How the North
tamed Yoruba ambition – Tanko Yakasai
OCTOBER 8, 2016
Says restructuring a Yoruba agenda
Renewed agitation
is gang up against north
Why the north continues to dominate Nigerian politics
Alhaji Tanko Yakasai, elder statesman is known for his
frankness when it comes to issues of national interest. In
this interview with Saturday Vanguard, he took us down
memory lane and declared that the renewed agitation for
restructuring of the country was a Yoruba agenda that has
refused die
Excerpts:
Nigeria is 56 years old, what can you say of the journey so
far?
Before we can objectively assess how far we have gone, we
have to take stock of what we have been able to achieve so
far and also look at where we have failed. At independence,
the British created a democratic system of government which
was followed by our leaders who took over from them.
We made appreciable progress in the transportation sector.
Although the British left us with a functional rail system,
our leaders however extended the rail to boost the transport
system in Nigeria.
On water transportation they decided to dredge the river
Niger to facilitate water transportation to the north for
increased commercial activities. By independence, the road
from Kano to Lagos was not tarred like several other major
roads we have today, but the story is different today.
Thousands of kilometers of road network have also been built
across the country. As at the time of independence, roads
were classified as federal road, regional road and local
roads. If you look at the statistics, you would agree with
me that a tremendous progress was made in this sector.
Similarly, we have Nigeria Airways, Nigerian National
Shipping Line, we built a number steel industries such as
Ajaokuta and Katsina steel, as well as Jos steel rolling
mill and host of others.
I can vividly recall that by 1959, the only tertiary
institution we had was the University College, Ibadan which
was not even a full fledged university, but today, we have
over one hundred tertiary institutions. But for the
misfortune we had to be ruled by the military, our progress
would have surpassed that of our peers then in the world
like Brazil, India, Korea, Pakistan, Malaysia, and
Singapore.
Brazil today has an edge as it has started producing home
grown automobile at a time Nigeria’s assembly plants such
as Peugeot, Leyland and host of others are either moribund
or have packed up. Three military coups that took place in
Nigeria destroyed our future.
The 1966 coup destroyed the foundation of our political
development. That single sabotage destroyed the foundation
of the leadership, and without leadership, you can not
achieve anything in this world. The second coup of 1975
destroyed the fabrics of the civil service of Nigeria,
because the tenure security of civil service as practised
globally was compromised.
In the civil service, there was due process to be followed.
Those who committed an infraction would be warned and
queried, and if it happened again, the same processes must
take place. Unfortunately under the military, a permanent
secretary would leave his home to his office only to be
informed by his messenger that he had been dismissed via a
radio broadcast. Faithfulness was sacrificed. The affected
officials were not only dismissed but they also lost their
gratuity and pension.
Therefore, civil servants who hitherto flaunted unflinching
loyalty started registering companies for business. The
morale, the commitment, and loyalty of civil servants were
destroyed over night and after the destruction of political
leadership, the man who would develop the idea, and the
other that would translate it to reality are destroyed, then
what is left.
That was how the fabric of the society was destroyed. By the
time the Sardauna, Awolowo, and Azikiwe started their
development effort, they were working side by side with the
people who would take over from them before they were
overthrown in 1966 and between 1966 and 1979, it was
military rule all through for 13 years. Luckily, we still
had the disciples of the first generation of leadership,
people like Bola Ige, Shehu Shagari, Lateef Jakande, Maitma
sule, Michael Okpara.
During the second republic, we attempted to replicate what
our political leaders started in the first Republic. These
disciples started with a brand new constitution, and were
learning fast on the new constitution when the military
struck again in 1983. They held onto power for 19 years
before handing over to one of their own again in civilian
uniform.
General Obasanjo was tactically released from prison while
the military was in a hurry to create their own version of
Mandela, but they forgot it was a different scenario.
Obasanjo was in power for eight years, and went ahead to
install his successors in office.
General Obasanjo’s style of leadership was purely military
in nature as he bulldozed his way to get whatever he wanted
with complete disregard to democratic ethos. Now we are back
to the same situation under General Buhari. These are the
reasons we have a stunted growth and what happened over
these long years since independence was a big step forward
and a multiple steps backwards. Nigeria needs a brand new
experiment on democracy where every actor would be a bloody
civilian to enable us rediscover our self.
Don’t you think that bitter political rivalry among the
elites across the country was equally responsible for our
stunted growth?
No, no. The struggle for power was on a personal basis or
how do you explain IBB coup against Buhari, how do you
explain Vatsa abortive coup against IBB, it was purely a
military thing, not North and south thing.
Can we
continue to live like this?
No, we can not continue to live like this because it is
wrong, and I am praying that we will in not too distant
future have a leadership that will be committed to the
Nigerian project, that would not think of where he hails
from, that would not be bias, no nepotism, but think of the
totality of Nigeria, while appointment would be guided by
competence and not because of friendship. But the problem
with the military is that when they are in power they
appoint friends and relatives. And you can see what is
happening now under Buhari, the military mentality of
appointing people close to you. We can only get out of it
when we insist on having a pure democracy. You cannot have
it when the man at the helm of affairs is half military and
half civilian.
Why are you so afraid of restructuring Nigeria?
No, no, this kind of agitation is not driven by patriotism,
it is driven by hate and envy. I will tell you the genesis
of this campaign, it started with some politicians in the
south west way back in 1959…
Are you saying agitation for restructuring preceded
independence?
Yes, before the independence. Originally, Action Group as a
political party was not formed to rule Nigeria. The leaders
of Action Group were only interested in controlling the
Western Nigeria. It was their intention to make the western
Nigeria first among equals and in fairness to Awolowo, he
declared free education that placed the Yorubas ahead of
other ethnic groups in Nigeria. They produced first class
lawyers, engineers, quantity surveyors, architects and other
quality professionals. But human nature been what it is,
they realized that when you have knowledge, there is need to
control political power, and that was how they started the
idea of ruling Nigeria.
This was captured in a document tagged Yoruba Agenda. In
that idea on how to rule Nigeria, they plotted to secure the
largest representation in the parliament which would put
them at an advantage to form Government. Their calculation
was to support the minority in the North and consolidate on
the home soil and in the process secure the nod to form
Government. They planned well, made alliance with minority
groups in the north, and in the east as well, and provided
the desired fund for the project. But as they were planning,
the NPC also planned. Already, the constitution guaranteed
the north to provide 50 percent of the elected
representatives of national legislators and NPC concentrated
her effort on that in the north and they never in 1959
bothered to sponsor a single candidate in the whole of
southern Nigeria because the calculation was to capture the
fifty percent to form the largest block.
Subsequently, they employed all sorts of tricks, both
wholesome and unwholesome. Opponents were harassed,
intimidated, hounded into jail, and if you go through the
electoral results of that era, you would notice that NPC won
unopposed. Bornu Youth Movement held sway in Bornu, and the
Action Group was attracted and formed alliance with them and
their calculation was that Bornu Youth Movement would join
them. But NPC decided to go brutal. When the Action Group
sent a large contingent of lawyers to Bornu to fight the NPC
tactics, the NPC got the lawyers arrested immediately they
arrived and sent them to detention center. They were made to
remove their shoes, their wigs and trekked to detention
centers where they were all locked up. However, they were
granted bail on the adjourned date and the moment they
secured their freedom, none of them ever stepped on Bornu
soil again.
Eventually, NPC emerged the largest block, and were invited
to form government. After that experience, the Action Group
went back to the drawing board again to plot how to break
the North monopoly in Nigerian politics. They sustained the
agitation by propping up different groups and in the end, so
many movements sprang up here in the north. The intention
was to plant discord among the northern elements to allow
them have easy ride in the next election. When the election
came in 1964, the NPC used the same strategy and got the
majority. The Action Group then started to campaign that the
north was too big to be allowed to remain like that and
should be split into smaller units
During the military, they were somehow silent but during the
civilian regime when Ojukwu was about to declare a
cessation, minority leaders from the East met the late
Military Governor of Northern Nigeria, Hassan Katsina and
appealed to him to use his good office to press for a state
of their own. A week before the cessation, South Eastern
state was created. Having divided the east into three, the
federal Government was forced to divide the west into three.
The North accepted the creation of six more states and that
was how 12 state structures were adopted. But when we had a
shot at another election in 1979, NPN led by Shehu Shagari
won the Presidential election, and that was when it occurred
to the Action Group leaders who formed Unity Party of
Nigeria that splitting the North into whatever number would
not be a solution because the South is naturally divided
into three, but the division in the north is not clear cut
till today.
That was why they came up again with the idea of zonal
arrangement. The idea was that the states would be Republics
unlike the arrangement we have now. They were expected to
have full constituent power. In their own thinking, that
would make the three southern states to have an edge with
their mistaken belief that the North central state which
shares border with the North West and North East will work
with them. Unfortunately, I came to realize, in this blind
pursuit, that most Nigerians don’t understand their country.
They don’t understand that an Igala or an Ebira in the North
Central shared so much affinity with his brothers in the
North West and North East.
They think alike like their brothers from across the region
as far as Nigerian politics is concerned. Their mentality
and approach to national politics are the same. Because of
these setbacks, they now came up with this idea of zonal
arrangement. Unfortunately, the proponents could not come up
with a comprehensive definition of what they want, some
would ask for true Federalism, some are calling for fiscal
federalism, and there are others who combined the two and
are calling for restructuring. From Action Group to UPN, to
NADECO to PRONACO, the agitation for restructuring has
always come from the people of the west Nigeria. The whole
thing originated form Action Group, and the intention was to
deny the North the benefits of its population and land mass.
The agitation for restructuring was not borne out of good
intention but a gang up to deny the north the benefits it
should get for being richly endowed.
They know that they have evil intention on this idea of
restructuring and to date no body has come out with a blue
print on what this restructuring is all about, because they
don’t want to expose themselves, as people will be against
it. The idea is impracticable because before you can force
Nigeria to restructure, you have to change the constitution,
and to change the constitution, you must have the support of
a number of legislators in the states and 2/3 federal
legislators and without the North you can not get the 2/3.
Unfortunately, the intricacies of the situation have made it
difficult for anyone to nurse such ambition.
