My fear for Nigeria – Prof Akintoye

— 15th October 2017

…Says, those opposing restructuring are mischievous or ignorant

Omoniyi Salaudeen

As a young member of the inner circle of the Awolowo school of thought, erudite Professor of History, Banji Akintoye, shared in the lofty dream to build Nigeria as an emerging power not only in the Black continent but the world at large. But today, he is unhappy with the turn of events. In this interview, he predicted an imminent break up of the country, unless the leaders are ready to do the needful.    

What is the fundamental reason for the elusive peace and unity in Nigeria as a nation? 

The fundamental problem is that Nigeria is not and can never be a nation. It is a country of many nations. These nations had long existed thousands of years before the British came and amalgamated them together to form a country.  The only hope for the country to live harmoniously is for us to recognize and respect each nation. If the people who found themselves in control of the affairs of the country have come to the conclusion to destroy, push down or suppress these nations in order to build the unity of the country, they will create serious problems. And that is what we are seeing now. When the British amalgamated Nigeria in 1914, they had no idea of what to do with Nigeria. They had conquered Nigeria from the North and called it Northern protectorate and then eastern and western protectorates which they combined to form Southern protectorate. The only thing that was common to both the Eastern and Western protectorates at that time was Christianity. There was nothing else common to them.

The Yoruba were Yoruba. They had developed over millennia to be the most urbanized people in Africa with highly sophisticated political system. 

They were different from the rest. The Edo although smaller than the Yoruba had also developed a kingdom. The other larger nation was the Igbo who didn’t have the same level of political development but they were living happily in their own country. So, we were really scattered nations. The North was even more complex than the South. Nigeria is a country of so many nationalities. Each nationality has its own language, culture and homeland territory where they had lived for thousands of years. Ambitious people may create country around these nations, but they will always disintegrate. There were great empires in the past. Where are they today? The one you know most is the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire contained thousands of different nationalities speaking their own languages. Where is the Roman Empire today? It disintegrated. The nationalities are indigestible. Nobody can destroy them. The only way you can make them live together in one country is to respect them and manage the affairs of the country is such a way that that respect is obvious.

In effect, Nigeria’s break up is imminent?

It looks obvious to most people. Even the United Nations’ assessment published a few months ago says Nigeria as a country is constantly producing protests of people who feel they are being marginalized, cheated and even targeted for destruction. The world knows what is happening to Nigeria. Do I want Nigeria to exist as a country? Yes, of course, I do. I love Nigeria; I don’t want it to break up. But do I believe it will live for long the way it is being managed? I don’t think so. This is not a question of what I wish; it is a question of what I can see.  It is not a question of wanting Nigeria to disintegrate. The thing is that I fear the way we are handling the affairs of this country it is likely to disintegrate soon. I know restructuring will go a long way to prevent that. And that is why I am supporting restructuring. If we do that, we can settle down. Does that mean Nigeria will exit forever? I don’t know. I doubt it. But the important thing is that it will not disintegrate now.

Yoruba have been in the forefront of campaign for restructuring. But some opinion leaders in the North see the clamour as way of blackmailing them. What’s your take?

Yoruba people are not blackmailing anybody. We have contributed enough to the development of this country. We have given a lot to the making of Nigeria. So, we don’t want Nigeria to break up. Other people are saying they want to quit. Have you heard any Yoruba group talking of secession? We don’t talk about secession. We want Nigeria to prosper. We are a people who love progress and development. Yoruba are not used to being poor. Before the British came, we were already a comfortable country. We had developed the most successful Agriculture in African continent which made it possible for us to build cities and towns. When we finally had the chance to manage our own lives from 1952, everybody could see that Yoruba were eager to move forward. When people were thinking about how to start school, Awolowo said each child in Yorubaland must go to school. So, a country that will keep Yoruba in it must be ready to develop. It is not a question of intimidating anybody. In any case, development is not something that will be for the Yoruba people alone. It will be for everybody. Everybody will prosper. Go and look at the literature, who are the people who talk about poverty in the North? It is Yoruba intellectuals. We talk more about poverty in the North than any other intellectuals in the country.

We are worried about it. The North used to produce a lot of wealth. In the First Republic under Ahmadu Bello, the North used to produce a lot of wealth. All of that has been destroyed by over centralization. We want that to go so that the North can go back and begin to become productive again.  Some people are comfortable with crowd of Almajiri and beggars on the streets. We, Yoruba, are not. We don’t think any citizen of our country should be that poor. We are not intimidating or forcing anybody to accept restructuring. We only feel that it is the way forward for everybody.

Many leaders of thought in the North have said it time and again that they needed proper and clearer definition of what you people mean by the word restructuring. Isn’t it high time you did that so everybody can understand?

That’s a legitimate request. They are saying the right thing. You cannot quarrel with that kind of question. But we’ve been trying to do that. I have written articles upon articles on it. I have written more than 150 articles in the recent times on restructuring. I wrote one that was published last week. People have been calling me to say this is wonderful. We are doing all this just to explain what restructuring is all about.

Will it then be right then to say that those who claim ignorance of the meaning are doing so for mischief or they are not reading?

There are people who are not reading and there are people who are playing mischief because they don’t want it done. When people were agitating for independence, Yoruba organization, Egbe omo Oduduwa, was the first in the country who put forward a well written proposal for a federation to the British government. And when the Action Group came up later, they followed exactly what Egbe omo Oduduwa had written. So, it is not that Yoruba people are intimidating anybody, we are anxious to see the success of this country. Sometimes, one can be frustrated when one hears some people saying they don’t understand restructuring.

Is it true that Yoruba led the agitation against regionalism  which some leaders are now advocating?

What our leaders told the British government is that we must go beyond these three regions. They argued that the protectorates were not the fundamental units of Nigeria. They told them that the nationalities that existed on ground before they created the protectorates were the fundamental units and not the protectorates that they converted into regions.

So, it is true that the Yoruba led the agitation for the break up of the regions?

No, we didn’t agitate for the break up of the regions. We agitated for respect for each group of nations. We said: ‘we Yoruba in the South-west will be one region. The people who are part of Western region but are not Yoruba should also be one region. Each of them was too small to be a region, combine them to form a region.’

In the same way, we advocated for a separate region for the minorities in the South of Eastern region. We told them: ‘let Calabar, Ogoja, Rivers people have a region of their own. Each of them may be too small to be a region, but when you combine them, they would be a viable region.  Then, let the people of North-east, Kanuri and the related people who are asking for a region of their own have a region of their own.’ Hundreds of small people in the Middle belt were also advised to combine to have a region of their own, while the Hausa Fulani have a region of their own. That was what we asked for. We did not ask for any region to break up. We asked for a rational sustainable structure within the federation. But the British refused it for their own reason. The first thing that happened after independence is that the people who controlled the Federal Government now tried to establish the authority of the Federal Government over the regions by attacking the Western region. So, we had to defend our own region by whatever means we could politically. People went into the streets and made life difficult for everybody until the military took over.

And when the military took over, the disaster finally came. They turned Nigeria into an army commanded by a central commander. Successive military dictators did that for a long time. When they were finally going in 1998, they put together all the commands and centralization and called it a constitution. That is why there is no limit to the powers of the Federal Government. The president is a dictator in Nigeria. We surely cannot rule ourselves like that. It cannot happen, it is not happening. There is chaos everywhere.

Would you say that the language with which you advocate this laudable objective is civil enough as not to offend other nationalities? This is bearing in mind the fact that there is bitterness in the North that you demonise their people by calling them Mumu and all sorts of names.