Yinka Odumakin: We had hoped he lived long enough ― ACF

The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has said their disagreement with the late spokesman of Afenifere, Yinka Odumakin was based on principle not personal.

In a condolence statement to the Afenifere on Saturday, and signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Emmanuel Yawe, the North apex socio-cultural group noted that while the deceased was alive, he held on to his views strongly.

It continued that they had hoped he live long enough to work for and see a new day before death robbed them of him.

“We often disagreed with him on many issues. Our disagreements were however on principle and not personal.

“The fundamental difference is that the AFENIFERE group admits only descendants of Oduduwa as members, while we in the ACF admit even descendants of Oduduwa who are northerners.

“The nature of our membership, accomodating hundreds of ethnic groups have made it very difficult to always agree with a group whose membership is limited to one ethnic group.

However, the statement noted that “We continue to hope that the AFENIFERE will one day turn a new leaf and see issues not from the narrow and limited perspective of one ethnic group but from the broad perspective of a multi-ethnic federal republic.

“We had hoped that Odumakin will live long enough to work for and see the new day.

His death today has robbed us of that opportunity.

“We however pray for the condolence of his family and his colleagues in Afenifere. We shall certainly miss him, he declared.

Full text of the statement:

The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) today received the sad news of the death of Yinka Odumakin, the spokesman of the Afenifere.

While he was alive, Yinka held on to his views very strongly. We often disagreed with him on many issues. Our disagreements were however on principle and not personal.

The fundamental difference is that the Afenifere group admits only descendants of Oduduwa as members, while we in the ACF  admit even descendants of Oduduwa who are northerners. The nature of our membership, accommodating hundreds of ethnic groups has made it very difficult to always agree with a group whose membership is limited to one ethnic group.

We continue to hope that the Afenifere will one day turn a new leaf and see issues not from the narrow and limited perspective of one ethnic group but from the broad perspective of a multi ethnic federal republic.

We had hoped that Odumakin will live long enough to work for and see the new day.

His death today has robbed us of that opportunity. We however pray for the condolence of his family and his colleagues in Afenifere. We shall certainly miss him.

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