With or without North we ’ll hold a conference on May 2 —Yinka Odumakin

Mr Yinka Odumakin, spokesman of Afenifere, in response to the reported withdrawal of the Northern Delegates Forum (NDF) from the report of the 2014 National Conference, speaks with DAPO FALADE, disclosing that other former delegates will go ahead with a one-day summit to deliberate on the relevance of the report.

 

A group called the Northern Delegates Forum (NDF), in a newspaper report on Thursday, dumped the report of the 2014 national conference and affirmed its resistance to any attempt to restructure the country. What does this portend?

Well, it is unfortunate. Up until yesterday (Wednesday), we were all members of the Nigerian Delegates to the 2014 National Conference. We have a forum where we were meeting and we had fixed a meeting of all delegates for May 2, 2017 in Abuja, only for the so-called Northern Delegates Forum to separate themselves and hold a meeting yesterday just to preempt and to balkanize the delegates.

It is a game that we are all used to. In 2000, former President Olusegun Obasanjo called a meeting of the leaders of the six geopolitical zones and asked them, ‘what is the way forward for the country?’ The three zones in the South and the North Central all agreed that we must restructure Nigeria. Delegates from North East and North West said ‘no, we are not coming here to discuss restructuring. We will go back home and come back to you’. Since 2000, we have not heard from them till today.

Now, what they have done in their meeting is to repeat the same silly lies they told at the conference. When we were at the 2014 National Conference, they used all sorts of shenanigans to frustrate the conference. They raised this issue that there were more delegates from the South than from the North. And when we confronted them and told them and they analysed it, they realised that there were more northern delegates than the southerners. What happened was that each governor of the 36 states was asked to pick three delegates; each nationality group in each geopolitical zone was asked to nominate 15 persons as state delegates. That means the delegates were already more than half of the total delegates. Now, former President Goodluck Jonathan, who convened the conference, nominated one elder statesman from each state. The ministers had their nominees, the press, the youth society, labour and the rest of them. That was how the delegates were assembled. It was not like Jonathan would say, oh, I like this one or that one, or choose this one or this one. After this, they (the northern delegates) started fighting over the question of representation. We resolved that.

We sat in Abuja and we agreed on over 360 resolutions. As Nigerians, we never voted on any issue. There were three issues on which we could not agree, which included derivation, and we referred them back to the president to set up a technical committee that would look into them and advise appropriately. It was on that basis that we have been operating; it was on that basis that we formed a whatsapp group called 2014 National Conference Delegates and it was on the basis of that, that we fixed this conference meeting for May 2, 2017, only for them (NDF) to go against us, through this coup.

I think what they are telling the rest of us is that the victory of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 21015 elections was not a victory for the APC members and Nigerians across board, but a victory for a section of the North and therefore that victory has nullified the result of the conference.

 

But they raised a lot of issues in rejecting the report of the conference, claiming, for example, that it has “questionable legal validity” and lacks popular mandate…    

Yes, they raised some issues about representation and that is why I said they are just lying through their teeth. They were part of the conference. If they had voted on the floor of the conference and we defeated them, we would have said ‘yes, maybe they objected’. But we agreed by a consensus on all the over 360 recommendations. We agreed on all without any dissension; not even one of them voted against the recommendations. I think what I am seeing now is that they feel they have taken back their power and they are using that to oppress the rest of us and to reduce us to nothing and that we don’t matter in Nigeria.

Now, for goodness sake, if we are more than them at the conference, as they are now lying that we were more than them, how do you then explain that in the First Republic, we had four regions in Nigeria — three in the South, one in the North — The only one in the North has, today, become 19 states, through all kinds of gerrymandering, while the three regions in the South remain 17 states. Kano and Lagos were both divisions in the First Republic. Today, Kano is Jigawa, Kano with 77 local government areas, while Lagos is just with 20 local government areas.

Go and look at the revenue base. For many years now, their contribution to the Federation Account is zero. They take over 60 per cent of the allocation, while the South take the remaining few per cent, yet they don’t bring one kobo into the account. They have taken us as fools over the years to have accepted all these things in the name of One Nigeria.

 

Are you still going ahead with the conference, in spite of the apparent cracks?

Definitely, we are going ahead because we agreed on that conference as delegates of the 2014 National Conference. So, a section of the North now has seceded from the group; what they have just done is secession, but we are going ahead with the conference, by the grace of God, to reaffirm our belief in our joint decision at the 2014 National Conference. The invitation to all the 2014 delegates, dated April 3, 2017, to the conference was jointly signed by Mr John Dara (Delegate, North Central Zone); Mallam Bah Abubakar (Delegate, North East); Senator Nnamdi Eriobuwa (Delegate, Senators’ Forum) and my humble self (Delegate, South West Zone).

 

But don’t you think going ahead with the conference would be seen as a calculated decision to go against the North, given the position of the NDF?

Do they own the country? Is the country only for them? Are they more Nigerian than us? Or what are they talking about? We are equal partners in this country. They think we will be doing rankadede for ever? It is not possible. They sat only last night (Wednesday). If they think we are back in those ugly eras where they ride roughshod, they should forget it. We are going ahead with the conference.

 

The question became pertinent given the fact that one of the major pronouncements of President Muhammadu Buhari, when he assumed office, was that he had dumped the report of the 2014 National Conference in the trash bin of history. Don’t you think going ahead with the conference will be seen as being confrontational?

What is confrontational in that? We had a conference in 2014 and the reports were ready. We are not going to add a word or remove a word from the report which came before the president was sworn in. So it is those who said they don’t want this report that are confronting the majority of Nigerians. They are telling us that we must remain in this slavery. But we said no; let everybody live their life. Let us live according to the details of True Federalism. That is what we are saying. But if they say they will not allow that, then those of us who are talking about restructuring, we will not be swept aside by those forces. Nigeria cannot continue this way. Where is Czechoslovakia today? Where is Yugoslavia? If we belong to this century, are they happy with the way the country is now? Is this how a country should be?

 

But given the firm opposition by a section of the country against restructuring, how do you hope to achieve your aims with the proposed conference?

We are going to hold the conference and we will achieve our aim. If they want to divide the country, which is what they are doing now, it is up to them. But we are going to the conference as Nigerian delegates to the 2014 National Conference. We expect them to come there because as of now, we still believe they are part of us. But if it is their wish to split the country the way they are planning to do, because what they are planning presently is to split the country, I will remind them that in 1953 when the late Chief Anthony Enahoro moved the motion for Nigeria’s independence, they went on riot, killing people. But the country was eventually free.

So, by the grace of God, we are going to the conference as Nigerian delegates to the 2014 National Conference. We are not going there either as South South delegates, South East delegates or South West delegates. They are the ones who have pulled out now as Northern delegates.

 

Unlike the 2014 national confab which was sponsored wholly by the Federal Government, who is sponsoring this proposed conference coming up in Abuja on May 2, 2017?

I can tell you now that the invite is out and it is clearly stated there that every delegate will be responsible for their transport and accommodation in Abuja.