Afenifere reunion
By Chinyere Aruogu
The bell for the 2019 presidential poll has started ringing different strategies as National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, known for fighting the Pan-Yoruba socio-cultural association, Afenifere, on Wednesday met with its leader, Pa Reuben Fasoranti in Akure, Ondo State where he declared that his party has not given anybody automatic ticket for 2019.
It would be recalled that Tinubu and Fasoranti had parted ways since 2003 when the Afenifere Renewal Group which Tinubu was believed to be behind was formed.
Tinubu said the APC would follow the normal democratic process in choosing its flag-bearer in the 2019 Presidential Election, and that the leadership of the party had not endorsed President Muhammadu Buhari as its sole candidate for the forthcoming presidential election.
His statement contradicts recent endorsement of Muhammadu as the sole candidate of the APC for the 2019 election by the APC governors.
In fact on Tuesday, the APC Governors Forum Chairman, and Governor of Imo State, Rochas Okorocha said in Owerri that almost all the 36 governors with the exception of one or two are in support of Buhari’s reelection in 2019.
Tinubu had held a secret meeting with the leaders of Afenifere, at the residence of Fasoranti in Akure, the Ondo State capital.
Present at the meeting with Tinubu were the Governor of Ondo State, Rotimi Akeredolu, his deputy, Agboola Ajayi and the Acting Chairman of the APC in the state, Ade Ademehin.
Also at the meeting was the former Governor of Osun State, Bisi Akande. Other chieftains of Afenifere were also in attendance.
Tinubu said Buhari was a man who believed in normal democratic process and the rule of law, and so could not have bought into the idea of those selling the automatic ticket dummy.
Tinubu told newsmen: “No governors can appropriate the power of endorsement to themselves. Buhari is a believer in the process. The Buhari, I know, believes in the rule of law. We wanted him even before the last convention and primary of the party and Akeredolu is here standing with me, he was not the governor then. He was one of the leading delegates that voted properly and Buhari was a clear winner.
“We followed all the constitutional provision and an individual or group’s opinion does not really matter at this stage. Buhari will want a normal process. Buhari that I know, who says he will lose at any convention? But if the national body, the NEC (National Executive Committee) and all of us as members endorsed him as our single candidate, we will not be violating INEC regulations, we will not be violating our party constitution.
“What you are hearing is just a campaign by other people who might like to do so. Buhari has not excluded anybody, and he has not infringed on anybody’s ambition if there is. We cannot be sycophantic about it.”
Tinubu, arrived Akure at about 12 noon, moved to the residence of the Afenifere leader with a retinue of his supporters in the state.
It was gathered that the meeting was facilitated by Akande in what a sources said was connected with finding a common course for Yoruba leaders ahead of the 2019 general elections.