Factional leader of the pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, Oba Oladipo Olaitan, has stated that the leadership succession in the group is not determined by campaigns or personal ambition.

According to him, established traditions and the selection process should guide the emergence of leaders amid concerns over internal divisions within the foremost Yoruba body.

Meanwhile, Afenifere has dismissed concerns over a leadership dispute following the death of its leader, Reuben Fasoranti, assuring the public that the organisation remains united.

It also announced that the late leader, who died on October 20 at the age of 100, would be buried in Akure, Ondo State, in December.

Olaitan, during a condolence visit to the bereaved family in Akure, described the organisation’s succession process as “apostolic succession”.

He maintained that its leadership positions were not offices members should contest through campaigns, but responsibilities that should emerge through established traditions.

The Afenifere chieftain, who said he had been a member of the organisation for about 47 years, expressed confidence that the pan-Yoruba organisation possessed the institutional depth to overcome any leadership challenges, adding that its members understood its traditions and established procedures and that any disagreement should be resolved in accordance with the organisation’s established processes.

Olaitan, who served as the organisation’s national financial secretary under Fasoranti and deputy leader under the late Ayo Adebanjo, said his longstanding relationships with the organisation’s past leaders had given him a deep understanding of its history and traditions, recalling personal relationships with Obafemi Awolowo, Michael Ajasin, Abraham Adesanya and Adebanjo.

“You don’t vie for it. You don’t campaign for it. It’s an apostolic selection. If you are the deputy, naturally, if the leader goes, you go,” Olaitan said, explaining the organisation’s succession tradition.

Im a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Jare Ajayi, Afenifere pointed out that its immediate priority was to organise a befitting burial for the late elder statesman, popularly known as the Asiwaju Yoruba.

In the meantime, Oba Olu Falae will lead delegates from all the states in Yorubaland to pay a formal visit to the Fasorantis tomorrow, which will be the eighth day of the demise of the leader.

In Yoruba cosmology, eighth day, ‘Ojo Kejo’ is symbolic.

Representatives would come to Akure from all the state branches of Afenifere viz Kogi, Kwara, Oyo, Osun, Ogun, Ekiti, Lagos and Ondo states.

The statement indicated that members of Afenifere worldwide are at present preoccupied with how to give their leader a glorious burial.

“Our attention presently is on how to give our leader and Asiwaju Yoruba a glorious burial that he deserves. It would be a height of irresponsibility to be talking about leadership when the remains of the respected leader have not been interred. Such is very much against Yoruba principles,” it added. (The Guardian)