Afenifere leader, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, speaks with BAYO AKINLOYE on
the alleged gang-up against the All Progressives Congress National
Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, and the leadership style of President
Muhammadu Buhari
What do
you make of the rift between the Chairman of the All Progressives
Congress, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, and the APC National Leader, Asiwaju
Bola Tinubu?
(Asiwaju Bola) Tinubu allowed himself to
be used by people who do not have the interest of the Yoruba at heart.
He chose to follow President Muhammadu Buhari sheepishly. I warned that
Buhari has not changed. I knew his antecedents. But Tinubu chose to
follow him. He and his group blindly supported Buhari. I am not
concerned about the All Progressives Congress’ party politics. What is
happening in the party is more than a gang-up against Tinubu. My concern
is that the undermining of Tinubu’s influence by the party he fought
hard to bring to power is making decisions and taking steps that are not
good for the Yoruba. I am looking beyond the superficial affront
against Tinubu by his party people. The attack against him is an attack
against Yoruba people. People would have expected me to be happy about
the way he is being treated now, but I am worried because he’s the voice
of the Yoruba in the ruling party. My own argument in all this is
purely ideological. It is not personal at all.
Is there any link between it and the socio-political crisis in Nigeria?
That’s the reason we are having problems
all over the country – you have the Movement for the Actualisation of
the Sovereign State of Biafra, the Niger Delta Avengers, and the
Indigenous People of Biafra. It is a question of the constitution of the
nation. We feel strongly that the report of the National Conference
should be examined and implemented as necessary but the confab report
has been thrown into the dustbin. Unfortunately, some sheepish Yoruba
people are following him (Buhari) and hoping that he’ll share power with
them. But we will not allow the Yoruba masses to be trampled on – no
man will chase away his child for a lion to devour. If the Yoruba in the
ruling party don’t understand what is happening, we’ll continue to
speak out.
I agree with people who say Tinubu
didn’t do well (by supporting Buhari to emerge as Nigeria’s president).
Yet, one’s child can’t be so badly behaved that he will be chased away
into the waiting claws and jaws of a lion. That is my position. The APC
is a melting pot of various interest groups; you have the Tinubu group
and you have the Buhari group – and other groups. If the ruling party is
fragmented then we are in a mess. The mess was evident from the
beginning of this administration when the party could not agree on who
should take what positions in the National Assembly. The APC is an
association of strange bedfellows. I had criticised the party because of
its lack of a meeting point among its leaders. Their lack of cohesion
began with (Bukola) Saraki who emerged against the party’s wish. The
party is characterised by personal reasons, selfishness, and
narrow-mindedness. They came together without a definite purpose of what
they want to do at the federal level.
What is the way forward?
I wish Tinubu can get things right,
regroup and get out of the unholy alliance he got himself into, for the
benefit of the Yoruba nation and the South. In 2019, there will be no
APC. If there will be APC, it will not be in this form.
Is that a prophecy?
Go and write it down. I am prepared to be abused by people who think contrary.
Why do you feel strongly that by 2019 there won’t be APC or that the party would have been weakened by that time?
Are you not a journalist? Can’t you
decipher it? The signs are there. It is common sense. Some of us have
been in the game (politics) for a long time. There is no unity of
purpose within the party. Where is the unity when Tinubu said the
chairman of the party is a traitor? He accused him of treachery; that
he’s not acting alone because he has the backing of the leaders of the
party. I don’t like the crisis I am seeing in the APC because it is the
masses that would suffer. It is the masses that are looking for good
roads and other amenities. It is the masses that are looking for good
governance. If they are quarrelling with one another, when will the
ruling party settle down to deliver dividends of democracy to the
masses?
The party’s rules are skewed against
them in case they don’t know. They should unite against forces
detrimental to Yoruba interest. I had warned them (the APC) before the
last general elections about what is happening now. There is nothing
happening now that I have not said before –that he (Buhari) is a
dictator; that he doesn’t obey the rule of law; he’s a tribal jingoist
and so on. What has Buhari said or done about the rampaging Fulani
herdsmen who are maiming and killing people in the East, in the West and
in the North? What has he said? Buhari has denied that those marauders
are Fulani. He claimed that they are foreigners – the notion that the
herdsmen are foreigners is even worse to accept. If our head of state
(and the commander-in-chief) cannot protect us or guarantee the safety
of citizens against attacks by foreigners who are invading a territory
he presides over, then we are in a mess.
Are you disappointed about President Muhammadu Buhari’s performance so far?
I am disappointed that Buhari has not
disappointed me. The reason is that I spoke against him before the 2015
presidential election. I am not happy that his actions now have
vindicated me that I am right concerning what I said about him. Back
then, all his supporters said I was castigating him unnecessarily – that
the actions he took during his first time of ruling the country were
taken under military rule. I was expecting him to change. Now, we’re in a
civilian regime, they said, and I told them they don’t know Buhari’s
background. How can someone say Nigeria is not negotiable? How can you
not negotiate the continued existence of a country with multiethnic
nationalities? The Soviet Union existed for how many years? Did it not
break eventually? What about Czechoslovakia? Did it not break up? So,
why can’t Nigerians peacefully review the nation’s amalgamation? We need
to review it –we cannot be held as if in a cage by force or by somebody
or a group of people’s fiat. Anyone or any group that is opposed to the
restructuring of the country is the enemy of the country.
What kind of restructuring are you looking at?
We want the country to be restructured
under a truly federal constitution and for ethnic nationalities to live
together in peace. Anything to the contrary will not augur well for the
country. It is either a restructuring or there is no Nigeria – that is
the truth. No government can keep the people together by force. We are
calling for a restructuring of the country because we want the country
to live together in peace. It will be impossible for any government to
keep us together by force. All the lopsidedness of this country is in
favour of people of Buhari’s origin. He holds the country cheaply by
saying that foreigners are the ones invading the country. Foreigners
invading a country under your watch and you fold your arms and do
nothing? It is his duty to protect us against any attack, whether
foreign or local. I have nothing against Buhari personally. He is the
President of the country and I want him to succeed. But he must not be a
partisan president.
Can you speak more on the mistakes you said Tinubu made?
Of course, he did (make a mistake
supporting Buhari to become the president). I had said that ab initio –
before the presidential poll was held. I said the greatest mistake
Nigerians – Yoruba must not make was voting for Buhari. Everybody heard
me when I said that. Many people said I was a Peoples Democratic Party’s
apologist. I made that statement back then based on what I know about
Buhari and his antecedents. Former President Goodluck Jonathan didn’t
realise the importance of implementing the confab report on time. He
promised that if given a second term as president he would examine the
recommendations and try to implement them. The other man (Buhari) said
he wasn’t going to look at the report at all. I think it is reasonable
to consider the person who promised to do something. There’s nothing to
accuse Buhari of now because he didn’t promise to implement the confab
recommendations. I am – I repeat – disappointed that Buhari has not
disappointed me. I was prepared for disappointment; I was waiting to be
disappointed so that I could go to Buhari and tender an apology to him.
In spite of saying in his acceptance speech that he’s a born-again
democrat, nothing has changed about him.
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