Elder statesman and former Special Adviser to ex- President Shehu Shagari, Alhaji Tanko Yakasai has said the southern part of the country lacks any moral basis to agitate for restructuring of the country. Th is, according to him, is because they outnumbered the north in the 1979 Constitution Drafting Committee. He said the 1999 Constitution is a replica of the 1979 Constitution, stressing that out of the 59-member CDC in 1979, only 19 of them were of northern extraction. And contrary to the notion in some quarters, the elder statesman also absolved the military of imposing a Constitution on the nation.
“Quote me, it is a lie, the military did not impose the constitution on us,” Yakasai said. Yakasai, who is the chairman, Northern Elders Council spoke in an exclusive interview with Blueprint in Abuja. He observed that the same people who drafted the Nigerian Constitution are the ones campaigning against it under the guise of restructuring. He listed notable southerners on the committee to include; Rotimi Williams, Richard Akinjide, Ben Nwabueze, Bola Ige, all SANs among others.
“Th e campaign against this Constitution, the restructuring debate were started by people who took part in drafting the 1979 Constitution; people like Rotimi Williams, Richard Akinjide, Professor Ben Nwabueze and the rest of them. And all the things they are saying were there in the Constitution making (drafting) committee of 1979 and they submitted it to the Constituent Assembly of 1979 and it was adopted. “Th ere are three people who sat down and took the1999 Constitution and compared it with the 1979 Constitution. Th ey followed it page by page, paragraph by paragraph and they concluded that the 1999 Constitution is basically the same with 1979 Constitution. “I can assure you 95% of the constitution was what they recommended.
Akinjide, Nwabueze chaired sub committees of that 59-member drafting committee, which Rotimi Williams headed. Th ere were seven committees, four of the committees were headed by southerners” he said. He continued: “Rotimi Williams chaired the committee for the drafting of the report of the conference, Nwabueze was a member, Richard Akinjide was a member.
Among them, majority of them were southerners, from the west, east and south-south. From 1979 to date, we have been operating that constitution, heaven did not fall. “Quote me, it is a lie, the military did not impose Constitution on us. If the 1999 Constitution is 95%a replica of the 1979 which was drafted by out of 59 members, only 19 were northerners”. Th e elder statesman believed that agitators of restructuring were lacking in ideas, saying all the energies being dissipated on debates on restructuring, IPOB, Biafra could have been used for the economic development of Nigeria. “Th ese are people who are lacking in ideas.
All the time we are wasting, they are lacking in ideas. Otherwise, all the energies we are expending or wasting on debates about restructuring, IPOB, Biafra etc, could have been better used for the economic development of the country. “If we could have done that, we would have taken Nigeria many miles ahead of what we agitate. You can imagine how many pages of newspapers that have been wasted on this debate. We are wasting time on something that is not important. Why I said it is not important is that this Constitution (1999), which we are operating, it is now 18 years, did we die? Did heaven fall?” he quipped.
Speaking on the nation’s 57th independence, Yakasai opined that the nation has not fared badly, explaining that the development of the country was impaired by military incursion into politics. “During the period, we have recorded tremendous progress in the fi eld of education, health care, politics, business etc. By 1960, Nigeria had only an Ibadan University College. Th e British from 1900 to 1960, for 60 years, they could only give us one Ibadan University College. And during our independence, within a period of 57 years we have got over 150 universities, apart from polytechnics and other tertiary institutions.
“Th e only thing is that we have not made very good progress in the fi eld of democracy and administration. And this is largely brought about by military incursion into our politics. Th e period we spent under military rule we didn’t make much progress as compared to Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, India and many other countries. “We have made a lot of success, but we did not make tremendous success, compared with the success we recorded in terms of education, healthcare and also economic development” Yakasai added. He said, “by October 1st, 1960, you could count the numbers of millionaires in Nigeria.
Today, you cannot, you cannot count even the number of billionaires. In fact Nigeria has produced the richest man in Africa. “All the banks in the country today are owned by Nigerians. At independence, we had three or four banks and they were not owned by Nigerians, they were owned by foreigners. Today, all our banks are owned by Nigerians. Th ere are so many areas that we have made tremendous progress. “At 57, we should face the problem of development that oil is going to fi nish very soon. But if we can develop industry, agriculture, we have the population, we have arable land. We have the capability to grow any crop in Nigeria. I can assure you in a matter of ten years, Nigeria will be a diff erent country and people who travelled out would come back”, Yakasai assured
