Daily Independent Online.
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Friday, July 02, 2004.
Afenifere restructures, promises
to be mass oriented
By Tolu Olarewaju,
Senior
Correspondent, Lagos
The pan-Yoruba
socio-cultural organisation, Afenifere, has been restructured into a mass
political movement. The re-organisation was a result of the recommendations of
its Political Committee, headed by former Osun State Governor, Chief Bisi
Akande and set up to look into how to make the organisation more relevant to
developments in the polity.
Virtually all the
Committee’s recommendations were approved at a four- hour meeting held on
Thursday in Ijebu Igbo, Ogun State.
In specific terms,
a re-branded Afenifere would have new structures at national and state
levels. These included a board of trustees, national executive council, and
national congress, at the national level as well as state executives and state
congresses. Elections would be held into these offices after the guidelines for
the implementation of the changes are worked out. A committee would be
constituted to work out the guidelines.
Afenifere leader, Pa Abraham
Adesanya, who was scheduled to chair the meeting, was absent. The meeting of the Pan-Yoruba organisation was
shifted from its headquarters in Lagos to the Ijebu-Igbo, Ogun State country
home of its leader, Pa Adesanya to give him a befitting welcome after medical
treatment in the United Kingdom.
Although members at
the meeting said they were happy that Pa Adesanya has fully recovered from his
illness, sources close to the meeting said the Afenifere leader still
needed to recover fully before making a public appearance.
