25th December, 2022
The pan-Yoruba socio-political organization, Afenifere berated the Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, over the his comment against the agitation of the Oodua Nation.
Akeredolu, who is the Chairman of the Southern Governors’ Forum, had declared that those who were agitating for the Yoruba Nation were enemies of the country.
Akeredolu made the declaration at the launching of the emblem appeal to flag off the 2023 Armed Forces Remembrance Day Celebrations held in Akure, the state capital, Friday.
The Secretary General of the Afenifere, Sola Ebiseni, in a statement in Akure, however, faulted Akeredolu’s position on the regional agitation, adding the governor was playing to the gallery.
The statement was titled, ‘Akeredolu: Between equity and opportunism.’
The statement read, “We have no problem with the governor playing to the gallery as a glorified Chief Security Officer.
“We are also in the same boat with him that ‘this country is very important to some of us’ and the recognition that agitation and protests are rights protected in a democratic society.
“Our worry, however, is that Akeredolu, even as the Chairman of the Southern Governors Forum, will not, in deference to that high pedestal, wean himself from petty politicking which sacrifices equity needed for national peace and cohesion in preference of crass opportunism. In short, his vituperation on that occasion was most disastrously bereft of statesmanship and national conciliation.”