In a recent interview, the deputy speaker said the Igbos were not happy that the Yorubas were romancing the North.

He also throws up some controversies concerning the 2015 general elections and reviewed the role played by national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the party’s feat.

Before now, there were reports that the President-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari would not probe the government of President Goodluck Jonathan, but he just recently said he would investigate the alleged missing $20 billion oil money. Don’t you think this negates his earlier stand?

Sincerely, there is no way a new government would not look at the books of the old one; you may call it any name you like, especially for a government that is very controversial and the issue involves a sitting monarch, the Emir of Kano, Mohammad Sanusi II. His image is also at stake and the way they even handled it is embarrassing, if you follow the whole thing. In the beginning, they were talking about some amount and then they said it was $20 billion. Later they said that somebody said no money was missing. We as a people need to look in that direction. If no money was lost, we will all be happy, but if something actually happened, we will know how to block the loopholes. So I don’t see anything wrong in that; we should stop talking about probing or no probing, a new government must check the books of the old one. The man is inheriting both liability and asset. At least, these must be scrutinized; you may overlook the asset, but you have to look at the liability. You pay the debt that are genuine and leave the ones that are not. There is nothing wrong in saying he is probing, it is the use of language that matters.

But, President Jonathan believes he has no case to answer…

That is okay. You see, they don’t know how to close the case. If they had closed the case, probably no one would want to look at it again. When you have white paper, you must release it to close the case, but when you refuse to release the white paper, then the case is still on. They have refused to close the case because they thought they were coming back. Nobody would say money was lost when nothing has happened. You know if they had come back, they would have blocked the loopholes. But now, a new government is coming and it would need money for development.

We would want you to compare Asiwaju Bola Tinubu with the late sage, Obafemi Awolowo, especially with the feat so far recorded by Tinubu.

I would not have loved to get into that, but I know that it takes an opportunity to even be whatever you are. God has given Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu an opportunity to do what Chief Obafemi Awolowo did not do. Take for instance, in the 1983 elections; the then National Party of Nigeria (NPN) robbed the South West of most of their states. They did not give Chief Obafemi Awolowo the opportunity of wrestling power from them before the military struck. But, when the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had the opportunity of doing the same thing to the South West again, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu was able to wrestle power from them. We should not compare the two of them because there is no reason for comparison. Bola Tinubu had the opportunity of facing the Herculean task and he won. When you look at the other side too, the progressives, even the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo did not see anything in the North; he did not see anybody he could discuss with there and this is still affecting our old progressives. Let me illustrate it this way; we forget that if you go to the polling booth with 10 mad men and your opponent goes to the booth with nine professors, if you can persuade the 10 mad men to cast the votes for you in a normal way for you to get the 10 votes and you succeeded, then you compare it to the person with nine professors, you have won. It is election, we should not be talking about groups. You may be extremely pure, but if you are unable to win the ballot, you cannot be given the power. Even now, some people still talk anyhow. I am shocked that people still don’t appreciate what has happened. Asiwaju Bola Tinubu was able to convince the northerners that the Yorubas are reliable and that they can also do business with Yoruba men. When, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo was persuading the Governors then on his third term ambition, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu should have just said: ‘I am also going to benefit.’ But no, he vehemently fought it and people did not know that he was fighting on the side of the northerners because it was going to affect the northerners directly. He told us that when they approached him, he said it was going to be difficult for him to be going round the senators to convince them and eventually, when they got to Abuja, the game changed. Since then the northerners started having trust in him. For a Yorubaman to fight his kinsman and tell him that he was doing the wrong thing, and that he was going to stay by the popular view and the voice of the genuine people, then such a man can be trusted. He insisted that the constitution was against third term, which was the reason the Igbos refused to vote for us in the last general elections.

Why do you conclude like that sir?

They did not vote against Hausas or against Muhammadu Buhari. They voted against the Yorubas in the elections. They are not happy that we have started romancing the North for the first time; they were the ones that normally romanced the north. The closest election to Biafra or the civil war was the 1979 election. Go and check how many states the then Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) had in the south east, none. The last elections made it clear; they were not against Buhari, but the Yorubas. They see that we are now romancing the Hausas, and who made it possible? It was Asiwaju Bola Tinbu. Who made it clear that we are the most reliable set of people in the country? Particularly, it was the progressive-minded Yorubas. God has given Asiwaju the opportunity to face some Herculean task and he was victorious. God did not give Chief Obafemi Awolowo such an opportunity. During the first republic, immediately the military struck, Chief Obafemi Awolowo was made the Vice President for the military. In 1979, we won the South West in the general elections when civil rule returned, but in 1983, they took almost all the South West states from the progressives and the military struck again in 1983 and they did not allow Awolowo to take over power again. But, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is a great asset, and when you consider the fact that God didn’t give Chief Obafemi Awolowo such an opportunity, you would see that it is God that helped him. Let us leave Awolowo alone, he was the greatest leader of the Yoruba race. When he was alive some people were against him too, they fought him seriously. So, I don’t usually pity Bola Ahmed Tinubu, I always tell him you cannot lead us without having such problems. If they don’t come after you, then you are not a good leader.

You will be leaving the Assembly finally in June. What legacies are you leaving behind?

I cannot judge myself. I want people to judge me and talk about me and what we have done. If I say I am leaving a legacy of coming to the Assembly early in the morning, some people would start coming earlier. If I say I am leaving the legacy of being the custodian of precedents and stories of the House, some people are now coming for the fourth term. People should just see me as someone who passed through this place and contributed his own quota to the development of the House.

 

READ MORE: http://www.naij.com/438653-2015-elections-why-igbos-were-against-yorubas.html