Ayo Adebanjo, acting leader of Afenifere, the pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, has said he warned Nigerians against voting for President Muhammadu Buhari, who he described as a dictator, in the 2015 presidential election.
Adebanjo said this in an interview on Wednesday while responding to a question on the president’s recent comment on his experience during the civil war.
President Buhari had on Tuesday condemned the attacks on police stations, prisons and offices of the Independent National Electoral Commission, especially in the South-East, warning that those supporting insurrection and violence in the country would be shocked.
“Many of those misbehaving today are too young to be aware of the destruction and loss of lives that occurred during the Nigerian Civil War. Those of us in the fields for 30 months, who went through the war, will treat them in the language they understand,” the president had written in a now-deleted Twitter post.
Reacting, Adebanjo said it is regrettable that a duly elected civilian president could make such a statement.
According to him, President Buhari still thinks like the soldier that he was, adding that he lacks respect for the rule of law.
“It is a very unfortunate statement from the President of a democratic country. I was very sad when I heard it,” Adebanjo said on Channels Television’s Politics Today.
“When I was informed, I thought it couldn’t be but I am not surprised. It is those of you who voted for Buhari in 2015 that should be amazed. I warned you then that this man is a dictator. He was born a feudalist. He is trained as a dictator and he has no respect for the rule of law.
“Let us all realise the fact that the problem of the country today against unity and peace is President Buhari. He is not on the same page as those looking for the unity and peace of this country.”
The Afenifere leader argued that the 1999 constitution was imposed on Nigerians by the military government, stating that it is unnecessary to amend such a constitution.
He insisted that a new constitution similar to the 1963 constitution is what the country needs at the moment.
“We cannot amend a constitution we didn’t make.
“When you say, ‘we the people of the federal republic’, did we make the constitution? Are we federal? Did we make the constitution? False. Are we federal? False. It was imposed on us by the military. That is the fact,” he said.
