The former governorship aspirant in 2019 gubernatorial election of Oyo state and APC chieftain, Chief Niyi Akintola, SAN was in an exclusive interview anchored by Mayor Isaac Brown on Fresh FM radio where the issue of the country, Oyo state and extradition of Sunday Igboho were discussed.
In the interview, Akintola talked about the current situation surrounding Sunday Igboho and urged the general public not to demonize him but rather give a support to ensure his release, claiming that Igboho has a good intention though might not have handled it with pragmatic or intellectual approach.
And which he faulted the government as he claimed that the absence of justice was the reason for the mob to want to take laws into their hands. In a country where justice is not served equally and some are perceived to be more equal than others.
He said, “It is very unfortunate that in this country we keep on doing the same thing using the same method expecting different result, only mad man does that. Any mad man use the same method, the same process and will be expecting different result. You can’t get different result, you’re going to be getting the same result. And what is happening to us in this country is not something that is unusual. It’s not something that has never happened before, it’s just that we have different leaders, different body languages, different perspectives and different approaches.
I remembered when Irish started an island, now the republic of Ireland, there were agitations for separation even as we speak the Scots are still on it. They had the first referendum after many bombing the separatists had engaged, even in the parliament. The first referendum gave them 14% or there about and the second gave them 45%.
Today, Britain is more or less a federation, today, the Scots have their own parliament, they have their judiciary, they have their own civil service. They voted to have their own currency and voted in favor of Euro as against what the Englishmen voted.
The only difference between what has happened there and what is happening to us in Nigeria especially to the lives of Sunday Igboho and Kanu is that they neglected pragmatic and intellectual approach.
Yoruba don’t fight a war, we have never done that before even under brutal Abacha.
The problem is those that should be doing the thinking have been turned to followers and those who should be leading are silent. People who should be speaking are not speaking.
With due respect, the fools rule in democracy. Otherwise, the person of Trump should never have won. It’s the rule of the majority.
Even in your family, if you allow the mob to take over your sense of reasoning, you will loose focus, you will loose direction and that’s what has happened.
Sunday Igboho has a good intention, he should not be demonized but when the ingredients that he needs were absent and the mobs took over his direction, that’s the kind of thing we have.
Security issue is not discussed in the open, those who have it don’t flaunt it but what do we have now? The mobs have taken over, like it happened during the Biafra days, you and I maybe too young to appreciate but the elite in Igbo are being blackmail now, they are called Sabo.
When you give room to the rule of the mobs, you will destroy and now discover that it’s to your own dismay that you’ve shot yourself in the foot. Men of wisdom were talking to Ojukwu, they were labelled saboteurs and military men who cautioned were executed but at the end of the day their thinking came to prevail.
When the wise people are talking you need to listen but the mobs act on emotion.
He also made it known majority of the leaders we celebrate today were also labeled a rebel and had once fled to seek asylum in time past too with the exception of Obasanjo in the face of death, he was the only one that did that.An interview with Chief Niyi Akintola SAN, one of APC Chieftain and former governorship aspirant in 2019 gubernatorial election, about the detention and extradition of Chief Sunday Igboho and the issues surrounding his party APC and Seyi Maknide led administration. Ribadu fled this country under Yar’Adua, Nuru Ribadu fled, El Rufai fled, Baba Adebanjo fled under Balewa, Our leader Asiwaju Tinubu fled under Abacha, even Woke soyinka, many people fled, only Obasanjo even when he was one, he was holding international conference, Eminem group and he seal the main bag and face the mistake.
What Sunday Igboho is doing is not strange and nobody knows Tomorrow, Sunday Igboho that has been declared a repel today can be a journalist tomorrow, only God knows, it’s not something we should stress ourselves up for, it’s normal thing in the process of nation building there will be agitation and agitative for freedom for separation has never been a crime under international law, as we speak, people are still agitating in the united kingdom.
In the united state there are still some elements in Texas who are agitating that they want to go, so they are not also been criminalized, see how many of us have not agitated for what Sunday igboho is agitating for now over the years? but inadvertently the government security agencies turns people into heroes because there are so many Sunday Igboho’s out there who are with him but might not come out to say it that this is our position or maybe because of the position they are holding. Their heart, mind and souls are with Sunday igboho, millions of them, so it’s a waste of time, We had SP conference in Ibadan, some of you were present there, many of the Governors were there, listen to the Governors from the north. You see their sympathies even their papers for Elders, these are put down in black and white so it’s not.
In this part of the country, I’m not saying this because he happens to be a senior colleague, a boss and a friend, of note about recent only Akeredolu has demonstrated that courage of sticking out his neck of all the Governors in the south west only Akeredolu has been able to say look, I believe it and according to him he is not looking for anything in the center, for those that have their eyes in the center they dare not say what Akeredolu is saying.
So you have to appreciate and understand why people are working in different perspectives, as we speak only Akeredolu has gone as far as implementing the worth the southern governors agree upon in the south west.
September is here many of them are yet to start initiating the process that will lead to passing a law that will put into effects what they resolved to do about open grazing.
Oyo state pass dating in 2019 and it’s not yet implemented, that is what we’re saying, you see even it has been passed, has it been signed into law?
what they suggested is quite different from what we’re saying, even the one that was passed in 2019 still needs some fined tuning to bring it in line with the resolution of southern governors.
Like I said earlier, seeking for asylum is right under the delivered convention, if you feel threatened, there are some citizens that will be like Boko Haram are disturbing us where I’m seeking for asylum, there are many of them in Europe, Canada and have not heard of the federal government agencies going out to block them. Their are thousands of applicants out there.
I don’t know if any charge has been differed against Sunday Igboho everything is still under speculations.
Have you seen any charges? How many count charges? Where has he been filed charge? under whose court? until that is done, you can’t say anyone has broken a rule, it’s just a mere allegation.
If you commit crime the security agencies has the right to declare you wanted but I think the security agencies shut themselves in the foot by not being holistic in their approach in invading Sunday igboho’s house, you are going there you must be transparent, you have the right, you can go to anybody’s house, you must come with search warrant but maybe I’m in the dark and I’m not aware, they said they procure a search warrant doing that and secondly I’m not aware that you need to block something that needs to show yourself, like blocking the CCTV around, you see, I’m sure the lawyer knows what to do, you know deliberately the security agencies destroyed the whole place there was no collaboration who was there when you said you discovered weapons, this one was there, you destroyed what you have shown to the world of what you met there.
On your own you deliberately block the CCTV camera, so you have ulterior motives, those things could have been planted, you created loop holes for the man and that’s why people of this country, they act before thinking, most of the times our leaders, that’s what has happened. I’m sure the lawyers handling his matter know what to do.
Well let me say this before been accused of being biased, I’m a lead consultant to the Senate on the review of constitution. And the passage of PIB bill, these are the things that have been taking care of and I don’t want to comment because I don’t have the mandate of the national Assembly to seal comment but all I can say is that if they carry through all we put in the paper for them as a constitution, then the case of PIB will have been superfluous, don’t forget the constitution of grown up of the country is the foundation, every other legitimacy and any other thing that goes against the constitution may be null and void.
You see you have to appreciate one thing that those rebels of yesterday are now nationalists of today, that someone was labeled a rebel doesn’t make him a criminal. Most nationalists of the world today were once rebels, Mandela was once a rebel, sought asylum, he was in Ghana, all leaders, infact many of them.
In exception of Obasanjo that was courageous enough to come back, many of them were rebels.
That’s why your own daughter will tell you dad it’s my life even if you see a danger ahead of her, but she is in love, there is nothing you will tell her that she will listen, you are just wasting your time. But when you allow for the rule of the mob, let’s say democracy even in your home, you are going to have an undisciplined family, you are going to have chaos in your family, if you allow some certain things.
You need benevolent dictatorship even in your home, it must be benevolent, even if in the newsroom you are a journalist, do you allow for democracy in the news room? If you allow for democracy, there will be nothing on the street the following day.
As an editor, you will be able to put on your feet that this one is not going out, this are the ones, Ademola you can bear me out, Like bible says people are perishing for lack of knowledge, people don’t read.
Sunday Igboho’s plight should be everybody’s plight but it’s not Sunday Igboho’s plight. He has good intentions but his approach, we are somehow different.
When asked about the invasion of DSS in Igboho’s house, he said, “I don’t want to comment on that for obvious reasons because we are trying to help Sunday Igboho not to further anything.
people out there are commenting on what they don’t know.
The issue of security and welfare of the people are paramount, you see, we’re all in this country when Baba Adedibu and late Ajibola Olanipekun of blessed memory used their native intelligence memory to secure a bail for Abiola but the mob will wouldn’t allow it, so the man died in prison.
Kola Abiola who is my friend will never forgive them, will keep on saying it, he knows where the shoes pinches now, he was the one that lost his father not the mob out there. So you don’t expect me to further deepen the pit for Sunday Igboho, I will not, I will rather help him behind this.
I will not give answer on that, it’s part of your emotions that the man Sunday igboho is our own brother, how we can be of help should be paramount and not further deepen his predicament.
We must understand this that Nigeria is a country not a nation. You have the right and I have the right, I can settle wherever I want and you can settle wherever you want but you and I should appreciate our limitations in the process. There is not freedom with limitation. A Yoruba man that settles in Enugu and want to celebrate Oloolu festival will be causing trouble. A Yoruba man that settles in Katsina and want to celebrate Oro festival will be looking for trouble.
Even when they are celebrating Halloween in London, there are areas in Buckingham palace you cannot go to, people are in a civilised world we must appreciate this. Even putting down a constitution, it must recognise this. And that’s what our compatriots are not putting their minds to. They want what ought to be as against what it is. A constitution must be pragmatic. It must be able to accommodate all these.
I do not belong to disco critique club, it’s only the disco critique that will not see anything good in what the opposition is doing. Seyi Makinde is a gentle man with good intention but the good intention is not enough, when I say something it is based on the fact. On the lautech issue, I give it to him but I regretted supporting him for the Agbowo shopping mall, look at what is going on there and I warned him. I said it if he fails to do what he intended to do before the expiration of his tenure, he is a failure. In areas that he has done well, I will not hesitate to say it and if does wrong, I will not shy it away.
Because of ignorance, most of the states are not even aware of the powers available to them under the present constitution. How many of the governors realise that they can generate up to five megawatts electricity in their states? Do you know that everything needed in Oyo state for the industrialisation is less than 4megawatts? And we have Ikerege dam there in Oyo state, the largest in West Africa although it’s 16% completed.
A knowledgeable governor will go to either China or Israel for either mortgage to complete it. That dam will generate 28 megawatts, quote me. A state that has the power under the present constitution to generate up to 5megawatts is not even generating one and you need just 3 to 4 for your local consumption and even industrialization. That’s why you need people who are knowledgeable in the area of affairs.
I was one of the counselors engaged by Lagos state government to confront when some powers that billed then stored the efforts of Lagos state, we were there but out of fear another government came in and we were asked to stop. I was one of the there lead counsel to Ogun state government claiming huge some of money, 460billion from Dangote but another government came in and said we should stop, let him use his money to construct a good road for us. And he is doing a good job on Ijebu Ode to Epe, your guess is as good as mine whether that road is commensurate to 460billion we are asking for, what is acquire able to what the government should get.
If you say it that they won’t do this or that, how many of them are aware or have the the courage or the political will to do what’s right even under the present constitution, the little ones they have, how are they utilising it?
Give it to Lagos state government and Abia state government that set the pace for the little gains we have seen in this dispensation of federalism.
Today, states now collect revenue from bridging permit and town planning authority, the federal government had taken it until Lagos state government took it to court. If you look at the schedule of the constitution, you will that it’s the responsibility of the local government but because many of the states have taken the power of local government and how many of you are willing to go to court and challenge them that even the tenement rate that the state government is collecting from you is illegal, it’s only the local government to take it from you.
As against the memo we received, I can tell you for free that over 98percent of the memo we got all over the country including the North supported state police even from Sokoto.
When we look at the issue of security, in 2011, the Ibadan elites we came together and say enough of these that we can’t be able to come to town. I say before that violence is synonymous to PDP, it’s there trademark.
Whosoever brought stomach infrastructure to Yoruba land is our worst enemy. Awolowo fought against it, they called it feudalism. Who brought it should be stoned. The man who gives you food instead of shop is your worst enemy.
