…insists Afenifere is not pan-Yoruba but for all Nigerians
He is the National Leader of the pan-Yoruba socio-cultural organisation, Oba Olaitan Oladipo was the Minority Leader in the House of Representatives between 1999 and 2003. The politician turned traditional ruler in this interview with OLAOLU OLADIPO appraised the Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led government with a damning verdict that it has fallen short of public expectations. Olaitan also talked about the political options opened to the organisation ahead of 2027. Excerpts:
The current government is in its mid-term. What’s the assessment of Afenifere so far?
It has not performed well. It has performed below expectations. Of- ficials of this government have dis- appointed Nigerians; hopefully, we pray that things will change.
As a group, what was the expecta- tion when this government came on board?
Our expectation was that it would at least consider the welfare of the populace as its major priority in policy formulation and implementation but that has not been the case so far. During the electioneering cam- paigns, the APC promised to make things better. I don’t know whether things are better now.
There is high inflation, insecurity everywhere. So what has it done? They have not done anything. Nothing is working in the country as we speak.
You can’t pay your electricity and other utility bills. The price of petrol has gone from 187 to 900 Naira per litre. You can’t sleep with your two eyes closed. You can’t feed your family. Nothing has happened in the country except poverty, which has driven Nigerians into poverty.
Nothing has worked. The government promised that if after two years that it has assumed power and it fails to bring stable power to every home, nobody should vote for him. It’s been two years now. Do you have stable electricity?
But the government has admitted that things are not going well with the country, but that they are trying to lay the foundation for the sustainability of the country. Don’t you think we should give the government some time for many of its policies to bear fruits?
(Cuts in) Nobody is going to accept that. Let me put my argument this way, would you agree with your employer asking you to work and wait to be paid your salaries and other entitlements after two years when the company begins to do well. Will you agree?
It seems you haven’t seen anything positive at all in some of what the government has done?
Some people credit the government as having made some strides in the area of youth development with schemes like the student loans and free education for students of Federal Government owned technical colleges… Yes, they introduced that but what is the percentage of those who would benefit from it as against the population of the country?
That’s the question. The government can be considered to have done well where they are doing things for the good of the greatest number of people. Not just one, two, three people and give them a scholarship, that’s not the way to do it.
Go to our primary schools in the villages everywhere. Students are there, they have no bench, no stool, nothing to even sit on. The roofs of the classrooms are all completely blown off. They are not doing anything. Members of this current government are just helping themselves.
Despite all these things that you’ve stated, more and more politicians in the opposition parties are joining the ruling party, don’t you think that’s a sign that the government is doing well?
No, certainly not. It’s evidence that they (the defecting politicians) are panicking. What they are doing is just to show that they don’t want to go to jail.
They are afraid. They know they are afraid and they know that very soon, if they are not careful, there will be massive protests in the country. Now jumping from one party to the other doesn’t mean that they are doing well. What it means is that they are afraid of being caught. APC is the owner of EFCC.
They command the EFCC, they direct the EFCC. A former National Chairman of APC, Adams Oshiomhole, once said it in plain language to everybody on national television, ‘that come to APC and all your sins shall be forgiven.’ It’s not evidence that anything is better. It’s evidence that they are afraid of their shadows.
What is the disposition of your group to the coalition being formed by some politicians to challenge the incumbent APC?
There’s nothing wrong with it. They can try. There is no harm in trying. I will be glad if they can dislodge this awful government, the better for the country. Absolutely nothing wrong with the coalition.
But do you believe they can actually dislodge the current government?
That can happen if they come together, who says they can’t remove the current government? The present ruling party formed a coalition to remove (former President Goodluck) Jonathan from office. If they could do it that time, some people can do it to them as well.
If you are to offer any kind of advice to promoters of this coalition initia- tive, what would tell them?
Well, if they are going to come and line their pockets again, then it’s useless. It’s not good. But if they are coming to defend the interests of the majority of Nigerians, we wish them good luck.
But if their motive is just to seize power from the gov- ernment and then line their pockets again, it would be bad. We’ll ask you if you consider floating the party the way you’ve done in the past, considering the situation of things that we have now.
Is Afenifere considering joining the coalition or is that one of the options that you are looking at?
It is a veritable option if the pro- moters are well-intended, if their motive is for the upliftment of Ni- gerians from this current doldrum that we are in. Yes, it’s a veritable option.
Your organisation is seen as a pan-Yoruba socio-cultural group. Some people will argue that for whatever it is worth, the fact the president is a Yoruba man, that Afenifere should support him. Why is Afenifere not supporting him?
Okay, alright, very good question. First and foremost, Afenifere is not a pan-Yoruba organisation. Get that clear. We are not a pan-Yoruba organisation, never. We have never been and we shall never be. We are for the greatest good for the greatest number of Nigerians. It doesn’t matter where you come from. Whether you are Yoruba or Igbo or Fulani or Kanuri, it doesn’t concern us.
You are a h u m a n b e i n g , you are a Nigerian, and we are for you. We have demonstrated this in our activities in the past. When we were running under the party of Action Group in the old Western Region, we had free education for all Nigerians living in the South West. It didn’t matter to us then whether you were Igbo, Yoruba, anything.
We all enjoyed free education. When we built the industrial estate in Ikeja, we didn’t build it for Yoruba people. We built it for all Nigerians. When we built the television in Western Nigeria, it was not for Yoruba people alone. It was for everybody living in that region.
We have never been a pan-Yoruba organisation. We are a political organisation seeking a welfarist organisation, seeking the best for the greatest number of Nigerians. To your second question, whether Tinubu is Yoruba or Igbo or something else does not matter to us. Is he serving the interest of Nigerians?
If he is not, then we are against him. If he is, we will be for him. It doesn’t matter whether he is Yoruba or not Yoruba. Therefore believing that we shall support him because he is a Yoruba man, is completely out of line and we are not for that.
Now that you’ve given a kind of hint that you might be involved in political activities towards 2027, can I find out from you, sir, what will be the basis for you to be part of any political arrangement ahead of 2027?
We have always had our four cardinal programmes that we subscribe to and if we are to join anybody, if we are to coalesce with anybody, to form a political party, that togetherness must be to effect what those cardinal programmes stand for.
One is free education for all Ni- gerians, free health for Nigerians, employment for all, and then food security and housing. We have our four programmes. Once you can do that, then we are part of you. If you cannot do that, we’ll never have anything to do with you.
Is there anything in the works to suggest that a coalition and merger, or realignment is being carried out by Afenifere?
Is there anything to suggest something like that is going on? We are always doing that. We are politicians. We are there every day. That’s what we do every day, yes.
And would you be kind enough to give us an idea as to what level it has reached now?
Oh, it’s ongoing. I cannot tell you exactly where at this point. But as I’m talking to you, talks are going on.
What about the issue of resource control and true federalism? Would those form a basis for your engagement with other like-minds?
Oh, anybody, any organisation, any coalition that does not believe in restructuring, we are not part of it. That is the first thing on our agenda. I mean the issue of restructuring. This country has to be restructured. The way it is can never, never work. So first and foremost, we have to restructure.
The exclusive legislative list has to be unbundled. Giving 68 items to the Federal Government and 30 to sub-nationals will not work. That list has to be unbundled.
And then the government will go to the state, not to the centre. This rent arrangement will not work. This going to Abuja every month to grant credit money is a rent arrangement. It will not work. We’ll never be part of that. Restructuring, and we must have a new constitution that looks after the interests of Nigerians.
