Afenifere Hails New Ohanaeze Leadership, Says It Will Strengthen South- Middle Belt Alliance To Restructure Nigeria
Deputy Leader of the pan Yoruba sociocultural organisation, Afenifere has congratulated the new leadership of its Igbo counterpart, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, headed by Senator John Azuta Mbata and its national officers.
Deputy Leader of the pan Yoruba sociocultural organisation, Afenifere has congratulated the new leadership of its Igbo counterpart, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, headed by Senator John Azuta Mbata and its national officers.
Afenifrre spoke in a statement jointly signed by its Deputy Leader of Afenifere, His Royal Highness, Oba Oladipo Olaitan and the National Publicity Secretary, Prince Justice Faloye, on Friday.
Afenifere welcomed the new Ohanaeze executive and urged it to continue their bilateral partnerships in restructuring agitations, as well as partners in the South and Middlebelt Leadership Alliance created for cultural, political economic justice in the country.
The statement read in part, "The Afenifere Deputy Leader, Oba Oladipo Olaitan, stated that Ohanaeze had been a major ally in the pursuit of good, fair and just governance. It is recalled that recent past Ohanaeze leaderships have been friendly working partners, from bringing about 'The Handshake across Niger,' to the push for rotational presidency to the South East in the last election.
"Ours is not a relationship based only on current political expediencies, but as shown during the Handshake across Niger in Enugu, there is the long history of Yoruba and Igbo relationships, starting from being the closest genetic cousins, to traditional institutional leaderships of Obi and Oba being slight dialect variations, to initiating the pro-independence movements in the 1930s and 1940s.
"Therefore Afenifere and Ohanaeze have a historic moral obligation to represent the similar cultural values of egalitarianism that can only be achieved by focusing our synergies on restructuring Nigeria to be just and fair to every Nigerian ethnicity. So, we at Afenifere warmly welcome the new Ohanaeze executive leadership not only as mutual partners but taking its place as a major partner within the South and Middlebelt, SMBELT, Leadership Alliance, to strengthen our collective voices for equity and justice through restructuring."
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