After Fasoranti: Can Afenifere Bring The Yoruba Together? | Remi Ladigbolu

The death of Pa Reuben Fasoranti has exposed a fundamental weakness in Yoruba political leadership. Despite a long tradition of political organisation and public service, the Yoruba lack an inclusive, broadly accepted structure capable of setting common priorities and sustaining a political direction. Organisations and factions claim to represent the same people, yet they often pursue separate courses, with no recognised platform to reconcile their differences or organise joint action.

Fasoranti belonged to a political tradition shaped by Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Chief Adekunle Ajasin and Chief Abraham Adesanya. His standing helped hold Afenifere together through years of political uncertainty and internal division. His death raises a question that cannot be answered by choosing a successor alone. How can the Yoruba preserve their political inheritance without depending on another exceptional individual to hold them together?

Afenifere is best placed to lead the search for an answer. But it must do more than fill Fasoranti’s position. It needs to resolve its own divisions and open its doors to the wider Yoruba community, including people and organisations with different political loyalties.

Archbishop Emeritus Ayo Ladigbolu, chairman of the Yoruba Unity Forum and a member of the Afenifere Elders’ Caucus, addressed this problem at the South-West Stakeholders’ Dialogue in Akure on October 29 and 30, 2025. Organised by Afenifere with support from the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria Commission, the meeting considered governance, democracy and the region’s future. Ladigbolu argued that the Yoruba could neither recreate the circumstances that produced Awolowo and Ajasin nor wait for another leader of their stature. He also lamented that organisations claiming to speak for the Yoruba often failed to communicate with one another.

The Akure discussions covered deteriorating federal roads and the need for cooperation on rail links, agriculture, industry and regional development. These issues require sustained attention across state boundaries and changes of government. Without an effective means of maintaining agreed priorities, proposals risk remaining conference resolutions rather than becoming concerted action.

Ladigbolu returned to these concerns at the centenary lecture in honour of Fasoranti at the MUSON Centre in Lagos on August 28, 2026. The event, themed ‘A Century of Courage and Stewardship of Yoruba Democratic Legacy’, celebrated Fasoranti’s contribution while considering the future of the progressive tradition. Ladigbolu drew on Yoruba values including Iwa, Iwa rere, Otito, Omoluabi and Ajose to stress the importance of character, truth and service to the common good.

A starting point already exists within Afenifere. At its general meeting in Akure on January 24, 2024, the organisation abolished the positions of acting leader and deputy leader and established a 21-member Elders’ Caucus to advise its leader. Fasoranti chaired the caucus. Its members included Chief Ayo Adebanjo, Oba Olu Falae, Archbishop Emeritus Ayo Ladigbolu, the late Senator Cornelius Adebayo, Senator Femi Okunrounmu, Senator Kofo Bucknor-Akerele, Lieutenant-General Alani Akinrinade, Major-General Olu Bajowa, Professor Bolaji Akinyemi, Professor Banji Akintoye, Prince Tajudeen Olusi and Dr Kunle Olajide, amongst others.

The caucus brought experienced figures into Afenifere’s leadership arrangements, but it did not resolve the organisation’s deeper divisions or establish an inclusive platform for the wider Yoruba nation. Its creation nevertheless showed that reform could begin within Afenifere itself. There is no need to create another organisation to compete with it.

Reconciliation must come first. The faction associated with the late Chief Ayo Adebanjo, including its leading figure, Oba Oladipo Olaitan, must be part of a serious effort to restore cooperation. The parties need to agree on how leaders are chosen, how decisions are made and how future disputes are resolved. A settlement imposed by one side would only preserve the conditions that produced the division.

Afenifere must then consult other Yoruba organisations, traditional institutions, cultural bodies and civic groups on how to broaden its membership and reform its structures. Those invited to participate must help shape the new arrangement, rather than being asked to endorse decisions already taken.

The aim should be an Afenifere broad enough to accommodate different political tendencies while allowing participating organisations to retain their identities and independence. Its membership should draw on political experience, traditional institutions, scholarship, business, the professions, women and younger generations. Yoruba communities in Kwara and Kogi should also have a meaningful place.

No faction or state should dominate the process. Leaders should be chosen for their integrity, experience and ability to work with people who disagree with them. Afenifere’s authority to articulate common Yoruba positions must rest on the confidence it earns, not on its history alone. Its chair should have a defined role, with major decisions taken through agreed procedures and responsibilities openly assigned.

Security must be among its first priorities. Kidnapping, attacks on farming communities and the dangers faced by travellers in rural areas are undermining livelihoods and confidence in government. Afenifere should press for a coordinated regional response involving state governments, security agencies, traditional institutions and credible community organisations.

The Oodua Peoples Congress, Agbekoya organisations and self-determination groups, including those associated with Sunday Adeyemo, popularly known as Sunday Igboho, should not be shut out of discussions about security and the grievances behind their activities. Afenifere could provide a political forum for these concerns and encourage cooperation within the law.

The Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland also has a role to play, given the title’s historic association with Yoruba defence. The current holder, Iba Gani Adams, has experience engaging community security organisations. He could help bring groups together and convey their concerns to Afenifere, traditional rulers and state governments.

Constitutional reform and regional economic cooperation should remain on the agenda. Afenifere could help develop common positions on federalism, regional autonomy and local government, while encouraging South-West states to cooperate on transport, agriculture, infrastructure and industry. Preserving Yoruba language, history and cultural heritage also requires sustained work by schools, universities, families and cultural institutions.

Ladigbolu’s call for ethical renewal should apply to Afenifere itself. An organisation that demands integrity from public officials must account for its own decisions. It should publish a programme, assign responsibility for agreed goals and report on progress. The values it invokes must be evident in its conduct.

Yoruba political history offers ample warning about the cost of division. The rupture between Awolowo and Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola left deep scars. Later generations saw further disputes even as Ajasin, Adesanya, Bisi Onabanjo, Lateef Jakande, Bola Ige, Alfred Rewane and Fasoranti sustained different parts of the progressive tradition. The emergence of the Afenifere Renewal Group, the Yoruba Council of Elders, the Yoruba Unity Forum and self-determination movements reflects the range of interests any credible leadership arrangement must engage.

Afenifere does not need to absorb every organisation or eliminate disagreement. It needs to provide a dependable forum where representatives can settle differences, identify areas of agreement and organise action around them. No faction owns the Yoruba political inheritance, and none can build a lasting platform by excluding those who disagree with it.

Fasoranti’s death presents Afenifere with a choice. It can treat the transition as a matter of succession, or use it to rebuild the organisation around a wider constituency and a clear programme. The first would leave the underlying problem unresolved. The second could give the Yoruba a forum capable of turning their many voices into common purpose without demanding that they all think alike.

Ladigbolu is a journalist based in Lagos.