According to the Arewa New Agenda, the North is Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s strongest ally in 2023, just as the South West was the All Progressives Congress (APC)’s strongest ally in the previous two election cycles.
The group recalled that Northern governors of APC extraction led the charge for power shift from the north to the south, but that Pa Ayo and others were unable to do so because making a covenant and keeping it is a sign of integrity, which is in short supply.
The Arewa New Agenda, led by Senator Ahmad Abubakar MoAllahyidi, was responding to a statement attributed to Afenifere Leader Pa Ayo Adebanjo, who was quoted as saying the north would not vote for Tinubu in the 2023 presidential election, at a press conference in Abuja on Thursday.
MoAllahyidi noted that his group “read with great dismay, shock, surprise and disbelief a statement credited to Chief Ayo Adebanjo (aka Pa Ayo), a factional leader of Afenifere, a Yoruba socio-cultural group in Abeokuta on Saturday.”
It said the elder statesman;
Pa Ayo, is not a northerner, and we cannot remember when we northerners appointed him to convey a message to any one; therefore, his assertion as widely reported is not only false but unfounded and can be better seen as the action of a meddlesome interloper or on a lighter scale the antics of a busy body.
The group further said;
The North is the strongest ally of Asiwaju in the contest for the 2023 primaries in the same manner that the South West was ally for the victory of the APC in the last two election cycles.
Northern governors of APC extraction led the charge for power shift from the north to the south; something the likes of Pa Ayo were unable to do simply because to make a covenant and keep to it is a mark of integrity which in short supply here.
Given what is unfolding in the South West today, Pa Ayo’s attempt to justify his position by saying that his submission is based on fairness, justice and equity is indeed laughable because it was said that whoever is coming to equity must come with clean hands.
Records have shown that every presidential candidate that Pa Ayo opposes ended up winning the election- Asiwajus’s case will not be different.
Just because Pa Ayo has some differences with Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu does not in any way means that the Yoruba race think the same, as we have our doubts that he has the mandate to speak for the Yoruba.
We warn that this is the time for high wire political activities that usually culminates into tension and suspicion; we call for restrain in all utterances. From our research Pa Ayo’s statement was not driven by any nationalist instinct or principle; it is just a personal vendetta against the personality of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
We advise Pa Ayo to stop taking advantage of Yoruba culture of respect to pursue a very myopic, narrow minded and selfish political vendetta, this a pure act of mischief and malice.
Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu has visited many states in the North, made policy statements and made a committal promises to us, if GOD Almighty gives him the opportunity to serve as our next president, we the northerners will hold him accountable to that.