The pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, has urged Nigerian governors to unite in the defence of national integrity amid the planned move of some persons to de-market the country in the international community.
Afenifere, which condemned the move, lamented the disquiet at what it described as calculated manoeuvres towards imperilling the cohesion of the country as well as discrediting the administration of President Bola Tinubu within and outside the country.
While calling on state governors to urgently unite and counter narratives damaging the country’s reputation, the foremost Yoruba group, in a statement by its National Organising Secretary, Otunba Kole Omololu, emphasised that the situation, if left unchecked, might cause suffering for Nigeria, particularly in the international community.
Afenifere stated that the recent de-marketing of Nigeria and misrepresenting the country at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, USA, was a grievous affront to the values that ought to underpin national aspiration.
“Afenifere registers its profound disquiet at the increasingly calculated manoeuvres by certain political elements intent on imperilling the cohesion of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and discrediting the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, both within and beyond our national borders.
“These orchestrated campaigns, often cloaked in the rhetoric of democratic dissent, are rapidly transgressing the fine line between legitimate political opposition and a pernicious assault on the nation’s global reputation. It is deeply lamentable that some have chosen international platforms to propagate narratives that cast Nigeria in an unflattering light, ostensibly under the guise of advocacy or reform.
“This growing proclivity for externalising domestic political grievances does little to advance our collective cause. Rather, it undermines national pride and compromises Nigeria’s standing within the international community.”;
