In this interview with ADELEKE ADESANYA, a former senator representing Ekiti East Senatorial District, Adedayo Adeyeye, says the National leader of All Progressive Congress, Bola Tinubu will win 2023 presidential election without zoning. According to him, Tinubu’s credentials will land him victory like MKO Abiola in 1993. He also speaks on other issues. Excerpts:
SWAGA has been on the frontline among the groups that have been calling the former governor of Lagos State, Bola Tinubu to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023. What will you say led to this?
We have looked around and we found that Asiwaju Bola Tinubu is very much qualified for the position, by virtue of his experience as a two-term governor of Lagos state. Not only that, he is a true democracy advocate and he has been consistently relevant since the advent of this democracy. He has been a major factor in Nigerian politics since 1999; so we looked around and found him to be very much experienced, dignified, having the requisite capacity to do the job. That is why we decided to fish him out as the right person.
With the current situation in the country, some youths are not interested in who becomes the next president, they want their independent nation. Do you see this as a threat to your mission to help Tinubu become the next president?
The agitation for a self-determine constitution is born out of extreme frustration on the part of not only the youths but the general populace. People are generally dissatisfied with the situation in the country right now, the challenges are enormous, but I believe that if we have the right leadership and things begin to work well for everybody in this country, the agitation will reduce and people will begin to live their normal life.
It is not that Nigerians don’t want to live together as one nation, we have been living together now for more than one hundred years as one nation since the amalgamation of the north and south in 1914, this is over a hundred years we have been together. It is just the challenges of the moment, the insecurity in the land, the frustration in terms of the economy that is not working for most people and a lot of vices that we see in the society, that is why there is this agitation for the self-determination. Many people are looking for a solution for the various problems, and one of the solution that people can easily come to is to say that if we separate it will be better for us, but if things will work for everybody in that same Nigeria, I think that agitation will recede to the background.
It is believed in some quarters that it will be appropriate for the South-East to produce the next president, considering the fact that the region is the only one that has yet to produce the president since independence. What is your take on this?
It’s not correct to say that it is the only region that has not produced the president, Aguniyi Ironsi was from the East, he was a South Easterner and he was the one that brought about the unity constitution, some of which we are still suffering from the effect. So people need to know their history very well, though his term was short, it is not correct to say that nobody from the East has been at the herm of affairs.
But be that as it may, the East has a legitimate claim to the presidency of Nigeria, and I believe that everybody should have a reasonable assurance that one day they can be the president of Nigeria, but as it is at the present moment, there is a general agreement to rotate the presidency between the North and the South, and whoever is qualify in any of those places will be qualified to challenge it.
Now that there is a general agitation that the president should rotate to the south, the South-West is part of the southeast is part of the south, the South-South is part of the south, anyone in those geopolitical zones are qualified to contest for the president.
There are even people who don’t believe this thing should rotate, and that is to fight that one first and foremost, and then ensure that it comes to the south, and if they will not agree, then we should challenge for it, they should not shy away from it, they adopted it zone it us, they should be able to produce people who can win the presidency on their own merit, whether it zoned or not. The thing was never zoned to the south when Abiola won in 1993, a landslide victory, it was never zoned, his opponent was from Kano, and he was able to defeat him massively even in Kano.
Do you mean Tinubu can win the election without zoning?
We need people who are qualified, who are ready, who have the capacity and the ability to challenge this position and bring it to the South. That is it first and foremost. I still saw a governor yesterday saying that there’s no need for rotation, he is from the North. I saw him saying it from one of the channels; so in that kind of situation, you need to bring your best foot forward, the kind of person who is not intimidated by anybody, who is willing and ready to challenge anybody in the contest. So, that is why we have identified Bola Ahmed Tinubu, that if we all rally around and support him, he is capable of winning the presidency even on his own merit, whether it is zoned to the South or not zoned to the South.
Recently, several INEC offices were burnt by some hoodlums in various states. Do you see that having an effect on the 2023 election?
Well, those who are burning INEC facilities, I don’t know why they are doing so. INEC is not the problem, if they say they don’t want an election, will that bring about the decision? It won’t bring about the decision; even if we are going to separate in this country today, I pray that it won’t be by war, that it is going to be by negotiation and peaceful means and in doing so, election and referendum will be very important.
So, burning INEC is misguided in my own point of view, it is not the solution, INEC has done nothing. I think we should just conduct our agitation peacefully, in anyway if you want a decision, conduct it peacefully, please, not by violence. Violence will not serve the interest of anybody.
A governor recently condemned you for flying SWAGA in APC. What is your reaction to this?
I will tell you that it is wrong, we are in a democracy, we have freedom of speech, freedom of association, as long as we are not infringing on the right of any other person. We are free to take any political action that you deem fit. Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu has not commissioned us, but we feel that we need to sensitize people to his candidacy, to mobilise people to ask him to come out and join the race, that is what we are doing and that is a legitimate undertaking. Anybody who is against it, that is his own problem. Today, there is a groundswell of support for SWAGA and you will soon see it very soon. When we will launch SWAGA in Ekiti State, we will see whether Ekiti people support SWAGA or not. I won’t say more than that, action will speak louder than voice.
