Chief Niyi Akintola(SAN) is a former deputy speaker, Oyo State House of Assembly and member National Conference. In this interview with ADEBISI ONANUGA, he speaks on the conference and why the Southwest could not present a common agenda, among other issues
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Briefly itemise the demands of the Yoruba at the last National Confer-ence and their current status?
Let me say that there was no concrete agenda by the Southwesterners before we left for the 2014 National Conference. I am saying this against the backdrop of the fact that we went there as a divided house. Forget about the claim of some people that we had an agenda. There was sectional agenda, no doubt, but we must appreciate that our interests in Yoruba land as at today are not joint but several as it used to be. There was a meeting at Iperu Remo in Ogun State that was supposed to have been attended by credible representatives of the states in the Southwest to aggregate our positions that we will take to the conference. Only Senator Abiola Ajimobi and Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, governors of Oyo and Ondo states were present, out of all the governors in the region. Many of the opinion leaders were absent. Invariably, the credible opinion leaders of the various segments of Yoruba nation were not at that meeting where supposedly the decisions to present the common front were taken. So, by the time we got to Abuja, it was a divided house. Sincerely, we never really got there as a united geo-political zone. Of course, there was a paper that was taken away from Iperu meeting that was meant to be foisted down the throat of every Yoruba man which was resisted.
As a matter of fact, Governor Ajimobi warned those present at Iperu meeting that they had no mandate to think, speak and take decisions on behalf of the people of Oyo State without consultation and consent of his people. He used the analogy of chief Imams and told them that the mere fact that there were learned scholars in Islam at Ilorin should not qualify one to be imposed as Imam of Ibadanland. He said that certainly, Ibadan people will want to appoint of one of their own as their own Imam, meaning that the fact of having elders sitting at the Iperu meeting does not necessarily means that what was being said there would be acceptable to the elders in Ibadan. In a nutshell, he told them clearly that there must be wide consultations among the people of Yorubaland before any decision was taken. He even reported back to us in Ibadan that his counterpart from Ondo State was not allowed to speak as he was regarded as a small boy who knew very little of Yoruba needs. To that extent, our own mandate from Oyo State was clear and direct. It was to go there and protect the interest of Oyo State and it has nothing to do with party politics or political affiliation. For instance, over 50 percent of the delegates from Oyo State were apolitical. Of the remainders, leaders like Senator Rasheed Ladoja, Brig-General Raji Rasaki, and the likes belong to Accord party and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) respectively. All of us spoke with one voice on what we considered to be the best interest of Oyo State people.
The situation wasn’t different with the delegates from Ondo, Lagos and Ekiti states. For instance, on the issue of regionalism, the people of Lagos State said Gedegbe leko wa, meaning that they are on their own. Quite unfortunately, we no longer have the likes of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Adekunle Ajasin, Chief Abraham Adesanya, Chief Bola Ige, and co. For example, Ige knew everybody that was somebody in Yorubaland up to Kogi and Kwara States. We don’t have that kind of leaders that have community value across the region again. Things are changing, everybody is becoming a local champion in his own area of birth or influence and we must appreciate that. Take, for instance, the delegates from Ekiti State, led by my teacher, Professor Akin Oyebode, who said that they were not ready to be going to Ibadan to take instruction again.
But he who understands the political arithmetic of Yorubaland as at today will know that power has even moved away from Ibadan to Lagos. We must accommodate, respect and appreciate our differences, including the changes that are taking place. We had crisis there because we didn’t appreciate our difference and individual state challenges.
In summary, from what you have said, there was no Yoruba agenda contrary to what is being peddled around?
There were but there were disagreements along the line. There were also conflicts of interest in the entire Southern part of the country. We had agreement in terms of restructuring but interests were at variant. Take for instance, the issue of Land Use Act. Southwest didn’t buy into the idea of removing Land Use Act which the people of South east and Southsouth wanted. Those of us from Oyo, Osun, and Ekiti states never believed in the Southern solidarity nonsense which they call Southern Solidarity movement because it has not paid the people of Southwest in any form. If there has been any benefit of the movement, the marginalisation of Yoruba wouldn’t have been this pronounced. Not even under Abacha did we have it this bad and rough.
Today, the financial sector of the country is in the hand of just one ethnic group, so also the power sector of the economy. Unfortunately, when they are trying to satisfy the constitutional requirement by picking one minister from each state, they ensure that they pick only technocrats who have no community value from the Southwest. Though these are highly gifted world class people in their own right and various disciplines and we are very proud of them but they have no political education like their counterpart from the Southeast. If you are in doubt, check the ministries being headed by these Southwesterners and the parastatals under them, compare and contrast these with the ministries being headed by their Southeast counterpart, the parastatals under them and the appointments made therein, the outcome will be too obvious to you. So, what friendship do we have with the Southern Solidarity Movement that is not bothered about our interest apart from using and dumping us?
Again, some people put up a paper over state creation and they were recommending another state from Ogun State as the only state proposed from the Southwest region when it was thought that only six states would be created. How can anybody who understandS the geographical arithmetic, and knows the political arithmetic of Nigeria and Yoruba land think of creating a state in Yoruba land without mentioning Oyo State first considering the size, population and other criteria? That is another area of disagreement. Ondo State does not agree with most of the things that emanated from Iperu axis because they have their own interest to protect. So, we didn’t really aggregate our interest before leaving for the confab but we all believe in restructuring the country.
Along what line?
Along the independence of each state, devolution of power and parliamentary system. The people from the Iperu meeting came there with regionalism and parliamentary system which delegates from Oyo, Ogun and Osun keyed into but which Ondo and Lagos states didn’t believe in. Ekiti was in between.
What is the status of regionalism?
It failed.
So, what did Yoruba bring back from the confab?
Of all the Yoruba states, Ondo State was the most prepared but generally, we didn’t have that cohesive front. There were those that wanted us to toe the line of South South people which some of us resisted. Our position from Oyo State which Lagos State supported was that if you want resource control whole sale, it must be all embracing. It must include tax, VAT, charges from the ports, and collections from the borders, which some people were not comfortable with.
What was the outcome of the resource control?
Stalemate. It did not scale through. The status quo remains. We didn’t get parliamentary system, and full decentralisation. State police scaled through. We also have decentralisation of the court system where we recommended creation of state Court of Appeal. Local government should not be a tier of government in a federal state. The type of what we are having today was a creation of the military. That is why we have a state with 42 local governments as against another with more population having 20.We liberalised it. A state can create as many as 1000 if it can sustain them. If the recommendation is implemented, this country will not remain the same. It will improve greatly. The issue of corruption was tackled headlong. We are having so much at the centre which everybody is scrambling for. Statistics shows that over 80 percent of the landed property in Abuja belongs to the civil servants. In fighting corruption, we have concentrated so much on political exposed persons without looking the way of civil servants that are the source and master minds of corruption. We have had a situation in this country where N20billion was found in the account of an NYSC director who died in a plane crash. America and Europe are saturated with the houses of your generals, serving and retired.
What was the level of success of the conference?
I will say we achieved between 55 and 60 percent in relation to Yoruba demands and it is not correct to say that we didn’t achieve anything.
How do you juxtapose your rating with the position of Afenifere, using the implementation of the confab’s report to endorse Jonathan on behalf of the Yoruba?
Give it to Mimiko. As for the confab, he was the most proactive governor from the region. Mimiko knows and goes for what he wants as a pragmatic man. But I disagree with him for using the confab as a yardstick to endorse one presidential candidate over the other. We should not forget that in 2011, we were railroaded into voting for Jonathan without any demand. I am guilty of it too. We canvassed for him without a charter of demand placed before him unlike our Southeast counterpart, who was more than represented at the federal level. Southeast has Secretary to the Federal Government who coordinates practically all the appointments to the parastatals. Southwest was short changed down the line in terms of appointments. Look at the financial sector, Minister of Finance, and virtually all the heads of parastatals under the ministry go to the East just as it happens in the power sector. Every institution that works today was established by a Yoruba man. For instance, television was first established by a Yoruba man and they took it away from us, ensuring that no Yoruba man gets there, until I made it an issue at the plenary session of the confab after which Sola Omole was appointed to head NTA. BPE was the brain child of Kekere Ekun. They used and dumped him after establishing it. Uncle Fola Adeola was the man who wrote paper on pension, Pension Board has now become the drain pipe which they siphone our money, hardly can we find a Yoruba man there today. In fact, Onagoruwa was removed unceremoniously as DG. Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) was the brain child of Wole Soyinka. It was established only for Oyo State. I don’t know anywhere in the world where Road Safety issues licenses and plate numbers except in Nigeria. We are not asking for too much. We are only asking our compatriots across the country to allow us to do our own things in our own way and they are denying us. Take for instance, if the dream of our forefathers about Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) was allowed to materialise, we would have been at par with China today. Imagine if Mathematics is being taught in Yoruba Language. In 1982/83, we were to have metroline even before South Africa; it was scuttled by the General Muhammadu Buhari regime. If not for the resilience and pragmatics approaches to infrastructural development in Lagos by Tinubu and Fashola, we would not have that bridge across the Lagoon that links Admiralty Way and Victoria Island and the 10 lanes road to Badagry. We wouldn’t have heard Lekki today because some people somewhere did everything to frustrate those projects hiding under federal might. In fact, at a stage, a minister came from Abuja to stop Lagos-Badagry project. I don’t believe that having the Speaker would have improved our lot. No, it doesn’t follow. Bankole was a speaker; the road leading to his home town was not tarred. Olubunmi Etteh was a speaker, her home town, Ikire, had a gully that was killing people every day. The roads are still bad there. It doesn’t follow, it depends on the personality. That was why I advocated the inclusion of technocrats that have community value. Technocrats like Okonjo-Iweala, not a technocrat that is out of touch with his own people. Look at the financial sector, SURE-P, CBN, budget and planning, Stock Exchange, and Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), they are filled with easterners. That we are not well represented in the government shows that we are not as political literate as our people from other zones. It is very sad that we don’t have leaders to coordinate us like our brothers from the East. Of recent, there were altercations between former CBN governor, Charles Soludo and Okonjo-Iweala, the people that matter in that region came in and said look, the two of you should stop the altercations and we never heard anything from them again. No leaders and no media to defend Yoruba interest again. Before, Tribune used to do that but it has abandoned that role unlike what the Sun Newspaper is doing for the East. Do you know that the MD of Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, is more prosperous, three times than a governor or a minister? All l have been saying is that the Yoruba in government must draw a line between their political interest and the interest of their people back home. They should stop behaving as if they have all the solution to Nigeria’s problems. They should start behaving like their counterparts from other zones.
How do you see the roles of the monarchs in this dispensation?
We have passed through this route before. The Yoruba monarchs have a lot of issues. Some of them don’t see eye to eye. A lot of ego issues. Of course, some of them are pragmatic, highly cerebral and well informed. They need to appreciate and respect each other’s differences. Most of the obas take decisions to spite each others. In any case, how many of them have community value? When you talk of traditional rulers that have community value, Awujale is a deity that every Ijebu person obeys, respect, adore and he doesn’t do anything without consulting his people. Alaafin is on ground “gidigba” among his people up to Oke Ogun. And Olubadan is surrounded by the elites called the CCII, who call the shots. But when you have a republican oba that is highly republican but doesn’t have the followership, then you will appreciate the Yoruba monarchical challenges. Our society is a bundle of contradictions and is characterised by illiteracy: be it political illiterate, economic illiterate, social illiterate, and legal illiterates. That is why you find supposedly educated person but a legal illiterate saying somebody without a university degree should not contest when constitution ordinarily requires aspirant to be educated up to, not necessarily need to pass the exam or produce the certificate.
Are you still maintaining your position about the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) that they are one of the forces that can protect the Yoruba?
I respected the then OPC as it was. You will recall that the respect and the encouragement we gave the body during the years of the locust otherwise known as Abacha era. The OPC then was not exposed to the lure of political patronages. The OPC then was highly principled, focused on the ideology of Yoruba nation, and believed in the concept of “Omoluabi”. The OPC of today is not the same as the OPC of the yore. The present day OPC is factionalised. The leadership has tasted the forbidden fruit and the body is now the OPC of anything goes. It is my prayer that the body will retrace its step to the path of honour and gain the respect it commands among various Yoruba national among Nigerians extraction irrespective of their political lineage and ideology. The recent happening among the ranks and files is very saddening and no Yoruba man of impeccable character should be proud of the development. The fault really did not emanate solely from the leadership of the body but rather the blame should be put at the door step of Yoruba political elites whom on gaining political ascendancy with political power, money and influence started inciting the OPC members and indeed erstwhile benefactors started treating them like lepers. This ingratitude on the part of most Yoruba political office holders infuriated the leadership of OPC. Frustration now set in and the leadership, to have it back on this political office holders, seceded to depart from the path of “Omoluabi”, which was the set goal of the movement at its inception. It is rather unfortunate that most of the political office holders turned out to be ingrate and forgot where they were coming from. They started maligning friends at the expense of the older ones thereby turning many former friends into sworn enemies and the resultant effect is what we are now witnessing in Yorubaland. It is simply a matter of failed leadership at all levels.
What is your advice to the people of the Southwest?
Yoruba should stop playing God over the affairs of Nigeria. I think it is time Yoruba people start behaving like their counter parts from other zones who will sacrifice anything for the common people of their region. We should not go to vote blind folded. We should play the game the way it is being played by other zones because we can’t be the only sane person in the midst of six mad people or the only virgin in the maternity ward. Again, we should learn to talk less and stop revealing our strength and wining strategy until when it is right to so do. For those that do the dirty jobs, they should appreciate the fact that there is a thin line between honour and dishonour in Yorubaland and once you cross it, you are a goner. If anyone is in doubt, he should go and learn from those that went against the wishes of Yoruba nation during the Abacha regime. The people concerned are still fighting the battle of their lives for relevance. My brothers and kinsmen, Governor Ayodele Fayose and Femi Fani-Kayode should thread softly in carrying out their national assignments. They have the right to hold different opinions from that of their compatriots, but they should thread softly in carrying out their assignments and pursue same within the concept of “Omoluabi”. They should stop selling their kinsmen cheaply because they may not be able to buy them back at a very high price.
With the way things are, the marriage between the South and the North seems not to be working. Why is it difficult to divorce?
My brother, the life span of Nigeria is not up to 20 years unless we change our ways. Except there is total devolution of power, and decentralisation of powers, the marriage will collapse. It is not the question of marriage between the North and the South, even among the Southerners, there is injustice, and lack of respect for each other differences. The problem of Nigeria is not caused by the North but rather it was caused by the structure which we are operating at present. There is too much injustice and where there is injustice, there can’t be peace. Unfortunately, our political leaders don’t read. It was over centralisation that killed the old Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, and Sudan. It is over centralisation that is killing Britain, even the state of Texas is asking for its marriage to be dissolved in USA.
At every slightest opportunity, you say that you can’t contest election. Why?
Yes, for now l can’t. Apart from the fact that I don’t have enough money for such venture, I am too blunt even against myself. I am a realist. I believe in what it is as against what ought to be. Many elites out there are living in self-denial and they play the ostrich most of the time. For instance, most of those who fraternised and benefited immensely from Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu, General Olusegun Obasanjo and Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu are now turning out to fight the same system that brought them to limelight. The question is: why must you smell something you can’t swallow? When you are benefiting from the system, you are not asking questions only for you to cry blue murder when the same method is being used to shortchange you. I hope I have answered your question.
