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Elder statesman and Afenifere chieftain, Chief Ayo Adebanjo is one of the living disciples of the late sage, Obafemi Awolowo. In this interview with Daily Independent , he speaks on his group’s endorsement of President Goodluck Jonathan, Afenifere Renewal Group, thoughts on true progressivism and other sundry issues. Excerpts:
Your group’s endorsement of the reelection bid of President Goodluck Jonathan generated uproar in some quarters with many alleging you did that because of pecuniary gain. Many expected you to throw your weight behind a Yoruba son, Yemi Osinbajo who is the vice-presidential candidate of APC. What is your take on that?
We supported President Jonathan for re-election mainly because of the national confab. We trust him to be committed to the implementation of the national confab because that is the only thing that can save Nigeria. We did not do it because of money or because of our love for PDP. We took the decision basically because we believe Jonathan will complete the good works he has started by implementing the report of the conference. On the other hand, the other man (Buhari) doesn’t believe in the conference. That is why neither he nor his political party attended the conference. So, how can you expect him to come and implement it if elected into office?. All the complaints we have in Nigeria today, be it corruption or structural imbalance has been taken care of in the report of the national conference, if the provision is implemented. Those saying we supported Jonathan because of what we stand to get are confused. They don’t know what Afenifere stands for. What Afenifere stands for is consistency and we are not hypocrites. Wherever we stand, we tell the world. That is all. We don’t say something today and tomorrow change our tune. Afenifere is peopled by men with records of integrity, faithfulness and honesty…
There is this widely held belief that Afenifere is no longer vibrant. Do you agree with that? 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. Many Nigerians expect Afenifere to speak with one voice but the Afenifere Renewal Group (ARG) has distanced itself from your position saying it is not part of it. Are you not worried about this? I have told you ARG is a rebel organisation. We know those who sponsor them because they don’t want to abide by the principles of Afenifere as enunciated by the leadership and they work with people who were in power. The Yoruba people know their leaders, so I am not bothered about people who do not know when Afenifere came about. People who don’t know about the achievement of Afenifere that are now coming up and now saying they are Afenifere to be relevant. I ask you, when you say Afenifere Renewal, what are they renewing in Afenifere? What is the programme of Afenifere that is archaic that they want to renew? Is it their educational policy or the health policy or the agricultural policy that is no longer relevant that they want to do another one? Their problem is the leadership. They want to upstage the leaders and because their leaders are in government and they were able to distribute the largesse. Who are those who are there? Are they not the same people who left the mainstream Afenifere because of Tinubu? They are a sponsored group. I challenge them to reply me that they are not. Like I was told recently that Tinubu said in Oyo that ‘who are the Afenifere’? I will not reply him. It is the people of Oyo that will do the replying. In the whole of Western region, how could I be talking and Tinubu too will be talking about Afenifere? This is not a matter of bribing somebody with money. It is your track record that will judge. How old is Tinubu himself? If we even accept the false age he presented to us, he will be a toddler. Part of the criticisms against Afenifere is that it is too rigid whereas politics of today tend towards fresh ideas and a blend of old and new. What do you have to say on this? When you compromise people, it’s no longer principle. When we are talking of rigidity, we were just saying ‘stick to principle’. If Awolowo was not rigid, he won’t make the name he had. He was dreaming of principle that Nigeria must be federal. That is the song he has been singing since he founded the Action Group. That this country is too big to be ruled as a unitary country, a lot of people in NCNC then were talking of unitarism. It was the consistency of Awolowo preaching the advantages of federalism, saying it is the only way we can live together as one entity in peace. We are talking about people who talk about principles. I have been hearing ‘we are too rigid, we ought to compromise’ Are you saying today it is federalism tomorrow it is unitarism or next let us go for socialism, is that the way to do things? Some have also argued that Afenifere should be for all Yoruba sons and daughters irrespective of the political parties they belong to and not for a particular political party. What is your take on this? I, Ayo Adebanjo says Afenifere does not go to all parties. Those who talk like that are not logical in their reasoning. In one breath, they don’t want to be in Afenifere, in another breath, they want to get the goodwill of Afenifere. What do they understand about Afenifere? Afenifere is the Yoruba word for Action Group known for certain noble ideals. So, nobody can just tell me, we are all Afenifere all over, no! you are either Afenifere or nothing and you see, all of those people talking of we are all Afenifere, I say even if those of us who you know to be leaders of Afenifere and you felt we are not good enough, why can’t you go and form your own organisation? Why did you still want to attach the name of Afenifere? Why must you say you are Afenifere renewal? All because it is a party that has the reputation, that has the principle, that has the track record and leaders with integrity. Those who talk like that are those who want to use the name for relevance. There is anxiety in the country over the forthcoming general elections. Some have said if President Jonathan is returned, Boko Haram insurgency will escalate while the Niger Delta militants have also threatened war if he loses the election. What is your take on this? I am not going to prescribe any evil for the country. What I believe is that there should be a free, fair and credible election and whoever wins must be allowed to rule. I don’t wish. For those saying if one person should lose there will be war, I think that statement is not good for the country. We must do and say things that will make the country safe and not to plunge it into war. That is why we are insisting on the implementing the new recommendations of the conference. If that is done, I believe there will be peace in the whole of the country. But don’t you think the election may result in violence if allowed to go ahead now? You are asking me an impossible question so I wouldn’t know if there will be violence or not. I don’t want violence. But those who will do violence will do violence. We only pray and appeal to people to eschew violence because it won’t do us any good as a nation. Some militants in the Niger Delta region which include Asari Dokubo, Tompolo and others recently threatened war if President Jonathan loses the forthcoming election. What do you make of that statement? I don’t like that kind of statement. The statements coming from the South- South and the Northern part of the country is not good for the image of the country. I agree with the position of Danjuma who has called on the federal government and the security agencies to arrest anyone found making provocative statements. How are you resolving the challenge of people trying to twist the principles of Awolowo? 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 the APC said they are banking on the prophecy of Awolowo who once said a time is coming when the progressives from side A and B will meet. Do you think they are justified? Who are those meeting? These are the same set of people who are bastardising Awolowo’s statement for their selfish ends. When Awolowo said a time is coming when the progressives in A and B will come together, are these the people he was referring to? These cheats and morally bankrupt ones? Let them come to and say they want to interpret what Awolowo said. They are the very ones bastadising Awolowo’s statement that those who created the problem will be a solution to the problem. Anybody saying that is just saying bunkum which I will not accept. There is no doubt that Awolowo said at the right time, the progressives will meet. He meant that eventually, those with like minds will meet. The question I put to them is: Are the people in the APC of like minds? Those talking about being progressives have bastardised the word ‘progressive.’ They are saying that the APC is what Chief Awolowo was referring to in a statement he made at the last conference of the Unity Party of Nigeria in Abeokuta, where he said, ‘If we are related, we shall meet’ and that at a time the best of the opposition will meet to form a government. But are the people in the APC progressives? So what do you make of some people calling themselves progressives today once they decamp from one political party to another, let’s say from PDP to APC? I will say all those ones are fake. All those the people in the then ACN that is now APC are fake progressives. 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 Goodluck 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 themselves progressives.
Courtesy of Daily Independent
