Nigeria  can’t  be virile, prosperous without tribal, religious considerations – Chief Niyi Akintola.

Chief Niyi Akintola (SAN) is a foremost  legal luminary in Nigeria, who described himself as a core Progressive and an ardent Chief  Bola Ige’s disciple.

He was a  former Deputy Speaker of the Oyo State House of Assembly  and  had ventured  to be governor of Oyo State but lost at the  primaries.

In this interview  with Olusesan Laoye he described the present day politicians as those without ideology, noting that  the tax reforms  and economic policies  of President Bola  Tinubu are positive. He argued that only restructuring  can make Nigeria a  virile, strong, and prosperous country, while declaring that  he would no longer contest any elective positions.

Excerpts:

Some notable politicians in your party, the All Progressives Congress, APC, and others formed a coalition  that join the African Democratic Congress, ADC; what is your reaction and how far do you think they can go, especially,  in 2027?

I am not God. It is only God that can determine  how far  they  would go. Their faith is in the hands of God.

This now brings us to the proposal sometimes ago by some people calling for a legislation to prevent, especially, members of the National Assembly, and  the governors  from leaving  the party  where they were elected to another political  party; what is your opinion  on this?

That will be undemocratic  because in the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria you have the right to  freedom  of association. If you are stopping  people from moving to another party of their choice, you are tampering with their freedom of association.

Let us now look at the issue of people moving from the PDP  to APC; what does that portend for APC and democracy  in Nigeria?

I would not say so because political party  is like the military barrack, soldiers go, soldiers  come but the barrack  remains. There is nothing wrong if they  think that is what they want, but here in Nigeria, people don’t stand on principle. For the Progressives,  we don’t  need to be in power. If you know the trajectory  of the Progressives, we don’t  care. These days politicians have turned political  parties to all comers affairs. In those days, as young as i was as a politician, what I met on ground when I contested election as member  of Oyo State  House of Assembly, and became the Deputy Speaker, our principle was anchored  on the principle of our leader, Chief Bola Ige. I was an Ige boy  and I am still his boy till tomorrow. I still hold so dearly  to the principles  elucidated  by Chief Bola Ige.

You see, you don’t  need to be in power to be in Progressives. In the progressives, we stick  to principles, we have ideology. But these days no ideology and  no principle again. In the Progressives  camp  when i joined SDP in those days,  up till the time I joined Alliance for Democracy, AD, you  just don’t  come to our party without  being  screened. Our party was not for anybody.

Not a party where anybody can just come. Before you join, we must know your antecedents, where you are coming from, what you do for a living. It is the conservatives  that brought about all comers affairs to the Nigerian politics. It doesn’t  used to be like this. For the mere  fact that you have a principle that is enough for you to stick to. But, unfortunately,  these days,  things are being  turned upside down.

What is the implications of people with different orientations coming together as we have now, and how does it affect the future  of our democracy?

As we all know, the ADC is an association  of birds  of different  feathers. These are people  coming together with different  backgrounds, without   common ideology.  The only goal they have for now, is just to snatch power. Their  ganging  up is not against Tinubu  per-say. Tinubu is just  one person, an individual in the  APC. These were once  henchmen of APC. Some  of them have been useful, and  valuable to the party. Some of them have community  and electoral  value, but majority of them don’t. Like our  former National chairman, Chief  Odigie Oyegun, i don’t know which  local government  he  can control in Edo State today. They are just building named and it does not mean that  those who are ganging up or decamping will upset the apple cart.  It doesn’t  work that way.

You will recollect  that  when former president Jonathan was there, a similar  thing was done. People were decamping and many governors were pledging  their supports  but when the chips  were  down, they were no where to be found. Only God  knows tomorrow. Nobody can predict what will happen the next day.

What  is your reaction about President Tinubu’s  policy generally and, especially  the tax reforms, which  people complained about?

On the tax reforms, i think the noise has died down, things are moving on and i think  people have accepted  it.

Generally,  his reforms  are fantastic even the tax reforms you talk about,  is  also fantastic. You know  they say Nigerian elites don’t  like to pay tax but now the reform  has streamlined  everything and there  will  be no more  double  taxation. It is a good development  and a welcome  one.

Again  you had wanted to be the governor of Oyo State. What is your next move politically as people have started showing  interest  in elective positions?

Well, everything  is in the hands of God. I for one,  i am no longer interested  in elective office. I am not contesting for any position. I will not again. At 66 I think it is high time for people like us to quit the  stage for the younger ones. When I was the Deputy Speaker in  the Oyo  State  House of Assembly, some of those  in the game now have  not started primary school.  So, no more elective office for me. I have had enough.

With what you have just said now, we want to know if you are still a member  of the All  Progressives  Congress (APC)?

Of course,   I can’t  go to any other  party.

Some people  in your party are complaining about  your  loyalty to the party, saying you are too close to Governor Seyi Makinde, and singing his praises. . What do you have to say to this?

Many of the people who are saying that are either politically  illiterate, or they don’t  read, or they don’t  know what they are saying. I can say they are not Progressives. They don’t  know what it takes to be Progressives. Our current  political leader Asiwaju  Bola Tinubu has shown us the way. He has developed  a new template in politics. The template and a new theory is developing now,  which is called  relationship developmental  politics, as against the kind of politics, which  those complaining  are used to,  which is called appointment politics. What they are  looking for are appointments.

In relationship developmental politics you build  relationships across party lines. Only a stupid and foolish politician would not have friends across political lines.

Today I can mention more than three governors, who are not in APC and very close to Asiwaju.  Asiwaju  has successfully  built strong relationships  with them and they have keyed into  his philosophy  of developmental politics. Amongst them is  Governor Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra State. He is not of APC but today he has been the one championing the course of Asiwaju, explaining  to people about his economic  and political policies. He is far better than some of those, who call  themselves  APC governors.

So is governor Mbah of  of Enugu. So is governor Alex Otti of Abia State, so is governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State.  I Wouldn’t  know whether  you heard the speech  of Mr. President when he sent his vice to commission the road from Ogbomoso  to Iseyin in Oyo State. Many of these  people don’t read. If somebody  is doing well see what you can gain from him.

Like the governor of Enugu  and Anambra  said,  they praised  Asiwaju that he is doing  very well. They said that they are in different  political party, but they will not abandon him. They believe  so much in his philosophy  and his way  of thinking and his political  theory of relationship developmental politics. It is  a new  development  in politics, which many of these critics never heard about. They are not watching their leader, his body language and, of course,  his lips.

I am an Ige boy. I learnt a lot from Chief  Bola Ige. He taught us relationships  developmental politics.

We would like you to assess the economic policies  of  this present government at the center?

It is fantastic, so far so good. You see if you  want to make  an omelette,  you have to first break an egg. It does not matter that the egg belongs to a particular hen. The most important  thing is to make an omelette out of it. We know the trajectory  of the Nigerian  economy, where we are coming from.

Like the late President Muhammadu  Buhari was reported to have said, fixing Nigeria is not a tea part and not easy.  Before  President  Tinubu  came on board, our economy had been run aground and we have been doing what is called trade by batter  to use common man’s  language. We have been using our crude  oil,  which  is the main make product of our economy,  to exchange for projects, which made so much debts to piled up. Asiwaju came and he inherited  this. What many were afraid of doing  and kept promising they would remove fuel  subsidy, which they failed  to do.  Asiwaju took a bold step and remove it.

I can’t  understand what the hullabaloo is all about. Today, the Local Governments can boast of more money in their pockets than before. Why are people  crying?. The economy of  Nigeria  was such in a sorry state  by the time Asiwaju came on board  and something has to give. So he went for the jugular  of the petroleum  products.

With the demise of the 43rd Olubadan Oba Olakulehin a new Olubadan designate Oba Rashidi Lajoda would soon mount the throne. What do you think the people of Ibadan and Oyo State should expect  from  him?

Ibadan people should expect pragmatic  administration  from Oba Ladoja with his local intelligence. He has seen it all. He had been a  Senator, governor, businessman, industrialist and farmer, as such, he would use his wealth of experience  to  benefit  the people.

President Tinubu has always been one of the advocates of restructuring; don’t  you think he should have the courage  to do it now that he is in power?

The mantra of an average Yoruba man is restructuring. It has been in our lexicon for a very long time. Chief  Awolowo  had said that an average Yoruba man is a federalist. We never believed  in one section lording itself over the others.

We have  this particular  ethos, the  principle of “Omoluabi.” God had used Baba Awolowo  to give us an head start. What do I mean by head start? What I mean is that with the free education he introduce in 1954,  there is no Yoruba man or woman, who is 60 years down or below that is not lettered, no matter what they  do, even  if they are farmers, drivers or selling Akara, who  is not able to read and write. That has placed us 200 years ahead of some other parts of the country. That is the truth. Whether  you believe  it or not, that is the truth. Even when they introduced  JAMB, which one of our uncles, Uncle Tola Adeniyi called  “Ijamba  Foriti.” That has   not prevented an average Yoruba person from sending his or her children to school,  even if it means selling  what he has. You don’t  need to plead to him or her before educating his or her children.

See the numbers  of Almajiris and out of schools  children we have in the Northern  parts of the country. Here in the South West,  our major  industry is education and that has stood us in good stead. No matter the divide  of politics you are,  either  progressives or conservatives, our common goal is Education. There is no government  that  would come around that will  shy away from the fact  that our major industry, is education.

Anybody, who educate the people liberates the minds and when you liberate the minds of the people you set them free and you give them road to development. My advice  would be along that line.

Do you mean that you totally support  restructuring?

It is restructuring  that would bring about education and it is education that will bring about restructuring.

You see Nigeria is the only country I know in the world that has this kind of   federalism. It does not work that way. We are not one. Nigeria is not a nation, it is  a country of many nationalities.We must get this into our heads and that it why some of the things we do are  not right because  we are trying to use wrong approach  to achieve  our main goal. Our main goal is a  virile, strong and prosperous  Nigeria and we can’t achieve that if we don’t take into consideration, the tribal and religious  connotations  that we  have. It will not work.

Anything  you are doing in a democratic setting, especially  in a federation that fails to take into account the sociological   and cultural beliefs  of the people will not fly.  That is the bottom line. Let us go through restructuring,  let us go through  proper federalism, all these things will be taken care of.