Endorsement of President Jonathan By Afenifere Parcel Of Rogues Is Endorsing Evil By Bayo Oluwasanmi
Aristotle’s definition of man as a rational animal has recently taken quite a beating. Our capacity for rational thought emerges in the most fundamental aspects of life. If you doubt the power of reason, consider the lives of those who have less of it.
In the advanced and civilized societies, we take care of the intellectually disabled and brain-damaged because they cannot take care of themselves. We don’t allow drunk people to drive cars or pilot planes. In politics, the capacity for moral judgment is always lacking. Most often people base their political choice on insidious irrationality.
Afenifere leaders should understand the difference between right and wrong, between good and evil even when it meant that they would be vilified and ostracized. They could easily have come to a realization that to endorse what they know is wrong is a deal with the devil. They should have kept their mouth shut. Instead, we hear wailing noises why it all was a good move “politically” to endorse Jonathan.
In endorsing Jonathan, the leader of a faction of the Pan-Yoruba socio-political group Afenifere, Chief Ayo Adebanjo said: “We supported President Jonathan for re-election mainly because of the national confab. We trust him to be committed to the implementation of the national confab because that is the only thing that can save Nigeria.”
“We took the decision,” says Adebanjo, “basically because we believe Jonathan will complete the good works he has started by implementing the report of the conference.”
Afenifere’s endorsement of Jonathan is a reckless initiative that could well prove catastrophic for the Yoruba race. They are more of themselves and about protecting their interests.
The exercise of scattered and selected instances of irrationality like the endorsement of President Goodluck Jonathan by Afenifere shouldn’t cloud our view of the rational foundations of everyday life of majority of Nigerians that the Jonathan administration has permanently disabled.
Below is an eye witness account on what actually happened to the Yoruba Agenda the basis of Adebanjo’s endorsement of Jonathan. Listen to Femi Falana:
“I was in the conference and I tell you that the so-called Yoruba agenda in the National Conference was defeated. Restructuring of the South-West was defeated. The parliamentary system agenda was defeated. The state police agenda was defeated, regional autonomy was defeated. So, what is the Yoruba agenda that they are talking about?”
Falana explains further: “They wanted Land Use Decree removed from the constitution but it was defeated. They wanted a special status for Lagos State but it was defeated. So, I challenge them to tell us the agenda that was won that they are now using to deceive our people.”
Adebanjo is not being truthful on the reasons given why Afenifere endorsed Jonathan for second term. The endorsement is false, deceitful, misleading,and delusional. The Yoruba agenda fought for in the National Conference was defeated and deleted from the report submitted to Jonathan. How can Jonathan implement the Yoruba Agenda that was expunged even before the final report was written? What part of the Yoruba Agenda remains in the report that merit Adebanjo’s faction of Afenifere to have endorsed Jonathan?
Jonathan is a coward. He’s not known as a president that makes bold initiatives. He doesn’t give a damn on what goes on under his watch. He has demonstrated beyond any reasonable doubt that he can’t lead. By the way, how many reports of committees and the committee report of report of committees has do-nothing president implemented?
Receiving the conference report, Jonathan promised to implement the recommendations. Instead, he set up another committee of seven people headed by the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Adoke to recommend the implementation of the recommendations. Ayo Adebanjo can you read this? Yinka Odumakin are you there? Reuben Fasoranti helloooo! Can the three of you tell the Yoruba people what’s left of our agenda you’re fighting for?
The reason behind Afenifere’s endorsement is plain simple: It’s all about money. The Adebanjos, the Odumakins, and Fasorantis are sell outs. I can’t help but remember the Bobby Burn’s poem “Such a Parcel of Rogues in a Nation” in which the great poet and Scottish patriot denounced the traitorous aristocrats who sold out his country’s independence to England.
Our country faces a momentous choice. Fact is, Nigeria is on unsustainable course. At stake is nothing less than our standard of living at home, our constitutional freedoms, and our position in the world. We can’t afford four more years in which corruption among other national pastime vices mushrooms out of control.
For the past six years we have squandered one opportunity after the next to turn things around. The longer we delay acting, the steeper the price we’ll have to pay. The Nigerian economy is not only stagnant, it’s dead. The much touted largest economy in Africa has no enough growth to create enough jobs. Unemployment hovers in triple digits. The extraordinary explosion of corruption and brazen looting in Jonathan’s presidency have become our way of life.
Afenifere’s endorsement of Jonathan is based on single-issue voting. We shouldn’t dismiss lightly the importance of the wider problems raised by single-issue politics. Single-issue endorsement is endorsing a candidate with whom majority of Yorubas and Nigerians in general are in substantial disagreement on major issues of present and clear concern. It’s endorsing a candidate who Yorubas and Nigerians judge to be inferior to an alternative candidate in character and competence.
In my opinion, it is unreasonable and morally unjustifiable for Afenifere to endorse Jonathan on the basis of a single issue that was long deleted from the report of the National Conference. The leaders of Afenifere have failed to demonstrate that they’re citizens of a democratic society and a believer in the Yoruba race.
The re-election of Jonathan is a matter of profound moral conviction considering his epic failure. And for Adebanjo, Fasoranti, and Odumakin to wave this aside and endorsed Jonathan means they’re dishonest and uncharitable to the Yoruba race. They don’t really know what progressivism is all about.
The endorsement is vicious, manipulative, and misleading. If this hatchet job of Afenifere endorsement of Jonathan is what passes for intelligent support on their part, we the Yorubas can now see that a leadership vacuum is crying to be filled.
The Adebanjo faction of Afenifere is not recognized or regarded by the entire Yoruba race. How can a faction endorse Jonathan on behalf of the entire Yoruba race? The Adebanjo faction is not a credible, authentic, and authoritative body that fights or speaks on behalf of my people.
By their endorsement we need no further proof that the art of intelligent, honest, and political endorsement has truly degenerated. It exposes the bellicose, avaricious Afenifere leaders as liars, primp and fuss. Their action confirms the elite prejudices and hypocrisy against the struggle of the poor. It shows them as buffoonish, greedy, and easily manipulated.
The endorsement of Jonathan by the Adebanjo faction of Afenifere on behalf of Yorubas is null and void.
