line with its Yoruba antecedent, wisely deployed a diplomatic move by creating the Elders’ Caucus to replace Ayo Adebanjo, while allowing Fasoranti to hold on to the honorific, but probably none-executive, position as leader.
You will recall that Pope Benedict XVI retained the title of Pope Emeritus that he chose to be called till his death. But there was no time that he, or his handlers, came to “drag” the power and authority of the pope with Pope Francis. Though one should think the leader is the alpha.
As the confusion in Afenifere rages on, the Fasoranti group meets in the Akure home of Fasoranti in Ondo State, while the Adebanjo faction meets in Isanya Ogbo near Ijebu Ode in Ogun State.
The Adebanjo faction recently took an unexpected step by appointing Dele Farotimi, an activist and political ally of Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party, as its national organising secretary.
The Fasoranti group is yet to react to this new twist, which suggests that the Ayo Adebanjo faction does not enjoy the consensus as an authentic custodian of the bureaucracy and authority of the Afenifere.
Well-meaning Yoruba should please step in so that this unfortunate and unnecessary standoff will end soon. Afenifere still appears to be the rallying point that can harmonise the collective objectives of the Yoruba.
If the Afenifere is united, it may give a helping hand to the Development Agenda of Western Nigeria that appears to be struggling under the weight of negligence by South-West governors, who seem to regard it as a rival “supranational” authority.
The discordant tunes emanating from the leadership of the Afenifere are getting to a crescendo, like the “bata” drum that is on its way to burst open, with the incessant high tempo beatings from the drumsticks of a frenzied drummer.
While the Adebanjo faction claims that the Afenifere is a socio-political organisation, the Fasoranti group insists that the organisation is socio-cultural in nature. These diametrically opposing views send confusing signals throughout the Yoruba nation.
Again, while the Adebanjo group is asking for the release of Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra separatist movement, the Fasoranti group is silent, as if it had no opinion on the matter that affects the political wellbeing of the Igbo and the harmony of Nigeria.
Everyone will remember that during the 2023 general election, the Adebanjo faction endorsed Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, and the Fasoranti faction (probably poured libation as it prayed for) and endorsed Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress.
Both camps still maintain opposite (and possibly antagonistic) positions without repentance or the possibility of a reproachment. They act as if they were political parties with ideological differences. But commendably to their credit, there are no visible signs that either of the factions gained any political or financial advantage from the government of President Tinubu.
It is probably time for leading Yoruba kings to step in to end this appearance of what the Yoruba themselves describe as a situation where two farthings, or quarters of a penny, will never agree. The Yoruba of Nigeria needs to get their acts together.
To reconcile these (not exactly feuding) elders, it will have to be the kings, the institutions of elders among the Yoruba, who can ably straighten the head of the child drooping from the neck as it sits on the back of its mother.
Oba Enitan Ogunwusi, Ooni of Ile Ife, may have to call on his collective of Yoruba kings for another flund of shuttle diplomacy to end the misunderstanding between the Afenifere factions. There is no doubt that his charm offensive works, considering the speed that Attorney Afe Babalola took in withdrawing the suit he caused the government to institute against Farotimi.
One just hopes that Farotimi’s quip for a prophet’s offering, whatever that may mean, will not lead to a renewal of Babalola’s fury and another excuse for a return to the courts to file another case for redress against Farotimi, who may end in goal once again.
Back to the subject at hand: The traditional institutions of Yorubaland should swiftly end this seemingly inconclusive pattern and save the Yoruba from the predictions of Jesus Christ, who said that a house divided against itself shall fall.
The Palmwine Drinkards Club seem to have a different notion about differences. They quip that a house divided shall stand and that it is possible to have unity in diversity. But that is if things have not become toxic.
X:@lekansote1, lekansote.com
