Nobody can wish away restructuring —Olaitan

Chief Oladipo Olaitan, who was the leader of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) Caucus in the House of Representatives from 1999 to 2003, in this interview with KUNLE ODEREMI, speaks on issues involved in the clamour for restructuring.

GENUINE restructuring will require a conscious process that can be achieved before the 2019 elections. But, what went wrong between 1999 and 2003 that you and others in the sustained clamour for restructuring could not go far on the issue, having been elected on the platform of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) that premised its foundation on restructuring?

Well, between 1999 and 2003, we made spirited efforts to do something along that line. You remember former President Olusegun Obasanjo put up one phony National Political conference, where some people went across the country collecting inputs and other things.

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But the exercise soon ran into hitches because of some inconsistencies on the part of the leadership of the country. But before we left, we took up occasional constitutional amendments and there were committees in the House of Representatives and the Senate; sadly, it has been on ever since, I mean this piecemeal amendment to the 1999 Constitution.

As the Leader of the AD Caucus in the House, why was it difficult for you and other like-minds to push for restructuring with all vigour, as it remains constant in the rank and file of all of you?

I have just told you the little we could do. You must bear in mind we were significantly outnumbered. The ruling paety then PDP and the APP had more members in both the Senate and the house. In fact, PDP had majority in the Senate and the House with Ad coming a distant third in terms of membership. The PDP members in the house could still have a two thirds majority even without the AD. So, the situation in terms of membership configuration in the National assembly did not favour those of us champion restructuring. The composition of the House was that bad that the PDP could take a decision without expecting a single vote from the AD members in those days. So, we were terribly outnumbered, and that affected the much we could do. Of course, we were not discouraged; we were not deterred, instead, we stuck to our demand for the convening of a Sovereign National conference, where ethnic nationalities involved in the Nigerian Project could agree on how to restructure the country.

I remember that our members in the House in those days pressed for the recognition of the winner of the annulled June 12, 1993 presidential election as the symbol of democracy. All the efforts to mention even his name in the House were rebuffed. But there are lots of changes in the National assembly now vis-à-vis during our own time. When you look back, sincerely, none of these television houses was allowed to take our views and now you can watch proceedings in the House on televisions and social platforms. But in those days, it was not allowed at all. We were completely muzzled. Obasanjo didn’t want us at all and it made things a little difficult also and even in whatever we doing, we were not even given audience; the people and the country at large had no cause to even listen to what we were doing.

Why didn’t you make conscious effort to reach out to the caucuses from the North, especially on the need to restructure the country, as some believe misinformation might have been responsible for the opposition to the demand other stakeholders in the Nigerian project?

I remember that we were talking of a Sovereign National Conference then meaning that whatever decisions were taken at the SNC would be final; nobody would tamper with. That was our position. And we pursued it to the point that Obasanjo had no choice but to accede to it and set up a committee that went round the whole country sensitising people, taking and collating their opinions and but again, he killed it, as nothing came out of it because of some contrasting interest. If we had the participation of the public, the situation would have been different; they didn’t even know what we were doing in the quest to reconstruct the country in such a manner it can reflect their collective wishes and aspirations. What is the percentage of the Nigerian population read newspapers? The little they knew about was what they read in the newspapers; the television stations were not allowed to transmit our activities. Even when we were holding public hearings, they could not beam to the public then.

Based on current political reality in the country, do you think the demand for restructuring can still go far, taking cognisance of the seeming schism even in the South-West that is most vociferous and consistent on the issue, but where there seems to be a kind of discordant tunes in a few quarters lately?

It has taken off. It is on full speed now; I don’t know who can stop it. Nobody can run away from that reality. Those who were completely against restructuring in those days are now buying into it; Obasanjo is buying into restructuring; Atiku Abubakar is into it. All of them are into restructuring now and if you don’t support restructuring now, you are definitely on your own. It means you are isolating yourself from a popular demand from the ethic nationalities making up the country.

But Obasanjo has not publicly declared that he is for restructuring?

If Obasanjo is endorsing the presidential candidate of PDP [Atiku] and Atiku has said he is for restructuring, what again do people want to hear because that is fundamental?