Otunba GANI ADAMS
March 26 at 12:05pm ·

READ MY INTERVIEW PUBLISHED IN THISDAY NEWSPAPER TODAY

Adams: Tinubu is a Big Time Political Trader

26 Mar 2015
Interview
[center]Once described as a student of “marketalism of struggle”, leader of the Oodua Peoples Congress, Chief Gani Adams, a few days ago re-echoed this notion, when he described a former governor of Lagos State and one of the leaders of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu as a big time political trader. In this no-holds-barred interview, Adams justified the very reason his group is parting ways with the so-called progressives in this year’s general election. Ojo M. Maduekwe PRESENTSthe excerpts:

What are your fears as the nation approaches this crucial election?
Most of my earlier fears have been defeated. You will realise that by December, there was crossfire of statements from most of the candidates of the different political parties. But then, I realised that after the elections were postponed, the tension was reduced same as the abuses that were coming from the different political parties. That said, the fears that I initially harboured regarding the election is no more there.

The issue of PVC ended on Sunday March 22, but we still have more than 20 per cent in different zones in Nigeria yet to get their PVCs. On the day of the election, those who do not have their PVC, what will be their fate? And then there is the mass underage registration in the North. The issue of 30,000 polling units is also there. That said I still remain optimistic that the way things are going, the election will be free and fair. If Jega has any evil plans, with the signal that we sent to him, he will realise that the whole world is watching him.

Do you think the postponement was right?
Definitely! You will realise that if the election was not postponed, by now Nigeria will be in chaos, if not in anarchy such that would have been worse than what happened during the 1993 June 12 election. The level of interest in politics presently is more than what happened in 1993. With the level of interest, if 24 million people out of about 68 million were been denied their PVCs on February 14, you know what could have happened; we would have witnessed serious problem in this country.
Twenty-four million is 34 per cent as at the time. Secondly, we had the high level of security challenges in the North-east and North-west. Some are saying that we lost a lot of money to the postponement, well, when you want liberation you should be prepared to sacrifice. It is better we lose some money than to lose our country. It is better we lose some money than to lose thousands of lives in the process. So, again I say that the postponement of the elections saved Nigeria from chaos and anarchy.

A lot of people have subjected your support for the president to different interpretations. Some say it is monetary, that it is because you secured a huge contract from the federal government is the reason you are supporting him. Is that correct?
Majority of the accusations are coming from the APC. We should ask them: do they normally give me money when I was supporting them? Definitely, I was compromising when we were supporting them, especially Tinubu. People, including PDP once tagged me an ally of Tinubu. Notwithstanding, our group support is based on ideology. The reason we supported Tinubu before was because we thought he believed in true federalism, in the restructuring of Nigeria. But we x-rayed Tinubu and realised that he is a businessman in politics. He is a trader in Nigerian politics.

He is a person that can compromise the interest of his entire race single-handedly, based on his own interest within 10 minutes. He believes he has so much influence on the media, and also believes he has some lawyers he can pay to defend and even twist issues that could affect the country. So, when we noticed all these, for the past five years we’ve not been happy with him.
The worst part of it is the issue of the national conference that was convoked by President Jonathan last year. When the president announced the national conference on October 1 2013, Tinubu was coming from London, and without even consulting with any stakeholder in Yorubaland, on landing at the airport, he condemned the proposal from the president. He said it was a Greek gift and a diversionary tactics.

Many self-determination organisations in the South were very furious with the statement. We asked ourselves: is Tinubu a king, Ooni of Ife, or Alaafin of Oyo, or is he being given Aare-ona Kankaafo? Even the king, like Ooni of Ife will consult his chiefs.
There has always been a consultation before taking a final decision. But Tinubu as a two-time governor, who has never been detained for the Yoruba cause – when the NADECO struggle was on, he ran out of the country and was enjoying himself abroad. We were the ones protesting against Abacha. And then you came and had the opportunity to be a governor, without being detained for a day.

We got the information from a reliable source that one of the reasons Tinubu stabilised himself as a NADECO chieftain was because he short-changed $13 million from Abacha in an oil deal. He realised that instead of him to give the money to Abacha, he was ready to spend like 3 or 4 million from it to the struggle. That was what happened. So he now criticising the national conference is funny because in NADECO, one of the major issues they were asking, was the government to organise a sovereign national conference; that the government should restructure the country.
Even when Abiola had not been given his mandate before he was detained, he said it at the Epetedo Declaration that if I happen to be the president of this country, the first thing I will do is to organise a sovereign national conference. Alao Aka-Bashorun STARTED this struggle in 1992.

The process within this agitation was what gave Tinubu the opportunity to be a governor. When he became a governor, he continued to agitate for true federalism for a period of one year and two months. After he stabilised as governor, he played it down. You remember in Tinubu’s first term, he was calling for state police. In his second term, he had stopped calling for state police.
We realised that he had already compromised on the ideology of a progressive Nigeria. He does not believe in what brought him to power, and has led him to the position where he is. Even though he does not believe in the national conference, he should have kept quiet and not try to destroy what a majority of Nigerians believe can move the country forward. This is what makes some of us furious, that Tinubu can sell any good ideology because of political power.

Even when President Jonathan organised the conference, Tinubu kept on using the media to try to puncture it. But when that did not work, after we finished the conference and came out with a recommendation, we saw many media houses writing different things, until we came out and enlightened Nigerians about the content of the conference, which the majority have accepted will move Nigeria forward.
In it, we agreed that states will control their minerals, there will be state police and each state will have their own constitution. There will also be state creation to solve some issues in Nigeria. For instance, we have minority tribes in the North. The creation of Gwara State in Kaduna will stop the crisis between Christians and Muslims in Kaduna.
When we sat down to consider the national conference – what our fellow Yoruba man, who used the slot of Chief MKO Abiola to become a president in 1999, and failed to acknowledge Abiola’s name to any monument; what he failed to do for a period of eight years, President Jonathan had the opportunity and did it within three years.

And President Jonathan did not interfere with our deliberations. I remember vividly when we had the problem of how to reach a decision at the conference, some Niger Delta people went to the president and he told them that he was not GETTING involved. They went a second time and he again declined. Now we finished the conference and Tinubu did not even agree on most of the things that we agreed. You do not play politics on the basis of bitterness.

In American politics, when a democrat brings a good policy, you will see a legislator from the Republican embracing and approving it, provided the policy is for the interest of America. But in NIGERIA, any good policy that comes to the National Assembly, because it is not coming from the APC, they will hang it on one side. Most of the bills that the president sent to the House of Representatives are still pending.

The Yorubas are very enlightened and what happens in other zones cannot happen HERE. That was the mistake that Tinubu made by unilaterally, without consulting Yoruba people bringing Buhari and saying he is our candidate. Based on all these issues, and because President Jonathan convoked the national conference, was why we decided to support him. All what we have been fighting for, we have gotten at least 60 to 70 per cent. We decided to give him another opportunity to do more and move the country forward.
Tinubu’s candidate, Buhari, kicked against the national conference, calling it a waste of public fund. Then some people will tell me to support such a person. I cannot support someone who said he wants change but does not want change in the structure that is giving us problem in this country.

He wants change but does not want change in the constitution that was written by one man, and handed over to Abdulsalam, who in turn gave it to Obasanjo. And they wrote we the people of Nigeria. Is one man we the people? We have worked on the constitution and it can be pushed for amendment so that it can be the input of the entire people of Nigeria. For us to move the country forward, you need an input of the people in the constitution.
Your rally for President Jonathan raised a lot of concerns. People saw it as part of what to expect in the coming elections. Secondly, apart from the national conference, on what other grounds is your group supporting the president?

The protest was not done to support the president. The reason was to protest against the activities of Jega. We have been justified regarding the issue of shortage of PVCs. Collection has ended and yet more than 20 per cent are yet to GET their PVCs. Jega was giving unnecessary excuses of multiple registration. That is a lie. The second issue was that of underage registration which he did not clarify.
How can we be using a different constitution in the North and another one in the South? The Nigerian constitution stipulates that a person to vote in the country must not be less than 18 years. But there are pictures of children from 10 to 15 years voting in the North in 2011. Jega did not clear this, along with the 30,000 polling units that were newly created in the North against the South.You cannot prepare rigging before the election. Jega should be very careful as the whole world wants to see the result of this election. This was why we organised the rally. The APC is only trying to twist the issue. The APC tried to blackmail us and put holes in the protest.

They used different strategy and brought one Shina Akinpelu from Ibadan to sign a press release, which was then syndicated by Steve Ayorinde, who is a media aide to Ambode. The media told us that the press release that was purportedly coming from the OPC was from Steve Ayorinde. After then, Shina Akinpelu was nowhere to be found. They went to bring one land grabber, who left our organisation in 2007, Mosuru Akande, to read a press statement that I should resign.

The media people who went there told us it was only one television station they invited, which is LTV 8. Even when the LTV 8 wanted to record them, an APC chieftain refused, saying he didn’t want his face to show. Because we have chosen to support President Jonathan, the APC has called us names, including thugs. These are the thugs that they were using before.
APC should know that WINNING an election is not done on the pages of newspapers or on the internet. The people who have access to internet in Lagos are not up to 15 per cent. Ibadan is not up to five per cent. In the remote villages, most of them do not have cell phones. Winning an election is about house to house campaign and structures; it is not sitting in Acme Road or Bourdillon to send press releases to newspaper editors. Most of those who will vote do not even read newspapers.

You asked why our group is supporting the president. President Jonathan gave us a seaport in Badagry, which will be the biggest in Africa. At the same time, he gave us an airport in Lekki, and another seaport in Lekki. Our own kinsman, Obasanjo, was in power for eight years and he couldn’t even work on the road from Lagos to Abeokuta. The Ogun State governor was asking him to give licence so he could build a cargo airport and he refused. President Jonathan is working on the Lagos-Ibadan road, and Sagamu-Ore road.

As a promoter of culture and tradition in Yoruba land, who are the true Yoruba leaders and what is your comment to those referring to Tinubu as a Yoruba leader?

Past Yoruba leaders evolved through struggles. They never evolved by election or wealth. Awolowo became a Yoruba leader based on his struggle and sacrifice for the Yoruba people. Chief Adekunle Ajasin also became a Yoruba leader because he stood by the June 12 and did not allow the Abacha government to cow him. After Chief Ajasin died, Chief Abraham Adesanya became another leader by standing for the people; he was one of the young lawyers that defended Awolowo when on trial. Since Chief Adesanya’s death, there has

Tinubu is 98 per cent far from being a Yoruba leader. He does not believe in the Yoruba cause. He does not associate himself with Afenifere. Immediately Tinubu became governor using the NADECO platform, he divided Afenifere. He tried to destroy it and began funding the Afenifere Renewal Group against the mainstream Afenifere.
When we supported Tinubu, Obasanjo deliberately hated the OPC because of that. When he detained me for 14 months in Kuje prison, and people went to him, he told them it was because of my association with Tinubu. He said he wanted to weaken me so as to get back Lagos from Tinubu in 2007. Tinubu was so smart to use South-west to negotiate, but he will never sacrifice for South-west, and allow people call him a sectional leader.
Ojukwu became an idol today because he agreed to stay with his people. Awolowo was called a tribalist, look at his end; he is regarded as a tin god today. But Tinubu is not ready for that sacrifice. His target is the government at the centre. He does not want to hear anything about regionalism and lately true federalism. He wants the status quo to remain so that he can be part of those to share the oil wealth. He is a trader in Nigerian politics.

People say OPC is supporting President Jonathan because of money. I have had the opportunity to be a multibillionaire in this country, but I will not compromise the interest and ideology of the Yoruba people because of any president. The OPC is supporting President Jonathan because we realised that he is an instrument to the way forward for Nigeria.
What Tinubu believes in is Alpha Beta. He is making 15 per cent from the billions of tax that Lagos makes every month. Alpha Beta has crossed to Oyo, Ogun, Osun, and Ekiti before Fayose came in. So definitely Alpha Beta is going to Abuja if Buhari wins the presidency. Buhari could have not had problem but the hatred for Tinubu contributes to his reduction in popularity.

The people surrounding Buhari are his undoing. They say they want change, can Saraki who pocketed all the local government money in his state, who still shares the allocation with the incumbent governor, who ran down Societe General Bank, change Nigeria? Many of those surrounding Buhari have serious cases with the EFCC. If Buhari wants to be principled, they will frustrate him. They will even use Osinbajo who is the second or third in command of Alpha Beta to frustrate him.[/center]

Crying over an already spilled milk.

Gbenu e jati jati yen soun.