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The Yoruba Youth Vanguard has lampooned an Afenifere faction for deliberately trying to mislead Nigerians by quoting Vice President Yemi Osinbajo out of context.
It said at a media briefing in Abeokuta yesterday that the Afenifere group does not represent the interest of the entire Yoruba race, but of some old men who are after their own personal gains.
Leader of the group, Akomolafe Kolawole, explained that if truly Afenifere represented Yoruba interest, they would not take the lead in misleading Nigerians on Osinbajo’s comments, who he described as a true Omoluabi.
He said, “Afenifere as we know it today, especially Yinka Odumakin do not represent Yoruba interest in anyway. The group only speaks for their stomachs and pockets, they have since lost relevance and anything they say or do should be disregarded.
Kolawole explained that the Afenifere leaders are only motivated by corruption and since the Vice President is an honest person, they are trying hard to tarnish his image.
“Students of history will agree that Afenifere has been working tirelessly to tarnish Osinbajo’s image because he is bigger and better than all of them collectively.
“They do not like the fact that his popularity among the Yoruba and Nigerians generally is soaring, so, they try to drag him down but unfortunately, he is a man that God has blessed and no man, not even Afenifere can curse him.”
He insisted that what the Vice President said to the Nigerian community in New York during a Town Hall meeting on Sunday was indeed misrepresented.
Osinbajo said, “I really will urge that you don’t rely entirely on information from social media. I think social media tends to be hysterical about practically everything.
“I think there is also a lot of politics involved in some of the information as they come up. I think it is also important to point out that this new wave of issues of security came immediately after the general elections.
“And there is always a connection between… security and elections because many times, politicians arm some individuals during the electioneering period.
“And so, immediately after an election, many of them, having nothing to do and with arms all over the place, resort to the fastest way of making money, which is to abduct people and ask for a ransom. And that is just one side of the problem…”