National Secretary of the pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation on the aegis of AFENIFERE, Mr Dele Farotimi, has accused President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of deliberately manufacturing a parallel version of the group.
Farotimi, a human rights lawyer and activist, said that the deliberate attempt to balkanise AFENIFER is targeted at bolstering his administration’s political agenda.
Farotimi, who took to his verified X handle noted that Tinubu has a pattern of fabricating institutions whenever he cannot buy influence or secure legitimacy.
He wrote; “Tinubu has his own specially created schools, his own bishops, and now his own iteration of Afenifere. “Everything Tinubu cannot purchase or influence, he counterfeits. This is NOT Afenifere, these are Tinubu’s poodles,” he insisted.
Farotimi’s position followed an X user who queried reports suggesting that Afenifere was aligning itself with the Tinubu-led government.
Farotimi pointedly dismissed such claims, insisting that the faction rallying behind Tinubu does not represent the authentic voice of the Yoruba socio-political group.
The controversy clearly underscored long-running internal fractures within Afenifere as the once-unified body has been split into factions that support different political interests. While some of its leaders are backing Tinubu and his administration, others remain fiercely and vehemently opposed to it as they specifically accused the President of betraying the ideals of Yoruba nationalism for personal political gain.
As expected, Farotimi’s latest criticism has reignited debates about authentic representation, political co-option, and the future of Yoruba socio-political advocacy under Nigeria’s shifting political landscape.
Political observers are of the view that the battle over who speaks for Afenifere reflects broader struggles in Nigeria’s democracy—where ethnic and regional groups may become battlegrounds for garnering political support, survival legitimacy and patronage.
