Afenifere knocks Osinbajo for daring to dismiss Awolowo’s description of Nigeria

Acting President Yemi Osinbajo has been criticised by the pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, for allegedly dismissing the position of late Chief Obafemi Awolowo that Nigeria is not a nation but a “mere geographical expression”.

Osinbajo is alleged to have repeatedly made dismissive comment regarding the position of one of the country’s founding fathers, Awolowo, on Nigeria not being a nation.

Ostensibly unhappy with Osinbajo’s comments on the matter, Afenifere’s National Publicity Secretary, Mr Yinka Odumakin, in a statement described the Acting President’s remarks as strange, misguided and unfortunate.

According to Odumakin, Osinbajo has in his bid to advance the position and interests of his current central-government power constituency, “in a recent public speech, dismissed the decades-old clamour for a restructuring of the Nigerian polity by some of Nigeria’s best and most-respected personalities.”

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While faulting the acting president, Odumakin noted that Osinbajo had made the remarks three times in three months.
He said, “In that same speech, Professor Osinbajo has also, rather strangely, and in a way that dis-honours the opinion and memory of outstanding Yoruba icon and sage – Obafemi Awolowo, gone ahead to disingenuously lend himself to the propagation of historical and intellectual sophistry, regarding the imposed unity of Nigeria.

“First, while his (Osinbajo’s) comment that the statement was not original to Chief Awolowo is not in any doubt, the not-so-subtle inference that somehow, his usage of the expression constitutes some misnomer that has been proven wrong by history merits deeper questioning, which is what this rejoinder sets out to do,” Odumakin said in the statement.

 

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