Former Interim Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Chief Adebisi Akande, on the occasion of his 77th birthday at Ila-Orangun, Osun State, spoke with reporters on the budget, corruption, insurgency and other issues. ADESOJI ADENIYI was there.
What is your reaction to the series of revelations coming out of the investigation of the security fund of the immediate past Federal Government?
The major problem of Nigeria is corruption either by inflating contract or using some wuru wuru to do some cover-up. The arms fund that was taken directly from the Central Bank of Nigeria and shared directly is phenomenal within the corruption phase of the Nigeria leader. We did not know it was that bad. When last I met the president and the press accost me, ? I made it known to Nigerians that the depth of the rot was great. But when we came in got to know that we are in for a big problem and the country is in for a big problem because the level and the extent of corruption was so deep that I am becoming afraid. We need to be very ready for the fight against corruption because the government alone cannot do it. Let the Nigerian people support the government in fighting corruption because if the monster, corruption fights back, the whole country is likely to be in trouble. The extent is unimaginable and threatening very frightening.
What is your take on spate of defection from the opposition, particularly, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC)?
Bringing together two pieces of wood to make a furniture, if the wood is weak, the furniture will not be strong enough. It is true that we put the party (APC) together in a hurry and we put it together by merging political parties but before it became a political party before it glues into one. The election had come. At that time we seemed to be more concerned with election than the making of the party. And immediately after the election, indiscipline set in and definitely, with such a situation, there will be a bickering from here to there. It is the duty of elders, including myself to remove the bickering and bring the party together in a stronger form and we are going to achieve that.
Osun State has been battling with industrial and economic crises. Are you not worried by the development?
I will say I don’t know much as to the making of the government but I see a lot of boldness in the plan of the present government about Osun. The plan was very bold and commedable and if fully implemented Osun can be turned into an eldorado. Unfortunately, the economy collapsed along the line and if the economy collapses and you don’t have a way of getting it right quickly, it might lead even to the merging of Osun state before it can be able to solve his own problem because when you are not viable, there is nothing you can do. Maybe you have seen a bank that went bankrupt before, all the staff would have to scatter, the manager will go away. When the economy is too weak to sustain Osun, the governor will go away, the commissioners will go away, all the civil servants will go away, all the doctors will go away, everybody will go away because there will be nothing to sit by anymore and that is why it is not the problem of the governor alone. It is the problem of everybody. Some six months ago, I said Osun was not a viable state and I meant it when I said so. A state that cannot generate enough money within itself to pay its own way is not a viable and a state that is waiting for the federal government allocation to run is not viable. The moment that money does not come, that state is finished and from where does the federal government gets money? – crude oil. And nobody is buying it anymore, even when you get the crude oil, our customers are no longer coming. Before, they pay three months in advance, but today, they don’t even come to ask how much we sell it. Whether the price is down or it’s up, until you sell crude oil, you can’t make any money and if there is no money, there will be no state. If the federal government likes it, it may save Osun state and we have to beg them to please save Osun state to survive. If those earning money from Osun State can’t see that, and they begin to jump and stamp the ground, “we no go gree” by the time they are stamping the ground, the ground will cave under their feet and there won’t be doctors again, there won’t be civil servants again, there won’t be commissioners again and there won’t be governor again and there will be nobody to march against. Until you know that the foundation of any state is the economy and that the economy is already crashing. You will see that it’s just like touching the leaf and not the root of a tree.
What particular thing would you do to make a difference in Nigeria, if you have the opportunity of leading the nation?
It depends on circumstances and situations when you are in office. When you get there, you look at the papers, you look at the stories, you look at what led you to that situation and from there, you take off. I think that is what Buhari did within the first 6 months; he was taking briefs from all departments of government and he must have heard a lot of stories in his head. Now he put up brilliant set of ministers, these are to advise him in the light of what he had known and it is for him to do what is right according to that circumstance. So, if I were to be president of Nigeria today, I would look at the circumstance and the situation on ground but I think as an observer and as a leader, what I think should be done is to concentrate on how Nigeria will feed itself. If its by force, I am ready to join the army of people that will go back to the farm, enough of riding Okada all over the streets. We must all go back individually to make sure that we are able to feed ourselves. In the olden days when we were young, the patriach of a home, as soon as a child becomes of age and ready to marry, they give him a portion of land where he would start cultivating. From the first harvest, he will start feeding his family, no more taking from the father; until every individual can feed himself no matter by which ever way, until we stop being parasites on government or some employers to feed, just talk of feeding, until we start doing that, we won’t come out of this problem. When India wanted to come out of it (problem), they stop importation of foods, I was a witness to it. I was going to Delhi with the late Biodun Onibokun and they saw him with some apple, I have forgotten where he got the apple from. He put them in a bag and was going to Delhi with it, they said know, he won’t bring the apples to their country. They said it’s either he sits in the airport and eat it or throw it in the dustbin; they got the apples from him. We came out into the streets of Delhi, on every street that we move, they were burning human beings by the road side who were killed by hunger; when you are moving, you don’t have any food in your stomach, you sit down somewhere and you drop dead there and the neighbourhood would put things together and start burning you because that is the way they treat their deads there. They don’t bury them. So, we saw burning from left and right of the city and yet they don’t allow food to enter that country. Today, India is exporting food. Until we are able to do something like that we are not likely going to come out of this problem.
Do you still believe in fiscal federalism as you did when your party was in the opposition?
Well, I belong to an old school and the old school which I belong never believed in 36 states. The old school which I belong believes in maximum of 18 states and minimum of six. In other words, the whole Yoruba states will be one state because I believe in the creation of state according to cultural unity of the people and the strongest element of culture is language. I believe in the creation of state according to linguistic basis and the whole of Yourbalnd will be only one state. And definitely when it was like that, the whole western government was lending money to the federal government. But today when you have 36 states, some of which are not bigger than a local government, if you are talking about fiscal federalism, I don’t know, one way or the other, merging would start because I will support it anyway because fiscal federalism means live according to your earning, live within your means. And every state will have to find money to manage its own self and it won’t be wrong then if my state is having three commissioners, your own state might have seven, the next state might have ten and the other might have fifteen; its just like when you are getting money from federal government because the idea of fiscal federalism came because of the sharing of the crude oil money. I don’t believe in that. I believe in sharing money by derivation; whatever grew from my state into the federal treasury should come back to me. If I am going to pay royalty or tax or anything, I should do it within my means. So, if Ila-Orangun becomes a state, it’s from the okro we sell that we should be able to run the government and if the government is the such that you have only the governor who will not have commissioners, so be it. But if you see Kwara, maybe selling “elubo” to make money or maybe selling than you do, if they have three commissioners and you are trying to have three, you are going to crash. So, I believe in the kind of federalism that will not allow uniformity or copying. Because they are doing it in Kano, we should do it in Osun, or because they are paying salaries in Delta, we should pay it in Osun – that kind of federalism, I don’t support. I believe in the federalism that will make you to live within your own means. Any money comes from Osun is the one you will spend, if you spend anything above that, you are a debtor and all debtors are never happy for he who goes aborrowing, goes asorrowing.
The belief in some quarters is that President Buhari is trying to edge you and Tinubu out. How true is this?
I know that I am in the best of terms with Bola Tinubu and I am in the best of agreement with Buhari. What Buhari is thinking about me is a question you have to put forward to Buhari but is it not last Monday, I was still talking to the presidency. So, I don’t feel marginalised and I don’t think anybody is marginalising me but whether anybody is planning it or not, is a question you are going to put to the right quarters.
What is your view on the Biafra’s agitation?
Well, those who were born when the idea of Biafra was first muted would be trepitated seeing anybody talking about Biafra today. If Nigerians want to disintegrate and they can’t do it by negotiation, well, what can anybody do about that? But if Nigeria would try to separate the way Biafra demanded between 1967 and 1970, it might be too bad. I was alive then, I was wise enough to know that war was not good and I will not pray that what befell the first Biafra should befall the new Biafra.
