Senator Femi Okurounmu is one of the leaders of the pan-Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, and elder statesman. He spoke to Weekend Trust on the recurring agitations for secession.
54 years after the civil war, what comes to your mind?
What comes to my mind is that we have not yet gotten over the effects of the civil war. That’s one. We did not fully take advantage of the things that we could have taken advantage of, arising from the civil war, that’s two. And three, there has not been enough integration between Nigeria and the people of the so-called Biafra, since the end of the war. Those are the three things that come to mind.
Where were you during the war?
I was actually out of the country when it started in 1967. I was in the United States of America. I was a student, but I came back in 1969. So, I witnessed part of the civil war, between 1969 and 1970. I was here when it ended.
Why is it difficult for the country to truly heal?
We may have recovered from the physical damages, that is, the structural damages, buildings, roads and so on. But the human damage, the emotional damage, we have not yet recovered from that. And that is why you still have things like IPOB today. The spirit of Biafra is still very much alive among a significant section of the Igbo people. There is still this agitation for the Republic of Biafra. So, that shows that we have not yet recovered from the spirit of Biafra. That is why I said there has not been sufficient integration of both sides in the civil war.
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In your view, why do we have the Yoruba nation agitation in the South-west?
There are many reasons for the agitation. The reasons for the agitation of Biafra are peculiar, but there are some general reasons for the agitations in other parts of the country. For instance, the agitation in Yorubaland is mostly from the annulment of the June 12, 1993, elections. Since then, the Yorubas have not regained complete confidence in one Nigeria. This is because the June 12, elections and all the events leading up to it, showed glaringly that there was a particular group or I will say a particular ethnic group in this country that wants to lord itself over the others.
The Yorubas had been trying hard since the time of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, so that they too could lead Nigeria. Awolowo was frustrated also. And that’s why when Chief Moshood Abiola won and in fact the results showed that he clearly won, it was not possible for it to be rigged. Still, they annulled it. It got the Yorubas to the point where they believed their presence in one Nigeria was no longer respectable, a presence in which they will only be second class citizens, in which they could not aspire to lead Nigeria. Even though Yorubas have been ruling and have had their turn since then, the experience under Buhari again… when the herdsmen began to rampage all over the country. The armed herdsmen began to rampage, raided villages, attacked farmers and their families, to the extent of even raping the wives of the farmers’ right in front of the husbands.
It showed that some people were clearly intent on occupying Yorubaland and enslaving the Yorubas and they resented it. So, this is one of the reasons that gave impetus to the agitation for Yoruba nation.
Even up till today, the radical Yoruba youths are still keen on having the Yoruba nation, because their faith in one Nigeria has been significantly dented.
As one of the leaders of Afenifere and elder statesman, do you agree with those agitating for Yoruba nation?
Yes, I agree with them. I agree with the line of argument that if we are not going to be equals in one Nigeria, then it does not make sense for us to be pretending that we have one Nigeria. If you are going to be subordinate to any other ethnic group, then there is no need. But as much as I believe in the Yoruba nation, I may not agree with the methods being used by the advocates.
The goal is one thing, the methods, another thing. I don’t believe in the methods, for instance, those who attacked the secretariat in Ibadan and so on. I don’t believe in those methods. As far as that is concerned, I am not with them. But as for one Nigeria, if we cannot actually have justice and equity in one Nigeria, then I believe in the Yoruba nation.
If you believe that Nigeria has not recovered from the effects of the civil war, what would you suggest as a way forward?
The primary blame lies with the first military coup that we had, where Aguiyi Ironsi came to power and he destroyed the federalism that we were enjoying between 1960 and 1966. It was Ironsi who destroyed that federalism and introduced unitarism, when he brought military government. It is that unitarism of Ironsi that more or less destroyed Nigeria and has been troubling the country till date. Nigeria cannot make progress under unitarism. There cannot be justice and equity in Nigeria under unitarism. There cannot be peace under unitarism. We had peace under the federalism that we were practicing. And federalism means that whether we are having regions or we are having states, it’s a matter of semantics. It could be region and it could be states. Whatever sub-units we are going to have, those sub-units must be relatively autonomous such that the various ethnic groups will be more or less free to carry out their own developments within their own geographical area unhindered and unhampered by the federal government.
Each autonomous ethnic group must have the freedom to develop at its own pace, exploit and develop its own mineral resources, mobilise revenue, carry out development, proceed at its own pace without regard to how other regions are progressing, so that there will be healthy competition, like what we had between 1960 and 1966.
So, I will say that the problem we have in Nigeria today, most of it can be traced to the truncation of federalism and the introduction of unitarism. To move forward, we must go back to federalism. That is a very important part of the restructuring that many people are agitating for. The agitation for restructuring has been going on for a long time now, for decades. It took a high tempo during the annulment of Abiola’s election in 1993, but even the agitation for restructuring pre-dated 1993. But since 1993, it acquired a new tempo. And it has been going higher and higher since then. We must restructure Nigeria, firstly, by going back to federalism.
Secondly, you notice that between 1960 and 1966, we had a parliamentary form of government with some inherent controls that limited extent of corruption. Ever since we introduced presidential system of government, corruption has grown wings. It has acquired uncontrollable dimensions. Nigeria is now a country where corruption is the norm, people now assume that government is expected to be corrupt. In fact, corruption is getting to a stage where people are no longer alarmed when they hear that somebody has stolen billions of naira. People don’t steal in millions anymore; they steal in billions and trillions.
Do you believe the President Bola Tinubu-led administration can restructure Nigeria?
One step the government has taken that showed clearly, they are not about to take us back to federalism is the suit they filed against the governors in respect of local government autonomy. This government wants to make local governments a third tier of government and make them autonomous. That’s in fact the reverse of federalism. It’s the opposite of federalism. Federalism anywhere in the world recognises only two tiers of government. It is the federating governments and the federal government.
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