THE General Overseer of the Latter Rain Assembly, Pastor Tunde Bakare, has joined the growing voice of notable Nigerians rooting for the restructuring of the country.
Bakare, pastor, politician and activist, told Northern leaders opposing restructuring of the country that they are not following the footsteps of their forefathers.
He spoke at the golden remembrance lecture, entitled: ‘Fajuyi and the Politics of Remembrance,’ organised by the Yoruba Think-Tank for former military governor of the defunct Western Region, Lt. Col Adekunle Fajuyi.
Fajuyi was murdered in a counter-coup of July 29, 1966, along with the visiting Head of State, Major Gen Thomas Aguiyi- Ironsi. The lecture, delivered by a literary giant, Prof Niyi Osundare, was held at the International Conference Centre of the University of Ibadan.
They also called for recognition and commemoration of Fajuyi as a hero that died for unity and progress of Nigeria.
Bakare said, “Any anti-restructuring position taken by the North would bring to the courts of historical opinion the sincerity of the motives of the perpetrators of the counter-coup that led to the death of Adekunle Fajuyi.
“The elders of the North, who, today, are opposed to the call to restructure Nigeria have deviated from the ideals of the founding fathers of Northern Nigeria such as the Sardauna of Sokoto, Sir Ahmadu Bello and former Prime Minister, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa; leaders of our nation who were forerunners of Fajuyi in the Nigerian hall of martyrdom.”
The great Nigerian leaders from the North, he said, made it clear in the series of constitutional conferences that heralded Nigeria’s independence that true federalism with regional autonomy was the only condition under which they would exist within the Nigerian nation.
“Need we remind those in opposition to restructuring today that one of the main grouses of Nigerians of northern extraction within the army and civil society after the first coup was the abrogation of the federal system by the Aguiyi- Ironsi led government
“This, without doubt, was the main reason the northern leaders and the counter-coupists, who took the lives of Aguiyi-Ironsi and Fajuyi demanded a reversal of the unification decree and a return to the federal system of government.
“Consequently, to oppose restructuring now, 50 years after, is to confirm the words of Aesop that ‘the injury we do and the one we suffer are not weighed in the same scales.’
“In case it is not clearly understood by the antagonists of restructuring, whether they be from the North or the south, let me make it clear that the call for restructuring is a demand for true federalism; a demand for federating units that can truly self-administer like the regions in the days of our founding fathers, a demand for the prosperity of the constituent parts that make up the whole.
“It is therefore inconsistent with the interest of the North or the South for the current pseudo-federal structure to persist. If the elders of the North are true elders in this generation, I charge them with the words of the king who ever lived: Do not remove the ancient landmark which your fathers have set.”
In the lecture, Osundare noted that a country would be known by the kind of people it remembers and by the kind of people it chooses not to remember, adding: “Show me your hero and I will tell you who you are. Because in Nigeria, our memory is so scanty and skewed, we do not only remember differentlyj much more frightfully, we remember defectively.
He argued that the Federal Government sanctions the gross devaluation of worth or integrity by the way it doles out its ‘national honours’ to some recipents who are notorious treasury looters, election riggers and so on.
A four-point communique issued at the end of the programme, urged the state governments to restore the teaching of History in primary and secondary schools in South-West, adding that government should conduct regional examinations, and issue certificates, on it for the students.
“Yoruba Language should be a compulsory subject in our schools, and our Houses of Assembly should use it as is now done in the Lagos State House of Assembly,” the communique read in part.
Dignitaries in attendance included Ondo State governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko; Chairman of Ohanaeze Ndigbo for African Region, Sir Oliver Akubueze; and the Alani of Ido-Ani, Gen Olufemi Olutoye (retd).
