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By adminadmin on November 7, 2015

The “resolution” of Afenifere leadership crisis has not resolved the initial question that brought it about, to wit: the organization has derailed, according to Chief Fasoranti. So then, aside from the razzmatazz accompanying the resignation itself, the issue is, derailed from what?
The Action Group’s message of “freedom for all, life more abundant” was literally translated as Afenifere, hence, at birth, Afenifere was not an “organization” with its own structures, leadership, strategy and tactics but a political slogan espousing the social democratic preference of the Action Group thus enabling Yoruba people key into the philosophy.
Afenifere became an “organization” when Yoruba patriots met in Owo in 1994 to determine the best route for Yoruba “June 12″ resistance as well as the Sanni Abacha military regime when Afenifere was chosen as the name for a special purpose vehicle to fight the annulment thus occupying the political space against that military regime by assuming leadership of the entire process and clothing itself in progressive robes.
This became at once a solution as well as a problem; solution in the sense that it played its resistance role more or less well; a problem in the sense that it saw itself as a permanent political force capable of embarking on the emerging electoral role that succeeded the military regime. The manifestation of this problematic led to the organization’s leadership confusing its origin as a philosophy with its practice as a political organization. Even if it is conceded that an organization could take its philosophy as its formal identity, such an attempt must be clear as to its direction, especially regarding its leadership; for it is political opportunism to have a social democratic philosophy anchored by leaders whose political praxis is its exact opposite, such that even if membership could be loose and while political electoral platforms may accommodate different tendencies, contrary philosophical mindsets, occupying leadership positions, would only turn the organization into its opposite.
Afenifere is symptomatic of this problematic by allowing all manners of political philosophies to infest its leadership, manifested by parading as AD on the one hand while accepting PDP partisans as its leaders on the other, even when it was obvious that the PDP made no secret of its intention to neutralize the AD as a political force in Yorubaland.
The question left unanswered by Afenifere during this time was how such an entity could manifest its “freedom for all, life more abundant” when one side of its leadership, with direct access to central power was bent on destroying the other side without control of political power, in and of itself; meaning, the only way this could be achieved would be the negation of the AD utilizing PDP’s central powers. This ordinarily ought to be a no brainer.
In 2003, hardly a year after Afenifere became an all-party affair, the AD was in tatters save for the heroic stand taken by the Lagos Chapter. The bulk of Afenifere leaders pitched their tent with the PDP through its support for Obasanjo’s second term efforts explained away as their acceptance of Obasanjo’s promise to “restructure” Nigeria, in spite of the warnings from the Lagos Chapter. Of course, Obasanjo’s attempt at “restructuring” ended up as an open attempt at tenure elongation but the damage had been done. Afenifere’s continued reliance on promises enabled it to accommodate Jonathan’s conference even when it was mooted only on the eve of the 2015 elections, which was why its report, diametrically opposite what the Yoruba had already agreed upon and christened the “Yoruba Agenda”, finally exposed Afenifere as an opportunist organization.
Thus, in two major historical epochs, Afenifere, as an organization, had not only failed to live up to its assumed philosophy, it has gone ahead to represent the exact opposite of that philosophy based on a rationale of recognizing the necessity for a political platform necessary for its actualization.
The recognition made it fall far short of its proclaimed intentions, for, in both instances, it was embedded in a political platform diametrically opposite its intended goal, all the more so when the leadership had been forewarned about Obasanjo’s aim of neutralizing Regional Ethno-National centers of power. Obasanjo and Jonathan, both of the PDP had no cause to hide their primary aim of simply retaining power via the instrumentality of imposing PDP on Yorubaland by any means necessary, hence Obasanjo’s “do or die” and Jonathan’s dollar rain, where the thrust of the will of the people, electorally through their democratic choice and “socio-culturally” through the “Yoruba Agenda”, played no part and was jettisoned, pre and post conference with the insistence on the implementation of the reports becoming an open repudiation of the Agenda itself.
Granted Nigeria’s post-1966 political structures leave no room for the expression of particular Ethno-National interests thus leaving the field wide open for various “socio-cultural” organizations, it becomes imperative for such organizations to push for the realization of its expressions as a matter of course within extant political formations, even as political parties usually found ways of sidestepping this problematic by resorting to selling themselves to the Nationality only in the very narrowest of terms; in Afenifere’s case, the Jonathan Conference and its recommendations which various Yoruba commentators, including “ooduapathfinder”, have critiqued as being not in any way near True Federalism.
For the APC, it found it necessary to put the pursuit and attainment of True Federalism into its Party Manifesto and President Buhari’s inaugural speech dwelt on the achievements recorded by Nigeria during its Federalist years, mentioning the civilian leaders who made this possible, by name, all the more so when, for Yorubaland, the APC is the direct successor to the AG/UPN/AD/AC/ACN.
Considering the existence of other non-Afenifere “socio-cultural” groups, it is true that a pan-Nigerian political party may not be able to articulate a Nationality-specific agenda but it is also true that Nigeria’s political reality is Nationality-specific, hence, any “socio-cultural” organization must be able to articulate its Nationality-specific partisan political choices, otherwise, its own aims will become dependent on “promises” a la Obasanjo and Jonathan.
Any “socio-cultural” organization must therefore be able to formally operate as a “pressure group” within that party. This formal relationship is the only guarantee of its being able to playing its role as a pressure group, even if it can also be said that the general Ethno-Cultural consciousness, by itself, could become such a basis and able to influence party policies in such direction by its mere existence.
A “general” Ethno-Cultural consciousness manifesting as a pressure group is by definition, atomized and ultimately leads to all sorts of manipulations and necessary and unnecessary ambitions with a facile attachment to “democracy” especially when the political party itself would be reeling under its own battle for political survival, hence a “generalized Ethno-Cultural consciousness” would amount to nothing, as a pressure group, where such slogans as, for example, “many pathways converge towards a goal” or “our pursuit need not be unidirectional” popular within the Yoruba, become an intended or unintended excuse for disarming the focus on achieving the aims of the Nationality through the electoral process as it reels under the yoke of party survivalism.
The Egbe Omo Oduduwa found itself in this same problematic both at the time of the formation of the AG as well the period of the elections into the Western Region House of Assembly. Even as the political circumstances are now quite different, the historical import is the same.
The Action Group, evolving as a pan-Nigerian political Party, enjoyed maximum support from the Egbe Omo Oduduwa, not because the AG was founded by the Egbe’s principal leaders, but in spite of it; for the Egbe initially wanted to establish itself as a political party but eventually decided to remain in its “cultural” mode at the same time declaring that its support for any political party whose program appealed to it. Of course there was no other party fulfilling this condition except the Action Group. The Egbe’s strategy thus lay in the synergy between its “cultural” and political preferences leading to the creation of the political atmosphere necessary for the realization of its cultural goals without relying on the “promises” from any individual but as an expression of the belief in the political party itself as a reflection of its own strength. In today’s circumstance, no “socio-cultural” organization can afford to strategize less.

Afenifere derailed at the point when they could not segregate their role as a cultural group from a pseudo-political party that they metamorphosised into overnight, promising and selling votes they do not have.

There is an urgent need for the group to go back to its core ideology and role playing, by being an umbrella body for all yorubas from all works of life, both at home and in diaspora.

Odumakin's utterances has suddenly turned the group into PDP affiliate or subsidiary and they s themselves as opposition party to APC in yorubaland or better put, opposition to Tinubu.

Failure to re-engineer the cultural group as soon as possible, will see to the demise of the group, as evident in its waning clout of influence.

It is only a matter of time before a more youthful and vibrant group of intellegensias will emerge, because nature cannot abhor vacuum. Though they might be hot heads that might lack the ability to see beyond 2-3years of politicking, rather than the usual 7-12 years of political machination , positioning. This will also be detrimental to the progress of the yoruba nation.

Let all yorubas see this write up a a clarion call to save Afenifere from its self destruct button, for general good of the yoruba nation.

superstar1:
Afenifere derailed at the point when they could not segregate their role as a cultural group from a pseudo-political party that they metamorphosised into overnight, promising and selling votes they do not have.

There is an urgent need for the group to go back to its core ideology and role playing, by being an umbrella body for all yorubas from all works of life, both at home and in diaspora.

Odumakin's utterances has suddenly turned the group into PDP affiliate or subsidiary and they s themselves as opposition party to APC in yorubaland or better put, opposition to Tinubu.

Failure to re-engineer the cultural group as soon as possible, will see to the demise of the group, as evident in its waning clout of influence.

It is only a matter of time before a more youthful and vibrant group of intellegensias will emerge, because nature cannot abhor vacuum. Though they might be hot heads that might lack the ability to see beyond 2-3years of politicking, rather than the usual 7-12 years of political machination , positioning. This will also be detrimental to the progress of the yoruba nation.

Let all yorubas see this write up a a clarion call to save Afenifere from its self destruct button, for general good of the yoruba nation.

Very well said my brother