Sola Adeyemo 
The pan-Yoruba socio- cultural organisation, Afenifere, yesterday called for a return to the 1963 Constitution that birthed true federalism or convene a meeting of ethnic nationalities on how to restructure the nation before the 2023 elections. The group said this in a communiqué issued after the meeting of the leaders across the South West held in the residence of its Acting Leader, Chief Ayo Adebanjo in Ijebu Igbo, Ogun State.
It was made available to New Telegraph in Ibadan by its National Publicity Secretary, Comrade Jare Ajayi. Among the participants that came from all the states in the South West, as well as, Kwara and Kogi states, were the Deputy Leader, Oba Oladipo Olaitan, the Assistant Secretary General, Honourable Leke Mabinuori, Chief Cornelius Adebayo, Dr Olusegun Mimiko, Chief Supo Sonibare, Abagun Kole Omololu, Senator Kofoworola Bucknor-Akerele, Senator Gbenga Kaka, Chief Dayo Duyile, Dr Yomi Atte, Prof Opeyemi Agbaje Comrade and to mention a few.
Having deliberated on various issues concerning the Nigeria nation particularly in the ways that they affect the Yorubas including the social, political, security and economic situations of the country, as well as, the consistent advocacy by Dr Ahmed Gumi on the government to pardon terrorists and to even compensate them in various ways, the group said that most, if not all, of the problems bedevilling Nigeria would not have arisen if the original constitution agreed upon by our Founding Fathers had not been jettisoned. While insisting that “the country should go back to the 1963 Constitution that was abrogated by the military”, the group recalled that “during the struggle for Independence and the mantra of ‘One Nigeria’ was being sung, Chief Obafemi Awolowo insisted that federalism is the only system of government that could sustain Nigeria as a country.
The Federal Constitution enabled Nigeria to progress very well until the military scuttled the republican federal Constitution in 1966. We have been consistent in opposing the military midwifed Constitution. Afenifere, through Alliance for Democracy (AD), participated in the 1999 elections, not because we believe in that Constitution but to let the South West stand politically in Nigeria. “That was why we advocated for the Sovereign National Conference (SNC). Although, the past administration of Dr Jonathan Goodluck did a National Conference rather than the SNC that we advocated.
It is on record that the report of the said Confab was never implemented. This is why we have again consistently been calling for a renegotiation of the basis of our staying together as a country,” they said. In the alternative, the group said that: “The meeting of ethnic nationalities and related Stakeholders should be conveyed. Such a meeting would provide an opportunity for all of us to redefine the basis of staying together. We are still very much convinced that it is in either of the two propositions that the solution to the numerous problems afflicting Nigeria lie.”
