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Afenifere is undergoing a revolution, says Odumakin
WHAT is the cause of the crisis in Afenifere? The root cause of the problem is the battle for the soul of Afenifere between the force of disintegration and the force of cohesion and regeneration. I will say that it is a problem that had been in existence for decades, which is just coming into the open. There are people who have been active in Afenifere in the past who today are not ready to touch the group with a long pole. People should be interested in knowing why the family of Chief Bisi Onabanjo is in PDP today. Toun Onabanjo is a woman leader of the PDP in the South-West. The Awolowo family is in the YCE. The Alani Akinrinades, Akingbas, and Bolaji Akinyemis, people like Debo Akande and so many others suddenly turned their back on Afenifere. Why is it still impossible to reconcile with Jakande, Ebenezer Babatope Chief Olu Onagoruwa, and Dr. Tunji Otegbeye? Some of the leaders do not believe in reconciliation. That is why Afenifere could not solve any problem in the last five years. If you take Akande and Omisore in Osun State for example, Chief Abraham Adesanya set up a committee headed by Chief C. O. Adebayo to look into the feud. Other members were Jimi Agbaye, Bayo Adenekan and my humble self as secretary. We wrote our report, but theses forces did not allow Senator Adesanya to implement the report, which asked Omisore to resign if he could not work with his boss. Their reason for preventing the implementation is because they are using Omisore to hit Akande and the late Chief Bola Ige. Governor Bola Tinubu alleged to be using the young elements in Afenifere to fight the leaders. Is that true? That is a blackmail that has been running for years. Once you disagreed with them, 'somebody must be using you' as if we are kids who do not have independent thoughts. They forgot that the late Bode Thomas made all the marks he made at the age of 34 before he died. The Late Ige became the publicity secretary of the Action Group at 32. Awolowo became the Premier of the Western Region at 42. Akinfenwa is 72 but still wants to bring the whole house down because he wants to be the chairman of the AD. So we have taken a position independently based on our conviction. Tinubu could be a friend to some of us I cannot deny him. But all the young people together have not benefited what one person among the leaders had benefited from Tinubu. Some of them are still riding the car Tinubu bought for them. When Chief Ayo Adebanjo was sick, Tinubu paid his medical bills. Would say the revolution is as a result of the failure of the old order? Yes because what has prevented this revolution was the personality of Adesanya. There was a time the younger generation sat with Adesanya and told him that he has a tremendous goodwill in Yoruba land, which is being thrown away by some of those people leaning on him. We said he should let new faces be seen around so as to retain his good will. He appealed to us to learn live with them and their shortcomings. One of his weaknesses is that he is too loyal to friends who are not loyal to him. Why did the younger elements support a fresh convention when your leaders backed Akinfenwa? I was at the first meeting Pa Adesanya called with Akande and Akinfenwa on January 12, 2004 in Lagos. After both of them had stated their cases, they were asked to go out of the meeting. Immediately they moved out, Adebanjo brought out some documents, which Akinfenwa was looking at to make a point while presenting his case, and said that Akinfenwa forgot the documents in his home when he came to meet him. Adebanjo insisted that with that document the INEC would recognise the Akinfenwa's faction within two weeks and that Akande/Akinfenwa should be told upon their return that if INEC did not make pronouncement on which faction to recognise the duo should return to the peace table. On that day, Chief Adedarati was sitting next to me and I passed a note to him, asking 'would it not be better for both of them to go for a unity convention?' He just said that I should forget the option. So it is clear to us that they are supporting Akinfenwa. It is only Adesanya who did not know their plans. The old man only had genuine intentions to bring the two factions together. Immediately he fell ill, they went to Ijebu Igbo to say that he should not fail to recognise any of the factions within seven days, which Adeyeye and my humble self refuted. They retreated at that time and bided their time till the infamous Akure declaration. We are convinced that any leader that is not looking at a small screen, but the larger picture would know that there was no way the crisis would have been resolved by adopting a faction. Even INEC that has the powers to recognise any of the sides refused to do it, because when INEC did it in 2001, it ended in court. At the time the Akure declaration was made by the so-called Afenifere leader, the Akande and Akinfenwa factions were meeting to harmonise their positions to resolve the crisis. We had hoped that the meeting called by Pa Adesanya would resolve the crisis. But on the eve of that meeting Fasoranti granted interview saying that the association would be destroyed if the decision were changed. He even said that he would lose face if the decision were changed. That was the moment we concluded we must fight it out with them. We will not leave the association for them. Why are you opposed to Akinfenwa as chairman of AD? Akinfenwa for a period of four years, he has not been attending Afenifere meetings. In 2002 when Adesanya was angry with AD National Assembly members, Akinfenwa took a full-page advert to abuse Senator Adesanya. That same year when Ige died, Akinfenwa pronounced that Afenifere was dead and I learnt that he mentioned to someone if not because Akande was fighting him, he would not have got anything to do with Afenifere. And for four years he spent as AD Senate leader, Okunrounmu told us that Akinfenwa was more of PDP than AD. I remember also in 2003, a meeting of the CWC of Afenifere was fixed to meet with Akinfenwa to ask what his grouse was but he refused to come.
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