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Chief Ayo Adebanjo.
Aremo Osoba, left with Jagaban Borgu, Bola Tinubu.

Two former governors, Aremo Olusegun Osoba (Ogun State) and Jagaban Borgu, Chief Bola Tinubu (Lagos State) have been challenged to declare their stands on restructuring of Nigeria; a stance that many Nigerians believe is a major panacea to the political problems of the country.

Chief Ayo Adebanjo, an ardent disciple of the late sage and for premier of defunct Western Nigeria, Chief Obafemi Awolowo handed down the challenge when he accused Osoba and Tinubu of timidity, deception and marketing the Yoruba for President Muhammadu Buhari, knowing that the president is averse to restructuring even though it was part of his campaign message, and that Osoba and Tinubu lacked the courage to make an open declaration in support of restructuring.

Adebanjo in an interview with Vanguard newspaper, accused the duo of selling out and dared them to publicly declare their support for restructuring of the country the way the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church, Pastor Enoch Adeboye, Elder statesman and South-South Leader, Chief E.K. Clark and legal luminary, Chief Afe Babalola (SAN) have done.

Vanguard had reported that accused Osoba, Tinubu and others of destroying Alliance for Democracy (AD), sold out on the position of Afenifere for restructuring, even as they worked hard to disunite the Yoruba pan socio-political group.

Osoba denied the allegations. In an interview with Vanguard, he accused the elder statesman of being responsible for Afenifere’s breakup and not himself and Tinubu. He vowed to return fire-for-fire since Adebanjo has always been belligerent against him; Osoba accused the nonagenarian of being too dictatorial as he was trying to shut the Yoruba out from the 2023 zoning equation for Ndigbo.

Adebanjo in his reaction to Osoba’s claims declined to engage in personal issues with the former governor of Ogun state, pointing out that the issues were straight forward and not personal.

“In accused Osoba, Tinubu and others of sell-out on the issue of restructuring; let them answer the question. Did they sell out or not? What is their stand on restructuring? Let them declare their stand the way Pastor Adeboye, E.K. Clark, Afe Babalola has declared. We want to save Nigeria. It is not a personal issue,” he said.

Pointing out that they are just deceiving themselves, Chief Adebanjo said: “How can you make constitutional conference of a country underground? That is why I said Awolowa is the father of true federalism. That was why I said that was the programme of which he was elected. Afenifere, NADECO didn’t want to take part in Abdulsalami Abubakar’s constitutional conference. Our stand was when you get your civilian government go and do it but the pressure was high and that is what is happening now.

“That is why I said they are just deceiving the people. They have sold out and they are marketing Yoruba people for Buhari because they don’t want restructuring and they don’t to face him and say it openly! I dared them to make a statement publicly supporting restructuring,” Adebanjo taunted them.
• Source: Vanguard