Stephen Ukandu, Umuahia
The pan-Yoruba socio-political Organisation, Afenifere, has announced its rejection of any move or contemplation to impose Interim National Government (ING) on the country, and vowed to resist any such attempt.
Afenifere, therefore, urged President Muhammadu Buhari, not to budge to any suggestion to foist Interim National Government on Nigerians, describing it as undemocratic.
The Yoruba group in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr Jare Ajayi, said the position had become imperative following the recent latest disclosure by Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State that some elements within the Presidency were plotting to have the President impose ING on the country.
Ikengaonline reports that Gov. El-Rufai had, while featuring on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily programme, claimed that certain members of the Aso Rock cabal, were using the twin-crisis of fuel and naira scarcity to truncate the conduct of the 2023 elections by possibly instigating a mass action.
The statement obtained by Ikengaonline read: “We are making this call because of the sacrifices we, along with many other Nigerians dead and alive, have made to ensure that we have a civil rule.
“We are happy that we have had about 24 years of civil rule and six transitions between one civilian administration to another since 1999. There is no doubt that we can have better administrations and that we are desirous of having a change.
“But that change must be through democratic means as enshrined in our constitution. It is in this respect anything that could prompt the change of government through any other means is unacceptable.”
Afenifere said that while it had not been on the same page with the Kaduna State Governor on many national issues, “on this particular one, we are in agreement with the Governor and all those who insist that elections must hold on February 25 and March 11, 2023, as scheduled.”
The statement further read: “Apart from some elements acting or advocating for a regime change that is not recognised by the Constitution, some steps taken recently by the Federal Government and some of its agencies seem to indicate a desire to create an atmosphere that may make an institution of government in a manner that is alien to the constitution inevitable.
“Three of these steps are (i) creating artificial scarcity of fuel (ii) making it difficult for people to have access to their hard-earned monies and (iii) failing to tame the insecurity in the land.
“Granted that the latter has been with us for a while and we have been managing to move around in spite of it with the hope that the incoming administration will put a final stop to it, the first two were deliberately created to frustrate Nigerians and provoke them into actions that can be used as an excuse to foist a non-democratic government on the people.”
Afenifere warned those behind the contemplation “to perish the thought as such thought-line or action portends grave dangers.”
Just Tuesday, Femi Fani-Kayode, former Aviation Minister and an ally of the presidential candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, Bola Tinubu, was invited by the Department of State Services, DSS, for alleging that a presidential candidate was hobnobbing with senior military officers for a possible coup d’etat.
DSS later in a statement, warned politicians to watch their utterances.
