BIAFRA IS DEAD AND BURIED – PDP Leader Akinjide

Richard Akinjide served as minister of Justice and Attorney General in the Second Republic government of President Shagari. Akinjide was a frontline member of the defunct National Party of Nigeria, NPN and served as the party’s legal adviser prior to his appointment as attorney general.

He is a member of the PDP Board of Trustees. In this interview with Vanguard, he reviews the actions and inactions of the Buhari government, the prospects of PDP following its recent electoral loss:

You have not been so visible in politics in recent times. Is it age or you are just playing it cool?
I am a prominent member of the Board of Trustees of the PDP and I play very active role in Ibadan, Oyo State and in other parts of the country. So I am very active in the PDP.

Apart from the former Minister of State for FCT, Oloye Jumoke Akinjide, is there any of your other children who is also in politics?
All of them. Abayomi who also is a lawyer is very active in politics, Mobola, my daughter is very active in politics and if you count Jumoke that makes them three, so my family is very active in politics.

What is your assessment of the assignment of portfolios to the ministers?
He nominated very good people, I have no doubt about that. But my concern is with Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory. When we were in Lagos as Federal Capital, Yar'Adua was a Minister for Lagos and he came from the North. When Obasanjo was in office before the Capital Territory was created, a Yoruba person was in charge. But since the Capital Territory has been created, Northerners have been ministers throughout. I don’t think that is the best for the country.

I will like to see an Igbo, Yoruba, Middle-Belt person be a minister in charge of the Capital Territory. To consistently pick someone from the North as Minister for the Capital Territory is not in our national interest and is not good. I am not saying the people that have been picked are bad but I am talking about geographical spread. We should not give the impression that the capital territory belongs to a particular part of the country. It should be something that belongs to the whole country. That is the objection I have and I hope that will be corrected very soon.

Since President Buhari assumed office six months ago, how can you rate his performance in the fight against terrorism?
He has been trying his best. I mean there are areas in which I might have done things differently but overall, I will give him a good pass mark as president of the country.

So Nigerians did not make mistake voting him as the President?
I would not say Nigerians have made mistake although I would have preferred Goodluck Jonathan to win the election. But since he has been elected, I accept the election and we will support him to succeed.

In your wealth of wisdom, what do you think the president should do to make this country better?
Economically, Nigeria is the greatest in Africa. There is no doubt about that. But, we have a committee of 20 of which South Africa is a member and Nigeria is not, I don’t think that can be supported at all. Nigeria should be one of the people in the committee of 20, why Nigeria is excluded, I don’t understand at all. It cannot be defended, it cannot be justified. We should not be looked upon as if we are the colony of Europe or somebody who should be playing third or fourth role in that regard. Europe and America, Japan are wrong.

What is your candid advice to both FG and Pro Biafran protesters on the Biafran agitation?
Anybody supporting Biafra must be very, very wrong. I don’t know their reason but whatever their reason, they are wrong. We fought a war for three years over Biafra and Biafra was defeated and the whole country united with the belief that Nigeria should remain one country and the Igbo joined the country and since then they have been governors in the country, they have been ministers both at the state and federal levels. They have been ambassadors abroad. I don’t see why anybody should now be asking for Biafra again, I think it should be rejected.

I think they should call them to a meeting and talk to them as father to son and ask them to stop because there is no reason for them to do what they are doing. In the last government, we had an Igbo as Minister of Finance (Dr. Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala) and also, we had an Igbo as Secretary to the government, we also had Igbo as ambassadors in many parts of the world. So, there is no excuse for anybody to say he wants to break up the country again after we fought a bloody war of about three years. We don’t want to go back to that. We want peace everywhere and we want a fair share whether you are from the North, East, West, South, Middle-Belt everything should be evenly and fairly distributed.

While you say you are still active in politics but the likes of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, and Edwin Clark have chosen to opt out of politics. Do you think it is good for the polity when men of your stature are opting out one by one?

Those people you have mentioned have positions and are statesmen. There is no way they can get out of politics. It is in our blood; it is part of our life and it is in the national interest for us to be actively involved in politics and in governance. I will forever be in politics throughout my life, I will not opt out of it at all either as an adviser or as a statesman. In whatever form that is appropriate, I will definitely play some role in the national interest.