Afenifere criticized the president of the South West Governors Forum, Rotimi Akeredolu, for opposing the agitation for the formation of the Oodua nation.

The group also accused Akeredolu of turning the rest of the country against the Ndi Igbo in a statement issued on Saturday.

Afenifere said that Nigeria’s corporate existence can only be ensured through regional equity.

Sola Ebíseni, Afenifere’s general secretary, criticized Akeredolu for playing “petty politics” to the detriment of the Yoruba people.

“So let Akeredolu not boast of any ability to dictate the method adopted by Yoruba agitators or seek to turn the rest of Nigeria against his Ndigbo colleagues or the entire South East in his unhidden separatist agenda of securing undue advantage for his party and region. in the search for the Nigerian president of southern extraction.

“We declare for the umpteenth time that the true and real recipe for peace and the continued corporate existence of Nigeria is an agreement that guarantees regional equity and not an ’emi lo kan’ philosophy in the style of the King Louis state regime. ‘est moi,” the statement read.

Akeredolu said at the launch of the Emblem Appeal to mark the 2023 Armed Forces Remembrance Day Celebrations held in Akure that no state in the southwestern region would allow agitation to fight against the sacrifices of the country’s heroes, adding that the police would begin a crackdown on agitators from the Oodua Yoruba nation inside Nigeria.

“Those who cry out for the Oodua nation will not succeed. People have not given their lives for this country for unscrupulous people to sink it. This country is very important to some of us.

“We recognize the right of the people to protest or agitate. But if the police find your actions treasonous, they will arrest you and prosecute you,” he said.

But Afenifere, in reaction, said that while Mr. Akeredolu was within his rights as Southwest Coordinator of his party’s campaigns to safeguard the opportunity presented to him and his party in the ‘pipe dream’ of presidential power, his ” vituperations” were, however, devoid of statesmanship and national conciliation.

“We have no problem with the Governor playing gallery, like a glorified Security Chief, urging security forces to clamp down on any person or group whose activities he interpreted as capable of disintegrating the State of Nigeria because we are not less patriotic and committed. to its continued corporate existence.

“Our concern, however, is that Akeredolu, even as Chairman of the Southern Governors Forum, would not turn away, in deference to that high pedestal, from petty politicking that sacrifices equity necessary for peace and national cohesion in favor of of gross opportunism,” he said. The group added more in the statement.

According to Afenifere “However, it is unimaginable that the President of the Forum of Governors of the South descended into the abyss of equating his pontification for the equity of a South Presidency with the hegemony of his or another ethnic nationality.

“To say that the clamor for southern president was “especially for the South West” was not only insensitive but also embarrassing to his colleagues outside of the South West.

“It is no wonder then that the Governor of Delta in whose office the Southern Governors Conference was held was the first to betray the cause by accepting second fiddle to the Vice President to the detriment of what turned out to be his feeble statements. . ”

The group further postulated that there is no region of the country where the elite, including the ruling class in government, have been able to determine the methods adopted by the agitators or have succeeded in neutralizing the effects of them.

“The nastiest cut in Akeredolu’s new song was his reference to IPOB as having some control over the choice of a different modus operandi employed by different agitator groups in Nigeria.

“By the way, those who fought in the civil war, really shed their youthful blood and have seen all about Nigeria, are now at the forefront of the national movement, not only for the South, but also in the search for the necessary equity. . President of extraction of the Southeast. Therein lies the solution to separatist agitations and not self-serving sanctimonious notifications,” the group said.