National Confab: APC is
standing against the people –
Odumakin on november 17, 2013 at 3:12
am in politics By Dapo Akinrefon Mr Yinka Odumakin is the
National Publicity Secretary of
the Yoruba socio-political
organization, Afenifere. In this
interview, he takes a swipe at
the All Progressive Congress, APC, for kicking against the
National Conference proposed
by President Goodluck
Jonathan. Excerpts: In recent times, you have taken
a decision that is favorably
disposed to the National
Conference proposed by
President Goodluck Jonathan.
What is the basis of your optimism? Dr Tunji Braithwaite said at the
town hall meeting recently,
that the conference is a divine
agenda to perhaps give Nigeria
a lease of life because Nigeria,
as it is, is heading for the precipe. Next year will be our
centenary celebration and
there is a widespread mood
among those who are
frustrated with the way
Nigeria has distorted the aspiration of its people. And
that may be the year to put an
end to Nigeria. *Yinka Odumakin Here is President Goodluck
Jonathan who, two years ago,
said there was no need for a
National Conference. All of a
sudden, he changed his mind. I
think it is something that all those who want this country to
continue, who love this country
and who believe that there is
an alternative for this country
before it disintegrates, should
grab with both hands to ensure that we sit down for the first
time in our history since 1914
that we were amalgamated to
discuss this nation. The North and South did not
meet until 1946, though
amalgamation took place in
1914. There is a structural
imbalance. So, this conference
has given us an opportunity for the component units of the
country to come together, for
the first time, and discuss their
union of how they want to live
together so that we can live in
peace and harmony. The suspicion is that President
Jonathan has been stifled by
the North, which is clamouring
for power and that his sudden
change of mind is spurred by
the fact that he wants power in 2015. Well, sceptics are free to their
opinions and I think the issue
is that the credibility of
President Jonathan is at stake
or that he wants power but I
think that should not be the consideration of those who
love this country. It is just the
fact that he has provided a
window for reforms and we
should turn that window into a
door. I have said it before that the
fears of the cynics is that they
doubt Jonathan’s intention and
also that they do not want
Nigeria restructured. The major
groups, given that the Okunrounmu panel has been
going round the country, there
is an emerging consensus that
every section of Nigeria wants
a conference. There may be
divergence on how we should compose and there is the
consensus that representation
should be on the basis of
nationalities. There is a kind of
understanding that the
existing geo-political zones
should be used as basis for
representation. Every section of
this country has accepted the conference but the only people
who are against this
conference are the All
Progressive Congress. What informed your
allegation? It shows that they are in
politics not for the people but
about themselves. I think they
have this thinking that this is
their best time to go to the
centre. They have been recruiting people from the
Peoples Democratic Party
which they said was a corrupt
and useless party, they have
been going round to meet
governors to join them. There are some delusions in their
approach, they must be poor
students of history to think
that they can vote any sitting
president out of office. So for a group of people to
think that one man will be in
charge of the armed forces and
they will still defeat him, I
want to see them making that
history. More importantly, people, over the years, have
been talking about true
federalism and the rest this is
an opportunity for us to
achieve that,and to now begin
to raise all kinds of excuses to frustrate the desire of our
people to get out of bondage
shows one thing, they want to
lead the people they do not
understand. It takes the Yoruba people to
come to a consensus on any
issue but once they come to
that consensus, it will be
difficult to change position.
Those who did it in the First Republic saw it, those who
followed Abacha in 1993 to
1999, what happened to them?
From the 1950s, what the
Yoruba have fought for is
Nigeria’s autonomy, true federalism, now they want to
have that autonomy and some
people want to stand on their
way and say they cannot have it
saying they should wait till
after the 2015 election. They are deceiving our people.
Go and ask for the APC
manifesto today, it is there
that they are committed to the
same Constitution that
enslaves our people. So if they say we should wait till after
election, who are they
deceiving, when they have
written in their manifesto that
they are committed to the
existing Constitution? They just want to do ‘Gbajue’ for our
people or one chance. And our
people will not fall for that.
From what happened in Akure
and Lagos, it was clear that
there was no organisation in Yoruba land that is not in
support of this conference. Afenifere, Yoruba Unity Forum,
OPC – everybody was there! It
was clear where we are. So
they are standing against the
people and I watch them and
laugh. One man came in the plane, he had not even stepped
down from the plane and he
said he does not want the
conference and all of you now
say that is the thing. Were the
present governors in Yorubaland the same
governors in Yorubaland in
1999? How can we talk about
constitutional development
and issue for Nigeria and some
people, who are governors in
the South-west, would not
think they should consult their leaders – those who are the
authorities in their states? That
Fashola would not even ask Mr.
Tunji Braithwaite: ‘Sir, what do
you think about this matter?
before taking sides with a man who just jumped down from
the plane, who has not talked
to anybody? That in Ogun State, Governor
Ibikunle Amosun would not go
to Kola Ajibola, a former
Attorney-General, a former
World Court judge – ‘what do
you think sir, about this matter?’ before following a
man who just came from the
plane and was takling about
the conference. That in Ekiti
State, a Kayode Fayemi would
not think that: what does Chief Afe Babalola or Wole
Olanipekun think about this
matter? Let this conference
hold, after that, you will come
and face the Yoruba people. How do you think this
conference can be useful such
that the Yoruba race can make
the best out of it? Of the tripod in Nigeria, Yoruba
is the only one that has never
questioned the corporate
existence of Nigeria. After the
legislative crisis of 1946, the
Sadauna was quoted to have said “the mistake of 1914 has
come to fore”, that is the
amalgamation was a mystic.
And in the revenge coup of
1966, the theme was ‘Araba’,
lets divide Nigeria. In fact, after the 1953 motion
by Enahoro for independence,
the North came out with their
own agenda which amounted
to nothing but confederation.
When the Igbo got frustrated, they took up arms against
Nigeria for three and a half
years. In fact, at every point, in
spite of what they did to
Awolowo between 1960 and
1965, Yoruba never took arms against Nigeria, to say let us
divide the country. For five years, we engaged
Abacha; there was no
resolution that we should
divide Nigeria. So we believe
Nigeria can prosper through
federalism and Yoruba will be going to the conference asking
for true federalism and
regional autonomy. That is
what we want out of this
conference because we know
the benefits and we know that dangers of not having it. Any
experiment with a unitary
Constitution in a multi-ethnic
and multi-lingua nation is
bound to fail. And if you are in
doubt, go to Sudan – two major nationalities on unitary
constitution were at war for
over 50 years. In Cyprus; the Spanish speaking
and the Turkish speaking, for
over 1,000 years they have
been together, there is still
tension. In Syria today, the
Kurds have been asking for autonomy for a long time. Even
the problem in Iraq was
because the one million Kurds
there were asking for
autonomy. Yugoslavia has
disappeared from the world map since 1991. So we believe that for Nigeria
not to disintegrate, we need to
come together, understand
ourselves and then constitute
ourselves in a way that we can
live together in peace and harmony. Why Nigeria is not
working is that it is said that
the speed of a convoy is that of
the slowest moving vessel. That
is, if you have ten vessels and
there is one among them that does not have locomotion like
the rest, that will be the speed
of that convoy; except the
others get frustrated and
decide to break away from that
convoy, they will continue to move at the same speed. That is what Nigeria has been
doing in 53 years, because we
are not exposed to the same
level of speed at the same
time. Between 1955 and 1965
when Awolowo led Western Nigeria, the least we spent on
education was 29.8 percent in
any year. There was even a
time he spent 41 percent. Now
suddenly you came and say you
want…unitarism – you want to standardise – you want all of us
who have not invested that
kind of money to go at the
same pace. So for as long as
your son cannot score 200 in
JAMB, my son who scores 201 does not have a place in the
university whereas your own
son who scored 100, because
he is not from my area where
I’ve invested in education over
a long time, must go to the university while there is no
space for my own. The second thing, it is said that
birds of identical pulmage flock
together. That is the normal
thing, but in order not for birds
of identical pulmage to flock
together in Nigeria, Nigeria puts all the birds in one cage
and locked them up and then
because the birds are not in
their natural habitats –
because birds are supposed to
fly – but they cannot fly anymore, then start to peck
and bark at themselves inside
the cage. But now the president has
gone ahead to say the outcome
of the conference is to be
submitted to the National
Assembly as part of the
ongoing constitutional amendment, which those who
against the idea have further
pointed to as part of the flaws
of the proposed conference? The statement made by the
president was a convenient
excuse for those who don’t
want the conference ab-initio.
Well, even if President
Jonathan said we would take it to the National Assembly,
which we have disagreed with,
is it not better than them who
said they are committed to the
current Constitution that
enslaves our people? We have disagreed with the
president on that and I think
the president himself must
have seen what the people are
saying. The final authority lies
with the Nigerian people and it is very clear. The president put
his view on the table but his
view may not be the view.
When we finish, the National
Assembly promulgates our
constitution into law; they will repeal the current the present
decree which Abdulsalami
promulgated; Decree 24, and
put in the new Constitution
that has been produced by we
the people.
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