A former running mate to President Muhammadu Buhari in the 2011 elections and General Overseer of the Latter Rain Assembly, Pastor Tunde Bakare has condemned northern elders who are opposed to the call for restructuring in Nigeria.
Bakare spoke yesterday at a lecture organised to commemorate the 50 years anniversary of the assassination of the first military governor of former Western Region, Lt. Col. Adekunle Fajuyi in Ibadan. The event was facilitated by the Yoruba Think-Tank group, with the theme, ‘Fajuyi and the politics of remembrance’.
Fajuyi and the second Nigerian Head of State, Maj. Gen. Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi, who had come to Ibadan on a working visit, were killed in Lalupon, Ibadan on July 29, 1966 during a counter coup.
Notable guests present at the event wete Fajuyi’s daughter, Desola Olajuyigbe, foremost poet, Prof. Niyi Osundare; Alani of Ido-Ani, Oba Olufemi Olutoye; Majority Leader of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila; and former Chief of Defence Staff, Lt. Gen. Alani Akinrinade (rtd).
Others included Ondo State Governor, Olusegun Mimiko; Ifa priest, Chief Yemi Elebuibon; foremost linguist, Emeritus Prof. Ayo Bamgbose; former governorship candidate in Lagos State, Jimi AGbaje and Chief Ayo Adebanjo, among others.
According to the tele-evangelist, who expressed his support for the need to address the structural challenges from a national rather than sectional perspective, any anti-restructuring position taken by the North would bring to the court of historical opinion, the sincerity of the motives of the perpetrators of the counter coup that led to the death of Fajuyi in 1966.
He said, “The elders of the North, who today are opposed to the call to restructure Nigeria, have deviated from the ideals of the founding fathers of Northern Nigeria like the late Sir Ahmadu Bello and Tafawa Balewa. They were forerunners of Fajuyi in the Nigerian hall of martyrdom.
“Lest we forget, these great Nigerian leaders from the North made it clear in the series of constitutional conferences that heralded Nigeria’s independence that true federalism with regional autonomy was the only condition under which they would exist within a Nigerian nation.”
Bakare added that the call for restructuring was a demand for true federalism and federating units that could self-administer like in the past.
“It is inconsistent with the interest of the North or the South for the current pseudo-federal structure to persist. If the elders of the North are true elders in this generation, I charge them with the words of the wisest king to ever live, which says, ‘do not remove the ancient landmark, which your fathers have set.’
“Our current leaders must find courage in the heroic deeds of Fajuyi, they must find courage to restructure and to reconcile aggrieved sections within the nation,” he said.
The guest lecturer, Prof. Osundare described Fajuyi as a quintessential Omoluabi and a vessel of true leader. He called Fajuyi martyr of democracy, saying the late MKO Abiola was his worthy successor.
Osundare also urged President Buhari to identify ‘implementable’ parts of the report of the 2014 National Conference.
“Fajuyi and Abiola were icons of gallantry and extra-ordinary sacrifice, whose light shone beyond their ethnic base,” said Osundare, who also cast doubt over Nigeria’s unity.
“Those who talk glibly about Nigeria’s unity are under the perilous impression that there is a unity to negotiate in the first place. But a closer look tells us that we are still a thousand miles from that unity.
“As yet, Nigeria has no unity to negotiate or not to negotiate, which is why President Buhari must not only read the report of the 2014 National Conference, he owes himself and the country a duty to read, digest, deliberate on and identify its implementable parts, beyond all partisan and ethno-regional considerations,” Osundare said.
