Spokesman for the Yoruba socio -cultural organisation, Mr Yinka Odumakin, in an interview with Saturday PUNCH, described the recent meeting of northern leaders held in Kaduna as "divisive, diversionary and an attempt to maintain that Nigerian protectorate."
The Afenifere chieftain was reacting over a statement made by the northern leaders describing #EndSARS protests as a plot to overthrow President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
He also accused President Buhari of northernizing his administration while insisting that the country is "indissoluble".
Below is the excerpt of the interview:
Some leaders from the North, including governors, serving members of President Muhamadu Buhari’s Government; and traditional rulers met in Kaduna State on November 2 , 2020, and, among other things, described the recent # EndSARS protest as one that was subversive and had a separatist agenda. What is your reaction to that?
The whole idea of the meeting is divisive, diversionary and an attempt to maintain that Nigerian protectorate. We are not fools. You can see the way Buhari has northernised power in the country and now sits on the rest of us and begins to teach us about how Nigeria is indissoluble, indivisible and all that kind of nonsense. That they could not even see anything wrong in holding that meeting the way they held it shows that we have a great problem as the people we call fellow countrymen are not on the same page with us at all.
Look at the way the #EndSARS protest was carried out. It is not unusual that the protest was stronger in the South because southern youths were the victims of profiling by the (disbanded) SARS operatives. SARS was led by mostly northern officers who came into a different culture. SARS operatives were not doing any serious investigation; they would just profile you and say because you wore earrings or had a kind of hairstyle, you must be a fraudster because their own (northern) youths dress differently, which does not mean that they are better.
But if they were people with an idea of how to build a modern society and who believe in inclusiveness, there was no way they would have held that kind of meeting at this period in time or call a meeting of governors, traditional rulers and bring all the northern mafias in the Federal Government, and take them to Kaduna. In 1999, when Afenifere invited Chief Olusegun Obasanjo as a president for a meeting in Lagos, I was surprised that when Obasanjo came, the people that came with him were Fulani people. I saw it that he would not want to be accused of holding secret meetings with Afenifere. But we have a President who cannot see that it is wrong and it is an assault on our unity for top government officials to go and sit in Kaduna on a Monday morning for a sectional meeting. Even in their communiqué, they left a space for the Federal Executive Council to have nominees in their committees as if they are the ones to run the country and the rest of us would just fall in.
It was reported that the meeting was also attended by the Inspector General of Police. What impression did that create for you?
It is all clear that they don’t care about the rest of us. They need the rest of us to go and put our thumbprints on ballot papers for them. But once they have power, they take this country as their own – ‘our power’. The rest of the people are just instruments to be used. They don’t see other Nigerians as equal partners. If they did, they would have more respect for us and not do such a thing.
That is why it is important for us to get to the bottom of the Lekki killings to know those who are responsible and where they are from. You kill human beings and think you don’t owe us any explanation. They didn’t have a word of condolence for those who died; they were only abusing them.
The northern leaders condemned what they described as the ‘subversive actions of the #EndSARS protests’, adding that ‘other change -regime actions outside the ballot box soon took advantage of the peaceful protests to push for their separatist agenda’ . Why do you think they were strongly concerned about preventing a change of government at the federal level?
It is all about this ‘our power’ concept. They are talking about their conquest of Nigeria. Look at what Buhari has been doing in the last five years. Look at all the appointments in security, finance – all northerners. Now, they are saying that they are ready for a census. Why? When the Council of State met and approved somebody as the chairman of the National Population Commission, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation announced the person – a man from Nasarawa. But on national news at 10, the man the Council of State approved was changed to a Muslim man. Now, they are saying we are due for a census.