EMMANUEL OLADESU
HE does not relish praise singing. He is not a noise maker, but a silent worker in the vineyard of progressive politics. The lesson of his life is his aversion for primitive accumulation and kleptocracy in high places. For the humble politician who has chosen to always live by example, contentment is great again.
No politician who has come across Olawale Oshun will deny him an applause. He is, simply, a great asset to the polity.
His 70th birthday on March 26 will be a celebration of humility, decency, decorum and dedication to worthy political causes, particularly regional integration and true federalism. Unfortunately, no drums will be rolled out. The event slated for Ibadan to celebrate him has been postponed due to Coronavirus.
Unlike men of the old order-Awo, Zik, Sardauna, Penkelemeesi, Cicero Ige and Ajasin-the current crop of leaders have no time for writing. But, Ijebu-Imushin, Ogun State- born Oshun has enriched our knowledge of contemporary history through the well-researched books he authored. These are: ‘Afenifere and the Infidels,’ Clapping with one hand:June 12 and the crisis of a state-nation’ and ‘The Open Grave: NADECO and the struggle gir democracy.’
Oshun’s greatness is not determined by wealth or material acquisitions. Yet, he is not a political actor without a second address. That may be responsible for his disdain for political desperation and do-or-die politics. Although he has been outside elective and appointive office since 1993, he has carried on with personal dignity, poise and grace. On some occasions when he served as administrative officer, party manager and team leader for party primary in any state, the party secretariat attested to his political experience, administrative acumen, persuasive talent and reconciliation skills.
His associates and relations believe that, personally, he is a fulfilled person. However, Oshun has not been thinking about himself alone, but also about his beleaguered country since the late eighties when he put his hands on the political plough, never to look back, as it were.
As the septugenarian dissects the polity regularly, reality dawns on him that the country of his dream has not been attained. Nigeria has remained a disunited unitary state, instead of a federal nation-state that should guarantee unity in diversity.
Although Oshun has consistently lent his voice to the agitation for federalism as a chieftain of Afenifere, Secretary of National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), and a leader of AD, AC, ACN, and APC, the country is still being held in the Unitary Confinement or Prison. If care is not taken, his generation may not witness the restoration of the federal principle.
Here lies the danger. The country may wobble on in pretension and decay. Its present state of fragility may herald ultimate state failure. Put succinctly, the implication is that there can be no peace in an atmosphere of injustice.
Oshun is highly educated. Not because he is a graduate of the University of Ibadan, where he studied Agricultural Economics, or because he did post-graduate studies in Manpower Development and Planning at the University of Lagos, or because he attended the Times Journalism Institute, Surulere. Those are the restrictive four walls of learning.
Rather, it is because of his induction into the culture of his society and the inculcation of the tradition, customs and mores, which give form, content and predictability to it. It is because be is able to apply all these time-tested values to his life, career and service to his fatherland.
The most outstanding is the concept of ‘omoluabi,’ which is the core of a life of honour, duty, patriotism, integrity and credibility.
Oshun was a pioneer member of the National Youth Service Corps(NYSC). He was in the Federal Civil Service from 1974 to 1984.
From the onset, Oshun perceived politics as an avenue for service to the people. He may have first enlisted as budding politician with idealistic yearnings. His first baptism of fire came when he vied for the chairman of Mainland Council. Politicking is expensive. The race of politics may not be for the fitted. Merit is not always upheld. His permutations appeared faulty. There was shortage of political experience at that level. Thus, he lost. But, he did not return to his shell in frustration.
In 1988, he was elected into the Constituent Assembly set up by the Evil Genius, Military President Ibrahim Babangida, who was implementing a dubious transition programme. The picture of Nigeria as an amalgam of incompatible heterogeneous tribes became clearer to him, based on the dividion, wheeling, dealings and compromises that characterised the Constituent Assembly under the guidance of the military.
Diarchy was foisted on the polity. Political parties were set up and imposed on politicians. While Oshun was a member of the House of Representatives, the National Assembly was being intimidated by the military Executive, and the Judiciary was also being coerced to tow a particular line.
As Chief Whip of the aborted Third Republic House, he was a major player in the military-civilian confrontation triggered by the criminal annulment of the historic, free and fair presidential election won by Chief Moshood Abiola of the defunct Social Democratic Party (SDP).
Oshun was among brave and bold parliamentarians who dared the military by demanding for the de-annulment of the credible poll. It was a risky venture, particularly in the days of the maximum ruler, Gen. Sani Abacha. The detailed account of his involvement makes an interesting reading in his books.
The pro-democracy battle was in vain for obvious reasons. Although IBB was forced to step aside, he deliberately handed over to an interim contraption headed by Chief Ernest Shonekan, who was later toppled by Gen. Abacha, according to the military game plan.
Abiola, the symbol of the struggle, died without realising his mandate.
Also, when civil rule was restored in 1999, federal power landed on the palms of military collaborators, lackeys and confederates.
Oshun became the Secretary of NADECO, following the arrest and detention of Ayo Opadokun in 1994. The struggle had assumed a new dimension and Abacha regime faced the heat. But, Oshun too was later arrested and detained without trial for seven months. Following threats to his life after his release, he went into exile in the United Kingdom, where he continued his NADECO activities.
In 1998/99, the coast was clear for another dispensation. Oshun joined the AD, which was moderated by the latter-day crisis-ridden socio-political group, Afenifere. The party was a late comer. But, refusal to register it meant the exclusion of the Southwest from the hurriedly packaged Abdusalami Abubakar transition programme.
The party was enveloped in tension right from D’Rovans, Ibadan. Reflecting on the fate of AD, Oshun was to attribute its protracted crisis to the rift between 1999 presidential aspirants Chief Ajibola Ige (SAN) and Chief Oluyemisi Falae, on one hand, and the feud between Alhaji Ganiyu Dawodu and Asiwaju Bola Tinubu in Lagos on the other hand. Effective crisis resolution is doubtful in Afenifere.
Thus, the crisis escalated and reconciliation collapsed. Ige campaigned for Falae, but he never forgave the Ijebu Igbo mafia. Following the failure of the proposed 60:40 sharing formula, Dawodu left for PAC. The party failed to survive. By 2003, it became a shadow of itself in the Southwest, its stronghold.
While Southwest lost AD, which had become a liability, the region was full of nostalgia for Afenifere, its time-tested socio-political mouthpiece. Paradoxically, only Lagos AD, which was rejected by the bloc which Oshun described as “Afenifere Controlling Leadership” in 2003 polls, survived. Tinubu became the last man standing as PDP captured the other five states-Oyo, Ondo, Ogun, Osun and Ekiti.
In post-Adesanya period, Afenifere broke into two factions, led by Pa Rueben Fasoranti and Senator Ayo Fasanmi. Its party, AD, was was ebbing away. A faction supported Ambassador Yusuf and later, Mojisoluwa Akinfenwa leadership of AD; the other faction supported Ahmed Abdulkadir and later, Bisi Akande, and much later, Michael Koleoso leadership of AD.
When the two sides failed to reconcile, ‘younger’ Afenifere patriots, led by Oshun, formed the Afenifere Renewal Group (ARG). Prominent members at its inception were Jimi Agbaje, Kayode Fayemi, Kunle Famoriyo, Ayo Afolabi and Segun Odegbami.
An Afenifere elder, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, in his reaction to the birth of ARG, dismissed the new group, saying that it was unnecessary. “What are they renewing? What has become outdated that they are now renewing?,” he asked.
Yet, Oshun’s ARG embarked on reconciliation in Southwest. It broker a peace meeting between Fasoranti and Fasanmi camps at the IITA Conference Hall, Ibadan. The two had their differences, but in terms of ideology, philosophy and commitment to Awoist principles and programmes, they were on the same page.
At the meeting, Oshun spoke briefly. He was not economical with truth. He said the prolonged animosity would lead to negative consequences that will be detrimental to the interest and welfare of the race.
The antagonistic factions aired their grievances. But, there was no commitment to a truce by the disciples of Chief Obafemi Awolowo. There was no renewal of old love. Although it appeared both sides were disposed to sheathing their swords and coming together when the 80th birthday of Adebanjo was underway, the highly inflammable media interview by the celebrator discouraged the Fasanmi camp. Since then, two factions of Afenifere have been flexing muscles. The organisation has been weakened by the self-inflicted crisis. It is now almost a toothless bulldog.
ARG turned its attention to other cardinal programmes, including the push for regional integration by the Yoruba Academy, the campaign for the study of Yoruba language in Southwest schools, the agitation for true federalism, and building foundational intellectual support for the initiative that culminated in the security network, Amotekun.
The Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) is the brainchild of ARG in its efforts at fostering regional socio-economic cooperation.
The group has also empathised with the plight of Yoruba outside the Southwest, the consistently oppressed and marginalised kith and kin in Kwara and Kogi lumped together with the North. It has also solidarised with the Yoruba kings of Lokoja and other towns, who prefer the redesign of the map of Nigeria to permit their integration with Yoruba-West.
Oshun is held in high esteem at Yaba/Mainland as a political leader. In his native Ijebu, he is a community man. Apart from running a non- governmental organisation which has supported educational endeavours, he has also been actively involved in other problem-solving, developmental activities.
At 70, God has been kind to the gentlemam. But, because he is a Nigerian, he has regrets. Nigeria is only making progress at a snail-like speed.
Oshun’s ‘lamentations,’ therefore, revolve around the followings: the decline of ideological culture, the absence of party supremacy, the collapse of party discipline, the monetisation of politicking, the disastrous impact of graft on national image, the bad image of the state as the greatest corrupter of society, the decline in quality of education, soaring poverty among the masses, wobbling economy, persistent insecurity, disunity in Yorubaland, scourge of lopsided federalism, and threat to the social order by the pandemic, Coronavirus.
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