According to Pa Ayo Adebanjo, an elder statesman and former leader of the socio-cultural organization Afenifere, President Bola Tinubu, Bisi Akande, Segun Osoba, and their counterparts who served as South-West governors in 1999 during Nigeria's return to democracy, retreated and disappointed Nigerians by not boldly advocating for a constitution that truly serves the people.
Pa Adebanjo said this on Friday
when he appeared as a guest on a Channels TV programme.
He said that having failed to
insist on federalism as Lagos State governor in 1999, President Tinubu now had
the opportunity to rewrite the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria, being the Nigerian President and the Commander-in-Chief of the
Federation.
According to Adebanjo, Tinubu,
who was Lagos State governor from May 1999 to May 2007, was among the six
governors of the South-West who “chickened out” from demanding a Sovereign
National Conference after the then military Head of State, Abdulsalami Abubakar,
decided to return the country to democracy after the death of ex-military
dictator Sani Abacha.
He said that Tinubu currently
has an opportunity to rewrite the mistakes of the past by ensuring that
Nigerians decide on a constitution they agree to govern their coexistence as
against what he described as the “military-imposed constitution” still
operational in the country, even 24 years after.
The elder statesman noted that
a brand-new people’s constitution would end some of the existential problems in
the country, especially the menace of insecurity as a people’s constitution will
make room for state police.
He said that “There was a clamour for a Sovereign National Conference at that time (in the buildup to the 1999 election). The military said they were going back to the barracks and we said, ‘Well, go back to the barracks with your constitution; it’s your baggage and return us to where you met us. If you are not going to do that, schedule another conference and we will agree on how to live together’.”
Pa Adebanjo said that the
Yoruba socio-political group Afenifere refused to take part in any
deliberations with the Abdulsalami Abubakar regime but later agreed to take
part in the 1999 election after getting assurances that there would be a Sovereign
National Conference thereafter.
“So, we contested that election
on protest,” he said, adding that “This is why I disagreed with Ex-Governors
Bisi Akande and Segun Osoba. When we were campaigning for them to be governors,
it was on the heels of federalism, and the Sovereign National Conference.
“We insisted that the
constitution must be changed. So, when we (Alliance for Democracy) came in, we
got the mandate of the people; we won the election in the whole of the Western
Region, we told all our governors including Bola Tinubu not to go to Abuja
until the Federal Government changed the constitution but they chickened out;
they were involved in the paraphernalia of office… that is the beginning of the
struggle of Nigeria.”
He said that all the six state
assemblies in the South-West at that time passed a resolution for a Sovereign
National Conference but “all our governors disappointed us”.
According to him, “If the
Western Region didn’t take part in any of the activities in Abuja, the Eastern
Region would follow us and we would all be forced to come back to the table
again.
“They (South-West governors)
chickened out, they sold the Nigerian people, they disappointed us. And that is
why I said the wrong at that time, Bola Tinubu is in a position to rewrite it
now by changing the constitution now to what we wanted it to be. And it is not
a long thing to do; take the 2014 National Conference Report, take the
(ex-Governor Nasir) El-Rufai Constitution Recommendation of the APC, set up a
committee to reconcile the recommendations and we will move on.”
On the issue of establishing
state police across Nigeria as a way of fighting insecurity and insurgency,
kidnapping and other crimes in the country, Pa Adebanjo said that critics of
state police are talking “arrant nonsense.”
He said that “We are now
talking of insecurity, kidnapping, how can insecurity be solved when those
fighting it are in Abuja? It is not possible. All the governors have been
clamouring for state police, for the policing system to be localised…When
security is localised, they will take care of their people.
“We copied our federalism from
Britain and the United States but have you heard of the Inspector General of
Police in America? All you have is the Cosmopolitan Police”.
Pa Adebanjo described as
“arrant nonsense”, criticism and the defence put up by opponents of state
police that governors would abuse state police.
He said that “The constitution
says that governors are chief security officers of their states but you deprive
them of the role,” adding that Nigerians are tired of empty promises and
reassurances.
He said, “We are tired, we want
double action. Until we go back to agree on conditions for us to live together,
we will never get peace.”
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