Elder statesman, Chief Ayo Adebanjo is a leader of the pan Yoruba socio-cultural and political organisation, Afenifere. In addition, he is also a strong pioneer member of the famous National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), the group that fought the military junta to a standstill and assisted in returning the country to democratic rule. The politician and renowned lawyer spoke with RAZAQ BAMIDELE in Lagos, insisting that the only panacea to a united country is restructuring, which must be done now and not later. According to him, the failure of President Muhammadu Buhari to restructure the country has made him the number one enemy of a united Nigeria. He warned that, “anything less than that, there will be no country like Nigeria.”
As an elder statesman, what are your comments on the current state of the nation?
There is no hope for this country unless we restructure or else we will be deceiving ourselves. Until this country is restructured and everybody has his autonomy, we will just be deceiving ourselves. For now, Buhari is just deceiving us; he wants to be a civilian dictator. Any delay from now to restructure, what is happening now would be a child’s play. He would be coming with all sorts of things to oppress, to bring in the Fulani domination in one form or another. Up till now, all the security offices are in the hands of Fulani and what are we talking about?
There is no question of future for this country until it is restructured. If it is not restructured, the country will break, so don’t waste your time. I am not one who deceives himself. We have been on this game for long. Why doesn’t Buhari want to go back to the constitution under which we have our independence which was signed by his forefathers? Is he more northerner than Sadauna of Sokoto, Sir Ahmadu Bello? What is the problem and why are we playing with wars?
Even, some of those who are with him there in power are there through restructured programme. I mean people like the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo and Bola Tinubu know that. But why are they afraid to go back to that system? They came in through Sovereign National Conference that called for federal system. As a matter of fact, the VP was then the attorney general to Tinubu as governor of Lagos State. He took the then President Olusegun Obasanjo to court for refusing to pay the local government allocation under the system. And he won in Supreme Court. Then, what has changed now? It is all because they cannot face Buhari again because Buhari is opposed to it. They can no longer face him because they too have skeletons in their cupboards.
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Sir, why do you think Asiwaju Bola Tinubu cannot face the President to discuss restructuring?
Tinubu cannot face Buhari because Buhari is deceiving him with 2023 presidency. All other governors cannot face Tinubu and Buhari because it was Tinubu who put them in office. So, they are selling Yoruba nation because of their own interests. Now that they know they cannot get autonomy, they are now begging the question by saying they want to get economic plan. They are just begging the question. The economy that would just fall in place under restructuring is what they are wasting their time upon. We are in this problem all because Buhari doesn’t want to lose the power he is having now under a unitary form of government. That is why he is opposed to it. This constitution imposed on us, mark my language, imposed on us by the military regime is not our constitution. It has given him power that makes him the most powerful president in the whole world. I have challenged it and nobody has disputed that. We didn’t make this constitution. Why must it be difficult now to change it? And every time he promises to do it, he reneges. And people are saying he is having any integrity.
But Afenifere supported him in 2007….
(Cuts in) Yes, Afenifere supported Buhari in 2007, I am repeating it for the umpteenth time, because he was going to do restructuring. Pastor Tunde Bakare agreed to be his running mate because he was going to do restructuring. Even, Tinubu now, who is stupidly, foolishly and selfishly supporting him, also knows that there is restructuring in the manifesto of the All Progressives Congress (APC) manifesto. What is our problem? Can you see the hypocrisy of the people there? Even after coming in and the noise about restructuring was high, they set up an el-Rufai Committee on restructuring. They presented a paper, but what has happened? The moment they knew there was pressure from the people; he just did something to keep them quiet. That was what he is doing. Recently, he said it is time we did the federal system. All of you heard him. What has he done about it? He just wants you to keep talking and to keep you quiet.
Lest I forget sir, if I may ask, which faction of Afenifere are you talking about?
My dear, those who are saying Afenifere has factions are not being honest. You should tell those who are saying that to go back to history. They don’t want to accept the principle of Afenifere and they are paying lip service to Buhari to keep them in service. That is all. There is no faction in Afenifere. Instead of adopting a new name, they want to keep rubbishing us by saying they are Afenifere. When last have you heard of them? Even, you press men, you know they only come out when there is crisis and they want to play to the gallery. During the election, they came out to make noise. And after that, have you been hearing about them again? Which of the Afenifere have you been hearing for the past five to 10 years in this country? We hold our meetings regularly, they don’t talk about it then. But when they want to deceive Buhari and themselves, they will say they are Afenifere. I don’t waste my time on them again. The people know who are Afenifere. They know what Afenifere stands for, because Afenifere of Awolowo is the father of federalism. If they believe in federalism like Awolowo, why are they in this government? We are the one talking about it.
So, the thing is clear. If they are Afenifere, why are they not preaching what the Afenifere stands for?
How can the masses then get President Buhari to restructure the country?
It is to protest. It is to do what we are doing; it is to refuse to cooperate with the government. They do not have to be violent. They can do psychological refusal.
In your estimation, can the reports of the 2014 conference organized by former Presient Goodluck Jonathan’s administration stand as a guide for restructuring you are talking about?
Certainly yes, if anybody is serious about restructuring. I have told them. I have challenged them. That conference was the most representative conference in this country. I challenge Buhari, he can never gather people who gathered in 2014 again in terms of their quality. The lawyers, the judges, the artisans, Muslims, Christians, youths, students and rights activists and so on were in attendance. Buhari cannot assemble such people of quality again.
And I say, well, if you believe in restructuring, if you believe it is good, and you think it is because you didn’t set it up is the reason you are rejecting it, then point out what you don’t like in it so we can expunge it. He should tell us what he would have added if he set it up, we will put it and move forward. That wouldn’t have been a problem. Other things besides that are just mere excuses.
With your stand sir, it means you prefer restructuring to…..
(Cuts in), don’t say we prefer. I say there must be restructuring. There is no alternative to restructuring. The only alternative to restructuring is the breaking up of this country. I have said it before. Look, South-south say they don’t want this government. South-east say they don’t want this government. Middle Belt say they don’t want this government. Afenifere say they don’t want this government. Then, where are we?And we say this constitution is not our own.
Are we in a democracy? We have not disputed that. And we say the condition under which various ethnic groups in the country came together in 1960 is federalism. That was the Constitution the colonial office handed to us and said, this is your Constitution for your Independence. It was because there was crisis in 1954 when they introduced Macpherson Constitution and the colonial office assembled political leaders in London. That was when they came back with a federal Constitution. That was the time they put premiership in the Constitution of the country. The 1962 Constitution had no premiership. That was when they divided the functions of the states and the federal to the extent that every unit would have the authority and constitutional power to open external office, which the Western Region did by opening Agency Office in London. That office, I saw it in 1962 when the late Justice Toye Coker was the Agent General for Western Region. After the Western Region, the East followed and then the North followed. It was our Agency that bought the 16-hectare Paris Garden. It was the property of the Western Region before it was acquired for the Federal Government.
So, that shows you the extent we have been autonomous and we have been living peacefully. Under that Constitution, the question of revenue allocation was not the problem. It was derivation, which was 50% for the state and 50% for the centre. Even it was so when they discovered oil in 1962 until the military came. It was the military that imposed the problem on the country. Now, they say they have gone, let us go back to where we were. There is no problem about that. If Buhari is serious to keep this country together and thinks he can do so by force, he cannot succeed and will not succeed.
With the scenario you have painted, it appears as if Afenifere is not interested in Yoruba presidency in 2023. What will you say to that?
That is talking nonsense. That is the deceit Tinubu is accepting from Buhari because Buhari will never give him. That is the bait Tinubu is swallowing. The matter between Buhari and Tinubu is what Yoruba would describe as, Iku n de dede, dede naa n d’eku. Buhari is deceiving him, he too is deceiving Buhari. Tinubu is accepting the deceit and that is why Buhari is saying South-west will have the presidency in 2023. It is all deceit. Even as the vice president, how much does Osinbajo know about what is going on in the government now? Does he know what is going on? How much influence does he have in the government? How much does he know about those holding important offices in government, like the security now? How many Yoruba are there? How many southerners are in key security positions?
Yoruba would say Osinbajo is representing us. And I say he has sold out. He is not representing us! He and the APC are representing themselves. They have sold out. When we were talking of Islamization before, was it not Yemi Osinbajo that came out to say there was nothing like Islamization plot? What is happening now? They have sold out.
Do you still believe that the alleged Islamization plot is real?
It is real. Are you saying I lie? It is real. Tell me, among the security people, customs, immigration, army, police and so on, how many of them are not Muslims? That is why I say you journalists are not observant enough. This is the investigation you should conduct about what we and the people are saying. If it is not islamization, if Buhari is not behaving as the Miyetti Allah being himself a cattle owner, and the evil those people are committing all over the place, how many of them have been arrested and prosecuted? If Buhari is honest as the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of this country, and not the protector of the Fulani herdsmen, how and why has he not disarmed them since all this time we have been complaining about them using AK47 to do damages openly? Or do you use AK47 to rear cow? It is a serious matter my friend. And those kidnapped said the inscriptions on their guns are written in Arabic. All that we know, but what has he done about it? And to make matters worse, he is ruling us with impunity. Buhari has no respect for our intelligence by saying openly that the Fulanis that are coming to cause havoc are not from Nigeria. Is he now telling us that he cannot protect us from foreign invasion? Is that not an admittance of negligence and dereliction of duty? And el-Rufai, Kaduna State governor said those foreign Fulanis that invaded Kaduna south have been detected and paid back to their country appealing to them, ‘Don’t come back again, we are Fulani like you!’ Do you hear that? Don’t people think that they are taking us for granted? You saw those who invaded your place and killed your people and you didn’t arrest and prosecute them. Rather, you gave them money not to come back again. Look, my dear, it is disturbing, it is sad.
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Sir, how do you think the security challenges can be permanently addressed?
You cannot stop it without restructuring. You should stop deceiving yourselves. There must be local government police and state police. Every state must take care of its security. When we are talking of restructuring, it is not for fun. It is to get rid of all these problems we are having, be it corruption and other vices. If we restructure, all the money that the Federal Government is using will come down to the states. It is the excess money that the Federal Government has that they are stealing. So, the implication of restructuring is massive. Each region, each unit will develop at its own pace under a restructured polity. If the North wants Sharia, it can have it while the South would also have its customary courts and we get together in peace.
They are talking about agriculture and I ask, where the Federal Government’s land is? All these things were not happening in the First Republic when we were practising federalism.
Are you not worried that the Yoruba nation no longer speaks with one voice?
I know the Yoruba rebels are not talking with us. You people are deceiving yourselves by calling those forcing themselves on the people as Yoruba leaders. They say Tinubu is winning elections in Yoruba land. Is he winning? Did he win? Did you see how he won Lagos when they were carrying boxes in the presence of police and army? Didn’t you see them and what happened? Didn’t you know how they won the election in Osun State? I am not a stranger in this country. So, nobody can pull wool across my eyes. If Tinubu is deceiving himself because he has amassed a lot of money to bribe people to fall in line, that is not my business. And those following him know.
It does appear as if you hate Buhari as a person…Don’t you?
I have said it. Why should I hate him? He has not taken my wife. I have not taken his own. I am only disagreeing with him on principle. I have said it before 2015 election. If Buhari accepts restructuring today, he becomes my candidate. After all, Atiku that I supported, is he not a Fulani man as Buhari? But Atiku says he believes in restructuring, that we should live according to our units. That is the basis I supported Atiku. I am not a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) man. And I don’t hide it. But the system that can make us live together in peace is the principle that I support. Anybody who supports that is the man who wants Nigeria to grow. Any other plan or any other person who wants Nigeria to break, I have repeatedly said that. By opposing restructuring, Buhari is the first enemy of united Nigeria. I have said it. I don’t mince words. Not to implement restructuring now, Buhari is number one enemy of united Nigeria. He wants a Nigeria where Fulani would dominate while he becomes civilian dictator. It will not happen.
What prayer can you then say for Nigeria?
My prayer for Nigeria is for God to change Buhari’s mind to do the way he did about RUGA, by taking steps now towards restructuring Nigeria. That is my prayer and anything less than that, Nigeria is away and there will be no country like Nigeria.
And it should be done now, not later. Where is peace in the country now? Where? North, East, West? And in South-west in particular, we no longer trust our security in the hands of non-indigenes. So, this issue now, if Buhari is serious about peace in this country, all the police personnel in each region must be the indigenes of the region. We in Yoruba land in particular, we no longer trust our security in the hands of non-indigenes.
We have said it long time ago that, restructuring is the only panacea that can guarantee a united Nigeria. All these economic programmes are just a waste of time. You are not going anywhere with it until the country is restructured. That is why I said Atiku is the only saviour for Nigeria. Buhari is not, because every step of Buhari is to disintegrate the country. Since he has resumed office, the country has been going apart. That is the key. Panacea to Nigeria is restructure, now and not later.
