BIAFRA: Igbos not fully integrated in Nigeria – Ex-Gov of old Oyo State.

Ex-Governor Omololu Olunloyo of old Oyo State while faulting the present geo-political structure of Nigeria said that the Igbos are not fully integrated in Nigeria. 

He made the remark in an interview with THE SUN newspapers. Below is an abridged version of the interview with DAILY SUN:

Excerpts:

Abacha organized the best national conference:
The best ever conference was the one organized by General Sani Abacha. But because it was Abacha, it was cancelled. Babangida had earlier organized his own, it was also cancelled. All the questions being asked now were solved by the Abacha confab including re-structuring.

Politics is about development of the country. It is also about the sharing of national cake. We have to examine ourselves, where did we go wrong? All the conferences held were never made use of.

There was a problem I solved. The problem is, when a president dies, there should be an acting president. There was nothing like that in the constitution.

(Dr. Goodluck) Jonathan became acting president because of me. He phoned and thanked me. I worked that formula that made him acting president. Obasanjo ran to me and said he thinks I am the only one who can solve the problem. Obasanjo and Lady Kofo Ademola said I was the most brilliant young man in Nigeria. He said Prof. Jibril Aminu is the next man to me.

When there is a confab, it is not the final report that is important. The more important documents are the debates. The question being raised, somebody raised it 37 years earlier. The question is, should there be a provision for an acting president?

Chief Rotimi Williams raised that question 37 years ago, and he drafted what should be there. Williams was the chairman of the 49 wise men raised by Obasanjo to draft the 1979 Constitution. Awolowo rejected his membership of the committee. The Federal Government has excess money at its disposal. At independence, the Western Region got 57 million pounds, the Northern Region 11 million pounds and Eastern Region seven million pounds. Awolowo deployed his own in education, agriculture (farm settlements)

The responsibility must conform to the amount of money. There is too much waste in government. We have to go back to regionalism and park all these cars used by governors and government officials. All these first lady offices, security votes, huge salaries for political office holders should be cancelled. Some of us have benefited from it. The country should be divided into six zones.

*Igbos not fully integrated There are some bottlenecks in the country. The country is divided among some rich Nigerians. There must be the forcing down of tribalism. I do not personally believe that the Igbo have been fully integrated. It took a long time before any of them could be made head of any of the Nigerian Armed Forces, and that was Alison Maduekwe for the Navy.

 
Bakassi Peninsula:

I was a foundation member of the Institute of Policy and Strategic studies, Kuru, Jos. The first paper we took was about Bakassi. That place belongs to Nigeria. The Queen is aware of this, only that we cannot call her as a witness.

What is called Nigeria or Togo or Ghana, or any of these colonies? They were all determined during the scramble for Africa in the 19th century. There are documents on Bakassi. We know where the documents are and we told those who were handling the case. That Bakassi case was not properly handled. That was why we lost out. It was poorly handled.

There are two copies of a very vital document. One is with the Queen and the other is somewhere else. Nigeria and Cameroon were delineated. The problem is that those who are in government are only committed to their terms, a maximum, of eight-year view. They do not see a long-term view of the country. If they see a long-term view, they will not be selfish and self-centered in their actions.

The most valuable land in this country is in Lokoja, followed by Banana Island, Victoria Island, Abuja, etc. The most costly land is where Lugard first administered Nigeria, on the hill in Lokoja.

The Western Region crisis: How Awolowo, Akintola played primitive politics.

I was very much attached to Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola, premier of the old Western Region after Awolowo. People have been very unfair to Akintola.

Awolowo and Akintola played primitive politics. During that crisis that tore them apart, each had a register in his house. They did not want to go to the House of Parliament to take a vote of no confidence.

As members of the legislature came to declare their loyalty by registering their names, each was given certain amount for doing so. The two of them did it. Once you signed in support, you would be given money. The cause of the crisis was Awolowo’s miscalculation by leaving Western Region as premier for being Leader of Opposition at the federal level. He had some platonic notions. He felt there must be a strong opposition at the federal level. Maybe, it was a government of consensus we needed at that time, not opposition.

Sir Ahmadu Bello, premier of the Northern Region and Sardauna of Sokoto, who was the most powerful politician at that time in terms of numbers, did not leave the North. He left his second-in command, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, to be Prime Minister in Lagos. Was he a fool?

You knew you were going into opposition, he wanted to pick Rotimi Williams who had no constituency or Anthony Enahoro, his favourite to be Premier of Western Region. But Akintola and some other party members kicked.

You won election in your own territory, and you were running a government, which by common consent was regarded as the best government. Even we his (Awo) followers, we benefited from it. When that trouble arose, the registers they kept in their houses were useless. There were some people who signed in both places and collected money in both places. I was there when Akintola was enacting a mischief, very amazing.

He sent one Ogundiran to Awolowo’s house to spy on how far the number of those who had signed, to know what next to do. Each one did not know how far the other had gone. He told him: “What you collect from there, we will have to share it.”

He went there and signed against Akintola. When he came back, he delivered. He told Akintola that they had reached 37 in number: We are only 29, we need to do something urgently to increase the number.” They were doing this with the intention of having a motion of no confidence in the Parliament.

This is what the British did that annoyed me. Section 30, 4a, stated that, “if it appears to the Governor that the Premier no longer enjoys a majority, then a vote of confidence will be taken in the Parliament.” This was grossly faulty, how is it going to appear to him? It is not like that in England. The British did it deliberately to cause chaos. There are only two things. You either go to the House, you move a vote of no confidence in the premier and you debate it. He has the opportunity to counter the motion, and take a motion of confidence straight. Ooni Aderemi (the governor) was persuaded and he refused to sign that the House should meet. They did not allow Akintola to test his confidence and that was undemocratic.

The alternative was that if they did not allow him, they should dissolve the House and go for a fresh election. These are the two ingredients. They denied Akintola both, and I became an Akintola advocate.

How we ‘reinstated’ Akintola as Premier

I felt the man (Akintola) should be given the chance to prove his popularity or the House dissolved. But they denied him both and he was removed. When the case got to the Privy Council, London, from the Supreme Court in Lagos, they said the Governor (Oba Aderemi) was right in removing Akintola.

We held a hurried meeting and turned the country into a Republic. So, the Queen was no longer the Head of State. The country then became Federal Republic of Nigeria in 1963, when Dauda Adegbenro was at the Privy Council to be Premier of Western Region.

They wanted to hold a meeting on May 26, 1962, to make Adegbenro Premier. That did not happen. Lekan Salami and I, as well as a few others went to the Premier’s Office and tore the door open. The police were instructed not to tamper with us, but just to take photographs.

We did not take any document. Akinola just went in and sat own on the chair in he Premier’s Office. He left after two hours. They then went to the Parliament and there was shout of “fire on the mountain.” There was a serious free-for-all in the Parliament. They were throwing chairs and upturning tables. People were trying to flee through the windows. That was the beginning of the “Wild, Wild West.”