• Says I signed papers for him to become governor
In terms of Southwest politics, 86-year-old NADECO chieftain, Chief Ayo Ade¬banjo, has certainly seen it all, having been on the scene for over five decades. He is one of the die-hard Awoists who hold the political philosophy of the late sage sac¬rosanct believing that it must be practiced in its pristine form.
Reflecting on the experience of the first and second republics in this interview, his outpour of emotion on Yoruba politics in recent time suggests that the octogenarian politician is bellyaching. His grouse is the alleged hijack of the APC leadership by those he describes as “fake Awoists.”
“They call themselves progressives, but they are not. Nobody in APC can tell me the story of Nigeria. Many of them are my own creation from Tinubu upward. I signed his papers for him to become governor, but he later sidelined leaders of the party.
“I challenge them in the open to come and tell the world what we have done to them that made them ignore our advice,” he fumed.
Excerpts:
The recommendations of the national conference have been submitted to President Goodluck Jonathan. What is your expecta¬tion as regards the implementa¬tion?
I have no doubt about the assurance he gave us on its implementation. Go and read his address the day we submit¬ted the report to him; he said he would make sure the recommendations are implemented. Considering the contri¬butions of 494 delegates, the calibre of people at the conference and the type of resolutions we reached, you cannot ex¬pect anything less. In a consensus man¬ner, we have done the country great. It’s now left for those of them who are elected to do their part by implementing the recommendations. And, of course, he followed it up by setting up an imple¬mentation committee recently. So, we have no doubt about its implementation.
What future of Nigeria are you actually looking out to see there¬after?
I want to see a very solid and con¬ducive Nigeria where every nationality will be happy to be a part of Nigeria.
We’ve resolved all the grievances everybody is complaining about. That is why we say this is our constitution as against the military constitution. It’s not a constitution built on the wishes of a section of the country. Despite the com¬position of the conference, we didn’t vote on any issue. Our resolutions were arrived at by consensus. We had about 600 resolutions. In fact, it was in the President’s speech when we submit¬ted the report. He said he was surprised about what we did. We did what others failed to do.
Those of you in NADECO have always advocated a sovereign national conference. Was the na¬tional conference the type you had in mind?
What do you mean by sovereign na¬tional conference? The sovereignty lies in the fact that whatever decisions reached at the conference are not subject to review by anybody except through a referendum.
Are you expecting a referendum to be conducted before the im¬plementation of the resolutions?
Yes, certainly. The President prom¬ised that anything needed to get a refer¬endum would be done. Before the con¬ference, everybody said he couldn’t do it. The clamor now is: will he imple¬ment it? God gave him the grace to do what others failed to do by convoking the conference. God gave him the grace to see it through to the end. We pray God will give him the grace to imple¬ment it. Don’t forget, he and David Mark were also opposed to the confer¬ence. They said no way, but those of us who believe sincerely in the unity of this country continued to mount pressure. It was after a lot of pressure he agreed to organize the conference. Of course, we had our disagreements. But we sat and explained things to ourselves.
We be¬lieve with our heterogeneity, we cannot live in peace without a federal consti¬tution. Many of those who are cynical about the conference are mischievous. By the time we made all the amend¬ments, we have a new constitution. Nobody who had been in the country since amalgamation, knowing the value of a big country will like the country to break up. But there will be a problem if you feel cheated being in the union. It’s those areas that portray cheating to some sections of the country that we went to the conference to resolve. That is why I am confident that we have con¬solidated the word Nigeria. And to me, that implementation must be done be¬fore the election. Nobody is saying that election should be cancelled. But the new constitution must be operational by May 30, 2015. If not, it is a waste of time.
Are you now saying that the conference is a win-win solution for all the sections of the coun¬try?
Certainly! If it is not a win-win situa¬tion, we would have split at the confab. You couldn’t have had the composition of that conference under an election. If you had elected a constituent assembly, you won’t get the quality of the people at that conference. We all went there consciously to build this country. Any¬body opposed to the conference is an enemy of Nigeria.
Is conducting a referendum and getting the approval of the Na¬tional Assembly the same thing?
The National Assembly is part of the problems we solved there. We dealt with them in the areas of money and al¬lowance they earn. What the National Assembly should do is to pass a law that will allow a referendum to be con¬ducted.
Do you think they will approve a referendum to be conducted if you have actually dealt with them?
Which area of the constitution will they oppose? Is it the area where some people want states of their own? Is it an area where we said that you cannot have a true federal structure without the state police? Is it an area where we said fed¬eral government cannot control the lo¬cal government of any state? What have we done there that is not empirically acceptable under a federal constitution?
But the philosophy of Chief Obafemi Awolowo has always tended towards regionalism. Hasn’t it?
Regionalism is federalism. When he was talking of regionalism, there were three regions. At that time, we were talking of creation of more regions and more states. It was that agitation that led to the creation of Mid-West region after independence to spite Chief Awolowo. The question of regionalism didn’t work because the minorities in the East and the North believed that adoption of regionalism will put them in perpetual slavery. They insisted on having their own states. At the same time, we put it in the constitution that those states that wanted to have common economic pro¬grammes can have them.
Like the Southwest economic integration programme?.
Exactly! We didn’t want to force it on the people. Left to me and many other people, I don’t believe in the creation of many states. But the minority problem compelled us to recommend creation of more states. We believe that creation of those states will lay to rest the fears of the minority.
Do you think the time is ripe for state police?
There is nowhere in the whole world either in the federal constitution or uni¬tary where there is only one central po¬lice force. And I asked Ibrahim Cooma¬sie at the conference: Have you heard of Inspector-General of Police in Amer¬ica? Have you heard of Inspector-Gen¬eral of Police in Great Britain which is a unitary form of government? The high¬est ranking police officer is the Chief of Metropolitan Police. Security is better organized on a local government basis. Under the present system, none of the governors can give instructions to the police. We understand our problem, only that we lack the courage. It is that courage Jonathan has demonstrated.
Would you say that the current politics in the Southwest region is in line with the philosophy of the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo?
Certainly not! They are only paying lip service to the philosophy and that is why we are not together. They only use Chief Awolowo’s name to get to office and do whatever they like subsequently. Even Tinubu who is now talking, was elected on the basis of the constitution of the confab. If they go astray, it is for the public to know. It is up for them to say Chief Adebanjo, that is not correct.
Awolowo’s philosophy was based on the principle of progres¬sive politicking. Are you saying that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) is faking Awo’s philosophy?
I am happy you know what Awolowo represented and what he did. Everybody knows the wonders of Awolowo between 1952 and 1959. You can’t compare it to what is happening now. Some people are fake Awoists. They call themselves progressives but they are not. Nobody in APC can tell me the story of Nigeria. Many of them are my own creation from Tinubu upward. I signed the papers for him to become governor, but he later sidelined the leaders of the party. It is left for you to judge whether they are genuine followers of Awolowo or not. All the system is now corrupt. When a party says a governorship aspirant should deposit five or ten million naira to contest the primary, how is it possible for the common man to contest? Did you hear such from Chief Awolowo?
The relevance of Afenifere in Yo¬ruba politics is dwindling. Does this have to do with the alleged hijack of the party’s leadership?
Exactly! They say we are rigid be¬cause they refuse to follow the tenets of democracy and those of us that are rigid are keeping to our principle. We keep ourselves in parties like Social Demo¬cratic Party. You should go and ask those claiming to be progressives, what have we done to them that made them sideline us? Why are we not together? What is our offence?
How did they sideline you?
They are in government but they no longer obey our instructions. The gover¬nor appoints the commissioner, chair¬man of this, chairman of that. And, of course, you young men of nowadays like to be in a place where there is Il¬abe (largesse). Therefore, since those of us who are leaders of the party are no longer in office, we are no longer in the position to give advice. Did you hear of imposition of candidate during the time of Awolowo? I challenge them in the open to come and tell the world what we have done to them that makes them ig¬nore our advice. There are some people calling themselves Afenifere Renewal Group. I call them rebels. I ask them: What are they renewing in Afenifere? Is it free education that is no longer avail¬able or free medical services, integrated rural development or full employment? What is archaic that you are renewing?
Isn’t this a generational con¬flict?
At a time, they said you old men go, let the young men come in. They were advocating for the newbreed which has now become the new greed. When they want to deceive you, they masquerade as loyalists of Awolowo. How are they doing Awolowo things and university education now costs about N250,000 when Awolowo implemented free edu¬cation? They will tell you they have built this road, built that road. Did you ask at what cost? What’s the revenue of Lagos State? If they have N100 million and spend N50 million, people will be shouting. They are getting commenda¬tion because the Federal Government is inept. The non performance of the Federal Government makes the little thing Lagos State Government does a big thing.
It’s those of us who know that it is not supposed to be like that. If the Federal Government is performing the way it is expected, you will see their inadequacies. We don’t relate what they have done with the revenue accruing to the state. When Awolowo came into of¬fice in 1952, the budget of the whole of Western region comprising Delta and Edo was 5.25 million pounds. It was that budget we had until he made the free education policy in 1955. All the programmes of the Action Group were already planned before we got into of¬fice. We didn’t get to the office before setting up a committee on education. We already knew what we wanted to do. That’s not what is happening now.
How was Action Group orga¬nized in a way that there was no imposition of candidates as most parties do these days?
There was equity, there was transpar¬ency in its administration and there was internal democracy in the party.
But some people have also ac¬cused the late Awolowo of hav¬ing overbearing influence on the party and even sometimes im¬posed candidates on the party.
Like who?
Like the way Lateef Jakande emerged as governorship candi¬date of the UPN in Lagos State then…
Jakande is still alive, it was a commit¬tee of friends that decided and elected him. Go and find out, Awolowo didn’t choose Jakande for them. I am a living witness. He was not there. They did the election and reported to him.
So, is it normal for a candidate to emerge without conducting a primary?
Who told you we didn’t conduct primaries? We conducted a primary through which he was elected.
Is it true that there was mistrust between Jakande and Awolowo at a point?
There was mistrust and they call him Baba Kekere.
But he was accused of nurs¬ing presidential ambition which didn’t go well with Awolowo. Isn’t that true?
That’s human nature and it’s not the question of party.
So, Baba reacted to that?
In what way? It was not the way you people are struggling for positions these days. You are putting it in a way as if the late Awolowo was struggling for leadership with Jakande.
What happened?
That was their private affair.
So, Jakande’s ambition didn’t in any way affect the relationship between them?
In what way? Many of you enjoy hearsay.
That’s why it’s important to hear from the horse’s mouth…
And that’s why I am also saying that it is not true. Or you want me to confirm rumour?
Why has it been difficult for your party which you claim is built on the philosophy of Awolowo to win even a local government election?
It’s simply because they have mone¬tized politics and we haven’t got money to give to anybody. Babangida did that when he was in power and that is why they are now paying party officers. That was the beginning of corruption. You know how people vote these days. The situation is so bad now that they publish whatever they like against us. It’s only fake Awoists that are flying the kite.
With the trend of politics you have painted, what does the fu¬ture hold for Yoruba leadership in the Southwest?
The future is with you younger gen¬eration. You people have a job to do. Those who claim to be your leaders can’t lead you anywhere. Your fate is in your hands.
We are doing our best to reorganize. Our handicap is that we haven’t got money to throw around. If I have to go from Lagos to Ibadan, I have to put pet¬rol in my car. Nowadays, you don’t have chairs to sit in your secondary schools; university education is very expensive, primary education has been destroyed. You have a job to do on your hands.
With the insecurity in some parts of the North, do you see election holding in all sections of the country next year?
I am not God. One of the prayers I say in the morning is for God to give us peace in this country. That’s not in any¬body’s hands. Those who are ruling us should be able to give us an atmosphere of peace. If you ask them not to hold election, APC will say, ‘oh, Jonathan wants to stay in power.” When he came up with the idea of national conference, they said it was diversionary. For me, we must implement the new constitu¬tion before the next election. To conduct an election based on the constitution we all know is not good for us will not be in our best interest. We will just be wast¬ing our time. The next century should start on a new note. But if you suggest postponing the election, they will say Jonathan wants to stay in power. How can postponing the election keep Jona¬than in power? If you postpone election to consolidate where you want to rule, that is common sense. That’s not par¬tisan.
How do you see the controver¬sy over creation of more polling units for the North than the South by INEC?
I don’t agree with it. I have a lot of confidence in Jega but this is one of the areas I don’t agree with him. The in¬crease of polling booths must be rela¬tive to the voters. Anything outside that, I see as a hidden agenda. If you observe any overcrowding in any polling unit, spread it out. Polling booths distribu¬tion should not be based on population; it should be based on the voters register.
At 86, you are still looking very vibrant. How have you been able to manage yourself?
God’s grace, of course! I will be 87 in April. If you say because you do this and do that, and God does not bless you, it is nothing. I try to exercise, I control what I eat. But upon all that, it’s still the grace of God. Like people will say, you are what you eat. I try to eat well, do some exercise. The rest is His grace. If you do all that and there is no grace, you will have one ailment or the other.
What was your upbringing like?
I was not born by poor parents. My parents were half rich. I won’t say I was born with a silver spoon but my par¬ents were comfortable. My father was a goldsmith; my mother was a successful petty trader.
What major role did your par¬ents play in shaping your life?
My parents were illiterates but I was educated by my mother. My father was a polygamous husband. I am the only is¬sue of my mother and she tried to train me in a way that I can be somebody. She did everything to send me to secondary school.
So, it was your mother that was paying the bills, your father didn’t contribute to your education?
Oh yes. My father didn’t pay attention to my education. You know our fathers of those days.
How many wives did your fa¬ther have?
He had three wives.
Polygamy is an entrenched as¬pect of African culture but it is gradually giving way. What’s your reservation about polygamy?
Some people are able to manage it, others couldn’t. If you are a good Chris¬tian, your marriage will be by the mar¬riage ordinance. The economic situation is another strong factor. The more wives you have the more children you have.
And you know the burden of train¬ing them. In the days of our father, they didn’t care.
What would you want to be re¬membered for?
Consistency.
Culled from Sun
