Chief Ayo Adebanjo is a renowned chieftain of the Pan-Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere. He speaks to ADELEKE ADESANYA on the President Muhammadu Buhari administration’s fight against corruption, and the urgent need to restructure the country, among other issues of national importance. Excerpts:
President Muhammadu Buhari’s main agenda remains the fight against corruption. What is your assessment of his performance, so far, in this regard?
Which corruption fight? When people tell you this government is the most corrupt government ever, you think they are saying rubbish. But now it is glaring to everyone.
Look at the amount of allegations against Magu (the former Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission) alone; look at what is happening at the Niger Delta Development Commission.
“I said it before, publicly, that Buhari is deceiving Asiwaju and Asiwaju is deceiving Buhari. Everybody is trying to use the other. Why can’t Tinubu hammer on restructuring, knowing that this was what brought Buhari to the office?”
I remember sometimes ago, Oshiomhole said if you are a highway robber, just come here into the APC and become a saint. Out of the abundance of the heart, a man speaketh. Akpabio was full of corruption, he was tried but the moment he crossed to APC, that was the end of the investigation.
I am not impressed. You remember he was found guilty by the EFCC, prosecuted by the current Minister of State for Labour, Festus Keyamo. He has not appealed. The moment he crossed to the APC, he became a saint.
Buhari made him a Minister. He is in the same cabinet with the lawyer that prosecuted him for corruption and you are saying you are corruption-free.
People say show me your friends and I will tell you who you are. If somebody you can choose as a minister has been found guilty of corruption, that was serious enough. He did not only return to the APC, you made him a minister.
What do you think is the way forward?
I am just praying that God should just free us from Buhari as early as possible. I am serious about it. Lai Mohammed can call me and I will prove it. I am not a fool and I am not a dunce.
You made anti-corruption your agenda, but you support yourself with a cabinet full of corrupt people. It is only in this country that Buhari will still be in office after four years.
I am not surprised because they rigged the election. And for them to achieve that, they dealt with the court before the case got there. See, this government is something else.
What is your take on the recent removal of the Acting Chairman of the EFCC, Ibrahim Magu, and the probe by the Justice Ayo Salami-led Presidential Panel?
My own view about Magu’s investigation is that I don’t believe Buhari has done something special.
He was warned before he put this man there. Twice, he was nominated for confirmation by the National Assembly, they rejected him. And it was his own DSS (Department of State Services), which he has not sacked up till today, that made the observation that Magu was found to be corrupt and yet, he put him there.
Why is he now posing around? What has he done that has not been done? What does the DSS exist for? Why did you put them there if you don’t want to rely on their reports? The same thing he did for Babachir Lawal. Until today, he has not been prosecuted.
Osinbanjo found him guilty, he said he was going to set up a special inquiry and he never did. I only thank God that people who have been criticising Magu have been vindicated now.
And all those who are saying they are doing selective judgements are being vindicated. I just thank God for the fact that the investigation about Magu came out with the same thing people have been saying with evidence.
There is no doubt that 2023 is knocking from afar. What do you think Nigerians should expect?
Anybody who is talking about election now without a change of the constitution is a rogue.
What we need now is a change of this constitution to move to a true Federal State. Let the autonomy go to the states.
No matter how progressive any person could be now, to contest election under Buhari, he is going to fail unless he changes the constitution to what we all agreed, not the Constitution imposed on us by the military. If Buhari cares about keeping this country together, let him change this constitution to a Federal system.
People who know more than you have been telling you, but you didn’t listen to them. Obasanjo is there, Babangida is there, Gowon is there. They are all saying change this constitution, but you didn’t listen.
Even intelligent people from the north are now talking of the need to restructure this country. Prominent citizens who have been in this game since when you were a toddler are talking, yet you didn’t listen. Afe Babalola spoke, others spoke, yet you will not listen or utter a word.
And I have said it severally; why did he oppose the constitution handed over to us by our founding fathers, including the Saudana of Sokoto?
I have said it times without number; there is no one more educated, intelligent among the Fulani than Sardauna. This is the constitution that Sardauna, Azikwe, Awolowo agreed to, before we got our independence.
It was the military that changed it in 1966. And everybody has been saying it, we need to go back to what it was.
Do you perceive that there may be a secret agenda for remaining adamant against all these cries?
Of course, yes. He is concerned about dominance, Fulanisation.
He just wants to dominate and be an emperor and wipe out those elements who do not agree with him in the land. All these I am saying are not new. I have said them severally. He is not keen about this country.
There are rumours that Asiwaju Bola Tinubu is bracing to contest the presidential election in 2023. What can you say about this?
I have said this recently.
Tinubu will just disappoint himself if he keeps relying on Buhari. I don’t see these people doing him any good. They will only use him and dump him. Let me tell you; I have worries for him (Tinubu). He knew all these things but he relied on Buhari and worked to make him the President.
I said it before, publicly, that Buhari is deceiving Asiwaju and Asiwaju is deceiving Buhari. Everybody is trying to use the other.
Why can’t Tinubu hammer on restructuring, knowing that this was what brought Buhari to the office?
I have been in this game for 70 years. So, many of those who are talking now were not born then. That is the truth – even Buhari was a toddler. He is now 74.
Each time I tell you, why should Tinubu, the Vice-President (Yemi Osinbajo) and all those who were in the Alliance for Democracy run to the APC? Why are they hesitating now to stand for restructuring? They can’t talk.
All the things I am telling you now – it is not the first time.
I said both Jagaban (Tinubu) and Osinbajo should get out of the APC. I said it openly. It is a disgrace and disservice to Yorubaland. So, what is happening now shows there is nothing to bind them together.
