‘Nigeria drifting into state of anarchy – Alaafin of Oyo, Danjuma, Adebanjo cry out

The Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Olayiwola Adeyemi, an Afenifere leader, Ayo Adebanjo and a former Chief of Army Staff, Theophilus Danjuma, have lamented the leadership situation in the country, saying Nigeria is gradually drifting into a state of anarchy.

The erudite personalities raised the alarm during the launch of the book on the story of Tribune titled: ‘70th Years of Progressive Journalism’, held at the International Conference Centre of the University of Ibadan, Oyo State.

Oba Adeyemi, who is the permanent chairman of the Oyo State Council of Obas and Chiefs, claimed that the Yoruba race was being subjugated.

While describing the Bill against hate speech sponsored by Senator Abdullahi Sabi as misplaced, the monarch noted that the Nigerian politics was gradually drifting to a state where freedom of expression was to be muffled.

“Nigeria is gradually drifting to a state of an offence of hate speech that attracts penalty of death. If I have not killed anyone; and I give an opinion that is contrary to the government’s, will it be a sufficient reason for me to be charged with death penalty? Where are the lawyers in Nigeria? Constitutional lawyers in Nigeria; where are they? Can’t they speak up? Chief Olowu, you are here. Nobody is speaking up. If you don’t want to be criticised, then you don’t have to be in government. My friend Nnamdi Azikiwe has a peculiar character and I wish he could continue to learn about the Constitutional lesson from Obafemi Awolowo in his reply to Nnamdi Azikiwe. We have quotation and quotations from this literate man. I have read almost all his books, published. They are in my library. I can go on and on citing instances,” he said.

According to him, “During the Constitutional conferences that held in the 50s at Lancaster House, three giants from the country postulated different approaches to the Nigerian Independence. Ahmadu Bello said North is for Northerners; East for Easterners and West for the Westerners. Azikiwe said, there should be one Constitution, one country, one destiny. Awolowo rose up and said No! We are not talking about the Constitution that will be suitable for Nigeria. But what is suitable for Nigeria is when you have a multi-lingual, multi-national and multi-religious country with diverse races. That before independence the whole school we had on ground was 123 for the whole of the North while the South had 5,000 schools. There is no way that illiterates will continue to govern the literate people. It cannot work and it will not work.

Awolowo projected what will be the question of North East, North Central; that if you don’t educate the people, the Almajiri will become bandits. Today, in Zamfara and Yobe, the governments are now subjected to banditry. And they are exchanging these bandits, giving them money. How can government give bandits money? That is a collapse of governance and government. If you are a student of Constitution, you must believe Awolowo’s views.

Well, I am not a politician but I understand politics. I don’t do partisan politics because I want to be progressive. In the whole of Nigeria, when Awolowo started his free primary education, we felt it would not work. He started it. Two to three years after he started it, he came out with the position that in the next 30 to 40 years, the Western Region will be years ahead of other areas in education.

And that demography, if you study people like Professor Akinkugbe, who were their doctors, surgeons, they produced a sector of Obafemi Awolowo University by the Action Group government in 1963-64. If you pass out of primary school, you go to Teachers’ Training College and if you pass out, you would be given automatic admission to University. That was the reason they established the University of Ife.

Then we had Agent General United Kingdom catering for the welfare of Western Nigerian students. They go to the school and when they returned, they had jobs already waiting for them. Now our graduates are roaming about the streets. There is no index of people who are out of school. Just three days ago, Governor Ganduje said that Kano has the largest number of out of school children. How can we have stability in the country when half of the country is governed by illiterates? When banditry has taken over the governance? Surely, there cannot be peace in the country. And tell me, Editors are here. You said you have technically defeated Boko Haram, what is the technicality in defeat? Either we agree we have not been able to subdue them and admit it. Now, they are quoting United Nations figures for us. And our government is telling them we are not under America or UK but we are going there to loan money from them. Surely, something must be done to take a cue from this man. If he is not an angel, then he must be on the right side of God,” Alaafin said.