Pa Adebanjo says any election conducted under the 1999 Constitution without restructuring will be an exercise in futility.
“I don’t support the 2023 elections. Let my son be a candidate under this 1999 Constitution, I will still oppose it,” he insists.
By TheNiche
As preparations for the much anticipated 2023 elections gather pace, Pa Ayo Adebanjo, leader of the influential and foremost Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere, says he should be counted out of it even as he insists that it is the turn of the South-East region to produce the president.
Pa Adebanjo, who spoke in an exclusive chat with TheNiche, said his position on the 2023 elections is that unless the country is restructured under a new constitution, holding elections will be an exercise in futility.
Pa Adabanjo said even if his son was to contest the presidency in 2023, he will do so without his support unless the 1999 Constitution is changed.
“My conclusion is, contesting election under this constitution without restructuring is an exercise in futility. I am for South-East presidency but not under this 1999 Constitution,” Pa Adebanjo told TheNiche.
The Afenifere leader said the group’s position on the issue of constitution has not changed since 1998.
“We will fight till the last man. We have been talking about this thing since 1998. People are talking about political transition. And I ask, transiting on what? A constitution we say is not our own? We will not accept that. We are fighting ideological battle and on principle.”
Pa Adebanjo, who said there was a conspiracy against the Igbo nation called for co-operation between the two major ethnic groups in the South.
“What is happening is just a gang-up. The calculation is that if they can get people from the South-West, they can do away with the Igbos. If that doesn’t work, then get the South-South and divide them. But that won’t keep Nigeria together. The moment you are on that line, Nigeria is in pieces.”
The 93-year-old protégé of late Chief Obafemi Awolowo and veteran of the defunct Action Group politics recalled being invited to an Igbo summit organised by the Evangelist Elliot Ugochukwu-Uko led Igbo Youths Movement (IYM), where notable Igbo leaders, including the former Vice President, Dr Alex Ekwueme, and former governor of Anambra State, Mr Peter Obi, were in attendance.
“And I told them that I didn’t come to praise them. I came on my own enlightened self-interest. I told them that the people who are deceiving and oppressing them are the Northerners. You can’t fight them alone. They are the people who are oppressing me too and I can’t fight them alone but if we join together, we can chase them away. These people are in the minority but they are ruling us because we are divided. This is not my own philosophy. It is the philosophy I inherited from my leader, Chief Obafemi Awolowo.”
Talking specifically about the 1999 Constitution, Pa Adebanjo said: “I don’t support the 2023 elections. Let my son be a candidate in the elections under this constitution, I will oppose him. I am a lawyer, I can’t approbate and reprobate at the same time. I say this constitution is a fraud and I am still contesting election under it. Can I come out and tell the electorate that I don’t believe in it?
“We have been talking about changing this fraudulent constitution since 1998. The constitution was imposed on us under the military.
“When in 1998 the military said they were going back to the barracks in 1999, Afenifere led the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) to say, if you are going back, go with your constitution. If you are going to leave us, return the constitution you met with us, which was federal.
“If you cannot do that, let us sit down and agree again how to be together. That was when we started the slogan, Sovereign National Conference. What does it mean? Let us sit down in a peaceful manner to agree to return to federalism. It was from Sovereign National Conference that we now came down to restructuring.
“I have gone this long route to tell you why I stand where I stand. If people don’t know where they are going, I know where I am coming from. And when in 1999 General Abdulsalami Abubakar said he wanted to return to civil rule just like in this election, Afenifere said they were not going to be part of it.
“In fact, the Alliance for Democracy (AD) was not qualified under the Abacha guidelines to be registered as a political party because they said you must have branches all over the country and we didn’t have the resources to do that. We stuck to our gun. Abdulsalami said, we are just coming out of one crisis. Do you want to do another election without the Yoruba? Go and register them. That was how AD was registered. We were not qualified to be registered.
“So, when we went for that election, some of you don’t understand when I say Bola Tinubu, Segun Osoba, and co, are all sell-outs. It was on the basis of Sovereign National Conference that we got the mandate of the people of Western region. And how are we going to do it? As we did in the First Republic by refusing to go to the centre, we told our governors that we have now got the mandate. If we didn’t contest the election, they would have said that we have no mandate. Now that we have got the people’s mandate, don’t go to Abuja. Just sit down. That was the beginning of the problem. The governors just put us aside. They said we were too old and sectional.
“How is that? Action Group was the only political party in the First Republic that had representatives in all the parliaments. Go and check your records. The AG was the only political party that had government in the West, opposition in the East and North. Our leader in the East was S.G. Ikoku. Our leader in the North was Alhaji Maito. All the other political parties that said they were national were sectional.
“So, the new people we brought in by Sovereign National Conference now decided otherwise. Well, here we are.”
Pa Adebanjo, despite his opposition to the election based on the defects of the 1999 Constitution, says it is the turn of the South-East to produce the President.
“It is now the turn of the South-East. A gentleman came to me the other day and said, you are supporting the South-East, and I said yes, what is wrong with that? The North has had the presidency and it is coming to the South, have we the Yoruba not had our turn? Was Obasanjo not taken from the prison to come and do it? Has Jonathan not done it? Are they the only regions in the South? What has the South-East done?
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“So, my support for the South-East is not based on anything other than what I can defend. Unfortunately the Igbos don’t know that. Many, not all, but many still believe they must kowtow to the North.
“Unfortunately, the whole country has been cajoled to believe that they must subdue themselves to the North before they can get anything in Nigeria.
“That is why they have the effrontery to say that they are the kingmakers and nobody can be president unless they say so. Who born dog?
“Ndigbo should be ready to fight for their right. They cannot get their right on a platter of gold. There is no easy way to success. Freedom is never granted. You have to fight for it.
“You think those who are oppressing you and enjoying all the privileges will give in so easily when they know what they are going to lose?”
Pa Adebanjo said some people don’t understand the gravity of the situation.
“Some people are saying, it is too late now. These people won’t do it (restructuring), what can we do? We will contest the election and then we can change the constitution.
“I say how? How does anyone think they can win election under this condition? Have they ever imagined that it is possible for Buhari to cause confusion in one or two places and say, well, the election is inconclusive? He is still in power.”
