"We reject unity of the horse and the rider " -Yoruba leaders balre hot. No restructuring, no Nigeria

"We reject unity of the horse and the rider " -Yoruba leaders balre hot. No restructuring, no Nigeria

• Yoruba Agenda: No restructuring, no Nigeria, Ayo Adebanjo replies Tanko Yakassai 
• Restructuring not Yoruba agenda •We reject unity of the horse and the rider 
• How the Nigerian military changed constitution to favour of  Northern Nigeria
• We liberated masses of the north 

Chief Ayo Adebanjo is a First Republic politician and a staunch Awoist. The former member of the National Democratic Coalition, NADECO, does not shy away from issues that affect the country. In this interview with Vanguard, the octogenarian lampoons northern elites who are opposed to the restructuring of the country even as he corrects the wrong impression that restructuring is a Yoruba agenda. Adebanjo, a chieftain of the pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, also disagrees with President Muhammadu Buhari over his comments on the First Lady, Mrs. Aisha Buhari. Excerpts: The First Lady, Mrs. Aisha Buhari recently raised the alarm that the government headed by her husband has been hijacked by some persons. Do you believe that Buhari-led administration can be ‘hijacked’? I regard that as an affair of the APC and Buhari, but Buhari being a public figure will warrant me to comment. On what the First Lady said, she is in a better position to assess who and who worked with her husband and who are in government now. Which fair-minded person can fault her observation except you are gender prejudiced to say who is that woman talking? Not in this age. For the president to make the comment that his wife’s position is in the kitchen, in the country in far away Germany where a woman is the head of the country shows you how extremely conservative the husband still is. It is unfortunate he made that remark. From my own observation, nobody can fault her (Aisha). You could read the comments of members of the APC that what she has said is true. The President’s spokesperson has however clarified that the president was merely joking. That was an afterthought, that is what we call damage control after the damage has been done. Those of us who know the president well will tell you that it is in his character and culture to speak that way about women. He (Buhari) still belongs to the conservative north, anything to the contrary is pretense except many of them who are trying to modernize. We started the universal voting for women because, in 1959, Chief Obafemi Awolowo pressed for it. Adebanjo vs Yakassai It is not in their (north) culture to respect women but I am not surprised. So, no fair-minded person can fault the First Lady’s statement, that is the bottom line. I don’t want to comment much on the controversy, what people have been saying was what the First Lady said, she has not said anything new and the reaction will only surprise those who don’t know the husband and his background. One year and five months down the line in the administration of President Buhari, as an elder statesman, how would you assess his government? I was never a supporter of Buhari or the APC government. I am not surprised at what is happening but I am surprised that Buhari has not disappointed me. Before the elections, I had accused him of being a dictator, that he does not respect the rule of law and I had said that voting him was the greatest mistake Nigerians must not make then. That is why I now say I am disappointed that he has not disappointed me because I am expecting that, from the criticism I gave him and from the support he got from his supporters, I should have been disappointed. To be honest with you, I expect that and I did say even at that time that if he did that, I will go to him and apologise to him. At the earlier stage of his government, I said it was early to judge him but after a year, it warranted my statement that I am disappointed that he has not disappointed me. I am disappointed that he did not live up to the expectations of those who thought he was going to disappoint me because of the new dispensation. It is unfortunate that it is to the detriment of the country. I was praying that he should disappoint me because that is the only thing that can bring progress. After 56 years of independence, we cannot be campaigning each time about our head of government. Our problem in the country is leadership. So, I would have thought that with the clamour and everything people were saying about him, he was going to spring a surprise. What have we got! I have asked those, who clamoured for a change then, what change have they got now? There has been clamour for the restructuring of the polity, what are your thoughts on restructuring and is it true that it is a Yoruba agenda as northern elder statesman, Tanko Yakassai declared? The whole country knows my stand on restructuring, without restructuring, there is no Nigeria. No matter how you delay restructuring, if you don’t do it, that is the end of Nigeria and I don’t mince words about it. You won’t have political stability without restructuring and without political stability, there can be no progress. There will be no political stability without having the national question being resolved. The national question is that the federating units must be satisfied with the conditions of being together. That is the consensus of those of us who have been agitating for restructuring. I had always thought that Tanko Yakassai belonged to the very few I thought were modern and progressive in the north because he belonged to the Aminu Kano school of thought when Sardaunna was conservative. He would remember that when he was the parliamentary secretary to former President, Alhaji Shehu Shagari, he was also a member of the Constitution National Conference where we all passed the resolution on restructuring. I am really disappointed that of all people in the north, one of the only few people who should know better is Tanko Yakassai. What has been the source of conflict since independence? Yakassai knows. How can he now say that restructuring is a Yoruba agenda? Is it Yoruba agenda that we used in the First Republic and the Action Group won all the elections in the minority areas in the north and in the east? That made us the only national party although our opponents continue to say that we are tribal but we are the only party that won elections in the legislative arm in the First Republic. It is on record. We were the leader of the opposition in the east led by Ikokwu, in the north by Alhaji Maito from Ilorin and by the government of the west led by Chief Awolowo. How can a party be more national? That is the constitution we have been advocating since then. You can see how ridiculous and mischievous to make that statement and I am very disappointed that Tanko Yakassai should talk like that in this age. Yakassai sees the restructuring as a gang up against the north. If he says restructuring is a gang up, is it a gang up if we say let each region have its own autonomy? Is that a gang up? Don’t you know that the call by MASSOB, the Niger Delta Avengers are calls for restructuring, as they promised to lay down their arms. He should remember that the question of restructuring came up after the army had destroyed Nigeria in 1966. I challenge Tanko Yakassai and Maitama Sule, because they are products of the First Republic, to deny if all the agitations that have been made in the First Republic, were not based on the creation of more states and on the minorities having their own states? What do you then call restructuring? Except he is ignorant of what restructuring is all about. How can you equate restructuring to breaking up of the country? All we are saying is that we must have a proper federation and our own federation is patterned after the United States of America. This is modern day Nigeria, he should not be talking like the uninformed electorates in the First Republic in the north. Don’t forget that we liberated the masses of the north as to elections. Before independence in 1951, they did not allow the women to vote, it was the Action Group government that advocated that women should vote in the north. That is why I am surprised about these two elements I am mentioning because they are the only people in the north who should know what I am talking about. I ask Tanko Yakassai again, is this the constitution that Awolowo. Azikiwe and Sardauna gave us at independence? Is that what we agreed upon in London? Or what are we advocating that is different from that? It is unfortunate that a leader like him is misleading the country and his people. Or is it because the military had changed the constitution to favour their people, which the army did in 1966 of which we are now opposing that is making it a Yoruba agenda? If it is a Yoruba agenda that we don’t want to be dictated to or oppressed, I agree. We are in the vanguard of a united Nigeria, under a peaceful arrangement known as federalism. You see, the constitution we have now is a military constitution, let him deny that. Is this the constitution we had at independence? Let him and Maitama Sule answer that question. The constitution they are forcing us to accept is the one the army turned the whole thing in their favour so that they can dominate the rest of the country. When we talk about restructuring, some who are following them blindly don’t know what we are talking about. It was the military that made it possible for them (north) to have more states and more local governments in 1966. Tanko Yakassai was at the National Conference, we rectified that by making every geographical area to have equal number of states. Many of you don’t understand what the military did, the military deliberately created more states in the north. For example, the population of Lagos and Kano were identical but they broke Jigawa from Kano to create one state and crated more local governments there and I challenge Maitama Sula and Tanko Yakassai, who are now saying that what we are agitating for is a Yoruba agenda, to tell me what is the yardstick for the creation of states the army did, which they want us to perpetuate? Some of the states in the north are not up to the local government in the south. We have forgotten all these because our amalgamation was not by our own choice. The colonialists colonized us in our individual basis, they brought us together in 1914 and since then, this agitation has been there but having come together, we enjoyed the unity but we don’t want to enjoy the unity of the horse and the rider. They want to be the rider while they want us to be the horse, that is why they are saying it is a Yoruba agenda. Would they have accepted if they have been in the position of the horse and we the rider? Let him defend it. That is why just as they would not agree, we would not agree and it takes two to dance tango. If they are really sincere that this country must break, let us sit and harmonize all areas of conflict which was what we went to do at the conference to have a peaceful and United country. Anything to the contrary, will not get us peace.

-Dapo Akinrefon  (Vanguard)