OSHIOMOLE WAS A LABOUR DEALER AND NEVER A LEADER -YINKA ODUNMAKIN

Yinka Odunmakin is the Secretary of the splinter group of Pan- Yoruba socio-political association, Afenifere, Afenifere Renaissance and Save Nigeria Group, a civil society group that was at the forefront of the recent oil subsidy removal protest. The spokesperson of the presidential candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Gen. Mohammodu Buhari (Rtd) in this interview with Rotimi Sulyman and Adewale Ogunniran speaks on the 5-day tumultuous street protests among other sundry issues.

YINKA ODUNMAKIN

 The Save Nigeria Group came into being in the recent past, what led to the formation of the group?
Save Nigeria Group came up as an intervention group in the dying days of former President Yar’Adua, when a cabal did not allow the current president to assume office as the ruling president. At that time, there was what was generally being called power vacuum.  The fact was that power was hijacked and was exercised by people who in the first place had no business with the power of the president. That was why we met on the 7^th of January, 2010, and reasoned that there was an urgent need for concrete action. With people from the civil societies groups, we had our first protest march in Abuja, and the second in Lagos, and later returned to Abuja. This, among others, forced the Senate to pass the doctrine of necessity. All that period, we never met President Jonathan, and didn’t even care to meet him or know him, because what we were doing was not for him but based on the principles of democracy. It was after the doctrine of necessity was passed that we met President Jonathan as a group, and he thanked us profusely for what we did. But interestingly, just two years after, the same President who benefitted from our protest march has turned around, and is now the one sending troop to disperse peaceful protesters.
 It is obvious that relations between the presidency and the SNG are strained. Do you regret the supports you gave President Jonathan in the past?
Mind you, we never had any relationship before. Also, no bitterness or resentment or disappointment whatsoever, because we didn’t do what we did for President Jonathan but to preserve the constitution of Nigeria, and prevent anarchy. The night the late President Yar’Adua was brought back to the country, troops were deployed without his knowledge, which was heavily criticized. That he is now deploying troop against us, means nothing to us. It only shows that he was part of the forces we were fighting then, only that he was at the receiving end. He has shown us enough signs why we should not be surprised at what he is doing now. Don’t forget that shortly after he became acting president, he started showing his true colour, condoning impunity. In Bauchi State, the governor, Isa Yuguda was his campaign coordinator in Northwest, and when he joined PDP from ANPP, the deputy governor stayed back in ANPP, and his impeachment was arranged. The deputy governor went to court and the court ruled that the impeachment was wrong, and the man should be re-instated. But that was not to be, because Yuguda refused, and we confronted President Jonathan but he had nothing to say. When nine members of Ogun State Assembly sacked 15 members, ex-governor Gbenga Daniel was his campaign coordinator in Southwest, he couldn’t call him to order. All he could do was to seal up the assembly. He was just playing politics with critical issues because his friends were involved.
In your first meeting with the president, it is reported that the SNG were offered 50 thousand pounds by the president. It is believed in certain quarter that the group received the money, and that even before then, President Jonathan gave financial supports to the group. How true is this?
We challenge the president and his allies to come out and tell the Nigerian people if money ever exchanged hands between him, and the SNG. The only occasion they offered us money was through Godsday Orubebe who brought the 50 thousand pounds to us as we were going out of the villa gate, when we met the president for the first and last time. And we told Orubebe that we didn’t want the money. In fact it almost became an embarrassment. So, we were forced to go with it to our hotel room. And immediately we got there at Nicon Hilton, I think room 180, we called Uronto Douglas to tell him that we didn’t want the money, and returned it back to him in full sum. We were shocked to read on an online journal that we met President Jonathan, and he gave us 50 thousand pounds. So, we had no choice but to respond to the issue. Similarly Uronto called, to tell us that though we gave the money to him but he was going to deny it.
So, where does SNG source for money to fund its activities, and is it true that you get financial supports from some wealthy politicians, particularly, former governor of Lagos State, Bola Ahmed Tinubu?
Well, I, Yinka Odunmakin do what I do because of my belief, and not for material gains. Again, we at SNG are not indigent people, we have people among us who are blessed. The Convener, Pastor Tunde Bakare has done quite a lot in terms of funding, likewise other members. This is not to say that one or two people have not made donations to us. I can tell you not Tinubu or any politician. Even money from these people paid into our account is still there in the bank. We have not even spent a dime from it, and anyway we are not planning to spend a penny from it. Our plan is that if we meet them today, we will hand over their money to them.
  It seems there is crisis in SNG with the recent pronouncement of a member of the group, where he condemned your activities and that of Pastor Bakare in the recent oil subsidy removal protest, and declared that the two of you are no longer members?
There is no crisis whatsoever. It is just that the media is not critical enough, and is giving its pages to any riff-raff. Who is this person? I don’t even want to mention his name. It was Femi Falana who invited him to Lagos for the oil subsidy removal protest meeting, and when he came, he was asking us for transport fare that would take him back to his base, which was quite strange. He is not even part of SNG because he has not joined us either as an individual or a group. So, somebody who had no transport fare is now being invited to Aso Rock and was given money to rubbish us.
SNG’s position was that the federal government should reverse back to the old pump price but labour later caved in. With this, is SNG disappointed in labour?       
Don’t let us say NLC or TUC entirely but with the controlling leadership. We know that there are people who are not happy with what they did. In fact there are some states chapters that defied the orders. It is the controlling body of labour, the Abdulwaheed Omar, the Peter Esele, and the rest of them who are Oshiomole’s protégés. Oshiomole over the years is a known labour dealer. In all those period of Obasanjo and the rest when they want to increase fuel price, the government would first meet with him to plan how labour should go about its strike action. After he has collected whatever he so wishes from government, he would call for strike, and before you know it, he has called it off. That was what they were going to do this time around too. Don’t forget that at the beginning of this protest, Reuben Abati came out to make a statement that labour should not forget their agreement with government. And so from the first day, we knew what labour would do. In fact our street protest was more impactful. We don’t call them labour leaders but labour dealers.
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