Category: Arts & Life

Hafsat: This is not the Nigeria my parents died for

Abdul: The money you steal will mean nothing if Nigeria breaks up

Like their parents, Mrs Hafsat Abiola-Costello and her brother Abdul are rights activists. Years after the death of their parents – Alhaji Moshood And Alhaja Kudirat Abiola – they are keeping their legacies alive. The Kudirat Initiative for Democracy (KIND) seeks to strengthen civil society and promote democracy. In this chat with Evelyn Osagie, they speak on their parents’ legacies and national issues. 

What is the lesson behind your parents’ legacy?

Hafsat: It urges us to be a voice of courage and of hope for Nigerian people. We should show others the way; and be like a candle in the darkness. And by our own examples the government would be awaken to its responsibilities. They cannot be so far from the dangers pointing fingers, casting blames. Nobody is interested in blames; we are interested in solutions. We know that the problems in Nigeria were not created by this administration but so long as this administration is governing Nigeria now, we expect it to solve the problems. And to show that that is why they are here; not giving us explanations why they cannot.

As we remember our parents’ sacrifice, we say to the Nigerian government that people laid down their lives: not just Kudirat, not just MKO, but hundreds of Nigerians. And if we count the thousands of Nigerians who die daily because the country has not been working, it would  be a million. How many died in Libya because they were running for saver pastures when the insurgency occurred. How many have died trying to cross to North Africa to go to Europe and in the waters of the Mediterranean on their way in search of better life. If we think of all these Nigerians, in this anniversary, let us commit ourselves to standing for truth and for Nigerians martyrs so that the labours of our heroes past should be in vain.

We say their blood is calling for change and for a better Nigeria. We may be ants today but we can be giants tomorrow and it takes the decisions that we make from here on. Nobody wants to be away from his own country. If Nigeria were working, so many of our people out there would be on their way home.

Could you recount those years of struggle after the cancellation of the June 12 election?

I remember after my father had been jailed and was imprisoned, my mother started working to protest and be part of the movement. And at that time, one of the things she told me she had to do was go on a meeting with an elder that has since passed on, Pa Adekunle Ajasin, who was one of the leaders of NADECO. All of the activists would usually go to him faraway in Owo. And I remember that for one reason or the other there was no one to take her to one those meetings. She was alerted about the meeting at 11pm: she got in her car and drove the six hours to that meeting and I know she would have seen Dr Joe and others there that night.

What have you done to ensure parents’ legacy is kept alive?

I feel that we have to emulate their courage. That is the mind behind KIND, an organisation I founded in my mother’s honour and try to live in my parents’ spirit.

For those years, Campaign for Democracy (CD), led initially by Dr Joe Okei-Odumakin and the late Dr Ransome-Kuti, has been coming for an annual pilgrimage to our house, especially my mother’s grave. I appreciate all CD members for their dedication and commitment. There are no words with which to thank them for being steadfast to my family.

I, on behalf of the Abiola family, thank them for staying true to the values that my parents were seeking in the June 12 struggle. I also want to encourage you that you must not allow the politicians who have their own agenda to divide us as a country and as a people. MKO won that June 12 election, in large part, because of the northern people. Had he not had the northern votes, we would not have had June 12 today. And yet today, there are people that are saying that the North is against democracy and the Boko Haram issue is because the north is against a democratic government that is run by somebody from the South. Had the North been against a democratic government that is run by somebody from the South; would we have had June 12? This is because the North had most of the votes and they gave those votes to MKO in that election. Let’s not allow ourselves to be divided and distracted. The fundamental problem in Nigeria right now is poverty. MKO knew it and said in the midst of poverty all you’d have is to groom guerilla cells cross Nigeria; and it is what we are seeing today. He said this over 20 years ago and it is coming to pass.

First, we have the militants in the South-south; and now Boko Haram in the North-east. Until we solve this problem of poverty in Nigeria, we’d continue to have this problem to deal with. Today, it is in the North-east; tomorrow it could anywhere else.

Do your parents sacrifices hold lessons for politicians?

Of course. When a leader says he is a leader for Nigeria, he has to decide which Nigeria is he a leader for? There are so many Nigerians and so many different kinds of Nigerians: there are those who do all kinds of cruel and evil things but you also have decent people in Nigeria. And I’d like to think that they are the majority: those who work in an honest way, doing the right thing every day, living by the rules and sacrificing themselves for a better tomorrow.

We need our leaders to live and work and dedicate themselves to those Nigerians and not to those who would sell themselves for a pot of porridge. We want a leader that is going to lead Nigeria to greatness now. We don’t want to be second best or second class; that is not the country that Nigerians dream of and my parents gave themselves for because they really believed in the greater Nigeria –the country that all the 170 million people can get a fair share of our resources and essential services –and they died for that country. My father knew always what was at risk; and he used to say this pro-democracy struggle is like a man standing in front of a moving train. He knew that he could die, but he thought that it was better to have lived for something worthwhile than to live for nothing – is it oil wells, is it money? And then when you die, people will vilify your name. But today, he has been dead for a very long time, and he is still remembered in a way that does my family proud. My mother is still remembered in that way and so, we are very thankful.

And I think our leaders should remember that if what they are doing is making sure a few people get private jets, that’s not the path to Nigeria’s greatness. The path to Nigeria’s greatness is when Nigeria people are building the planes that the world is buying. The path to Nigeria‘s greatness is not whether we have limousines and the latest Mercedes G-wagon and all of that nonsense. The path is when Mercedes opens a factory in many cities across Nigeria to employ our teeming youths; it is when graduates are coming out of universities and can find jobs. We don’t need our president to be a multi-billionaire; but we want Nigerians to have a decent life – to have what they need and be able to access quality healthcare.

We need our mothers to go to hospitals when they want to have a baby and not be wondering if there is going to be light in the theatre; and if the baby is born early like my daughter was, whether there is going to be a working incubator? We need those simple questions answered before our leaders can take care of their own needs or wants because frankly, who needs a private jet? Many of the world leaders don’t even have this. So, we want our leaders to awaken to the real greatness that is possible and open to Nigeria. Also, for Nigeria to attain that greatness, they must be willing to sacrifice their own greed. Nobody is going to remember whether our president had a private jet in a hundred years from now, but they would remember that Nigerians lacked good leaders and those leaders sold our people in the way that hundreds of years ago, many of our leaders sold Nigerians and black people into slavery. We still remember that. We don’t even remember the names of those leaders and if we were to remember them, we would curse them. That is the opportunities that are before our leaders today: the opportunity for greatness and the opportunity for greed and pertinence. And we have seen enough greed and pertinence. We hope they embrace the latter now.

But like I’ve said before, we still have new blood coming in. Even while we have so many sycophants, opportunists and people who would probably sell their own parents for money, we also have Nigerians that you could not buy for billions of Naira. You could not just buy them because they are committed to Nigeria and would not sell their countries. They are committed to not only remembering our heroes, but also dedicating themselves to living the ways our heroes did; and give themselves for Nigeria to be better.

Two months ago, President Obasanjo recognised your father, how do you feel about it?

If he wanted to recognise MKO Abiola now, it’s good for him but MKO Abiola was always the greater man. And you cannot recognise somebody that is more than yourself. MKO Abiola did not require General Obasanjo to recognise him, he required the Nigerian people to see his heart and they did, and that was why they rewarded him with the June 12 election, an election that was so free and fair that no Nigerian leader can claim that kind of mandate even till today.

How would you describe the growth of democracy in Nigeria, given the fact that people like your father and mother actually stood and died for that cause?

Abdul: The fact we still have democracy is something that we should hold up. I think if not for the death of both my parents, we would not have this democracy even at this point. The way Nigeria is now and with the problems it is facing, if there were to be a military coup, they would have a basis to form a coup. And this is a fundamental problem.

I call on the leaders, people who have benefitted from the sacrifices that my parents made, to standup. Nigeria must be sustainable. Whatever the amount of money they have stolen or they are planning to steal would only make sense if Nigeria stays one. If they continue stealing and Nigeria should break up then the money is basically useless.

Do you think government is doing enough to honour the memory of your parents?

I do not think that they are doing enough, but again, it is not about them honouring my parents – they should honour the people because they are the ones that will still vote for them in 2015.

Many remember your mother persistent and dedication towards the struggle for a better Nigeria, how would you describe her?

Alhaja Kudirat Abiola, ahhh! She was amazing, that I can say. Although I knew when I was born that I was not just born into any regular family: we had everything we wanted, she did not ever want me to feel that way at all. As a matter of fact, she’d always ask me to go to school in a 504; and I used to always wonder “Why would Momsi always tell me to go to school in a 504 when there were many cars in front of the gate that we could easily have gone in; why do we always have to go in a car that we used to park at the back which they used it to go to the market?” But she was trying to teach me a lesson: she wanted to let us know, at that point which was a critical time for one to learn that kind of lesson, that even though one had everything, there were other people who did not have so that one was able to appreciate the fact that and at the same time, put oneself into the shoes of others.

And I think that basic lesson should be taught to every child because I see the new crop of kids now and wonder where we are going. Because when I was growing up and my mother asked what I wanted to be: I wanted to be a soldier or a policeman. As far as I am concerned, those are jobs where you were putting your life down to serve or help other people. But now we find that is not so with the kids. I actually asked a girl what she would like to be when she grows up, and she said she wanted to be the wife of a Senator. I don’t think that is where we want our children to be right now. If she had said she wanted to be a Senator, I would have been happier. I think that my mother was a woman ahead of her time, the same way my father was. She knew the intricacies of the world we live in and how it’s an up-and-down circle. That one day you might have it all and the next, you might lose it all. So you always have to be very careful in all the decision you make because you might not be the one to face the consequences but your family. So, the decision we make and the way we bring up our children are very important.

And so, my mother was a woman that all women should aspire to be like: she was the best that a wife and the best that a mother could be. She was always caring and always nurturing. She was a complete woman.

How would you describe the fight she was in at the time and what is obtainable right now.

18 years down the line, the questions to mind is that everybody accused of the crime of the murder of my mother are still out there and, basically, all of them have all been released. We have an arm of government that is supposed to take responsibilities for this sort of crimes; so I call on the Judiciary to really step-up for the common man because I do not see any true change in Nigeria.

Comparing 1993 when the whole thing started till date, Nigeria has become worse over the years. In 1993, I could remember that a dollar to naira was 1 to 1.Nowit is one to 160, it’s ridiculous! And I don’t see how anyone is supposed to cope with this. We have a standard that says that the average Nigerian is making $2 per day, how are we supposed to survive? I have two children and I know how much I’m spending on school fees – and its kindergarten. If we continue this way, I’d get to my gate one day and the gate man would start beating me.

18 years on, do you still miss her?

I don’t think it is a matter of her being gone for 18 years but what we have been able to do with those 18 years. 18 years is a very long time. I remember I left Nigeria in 1996, I saw things had gone worse and I was upset because  I felt this was not what my family sacrificed so much for.

One minute I was at the top, the next everything scattered. I felt if we all, that is all Nigerians, would benefit from this things would be okay. But unfortunately, I don’t those for whom my parents died for benefiting. And all I can do is talk and use the platform that I have to campaign for change. But what we need is for you the people to stand up and question your leaders and tell them that you are not happy. If you see them, stop them and say “our roads are not fixed”. Nobody is going to give you anything, if you don’t demand it of them.

With my parents gone, no one would give me anything; I have to go out there and work and make things happen. Let everybody go out there and try to make things happen in their own little way.

Could you share with us on the experience that morning your mother died and its relevance to Nigeria’s democracy?

That day I remember that I didn’t want to go to school… I was 11-and-a-halfthen…And I remember there were so many reasons why I didn’t want to go to school. I felt something was going to happen. A couple days before the day she died, she was arrested and I didn’t see her when I got back from school. And that seemed strange because Momsi was always at home. She came back the next day and made-up a statement that something happened. But I later found out she was arrested. So that morning she died even though she had wanted me to go to school, I wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about school. I don’t know who at that age would have wanted to go to school with all that was happening then. But she wanted to make it clear to me that education is important, and that, I think, is a fundamental. The polytechnics have been on strike for over nine months. We have kids graduating without finding any job. Before you know it, things are going to implode.

If I had gotten my way and stayed home that day, God knows what would have happened. I’m happy that she sent me to school. And even after she was gone, I knew one thing that I should be in school all the time. So I went to school; I’m through and I’m back home. I have a family now; and I’m thinking about how to sustain Nigeria because my kids are here in Nigeria – not in America or London. And I don’t want them to be in America or London. The foreigners are not going to do anything for us; we are going to be the ones to things for ourselves. I want Nigerians to look within themselves, if Abiola was once in Abeokuta and was cutting grass to go to school and now made all the money that he made to have this big house that he has in Ikeja with all the private jets, everything, then I am telling you the power is within us.

If I was put in my father’s shoes, I don’t even know if I would have left Ogun State. So, if we think the problems of this country are too much, we are just pushing the blame on somebody else. We shouldn’t have anybody come and tell us how to take care of ourselves. We are adults, smart and intelligent. We are the giant of Africa: so, if other African countries are not calling for foreign support, I don’t see why we should and if any other African wants to call for foreign support, that support should come from Nigeria.

After about one year, the producation of Ake film has been concluded, Temitope Olorufunmi, reports.

As work ends at the locations of the film production of Wole Soyinka’s childhood memoir Ake which has been continuously in production for about a year, the film is showing off its ‘’galaxy of stars”, its impressive show of leading Nigerian actors and actresses.

The film’s executive producer and director Dapo Adeniyi reveals that more than 15 hours of film rushes have been shot and they will eventually be whittled down to two hours in the final cinema cut. “This is a challenge with any epic movie originating from a major literature text. There is too much content and it is difficult to leave any item out. Many viewers would love to see specific episodes in the narrative reproduced in the adaptation but the cinema  mode has its own constraint in terms of time. No one would endure more than two hours in the cinema and this is a major consideration “ he said. The film has a cast of more than 300 out of which stand out names of artists who are already famous through premium productions.

The matron of the Nigerian English Language theatre, Mrs Taiwo Ajayi-Lycett, features as one of the outspoken Egba women in the wake of the famous Egba women’s riots of 1945. Yinka Davies, the musical icon, features as Mrs Funmilayo Ransome Kuti, Toyin Abiodun the writer and actor is Reverend I.O Ransome Kuti. A big surprise is Chief Festus Onigbinde, former national technical director and head coach of the Super Eagles, currently a top ranking Fifa official who appears in the film as Rev. J.J Ransome Kuti, father of I.O Kuti. Lanike Onimisi and Gbenga Ajiboye are Mr and Mrs Soyinka (Wole’s parents) respectively. Wale Adebayo (of the Sango fame) is spirit man while Bayo Bankole (Boy Alinco) in Papa Ajasco TV series features as Iku, the scoundrel student of Abeokuta Grammar School who led the team that stole Mrs Kuti’s fowl. Yeni Anikulapo Kuti stars as Mrs Odufuwa and Yemi Solade is Broda Pupa. Afeez Oyetoro  (Saka) is Mr Latinwo, a guest who constantly devoured the HM (Mr Soyinka’s) meals, who called regularly at lunch times. Joke Muyiwa is the old woman from Ago-owu. Bose Oladele and Mel Ogunremi are Lawanle and Mrs Buko respectively. Samsideen Adesiyan is Mr Buko among a whole host that includes the current British Council Director Alex Bratt and diplomats from the British Consulate and French schools.

Three child actors took on the role of Wole in the ascending order of years four, six and 11. Wole at four is Fumbi Oladele, Wole at six is Mofiyinfoluwa Oladele whose part is the longest and Jedidiah Ogunremi. They are considered as very outstanding performers and their choices quite apt especially in terms of their physical resemblances to the Nobel laureate at those age grades. The director and his advisers made enormous uses of archival photographs and footages in the production preparations and design.

According to the director,“We were attentive to the importance of physical resemblances to the actual people whose stories are told in Ake. And we were very fortunate in that we did not have to labour too much or travel too far in finding those we wanted. In one or two cases, we had to live down that factor and favour performance ability. I will cite the example of Rev. I.O Ransome Kuti. The actual  Rev Kuti was full bodied and huge but the gravitas which Abiodun brings into that role was too good to miss.

“One other distinction of Ake production is our introduction of set replacement and set extension by means of green screening. Through the use of green screens also known as croma key, buildings can be added to a set or replaced. An automobile can run on the streets of Abeokuta and Lagos  but were actually driven at a corner of England. This is a case of what you see is not what you get. It is the world of make believe, isn’t it? When all is said and done.

‘’We have also deliberately privileged old architecture in this production. Many Brazilian and colonial  styled houses are bought into the feature film to celebrate aspects of our oral history that we are losing very fast.

‘’ It is our hope that Ake would revive our interest in pristine architecture and other monuments. The most challenging  part of the work had been to keep faith with the period that the film covers, 1935 to 1945. The changes are enormous. We are dealing with a lot of visual noises. We dealt with many in production. Post-production which would be completed in the UK will take care of the rest’’.

Ake is planned for a very limited  VIP viewing in July 2014. The main premiere is scheduled for September. And as for its involvement with Professor Soyinka’s 80th birthday, the director says:

‘’Soyinka’s 80th birhday is not a matter of a few days. The celebration is already in the air and will remain in the air for some time. The film is too big and too important. It is a spectacle not only for our time but for generations to come. One of our goals is to send the readers of Ake back to the book. And we hope we will really succeed in doing that.’’

Sifa Asani Gowon and Molara Wood were guests at Writer Session last Friday. The event, which is a long-running literary initiative by the Abuja Writers Forum, held at Nanet Suites in Abuja’s Central District. It featured side poetry performance, a raffle-draw for books, and an exciting dose of live music.

Sifa, a mother of two, lives in the raggedly beautiful and somewhat tortured city of Jos and spends most of her time between writing, doing wife and mommy ‘runs, and baking (for both business and pleasure). She began by writing short stories sporadically as she was growing up- nothing serious. She never had a real desire to become a writer as such. She had other dreams, other pursuits. That and the fact that before she got a laptop she was just too lazy to pick up a pan and write in a book! But then, that all changed when she turned 28 (and had a laptop) and decided to sit down and type out a short story that slowly became a book.

Her debut novel, Playing by Her Rules, is a love story set in Nigeria that incorporates aspects of faith, humour and easy going dialogue among characters. Readers will be able to recognise the nuances in relationships between these characters as well delve into issues ranging from mixed-race identity, tense family situations and clashes of personalities and core principles.

Sifa is currently working on short stories to be included in two anthologies (that will hopefully be published) and has just finished the first draft of the sequel to Playing by Her Rules. It is her hope that she will publish more of her work in the future.

Molara won the inaugural John La Rose Memorial Short Story Competition, and received an award from the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association. A journalist, essayist and critic, and sometimes, a poet, she has lived and studied in Nigeria and the United Kingdom. She has lived in what she terms the 3 Ls – Lagos, London and Los Angeles – with more life spent in the first two, than the third.

Her writings have appeared in a number of publications and for a while ran a popular literary blog. She maintained an Arts column in the Sunday Guardian; and later served as Arts and Culture Editor of NEXT Newspaper. She is currently Special Assistant to the President on Documentation.

Indigo, her first book is a collection of short stories. From Nigeria to the Diaspora, joy, sadness, anxieties and triumphs fill the canvas with lush, vivid colours. Themes of loss and longing, past and present, home and away, mysticism and modernity, trauma and healing, truth and lies, masculinity and a woman’s place – all are deftly explored in this mesmerising, sometimes devastating collection of short stories.

• Iyorngurum is General Secreatary, Abuja Writers’ Forum (AWF).