Afenifere, others meet Obasanjo, insist coalition must respect rotational presidency
Leaders of the pan-Yoruba sociopolitical group, Afenifere and some other groups have met former President Olusegun Obasanjo in Abeokuta, Ogun State and expressed their support for a coalition of opposition groups to “save the country from drifting to a one-party state.” The groups, including the one led by Chief Akin Osuntokun, expressed their position after […]
Leaders of the pan-Yoruba sociopolitical group, Afenifere and some other groups have met former President Olusegun Obasanjo in Abeokuta, Ogun State and expressed their support for a coalition of opposition groups to “save the country from drifting to a one-party state.”
The groups, including the one led by Chief Akin Osuntokun, expressed their position after a closed-door meeting with Obasanjo at his residence in Abeokuta.
This came as the 2023 presidential candidate of the coalition party, the Action Democratic Congress (ADC), Dumebi Kachikwu, insisted that the party’s leadership crisis required a ‘doctrine of necessity’ to resolve.
The South-West leaders, in their visit to Obasanjo, insisted that only a broad-based grand coalition concerning the established regional rotational presidency would have any meaningful effect.
Speaking with journalists, the general secretary of a faction of the Afenifere, a Yoruba socio-cultural group, Chief Sola Ebiseni, said the coalition was a welcome development against the troubling tendency of a one-party state.
He said, “The APC emerged as a coalition, which in 2013 aligned itself with the popular sentiment of regional rotation and strategically settled for a president of northern origin, by which Buhari succeeded Jonathan.
“Afenifere and other groups, including the Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum and the Southern Governors, were in the forefront, insisting uncompromisingly that only a president of southern origin would succeed Buhari after eight years as we have it today.
“No region holds an exclusive right to power; and the notion of entitlement by any region or ethnic nationality to the leadership of the nation is unhealthy for national stability and its democratic growth.”
Amongst others in the group were Mr John Ughulu, the Lagos State coordinator and the secretary, Dr Folaseye Adabayo of the 2023 Peter Obi Presidential Campaign Council.
Speaking at a press conference on Friday, Kachikwu said, “The ADC has lacked a national chairman for more than two years following the expiration of the tenure of Ralph Nwosu’s National Working Committee (NWC) and the party’s failure to conduct a national convention since then.”
He said he and other party stakeholders had approached the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the courts to find a resolution.
“The ADC, as at today, has not had a chairman for the past two years. We have been unable to conduct a convention since the tenure of Ralph Nwosu lapsed. This situation was not envisaged in our constitution,” Kachikwu said, adding that the party must now invoke a doctrine of necessity, akin to that used during the constitutional crisis under the late President Umaru Musa Yar’adua.
His remarks came amid controversy over the recent handover of ADC’s leadership to a coalition of opposition leaders, with former Senate President David Mark announced as interim national chairman.
The coalition leadership, endorsed by the ADC’s National Executive Committee (NEC) on July 29, also appointed 43 members to a new NWC, a decision that was communicated to INEC.