The Grave Danger In Voting Buhari-Pa Ayo Adebanjo, Says His Certificate Not tenable

Pa Ayo Adebanjo, a leader of the Yoruba group, Afenifere, was a top member
of the Action Group, led by the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, in the first
republic. He also belonged to the Awolowo – led Unity Party of Nigeria
(UPN) in the second republic. At the inception of the latest democratic
experiment in 1999, he joined the late Pa Abraham Adesanya and Chief Bola
Ige, among others, to form the Alliance for Democracy which dominated the
governments in the South-west. In this interview, he speaks on the state
of the nation.

Afenifere, unlike before, is no longer active. What is happening?

Afenifere is still very active. In fact, very soon, we are going to meet
in Akure, Ondo State.

It no longer as vibrant as it was

Well, I am sure that would be because of the press. You are light on to
the world, just like the motto of the defunct West African Pilot. There is
no doubt that there is some kind of division among us caused by some
rebels who didn’t want the right thing to be done, because we are strictly
Awolowo’s disciples,undiluted. We don’t modify Awo’s principles for our
own interest, progressive is progressive; not progressive today and
conservative tomorrow. Those who were never progressives, the moment they
join you, they automatically become progressives.

How are you resolving the challenge of people trying to twist the
principles of Awo?

We shall continue to say what is right for people to decipher. There are
no two ways about it. What we are doing now is to ensure that you people
follow the right path. The principle of Afenifere leaders, particularly
myself, is to tell you the truth because lying and falsification of things
have dominated the country.

But there are a lot of people now calling themselves progressives?

I will say all those ones are fake. All those the people in the then ACN
that is now APC are fake progressives.

How?

They are fake in the sense that they don’t pursue the principles of Awolowo.
Take, for instance, the issue of federalism, you know we were part and
parcel of National Democratic Coalition, NADECO. And during the NADECO
days, we were the only ones shouting about the issue of Sovereign National
Conference for the restructuring of the country because the federation was
an awkward one. It was not balanced. And it was because the military
choked us in 1966. The Constitution the colonialists gave us at
independence was jettisoned after the 1966 coup. And that is why you saw
arbitrary creation of states and local government areas because the people
there were northerners. And we said we don’t want the country to separate;
for us all to live in peace, let us all sit down and restructure the
country on the principle of federalism. Federalism is the system whereby
the various ethnic nationalities that formed the country can grow at their
own space and then still keep the country as one, that was what we
insisted upon. You would also remember when Abdulsalami; Abubakar (former
Head of State) said we should go for election, and we said no, we should
first of all hold a conference that would lead to a new Constitution which
we would all be happy about, but he said, ‘No, I am in a hurry, when you
get your civilian government, you can go and do it’. That was why one was
held during the Obasanjo time. All those with us during the NADECO time
that insisted on National Conference are the same set of people saying now
that the Goodlock Jonathan conference was a diversion. That was what Bola
Tinubu said. I have said it before, let him challenge it. Sovereign
National Conference was one of the manifestoes we used in electing him
into office as governor of Lagos State. It was part of the Alliance for
Democracy that there must be a National conference. When we won elections
in 1999, it was because we reluctantly took part in the election because
we didn’t want people we didn’t believe in to win elections in South-West
and claim later that we were not representing the South-West. That was why
we contested the elections so that everybody could see that we had the
support of the people. After the elections, all the six states in the
South-West where we had our governors, Afenifere leaders toured the Houses
of Assembly led by late Papa Abraham Adesanya, for them to pass a
resolution that there must be a National Conference. Tinubu was there. Now
because something does not suit him, because he has some motive now, he
says the National Conference was a diversion. Is that consistent with our
policy? Now, what you find these days is imposition of candidates which is
against the principle of Awolowo. Take the issue of free education, you
hear free education in Lagos, have you been to their primary and secondary
schools and see the number of children there? Can you find any of the
children of these ministers in any of the public schools? Is that what
they inherited? It is matter of principle. This is what separated us the
Afenifere from the ACN who called them selves progressives. It is not a
personal thing.

Where do the Yoruba people stand in the February elections?

I think that would also be a matter of principle. The question of
South-south is a matter of principle of Papa Awolowo that a minority would
also have the right to aim for the highest position in the country. That
was what I was trying to point out about the recent National Conference we
had. That conference has taken care of everything concerning Nigeria. Like
the issue of power, it is no longer going to be the North-west, whenever
it get to the North, it must rotate within all other regions in the North.
The same thing for the South, it is no longer about South-west but all
other regions in the South such that everybody now knows when each of the
regions would be president, it is no longer the issue of we are born to
rule. Why I am supporting Jonathan is because he is the only man who can
implement the recommendations of the National Conference which was set up
to bring equity to Yorubaland and to Nigeria.
He is the only man. And once he does that, all these things we are
complaining about will be rectified. People talk about corruption but they
never care to know the root of corruption. The thing is that the Federal
Government has more money than all other tiers of government. Now, we have
closed that gap in the confab. We have done it in such a way that the
states now have more powers which may not be palatable to those ones in
the North. For example, how did you have more local government areas than
the South? How are the local governments in Kano and Jigawa more than
those in Lagos? The military at that time just allocated states and local
governments to themselves. There was really no criteria with which they
arrived at those local governments. So, they now went further by
allocating funds on the basis of the number of local governments. You will
recall that Lagos State was denied local government funds even when the
Supreme Court ruled that it should be paid. That is the kind of wholesome
power the Federal Government has,and that is one of the reasons I feared
if Buhari should govern under this Constitution.

Why?

Because they have the mentality that they are born to rule. And that is
why I think this romance with the South-west of picking a vice
presidential candidate with him is just a mere gimmick. That is why I am
insisting that all the recommendations of the confab should be implemented
before the elections because, the inequality this country has been
suffering all this while has been rectified with the recommendations of
the confab. All the things that could cause us conflicts have been
rectified. So, all our problems have been attacked from the root. And,
that is why those who think it is not to their advantage don’t want it
done. Everybody believes that this present Constitution is bad and we then
say let us all sit down and harmonize it,what is wrong in that one? We
have done it now but yet you don’t want it to be implemented. And where is
the antagonism coming from ? From the beneficiaries of the awkwardness of
the constitution. And they still want the Yoruba to continue to go along
with that? If some Yoruba follow them sheepishly, probably because they
don’t know the background, that can not happen to someone like me. And
part of the inequality we are talking about is what has come out in the
Buhari certificate matter. In the first republic, you set up a standard
for everybody but when it comes to the northerner, you set another
standard, that is exactly what happened in Buhari’s case. Those of us who
knew all these things from the beginning are not surprised by the new turn
of events. You heard that his principal sent a letter to the military that
he was capable and that he expected that he would pass his examinations.
That was what was happening in those days in the North. Go and ask serious
federal civil servants in this country, many of the permanent secretaries
that were senior to them whether they were not superseded without being
qualified. They cannot deny that. If you have read General Isama’s book,
you will find it there where he said when they were about to be
commissioned, the standard set for them was usually lower for the North. I
am sure he never anticipated a situation like this.
And do we have corruption on selective basis? Look at the PTF which he
superintended. Even though Obasanjo was trying to cover him up, has he
denied anything of such? He knows that if he does, the document is there
for everyone to see. There was the issue of the N25b there. It is all in
the report. So, how can I, as a NADECO man, come and support a dictator.
All his antecedents are dictatorial and military like.


That was then.

Don’t give me that. When did he become a democrat? What has he done to
show he is a democrat other than the fact he is saying he is being
punished because he is now a democrat? When he first came as a military
man, he was issuing retroactive actions to convict people for murder. We
are all living witnesses to what he did with Decree 4, so, that is the
type of man you want me to vote in a civilian regime? He says he is not a
fundamentalist. It is just that people forget about records easily. Here
was a man who campaigned in the North and said Muslims should vote for
Muslims. Here was a man who said he was going to work for the operation of
Sharia through out the country. He has not denied it neither has he
apologized for all the anti-democratic things he has done. I won’t be
deceived by bringing a first class technocrat as running mate.

That is where I was going that if you cannot support because of Buhari’s
personality, how about that of his vice?

That is not possible because the running mate has no political experience.
He is a first class technocrat, a distinguished lawyer and a nice
gentleman, but if you are talking of politics, it is another matter
entirely. They just brought him in. Tinubu brought him in as Attorney
General, he was never in politics. He comes from Ikenne. Does he know the
politics of Ikenne?
So, the South-West may be making a mistake.
Exactly, there is no doubt about that, that they will be making a big
mistake and digging their graves. They may not listen but, I, Ayo
Adebanjo, is telling them. I am 87 years old, I can die any moment, so
that when ever it happened, they would be able to say that indeed, that
man told us. Buhari is only deceiving them . Go and read what Wole Soyinka
said about him in 2001. Has it changed? Go and read what El- Rufai said
about him in 2002 that he is not electable. These are the same people
polishing him. When I look at the whole scenario, I feel sorry for this
country.

But, it is like Yoruba are irrevocably committed to following Buhari
through Tinubu.

I don’t believe Yoruba are following Tinubu. There are so many factors
that made him win election in those days. When it comes to these facts, it
is now left for the Yoruba to decide. Those of us who suffered
imprisonment during the NADECO days under Abacha , Tinubu was not around.
To those of us who were really victims of dictatorship, you cannot send
Buhari to us. I don’t know those who are now doing chop chop politics.
From the beginning, we were never those who believe than military person
should come and rule under a civilian regime and that was one of the
reasons the Yoruba strongly voted against Obasanjo in 1999. It was the
military that imposed Obasanjo on us, because it was Babangida and
Abdulsalami that brought him and imposed him on us. They may have
disagreement later because Obasanjo didn’t perform. It was Obasanjo that
brought Yar’Adua, he brought Jonathan.

The old brigade in the Afenifere are the real progressives according to
you because you are the authentic Awolowo’s follows. Is it not an irony
now that instead of the South-west following people like you, they are
following Tinubu and his ‘progressive’ party?

That is left for them. I have given all the facts. This is a democracy.
With all we are saying, you and I know that we are suffering here in
Lagos. I am Fashola’s fan, I won’t say he has not done well but, those of
us who created his predecessor, Tinubu, know that he could do better for
Lagos, that is what we are saying. You may not appreciate what is
happening now except you remember the Western Region where things moved
well. A man ruled the Western Region for seven years without strike. He
introduced free education when our income was barely five and a half
million pounds including Edo and Delta at that time by share economic
ingenuity. Is that what we are having now? You have people who do job of
N50m and say it is N250m and yet, the people would be saying he has done a
good job. With all that is being done in Lagos, some of us have asked the
question,how much does it cost? What is the revenue of Lagos, both the
internally generated and the allocation? And yet, we are still owing that
much debt. And yet we have to pay for tolls. I am not contesting election
for anybody to vote for me, all I am saying is for posterity. Where they
have done well, I say it, where they are wrong, I say it as well. When
they talk of corruption in Jonathan government, I won’t say the government
is clean, but those who are talking about corruption, how clean are they
themselves? This is the question and yet these are the same people you
journalists extol to high heavens. Are you saying there is no corruption
in Lagos State? The only job we have now is to reform this country and
urge Jonathan to implement the recommendations of the confab so that we
can all start on a clean slate. There may have been a lot of
irregularities in the past and it is the irregularities that people are
fighting. Everybody must have autonomy to rule itself and we all combine
at the centre for what joins us together. If we had no federal system,
Awolowo could not have done what he did in the Western Region.

So INEC should just allow Buhari to run the election and forget about the
certificate?

I don’t know. Don’t put words into my mouth, that is left for INEC to
prove if indeed he has the certificate; otherwise he is not qualified.

He is not qualified?

That is what the law says. It is not me. You journalists must be honest to
this nation. You are not doing me any favour neither are you doing the
country any good by trying to plaster what should not be plastered. What
the law says is this: You must have a school certificate before you can
qualify.

But the school has presented that now?

This is not the kind of certificate I have. I don’t think this one is
tenable. If they can be fooled, I cannot. That is why I think Jega should
come in. Though Jega doesn’t want to be seen as supporting anybody, from
the law that he is expected to implement, Buhari has not satisfied the
Constitution. Jega is only trying to shift responsibility by saying people
opposed to Buhari’s qualification for the polls should go to court. I
heard the APC saying Buhari has been contesting election for the past 12
years and nobody said anything about it, why now? And my answer in form of
question is, if someone has been committing robbery and getting away with
it, the day he is caught, you are now asking, why has not been caught all
this while?

Are you saying it is as good as INEC disqualifying the man based on what
is on ground?

Except you are saying the law should not be obeyed. The law is not made
for fun. We should not be sentimental about this thing. That is why we say
there are two standards, one for Ayo Adebanjo and one for Buhari. That is
what is happening in the secondary schools. When they say examination
cut-off mark is this but lower cut-off mark for those in the North, that
is the kind of thing we have been going through since amalgamation and we
have been shouting that let us educate the people of the North, but they
don’t want to be educated as we are, yet they want to be qualified as we
are.

You are 87 now and mummy is 85, what is the secret of your longevity?

It is about honesty. We are at peace with our minds. I won’t see black and
call it white because of monetary gain. It is the grace of God. Although I
try to eat well and exercise, all still amounts to the grace of God.

Courtesy: Vanguard Newspapers