2023: Posterity’ll not forgive whoever causes Yoruba Nation to miss Presidency – Olokoba

By Razaq Bamidele

Comrade Razaq Olokoba, a human rights and pro-democracy activist is the National President of the Campaign for Dignity in Governance (CDG). In an exclusive interview with The Nigerian Xpress online in Lagos Friday, he expressed the fears that, the political class is trying to endanger the country’s democracy by toying with the idea of discarding the zoning system.

Endangering democracy, according to him does not mean invitation to a military coup as he stated categorically that, the khaki people are already in their barracks for good warning that, if they try anything funny, “we will smoke them out and the will flee faster than they came.”

 

How comfortable are you about the number of presidential aspirants from the South-West and their refusal to agree on a consensus amongst themselves?

In fact, in my own view, this will be the saddest political moment for the South-West and Yoruba land. There had been series of alliances in the past and the outcome of such alliances prospered on the parties. Even the recent alliance between the North and the South-south, we all know how it came out. The South-East that was even secondary to the alliance was also a beneficiary of Goodluck administration. What I am saying in essence is that, there was prosperity for people who sealed political alliance and eventually came to power.

In our own case, it is dangerously different. We are aware that the government of today has a lot of concessions for the South-west in terms of benefits.  But sadly, it is not reflecting in our life! And we cannot hold President Muhammadu Buhari responsible for that. We are going to hold all political office holders from our region responsible for that. Except a few ministries like Works and Housing which handle roads and infrastructure that benefit the country across all the regions. There is no region in this country that has not witnessed a facelift on roads and other infrastructure.

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Outside that, we cannot pinpoint what others are doing for our people. And that was why, during the #EndSARS protest that resulted into major economic recession in the country, the cushioning effect hardly got to the South-West. So, and that flows to what we are witnessing today. We now understand what could be responsible for that now going by the way they are parading themselves as regards to zoning the presidency to us. So, it is not a thing of joy for a Yoruba man to see eight, nine, ten people coming out for the presidency from one and same region.

What then is the implication of that for the South-west?

The effect of that is that, it is emboldening other ethnic groups and other regions. If you observe very well, in the earliest period of declarations, there was that lull in the atmosphere where only one or two people were showing interests. But as soon as it was realised that the centre could not hold amongst Yoruba people, we then began to see other people springing up for the presidency. And that is not good for us.

And when you go for agreement of this nature and you do not put in place a crisis resolution mechanism, it is a minus for the South-west. I believe there should be a way an important decision like this should be taken. And this is the time we are feeling the absence of moral leaders in Yoruba land. There were moral structures when the sage, Obafemi Awolowo was alive and when Senator Abraham Adesanya was alive. But sadly, such moral structures who we can defer to as moral leaders are absent today in Yoruba land. That structure is, unfortunately missing today in Yoruba land. And that is tears inducing and very sad!

The earlier we put such institution back again the better because we cannot continue like this. As things stand today in Nigeria, Yoruba remain the only ethnic group that does not have a common political agenda. So, the political class in the South-west should be cautioned not to toy with the fate of the South-west and the Yoruba people by extension.

People have sectors. You cannot see Yoruba people in the economy sector doing anything that is damaging to the Yoruba economic interest. You cannot see the traditional institutions in the recent time doing what is damaging to the moral values and tradition of Yoruba land. It is only the Yoruba political class that is doing things that are damaging to our political prosperity. And this is dangerous for us, very dangerous for us and posterity will not forgive them if we fail politically at this crucial moment.

How do you feel when the Yoruba aspirants failed to reach a consensus during a meeting recently?

In football, there is a term-An Open Net. The consensus arrangement muted in some quarters recently is our political Open Net. And if we miss the Open Net now by not scoring an easy goal, we are going to hold all the political class and elites responsible for the miss! The crime may defer from one group to the other. But, one peculiar blame to be apportioned however is to those who just came out for personal interest and selfish agenda as against the general interest of the South-west and the Yoruba nation. Coming out now for selfish issues or to settle personal score against another person is not patriotic at all.

And we have warned severally that nobody, no individual should use the mass of our people to settle personal issue. Such an attitude is primitive and retrogressive to say the least. When General Ibrahim Babangida (retd) and the late MKO Abiola had personal issues, it affected how they related politically. We can now see where the matter has left the nation. We would have had a full-fledged democracy like we were in 1963. But being what the military is as a people, who do not understand or believe in democracy, they are not to be allowed close to where democracy is being discussed because they have no capacity or trained to understand it.

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So, on that issue, the way politics is being played in Yoruba land, there is danger ahead of us. All of us leaders of self-determination groups have been holding meetings and reflecting on the issue and very soon, we will come out with our strongest position. It should be sounded clear and unequivocally that, posterity will not forgive all of them, if they run our political prosperity aground. We will not forgive them. Yoruba people will not forgive them. We will hold them responsible for leading us into this agreement, somebody thereafter emerged and we have nothing to show for it. And now that agreement is bringing to us another opportunity to prosper, nothing should be done to bundle it for no reason other than personal reason and selfish motive. If they do, we will hold them responsible.

Can you elucidate on that?

Yes. This goes to our northern brothers that it does not augur well, when you think you understand a race more than how the members of that race understand themselves. The result is always very woeful and catastrophic!

And that was the reflection of what happened in 1999 when Olusegun Obasanjo was imposed on us. During the reign of Obasanjo, a particular state, Lagos State to be precise was punished for taking a legitimate decision that would benefit the people of the state. And Obasanjo refused to give the state its well-deserved allocations for four years! That was the highest degree of presidential barbarity.

Again under Obasanjo, Yoruba land suffered over 38 per cent economic depression. It is on record. Many industries in Yoruba land closed up under Obasanjo. So many companies that time and space cannot permit us to mention here. Many Yoruba elites were penalised for no reason than that they expressed their political views. Up till today, the death of Uncle Bola Ige, the number one law officer in the country has not been resolved.

What I am trying to say in essence is that Obasanjo did not show enough concern because he felt he did not owe the Yoruba nation any explanation as president at that time. And that is the danger in when you impose the candidate that his ethnic group cannot hold responsible for anything. That is always the calamity because at the end of the day, it rubs off on the entire nation too. The genesis of power crisis we are having in the country today is under Obasanjo. States were beginning to improvise on power sector. Recall the Lagos Independent Power Project (IPP). Being who Obasanjo is, he sabotaged it. Between 1999 and 2007, fuel prices were increased more than ten times. Obasnjo never reverted to the old price.

All these happened because of the imposition. Remember Nigeria is a country of identity where every ethnic nationality can hold its members accountable for anything they do in the way they govern the nation. But because contrary to the demand of that ethnic group, you impose somebody on them and that is the result. And that is the danger being poised again now.

Back to the South-west, what…..?

(Cuts in), Okay, finally for the South-west, the way things are going now, it is either we miss the Open Net, or somebody from the fringes would just come up and become the President of Nigeria in 2023 and call himself a Yoruba man. And that will not be too good for us as a nation. So, I am accusing the Political class in Yoruba land for exhibiting lack of political maturity and understanding amongst themselves without agreeing on someone as a consensus candidate. I also accuse the larger political class in the country of endangering our democracy.

What do you mean by ‘endangering our democracy’?

Please get me right; when I say they are endangering our democracy, I am not at all talking about military coup again. There cannot be coup in Nigeria again. The military guys in khaki can never come back to government house in Nigeria again. They cannot come back, if they try it, we will smoke them out and they will leave faster than they come. I took part in ensuring they were returned to the barracks and today they cannot come back again. We will resist.

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But what I mean by endangering democracy is that the insecurity in all the regions in the country today is enough for the political class to caution themselves. A close example was the #EndSARS crisis when we had an uprising that did not have a clear definition. The only definition then was: violence, kill, maim, burn down and so on. There is no region in the country today that does not flout its own armoury. The South-east is doing that at the moment. The whole of the north is flouting their own armoury today. The South-south has been in it for so long. It is only in the south-west that we have not been seeing the emergence of a fire power. And it is just a question of time too because decadence is a communicable disease. It is going to fester. It would find its way to the whole parts of the country.  You know we are moving towards a situation where we will not defer to the constituted authority and security agencies on the issue of security in this country. We are dragging the nation towards a situation where nobody would refer any case to the security agencies and the fastest route to that avoidable situation is the character, conduct and behaviour of the political class who fail to honour an agreement and terms on the way to move this country forward.

How do you mean in a clear term?

The moment we put the zoning agreement in place, it means we recognize the weaknesses of some groups in the country and we say, okay, let the power rotate so as to give everybody a sense of belonging. And that is the cushion effect for the deficiency the political structure has suffered in the country. And if you get careless and get selfish to the extent that you think you have to reverse the setback earlier turned to victory, it will land the country into a bigger trouble!

The summary of my answer to your question is that, posterity is watching everybody that is a player in the unfolding development. We are documenting it. And for those Yoruba aspirants, we are taking note. And the documentation of their actions is not just for the archives. Rather, we will make them account for their actions and inactions sooner or later. Although from the onset, we know they would not agree on a consensus candidate and that is why we quickly come out with our strong warning that posterity will not forgive any of them, who would contribute to the missing of the empty net staring us at the face right now. No more, no less.