I have been following the writing and speeches of Chief Ayo Adebanjo, the 94-year old leader of Afenifere, a pan-Yoruba cultural organization. As you read him, you see consistency, philosophical fairness, equity and justice. He does not twist things because it would favour the other side of the aisle; I admire his leadership. Take time to read his work, you will see a huge ideological gap between our modern “leaders” and those of Chief Adebanjo’s generation.
His commentary on rotational presidency is right on the money. Everything in Nigeria is based on quota, from university admissions to public sector jobs. Using the system, Nigeria builds fairness to bring everyone together and everyone accepts that constant. And if that is the case, the presidency should also be rotated as that is the quota system for politics.
But where Nigeria cannot adhere to rotational presidency, we must disband the federal character commission (the bureaucracy which manages our quota system) and follow MERIT in every aspect of our system!
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Chief Adebanjo is thoughtful, fair and speaks with the wisdom of someone who does not need anything from anybody. I support his thesis. Do not remind me that he may be supporting Peter Obi. Remind me how he has supported others like Jonathan, etc to create balance in Nigeria. #leader
Leader of the pan Yoruba socio-political organization, Afenifere, Pa Ayo Adebanjo, on Monday, restated the organisation’s position to support the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Mr Peter Obi saying “he is the man we trust to restructure the country back to federalism on the assumption of office in 2023.”
He said Afenifere’s decision to support Peter Obi was because power is yet to shift to the South East.
Adebanjo, who addressed newsmen in Lagos, said Afenifere will not compromise its principle of equity, justice and inclusiveness because “one of our own, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu is a frontline candidate.”
Rotate the presidency or abolish all aspects of the quota system; yes, comparative advantages must not be selective.
Comment on Feed
Comment: Rotation has always been a bad idea.
My Response: I agree provided you do not rotate other things! If PDP had to jettison its constitution to avoid rotation, “bad idea” means nothing when you have a crazy universe!
Comment 2: This’ what true leadership is about: Equity and Fairness. These virtues must be strange to the current crop of political office holders in Nigeria; they’re only motivated by selfishness and greed. They’ll shift the goal post just to suit their selfish political needs not minding the ripple effects of such on the polity.
Comment 3: Rotation is not the solution to Nigeria’s problem.The solution is true federalism or confederalism.
Rotation will only promote tribalism and sectional agenda.
Pa Ayo Adebanjo is a good man today I hope he will still be a good man tomorrow when positions are no longer aligned.
My Response: He has advocated for fiscal federalism. But since that has not happened, he is doing the best he can. Check how he endorsed Jonathan many years ago. But also check how he fought for SW to own the presidency in 1999. Whether he does good next year or not, I am happy for his records in the last 94 years. No single man or woman can fix Nigeria alone. But the path of getting all Nigerians to fix Nigeria will come via fairness and equity. That is what Chief is saying.
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The ones you call leaders are also part of problems needing solutions, so it’s not like we have been producing great humans at scale, no way.
All the known virtues have varying meaning in our case, so even when people thunder word like Justice (which happens to be one of the two most important virtues), never assume that they truly understand what Justice entails. Not many Nigerians are qualified to ever mention the word Justice when they say anything.
You hear Integrity, you need to pinch yourself to be sure you are still alive, because when you assess people who talk about Integrity in what the word entails, it’s game over.
We are not really a serious people, so we keep managing and educating, hoping that someday we will learn to use words with their true meaning.
People believe that it’s possible to rig election and capture, and once you get there, do some projects, you are now to be judged by your performance and not the legitimacy of your mandate? Herein lies the problem. You don’t violate sacred things and somewhat believe that your subsequent ‘good work’ would compensate; never mix illegality with legality!
This is a country where people are now seeing Abacha as a better leader. Kai, we have a long way to go joor.