The group also called on all Nigerians to give peace a chance in the country.
Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere in the United Kingdom and Europe has congratulated Nigeria’s President-elect, Bola Tinubu.
Tinubu was declared the winner of the presidential election held on Saturday, February 25, 2023.
The group also called on all Nigerians to give peace a chance in the country.
The group in a statement on Wednesday, March 1, 2023, issued by its Secretary, Engr. Anthony Ajayi, said though Tinubu may not be the right choice for all Nigerians, citizens should allow peace to reign so that he can deliver the promises he made to Nigerians.
It said the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had already declared Tinubu as the president-elect of the 2023 presidential election, appealing that all aggrieved parties should seek redress at the court and stop heating up the polity to prevent the youths from breaking the law.
While the group called for unity of Nigerians at this time, it urged Tinubu to take full responsibility for the huge challenges ahead, adding that Afenifere’s position on restructuring of Nigeria remains sacrosanct.
The group noted that 62 years after independence, for a number of Nigerians, there is a seeming hopelessness and helplessness of what the democratic deficit portends.
This, the group said “regrettably pushed Nigerians from rational, dispassionate and factual technical-scientific pathways to primitive expression of emotional impulses, strong belief in rituals and spiritual participation and at times confused superstition”.
"The socio-economic conditions of life have deepened mental entropy of the citizens and disquietingly have created a wide array of skeptical attitudes, doubt and suspicion with the performance of democracy.
“We are relentless in demand for restructuring because we believed that Nigeria as currently constituted is an unjust and suffocating system.
"The integration of Nigerian people without which common action for collective welfare and progress is unthinkable. Uneven development exacerbated fears of ethnic and regional domination, leading the semi-autonomous administration of Nigeria's three regions (East, North, South and West) to pursue policies and programmes that further differentiated between their people," the group stated.