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Options before Akinfenwa group
Options before
Akinfenwa group
THOMAS IMONIKHE, Deputy
Political Editor
FOR
the teeming members of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) nationwide, these are
troubled times. Barely 72 hours to the staging of a fresh national convention in
Lagos, it is certain that the proposed event, aimed at finding a lasting
solution to the party’s protracted internal crisis will be boycotted by the Afenifere
backed Senator Mojisoluwa Akinfenwa-led faction of AD.
Akinfenwa had recently, ruled out
his group’s participation in the unity convention being midwifed by the
National Convention Committee (NCC) headed by Alhaji Ibrahim Hassan on the
ground that he would not relinquish the mandate given to him at the Abuja
Convention of the party held on December 16, last year.
But members of the Chief Bisi
Akande group in AD, aside from throwing their weight behind the proposed
convention have promised to participate and beat the October 31 deadline handed
down by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the party to
put its divided house in order.
But analysts were quick to point
out that Akinfenwa’s recalcitrance might not be unconnected with the August
17, 2004 endorsement of his leadership of AD by the pan Yoruba socio-political
organisation, Afenifere, during its meeting in Akure, the Ondo State
capital.
Rather than help serve the cause
of reconciliation which the group had taken upon itself after the parallel
conventions of AD on December 16, 2003 produced two national executive
committees, the backing has evidently further polarised the party along two
warring camps.
Indeed, the endorsement which had
left even the leadership of Afenifere sharply divided into two camps,
those for and against, also threatens the continued existence of the once
politically potent entity as a united and virile mainstream socio-political
platform.
Two opponents of the Akure
decision, Chiefs Lam Adesina and Bisi Akande, former governors of Oyo and Osun
states respectively have sounded a death knell for the pan Yoruba body if it
insists on taking side in the AD crisis. Specifically Chief Akande told this
writer recently that Afenifere dug its own grave if indeed it had thrown
its weight behind the Akinfenwa faction. Immediate past governor of Ekiti State,
Otunba Adeniyi Adebayo has similarly voiced his strident opposition against such
backing.
Said he: "If you look at
those who support Akinfenwa, you will see that majority of those who were at
that (Akure) meeting, who took that decision are not even members of AD. Many of
them are members of Progressive Action Congress (PAC) and many of them are
people who tried to break up AD so that they could form a new party and that is
why they have said they are supporting Akinfenwa.
"The whole essence is trying
to create a situation whereby AD will be destroyed and unfortunately for them
this is not going to happen because we, who belong to AD, believe that by the
time we hold another convention, which we have all agreed to be the solution to
the crisis, we will be able to build a strong and virile AD which will be able
to match any party in this country", he told Daily Champion
recently. By implication if the views expressed by Otunba Adebayo, who also
belong to the Akande-led AD represents that of the party’s NCC, it then
follows that the envisaged unity convention will go-ahead with or without the
attendance of the Akinfenwa-led AD and his backers in Afenifere.
In effect, the planned boycott of
the fresh convention will place the Akande camp, fully backed by most AD former
governors in the South West including Chief Olusegun Osoba (Ogun) and incumbent
Lagos State chief executive Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu in good stead of
returning their own to fill all positions at stake in the party’s National
Executive Committee (NEC) during the convention.
Going by permutation of the
Akande faction, if INEC officials make good their pledge of attending Wednesday’s
event at the Onikan Stadium on Lagos Island, it then follows that leaders of AD
who would emerge would be automatically recognised by the commission leaving the
Akinfenwa faction in a tight corner.
However, before examining
possible next line of action by Akinfenwa and his pillars in Afenifere in
the event of such recognition by INEC for the Akande camp it is imperative to
unmask those backing the Akinfenwa group in AD.
They include acting Afenifere
leader, Chief Reuben Fasoranti, former presidential candidate, Chief Olu Falae,
immediate past governor of Ondo State, Chief Adebayo Adefarati, Chief Ayo
Adebanjo, Alhaji Ganiyu Dawodu, Chief Supo Shonibare, Senator Femi Okurounmu and
former deputy governor of Lagos State Alhaji Rafiu Jafojo.
Most of the above listed, it
would be recalled, attended the Akure parley where Akinfenwa scored his pyrrhic
victory over his opponent, an indication that Afenifere might not have
been sincere while mediating in the crisis.
But two major options, political
observers believe are open to elders of Afenifere and the Akinfenwa camp
in the likelihood of a triumph by the Akande faction. It is either members of
the group will swallow their ego and join the Akande camp since in politics
there is only permanent interest or pull out of the AD and hijack any of the
existing parties, and turn it around ahead of the 2007 general elections.
Although the first option seems
very unlikely for the group to embrace, going by the high stake in the 2007
polls, the latter, plausible as it is, would require enormous financial muscle
to prosecute going by the present political reality on ground in the South West
geo-political zone where Afenifere dominated the terrain between 1998 and
2003.
The apex Yoruba organisation
cannot claim ignorance of what became Alhaji Dawodu’s portion when he dared
the Tinubu backed faction of Lagos AD, led by Prince Abiodun Ogunleye during the
2003 general elections.
Leaders of Afenifere had
in response to the leadership crisis which engulfed the Lagos AD, ordered the
then Dawodu faction and Prince Ogunleye-led camp to share elective offices in
the state on 40: 60 ratio respectively.
Rather than toe Afenifere line,
the Ogunleye AD fielded candidate’s in all positions up for grab during last
year’s general elections which they won, leaving one seat in the state House
of Assembly to the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Prior to the elections, Dawodu
and his colleagues in Afenifere and members of AD including Dr. Yomi
Finnih, Mrs. Tawa Williams among others decamped to the Progressive Action
Congress (PAC). Indeed Dawodu contested that election as PAC gubernatorial
candidate in Lagos State.
Like the PDP flagbearer in the
state, Chief Funso Williams, Dawodu suffered a crushing defeat in the hands of
Senator Tinubu who was re-elected in the April 19, 2003 governorship poll. It is
however instructive that Asiwaju Tinubu emerged victorious despite
falling out of favour with the Pa Abraham Adesanya-led organisation.
Before that epic duel, Tinubu had
taken his political destiny in his own hands soon after he fell out of favour
with Lagos Afenifere and his then deputy, Senator Kofoworola
Bucknor-Akerele. Apart from setting up a campaign outfit known as the
Independent Campaign Group (ICG) with headquarters along Aromire street, Ikeja,
Tinubu left nothing to chance during the gubernatorial battle in the state which
he won squarely.
Tinubu, while flagging off his
re-election campaign, accused the PDP vice chairman in the South West, Chief
Olabode George of funding the Dawodu camp of AD as part of measures to
destabilise the party and ensure victory for PDP in Lagos State.
Chief George in a swift reaction
dismissed the allegation as unfounded. Curiously however, leaders of the PAC
excluding Dawodu, a few days to the governorship poll in the state announced
that they were entering into an alliance with the PDP.
Barely two months after that
exercise, that alliance turned into a permanent merger with the then former
Lagos State chairman of PAC, Dr. Finnih leading ten prominent members of the
congress to formally decamp to the PDP in June last year.
Declaring for the PDP, Finnih
said that PAC leaders were joining forces with the party in order to consolidate
on the April 19, 2003 alliance by entering into a complete merger. He further
urged other members of PAC drawn from the 245 wards of the state to register as
members of the PDP in their respective wards.
But the question agitating the
minds of observers and the Akinfenwa group in AD and its staunch supporters in Afenifere
is will they emulate the Finnih example or begin the process of forming a new
political party ahead of the battle for the control of South West politics in
2007?
Although formation of a new party
and for it to make the needed impact is considered herculean, analysts say the
pan Yoruba organisation has what it takes to chart such a new course provided
the body can put its house in order.
Specifically, they suggested that
major changes be effected in the leadership of Afenifere to pave way for
the emergence of young and vibrant leaders to fill the positions of deputy
leader and secretary general of the organisation. The late Attorney General and
Justice Minister, Chief Bola Ige was the deputy leader of Afenifere
before his death in December 2001.
Also, Chief Ayo Opadokun,
formerly the scribe of the organisation is yet to be replaced. Besides such
envisaged changes pundits further proffered that the report of the Dr. Adebayo
Williams-led committee earlier set up by the organisation to restructure it be
ratified and implemented by Afenifere’s general assembly.
The report had recommended that the body should
be administered and managed by nine organs for maximum performance. A
combination of the above reforms they argued, would place the organisation on a
path of not only boosting its credibility but arresting the body’s waning
influence in the South West.
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