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 Afenifere, unlike before, is no longer active.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. Chief Ayo Adebanjo 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… Read tomorrow’s edition of Sunday Vanguard for the full interview
Posted on: Sun, 25 Jan 2015 00:22:09 +0000
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