By Chinelo Obogo
Afenifere, a pan Yoruba organisation, has criticised Acting President Yemi Osinbajo over his recent comments where he denied describing those agitating for restructuring as ‘political jobbers’.
Reacting to the denial by the acting president, Afenifere’s National Publicity Secretary, Yinka Odumakin, in a statement, insisted that Osinbajo made disparaging comments about those calling for restructuring, which he said was reported by many reputable national dailies. Odumakin said: “The attention of Afenifere has been drawn to the U-turn by the acting president on his categorisation of those asking for the restructuring of Nigeria as appointment seekers. We, ordinarily, would have allowed him the right of every politician to cleverly take back words they don’t want to stick in the public, but for the disingenuous attempt to cast a leading light of the group, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, as a rumour monger. It is also confounding that the statement said no medium quoted him using the derogatory remarks.
“A statement from his office expressed surprise at the news quoting Chief Adebanjo as saying he (Osinbajo) described those agitating for restructuring as political jobbers. Chief Adebanjo did make this statement up. The acting president, while speaking at a security meeting in Abuja on August 2, 2017, described proponents of marginalisation, which is the greatest reality in our skewed federation, as those seeking appointments .
“Acting President took a swipe at those complaining about marginalisation of their ethnic groups. He said they were opportunists seeking political appointments. A report filed in Thisday newspaper of August 3, 2017, with the headline ‘You are appointment seekers, Osinbajo tells protesters of marginalisation’, quoted the acting president as saying most of the agitators were fighting for personal interest rather than the good of their ethnic groups.
“Quoting directly from his speech, he said: ‘The fifth narrative which I want us to look at and which I also believe is false is that those who make discharges of marginalisation are altruistic. Those who say my ethnic group has been marginalised, my religious group has been marginalised, say so for altruistic reasons or altruistic purposes. I want to say that is not necessarily the case. As a matter of fact, most times when people say, for instance, that the Southwest has been marginalised, what they are saying is I have been marginalised, appoint me because I am from the Southwest. That is simply what it is.
“It was on the basis of the quoted reports that Adebanjo said the acting president should be reminded that he was born into federalism as he and his father followed Awolowo as he led the battle for federalism in Nigeria out of his foresight that running Nigeria along unitary lines would be conducive of cries of margination.
“At the security summit in Abuja, last week, Osinbajo also said: ‘I want to look at what I describe as false narratives; the first false narrative is that we often say countries formed the way ours was formed are doomed to fail. Some people have said that Nigeria is a mere geographical expression, and for that reason, it is not likely to succeed as a united whole. But those who say so do not know that even the expression, mere geographical expression used in relation to a country was not first used in relation to Nigeria.