Chief Ayo Adebanjo, an elder statesman and Yoruba leader of thought, has said that President Muhammadu Buhari can postpone the next general elections for six months to implement the restructuring agenda of the All Progressives Congress (APC), if he is genuinely sincere about it. In this interview, he insists that doing so will settle all the national questions causing separatist agitations in the country.
“If it requires postponing the election for six months, it is worth doing. That is my stand. If it is necessary to postpone the election for six months to get us agreed on a constitution that will give us peace, I support it. Once we do that, there will be no more issue of Avengers, IPOB and others. There will be progress. If it requires postponing the election to do the proper thing, to settle the national questions, to have peace in this country, I don’t mind postponing the election. Everybody now knows that this constitution is not working; everybody knows that it is not giving us progress. I don’t believe shortness of time for the election is an excuse when we know that postponing the election is the medicine for our illness,” he declared.
You are one of the vocal advocates of restructuring. What do you have to say about the latest position of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) on restructuring coming at a time when the nation is getting closer to another election year?
They are welcome. I leave it to the public to judge. But we will not agree with any attempt to water it down. I believe they are not sincere. If they want it, we accept it. Let them take positive action now. If they are really serious about it, let them do it before the election. We know that they want to make it an election issue, that is why they are coming up with it now to deceive the people. When they get there, they will begin to say they can no longer implement it like they did before. For me to believe them, let them do it before the election. Federalism is federalism. How can you say you want devolution of power without restructuring? How can you say you want State Police without restructuring? All these are parts of the federal system. Even Resource Control and derivation are under the federal system. I don’t want to go into that debate because that will confuse the people. If they will restructure the country back to all the components of federalism, I am ok with it.
Are you saying that their recommendation is not far reaching enough to do a genuine restructuring?
If you begin to talk about that, they will be hanging on it as an excuse not to implement. Let them do the form of federalism they want before the election and see how far it goes. I don’t believe them because they have said something like that before. Buhari in particular reneges on whatever he says. He reneged in 2011 with Pastor Tunde Bakare. It is because of pressure that they are now talking about it. But they are not talking to babies. Here is a party that put restructuring in its manifesto and after they got to office, they are setting up committee to look into restructuring. Agitation for restructuring has been on since Abacha’s days. I don’t want to encourage them by splitting the forces of federalism. Let them do what they understand by restructuring before the election to show that they mean business.
And you think there will be enough time to do that before the next elections?
If we know that that is the way forward, what is sacrosanct about the election? If it requires postponing the election for six months, it is worth doing. That is my stand. If it is necessary to postpone the election for six months to get us agreed on a constitution that will give us peace, I support it. Why do we have to do things that will give us problem? Once we do that, we know where we are going. There will be no more issue of Avengers, IPOB and others. There will be progress. Since we know the root cause of our problem, why are we doing what is not necessary? If it requires postponing the election to do the proper thing, settling the national questions, to have peace in this country, I don’t mind postponing the election. They should not use this election as an excuse for not doing the right thing. Everybody now knows that this constitution is not working; everybody knows that it is not giving us progress. Why should we now hesitate to do the right thing. I don’t believe shortness of time for the election is an excuse when we know that postponing the election is the medicine for our illness.
You are lending credence to the voice of those who are already making insinuations about the need for possible postponement of the election because of restructuring.
That is the reality. Those are the people who love this country. By the time we settle the national questions, Nigeria will be in peace. All the areas of conflict would have been settled; the condition for living together would have been settled. What is sacrosanct about the election if that is the way to peace? I don’t want them to use election as a pretext. What do we lose postponing the election to have peace?
The Sun