By Ayo Kehinde
Fasoranti and Obasanjo during the visit
In his desperate bid to end Buhari’s presidency, former President Olusegun Obasanjo has paid a historic visit to an arch political foe, Afenifere, the pan-Yoruba social and political organisation in Akure, the Ondo State capital.
He met with leader of the group, Chief Reuben Fasoranti in his Akure home and told him to let bygones be bygones and join forces with him to ensure victory over what he termed the vice grip on the country’s governance by the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.
Obasanjo who was on his way to Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital in the company of Otunba Oyewole Fasawe and Akin Osuntokun amongst others, said;
“Nigerians priority now should be one and if we fail to get it right, it will be disastrous for this country”
Narrating his historic connection with the Yoruba group, he said: “I remember visiting Pa Abraham Adesanya thrice in Lagos before the 1999 election and I was asked to join Afenifere and the Alliance for Democracy then, but I told them that AD was cul-de-sac.
“Pa Abraham told me if I joined, things would change but I refused to join them. I went back the second time but they refused to work for my emergence.
“I went there again the third time but Afenifere maintained their stand, they refused to vote for me but I secured my votes outside Yoruba land, though they supported me in 2003 for my re-election.
“ Our priority is now one, if we do not join hands to repair this country now, it will collapse and this can be disastrous.”
Fasoranti said, “We want to encourage you in your struggle to make Nigeria the best. You are fearless and that is one of the traits of a good leader.
“We have been watching you and your dreams of a better Nigeria shall be realised. Nigerians are at the crossroads, we are tired of the killings, kidnapping going on across the country and the President is mute and silence about it.
“We are in full support of all the letters written by Obasanjo to President Muhammadu Buhari on the state of the nation. We are dissatisfied with the state of affairs in the country. The country is not being run properly.”
“It will be the joy of everybody to present a formidable team to confront the evil government that is there now,” Fasoranti stated.
Earlier, the former President had engaged journalists in his characteristic, informal manner, teasing them: “Can a son not come to see his father any time he wishes? Do I have to take permission from you before seeing my father? And how does that become your concern?”
Fasoranti, who was flanked by other leaders of the group, including Chief Seinde Arogbofa, Chief Sola Ebiseni, Kole Omololu, Chief Femi Aliko, among others, described the visit as a good reunion and pronounced the hostility between the group and Obasanjo as over.
He said: “He said he has come to pay courtesy visit, saying he appreciates all my efforts about Nigeria, particularly the Yoruba nation. He has come now because he values my friendship.The primordial hostility between Obasanjo and the organisation ‘is over now.’”
