The Yoruba Welfare Group (YWG) has berated the Pan-Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, for endorsing a non-Yoruba man for the 2023 general election instead of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The group, through a statement by its President, Abdulhakeem Alawuje, noted that the Afenifere is not protecting the interest of the Yoruba Nation movement by endorsing Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP).
Afenifere had endorsed the former governor of Anambra State while supporting a power shift to the South-East on the basis of “equity, fairness and justice.”
The Afenifere leader, Pa Ayo Adebanjo, who gave the endorsement while speaking on ‘Yoruba Gbode’, an online radio programme on July 12, had declared that Obi has the ability to “rule independently” and would not disappoint Nigerians.
Pa Adebanjo, an unrepentant critic of Tinubu, had said: “It is only Peter Obi that can rule independently without the influence of these criminals in the government. Tinubu will only give continuity to Buhari’s incompetence. We know Peter Obi very well; that’s why we endorsed him. He will not disappoint Nigerians; let’s put tribal differences apart and vote the right leader in.
“Tinubu sold Buhari to over 200 million Nigerians for his own selfish interest of wanting to rule after Buhari. None of them loves Nigeria.”
Speaking on the development, the YGW home and abroad faulted Afenifere, saying it is disturbed by the action of the group urging its members to support another candidate.
He, however, insisted that “Afenifere is neither serving nor protecting the interests and rights of the Yoruba.”
The group’s spokesman, Abduljalil Adeogun, said: “We want to sound it loud and clear that Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is neither a tribal bigot nor a Yoruba presidential aspirant but a Yoruba nominee for Nigeria’s president in 2023.”