Afenifere leader, Chief Ayo Adebanjo in a recent interview talked on the leadership style of president Muhammad Buhari and the Involvement of the All Progressive Congress National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, in the affairs of the country.
What do you think of the rift between the chairman of the All progressive Congress, Chief John Odigie -Oyegun, and the APC National Leader, Asiwaju Tinubu?
Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, was used by the people who do not have the interest of the Yoruba ‘s at heart. He chose to follow the President sheepishly, despite my warnings to him that Buhari, has not changed. Bola Tinubu, chose to blindly support Buhari. I am not concerned about the APC politics, but rather what is happening in the party is more than a gang up against Tinubu. I am worried for Tinubu, because he is the voice of the Yoruba people.
Is there any link between it and the socio -political crisis in Nigeria?
That is the reason we are having problems in Nigeria today. You have the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign state of Biafra, the Niger Delta Avengers, and the Indigenous People of Biafra. It is a question of the constitution of the nation. It’s unfortunate that some people are blindly following Buhari hoping he will share power with them.
I agree with the people who said Tinubu made a mistake to have supported Buhari to emerge as Nigeria’s President. The APC is a melting pot of various interest groups; you have the Tinubu group, the Buhari group and the other groups. If the ruling party is fragmented then we are in a mess. The mess was evident from the beginning of this administration when the party could not agree on who should take positions in the National Assembly. The APC is characterized by personal reasons, selfishness, and narrow-mindedness. They came together without a definite purpose on what to take to the government.
What is the way forward?
I wish Tinubu can get things right, regroup and get out of the unholy alliance he got himself involved in, for the benefit of the Yoruba nation and the south. In 2019,there will be no APC and if there is, it won’t be in this form.
Why do you think that by 2019 there would be no APC or that the party would have weakened?
Are you not a journalist? Can’t you decipher it? The signs are there. It is common sense. There is no unity of purpose in that party. Where is the unity when Tinubu said the chairman of that party is a traitor? He accused him of treachery :that he is not acting alone because he has the backing of the leaders of the party. I don’t like the crisis I am seeing because it is affecting the masses.
Everything that is happening now is what I have said before. Buhari is a dictator; he does not obey the rule of law; he is a tribal jingoist and so on. What has he done about the crisis in the country so far?. What has he said or done about the rampaging of the Fulani herdsmen in the East,West and North so far? He denied the marauders are Fulani’s. He claimed that they are foreigners The notion that they are foreigners is even worse.
Are you disappointed about the president’s performance so far?
I am disappointed that Buhari has not disappointed me.The reason is that I spoke against him in the 2015 elections and I am not happy that his actions have vindicated me that I was right all the while. His supporters then thought I was castigating him .But the actions he took during his first time of ruling the country was done under military regime.