Won’t break up, says Adebanjo

the defunct Unity Party of Nigeria ( UPN). I am from Southwest, if we don’t want one Nigeria why would I have gone there. I spent a whole year in Maiduguri it is on record. Why are we fighting Buhari, when I tell you we have invested in Nigeria more than he did, I am not talking fiction.

We have been on the project of Nigeria’s unity for a long time and that is why his ( Buhari) delay in restructuring is the cause of the secession uprisings and self- determination calls we are witnessing today. People like us don’t like what is happening because they want to break up Nigeria that we worked for. But despite the fact I don’t want break up, I also don’t want to live in a country where my people will be slaves to another section or ethnic group, No! That’s the problem. That is why I said I don’t support secession neither do I oppose it. If you are sincere and want peace to return to Nigeria then let Mr. President restructure the system of government to true federalism that every federating units had agreed to. He cannot continue to force this unacceptable system on us. Forcing this Constitution on us by delaying restructuring is what is giving rise to the Sunday Igboho and many Igbohos will still rise. It is people like me that are suppressing them because we don’t want more of them.

I understand now that there are some youths in South- South that are agitating to secede. If not the respect the Yoruba have for my likes they would have stoned us for talking about restructuring. The youth said they are tired of the current system.

It appears Buhari is not the only one adamant to calls for restructuring; there are people encouraging him not to do it even among Yoruba people?

Even in Yoruba land, not all of us will agree on restructuring because democracy allows freedom of speech and expression. And in any case not all Yoruba are in Afenifere. Only that majority are on our side and was that not how Britain fought for Brexit? We are too educated for all these petty excuses. Tell me any Yoruba man who doesn’t want restructuring? And I have openly challenged all the governors to talk the way I am talking that we want restructuring. And I added the word that no one, either traditional ruler or politician in Yoruba land can be bold to say Yoruba doesn’t want restructuring and let’s see how such person will sleep peacefully in his or her house that day.

I have said it. There is no Yoruba man that can come out today and say he or she doesn’t want restructuring. When Buhari came in

2015 and loaded all the security chiefs in the North and from Katsina what did he say? He said he was attending only to those who voted for him; is that not what he said? He doesn’t believe he is the father of the country and that’s where you want peace to reign.

I say our people in APC are not sincere to have continued with this arrangement beyond 2019. Tinubu knows about all these things because he was with us in 1999. We were reluctant to return to democracy in 1999 until Nigeria was restructured and the campaign we made was Sovereign National Conference but the former Head of State, Gen Abdulsalam Abubakar ( rtd) said no, “when you get your civilian administration you can do it.” The late Pa Abraham Adesanya warned him ( Abdulsalam) that this is what we foresaw, restructure this country first or take us back to the Constitution we had before you returned us to democracy, but Abdulsalam refused. One credit I will continue to give Abdulsalam is that with the government then loaded against Afenifere, we couldn’t have been registered as Alliance for Democracy ( AD) to partake in the 1999 elections. But it was Abdulsalam who said if we didn’t register Yoruba people there will be problem. He insisted we must be registered, otherwise; we didn’t qualify to have been registered as a political party, because of the dictatorial conditions laid down by previous governments. He knew there would be trouble if AD was not registered. We went into polls and after winning the elections in Southwest, we told our governors not to go to Abuja to collect anything until we did Sovereign National Conference, but having got to power and enjoyed the paraphernalia of their offices, the governors turned down our advise. They are enjoying the crumps they got from Abuja and turned themselves to governors without authority. They are only Chief Security Officers ( CSO) by name, they have no control over the police. These are what we are fighting for and you want me to continue in that at 93? When I was in my 20s we fought for equality and we got it. That is why I said our people made a mistake by following Buhari in 2015, which can be pardoned but for them to have continued in 2019, is unpardonable. We got all these things done before the military came in 1966.

What are your fears if this country is not restructured?

It will break up. There is no sentiment about that and how soon it will take, the signs are there. That is why people like me are stressing, begging, shouting and when people like Abdulsalam, Professor Wole Soyinka and Obasanjo are saying we cannot afford another war. Even Gen. Theophilus Danjuma ( rtd) said it is too dangerous to go into another civil war.

When the northern people said Yoruba should leave the north, Yoruba people also threatened northerners to go back to their region. It is the intervention of some of us that saved the situation. No right thinking person would love to remain under this current Constitution. We have been in Nigeria under unacceptable conditions for too long and if there is no remedy then to your tents, O Israel. To prevent the break up of Nigeria, Buhari must restructure now. The National Assembly members must compel him to do so. The number one enemy of Nigeria’s unity is President Muhammadu Buhari for refusing to restructure the country now. Quote me fully and I am ready to be arrested for hate speech.

There was an attempt to arrest Sunday Igboho recently. How did you see that?

That is the problem. Those are the irrepressible youths who don’t want restructuring any more because Buhari is delaying. I said if you don’t restructure now there would be more Igbohos coming up, those who do not want to stay in Nigeria under this Constitution any more. And I have said it before, if Buhari restructures now, it will put an end to Igboho, Nnamdi Kanu, leader Indigenous People of Biafra ( IPOB) and others.

Kanu sent delegates to my 90th birthday. I never met him before. His representatives during my birthday said to me that the people in government won’t listen to those of us calling for restructuring, but I pleaded with them to exercise patience. He sent six representatives to my birthday. And I told his delegates that breaking up Nigeria, is not good for us. But the way we are going, we need to be careful. We need to return to what Azikiwe, Awolowo and Sardauna agreed to. The context of what they agreed to would be the context of the federating states. What is harmful about that? If Buhari is sincere why can’t he at least honour the manifesto of his party on restructuring? He is oppressing us under this present Constitution and that won’t work any longer. The youth believe that Buhari won’t listen and they are clamouring for break up but I said no we shouldn’t break up Nigeria. I am insisting Nigeria must not breakup because the youth didn’t suffer what our generations suffered for Independence. But for the respect for me they would have been stoning me in Yoruba land now. They think I have betrayed them because I refused to concede to their philosophy of breaking up Nigeria. I know the implications if Nigeria breaks up but how can we stop it? That’s the reason I am begging Buhari to restructure Nigeria. I won’t agree to Yoruba land to be in Nigeria as a second class citizens. It is Buhari who is asking for violence.

There is this notion that Southwest governors are not sincere on the issue of restructuring....

No. I disagree with that argument. I am sympathetic to the governors. They are under pressure. They are under Buhari and Tinubu, except the Governor of Oyo Sate, Seyi Makinde.

Tinubu sponsored the governors and they don’t have the temerity to speak, as they would have wanted to. You recall that Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo and Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti, spoke on restructuring but they cannot say it the way we are saying it. I sympathise with them. When I say ‘ sell out’ I don’t refer to these governors but those people that helped them to the offices. When they were entering into an alliance with Buhari in 2015, I warned them because we had entered into such agreement before. But when he failed them in his first term, I wondered why they committed the same mistake in 2019. For instance, one of our people in APC arrogantly said we do not understand the northerners and I said okay. But see what has happened to them now? They don’t know what is happening in Buhari’s government again. And I say it categorically that with all the promises they gave Tinubu, if

APC conducts its presidential primary today, I doubt if Tinubu will win.

Mind you, Buhari’s people from the north don’t want to leave power and they have not only divided the Southwest, they have also divided the South. They are putting the bait to former President Goodluck Jonathan, to come and run in 2023.

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Do you also think traditional rulers are sincere and committed to restructuring?

Don’t attack the traditional institution too much. I have been in this struggle since the First Republic. Traditional rulers are equally like civil servants. They are under the governors and the governors are under Buhari and Tinubu. Many of them are with us but they cannot speak up like we are doing.

Despite your warnings, some are still preparing for 2023 presidential election. How do you react to that?

I don’t believe there will be 2023 elections if restructuring does not happen before then. I don’t see 2023 at all without restructuring before then. From what you are seeing now, do you think any peaceful election can take place in the eastern region under this government or in Southwest or Middle Belt or South- South? Except we are deceiving one another, the tragedy of not restructuring this country before election is what is generating the tensions. And it is becoming more devastating every time we missed the opportunity. Bakare told Buhari that trying to stop an idea that has come to stay is like standing in front of a moving train.