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Tag: Falae

  • Ezekwesili, Falae and unstructured, unprincipled polity

    Events of the past two weeks or so may have convinced ageing but principled Nigerian politicians that confusion, lack of principles and incredible sophistry were enveloping politics in these parts. There was faint hope that a new order could somehow metamorphose from the rubbles of the past, especially given the first successful civilian to civilian transition of power from a ruling party to an opposition party in 2015. But that enthusiasm seems badly misplaced. Indeed, when in early October both the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN) and the Social Democratic Party (SDP) organised their conventions to nominate their standard-bearers, their leaders were flushed with excitement over the immense opportunities new politics was affording new parties untainted by any connections with the old and decaying order represented by both the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

    On October 6, 2018, some 4,500 SDP members met to nominate their standard-bearers. Former Cross River State governor, Donald Duke, won the nomination in an atmosphere of political exuberance few could imagine would peter out into nothingness and confusion less than four months later. Even though Mr Duke’s nomination was eventually litigated, with former Information minister, Jerry Gana, a professor, briefly emerging as the party’s nominee, there were no signs of a convoluted struggle to represent the party or place it firmly on the country’s political and electoral map. Though the legal dispute is still ongoing regarding who between Mr Duke and Prof Gana would represent the party in the February 16, 2019 presidential poll, a more assertive faction of the party led by the National Vice Chairman, Abdul Ishaq, simply brushed the litigants aside and went ahead stony-faced to endorse the ruling APC’s presidential candidate, Muhammadu Buhari.

    The party’s National Chairman, Olu Falae, an economist and old political warhorse and former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), appeared to have been blindsided by his party’s controversial endorsement. It turned out that he was not at the meeting where the APC candidate was endorsed. He probably heard rumours of that impending move, but he neither betrayed knowledge of that action nor felt he had to put up with it once it was done. A day later, he resigned his chairmanship of the party, insisting that he knew nothing of the nefarious endorsement, and was also unwilling to identify with the party’s decision. It was clear to him as well as the party and other Nigerians that Chief Falae had lost control of the party. He stated that his resignation was due to poor health, or  some other excuses no one seems sure of, but added that after all, he had not been active in running the party for some time.

    But shortly before a faction of his party endorsed the president, Chief Falae had himself unilaterally endorsed the PDP’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubaakar. Speaking while receiving Titi Abubakar, the wife of the PDP’s presidential candidate, Chief Falae had spoken endearingly about identifying with any candidate who could thwart the victory of President Buhari. Said Chief Falae, according to some media reports: “All hands must be on deck by to ensure that President Muhammadu Buhari does not come back for the second term. We have to find ways to do it, this government must not come back, for the sake of all of us, even for the sake of the man (Buhari) himself. He does not have the clue of what is going on again, I don’t think he is well, he should just go home and rest. Some characters are hiding behind him to do evil. I wish him (Atiku) well, we are on the same page, we are aiming the same result, no one wants this government to come back because the government has failed.”

    It is not clear whether the Dr Ishaq faction took a cue from Chief Falae’s arbitrary endorsement of the PDP candidate, but no one in the party seemed to care anymore. A part of the party now wants PDP, and another part wants APC. The remnants, both Mr Duke and Prof Gana, are still locked in a fierce combat to determine who will pick the crumbs — the soul and torso of the party having been offered to the two dominant parties. What is even clearer, as another party, the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN), has begun to show, is that both generational and paradigmatic shifts are taking place in Nigerian politics. The principles and ideologies of the Falae era, despite its warts, are no longer indispensable in Nigerian politics. That transition had been in the offing for some time, indeed for the past three or four decades, but few ever imagined that the change, when it comes, would be accompanied by such horrendous abjuration of principles and ideologies as the country is witnessing today.

    Voters were already moaning about the indistinguishability of political players and parties, and were sick to death about their flightiness, as they jump from one party to another, sometimes in a huff, but little did they know they were yet to see their political leaders and representatives plumb the gut-wrenching nadir of partisan politics. As the country laid wrong and weak foundation for the Fourth Republic, no party or political leader of substance and weight had attempted to remain faithful to principles and ideologies whatever the cost. It can only get worse, going forward, especially as the country’s poverty index grows worse.

    The ACPN logjam is even more archetypal than the miasma the SDP embroil itself in. Though there did not seem to be any warning of the doom awaiting the party after the ACPN held its convention on October 7, 2018 and nominated former World Bank vice president and one-time Education minister, Oby Ezekwesili, as standard-bearer, it ought to be clear to everyone, given the amorphous nature of Nigerian politics, that attention must be paid by political players and analysts to both the structure of their parties and the character of their political leaders, particularly those offering themselves for election. There was no indication that Dr Ezekwesili carried out any due diligence. She was probably flattered to be offered the presidential ticket on a platter. Though she knew victory in the race would be far-fetched, she however expected, at the minimum, the cooperation of her party to make the race at least stimulating.

    But after a few weeks of turbulent but largely uneventful campaign, the ACPN pulled the rug from under the feet of their presidential candidate. On January 24, 2019, Dr Ezekwesili and the ACPN, represented by its chairman and presidential running mate, Ganiyu Galadima, parted ways, virtually on the same date, only hours apart. It is, however, speculated that Dr Ezekwesili simply stole her adopted party’s thunder, knowing that they were about to endorse President Buhari. She beat them to the tape, announcing her severance of ties with the party hours before the party itself gave her the boot. The former candidate claimed the party was unprincipled and its leaders greedy; but the party in turn accused her of financial malfeasance. What is clear is that Dr Ezekwesili did not carry out due diligence on the party and its leaders, and also failed to understand the company of those she was travelling with.

    Hear the former ACPN candidate in her own words: “Nigeria and Nigerians deserve a New Order of ethical, competent and capable leadership. I had earlier assumed the ACPN was aligned with me to offer that, until it proved otherwise. The values and vision divergence with the party was a key factor that triggered my withdrawal from the presidential race on their ticket prompting me to dissociate immediately in order to help build a coalition for good governance. It is why I was instant in sacrificing my candidacy to uphold my values by withdrawing. The party’s decision to immediately today endorse the candidate of APC, which was announced by my erstwhile VP candidate who is also the Chairman of ACPN, was their classic political entrepreneurship in full display for Nigerians to see. It is instructive. The party leadership’s transactional approach to politics began to manifest in their attitude following after the convention that adopted me as their presidential candidate. All who know me can attest that I detest transactional mindset.”

    But not to be outdone, the party replied with powerful accusations of their own, alleging that their former candidate could not account for campaign funds with all the scrupulousness, diligence and exemplary conduct she preached and idolised. Yet, they could not deny the damaging fact that they had prepared themselves all along to endorse President Buhari, and that contrary to their claims that they had hoped the party’s presidential campaign would acquire traction, they in fact waited long enough, as sympathisers of Dr Ezekwesili argued, to give their party some semblance of presence and credibility in order to be able to market the party to the highest bidder.

    Will there ever be a change to the way Nigerian political parties and politicians play politics? It is hard to imagine that possibility. Political actors will continue to be irresponsible, defecting from one party to another irreverently and casually; while the smaller parties, like the SDP and ACPN, will continue to fiddle with principles and ideologies. Until there is a fundamental change in orientation occasioned by a deep structural change, politics will continue as usual, and many principled players will continue to be treated shabbily. The sad decline in leadership and partisan politics precipitated decades ago when the structure of the country became more unitary than federal will continue until systemic atrophy compels fundamental change.

  • INC, Fasoranti, Falae, Adebanjo faction of Afenifere endorse Atiku

    A FACTION of Yoruba socio-political apex group, Afenifere, yesterday gave reasons why it is  endorsing  the candidature of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the Saturday’s  Presidential election , Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.

    The group , after taking a cursory look at the composition of the Nigeria state, especially the major trajectories that the country had passed through from 1914 when it was amalgamated,  declared that the way Nigeria is presently constituted politically and geographically did not allow for people-oriented governance.

    Afenifere leaders made this pronouncement in a communiqué issued at the end of a town hall meeting with the theme: “Moving Nigeria Forward”, at Jogor Centre, Oke-Ado, Ibadan.

    Participants at the town hall meeting came from six Southwest states, including Lagos, Ogun, Ekiti, Oyo, Osun, and Ondo and representatives from Kwara and Kogi states.

    The meeting was attended by Afenifere leaders, including; Chief Reuben Fasoranti, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, Chief Olu Falae, Senator Femi Okuronmu, Prince Debo Gbadebo,and Chief Mrs. Bola Doherty among other prominent Yoruba leaders.

    Pan Ijaw Socio-cultiral organisation Ijaw National Congress (INC) yesterday endorsed the candidacy of Atiku.

    INC, at the end of its meeting in Yenagoa x-rayed the manifestoes of the two leading aspirants and thereafter alligned with Atiku, on the issues of restructuring and others.

  • Falae, monarch: Akure deserves railway

    The Deji and paramount ruler of Akure Kingdom in Ondo State, Oba Aladetoyinbo Ogunlade Aladelusi, Odundun II, and former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Chief Olu Falae, have urged the Federal Government to include Akure in the proposed railway route that is expected to pass through the Southwest.

    The monarch spoke at the weekend while inaugurating this year’s Odun Ulefunta/Oyemekun Committee at his palace.

    The advertised route of the railway is said to pass through Calabar-Uyo-Aba-Port Harcourt-Yenagoa-Otuoke-Ughelli-Warri-Sapele-Agbor-Asaba-Onitsha-Benin-Ore-Ijebu-Ode-Sagamu- Lagos.

    Oba Aladetoyinbo said: “As we speak, Akure remains a vital link between the North and the South. It is strategic to the proposed bitumen exploration and the seaport in the riverine area of the state.”

    Falae hailed the monarch for his love for the progress and development of Akure.

    The former SGF expressed happiness at the new crop of Akure sons and daughters who had shown interest in the development of the land.

     

  • Falae, 2019 and SDP presidential candidate

    IN a fairly extensive interview he had with the Sunday Punch last week, former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Olu Falae, indicated unambiguously that the Social Democratic Party (SDP) would pick its presidential candidate from the North. Because his response was curt, considering that he offered no expatiation, no one can say for certain whether he ever gave that all-important issue of presidential candidacy any deep thought. He probably did not. Neither the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) nor the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), it seems, would dare abandon conventional wisdom to more pragmatically pick a candidate from outside the northern zones for the 2019 presidential poll.

    The APC has all but conceded the ticket to President Muhammadu Buhari, regardless of whether they thought him an achiever or not, a unifier or separationist, a builder or a wrecker. Indeed, even before any of the leading parties had picked their candidates, it was widely suggested that no party could afford to break the mould or chart a difficult and isolated path. And given the fanatical support the president has been able to galvanise in some parts of the North, not to say the unstated rotational or zoning arrangement peculiarly designed by Nigerians to entrench dubious political inclusiveness, many pundits have surmised that the president’s popularity either makes him the man to beat or makes him even unassailable.

    If the lessons of last year’s French election that destroyed the old political guard in France and brought Emmanuel Macron and his newfangled party, En Marche, into office ever occurred to pundits, they countered by suggesting that neither Nigeria itself nor Nigerian voters demonstrate the sophistication required to midwife and replicate such a revolutionary political shift. In the foreseeable future, the unconstitutional political arrangement of zoning will be respected until an iconoclast comes out. Despite his progressive credentials, indeed his self-confessed progressivism, Chief Falae will not be that iconoclast, nor will he promote that jarring break from a tradition many forget is dated to this Fourth Republic.

    Zoning the presidency may be hugely expedient, even a tool of fostering political inclusiveness, but it is much more fundamentally a reactionary political measure. Some fringe parties may spurn the measure, but by and large the rest of the country will embrace it with the uncritical ardour that has consistently hobbled Nigerian elections. Many analysts in fact suggested a few years ago that had the PDP respected its own informal zoning arrangement and presented a northern candidate to battle candidate Buhari for the presidency, the APC would have lost. It is probably true, at least on the surface. Deep down, however, had Goodluck Jonathan found a way to embrace the Southwest and corral its support through series of concessions, the APC amalgamation would not have occurred, and candidate Buhari would have come to grief once more. The superior argument is that Dr Jonathan, by a combination of careless politics during his full four-year first term, actually paved the way for his own defeat.

    Zoning is not the super formula it is cracked up to be. But whether any party or political juggernaut will see zoning for the tenuous facade it really is in respect of the 2019 presidential election is not quite certain at the moment, given that political forces and arrangements are still coalescing. Notwithstanding this, both the APC and its presumed candidate, President Buhari, are beatable in the 2019 presidential poll. It will not only require courage and a rare form of intuitive political iconoclasm to weld together the forces needed to overthrow the APC, it will also require a masterful handling and deployment of critical campaign issues and imperatives. Chief Falae has signalled that his party will not be taking that risk. Ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo, despite serious objections to his ideas and obtrusion, has inspired a coalition of disenchanted Nigerians and politicians to take on the Buhari behemoth. Whether that new coalition, now to be anchored by the nondescript African Democratic Congress (ADC), will be capable of taking the risk of breaking the mould remains to be seen.

    The issues that will dominate the 2019 presidential poll are very clear. And they are substantial enough, if well deployed, to vitiate the dominance of the APC. The ruling party is neither united nor even run as a political party. The president’s record on the economy is a mixed grill, partly incompetent and partly chaotic, with both forces combining to keep the populace impoverished, despondent and gasping for breath. The security situation, particularly in the Middle Belt where herdsmen have wreaked havoc on the local, farming population, is still dire, regardless of the achievements of the military in the Northeast. The government’s human rights record, not to say the desultory anti-corruption war that is neither a war nor even a campaign, gives the impression that it is coerced, that it is tentative and therefore deceptive. In the coming months, and despite improved oil earnings, these issues will keep their vibrancy and relevance.

    What the 2019 presidential poll calls for is not the staid complacency of Falae’s SDP, or the cautious obeisance the Obasanjo coalition might wish to pay to the political status quo, nor still the libation any precocious party might want to pour on the altar of expediency and conventional wisdom. There is an urgent and crying need for a politics of difference, a daring and soaring envisioning of the real change capable of remoulding Nigeria and rekindling the flickering hope of a great African behemoth wise enough and strong enough to lead the charge against global biases, racism and inequality. The APC has become fairly predictable despite its internal turmoil. The PDP, on the other hand, hopes for a miracle, and has consequently become too enervated to lift an urgent and radical finger against the status quo.

    Yet, contrary to Chief Falae’s uncritical acceptance of the prevailing dynamics of Nigeria’s presidential permutations, it is actually feasible to find a rallying point against both the ruling party and its presumed candidate. That rallying point, a candidate of uncommon gifts and boldness running on the platform of a party willing to bet everything on the throw of a dice, will move beyond issues likely to influence the defining 2019 poll. He will instead see the opportunity presented by the dichotomies introduced into the country’s body politic by President Buhari himself. In more than three years of bizarre politics, the president has almost fully alienated the Southeast and the South-South. Both the Southwest and the North-Central are certain to give him nightmares, for they are very likely going to exhibit discriminating voting patterns in their local and presidential elections.

    Nothing guarantees that President Buhari will sweep more than the two zones of Northeast and Northwest fairly comfortably. He will have to fight for the North-Central and Southwest, with no assurances whatsoever that his fanatical following in the Northwest and Northeast can automatically translate into a sweep of the disputed zones. Indeed, if the elections were called today, the president is likely to face crunching moments in the North-Central and Southwest. This is one of the reasons the presidency is fighting to undermine and fracture the parliament and crush Senate President Bukola Saraki. The effort to reorder the elections, now stalemated, is widely thought to be capable of delivering a serious blow to the president’s re-election chances in the two difficult zones. Indeed, it should have occurred to Dr Saraki that the attacks spearheaded against him by the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Ibrahim Idris is simply a part of the presidency’s political calculations for 2019.

    In considering whether to offer President Buhari a second term, the country must take a peep into his second term and the fate of the country after that. They must convince themselves that going by his record in his first term, his approach to human rights and democracy, his capacity to run a modern economy, he deserves a second opportunity. Likewise, his opponents must examine whether they can beat him by simply producing a northern candidate like the president, or whether they should not take advantage of the alienation in the Southeast and South-South, the anomie in most parts of the North-Central, which the president has neither provided answers to nor even empathised with, and the united front presented against him by the country’s elders who are afraid that the president could be driving the country into an apocalyptic abyss.

    It is untrue that all things considered, the president could be running away with victory on account of the absence of a viable opposition candidate. The problem is not so much the absence of a viable candidate from the North to run against the president. The problem is that virtually everyone has uncritically embraced the existing political paradigm of zoning, thus limiting the range of possibilities that could be harnessed against the president’s candidature. It is not inescapable or compulsory that the opposition candidate must come from the North. The mould can be broken, and the time to break it may be now. The dynamics of Nigeria’s presidential politics has been so altered that no ethnic group or zone, or a group of zones, can hold the country to ransom.

    An analysis of the last poll illustrates this point very vividly.  If the most pressing problem today is how to find someone who believes in Nigeria, someone who does not promote ethnic exceptionalism, someone who genuinely believes in democracy and the rule of law and has propounded coherent views on the subjects, someone conversant with complex, modern economies, someone who has definite and uplifting ideas about the country and its people, someone who is impatient with holding Nigeria hostage to stultifying traditions and formulae when other countries are moving forward by leaps and bounds, then the country must find a courageous man or group bold enough to instinctively seize the moment, renounce the jaded idea of zoning, capitalise on the worsening situation on the ground, and champion the real change Nigeria needs.

     

  • Falae, other SDP chiefs storm Ibadan

    Chieftains of Social Democratic Party (SDP) yesterday stormed Ibadan, Oyo State capital, and wooed ex-Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala and others into the party.

    They were led by the National Chairman, Chief Oluyemisi Falae; ex-Minister of Education Prof. Tunde Adeniran; Yemi Farounbi; Dr. Olu Agunloye; Taiwo Akeju; Chief Kola Balogun; and Princess Oyeronke Akinlolu.

    The SDP chiefs said patriotic Nigerians, who believe in national unity, justice, equity and progress, should come together and rescue the nation.

    Falae, a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, said they were in Ibadan to start rebuilding of a new Nigeria, to rescue the nation from “rudderless leadership”.

    Falae, the 1999 presidential candidate of Alliance for Democracy (AD), said: “There is need for us to be together to save Nigeria and restore democracy, by bringing about a new hope for fulfilment.”

    Other Southwest leaders, who spoke, eulogised the political antecedent of their host, Akala, and assured him of benefits in SDP.

    Akala, who could not hide his joy, said he was surprised to receive such a top delegation in his Bodija, Ibadan home.

    Describing Falae and others as credible Nigerians, who made their marks in politics, Akala promised to get back to the party soon after discussions with his supporters.

  • Falae: we need collective efforts to unseat Buhari

    The National Chairman of Social Democratic Party (SDP), Chief Olu Falae, said yesterday that the opposition needed collective efforts to unseat President Muhammadu Buhari.

    The presidential candidate of Alliance for Democracy (AD) in the 1999 general election spoke yesterday in Abeokuta after meeting ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo.

    He said: “We are having a failed government. But we need collective efforts to unseat Buhari.”

    The one-time Secretary to the Government of the Federation described Obasanjo, who defeated him in 1999, as a committed Nigerian passionate about the country’s growth and development.

    He said: “As my boss, he was committed and sincere about developing this country.”

    Obasanjo pledged to leave his door open for Falae and others seeking his advice for the growth and unity of Nigeria.

    “He said he wanted to come and see me and I said my doors were wide open,” the former president said.

    Falae was accompanied by Chief Korede Duyile, Dr. Olu Agunloye,

    Remi Olayiwola, Mr. Sina Kawonise and Ogun State SDP Chairman Kunle Majekodunmi.

    Others are Dr. Femi Majekodunmi, Chief Doyin Okupe, Chief Olayiwola Olakojo, Chief Ekundayo Opaleye, Mr. Joju Fadairo and Mr. Gboyega Isiaka.

  • Falae: SDP can give Nigeria better change

    Falae: SDP can give Nigeria better change

    Former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Chief Olu Falae, has urged Nigerians to give the Social Democratic Party (SDP) a chance to lead the country to enable it offer “a better change”.

    Falae also urged Ekiti State residents to vote for the party in the July 14 governorship election to get quality leadership and have a better standard of living.

    The SDP National Leader spoke at the weekend in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, when a chieftain of the party, Dr. Gbenga Ayenimo, declared his intent to contest for the governorship seat.

    Falae, who spoke through the SDP Chairman in Ekiti State, Mr. Dele Ekunola, described the party as a better alternative to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    He said the party embodies the social re-engineering and massive development agenda of its late presidential flag bearer, Chief M.K.O. Abiola, who won the annulled June 12, 1993 presidential election.

    Ayenimo said the 2018 governorship poll offers a good opportunity to liberate Ekiti people from bad governance, hunger, poverty, unemployment and hardship.

  • Falae: herdsmen attack my farm every year

    Falae: herdsmen attack my farm every year

    Former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Chief Olu Falae, has said the Sunday evening fire on his farm at Ilado in Akure North Local Government Area of Ondo State was  the handiwork of herdsmen.

    He described the attack as malicious.

    But the police said they would not point fingers until the conclusion of their investigation into the incident.

    Falae spoke yesterday when the state government sent a delegation to check the damage the fire caused, with the police in tow.

    He said: “I don’t know why herdsmen have been attacking my farm. They did it last year; they did the same the year before the last. That is how they burn it every year so that fresh grass can come out for their cattle to eat.

    “They attack my oil palm cultivation. The mature oil palm trees that have been bearing fruits to make palm oil have been burnt down.”

    The government delegation was on the farm for an on-the-spot assessment of the damage the fire caused.

    The team was led by Commissioner for Agriculture, Gboyega Adefarati, who expressed sadness over the development.

    Adefarati reiterated government’s readiness to send a bill to the House of Assembly to regulate the activities of herdsmen across the state.

    Police Commissioner Gbenga Adeyanju led a team of security officers to the farm.

    The police chief, who could not immediately ascertain the cause of the inferno, said investigations had begun on the incident to bring the culprits to justice.

    The Olu of Ilu-Abo described the incident as a wicked act and malicious damage.

    He said: “This goes beyond what their cattle want to eat. Cattle don’t eat oil palm. This is a malicious attack, which must be condemned by everybody.”

    Also, the Oodua People’s Congress (OPC) condemned the attack on the farm.

    A statement yesterday by the Publicity Secretary of the Aare Gani Adams-led OPC, Yinka Oguntimehin, said “Sunday’s attack on the Afenifere leader’s farm was wicked, rude and shocking”.

    It added: “The attack was a deliberate attempt by the suspected herdsmen to undermine the security of the country.”

     

  • Falae: Restructuring imperative, but Nigeria’s unity is non-negotiable

    Falae: Restructuring imperative, but Nigeria’s unity is non-negotiable

    Chief Olu Falae, an Afenifere leader and former Minister for Finance and Secretary to the Government of the Federation, speaks to DAMISI OJO on restructuring as Nigeria turns 57 today. Excerpts

     

    What is your opinion on the clamour for restructuring?

    A:The only way to douse the tension is to restructure the country to usher in stability, harmony and progress. What is causing the rumpus is that a carefully negotiated political covenant was made by our revered leaders before independence, which formed the basis of the independence constitution thrown away through military incursion into power. That constitution was replaced by the present political contraption imposed on the citizenry by the  late Gen. Sani  Abacha.

    If the truth must be told, there was deep suspicion by our political leaders “then” as “now” regarding various regions of the country. So, they agreed to go into independence on the basis of the constitution which gave considerable autonomy to the regions. For example, every region has its own constitution as distinct from the federal constitution, controlled its local governments and operated the type of legislature it preferred.

    For instance, the constitution of the Western and Eastern regions made provisions for the House of Chiefs where as the Northern region had none. Whereas in the Western region, local government councillors elected their chairmen annually .

    During that era, the Western region introduced Free Primary Education in 1955 which no other region achieved until much later.

    What was the situation before Nigeria became an entity?

    In the run-up to Independence, the British government was ready to grant internal self-government to the Western region in 1957,Eastern region in 1958 and Northern region in 1959, Thus, it can be argued that if our leaders had not been able to negotiate a carefully balanced deal in London before independence, the region might have asked for different Independence which the British government would have approved, If independence constitution is presented today, it will go a long way in settling the yearning for fairness, balance and autonomy. Restructuring  is a call to what we used to have,which was approved by all leaders and practised six years before the military truncated it.

    There is a need for confidence building to bridge the communication gap by returning to the independence constitution and once Nigerians know the meaning of restructuring, they will come to the same conclusion like the past leaders did in London between 1957 and 1959.

    You actually led some Yoruba leaders to the National Conference in 2014.Was this issue of restructing given a thought?

    Restructuring was one of the major agenda in the National Conference. I led my people there and I was in a position to know what happened there.Majority delegates at the conference advocated a change of the present constitution to what we used to have in the past.Returning to the Independence constitution will save the country from tension and end agitations especially by the minority.

    Doing this,we will come to the conclusion which our leaders in the past agreed upon in London between 1957 and 1959. We will use dialogue to achieve this. Restructuring is absolutely necessary,however,the unity of Nigeria is non-negotiable.

  • Why we’re against grazing routes for herdsman, by Falae

    A former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Chief Olu Falae, has said incessant Fulani herdsmen attacks on farmers and rural dwellers in the country, especially in the Middle Belt and the South, is a ploy to hijack their lands through intimidation.

    Falae spoke at Iju/Itaogbolu in Akure North Local Government Area of Ondo State during this year’s edition of Forum for  Good Governance (FGG), an annual stakeholders’ meeting organised by a religious body.

    The former Finance minister noted that Fulani herdsmen’s penchant for brandishing assault rifles, raping and maiming farmers and grazing their cattle on innocent farmers’ economic crops, were meant to drive the farmers away from their lands with the intent to hijacking them.

    He said the herdsmen refused to leave his farms, adding that their cattle ate thousands of palm trees he planted and killed one of his security guards.

    The herdsmen’s action, Falae said, was a ploy to rid the rural villages of their inhabitants to pave the way for them to take over the land for their cattle.

    According to him, this is why they kicked against the plan to create grazing routes for them across the country.

    The Afenifere leader, like other speakers at the meeting, urged the Federal Government to tackle the menace.

    The speakers urged Christians to stop regarding politics as dirty, evil and ungodly.

    They warned that such attitude will lead to unscrupulous people dictating the pace of national development.

    Ondo State Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu urged the church to continue to play its traditional roles as the conscience of the nation by setting a good example while carrying out selfless and humanitarian services.

    He frowned at what he called the penchant among religious leaders for ostentatious lifestyle and wealth display.

    Also, Archbishop Latunji Lasebikan of the Ondo Province (Anglican Communion) regretted that Christians have failed in their roles.

    He wondered why corruption and evil continued to rise, despite the growing number of Christians and churches.

    The cleric called for genuine reawakening, saying the true change Nigeria needed should start from the church and among Christian leaders.

    Another speaker and missionary leader from the Middle Belt, Salvation Phillip, said herdsmen’s unbridled attacks on farmers and rural dwellers in the region were a clever ruse to take over the land for their cattle to graze unrestricted.

    He urged the Federal Government to implement resolutions of the 2014 National Conference where over 600 resolutions were passed by consensus and signed by participants.

    The convener of the forum, Pastor Joshua Odeyemi, noted that the meeting is Christians’ attempt to have a say in the running of the nation.

    Dignitaries at the event also include Vice Chancellor of Federal University of Technology at Akure (FUTA), Prof Fuwape; Rev Gabriel Lasebikan; former Vice Chancellor of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), Prof. Adeduro Adegboye; Alaani of Ido-Ani Oba Olutoye, and Okiti of Iju Oba Amos Farukanmi.