The Grave Danger In Voting Buhari-Pa Ayo Adebanjo, Says His Certificate Not tenable

Pa Ayo Adebanjo, a leader of the Yoruba group, Afenifere, was a top member

of the Action Group, led by the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, in the first

republic. He also belonged to the Awolowo – led Unity Party of Nigeria

(UPN) in the second republic. At the inception of the latest democratic

experiment in 1999, he joined the late Pa Abraham Adesanya and Chief Bola

Ige, among others, to form the Alliance for Democracy which dominated the

governments in the South-west. In this interview, he speaks on the state

of the nation.
Afenifere, unlike before, is no longer active. What is happening?

Afenifere is still very active. In fact, very soon, we are going to meet

in Akure, Ondo State.
It no longer as vibrant as it was
Well, I am sure that would be because of the press. You are light on to

the world, just like the motto of the defunct West African Pilot. There is

no doubt that there is some kind of division among us caused by some

rebels who didn't want the right thing to be done, because we are strictly

Awolowo's disciples,undiluted. We don't modify Awo's principles for our

own interest, progressive is progressive; not progressive today and

conservative tomorrow. Those who were never progressives, the moment they

join you, they automatically become progressives.
How are you resolving the challenge of people trying to twist the

principles of Awo?
We shall continue to say what is right for people to decipher. There are

no two ways about it. What we are doing now is to ensure that you people

follow the right path. The principle of Afenifere leaders, particularly

myself, is to tell you the truth because lying and falsification of things

have dominated the country.
But there are a lot of people now calling themselves progressives?

I will say all those ones are fake. All those the people in the then ACN

that is now APC are fake progressives.
How?
They are fake in the sense that they don't pursue the principles of Awolowo.

Take, for instance, the issue of federalism, you know we were part and

parcel of National Democratic Coalition, NADECO. And during the NADECO

days, we were the only ones shouting about the issue of Sovereign National

Conference for the restructuring of the country because the federation was

an awkward one. It was not balanced. And it was because the military

choked us in 1966. The Constitution the colonialists gave us at

independence was jettisoned after the 1966 coup. And that is why you saw

arbitrary creation of states and local government areas because the people

there were northerners. And we said we don't want the country to separate;

for us all to live in peace, let us all sit down and restructure the

country on the principle of federalism. Federalism is the system whereby

the various ethnic nationalities that formed the country can grow at their

own space and then still keep the country as one, that was what we

insisted upon. You would also remember when Abdulsalami; Abubakar (former

Head of State) said we should go for election, and we said no, we should

first of all hold a conference that would lead to a new Constitution which

we would all be happy about, but he said, 'No, I am in a hurry, when you

get your civilian government, you can go and do it'. That was why one was

held during the Obasanjo time. All those with us during the NADECO time

that insisted on National Conference are the same set of people saying now

that the Goodlock Jonathan conference was a diversion. That was what Bola

Tinubu said. I have said it before, let him challenge it. Sovereign

National Conference was one of the manifestoes we used in electing him

into office as governor of Lagos State. It was part of the Alliance for

Democracy that there must be a National conference. When we won elections

in 1999, it was because we reluctantly took part in the election because

we didn't want people we didn't believe in to win elections in South-West

and claim later that we were not representing the South-West. That was why

we contested the elections so that everybody could see that we had the

support of the people. After the elections, all the six states in the

South-West where we had our governors, Afenifere leaders toured the Houses

of Assembly led by late Papa Abraham Adesanya, for them to pass a

resolution that there must be a National Conference. Tinubu was there. Now

because something does not suit him, because he has some motive now, he

says the National Conference was a diversion. Is that consistent with our

policy? Now, what you find these days is imposition of candidates which is

against the principle of Awolowo. Take the issue of free education, you

hear free education in Lagos, have you been to their primary and secondary

schools and see the number of children there? Can you find any of the

children of these ministers in any of the public schools? Is that what

they inherited? It is matter of principle. This is what separated us the

Afenifere from the ACN who called them selves progressives. It is not a

personal thing.
Where do the Yoruba people stand in the February elections?

I think that would also be a matter of principle. The question of

South-south is a matter of principle of Papa Awolowo that a minority would

also have the right to aim for the highest position in the country. That

was what I was trying to point out about the recent National Conference we

had. That conference has taken care of everything concerning Nigeria. Like

the issue of power, it is no longer going to be the North-west, whenever

it get to the North, it must rotate within all other regions in the North.

The same thing for the South, it is no longer about South-west but all

other regions in the South such that everybody now knows when each of the

regions would be president, it is no longer the issue of we are born to

rule. Why I am supporting Jonathan is because he is the only man who can

implement the recommendations of the National Conference which was set up

to bring equity to Yorubaland and to Nigeria.
He is the only man. And once he does that, all these things we are

complaining about will be rectified. People talk about corruption but they

never care to know the root of corruption. The thing is that the Federal

Government has more money than all other tiers of government. Now, we have

closed that gap in the confab. We have done it in such a way that the

states now have more powers which may not be palatable to those ones in

the North. For example, how did you have more local government areas than

the South? How are the local governments in Kano and Jigawa more than

those in Lagos? The military at that time just allocated states and local

governments to themselves. There was really no criteria with which they

arrived at those local governments. So, they now went further by

allocating funds on the basis of the number of local governments. You will

recall that Lagos State was denied local government funds even when the

Supreme Court ruled that it should be paid. That is the kind of wholesome

power the Federal Government has,and that is one of the reasons I feared

if Buhari should govern under this Constitution.
Why?
Because they have the mentality that they are born to rule. And that is

why I think this romance with the South-west of picking a vice

presidential candidate with him is just a mere gimmick. That is why I am

insisting that all the recommendations of the confab should be implemented

before the elections because, the inequality this country has been

suffering all this while has been rectified with the recommendations of

the confab. All the things that could cause us conflicts have been

rectified. So, all our problems have been attacked from the root. And,

that is why those who think it is not to their advantage don't want it

done. Everybody believes that this present Constitution is bad and we then

say let us all sit down and harmonize it,what is wrong in that one? We

have done it now but yet you don't want it to be implemented. And where is

the antagonism coming from ? From the beneficiaries of the awkwardness of

the constitution. And they still want the Yoruba to continue to go along

with that? If some Yoruba follow them sheepishly, probably because they

don't know the background, that can not happen to someone like me. And

part of the inequality we are talking about is what has come out in the

Buhari certificate matter. In the first republic, you set up a standard

for everybody but when it comes to the northerner, you set another

standard, that is exactly what happened in Buhari's case. Those of us who

knew all these things from the beginning are not surprised by the new turn

of events. You heard that his principal sent a letter to the military that

he was capable and that he expected that he would pass his examinations.

That was what was happening in those days in the North. Go and ask serious

federal civil servants in this country, many of the permanent secretaries

that were senior to them whether they were not superseded without being

qualified. They cannot deny that. If you have read General Isama's book,

you will find it there where he said when they were about to be

commissioned, the standard set for them was usually lower for the North. I

am sure he never anticipated a situation like this.

And do we have corruption on selective basis? Look at the PTF which he

superintended. Even though Obasanjo was trying to cover him up, has he

denied anything of such? He knows that if he does, the document is there

for everyone to see. There was the issue of the N25b there. It is all in

the report. So, how can I, as a NADECO man, come and support a dictator.

All his antecedents are dictatorial and military like.

That was then.
Don't give me that. When did he become a democrat? What has he done to

show he is a democrat other than the fact he is saying he is being

punished because he is now a democrat? When he first came as a military

man, he was issuing retroactive actions to convict people for murder. We

are all living witnesses to what he did with Decree 4, so, that is the

type of man you want me to vote in a civilian regime? He says he is not a

fundamentalist. It is just that people forget about records easily. Here

was a man who campaigned in the North and said Muslims should vote for

Muslims. Here was a man who said he was going to work for the operation of

Sharia through out the country. He has not denied it neither has he

apologized for all the anti-democratic things he has done. I won't be

deceived by bringing a first class technocrat as running mate.

That is where I was going that if you cannot support because of Buhari's

personality, how about that of his vice?
That is not possible because the running mate has no political experience.

He is a first class technocrat, a distinguished lawyer and a nice

gentleman, but if you are talking of politics, it is another matter

entirely. They just brought him in. Tinubu brought him in as Attorney

General, he was never in politics. He comes from Ikenne. Does he know the

politics of Ikenne?
So, the South-West may be making a mistake.
Exactly, there is no doubt about that, that they will be making a big

mistake and digging their graves. They may not listen but, I, Ayo

Adebanjo, is telling them. I am 87 years old, I can die any moment, so

that when ever it happened, they would be able to say that indeed, that

man told us. Buhari is only deceiving them . Go and read what Wole Soyinka

said about him in 2001. Has it changed? Go and read what El- Rufai said

about him in 2002 that he is not electable. These are the same people

polishing him. When I look at the whole scenario, I feel sorry for this

country.
But, it is like Yoruba are irrevocably committed to following Buhari

through Tinubu.
I don't believe Yoruba are following Tinubu. There are so many factors

that made him win election in those days. When it comes to these facts, it

is now left for the Yoruba to decide. Those of us who suffered

imprisonment during the NADECO days under Abacha , Tinubu was not around.

To those of us who were really victims of dictatorship, you cannot send

Buhari to us. I don't know those who are now doing chop chop politics.

From the beginning, we were never those who believe than military person

should come and rule under a civilian regime and that was one of the

reasons the Yoruba strongly voted against Obasanjo in 1999. It was the

military that imposed Obasanjo on us, because it was Babangida and

Abdulsalami that brought him and imposed him on us. They may have

disagreement later because Obasanjo didn't perform. It was Obasanjo that

brought Yar'Adua, he brought Jonathan.
The old brigade in the Afenifere are the real progressives according to

you because you are the authentic Awolowo's follows. Is it not an irony

now that instead of the South-west following people like you, they are

following Tinubu and his 'progressive' party?
That is left for them. I have given all the facts. This is a democracy.

With all we are saying, you and I know that we are suffering here in

Lagos. I am Fashola's fan, I won't say he has not done well but, those of

us who created his predecessor, Tinubu, know that he could do better for

Lagos, that is what we are saying. You may not appreciate what is

happening now except you remember the Western Region where things moved

well. A man ruled the Western Region for seven years without strike. He

introduced free education when our income was barely five and a half

million pounds including Edo and Delta at that time by share economic

ingenuity. Is that what we are having now? You have people who do job of

N50m and say it is N250m and yet, the people would be saying he has done a

good job. With all that is being done in Lagos, some of us have asked the

question,how much does it cost? What is the revenue of Lagos, both the

internally generated and the allocation? And yet, we are still owing that

much debt. And yet we have to pay for tolls. I am not contesting election

for anybody to vote for me, all I am saying is for posterity. Where they

have done well, I say it, where they are wrong, I say it as well. When

they talk of corruption in Jonathan government, I won't say the government

is clean, but those who are talking about corruption, how clean are they

themselves? This is the question and yet these are the same people you

journalists extol to high heavens. Are you saying there is no corruption

in Lagos State? The only job we have now is to reform this country and

urge Jonathan to implement the recommendations of the confab so that we

can all start on a clean slate. There may have been a lot of

irregularities in the past and it is the irregularities that people are

fighting. Everybody must have autonomy to rule itself and we all combine

at the centre for what joins us together. If we had no federal system,

Awolowo could not have done what he did in the Western Region.

So INEC should just allow Buhari to run the election and forget about the

certificate?
I don't know. Don't put words into my mouth, that is left for INEC to

prove if indeed he has the certificate; otherwise he is not qualified.

He is not qualified?
That is what the law says. It is not me. You journalists must be honest to

this nation. You are not doing me any favour neither are you doing the

country any good by trying to plaster what should not be plastered. What

the law says is this: You must have a school certificate before you can

qualify.
But the school has presented that now?
This is not the kind of certificate I have. I don't think this one is

tenable. If they can be fooled, I cannot. That is why I think Jega should

come in. Though Jega doesn't want to be seen as supporting anybody, from

the law that he is expected to implement, Buhari has not satisfied the

Constitution. Jega is only trying to shift responsibility by saying people

opposed to Buhari's qualification for the polls should go to court. I

heard the APC saying Buhari has been contesting election for the past 12

years and nobody said anything about it, why now? And my answer in form of

question is, if someone has been committing robbery and getting away with

it, the day he is caught, you are now asking, why has not been caught all

this while?
Are you saying it is as good as INEC disqualifying the man based on what

is on ground?
Except you are saying the law should not be obeyed. The law is not made

for fun. We should not be sentimental about this thing. That is why we say

there are two standards, one for Ayo Adebanjo and one for Buhari. That is

what is happening in the secondary schools. When they say examination

cut-off mark is this but lower cut-off mark for those in the North, that

is the kind of thing we have been going through since amalgamation and we

have been shouting that let us educate the people of the North, but they

don't want to be educated as we are, yet they want to be qualified as we

are.
You are 87 now and mummy is 85, what is the secret of your longevity?

It is about honesty. We are at peace with our minds. I won't see black and

call it white because of monetary gain. It is the grace of God. Although I

try to eat well and exercise, all still amounts to the grace of God.

Courtesy: Vanguard Newspapers
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