'Those Saying 2023 Elections Won’t Hold If Nigeria Is Not Restructured Are Drunk – Adefuye'

Senator Anthony Adefuye is a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and a member of Lagos Governor’s Advisory Council (GAC). In this interview with TEMIDAYO AKINSUYI, he speaks on the controversy over zoning arrangement in the APC, arguments on restructuring and why he strongly believes that it is the turn of the South- West to produce the President in 2023. Excerpts:

There has been controversy in your party over the zoning agreement. While some said there is a gentleman’s agreement that there is an unwritten agreement that power must shift to the South after the North must have completed eight years, other said there was nothing of such. Where do you stand on this?

The issue of the zoning the Presidency is an unwritten agreement; it rotates between the North and the South. Every political party has that agreement; it is not peculiar to APC alone. I know the APC is a party that was founded on justice and equity and it will honour the agreement. Once a Northerner has been there for eight years maximum, it must come down to the South. So, whoever is thinking that it is the North and is ambitious to become the President in 2023 is daydreaming and wants to break Nigeria. I believe that in 2023, the APC will zone the Presidential ticket to the South. When it comes to the South, then it will be narrowed down to the South West because that is the only region that has not produced the President since 1999. It has always been the North and the Igbos.

But Obasanjo, a South-Westerner was president for two terms, from 1999 to 2007. So, why did you say the South-West has not produced the President?

Obasanjo is not a Yoruba man. He is an Igbo man from the South-East. His father is from Anambra while his mother is a Yoruba woman. Have you ever heard any other person bear Obasanjo before? Have you seen a man in the category with mark before? Only disputed children at that time were given marks so that they can know their son. It was when they wanted to come and take him by force that they gave him marks. Obasanjo himself knows what I’m talking about and he can’t dispute it because it is not new. A lot of people have written about it before and his father’s photograph was also published in the papers.

I repeat, Obasanjo is an Igbo man from Anambra state. And that was why during his tenure, he completely ignored the South West. For example, throughout his eight years, he did nothing on the Lagos- Ibadan expressway. But he did a lot for his people in the South-East. He picked five Ministers from Anambra where his father comes from and even appointed the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria from Anambra there. So, it is right for the South-West to demand for the Presidency in 2023. What we should be doing now is working towards 2023 to ensure that the Presidency comes to the Southwest. The Southwest has never produced the President before. It has always been the Igbos and the North. Even Goodluck Jonathan when he was president, the Igbos publicly said he is their son and one of his names is ‘Azikiwe’. So, there is no gainsaying the fact that the South-West should produce the president in 2023.

Given the fact that President Buhari is yet to complete two years in his second term, do you think it is too early for people to have started scheming for his successor?

Yes and no. The president’s term will expire in 2023, we are now in 2020.The president and his party by now should be targeting one or two people and therefore they should also be learning from the incumbent so that there can be easy transformation when we get a new president. What usually happens is that we just chose somebody from the blues and he starts all afresh, rather than continuing where the former president has stopped and complete the ongoing project, and starts a new one.

Prominent leaders from the Southern part of the country have said without restructuring and devolution of powers, there will be no general election in 2023. Do you share that view?

I don’t share that view. The 2023 elections will hold whether they like it or not. I strongly stand with the report of the 2014 national conference. I was part of it and all the people of Nigeria agreed unanimously on the recommendations reached at that conference. So, they should implement that 2014 national conference report. But what the federal government under President Muhammadu Buhari is saying is that when there was a Southern president in charge, he did not implement the report. Why are we now forcing President Buhari to implement it when he was not the one who convened the conference? But to me, I believe it doesn’t matter. If the decision reached the conference is useful, let us make use of it. And I think they should send it to the National Assembly to do the needful. For anybody to say they have to restructure the country or else elections will not hold, I think they are drunk. There is nothing more than that. I don’t believe in people who just wake up overnight and think that everybody must share their own predicament. Every Nigerian has a right to rightful governance. For somebody to be saying they have to divide Nigeria if something is not done, I don’t think that is the proper way to go. You will see that most of them are disgruntled and failed politicians who gather together, believing that is the only way out for them. I don’t believe many things that people say without proof or support. I think we have a very good constitution but how to use it effectively, that is the problem.

There is this belief that Asiwaju is only popular in the South and not the North. Do you think he will get the needed support from the northern part of the country if he decides to contest?

Those saying Asiwaju will not get the support of northerners are wrong because the man is even more popular and has many supporters in the North than in the South. He is the most influential politician in Nigeria today. Even his northern friends have more access to him than those of us in the South here. As far as I am concerned, in Nigeria today, it is either people vote by conscience or by ethnicity. Don’t also forget, quite a lot of Yoruba today are in the North, Kogi, Kwara, Kano and other parts of the North. Even in Benue, some Yoruba are there, just like the Igbo. So, Asiwaju’s popularity goes beyond the Southern part of the country and I believe Nigerians will support him overwhelmingly if he decides to run.
https://www.independent.ng/those-saying-2023-elections-wont-hold-if-nigeria-is-not-restructured-are-drunk-adefuye/

That’s been kind, more like political infants mixed up with faint insanity. The same people that have never voted in their life ever say the election will not hold?

this man needs to go for insanity test

Fulani southern willing tool...self interest politics

This man seems to be the newest zombies and the south west analogue of Junaid Mohammed.

Drunk indeed. So if Buhari did not restructure, he will remain in office for life

Haa

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I don’t believe all these talks about Obasanjo paternity. Senator Adefuye should stop joking with all this rubbish.

Ebora Owu is omo Yoruba ponbele. Until he comes out by himself to denounce his Yorubaness, then I don’t think the media should be pushing this rubbish narrative.

However I believe what he said about those who are expecting 2023 election not to hold because of restructuring as drunkards.

If Nigerians don't shock these FOOLS! by 2023 then its finish. They reduced us to this rubbish permutation of thieves for presidency.

If to say my papa explain Nigeria well 4 me. I 4 no do science

They have promised him one juicy political post come 2023 that he doesn't want to lose


GREED GO DRY NIGERIAN ACCOUNT LIKE HAMATTAN