Senators who support FG’s bid to take over rivers and river banks won’t be welcome at home —Odumakin

Tribune Online
Senators who support FG’s bid to take over rivers and river banks won’t be welcome at home —Odumakin

The Senate President recently said that the controversial Water Bill would be revisited; can we have the position of the Afenifere on this?

It is a very inconsiderate position taken by the Senate President which shows absolute lack of respect. It smarks of arrogance of power and a feeling of conquest and domination for the Senate President to say that they are going to re-present the Water Bill now that Senator Godswill Akpabio who was opposed to it the last time is now with them. The Water Bill says there shall be no private ownership of water and that powers on the use and control of all surface and ground water affecting more than one state including river beds and river banks belong to the Federal Government. The whole agenda is to take over oil communities mostly. You know, we have had all these on-shore off-shore debates for long. We have had all sorts of arguments from the people in the north. They had said that the oil does not belong to the South-South but to Nigeria. We hear all kinds of provocative statements coming from the north. But for the Senate President to say that smarks of the fact that they are celebrating total conquest of Nigeria. They have the President from the core north, Senate President from the core north and Chief Justice of Nigeria from the core north. It has never happened in the history of this country. If other people are just looking at them saying let’s just take it calmly that it is a matter of four years, do they have to be doing it with this kind of celebration? It is very unfortunate. It just confirmed as rubberstamp the National Assembly, especially the Senate. Even if you want to do things like that, there are better ways of doing it than openly and in such a brazen manner. I just hope that the senators that are from states with rivers, creeks and other water bodies know that if they allow this kind of bill to pass through the Senate, a hostile reception will wait for them at home. I am sure that their people would not smile at them. All senators with conscience, who are not from water bordering communities, should support those from the affected communities to resist internal colonialism.

What is your advice to the national assembly on the bill?

They should take a strong position against such bill. Just like I had said, it is not only water; it is conquest through water and land. Don’t forget that few weeks back, the Southern and Middle-Belt Forum raised an alarm that the reason why they suspended the unilateral implementation of Ruga was because they met a brick wall in the Land Use Act. Don’t forget that Garba Shehu said that the Federal Government had already gazetted land for the implementation of Ruga all over Nigeria. We are asking where did they get such power? The only land that they have access to in Nigeria is the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The lands in every state are under the control of the governors. They now realised it and decided to try to amend the Land Use Act. The same Senate President did say at a seminar that they would have to revisit the Land Use Act for the housing needs of Nigerians. What house are they building? We know that it is all about Ruga. Maybe very soon they would say that they own the air so that anybody that wants to breathe fresh air would have to go through them all in the demonstration of the fact that they have conquered Nigeria.

The Vice President warned that the disintegration of Nigeria would not be in the interest of any group; is that in line with the position of  Afenifere?

We never campaigned for the secession of Nigeria; we only asked for the restructuring of Nigeria that will guarantee more federalism where each section of Nigeria will have access to be able to conduct their affairs and have autonomy to run their affairs within Nigeria. But, it is interesting that Vice President Yemi Osinbajo spoke against disintegration. Why is it that the government that is showing so much concern is ruthlessly pursuing a segregation agenda? What would Ruga lead to and what would Fulani radio lead to? What does offering of billions of naira to the group mean? What would looking the other way as Fulanis are terrorising people all over the country lead to? It was late Professor Abubakar Umor who used to say that you can do injustice to an ethnic group but once the group decides to seek justice you would have genocide. How long would Nigerians go on tolerating? The government is mixing all the ingredients of disintegration and is here preaching against disintegration. That is what some pastors call ‘do as I say, don’t do as I do’. The Vice President should advise them that they should pursue policies that would unite Nigerians’, that would make us an inclusive country where every group would be comfortable. Only recently, Mr President was saying if the late MKO Abiola was president,  he would have resolved religious and ethnic crises in Nigeria. Why are they not resolving it; why are they compounding it? And he is saying that segregation is not an option.

Why is it that Afenifere does not see anything good in the policies of government of the day?

Don’t forget that in 2011, President Muhammadu Buhari was Afenifere’s candidate. I was his spokesperson in 2011. Without being immodest, before 2011 his name was not acceptable. We marketed and sold him. Of course, in 2015, APC cashed on it and worked with it. It is not about hatred. Some people are saying that we are against Fulani herdsmen because he is a Fulani president and I said what a statement? In the last election, Afenifere, Ohaneze, PANDEF jointly endorsed Atiku Abubakar based on his promise to restructure Nigeria. Is Atiku not a Fulaniman? I am sure that if you check down the line, you would have seen a situation where there were some good things done that we had commended but we are not sycophants, we are not jobbers and we are not political jobbers like some people today who will call black white and praise the unpraise-worthy, who will sell their people for a handshake and who have sold their conscience for what they can get from the system. No, we are not like that. If we see a thing that is bad, we cannot say it is good. If we see something and it is good, we cannot say that it is bad. We don’t operate with bitterness. For us in Afenifere, fairness consists in giving even the devil his due.

The South-West governors have promised to set up a measure to tackle herdsmen’s menace; what is Afenifere’s view on this?

Well, we welcome the decision of the governors because it is out of concern but let us add that there is no shortcut to all these things. To say that we can use shortcut in this case is not possible. The best thing is that we must have state police. They are elected governors and are security officers in their states and must have powers to run their state police. Go to the north, you will see hisbah; they are state police. Their uniforms are better than the Nigerian Police uniform. Recently, you saw Miyetti Allah vigilantes in the South-West carrying guns. There was an uproar that the former governor of Ogun State bought arms and when he was going he handed it over to the police. They were calling for his head on why he bought arms and I said Ogun is bigger than many countries in the United Nations. There are countries in the United Nations where their population is not more than 10,000 people. You are now accusing a governor of a state whose population is bigger than that of Benin Republic that it cannot have police and arms, no. The governors should do what they want to do now, but they must insist on federalism. In a federal arrangement, there is multi-level policing. We need state police.

What is the level of co-operation that Afenifere has with the governors, Obas and political leaders in Yorubaland currently?

We are on the same page with anybody who stands for the interest of our people – governors and traditional rulers. We are talking to our top traditional rulers. We just said that the step that they are taking is very good but it is not the ultimate. So, we are for our people; we are not for ourselves. Anybody that stands for the benefit and the good of our people, we are going to be on the same page.

Some traditional rulers were accused of selling land to the herders to actualise their dream of having Fulani settlements; what is your opinion on this?

If there are those who sold land to herdsmen who didn’t know that they are herdsmen, we can pardon such. But  any traditional ruler who knows that these are herdsmen and because of easy money sells land to them, such an oba is against the interest of the people he reigns over. Our appeal to all our obas in Yorubaland is not to allow themselves to work against the interest of their people. Awolowo said something that in Yorubaland, a leader is made, not born and that a leader has to continue to justify leadership by continued services to the people. Unlike some other parts where the leaders are born and it is the followers who have to justify their followership through excessive obedience and services, such is not in Yorubaland. Yorubas respect their kings like gods on earth but Yorubas are also known to have deposed Obas. Our Obas are appeased to show leadership and concern and not to do anything that will hurt their people for the sake of money.

How do you react to the killings of Nigerians in countries like South Africa and United Kingdom?

It is always said that your foreign policy is an extension of your domestic policy. If Nigerian government makes any noise about our citizens being killed in foreign countries, such countries would laugh at them. Are you protecting your people at home. The herdsmen who are killing the rest of the people in Nigeria, how many of them are on trial? When you show that in your country that human lives mean nothing how do you expect foreigners to respect the lives of your citizens? Nigerian government should resist the killing of our citizens but should give value to life at home by ensuring that anybody that takes the lives of people faces the maximum penalty of the law. It is then that you will have the moral justification to fight the killings abroad. As people say, human blood is the cheapest in Nigeria because blood is being shed like pure water. That is the challenge to the Federal Government at the moment.

Senators who support FG’s bid to take over rivers and river banks won’t be welcome at home —Odumakin
Tribune Online