One of Nigeria’s elder statesman and leader of the Yoruba socio-cultural group Afenifere Chief Ayo Adebanjo has warned federal government that there will be no peace in Nigeria unless the nation goes back to the constitution of its founding fathers
The elder stateman while speaking to journalists recently spits fire that unless the country is restructured, there will be election come 2019 and if anything unpleasant happens to acting President Yemi Osibanjo, that will lead to the end of Nigeria.
Adebanjo while addressing newsmen said “the national question must be settled before any other election in this country. The issue of restructuring or coming back to true federalism should not be made an election issue. It should be settled before further elections.”
According to him, for some months now the polity seems to be overheated and the country seems to be on edge. The major reason is that we have abandoned the path that we are supposed to take. We abandoned the foundation that our forefathers gave us, and we have refused to go back to it.
We have forgotten the foundation of federalism. There was this crisis in 1953, and the Colonial Office sent for our political leaders as a result of which the Constitution of 1954 was promulgated, which established true federalism and led to Azikiwe, Awolowo and Ahmadu Bello becoming premiers of their regions.
Stressing further Adebanjo said “The problem started when the military took over and restructured Nigeria. When the military came into power, it abandoned the Independence constitution and put up its own structure; a unitarist government
When the military wanted to return us to civilian rule, we said, let’s go back to where we were because this unitarist government doesn’t pay. There was competition among the regions when we had the independence constitution, and they were autonomous. Everybody knew how much was coming to them”.
That is why I continue to say, what is the problem with our northern brothers? Are they more northern than Sadauna, that approved the constitution? That was what he approved before he agreed to be in Nigeria.
After the crisis of 1953, he wanted to opt out of Nigeria, but he was convinced that he had his autonomy, as there would be a federal system. It was that word that was taken to London in 1954. It was at that conference that Azikiwe was converted to federalism. Once the national question is not settled, you can’t get peace. All these problems are arising because of the wrong system we have been following. Adebanjo disclosed.
