By Ademola Adekusibe
September 18, 2025
A certain photo-op has been flying around on X, with Peter Obi proudly flaunting his meeting with what he calls “the leadership of Afenifere.” under Oba Oladipo Olaitan.
Let us set the record straight before lies take root. What Obi met in Akure was not the Yoruba nation, They are not the custodians of our destiny. They are the tired remnants of those who betrayed Chief Obafemi Awolowo in the First Republic, men who sold the pride of Yoruba land for a morsel of political porridge. They cannot, and will never, speak for us.
The Yoruba nation is bigger than one faction hiding under the tattered umbrella of Afenifere. From Lagos to Ogun, from Oyo to Osun, from Ondo to Ekiti, and across Yorubaland in Kwara and Kogi, we know our true defenders. We have strong, vibrant socio-cultural groups like Think Yoruba First (TYF) who have been consistent in preserving our culture, language, values, and political destiny. These are the ones who deserve respect. They are the ones working to secure the future of our children. Not the old betrayers Obi clings to for photo-ops.
Peter Obi, if you think sitting with these men gives you the Yoruba stamp of approval, you deceive yourself. A Yoruba parable says: “The goat that follows the deceitful drumbeat will dance itself into the hunter’s trap.” Those you met are not our voice. They are the very same people whose betrayal cost the Yoruba dearly in the past. They are political relics, grasping for relevance, willing to sell cheap endorsements to anyone who flatters them.
And let us expose the true agenda in the words of Churchill Okonkwo himself, who once wrote without shame:
“We will join Afenifere and soon be part of the powerhouses that will be eligible to be crowned Obas. We will get married to the daughters of Oduduwas, build mansions in their towns and villages, and only visit our country home in the Land of the Rising Sun once a year, as usual. Gradually, we will turn the Oduduwa Republic into one of the most ethnically mixed countries in the world.”
If this is not colonization-by-marriage, what is it? This is the open plan: infiltrate Yoruba groups, dilute their authority, and then claim leadership of Yoruba land. Obi’s meeting is not innocent. It is the acting out of a long-written script.
Now, let us offer Peter Obi some free counsel. You have not even mended your own home. Your people in the South East still remember the scars of your governorship, when unpaid pensions, abandoned roads, and broken promises led many to rain generational curses upon your name. These curses are still alive on social media, in tweets, in testimonies, in the words of widows and pensioners who felt betrayed. You could not carry your people with compassion then, yet today you stroll into Yorubaland and attempt to wear the garment of a saint. What a mockery.
You cannot abandon your backyard, where erosion still eats villages in Anambra, where joblessness drives the youth into despair, where kidnappers and gunmen have turned highways into death traps, and then come here, puffing your chest, as if Yoruba people will be dazzled by hollow speeches. Go back to your South East. Mend your cracks. Heal the wounds of your own people. Build alliances at home before coming to Yoruba land to borrow legitimacy from traitors. Yoruba land is not your sanctuary, and we will not allow you to wash yourself clean with our heritage.
The truth is simple: Yoruba land does not need Peter Obi. We have carried the weight of this nation for decades. We led the charge for democracy during June 12. We endured the brutal annulment of our son’s mandate. We paid with blood, with exile, with imprisonment. We built coalitions across the country to reclaim power, and today, Yoruba blood, Yoruba sweat, Yoruba sacrifice anchors Nigeria’s presidency. We did not get here by photo-ops with expired factions. We earned it through strategy, alliances, and resilience. Obi wants shortcuts. But politics is not won by shortcuts; it is won by sacrifice.
So let it be known, loud and clear: the men Obi sat with do not speak for Yoruba land. They never did. They are relics of betrayal. Yoruba land has her true voices, her true defenders, her true fighters. And as long as groups like TYF and countless other custodians remain vigilant, no outsider, no opportunist, and no betrayer will redefine who speaks for us.
A Yoruba parable warns: “The masquerade that dances outside its village is only a clown.” Another says: “The river that forgets its source will dry up.” Obi should take these lessons home. His redemption, if it exists, cannot come from Yorubaland.
Peter Obi, take your pilgrim staff back home. Yoruba land is not your redemption ground.
