Yinka Odumakin, the national publicity secretary of Afenifere, has criticized the actions of the ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo and the national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu in Nigerian political circles.
Tinubu, Obj Lack Integrity, Moral Values - Afenifere
He said that they did not fit into the model of leaders of the Yoruba race.
Odumakin in an interview granted to Business Day claimed that Obasanjo and Tinubu did not have the integrity and moral principles to undertake leadership roles of the Yoruba race.
His words: “It is an insult on Awolowo for Tinubu and his likes to claim to be ‘Awoist’. Awo would turn in the grave when Tinubu or his followers begin to compare him with the likes of Tinubu. In what area is the current politicians in the south west are like Awolowo? Is it in vision? Is it in character? So, when he comes to leadership, we will now move from Awolowo to Tinubu?”
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The Afenifere secretary added that it was painful to “true Yoruba” in the ongoing political dispensation that the seat Abraham Adesanya took while in the Senate, is the same seat that Buruji Kashamu has in the 8th National Assembly.
“These are some of the tragedies that Nigeria has visited on Yoruba politics in terms of assaults on our value; where leadership is about character, about integrity, about vision. In Yoruba land, leadership is not bought; bent; is not something you rig or achieve through judicial pronouncements. To these set of politicians, it is a game of money. But in terms of values these people do not represent Yoruba people; leadership that is devaluing our people on daily basis. Ninety (90) percent of lawmakers in the south west cannot even express themselves; people with criminal background; people without pedigree; people who are uneducated; semi-illiterates; and that is the leadership somebody is promoting deliberately,” he said.
Odumakin further stated that Obasanjo is a bad influence on Yoruba politics, and that given the opportunities God has given him to chair over the affairs of Nigeria for 11 years, and that by now, Obasanjo should have been an institution to whom people would go to blossom at his feet.
“Obasanjo should have been Nigeria’s Lee Kuan Yew, but he messed up on the altar of inordinate ambition, ego and squander-mania. His history balance at his twilight is negative because at the last meeting between President Muhammadu Buhari and the governors, they were talking about Excess Crude Account. Obasanjo started it. When you know that the likely project is that oil will sell at $60, you now benchmarked at $40.
“All the differences that now come between what you have used as benchmark you go and put in an account you don’t need any appropriation before spending and call it ‘excess’. But we know it is excess corruption. He was petroleum minister in this country for most of his eight years. What happened? We know how much he sunk into the power sector. What happened to the money? It was under him they were displaying money on the table of the National Assembly; bribing money. We saw how money was flying at the National Assembly over Obasanjo’s third term agenda,” he concluded.
Yet another Yoruba socio-cultural group, the Oodua Development Initiative, has recently criticized Obasanjo over his statements on Goodluck Jonathan’s government.
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