Members of the Oba Olaitan Oladapo faction of Pan Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, and some loyalists of 2023 Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, on Friday met with former President Olusegun Obasanjo at his residence in Abeokuta, Ogun State.
The meeting focused on national issues, including the 2027 presidential election.
The Secretary General of the organisation, Sola Ebiseni, disclosed this in a statement sent to journalists on Friday.
Ebiseni added that the people who met Obasanjo include his former political adviser, Prof Akin Osuntokun, and the Coordinator of Obi’s 2023 Presidential Campaign Council in Lagos, John Ughulu.
Speaking with journalists after the closed-door meeting, Osuntokun stated that the country belonged to all its citizens and leading it was not an exclusive right of any region.
“You know baba for his passion for Nigeria and our position remains that Nigeria belongs to all Nigerians, and leadership at the highest level should reflect our collective aspiration for fairness, inclusiveness, and justice.
“No region holds an exclusive right to power and the notion of entitlement by any region or ethnic nationality to the leadership of the nation is unhealthy for national stability and its democratic growth,” Osuntokun was quoted to have said.
Ebiseni, who was also at the meeting, described the opposition coalition for 2027 presidency as a welcome development.
He, however, cautioned that only a broad-based grand coalition with respect to the established regional rotation would have any meaningful effect.
“The APC emerged as a coalition in 2013, aligned itself with the popular sentiment of regional rotation and strategically settled for a President of northern origin by which Buhari succeeded Jonathan.
“Afenifere and other groups, including the Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum and the Southern Governors were in the forefront insisting that only a President of Southern origin would succeed Buhari after eight years as we have it today.
“The fact speaks for itself that there can be no serious proposition today against the fullness of the eight-year tenure of the South. It is not about individual political actors or parties. It is a consensus for regional mutual respects and national political stability,” he added.
