A chieftain of the pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation,
Afenifere, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, has asked a national leader of the All
Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, to speak out on alleged below-par
performance of the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
The elder statesmen, who said Nigerians are suffering under
the current ‘change’ government, also insisted that South West leaders of the
APC are to blame for not leading the agitation for restructuring.
“I warned some leaders from the South-West that Buhari’s
second coming is the greatest mistake you will make if you vote for him. This
is a one-man rule”.
“Members of the APC, who are democrats, are conniving and colluding
with this autocratic regime. People like Tinubu and other South West leaders,
who are in the APC, should talk now.
‘This is not what we bargained for. Is that the change we
want? Is this what you led the South-West to do? They have sold out and I am
sure the electorates in the South West and South-south, who were led into the
APC, are not dunces”, Adebanjo told Vanguard.
Asked what he and other leaders in the South-West are doing
to ensure the Nigeria’s situation gets better, Pa Adebanjo repled: “What can we
do? The solution to the country is to go back to federalism.
“Not only that. There should also be a return to the
constitution which all the leaders in London agreed to before independence. The
constitution we are talking about was canceled by the army, dominated by the
north. There can be no peace.”
He further declared that Nigeria is still not practicing
democracy in the proper way.
“There is no democracy in the country, my friend. Do not
deceive yourself. We have only had civilian administration, we have been paying
lip service to democracy because the actions of the government have been
anti-democracy but they like to make us believe that they are practicing
democracy.
“I do not believe that there is a democracy in Nigeria. We
have not learned anything. Once you don’t practice democracy, the rule of law
and true federalism, you will not have stability because we are not following
the footsteps of our founding fathers.
“That is why you will not have political stability and we
can never have political stability until you practice true federalism.”
By Wale Odunsi
