A former General Secretary of the pan-Yoruba socio-political organization, Afenifere, Senator Femi Okurounmu, has faulted claims made by a former Jigawa State governor, Alhaji Sule Lamido, that he (Lamido) and others wanted to find a Yoruba Nigerian president and not a president of the Nigerian Yoruba during the June 12, 1993 struggle.
Okurounmu said the North arrogantly believed that if a Yoruba must be president, it must be a Yoruba of their choice, but said President Olusegun Obasanjo was the choice of the Yoruba in 1999 contrary to Lamido’s position.
Lamido, in his book titled, ‘Being true to myself,’ had said: “The Yoruba saw through our moves and wanted to ask to be given the choice to nominate one of three possible persons: Chiefs Olu Falae, Bola Ige or Abraham Adesanya, but none of these could make a fair and effective president in Nigeria.
“We wanted to find a Yoruba Nigerian president; thus, to have a Yoruba man as the Nigerian president, not a president of the Nigerian Yoruba.
“Some people may today find this funny, but for us, the distinction was quite important at that time.
“However, we thought that Obasanjo could effectively function as a Yoruba Nigerian president and not president of the Nigerian Yoruba.
“The choice of Obasanjo as the PDP candidate for the presidential election was to heal the June 12 wound.
“We, as nationalists, seeking for quality leadership and unity, saw it that way…We were concerned about the welfare and unity of the country …
“We, therefore, reached the consensus to unite the country by appeasing the majority of the Yoruba people, but not their political flag-wavers…They were not with us when we fielded Abiola for the June 12 election, but had later taken unto themselves the leadership of the ‘struggle’ to declare him the winner.
Like I had often asked, “Where were they on June 11?”
“All of these interlocutors had no idea how Abiola defeated Bashir Tofa in Kano, and even at his polling unit.
‘“The June 12 was a national accomplishment.
“The elements in NADECO simply snatched away the finished product, at the end of the mill, and by so doing sectionalized, trivialized and diminished an otherwise national sacrifice…”
Reacting to Lamido’s claims, Okurounmu said the North held the view that if a Yoruba must become president, it must be a Yoruba whom they would choose.
He said Obasanjo was the choice of the Yoruba people during the 1999 elections.
He said: “People who speak the way he is speaking are insulting our intelligence. He is talking the way he did believing we are fools. It surprises me the way we take them serious when they talk like this because their intentions have not been hidden right from when we had independence in 1960. The intentions of the Fulani is that they must rule Nigeria forever and they must be the rulers and when they cannot be the rulers, they believe they must choose the person who would rule to their advantage. Of course they have been consistent with that philosophy.”
The former Afenifere scribe also alleged that there was a conspiracy in 1993 not to allow Abiola emerge as President.
He said: “During the days of the SDP and NRC days which preceded the 1993 elections, the NRC was the choice of the Northern establishment believed would win. They never expected late MKO Abiola would win.
“The mere fact that Abiola won was a shocker to them. By Abiola winning the election threatened their hegemony. We (Yoruba, Igbo, Niger Delta and the Middle Belt) have always believed in one Nigeria. Olu Falae was the choice of the Yoruba people because everybody believes at that time that since they annuled Abiola’s elections, and many Yoruba people were killed as a result of the struggle, every body agreed that the Yoruba people should be compensated by having a Yoruba become President.
“The north, as usual, believed that if a Yoruba must become President, it must be a Yoruba whom they would choose and not a Yoruba whom Nigerians would choose.
As I have said, it is either they rule Nigeria or they choose the person that would rule Nigeria to their advantage.
“You will remember that when Obasanjo was President in 1976, he was more or less a president for the Fulani people and not for Nigeria.
“In 1999, when it was the turn of the Yoruba people, the North insisted it must be him because they believed he would rule to their advantage. They felt having Obasanjo there is as good as having a Fulani person there.
“We all knew these. They should not be insulting our intelligence.”
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