Former Secretary-General of the Afenifere and ex-General Secretary of the National Democratic Coalition, Chief Ayo Opadokun
Former Secretary-General of the Afenifere and ex-General Secretary of the National Democratic Coalition, Chief Ayo Opadokun, speaks on the crisis in Afenifere and the controversial endorsement of President Goodluck Jonathan by leaders of the pan-Yoruba organisation, in this interview with LEKE BAIYEWU
There are different stories on what led the lingering crisis among the Yoruba leaders under the umbrella of Afenifere. What is your take of the state of the organisation today?
First, I want to remind you that I was the General Secretary of Afenifere for 15 years. We came to irreconcilable relationship in 2001 and since then, I have been out of that body. I have resisted every effort to make me to comment on Afenifere. Mr. Wale Oshun (President of Afenifere Renewal Group, a breakaway faction of the Afenifere) wrote about ‘Afenifere and the Kiss of Death.’ Sometimes in 2000 after we had won (governorship) election in six states in Yorubaland, two sets of middle class of Yoruba people came knocking on my door for almost five months.
The two organisations were called ‘The New Generation’ and ‘Idile.’ They used to come to me, massaging the ego of Afenifere and its exploits – that if it was not for its leadership, the Yoruba people could have been totally subverted irretrievably; that they were grateful that we had succeeded in the battle to keep the honour and integrity of the Yoruba race high. They just wanted to come and assist. They also went to other leaders of Afenifere.
It was a hard sell for me to convince Senator (Abraham) Adesanya, who had become the leader after the death of Pa (Adekunle) Ajasin. The steering committee of Afenifere, therefore, permitted me to invite five members from each of the two groups to start attending Afenifere meetings. That was when they got to know what Afenifere is – all of them.
Who were they?
The New Generation included Jimi Agbaje (now Peoples Democratic Party’s governorship candidate in Lagos State), I can’t remember the name of others now. In the Idile group, there was Dayo Adeyeye, Niyi Afuye, and Adedokun Abolarin, who has become the Orangun of Oke-Ila.
Arguments for and against their admission were on among members but we succeeded in convincing our colleagues that the challenges confronting the Yoruba race needed the combination of the energy and mastery of the current technology to drive our affairs, which the youths would provide, while the elders would continue to brainstorm on the policy options. That was the basis of their coming to Afenifere. I do not know any of them who had had anything to do with the organisation before.
Was it the same time the like of Yinka Odumakin joined Afenifere?
Occasionally, like other journalists, Odumakin visited me. When I returned from the second detention (by the military regime), I remember that Dr. Olubumi Omosehindemi, who was the leader of traditional doctors in Lagos, and Odumakin started coming to me. I never knew Odumakin before. From then, he was reporting to my rented apartment regularly for about six months, while I was watching him. I thought I should try him; he should follow me to Afenifere meetings to take minutes for me. That was his first encounter with Afenifere; that was his entry point. He was to take minutes for me.
At what point did the new entrants become full members?
Over time, there were occasions that warranted the organisation to attempt at broadening its base; that the young members be given greater room to contribute. On such occasions, we talked about finance. We wanted to organise a Yoruba Congress under the auspices of the Yoruba Leadership Forum and we needed money to do that. Prior to this time, we had always been contributing money to run such programmes from our private pockets. With these young people, particularly those of them in the new generation with many of them being well-to-do professionals, chief executives of successful business concerns, we concluded that we should make one of them the treasurer. The pan-Yoruba congress was held in 2000. We appealed to them on what contributions they could make to make the event successful.
For instance, Otunba Gbenga Daniel who later became Governor of Ogun State between 2003 and 2011 gave us a generator to power the theatre (for the event) in Mokola/Sabo area of Ibadan. Gradually through that process, all these people became full-time members. When Daniel defected from the Alliance for Democracy – the party that was formed by the Afenifere of Yorubaland – Jimi Agbaje was suggested to be the treasurer of the organisation. That was how they became part of us.
Looking back at these new entrants in Afenifere today, have they been steering the wheel of the organisation as expected?
I don’t want to generate any brickbats or throw punches. Once upon a time, Afenifere’s declaration had serious implication nationally and globally. The reportage of the Afenifere was most times on the front and back pages or major spaces in the media because the organisation was respected. In fact, whoever was the occupant of Aso Rock was always on his toes before taking a policy measure. They were always concerned on the take of the Afenifere on such policies, so much that we knew of some occasions when government utilised one of the newspapers they thought was close to us to test public reaction over certain matters.
With all sense of responsibility, even in the hearts of those who call themselves name, they know that something is amiss. The raison de’tat of the organisation, which had always been political, has been extremely subverted.
Are you saying that Afenifere is political and not socio-cultural?
Afenifere has never been a traditional body. It is not a cultural organisation. Egbe Omo Oduduwa may be regarded as a socio-cultural organisation; Afenifere is not from day one. After the public presentation of the Action Group to Nigerians in Owo (Ondo State) in 1951, the leaders got back to Ibadan – the then seat of government – and people started to ask for the name of the party announced to them. You know our people, they were like ‘Action what?’ They were looking for a name that would approximate to what was the intention and objectives for which the party was formed. There were several suggestions. At the end, it was the late Chief Meredith Adisa Akinloye who suggested ‘Afenifere’ to be the name of the Action Group in Yorubaland. That was the beginning. Any other story is not true. There was no time that the Action Group was a socio-cultural organisation. It had always been a political party.
In this Fourth Republic, it was the name of the officials of Afenifere in all Yoruba towns that was exchanged for the Alliance for Democracy. It was selfish intention on the side of the characters who were elected on the platform of the AD, who benefited and were separating the party from Afenifere. It was the executive of Afenifere that was used to register the AD. Quite a number of misguided people were selling falsehood to Nigerians that AD’s ties with Afenifere were disturbing them from getting nationwide attention and acceptability.
Was that what led to the formation of the Action Congress Nigeria?
Yes, that was the reason it was Tinubu who initiated the Governors’ Forum and hosted the first two meetings of the forum in Lagos. In fact, in 2005, Governor Bola Tinubu (of Lagos State) invited me to a meeting where he told me that his colleagues – in the Peoples Democratic Party were apprehensive that, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo as the President might make it difficult for them to get a second term. Therefore, they wanted an alternative party which they would use to run for their re-election. They appealed to Tinubu to help them do the registration. Tinubu called me and told me the story; he told me that Governor Lucky Igbinedion (of Edo State then) and his friend, James Ibori (then Governor of Delta State) pleaded that Tom Ikimi, the erstwhile Minister of Foreign Affairs under (the late military ruler, Gen. Sani) Abacha should join me in working to register the ACN.
After about two months of working with Ikimi, I could not believe what I was seeing, even in his domestic affairs. He was too Bohemian-like in nature; his temperament was terribly difficult for me to manage. I told Tinubu that I wanted to opt out so that Ikimi could go on with the registration. Tinubu appealed to me that I should go ahead with the registration, which I eventually did.
Did you register the ACN with the support of other members of Afenifere or you did it on your own?
I had already left Afenifere then; I was on my own. By 2001, I had left Afenifere for almost five years. I am a legal practitioner and journalist. If I wanted three-square meal, I could have it.
What then happened with the PDP governors and the ACN?
It didn’t take long before things became awry. Even the governors who thought they could have used the ACN were very fearful of what Obasanjo would do to them. It appeared that it was Tinubu who sponsored and paid everything for the registration of the ACN.
Is this a confirmation of Yinka Odumakin’s claim that some leaders of Afenifere and the National Democratic Coalition, after they became wealthy from their election into public offices, decided to dump the organisation?
No doubt, those who got elected into office did not want to submit themselves to the leadership of the Afenifere. That might be so. But then, there was much more on the other side. Some people in the Afenifere mismanaged their stake and position in the organisation. No matter how little any person can be, when he becomes a governor in whose custody the collective destiny of the people has been registered, you cannot treat him like an ordinary man or an ordinary member of the organisation. People voted for him. Even if he were your son, it is very necessary for you to accord him the respect he deserves as the governor – the first person in that state. If you are in your room, you can treat yourselves as father and son.
What I found in some of the leaders then was that they were of this magisterial posture – ‘We made him. Therefore, he must be obedient to our position.’ And some of them (governors) too were not sufficiently knowledgeable about the Yoruba culture, tradition and artefacts. What usually happened was that as soon as these people mounted their posts, they recognised their first class nature; that there is no one above them again. The official jesters, jobbers and sycophants around them will keep telling them, ‘you are the governor; the one elected by the people. How can you allow anybody to be goading you into doing something which you are not comfortable with?’ Ultimately, there is always the tendency of the new king or the governor to attempt at subverting the registered importance of such organisations that made them. That is what happened.
If it is true that the Afenifere is purely a political group, why then are the leaders of the organisation being criticised for endorsing President Goodluck Jonathan for a second term?
About seven months ago, we read in the newspapers of a group called the Yoruba Unity Forum. They held a meeting in Ikenne (Ogun State) with Mama HID Awolowo. They exclaimed that part of their resolution was that the Yoruba had been ignored and neglected by the Jonathan-led administration; that they had been relegated in the scheme of things, especially as regards political appointments and that they would go to Abuja to meet with President Jonathan to right such wrongs. I told the media about two days after, that those people knew for themselves that they were not speaking for the Yoruba nation. I said it had never been the trait, tradition or custom or convention of the Yoruba to go cap in hand to beg for what rightly belongs to them. I said what any right-thinking Yoruba man ought to be concerned with is that the currently skewed, warped and lopsided national structure should be reworked. It is clear that the Nigerian government, so to say, has been governing unitarily and centrally in actuality, even though it claims to be a federal republic. There are too many incidences that are counter to federal constitutional arrangement. In any federal constitution known, each of the components, because they have their assemblies or legislatures, can say ‘these are the laws that bind our people.’ They have the constitutional right to establish their police force.
Since after the First Republic, the military had continued to have control over the entire federation. They have prohibited other things other than the deformation of the Nigerian Police, which they at the centre will continue to control. They have used the Nigerian Police as instrument of control nationwide. I told the YUF that they were wasting their time; that their own, General Olusegun Obasanjo, was in government (as President) for eight years; what one thing did he succeed in doing to Yorubaland in spite of the humongous money he sunk in infrastructure like power and road? Obasanjo did not commission one road (in Yorubaland) throughout his eight-year rule. Up till today, I’ve not seen any road that the Federal Government has constructed since the six-year advent of the current occupant of Nigerian presidency.
Therefore, I indicated that the most important thing to the Yoruba race was how to rework this lopsided national structure so that every nationality could develop on its terms without being held back. Remember that under Abacha’s regime, somebody who had not gotten to the four walls of the university was made the Minister of Education. And when people asked him, he said they were talking nonsense; that did he need it (degree) to be able to run the ministry. That is the evidence of the irresponsibility. While some people can spend their entire resources on their wards to attend particular schools, some people are looking for plastics for their children to go around begging. And they are in the same country.
Also, I said then that anybody, no matter who they are, are in a temporary sojourn in the presidential house. And in the individual’s policy options they decided voluntarily to ignore the Yoruba race to alienate them from the system, certainly they will meet their waterloo someday later on. The Yoruba, traditionally and culturally, can live without government. Most of our people do not want to hang on to government. Most of our people want to be on their own, manufacturing, producing and using their God-given intellect to significantly operate within the platform that technology has provided. I asked them – members of the YUF – why are you hanging on to be in the central government?
Now, they are agitating that no Yoruba man is in government. They were sold a dummy that they wanted to give the fourth place (Speaker of the House of Representatives) to one Mulikat (Akande-Adeola, now Majority Leader); that it was because the chance was subverted by Tinubu and his people; that that is why there is no Yoruba from the first 25 to 30. I reminded them that Yoruba people are not mercenaries. The immediate Speaker of the House of Representatives (Dimeji Bankole) was from Ogun State. I asked them that with that office of the Speaker, ‘what did he bring to the Yorubaland?’ He should tell me and the whole world what he brought to the land other than for him to be stupendously rich unreasonably, unwisely and ungodly too; to the extent that he and his father could buy the big NITEL edifice, as widely reported by the media. How does that affect the Yoruba race? Did that contribute anything to their living standard? Yoruba people have not been willing to voluntarily force themselves on anybody in government because they can always utilise their god-given human ingenuity to run their race. There are particular sets of people in Nigeria who, from the cradle to grave, live on government. That has never been Yoruba lifestyle.
But every ethnic group or geopolitical zone has the right to complain to the President if it feels it has been marginalised.
After they (YUF) had visited Jonathan, what did they bring? Nothing, except that some of them became very loyal, close lieutenants to Jonathan. The rest is history.
Are you saying the Afenifere leaders can be wrong in their judgement on what affects their people?
I was extremely surprised when I watched on television screen the attendees of the meeting they had in Akure and the one in Ibadan, and I saw that the agenda had been choreographed by a serial decampee in the name of Dr. Segun Mimiko, the Governor of Ondo State, who decamped from the AD to the PDP; he decamped from the PDP to the Labour Party; he has now decamped once again to the PDP. And he is now the South-West coordinator of Jonathan’s campaign. If such a character is the frontline coordinator of Jonathan’s campaign in Yorubaland; that speaks volume as to the kind of person the President himself is.
The fact that Jonathan is now visiting Yorubaland every weekend gets me amused. I said about a year ago that the ruler of the central government in Aso Rock that so shabbily ignores or alienates the Yoruba nation would always do so at his own peril. The payback time has come. The weekly manoeuvring here in Yorubaland is most unlikely to yield any positive development.
Are you saying voters in the South-West will not listen to their leaders?
Certainly because our people know who their true leaders are. Maybe some people take Yorubaland for granted, as it appears in other zones of the country. The Yoruba, as a nation, allows multiplicity of views, perspectives and related arguments of any subject matter. But by the nature of the Yoruba race, they always insist that the best argument should be preferred. There had been no time when Yorubaland was monolithic politically. In the golden days of Awolowo, there would always be the Akinjides of this world, the Akinloyes, the Fani-Kayodes. And because they were always in alliance, with some measure of conspiracy with a particular part of the country, they would be put in some highly promising political offices where they could make some illegal amount of money, which they could use to influence some Yoruba people.
At every occasion when Yoruba people were given the privilege of deciding their destiny, they had never failed, despite the monies that these characters could have. Yoruba people know their leaders. On the day of reckoning, they will register their pleasure and displeasure. They will vote for their choice. Every one of us, if you have aged 18, have the individual right to vote for somebody of our choice. Nobody can query anyone for that. If you succeed in persuading your entire household to vote for a particular candidate, why not, if not? What we will not agree with; what we will disagree with vehemently is any attempt to foist personal preference, prejudice on the Yoruba nation; trying to ridicule them and subvert their collective destiny as to where they should vote.
It’s important to stress that any person or individuals or group can have as many reasons for hating Tinubu, as a person and/or his politics. They cannot be allowed to cross the line by carrying their personal animosities and/or hatred in the form of transferred aggression to confuse our people. After all, some of them have had three governorship election opportunities to test their political acceptability and dexterity and they had been crushingly defeated each time by Tinubu. It is ungentlemanly for them not to acknowledge his superiority over them politically.
BY LEKE BAIYEWU
