Exclusive interview: Travel restrictions, long overdue – Odumakin

…Says youths protesting against Amotekun are hungry and misguided
National publicity secretary of Yoruba group, Yinka Odumakin, shoots straight from the hip. He is not given to pretences neither is he swayed by emotions but reveals his passion about issues affecting the cohesion of the country and proved solutions to her many crisis. As for him, the travel ban on 13 countries by the federal government is long overdue.
In another breadth he describes youths protesting against South west security outfit,Amotekun as misguided youths who are been influenced by the hunger in the land by their sponsors who never meant well for the Yoruba.
He is also of the opinion that deposed Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, is only paying for his misdeeds and should not be taken seriously. Excerpts in this interview by Tunde Abatan
What is your take on the decision of Lagos state house of assembly to allow non natives who have lived in Lagos for 20 years to join Amotekun.Does it not negate the principle of regional autonomy?
The wisdom of the Assembly is about the cosmopolitan nature of Lagos and that anybody who has been there for 20 years must have developed some roots. What must happen in implementation is that such people must not dominate the outfit. And Miyetti Allah must not be allowed to take over the outfit under such guise as their activities do not show that they have developed any good feeling for their host community.
It would make it another Nigerian Police if non-natives are allowed to dominate the outfit as it would become making those who do not know road to lead a search party.
Do you read any political motive into it more so when Lagos is the only state in the south west that have stipulated such provision?
You can not rule out political pandering here in the way a Fulani man has been made to be in charge of waterways in Lagos.
The important thing at this stage is not to allow such pandering to derail the overall objective of the Amotekun scheme to remedy the failure of single policing in Nigeria.
How do you see the Bill before the National assembly on provision of overseas education for repentant Boko haram members.would it help the war on insurgency?
That bill is repugnant, insensitive and a reckless act of provocation. You want the whole of Nigeria to fund foreign education for those who are burning schools at home and killing people daily. This relying of Boko Haram should have some limit. Which Boko Haram has said he wants to go to school? Which countries would open their schools to such elements except in countries where they would further be radicalized?
All they are doing is to take back what was spent on Niger Delta boys who were not engaged in acts of terror on their own favorite terrorists
The measure will only boost insurgency as these people will only go and acquire latest techniques in terrorism to boost their cap acity and put the country in further pains
What is your view on the travails of deposed Emir of Kano,Sanusi Lamidi Sanusi.
Do you agree with those saying he is reaping what he sew?
I do not have much regards for those who deposed and neither do I hold him highly too given his antecedents as a bigot and a symbol of extremism in our national life.
A SHARiA Scholar like him should not have risen so high in a plural society.. We have not forgotten how he ran the CBN like an emirate and was donating our money all over the place like his personal inheritance. The whole CBN was awashed with corruption allegations. He was busy awarding frivolous contracts to his friends and cronies like the N5b contract he awarded to El-Rufai to construct an event Centre.
Look at even the accusations against him about how was expending Kano Emirate fund and yet he makes all sorts of precepts he cannot follow all over the place.
Only the unwary would hold him up as different from what he rails against.
For as long as the earth remains, seed time and harvest will not cease.
How do you see the letter by Alaafin of Oyo,Oba Lamidi Adeyemi 111 to the Governor of Ekiti state,Dr Kayode Fayemi,on the attitude to Obas in the region? The Alaafin intervention w as very noble and a royal attempt to preserve the Obaship institution in Yorubaland. It is one of our sacred imstutions. And was thrilled to see Dr Kayode Fayemi visiting Alaafin and greeting him like a proper omoluabi. I commend the Ooni who facilitated a peace meeting that has led to those issues being resolved.
What is your take on the protest by some youths against the Amotekun Bill after it has been passed into law by the states houses of assembly?
Those are misguided youth being procured by the enemies of Yoruba nation to against their own best interest. It only shows the level of hunger in the land to get people to play such shameful role
On the decision of the federal government on travel restrictions to and from 13 countries in the face of Coronavirus pandemic?
The travel control is long overdue as we can no longer ignore the threat this pandemic poses.