Don’t Fan Embers Of Disunity, Afenifere Group Urges North

A group, Afenifere Diaspora USA, has appealed to Northern leaders not to fan the embers of disunity or provoke war between the Igbos and Yorubas, urging the two groups to sort out among themselves who should be the next president from Southern Nigeria in 2027.

The group, in a statement signed by its chairman, Prof Sikiru Fadairo and the secretary, Comrade David Adeyinka Adenekan, emphasised that the office of the president is not the exclusive right of any section of the country and that there is an unwritten constitution across party lines that the number one position will be rotated between the South and North.

According to the statement, former President Muhammadu Buhari from the North spent eight years in office, and in 2019, there was no major political actor from Southern Nigeria who contested against him, as the battle for the presidency was between Buhari and Atiku, both Fulani from the North.

“There is an unwritten Constitution across party lines that the № 1 position will be rotated between the South and North. It is on record that President Muhammadu Buhari (of blessed memory) from the northern part of Nigeria spent eight years in Aso Rock,” the group said.

They queried why Northern elites did not publicly chastise former President Buhari or demand his replacement by a Southern President in 2019, asking if the Sultan of Sokoto was pitching the Igbos against the Yorubas with an agenda to start another civil war.

“Moreover, it is imperative to state that, just as former President Muhammadu Buhari’s scorecards on insecurity and poverty across the country were both very poor, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s scorecards are not fairer for his more-than-two-years now in Office. Rising surge of insecurity and severe hunger in the land are currently the ‘abysmal situations.’

“How many Northern elites came out publicly to chastise former President Muhammadu Buhari, or, were any of the political actors from the Southern axis in Nigeria ‘hell bent’ or had demanded that, at all cost that President Mohammadu Buhari should be replaced by a Southern President in 2019 when he chose to go for re-election?,” it queried.

Afenifere Diaspora USA cautioned that any sinister move denying the gentleman’s agreement on power rotation will be counterproductive and chaotic, sliding the country into a political logjam.

The group asked, “Did we hear the Sultan of Sokoto talking that the Igbos cannot be defeated in a civil war?” Is the Sultan of Sokoto pitching the Igbos against their own brethren, Yorubas from the same Southern part of Nigeria with an agenda to start another civil war, even in this 21st Century of industrial revolution and digital age when information technology, inter-marriage, with a Seyi Tinubu, son of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, married to a beautiful lady from Ndigbo, and a Governor of Oyo State, Engr. Seyi Makinde, equally married to a beautiful woman from River State?”

The urged Southern Nigerians to reconcile their differences, work together, and settle for a consensus candidate to restructure the country for true federalism, emphasising that together, the North and South can change the trajectory to develop a new constitutional framework based on justice, fairness, and equity for nation-building.