Afenifere to Northern Leaders: Restructure to Restore Justice or Wait for Consequences

Oghenevwede Ohwovorile in Abuja

The Secretary of the Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere, and member of the 2014 National Conference, Mr. Yinka Odumakin, has stated that the position of the northern leaders, opposing the restructuring of the country, is self-serving and myopic.

A group of northern leaders, many of them members of the 2014 National Conference, had said last Wednesday that they were opposed to restructuring of Nigeria.

“They are self-serving opportunist. We all together at the 2014 national conference took unanimous decisions on over 300 resolutions and did not vote on any issue. The rules say that we have to have two thirds on any issue.

“We agreed on all those issues based on consensus. Now because of their short sightedness to think, but because they are in charge-they got power back-all that is wrong with Nigeria should be over looked. This shows the opportunism in them,” Odumakin said.

The Afenifere leader added that at the 2014 National Conference, the North raised the issue of the South having more delegates than them but when we took account of the delegates, it was discovered that northerners were more at the gathering which took place in Abuja.

Odumakin added that “what they have done is to preempt us by holding their own conference yesterday. Now this was what happened in 2000. Obasanjo called a meeting of all the leaders of the six geo-political zones in Abuja where Senator Adesanya led the South-west delegates and Professor Ben Nwabueze led the South-east delegates.

“Obasanjo asked for what should be done to preserve the future of Nigeria; Nwabueze was the first to speak and he spoke about the need to restructure Nigeria while Adesayan endorsed everything he said as the leaders of the South-south and the Middle Belt also endorsed it, but only the leaders of this group of people who held a conference yesterday got up and said ‘oh we didn’t know this was what we were coming here to discuss’.

“We will go back home and come back, but till today, they have not come back.”

On restructuring, he said for a group of persons or individuals to think that Nigeria can be kept this way is not possible, adding that it is an invitation to a revolution as Nigeria is in her late hours.

“To think that Nigeria may be kept as it is for long is clear deception and delusional. If they don’t allow us to restructure Nigeria with what would destroy all of us staring us in the face is short sighted, myopic and a clear lack of understanding of where Nigeria is and what has happened to other nations that has refused to do what is needed.

“Many of those countries have disappeared from the map of the world. So let them continue to do what they are doing, and we will continue to insist that we must sit down and make this country a proper one by the structure unit, and by God’s grace, we shall gather on May 2 in Abuja,” he said.

On the composition of the confab delegate, the Yoruba leader said each geo-political zone produced 15 delegates each, and that each state governor nominated three delegates each with the presidency also picking equal number of delegates from each geo-political zone. Elder statesmen and other delegates were also representatives of professional bodies such as Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) and Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), among others.

“The delegates to the conference were picked 15 from each zone, professional bodies were also given delegates too,” he also said.

On their demand for the federal government to vote more money into oil exploration in the North, Odumakin said that has been the practice since the days of former President Shehu Shagari, and up till date, they are yet to discover oil.

He added: “They have been doing it since the days of Shagari. We sunk billions of dollars there, what did they find? Nothing; they should carry the entire 2017 budget of Nigeria to search for oil where there is none, it’s their power.

“All we are saying is that we must restructure this country, and that is the minimum condition to preserve this country because Nigeria is suffering.

“We are at the edge of the precipice. It is quarter to midnight for Nigeria, so whatever they want to do with Nigeria’s money, let them do it, we don’t care, but we must restructure this country.”