Afenifere: Adebanjo, Odumakin not working for Yoruba interest – Olasoji, ex-lawmaker

What is your take on Afenifere? Are they really representing the interest of the Yoruba race, going by the recent activities of the group?

Whether they are working against the interest of the Yoruba is not what I want to talk about. What is obvious is that they are working for their own interest. They are not working for the interest of the country. Some of us are grateful to God that we had the opportunity of sitting down with Chief Obafemi Awolowo when he was alive politically. And we knew the type of interest he had, not only for the Yoruba people but for Nigeria as a whole. As you probably know, I am a member of Afenifere Independent Group. How did we get about that name Independent Group? In 2002, when former governor Bola Tinubu was preparing for re-election as governor of Lagos State, at that time, there was a lot of friction between the Ganiyu Dawodu group, which was basically the ‘Afenifere’ of that period. Before 2002, there were lots of issues within the Afenifere family, immediately after the coup of 1983. Here in Lagos State, the principal actors at that time were Alhaji Ganiyu Dawodu, Chief Rafiu Jafojo, Baba Nuru Baruwa, who was the chairman of the SDP before the advent of the military. We had a lot of issues at that time. Most of the issues were based on the leadership of the group. In Afenifere, there is a convention that the eldest person within the group becomes the leader. That was why after Awolowo, leadership went to Papa Adekunle Ajasin and we were all moving to Owo to hold Afenifere meetings at that time. In Lagos State, the leadership of Afenifere, because there was an election between Baba Nuru Baruwa and Alhaji Dawodu, I was present at that election and Baba Baruwa won. But, that did not go down well with the leadership of Afenifere. I think at that time, the mantle of leadership had fallen on Pa Abraham Adesanya after the demise of Pa Ajasin. But, the Ganiyu Dawodu group refused to recognise Baba Baruwa, as the leader of Afenifere in Lagos State. That was the beginning of the crisis of Afenifere in Lagos State. Attempts were made to bring the group together. But it was not successful. They would not accept the leadership of Baba Baruwa. It was at the Airport Hotel where the meeting was convened that we now said if Alhaji Ganiyu Dawodu would not accept the leadership of Baba Baruwa, then, we would stay as an independent Afenifere in Lagos State. We would not align ourselves with them. So, when the issue of the 2003 general election was coming up, we supported the second term of Senator Bola Tinubu. There were five political groups in Lagos State at that time. We had the BATCO (Bola Ahmed Tinubu Campaign Organisation), which Bola Tinubu formed, we had the Afenifere Unity Forum, led by Alhaji Ajisebutu, we had Afenifere Independent Group, led by Chief Jafojo, there were also the Justice Forum, led by Olatunji Hamzat and the Network Alliance, led by Chief Aro Lambo and others. We all met and decided to come together as AJG (Afenifere Justice Group) to support the second term bid of Bola Tinubu at that time.

 Now, coming back to the Afenifere of Ayo Adebanjo and others, in 1999, with the advent of the Fourth Republic, if you remember very well, there was a contest between Funso Williams and Bola Tinubu at that time. While some people supported Funso Williams, the ‘Afenifere’ led by the likes of Ayo Adebanjo supported Bola Tinubu because they believed he was in NADECO, coming from abroad, and he should be supported. But as soon as he became the governorship candidate, they gave him a deputy from their own side. But they were not comfortable with the fact that Tinubu had not been a member of Afenifere. They wanted someone, who had been an Afenifere person to be in charge of Lagos because of their own personal interest. I will prove to you why I say that. You know what happened in the first term of Tinubu, how they tried to remove him and replace him with his deputy and all that. That was one of the reasons we ensured that Tinubu was not removed. You cannot be going forward and backwards all the time without a consistent policy of protecting the interest of the people you claim to represent. They wanted to remove and supplant him with Kofo Bucknor-Akerele as governor, who they believe is an Afenifere person. So, our own independent group now supported Bola Tinubu for his second term. But, what they did at that time was not the first time of doing so. When we were in the UPN, when Awolowo was even around, they believed that they had lost out. Most of them have never won an election in their life. At that time, when this same Buhari, as a military man, took over the governance of this country, they were the ones, providing Buhari with information about our party, the UPN in order that they could nail our governors.

That’s a serious allegation

It is. And I stand to be corrected. They provided information to Buhari that he should ask Bisi Onabanjo where hegot the money that he gave to the party. Not to himself o, the money he gave to the party, knowing full well that it was the contract that Bisi Onabanjo gave to Fougerolle company from France…because we had a policy at that time that if you are a board appointee, if you are a governor, if you are enjoying the position of the party at that time, there is a certain percentage that you pay into the party. It is a well-known policy of UPN at that time. If you are a board member, even if you are an officer of the party, and you are being paid salary, there is an amount; I think it was 10 per cent at that time that must be paid into the purse of the party. This was how we raised money to fund the party at that time. So, it was extended to all contractors. At that time, all the housing estates that you see in Lagos State today were built by party men. Apart from cement and iron rods, every other thing were being supplied by party men. And whenever they got their money, there is a certain percentage that goes to the purse of the party. So, the same thing happened with the Fougerolle Company. The government gave the company contract to construct roads in Ogun State, in Lagos State and whatever came out of it, the 10 per cent was given to the party. They provided the same Buhari that they are now condemning with the information. This same Buhari was their hero at that time. They provided all the information about UPN to Buhari. And that was why Buhari started picking our governors at that time and putting them in jail. Some of them got blind in the process. Ambrose Ali became blind when he was in jail. And he never recovered until he died. This same people are now the ones saying Buhari is not good, simply because they could not benefit from him. Jonathan was good to them because they were benefitting from him. Jonathan was giving them money. So, we know who the Afeniferes are. We know the fake Afeniferes and we know the genuine Afeniferes. The genuine Afeniferes are those people, who are still staying with the ideals of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, who wanted the best for his own people. The fake Afeniferes, which they represent, are only interested in what comes to them.

Look at Odumakin. Odumakin was 24/7 with Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu at a time. He was benefitting from Bola Tinubu. No sooner had Bola Tinubu closed the tap of getting money from him than he left and became an opposition. Are those ones the genuine Afenifere people? They are not. They are only interested in themselves. Ayo Adebanjo and the rest of them, Lanihun Ajayi, as the treasurer at that time, provided all the information to Buhari with Ayo Adebanjo for the military to nail our performing governors. The performances of our governors at that time are what the governors today should be doing.

Maybe they were threatened or coerced by the military.

Why should they be coerced?  They were not in government.

But were they not arrested too?

They were not arrested. At no time were they arrested. They were just playing the devil’s advocate. They cannot come today and say they are representing the interest of the Yoruba people. They are representing their own interest. And we will see where it will take them to. But let them know that we still have some of us that were trained by Chief Awolowo, who are still very much around. And we would continue to speak out in the interest of our people in Yorubaland.