Professor Banji Akintoye, the world acclaimed historian is sad that the 2019 elections, which were expected to usher an independent Nigeria, failed to live up to expectations. In this interview with Ayodele Olalere, the 84-year-old academician said unless the country is restructured, it would not escape the impending disastrous calamity. He also urged the younger generation to be bold enough to take up the mantle of leadership in the country.
Before the 2019 general elections, you granted an interview and said the elections would usher in an independent Nigeria. With the alleged massive rigging and the use of the military during the election, are you disappointed with the way the elections went?
No, I was not disappointed. I expected it to be so and it was so. I am a student of history of this country and I know there are lessons. Since 1959, there had not been proper elections. There had been elections that were manipulated by people in power. The 1959 elections were manipulated and they created the tradition of elections we are following now and that tradition stays, which is that all the running around for elections campaign, all the music and the noise and speeches were just jamboree. The persons in power have made up their mind who is going to win the elections and it is that decision of theirs that always comes to pass. It is not the people that decide and it has been getting worse since then.
In 1964, new elements were added to the elections by arresting some candidates and declaring their positions unopposed. We had electoral officers running away and hiding in order not to give nomination papers to some candidates. It got to the Western Region because the Western Region was under the influence of the Federal Government.
Then in 1965, on a very massive scale, it resulted in situation that as many as 15 candidates could not find their names. Some electoral officers were spirited out of the country to go and hide in Benin Republic and Togo. That led to the explosion in the South-west called wetie which then went on till January 1966 and brought down the Federal Government.
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The people in power did not want to hand over power to some, no matter how well they did in the elections and they carried out their will. The only election that has was free and fair was the election of 1993, the Abiola election. Every other election had been like the 2019 election. With that history at the back of my hand, I cannot say I am disappointed by any election in Nigeria.
How about the 2015 election that brought the present election? Former President Jonathan was adjudged to have conducted a free and fair election and conceded defeat.
Jonathan rigged the election massively but the other side rigged the election better. The penetration of foreign eyes to our election was very deep so Jonathan couldn’t do what he wanted to do. He told friends ‘if I cannot rig it, I will organise a coup’. So it is not that he didn’t try, he tried and failed.
How long do you think the country will continue with this system? When are we going to get the Nigeria we dream of? Is there any hope?
I am an old man. The young minds are saying there is hope tomorrow because they are excited so they see hope easily. The old man sees wisdom more than hope. At this point in my life at the age of 84, having seen many elections and the desperation that now exists in the mind of some sections of our country, I don’t expect elections to get better. What will ultimately result from it, only God can tell.
When I was young, we had a flat rock where every young ones go to and slide. We knew if you allow yourself to slide down beyond that rock, you would end up hanging under the tree far from where people can reach you so we knew where to stop. But there was this one among us who just allowed himself to slide beyond the point and he ended up hanging himself on the tree. It caused a lot of uproar. Strongmen came, cut a lot of the bush, climbed tree and rescued the boy. One old man who was living nearby looked at the young man and said ‘you did more than enough to kill yourself’. So the people in power are doing more than enough to kill Nigeria. The elite are killing Nigeria.
Does it mean there is no hope?
I said they are doing more than enough to kill Nigeria (laughs)
What about the issue of restructuring? Do you see hope if the country is restructured?
I don’t see how we can manage this country if we don’t restructure with all the power, resource control and development initiative in the hands of the federal government. We have to restructure. If we don’t, our country will be in serious trouble. It’s not that we are going to break up the country, but forces at work beyond us will break up the country. It is not that the people who want restructuring will break up the country.
The people fighting for restructuring are the ones seeking the preservation of Nigeria. If the people in power continue to ignore their voice and continue with what they are doing, the country will run into the trouble that they will not have the capacity to manage. It is true Yorubas are the leaders on the fight for restructuring but Yorubas are by nature preservers.
They are civilisation builders. It is very difficult to tell Yoruba people to come and join you to break up the country. It is easier to mobilise Yoruba people to build. Yorubas are seeking for progress. We are not breaking up anything but the forces at work, the economic forces, and the psychological forces at work will see to it that this country disintegrate.
We should restructure the country and allow each section of the country to manage their resources and develop at their own pace and be able to contribute to the development of our country. If they don’t do that, the poverty we are now seeing will continue to escalate until it gets out of control.
The El Rufai committee recommended restructuring but setup by the APC President Buhari to implement the recommendations. Now that president is going for second term, what do you expect him to do concerning that report?
The president made it clear in 2016 that the 2014 national conference report has been submitted to him, but that he did not intend to read it or ask for a brief on it. Let me quote him. He said, ‘I had not read and I do not intend to read. I had not asked for a brief on it and I do not intend to ask for it. I had only put it in the archive where it belongs.’ So what more specific and definitive can a person say that. So when the same APC set up a committee under El Rufai, some people had hopes but if those who had hope had gone back to read what the president said, they might not have had that hope.
When the committee came to the South-west, I was one of the people invited to come and speak on it. I made representation before it. I didn’t expect the president to implement the report. We need to create records. The Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi, came before the committee and said unambiguous things that we need restructuring.
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So if the president could ignore the report of his own political party and insisted he would not touch it, what else are we going to say or do.
Could it be that the president was afraid the country could break up if he accedes to restructuring?
Restructuring will uphold the country. If he does it, it will create opportunity for different sections of Nigeria to begin to arrange their own lives according to their own capability.
But some sections of the country are against it?
It is only one section, which is the North-west, out of the six zones that we have, that are against it. But this same North-west are the rulers of Nigeria. If the rest of us say we want something and the North-west says they don’t want it, that thing will not happen and that draws the country back.
It means the country would be at standstill?
The country would not be at standstill. The country will continue to disintegrate.
Soon, politicians would begin to campaign for the 2023 elections. Where do you think the pendulum should swing? Which region should produce the next president, the South-east or the South-west since we are talking of restructuring?
The situation as it is gives so much power into the hands of the federal government. Come 2023, the winner of the election will be another person from the North-west. That is what I expect. From my calculation and knowledge at my disposal, that is my expectation.
What about the South-west and South-east?
There will be brilliant young people who will come from those two regions just like they did in the 2019 elections. They will run around and mesmerise us with their knowledge and loyalty and patriotism to their country. We saw them recently, the likes of Kingsley Moghalu, Fela Durotoye, Ezekwesili and other young ones. Those are brilliant people that if you listen to them, you will be wowed. So we will see a repeat of that in 2023 and we will also see a repeat of the way they end up in 2019 humbly in some corner.
But if the North-west should produce the next president again, it could throw the country into chaos because other regions will not agree to that?
There are people in the South-west and South-east who are happy to pick up the crumbs. The country may not have troubles from those two regions. It will be the same; surrender and accept collaboration.
Don’t you think its time for the younger generation to take over the affairs of the country?
That has been long overdue. I believe the young people can do it. It’s their duty. I am 84-year-old but you are still a young man. It is more of your country than my country. My children are grown up but your children are babies. It is more your country and responsibility than it is mine. Young people need to make up their mind and decide what type of country they want. Do you want to be the citizen of a country tagged the poorest country in the world? Is that the type of country you want? You have to make up your mind. If they come together, they will get the support of older men like me.
But factors such as high cost of picking nominations form, campaign funds and the rest are preventing young ones from contesting for higher political posts.
It is because they are struggling in a system formulated against them. If they want to redeem this country, they need to come together as soon as possible and start a systematic assault on this country. They must demand that there should just be only two or three political parties in the country, that laws about election funding should be made open and vigorously implemented, that the military should not be involved in our elections and that nobody should pay more than a token fee for nomination form in his party, and everybody must be compelled by law to reveal the funding for their election.
That is how it is in other countries. They must stop hobnobbing with existing political parties and stand to save their country.
There are many sophisticated young Nigerians who have served in various international capacities. Such ones can run a country. So young ones should be given a chance. They can start their own political party and bring the true change not the type of change the present government promised us.
At 84, how fulfilled are you sir?
I am fulfilled. I am a Nigerian, even when I was offered American citizenship, I rejected it. I am a Nigerian and I stand by it.
