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Chief Ayo Adebanjo is an elder statesman, and acting national leader of the pan-Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere. In this interview with AYODELE OLALERE, the 95-year-old lawyer spoke on the visit of Yoruba rights activist, Mr Sunday Adeyemo aka Sunday Igboho, to him in Lagos; the insecurity in the country; the tension in the South-west, especially the crisis between the Yoruba and Fulani; the response of the Buhari administration and the way out of the logjam.
Recently, Yoruba rights activist, Sunday Igboho visited you. Can we have an insight into the reason for the visit? He came here to greet me and discuss the situation of the country and how we can move the country forward. A video has gone viral in which Sunday Igboho threatened to kill any Yoruba politician that comes out to contest for President in 2023. Is he not going too far? Is that statement not seditious? He might have talked out of enthusiasm. It’s not a question of force, it’s a question of persuasion. You know the way we elders will approach a matter is not the way the younger ones will address it. The northern youths that said the Igbos should leave their region have not been arrested. So we have talked to Sunday Igboho. And again, I don’t want you the journalists to change the narrative to what the northern elders want you to turn it into. Sunday Igboho did not say the Fulanis should leave Yorubaland or Oyo State. He said the herdsmen that are killing and raping his people and are destroying their farms should leave. They have been committing the atrocities without any response from the Federal Government to protect the victims. That was why they resorted to self-help. The people must not confuse the issue at all. When you are saying he asked the Fulanis to leave, he has not asked Dangote to go. You pressmen must not help the northern people to change the narrative. When the Fulani herdsmen killed people in Benue, and the governor went to Buhari to say he knows the people troubling him, that they wrote him a letter that they are the ones responsible and own the land, what did Buhari say? Did he direct that the people should be arrested? No. He said the governor should go and make friends with his neighbours. Even Buhari’s spokesmen, Femi Adesina and Garba Shehu said Benue people should either give up their land or their lives. Is that a hate speech or good speech? The body language of Buhari and the Presidency encourages the Fulani to molest us and confirms my allegations that Buhari is implementing a script to ’Fulanise’ us and all that he’s doing confirm it. When in 2018 they attacked southern Kaduna, Buhari was away in London. The second day, they did the same thing, burnt people’s houses, was anybody arrested? Was it the Igbos or Ijaws that did it? That’s why I said we must not help them to change the narrative. They often return by saying it’s the criminals that were doing it but who should arrest the criminals? Who is in charge of security? What have they done? On Christmas eve in 2018, they murdered 800 Christians in southern Kaduna. It’s on record. Was anybody arrested till today? The body language of Buhari encourages them. At a time, he said they were Fulanis from other countries but the question is how did they enter the country? Who is in charge of security? When I accused him of wanting to Fulanise the country, he said any Fulani can come into the country and get a visa on arrival. Are they investors coming here to invest? He has not given that liberty to investors, it’s only the Fulani that he gave it to. That’s why I say he’s the man behind them and he has not denied since then. Look at another scenario. The people were encouraged to be armed when they wanted to do elections but after the elections, the President claimed he did not know where they were but (Sheikh Mohammed) Gumi now knows and is now negotiating with them. The Army also now knows where they are. This is not a matter of rhetorics. Buhari and the Presidency are behind the Fulani people committing atrocities in his house. If not, let them declare positive actions. Not even a word or statement from Buhari himself till now. But recently, the President gave shoot on sight order against any herdsman carrying arms… (Cuts in) That’s after seven years in office. See, don’t let those people deceive us. Is it now that things are happening in the North and they are also attacking our people? These are the questions that need answers. They always tell us the Fulanis have been with us for 100 years, which is true, but have we been quarrelling? Why has it got to this stage after Buhari came to government in 2015? He should answer that question. People have been living in harmony for years but why are things happening now? They should stop confusing the issue that we asked the Fulani to go. Anybody who is a criminal is not entitled to live anywhere without being checked. They even said the forest belongs to nobody. Are we safe? Can we go to Kaduna and start to plant cocoa because anybody can live anywhere, without their permission? Enough of this nonsense. The once peaceful South-west is now going through so much tension between the Yoruba and northerners. What is the way out? That’s what I said when you were talking about Igboho. You are complaining about the reaction, you don’t complain about the action that causes the reaction. If by the time they are killing and raping people in Ibarapa, abducting the child of one of the Obas there, the government had taken action, there wouldn’t have been a reaction from the people. But what action did the government take, either state or federal governments? Until the people started reacting and the government is now complaining. They shouldn’t change the narrative that we asked the Fulani to go. The southerners in the North are investing there and boosting their economy. If they leave, the northerners will suffer. The northerners who are doing legitimate business here, we have not touched them. Don’t forget the greatest industry of Dangote is in the west. Can he leave here? He has employed people. He’s our friend, he’s my friend. So when they are talking, they should know they are not talking to fools. There have been attempts to arrest Sunday Igboho. We heard security agents attempted to arrest him on his way to your place… (Cuts in) They dare not. They attempted it but failed. They shouldn’t have stopped him. They should have allowed him to come here and arrest all of us together. Then they will know Yorubas are not fools. We are the most tolerant of all the tribes in this country. What is the way forward for the South-west? We fight back. The way forward for the country now is for Buhari to arrange a constitutional conference for the restructuring of the country now and not to talk of any elections before that is done. But during the Jonathan administration, a national conference was organised and there have been calls for the implementation of the report of the conference. Do you think there is a need for another conference? I have told Buhari to implement the report of the conference. If there are things he doesn’t want, he can take them out. But anything that he wants there, he should implement. Anyone that is not acceptable, set up a committee. Buhari can set up a constitutional conference that is better in quality for progress. I challenged him but till now, he can’t produce a better document. I am not one of those taking it that Buhari will lead this country successfully. Buhari is not interested in the unity of this country except under this Constitution that is dominating us. He’s not interested in any Constitution that will give us peace except the one imposed on us by the military under which he’s acting as a civilian dictator. Since all these crises started, what has Buhari said to douse the tension. Obasanjo, Abdulsalami have spoken. Everybody is talking but Buhari has kept mute. This is not the time that silence is golden. Silence is into the disintegration of Nigeria by Buhari. Some people share the opinion that Buhari is not in charge of the country, that some people are making decisions for him. Do you share the same opinion? I don’t go into speculation. Don’t forget I am a lawyer and I go by the evidence before me. All those are insinuations. I am the one that campaigned for Buhari in 2007 when he said he was going to do restructuring. I don’t hate him. My quarrel with him is to get this country united under an agreed Constitution, that we agree to live together and the terms will be listed. I have said if he doesn’t understand what restructuring is, we should go back to the Constitution agreed to by Awolowo, Sardauna, Azikiwe and others. I asked him if he’s more intelligent and more Fulani than Sardauna. We are asking specific questions. Buhari is not interested in the unity of this country. If he’s interested, why is he opposed to all the suggestions that will help us attain unity and peace. It means he wants us to continue under this Constitution that everyone says is not working. Do you see Nigeria surviving these crises with the way we are going? We can survive if he listens to people but if he does not, we can’t survive. Without restructuring this country, forget Nigeria and 2023. Which responsible person in this country, except Buhari and his cohorts, who have not said Buhari should do restructuring now? Everybody agreed we are in crisis now and everybody is honest the crisis could be solved if Buhari convenes a conference now to resolve how we are going to live together. Short of that, there is no talk of any election. 2023 is around the corner and every politician and region is jostling for which region produces the next President…(cuts in) Ayo Adebanjo and Afenifere are not jostling for who becomes the President. People have asked me if Tinubu comes out to contest for President, will I support him and I said, no. Under this Constitution, if you put my son as President, I won’t support him. My strong view is that there must be a country before we have any election. Are we a country now, are we not scattered? How can we come together? Only under an acceptable Constitution. Even if Buhari wants to come back after we have an agreed Constitution, no problem. Some days back, there was tension when northern traders blocked food supplies to the South. What does action portend? These are all indications of instability in the country. There will be worse things if we continue like this. If the South retaliates, is that not anarchy? If Buhari is not operating a private agenda of Fulanisation, let him organise a national conference. Was that not a signal that the South should be self-sufficient in terms of food production? If we want to do this, we want to do that, we must have a country first. Agriculture is federal, but where is the land of the Federal Government. Many of you don’t understand the handicap this Constitution is giving us. When you have a real federal Constitution, there will be progress and everything will be autonomous. We did it under the Western region. It was because the Constitution then gave us autonomy and we could do free education, free health and agriculture. These are the advantages of an autonomous Constitution. In America, all the federating units are complementary to the Federal Government, not subordinate. It’s only in Nigeria things are different. It’s a shame. |
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