Buhari should order INEC to announce June 12 election result —Yinka Odumakin, Afenifere spokesman

Mr Yinka Odumakin is the spokesman of the pan-Yoruba group, Afenifere. He speaks with DAPO FALADE on the recognition accorded the annulled June 12 1993 presidential election won by the late Chief MKO Abiola and the allegation that Senate President Bukola Saraki has a link with the suspects involved in the recent Offa, Kwara State armed robbery saga.

There was yet another milestone in the country’s political history as President Muhammadu Buhari officially recognised the late Chief MKO Abiola as the winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election and also announced that the late business mogul will be given the highest national honour in the land 20 years after his death. How do you feel about this?

We accept the recognition of June 12 as Democracy Day. But the reality today is that recognising June 12 does not make the late Chief Abiola a president and so all we are talking about now is symbolism. Therefore, we should go to what was the core of June 12. June 12, 1993 was the day Nigerians from all walks of life came together, setting aside primordial sentiments, to elect Abiola as their president for a united country. It was a day when Abiola, with a Muslim/Muslim ticket, won with a majority vote in a Christian area. It was a day when Alhaji Bashir Tofa, a Muslim from Kano was defeated by Abiola in Kano. That was a day a genuine attempt was made to remake Nigeria.

Today, Nigeria under President Buhari is much divided than it was before the amalgamation of 1914. Today, there is no peace in many parts of the country; Fulani herdsmen are busy every day, killing people all over the country. When this country fought a civil war for three years, there were days that there were no casualties. Today, there is no declared war going on in this country but every day, we are counting dead bodies. Just today (Thursday) alone, about nine persons have been reported dead and the government is doing nothing about it. That cannot be a government that truly believes in the spirit of June 12.

Secondly, June 12 is about free, fair and credible elections. It is about the people electing their leaders without let or hindrance, but there has been no demonstrable commitment to that in many of the elections that have been held under this government. Another election [governorship] is coming up in Ekiti State in July and the general election is coming up next year. If these elections are handled with the spirit of June 12, we will know that they are serious. But if not, we will see that it is a mere playing to the gallery and to create chaos.

On May 29, which they called Democracy Day, you heard a broadcast by the president to the nation. He did not mention Abiola on that day; there was nothing about June 12. But all of a sudden, he said June is Democracy Day. Definitely, this was a panic response to some pressures.

If it is all about politics and elections, how would you explain the fact that a Yoruba man was president for two terms and he didn’t deem it fit to even recognise the late MKO Abiola, even by mere mentioning his name as the hero of democracy and somebody has come out to honour the man?

It is unfortunate that Abiola has not been honoured all these years, since 1999. But we also know that when politics is being played, anything can be done. Like I said earlier, we commend what has been done; we accept the honour that has been done Chief MKO Abiola. There is a Yoruba adage that ‘somebody cooks soup and he did not put meat and you said the gods should kill him. What of the person who did not cook anything at all?’ So, we recognise the honour bestowed on Abiola.

But, like I said, we also have to check the package. If we had this so-called Democracy Day broadcast on May 29 and no mention was made of Abiola and all of a sudden, this came, we can locate it within the saying that it was part of politics and that the government is looking for support. Look, this is coming just days after the resolution by the National Assembly about the killings in the country and the government is doing nothing; not one person has been brought to book. Are you now saying that because June 12 has been recognised, we, the Yoruba, should vote for another four years of these killings?

Secondly, we should know that this government is already in panic mode. In the statement that they issued, they said Alhaji Shehu Shagari [former president in the Second Republic] was sworn on October 21, 1979. They even said June 12 is more important than the Independence Day. So, it is very clear that somebody is panicking, even without looking at the final details.

Still on the content of the letter, the president referred to the late MKO Abiola as the presumed winner of the annulled June 12 presidential election. What do you think is the implication of this?

That shows you that they had half-hearted measures in respect of the honour. If it is still the case of a presumed winner, why didn’t they go and bestow the honour on Tofa who contested the election with the late Abiola? It shows that they have half-hearted measures in what was being done, 25 years after an election was clearly won by Abiola; an election in which even the then head of the electoral umpire, Professor Humphrey Nwosu, had released the results and the whole world  knew that Abiola was the winner. But you withdrew his mandate and put him in jail and you were eulogising his jailer, the late General Sani Abacha, just last week that he didn’t do any bad thing. Abacha locked Abiola up and he was killed in the prison. And 25 years after, you came out to say that he was the presumed winner of the June 12 election. That is an insult of the highest order and it shows the hypocrisy of the whole thing. When he said Abiola was the presumed winner, then he should go and honour Tofa, too. At least, he is alive and the two of them contested the election.

What are your other expectations, beyond the recognition given to the June 12 election?

Abiola should be declared the winner [not presumed] of the June 12, 1993 election. What they should have done is to de-annul the election and officially recognise Abiola as the duly elected president of Nigeria. Then, the most important thing that can make Abiola to forgive us is to imbibe the spirit of June 12 and make free and fair elections a norm in our society. We must ensure that the vote of the people count. Doing that would make us to know and believe that Abiola lived and died for democracy.

A presidential aspirant, Omoyele Sowore, said recently that if he was elected as president, he would ensure that the family of the late Abiola was paid eight years salary of a president. Do you think this is realistic?

Well, there is no honour that Abiola does not deserve. It is because of Abiola’s sacrifice that we have enjoyed 19 years of democratic rule. It was the blood of Abiola that served as the red carpet that everybody used to get into power. So, nothing can be too much to honour the memory of Abiola because it was his blood that was the red carpet that was laid for those who are benefitting from our democracy now.

Beyond Abiola and the June 12 issue, what is your take on the face-off between the federal legislature and the executive arms of government, especially the threat to start an impeachment process against the president if he should fail to meet with some certain conditions?     

The lawmakers are not jokers in any way, although they didn’t use the word, impeachment; they only said they will invoke their powers. They have so many powers that they can invoke. But our politics has embraced this spirit of laziness of just always majoring in minors rather than majoring in majors. They put down 12 resolutions in their threat to invoke their power: Number one to 11 included fundamental issues that affect the country, including the ongoing killings across the country and how to stop it. But instead of the lawmakers saying this is what to do, they are now talking about impeachment. The number 12 resolution is not necessary. Why don’t you allow the government to go deal with the other first 11 resolutions? If the executive arm refused to address the first 11 resolutions and you now say you want to use number 12. But to use the number 12 resolution to threaten the executive arm of government is what I can call political rascality.

What is your take on the recent allegation linking Senate President Bukola Saraki with the Offa robbery saga, his subsequent invitation by the police and the implications on the image of the country?

It is a tragedy for our system that we have an Inspector General of Police (IGP) who is not even behaving up to the modicum of the conduct expected of a recruit or a constable in the Police. In the bid to play cheap politics and vengeance and the rest of that, the IGP is showing arrogance in what he is doing. When a country is advertising its Senate President, its number three citizen, as an armed robber, what de-marketing is greater than this? What else can put a country in a greater shame before the comity of countries than calling your Senate President an armed robber? What do you stand to gain when you portray the number three citizen of your country before the whole world as an armed robber? What is more demeaning in the face of watery evidence? The police are talking about a number plate; that somebody was at a particular place and all sort of things.

Look at what they are doing which portrayed them as not being a professional force. In four days, they issued three different statements: First, they went on air to declare that the Senate President had been linked with armed robbers and he should come and report. The next day, they said he does not have to report; that he should respond in writing within 48 hours. The next again, they have not withdrawn their earlier statement; that he should report.  What kind of inefficient, unprofessional, archaic and barbaric police force is that? Is that how to investigate a crime?

Sentiments apart, looking at the confessional statements of the suspects, don’t you think that the Senate President has a case to answer?

Which confessional statements? Have they tendered the statements in any court? Don’t we know the history of our country? Have they  gone to verify the statements in any court of law? The Police Public Relations Officer said he saw somebody who wore an Ankara (aso ebi) at a social event of the Senate President. Is that a crime? Even if you have concrete evidence against the Senate President, the first thing to do is not by confronting him. If indeed there are links between the Senate President and the armed robbery suspects – let us assume that there are armed robbers on his payroll – the next thing is that the president should ask him to know his position. Then, the police can take him on from there and if he is guilty as charged, then he has to resign. From there now, you can now begin to prosecute him. This is the country’s number three man. If at the end of the day, these allegations cannot be proved, then calling your Senate President an armed robber is totally unprofessional.

Do you think the saga has any linkage with the 2019 elections as it is being insinuated in some quarters?

Yes, it is all politics. It is a case of Bukola Saraki as the Senate President against the run of play, one way or the other. Although you can never see many of us being in the same boat with the Sarakis of this world, but this one is too cheap a politics to play and it will rub off on the integrity of our country as a whole.