Ayo Adebanjo: Biography, more you didn’t know about Afenifere leader
Chief Ayo Adebanjo is a Nigerian lawyer, politician, and activist. He is the head of the Yoruba social-political organization Afenifere.
Table of Content hide 1Ayo Adebanjo Biography 2Career 3Ayo Adebanjo/Afenifere 4Age 5Family 6Hometown 7Ayo Adebanjo on Buhari 8ConclusionAyo Adebanjo Biography
Ayo Adebanjo was born on April 10, 1928, in Ijebu Ogbu Oke, Odogbolu Local Government Area, Ogun State.
His parents were Salawatu Anomo Adebanjo and Chief Joel Adedairo Adebanjo. He began schooling at Saint Saviours Primary School in Elegbaata, Lagos, between 1934 and 1935.
In 1937, he continued to Holy Trinity School in Ebute Ero. He stayed till 1941 before moving to the Cathedral School in Lagos until 1943. In 1959, he proceeded to the United Kingdom to study law. Afterward, he entered the Council of Legal Education and was called to the bar at Lincoln City in 1961.
Career
Ayo Adebanjo has worked for some government parastatals since Nigeria’s independence.
He temporarily worked in the Ministry of Health, Lagos, before his appointment was terminated for being impolite to an expatriate following a self-government demonstration.
He had a brief stint in an Ikorodu trading company because the political authorities believed they would not be able to place Chief Adebanjo in one of the government ministries.
The late Chief S.E. Gbadamosi engaged him. From then, he became a journalist for the Nigerian Tribune, working under the late Olabisi Onabanjo as the Action Group’s first organizing secretary. He held the office between 1947 to 1953.
He has always advocated against many problems with the administration. His ties to the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Awoism were strong and unwavering.
He was one of the leaders of the National Democratic Coalition. He was chosen to take over as Afenifere’s new head in 2021.
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Ayo Adebanjo/Afenifere
Afenifere was established as a sociocultural organization for the Yoruba people of Nigeria, with Chief Abraham Adesanya as its leader and Chief Bola Ige as deputy leader. Adegbonmire, Okurounmu Femi, Ganiyu Dawodu, Olanihun Ajayi, Olu Falae, Adebayo Adefarati, Alhaji Adeyemo, and Ayo Adebanjo were additional founding members in addition to Pa Onasanya and Chief Reuben Fasoranti. The Afenifere agenda was the formal platform for founding the Alliance for Democracy (AD) political party in 1998.
Rival factions of the AD staged separate conventions in late 2003 as a result of a poor showing in the elections in April 2003. Adebisi Akande was chosen as the AD chairman during the Lagos convention. Thugs attacked the vehicle of AD leaders in January 2006 who backed Chief Mojisoluwa Akinfenwa as the party’s national chairman.
The Afenifere Renewal Group (also known as ARG), established in 2008 to bring the warring factions back together, may have served as an alternative to the faction led by the older generation of leaders. Afenifere in Ijebu Igbo, Ogun State, had a faction led by Adebanjo that installed Chief Reuben Fasoranti as the new group leader in November 2008. The move was rejected by ARG leaders, including Senator Olabiyi Durojaiye, Chief Bisi Akande, Wale Oshun, and Yinka Odumakin.
ARG stood up against proposals to deregulate the domestic fuel market in October 2009. The conviction of Chief Bode George and five other defendants was lauded by the ARG that month as a significant step toward ridding Nigeria of corruption.
Afenifere’s leader, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, defended the organization’s support for Peter Obi, the Labour Party candidate, in the presidential elections of 2023.
The leader of Afenifere also outlined the group’s reasons for opposing Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress and Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party.
Adebanjo, the leader of Afenifere, said in a statement on Monday, September 26, 2022, that the organization supported justice and fairness and believed in true federalism and the Federal Character principle.
His defense follows criticism from his earlier declaration of the group’s support for Peter Obi in the 2023 presidential race.
He claimed that while the South-South has held the presidency for a total of six years and the South-West has produced a president who is currently serving as vice president, the Igbo people of the South-East have never held the office of president in Nigeria, and since power is due to return to the South, equity requires that it be given to the Igbo.
He continued by saying, “we cannot keep demanding that the Igbo people stay in Nigeria while violently marginalizing and excluding them from the power dynamics.”
The leader of Afenifere also declared that the group would not abandon equity, inclusivity, and justice simply because Asiwaju Bola Tinubu was running for office. “Because one of our own, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, is a front-runner for office, we will not compromise on this principle of justice, equity, and inclusivity,” Adebanjo declared.
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Age
Chief Ayo Adebanjo was born on April 10, 1928. He is 94 years old.
Family
Chief Adebanjo is married to Chief Mrs. Christianah Adebanjo. The couple got married in 1960 and are blessed with children and grandchildren. Two of his children followed in his footsteps to study law. However, they are both not practicing lawyers.
Hometown
Chief Ayo Adebanjo is from Isanya Ogbo in Ogun State.
Ayo Adebanjo on Buhari
In an interview with Punch in April this year, he stated that Buhari is one of the country’s oppressors and that we won’t know peace until he leaves office.
He also accused President Muhammadu Buhari of ignoring Nigeria’s numerous difficulties for his agenda.
The Afenifere leader added that excluding the Southeast from consideration for the 2023 presidency would be unjust.
Speaking on the Sunday Politics program on Channels Television, Adebanjo said the Buhari administration had shown insensitivity by rejecting the calls for restructuring.
He stated that the ruling party and its leading supporters’ insistence that they are ignorant of the significance of restructuring is offensive.
Conclusion
Despite his age, Ayo Adebanjo is still very relevant in Nigeria’s politics. He is a patriotic citizen of Nigeria willing to do anything to ensure it country succeeds.
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