It’s unjust to charge protesters with treason, says Gani Adams

Aare Ona Kankanfo of Yoruba land, Otunba Gani Adams, seldom speaks on national issues. But the frontline activist, who was among the fighters for the actualisation of June 12 polls is uncomfortable with developments in the country today. In this interviews with CHINYERE ABIAZIEM he expresses his grievances over some of President Bola Tinubu’s policies and their impact on the people

Not a few Nigerians were surprised reading your recent open letter to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. In that open letter, you used some very harsh words to describe Tinubu’s government. To the extent that you said the President has failed, couldn’t you have been more lenient on the President and his government? Some feel that you, as a Yoruba leader, should not have made that open letter. What is your reaction?
I will start from the last question. I, as a Yoruba leader, if I keep quiet on the wrongdoing of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, in four years, or even in eight years, if another tribesman becomes a president, if I talk, what would Nigerians say? The perception of some people is that because I kept quiet for about 16 months, I had been bought over by the government. Let us start from the beginning of his government. When he came on board, the first day, in his speech, he laid down sorrow for the entire Nigerians. We read the speech that was written for him. There was no removal of fuel subsidies there.

Verbally, he said fuel subsidy is gone. That day, we had a meeting in Lekki, in Lagos State, and we tried to watch the inauguration. Immediately after the closing of the ceremony, we moved.You know, the speech became a policy immediately. All the fuel stations closed down to wait for the arrival of the new pump price. The sorrow started from that day. Some people called me, and I said, let’s wait for him in the next six months. He is our brother.

We tried to digest him after six months. We realized his policy is multi-taxation in various sectors. For instance, people always rush to get an admission in federal universities because they are much cheaper. Now when you get an admission to a federal university, it is even more costlier than state university. I’m not talking about private universities. The Minister of Education increased the school fees by about 500 per cent. In the health sector, government hospitals are even more costly than private clinics or hospitals.

Talking about the forex, it is the worst. I’m a regular traveler. Do you believe I haven’t traveled out of this country this year? I have about 15 invitations, because of the cost implication, I could not travel and I have groups abroad. Former President Buhari left Naira at 740 for one Dollar. In January, it was up to N2,000 for one Dollar. Now, it is N1,600 or something to one dollar. While one pound is about N2,200.

Talking of electricity, we are in Band A here. If we do not shut down our lights or use generators and if we want to pay for the tariffs, it is about N400,000 per month for this duplex. My children have been taken to the U.K. Although I didn’t agree with my wife in the beginning, they have taken the four children to the U.K because of the expenses of the school here.
Look, if you are being destroyed by the government and you keep quiet, the person destroying you did not commit the sin. You that kept quiet is the one that committed the sin. Ordinarily, I could have not waited for 16 months to react to this government. It is because he is a Yoruba man and we have to be conscious of tribe in politics. The issue of tribe is number one in any politics in the world.The first thing that decides any politics is tribe.The second is religion. The third is the establishment which is the third state to decide what will happen in any politics, especially the seat I occupy as the Aare Ona Kakanfo. I was very, very careful to issue a statement against him.

This is because the ordinary people on the street will say, ‘why is Aare Ona Kakanfo attacking his kinsmen that is a president?’ I was reluctant.
When the end of the bad governance protest was held and it was painful what Nigerian Police and the security did to the protesters.I was in that shoe. I started protesting against the military, against anti-democracy, against the amendment of June 12th at the age of 23 years. As I was watching it (the protest) online, I was reluctant to say anything. Even when Professor Wole Soyinka issued a statement and condemned it, what did I say? These are the young ones protesting for good governance, but I could not say anything. This is because I did not want to say anything, otherwise they would say, ‘Aare is encouraging them to destroy my government.’ I listened to the demands of these young guys. I do not know them. The only person I know in that protest is Sowore. Sowore and I have not seen eye to eye for more than 20 years and Onagoruwa happens to be my lawyer. But I listened to the demands of these young guys. The 10 or 12 demands are what Nigeria needs.

How do you see the arrest and charges?
You arrested about 3,000 people after the protests. In normal protests, police know what to charge protesters. You charge them for treason and terrorism. If you charge a protester with a placard with terrorism, what will you charge Boko Haram? What will you charge the terrorist that is disturbing you people in Zamfara, that was even taking money from the community every month?
Now, Mr. President, has increased the fuel pump price, three times. Before, when he came on board it sold for N530. After about three to four months, they jacked it up to N680. Now you jacked it up to N870. Three times within 16 months. Even if you are paying N70,000 to civil servants, how can they survive? Fuel is being sold at the petrol station, for N1,000 to 1,500. Someone working in the office, salary cannot even solve the problem of fuel price, not talking of eating, what we eat. We are talking of a bag of rice now at N95,000, how will we survive?

Some people might be seeing the kind of letter you wrote as maybe simply being the arrowhead of a group of Yoruba people who are jealous of Tinubu and his ascendancy to the office…
How will I be jealous of his office? When he came to power, even before he came to power, I did not antagonize him.I did not make a categorical statement when they were campaigning. His people came to me, I said, ‘okay, go ahead.’ In his wisdom, Peter Obi was here for three hours.This man said a lot of things that were encouraging to make me endorse him. But because I was very, very careful, I could not endorse him and I could not endorse anybody. This is because my conscience will not rest. If this man can come with his personality to my house for three hours early in the morning, in fact it was in the media. He (Tinubu) did not come, though he is my brother.

He did not even invite me that we should meet in any way or to come anywhere. But he sent people and at the end of the day started pouching on my structure but I kept quiet. This is because I know the implication of saying anything against him as a Yoruba man.

I kept quiet, I played my notoriety. It is not because I am fearing anybody.Politics is of local interest. Every human being is a political animal. When he was sworn in, I wrote a letter of congratulations, not even in private. I sent it to the media and I have written about three letters to him on the state of the nation, not any reply. Most of the things I said in this letter, some are part of the letters. I wrote to him earlier about the fuel price increment, that even if you cannot bring it to the price of Buhari, reduce the amount you add to it.
I advised him about social security. I am a regular traveler. One of the issues that solve the issue of insecurity in Western world is social security. I advised him about structural imbalance in the letter, no reply. In my own lifetime, I have dealt with former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo, Yar’dua, Jonathan, Buhari and him. I wrote the four leaders before him and they replied to me through their Chief of Staff. It may not be all they replied but they normally reply. What would they put in that letter? Confidential, that you should not publish it. It is between the president and I.
Whereas I have written four letters, no reply. People started to call me. ‘You are the Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yoruba land, will you be watching us? All these things that are bouncing on us, what’s your effort?’ Before you know it, people will be saying different things on social media, like what is the reason for creating Aare Ona Kakanfo? Before I became the Aare Ona Kakanfo, I had been fighting for the cause of Nigeria and Yoruba people. Now I am on this seat, will I be silent on what will destroy the future of my children and the generation that is coming.
You cannot keep quiet when somebody at the helms of affairs wants to destroy your future. Multiple taxation, anti-people’s policies and you are trying to justify it, that you are doing reform? When the people you want to govern are dying, you lose thousands of people dying every day, you say you want to carry out reforms? Reform without stopping corruption? You want to carry out reform and you are not stopping corruption. How do you explain that any politicians that defects to your party will not be probed by the EFCC? Any person that is your ally, no matter how much they stole, you will not probe them and you want to reform. There is no way you can reform anywhere in the whole world where you didn’t fight corruption.
The money we have in the hands of politicians and some criminal contractors in Nigeria is enough to solve the problem of this country. Confidently our president was in China. When I saw that video, that was one of the reasons I had to write that letter.

The President or maybe the people that he met said, you people heard that we have increased fuel prices. It is because you people are using a very good road in China. If we don’t increase that price, you can’t have that kind of good road in Nigeria.What we are doing is reforming. We want to reform Nigeria.
Reform to increase the fuel price three times within 16 months? In the time of the military, go and check how subsequent military governments increased fuel prices. If they want to increase fuel price, they will put it at N10 or N20. When the labour and civil societies stand up for protest, after one week they will reduce that N20 to N10 or N8. Go and check. Even in the time of Abacha, the only person who was reluctant to reduce the price spent only 82 days in power, Shonekan.Deliberately, Abacha wanted to take over the government from him.
That was the reason they advised him that he should not reduce it. He was set up but when Abacha was there, if he increased it, when people started protesting or started issuing statements, he would then reduce it even to 40 per cent or 30 per cent.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu our kinsman, when he increases it, he will not reduce Kobo from it. The meaning of that is ‘Go to hell. I am a Commander in Chief. I have an Army with me. I have Police with me. I will deal with you.’ Treason is the word that you hear before that your mind will shake. But they have already demystified the word, treason. Anything ‘we will charge you for treason.’ Treason is more political, it is different from armed robbery and murder.

Treason always goes towards where you want to overthrow the government or you want to take over the government. It is not about when somebody protests. We know the kind of charges the police normally charge protesters for. But you are part and parcel of civil society groups. Tinubu is a political activist. He was in the Senate when the June 12 election was annulled. Immediately the election was annulled, Abacha proscribed all democratic structures and Tinubu joined NADECO in 1994. He was in exile for a period of four years. Even encouraging three radio stations. There is nothing on earth Radio Kudirat did not say against the Abacha government. There is nothing on earth Oduduwa Radio did not say against Abacha. There is nothing on earth Freedom Radio did not say.

You were behind it. Even when Jonathan was in power, you supported pro-democracy activists on various protests. Even Buhari and you protested to the National Assembly against the PDP-led government.

When Jonathan increased the fuel price, your local state television, LTV, was the television that was transmitting the protests in Ojota live. Now you are in government, the first thing you do is that labour must not go on strike, no protest.You went to take injunction. I have never seen a government getting an injunction in Nigeria because it does not want labour to go on strike.
Strike is that if you do not pay us, we sit at home, we will not go to work. You went to court. As a government, you took injunction against the Nigeria Labour Congress. So you took an injunction, you held labour to ransom for six months. The people that were tired and said you should reduce the money of fuel hike, you should reduce electricity tariff, they laid down 10 demands; they said they want N250,000. In dollars, N250,000 is not even up to $200 as the minimum wage.
At the end of the day, you said you will pay N70,000. You did not allow the labour leader to rest. The Police were inviting him every time. They were harassing him. But we do not blame the government. Some labour leaders have turned to cowards. We do not want to have a strong labour leader like the one we had before. TUC is not helping matters. TUC is not flowing the way labour is flowing.

Even labour is still trying. TUC is so weak to the extent that anything the government says TUC would first appreciate it before the labour. Assuming the labour as a body was so active, all those young guys will not come out to say they want to protest. This is because the Labour Congress is the parent body of a lot of activists. It is because every civil society is affiliated to the Nigeria Labour Congress. But because the shoes they are supposed to wear, they did not wear the shoes. Young guys just came and said they cannot continue with this action.
The other day when you arrested him, they started bringing up things. When I heard that they funded the protest with about N80 billion, I was laughing.
If somebody has N2 billion, he can even start the guerrilla war. You cannot be running a government on the basis of deceit, propaganda, and go with it. I am a Yoruba man. I will tell you, I love my race to the core. I am not a tribalist. But politics is about local interests.I love my person/people in power, but I believe in justice. This is because the Yoruba person is not the only person in Nigeria. If we still believe Nigeria should be, the common wealth we have to share the position.