June 12: Lamido Insulting Our Intelligence, Believes We Are Fools – Afenifere Chieftain Fumes Over Yoruba Presidency Remark

A former General Secretary of the pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, Senator Femi Okurounmu, has accused erstwhile governor of Jigawa State governor, Sule Lamido, and others of trying to impose a Yoruba president of their choice 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 President Olusegun Obasanjo was the choice of the Yoruba in 1999, contrary to Lamido’s position.

He stated that the mission of the Fulani people is to rule Nigeria forever, and when they cannot do this, they place people in power who would rule according to their advantage.

Naijaonpoint reports that 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.

“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.”

Reacting to Lamido’s claims while speaking to newsmen, Okurounmu 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 decide.

“As I have said, it is either they rule Nigeria or they choose the person that would rule Nigeria to their advantage.”