Yoruba leadership is always divided. When is the leadership going to be united and have a common front to really drive home the position and interest of the geopolitical zone?
The issue is of concern to many of the elders and leaders in Yorubaland. If you observe the body language of late, you will see some form of unity. That was why when Bode George called a meeting at MUSON Centre, most people attended because we saw the issue beyond party line. There are two major problems that I see in the process of uniting Yorubaland and without fear or favour, the two major obstacles to proper unification of Yorubaland are Obasanjo and Tinubu, I am sorry to say this because they are my friends but the two of them are always thinking about themselves not Yorubaland. Obasanjo portends to love a real Nigeria, is it the real Nigeria that he ruled for eight years that could not make him as head of state or a permanent secretary of the Ministry of Roads and Transport think that the road to Ota should be tarred just like Buhari’s town is now being dualised. If Daura can be dualised and finished in no time, why in eight years was Obasanjo not able to do the same for his own town? It is because Obasanjo’s concept of a nation is not the same concept held by Gwarzo, Buhari, Babangida, Abdulsaalami, Gowon and Danjuma. So, if he could not deliver that little bit because he did not want to be seen as being tribalistic and Buhari enjoys in three years what Obasanjo could not enjoy in his own town in eight years then, he was only thinking about himself. What Ahmed Tinubu is after is his political empire. This is just my honest appeal because of all the efforts that have been going on, if we are almost 80 per cent successful, Obasanjo will bring it down to 30 per cent, if we are almost 90 per cent successful, Tinubu will bring it to 20 per cent. We learnt from history that those who abandoned the course of the Yoruba race and substituted it with their self interest faced the wrath of the Yoruba and the sacred land of Yoruba. So, in terms of unity, we will do our best.
Is there a convergence now?
There is a convergence. The convergence is presently considering a central document that is the Yoruba position on the way forward for Nigeria because certainly the 2019 election is not the way forward, it is just an accepted constitutional arrangement which, if care is not taken, might not even take us to the Promised Land.
Insecurity is a major challenge in the country, what is Yoruba KO’YA and other Yoruba groups doing to curb the excesses of the Fulani herdsmen in their land?
What the elders use to eat moinmoin is always under the leaves. Those who are terrorising us know they are terrorising us and they know that we don’t like it. We may not have shown how we don’t like the fact that they are terrorising us but we are begging them because we can’t win in their courts. They have arrested so many and released them. How can you go and rustle a farm in Oyo, they put you in prison custody in Oyo and somebody called from Abuja that the case should be transferred to Abuja? Is it that same person you want to go and report to? They have stood security on its head. The governors who collect security votes but are not able to defend their people in the rural areas, what are they using the money for? They showed a movie of less than two minutes attack of a fortified police post manned by two policemen by over ten northern terrorists, those were not Fulani herdsmen and that is the interesting twist about this whole thing. What we are finding now is no longer Fulani herdsmen but cultured trained assassins, kidnappers and rough necks. They are using the funds from kidnapping to buy more arms and ammunition.
We have had some respite of these attacks even in the Middle Belt, but there are fears that after 2019 elections, we might likely have resurgence. What is your take on this?
When this insurgence came up, there were so many activities, kudos to the Aare Ona Kakanfo, Gani Adams and others. People rose up and systematically beat them back, but in a situation where you are using private funds and a governor is earning N800 million as security fund and he is not spending it? Only buying vehicles that will stay in the city centre, not setting up telecommunication network in rural areas, and so on, of course, such attacks are likely to come back. As a matter of fact, they are back. I am using this opportunity to tell our people, especially those living in border towns, to be vigilant. Most of the attacks are not being reported as they should, that is why people thought it had subsided, it has not. Many innocent travellers have fallen victims of these attacks. Let us be very vigilant especially this season that we are in.
What is your view about the statement credited to the wife of the president that two people have hijacked her husband’s government?
I think we should just replace Muhammadu with Aisha; she will be a better president than her husband. She is more honest. She comes out to speak the truth. She said her husband was captured two, three years ago, we didn’t believe it. She was talking about 15 million Nigerians’ votes that are being controlled by two men. They put her in purdah too long. She is not covering her face; she has opened her eyes like they have done in Saudi Arabia where women can now drive. She is an epitome of womanhood. What she has done by coming out in public to challenge the two people is commendable. So, why won’t they say the president is cloned. That is cloning. What she said was that these two people are the ones that cloned her husband. It is the same Buhari but he has been cloned by the two people the wife was talking about.
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