The Nation Newspaper

Category: Segun Gbadegesin

  • Neurosis in the political space

    Neurosis in the political space

    Psychiatrists define neurosis as a relatively mild mental disorder that affects only a part of the personality, whose symptoms include stress, anxiety, obsessive behavior. In what follows, I suggest that the national political space provides a credible ground for modeling neurosis. How we name it doesn’t matter: political neurosis, social neurosis, or national neurosis. The symptoms are eerily similar, and we may identify two variants.

    The first is an acute mental illness that affects a section of the national space, namely, the political class. It presents as irrational anxiety and obsessive behavior on the part of its victims. The second manifests the symptoms of individualized neurosis, including stress and irrational fear on the part of the general population in the political space. I start with the second.

    There is ample evidence that neurosis afflicts many of our fellow nationals, whether it is a personality trait developed over a period, or a temporary character adaptation to some specific situation, when such adaptation tends to negatively impact a long-term goal. In a social enclave that is stress-inducing at every turn, the condition is optimal for the manifestation of an underlying neurotic personality trait or a maladaptive response to the social dysfunction of the larger society.

    A diverse political space that is otherwise promising for prosperity and human fulfillment becomes a source of morbid fear and distrust when rationality takes flight from us and our collective effort at governance runs short. We emphasize individualism and the competitive spirit in place of cooperation and community, and then we (seriously?) hope that no one is left behind. But that is delusional because many are going to be left behind. Furthermore, a lot of those at the top of the ladder morbidly fear for their future and the generations of their offspring that they only feel obligated to plan for that family future even if it takes stealing from the public treasury, thus imperiling the present survival of many.

    The consequence of the collective path that we have taken is that individuals who are deprived of the legitimate means of well-being see each other as potential competitors in the strategies of survival. It creates the war of all against all that Hobbes theorized. Ego responds with fear of loss of glory when others are perceived as threats to its prospering. The failure of Hobbes is not that such a situation never exists. It does. His error is to aver that it is a natural phenomenon. It is not. In the mentality of possessive individualism created by the contrived reality of economic, social and political competition, anxiety, fear, and depression are co-travelers.

    Neurotic disorder in the masses of the population in our clime is largely generated by the realities of contemporary life with economic dysfunction, political corruption and social anomie, the totality of which creates a stressful environment. Those who are not equipped to effectively navigate the terrain of political quid pro quo, economic rat-race, and social disequilibrium so essential to success in that terrain are either condemned to fate or, in the worst-case scenario, social deviance.

    That many consider their plight of abject poverty and hopelessness their fate is what has kept the nation from boiling over and hanging delicately on the cliff without falling off. Fatalistic mentality is a way of channeling anger and despair so that aggression is controlled, and society avoids the violent revolution that its actions or inactions may otherwise engender. That mentality is however not necessarily innate. Society deliberately socializes its members to the thought system. Destiny and fatalism are social ideologies with a mission. In various ways our acclaimed religiosity from traditional to modern only reinforces these social ideologies.

    While many subscribe to the ideologies of destiny and fatalism and live by it, a few others choose the path of deviance in apparent protest of a life that they believe society forces on them. We should not be surprised about the emergence of cultism because it is reasonable to expect that a people alienated from the fabric of social life will find a haven for their kind. We must not be too idealistic to ignore the reality that comes with the social consequences of our public policies.

    Rational people will adopt what they consider the most effective means towards the ends that they seek. When they perceive that the cards are unfairly dealt against them in the lottery of life, and they escape the mental poisoning of fatalistic ideologies, they may withdraw and pursue non-social or anti-social ends in which they believe there is “fulfillment” even when everyone thinks otherwise. Cultism is the response of an individual or a group to a social condition that collective irrationality creates. To combat it effectively, we must deal with the collective irrationality that creates the condition for it in the first place.

    Of course, we may raise the question whether the cultists’ response to collective irrationality of society is itself not irrational. It is a valid question. But it elides a more fundamental issue of what rationality connotes. If it is the most effective means of achieving a desired end, the means of cut-throat competition that society chooses is devoid of rationality, if we assume that the end which society craves is social harmony and progress. For that choice only creates the condition of a war of all against all.

    On the part of the individual who chooses cultism, what is his or her end? If it is to rebel against society in any way, we can query the rationality of that end but not the means of getting there. And to query the rationality of the end without also querying the means that society chose is a partial approach to apportioning blame.

    What about kidnapping or armed robbery and the other social ills? How about ethnic and sectarian neurotics? They abound aplenty for similar reasons. Ethnic jingoists have a pathological fear of those unlike themselves for the same reason that “haves” fear “have-nots”. We have been unfortunately wired to the belief that there is a national cake that is baked fresh in the national oven and all there is needed is to share it. The question is “who or which section gets what size?” Like ducks on the lake of life with crumbs of bread thrown at them, we struggle to take our portion of the cake. How we might cooperate to make the cake bigger is a question that others may struggle with.

    Thus, the nation, with its economic and political realities, creates and nurtures the conditions for the manifestation of neurotic disorder in its space among its population. But while the general population is afflicted in this way with the escalation of poor-on-poor violence, including cultism, kidnapping, and armed robbery, the political class across the divides of ethnicity and religion manage to get along. Or don’t they?

    There is no doubt that the political class manages to avoid some of the most debilitating consequences of the social and political order that victimizes the general population and make neurotics of them. There are two reasons for this. First, members of the political class are responsible for the policies that define the economic, social and political order. With human nature in the saddle, they take good care of themselves. If you need convincing, just compare the well-flogged horse of the humongous emoluments of the members of the National Assembly with the plight of teachers who are expected to teach with empty stomachs.

    Second, with the resources at their disposal, and in some cases, the protective measures that come with their office, members of the political class and their business counterparts could take care of their security needs and avoid the threat of violence that the poor and working class are constantly subjected to.

    Nonetheless, the competitive nature of the political terrain creates its own political neurotics in the political class with presentations of anxiety and obsessive behavior. Absent any ideological differences, inter-party and intra-party clashes are driven by petty rivalries and anxieties, fueled by ethnic and religious animus. But sadly, even here, the ultimate victims are the dispossessed masses.

  • The art of political deception

    The art of political deception

    Since the beginning of recorded history, two notions of politics have endured. One suggests that politics is about the good of the community. The other argues that it is all about the self. Between the two, there is a consensus that politics is about “who gets what, when, and how?”

    For the first notion, the community decides the question of “who gets what when and how?” and that decision is almost always favorable to the entire community. For the second notion, the community has no independent existence because it is made up of individuals and what each person makes is what he or she gets. Community has no right to the assets of its members except for the purpose of securing them.

    Of course, this debate is an offshoot of democratic politics and therefore only makes sense therein. Monarchies care less about individuals who are not part of the divine inheritance. This ideological dichotomy between looking after the good of the community and the interest of individuals has driven the politics of the western world especially since the beginning of modern politics in the 18th century.

    In the beginning, both sides argued their cases without blushing, and in defiance of any public opprobrium. In the vanguard of the politics of self-interest are the libertarians, the most radical of whom was Ayn Rand whose glorification of selfishness has fueled the passion of generations of libertarians, especially in the US and Western Europe.

    Recently, however, while those who insist on the primacy of community have not felt embarrassed about their position, many politicians who would pass as defenders of self-interest now cover their core position with a deceptive facade of community interest. They argue, that is, that pursuing policies that promote the self ends up benefiting the general interest. Their position has two arguments with the same conclusion.

    First, promoting the interest of individuals, as they see it, is the right policy for a government to pursue because individuals are the components of the community. Second, even if pursuing individual interests is not morally defensible in its own right, it is justifiable as an ultimate means to the promotion of the interest of the community.

    While the first position is unapologetically a glorification of naked individualism, the second camouflages as anything but individualism. It is what I refer to as political deception. It has been elevated to the level of an art, and it has been the motivating force behind the politics of the last few centuries. With its center of gravity in the West, it has traveled wide to most corners of the world, including ours.

    The sad part of the politics of deception is that it often succeeds in recruiting its actual and potential victims as its most prominent and reliable advocates. Concrete examples to prove the veracity of this claim are not out of reach. Just as charity veritably begins at home, however, we may start our journey to the mindset of political deception with our clime, in which it is certainly not a stranger.

    The free education of every child has long been the passion of egalitarians like Chief Obafemi Awolowo. But in 1954 Awolowo faced the battle of his political life when his free primary education policy was the subject of opposition attack and blackmail in the federal elections of that year. Awolowo’s party, Action Group, had calculated almost to the penny what it would need for the policy to take off in January 1955. A special educational poll tax was imposed on each adult to raise funds for the new program. The opposition kicked and campaigned effectively against the ruling party.

    The attack line was that Awolowo was going to deprive the parents of the services of their children on the farm. It was a low blow coming from the educated elite who certainly knew better. But it worked. Action Group lost the federal election. But it did not lose its focus; it implemented the policy and, with its success, stole the heart of the masses. Because our people were quick to discern the benefits of free primary education to their families, political deception backfired against its creative artists.

    In other climes, including the most developed ones, the masses negatively impacted by its catastrophic grip have not been as quick in recognizing political deception.

    Very early on, the Obama administration saw the plight of many US citizens who had no access to health care because health insurance was beyond their reach. They carried diseases without knowing until it was too late because they could not afford regular medical checkups. Then the cost of late treatment bankrupted them. Obama and the Democrats proposed the Affordable Care Act (ACA) bill and got it approved by Congress. Obama signed it into law and the difference in the lives of many was immediately clear.

    But political deception fought back. Individual mandate, a key component of the law, was characterized as anti-freedom. This campaign rhetoric was sold hook, line, and sinker in the 2010 midterm elections. And many of the beneficiaries of the law bought the rhetoric. Republicans picked up enough seats to win back the majority in the House. Though Obama was re-elected in 2012, Senate was captured by Republicans and the repeal of the ACA was their major campaign issue. They passed repeal and replace bills multiple times but because of Obama’s veto power, none became law.

    Then entered President Trump with the House and Senate as co-travelers in the “repeal and replace” train. Suddenly, the eyes of the beneficiaries were opened as the prospect of a real repeal with no good replacement became clear. They jammed town halls in protest. And the masters of political deception retreated. A great lesson in the art of the protest!

    But political deception doesn’t give up easily. It comes back to fight again. If it is defeated by beneficiaries of Affordable Care Act, it comes back in the form of “a huge tax cut” for everyone. And so was born the Tax Reform Bill of 2017, which the CBO has determined will add $1.4 trillion to the deficit and make four million lose health insurance in 2019, and 13 million in 2027. While it is also determined that Corporate tax cuts will be permanent if the bill becomes law, many individuals especially in the middle and lower income group will have temporary gains in the short term but tax hikes in the long term when the life of the bill expires.

    The central aspect of the tax reform bill is its targeting the ACA, again! It will repeal the individual mandate, leading to many young people neglecting to buy health insurance once the prospect of penalty for not buying is removed. Along with this is the availability of the subsidy that those who neglect to buy health insurance are entitled to receive under ACA. Such subsidies, estimated to be in hundreds of billions, are now targeted by Republicans to fund extra tax cut for the wealthy.

    Sadly, some beneficiaries of the ACA are all for the repeal of the individual mandate. Note that these group will benefit the least from tax reform. But they are indoctrinated to believe that it is good for the economy, and therefore for them, and that the removal of individual mandate is only for the defense of their freedom of choice.

    No one can infallibly predict the trajectory of American politics in the next few days talk less of few months. Will the masses know better and turn against the party in power for its assault on their interests in affordable healthcare? Will the same electorates that gave Obama and his party a shellacking for passing the ACA into law now see the light and give the GOP a revenge shellacking for its unbending efforts to kill the law which they (masses) have now undoubtedly recognized to be for their interest?

    Time will tell. But one thing is sure. Political deception has a proven record of resilience. It will survive any temporary defeat provided its victims remain as gullible as they tend to be.

     

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  • Notable takeaways from Anambra governorship election

    Notable takeaways from Anambra governorship election

    The recently concluded governorship election in Anambra State presents us with a few notable lessons in this era of change, and the generally acknowledged successful conduct of the election should not prevent us from appreciating the lessons.

    First, consistent with the change mantra of the ruling party, there is a new reality of change in electoral politics. The second item on the highlights of APC’s 2015 election manifesto, next to the party’s promise to devolve power to states, is the strengthening of INEC to “reduce/eliminate electoral malpractices.” Many would have cynically brushed off this promise as another political gimmick. They would be wrong. For, there is a clearly observable presidential leadership of a new attitude to the conduct of free and fair elections. We must applaud the approach.

    The explanation for this attitude is not far-fetched. The president’s party has not shied away from trumpeting the integrity of the Commander-in-Chief as the Protagonist-in-Chief for electoral integrity. There is some substance in these cheer-leading efforts for Mr. President. Look at the success rate of APC, the ruling party, in the special and bye elections since 2015, and you will agree that the president has not considered those elections as a “do or die” battle, unlike at least one of his predecessors.

    Another explanation is, however, available. President Buhari himself was a three-time victim of what he and his supporters believed to be electoral malfeasance on the part of PDP, the then ruling party. In at least one instance, the PDP winner of the presidential election all but conceded the charge of rigging with his subsequent setting up of an electoral integrity committee from which nothing came out. It was partly because of this experience of impunity that ACN, one of the legacy parties that formed the APC, made electoral integrity its major assignment post-2007.

    His experience as a victim of electoral malpractice must have sensitized President Buhari to the need for true independence for INEC, the electoral umpire. Did the president give INEC a marching order to ensure perceptible fairness in its work? If he did not explicitly, his body language must have spoken volumes. While it is what we must expect in a decent society, we cannot quickly forget the impunity of the recent past. We must appreciate and commend the efforts to reorient the nation in a positive direction.

    Second, we may, with good reason, affirm that the incumbency factor is a big deal and it worked in favor of Governor Obiano. The impact of four years on the seat is not to be taken lightly. Of course, four years without performance won’t really matter and may have backfired against him. That the Anambra electorates saw him fit for re-election is a credit on the part of the governor. Furthermore, it is significant that Peter Obi’s abandonment of his former protege did not affect the electoral fortunes of the governor. These are interesting times.

    In one sense, it appears clear that without his name on the ballot, Obi was one of the greatest losers of the election. He campaigned intensely against Obiano and for Obaze. Anambra voters refused his entreaties and voted to reelect their governor. Two reasons may be adduced here. First, Anambrans may be nursing a grudge against Obi for jumping the ship of Nkemba’s APGA, the party that gave him a shot at fame for two terms as governor of the state. Second, PDP, his new-found love, has nothing to offer the people of Anambra at a time that it is also struggling to survive as a party. So much for mainstream politics.

    Third, while we may not fully understand what their motivations are, we can agree that the electorates are in control. Whatever reason they have for backing Obiano, it seems clear that the electorates are in charge as they should be. Sure, there are complaints of money changing hands. If it is true, it is a sad reflection of the reality of our poverty-driven politics. But if only money from candidate to voters played a role in Obiano’s victory, it still shows that we have moved from the fraudulent and undemocratic use of security agencies to rig elections and thwart the preference of the voters.

    My conclusion in the last paragraph is not in any way a support for the ugly influence of money in politics. There is still a crying need for the education of the electorate. They ought to know that voting for a crook who offered them one thousand naira amounts to selling their political birthright for a plate of porridge. But if they opened their eyes wide and have their senses operating optimally, and they still prefer a rogue with billions to spread around, then they are surely going to pay for it with their forsaken welfare. Abe Lincoln was right: “Elections belong to the people. It’s their decision. If they decide to turn their back on the fire and burn their behinds, then they will just have to sit on their blisters.”

    The fact remains, however, that APGA’s Obiano won and APC’s Nwoye lost.  It is a stretch to attribute this to the influence of money. If it were true that money played a lot of influence, we should expect that the candidate of the ruling party would have more access to free-flowing money as it used to be. It is too soon to forget, in view of the ongoing investigation and litigation, that a former ruling party all but emptied the treasury and bank vaults in its bid to attract votes and remain in power.

    Fourth, in all of this, we cannot but recognize an ominous note of warning to the ruling party. After the 2015 presidential elections, I expressed delight and hope that the country was getting into an era of a strong two-party system in which electorates have a choice between two competing ideological platforms. The results of the elections since 2015 do not clearly show that we are there. However, the fact that the ruling party has lost elections in areas where it performed well in 2015, including the Southwest, suggests either that the voters are not wholly satisfied with its performance or that the ruling party has some internal issues to resolve. Either way, the party’s performance in special and bye-elections thus far calls for soul searching if it is not going to be embarrassed in 2019.

    In the case of Anambra elections, Governor Okorocha, who as the Chairman of the Progressive Governors Forum is well-placed to know what the challenges are, offered his advice to the ruling party to get its house in order. In his congratulatory message to Obiano, Okorocha advised other candidates to accept the results of the election and suggested that in-fighting within the camp of APC may have cost the party the election.

    Finally, it appears to me that the most important political takeaway from the election is the collapse of IPOB’s threat. The large turnout of voters in the urban and rural areas of the state was a huge morale booster for the political leaders of the Southeast zone who had placed their political capital on the line, canvassing for Ndigbo’s mass participation in the election against the demand of IPOB for total boycott. Between those establishment leaders and IPOB leaders, the people’s choice was clear on election day.

    The huge turnout for the election was also a lesson for the central government to manage crisis effectively without overreaction to raucous agitation led by itinerant leaders. Surely, Ndigbo, like other nationalities, have genuine grievances against the system, and it is in the interest of the Federal Government to take seriously these complaints with a view to resolving them.

    President Buhari did the right thing by visiting the Southeast shortly before Anambra governorship election and reassuring them of the readiness of the Federal Government to work with the zone on the issues of concern to them. But what just happened with the turnout suggests powerfully that the Igbo are as desirous as other nationalities to resolve issues politically and within the territorial boundaries of Nigeria.

  • Another national summit on education

    Another national summit on education

    Nigeria has just held another summit on education. No, it is not just another summit. This is a presidential summit, initiated, attended, and addressed by the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Therefore, it must be different than the others.

    First, as a presidential initiative, there is hope that government is serious about fixing the collapsing edifice of our educational system. Second, it represents another down payment by the administration on its campaign promise of change in our approach to development. Third, and perhaps, most important, stakeholders can rest assured that the recommendations that come out of this summit will receive prompt attention at the highest level of government.

    It is noteworthy that the president gave the Ministry of Education the directive to organize the summit in his address to the convocation ceremony of the University of Ilorin barely a month earlier.

    At that forum, the president explained that the reason for the summit was to tackle major problems facing the education sector in order to “restore education to its lead role of human development game-changer.” He also vowed that his “government will not allow the country to miss the globally agreed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) train, the driving force of which is education.” Thinking aloud, and rightly too, Buhari noted that “any success recorded in education will have a ripple effect on every other sector of our life.”

    The Ministry of Education acted promptly on the president’s directive and the November 13 summit was the outcome. Hope is kept alive! Except that nothing is new under the sun that shines on this land of wonders. For starters, this is not the first presidential summit on education. There was one in 2010, another in 2012, and yet another in 2015, at the instance of the Jonathan administration.

    In its news of the 2015 conference in December 2014, Daily Independent reported that “the Federal Government has concluded plans to organise another National Education Summit, where it hopes to review progress and challenges still militating against the sector” (my emphasis). It added that “the Federal Government, under President Goodluck Jonathan, convened the last education summit in 2012 where most stakeholders reeled out various challenges bedeviling the sector since the attainment of independence in 1960 and came up with far reaching recommendations that could salvage the system” (my emphasis).

    Why the emphases? First, the Jonathan administration summit proposed for 2015 was not the first education summit. Indeed, the same administration had held two previous summits on education. However, it could be argued, in the light of our traditional beliefs, that where a problem persists, we must assiduously seek for solutions. After all, an unceasing infestation of body lice condemns the fingernails to constant blood stain.

    Second, however, the 2012 summit was supposed to have provided “far reaching recommendations that could salvage the system.” Obviously, those recommendations fell short; hence the need for 2015, and then, 2017, if we just limit ourselves to presidential initiatives.

    There were of course stakeholders’ summits, state summits, and zonal summits on the Nigerian educational crisis. Sadly, the crisis appears to have only deepened, one manifestation of which is the recent decision of the Kaduna State government to fire almost 22,000 teachers for failing a competency test. That such a large number of primary school teachers failed a test designed for their students is a great embarrassment to the system and a grave sign of system collapse.

    But Kaduna State is not an outlier and similar or worse ailment afflicts other states. There are teachers with serious challenges in the use of English language. There are parents and teachers helping their wards cheat in examinations. When stakeholders pressed school systems on the high rate of failure in WAEC and NECO, many teachers and principals, including officials of state education boards and others in high places, respond with corner cutting.

    The result is that students pass external examinations, but they are neither employable nor admissible to higher institutions. Those who secure admission through an odious patronage system may buy their ways through the same means, but almost always end up as liabilities to themselves, their parents, and the community. When you input garbage, you get garbage as output.

    A rotten educational system does not just hurt individuals; it is a national disaster. No sensible person will doubt that without the natural endowment of oil reserves, which we have apparently managed to turn to a curse, an outstanding system of education can take the nation to the highest level of development. Look at Israel and other resource-challenged nations.

    What those nations have, that we lack, is a political system that creates strong institutions and throws up leaders with the right mix of skills, foresight and charisma, which enables them to identify development goals, thoughtfully plan and selflessly pursue their implementation with vigor, while combating challenges in their path. How else could a region implement free primary education with no oil revenue? And why, after enormous oil revenue since the early seventies, have we failed to move from free primary education to free university education? Why are we now contemplating charging fees for secondary education?

    The answer is simple. With our oil revenue, we created a monstrous system of patronage that has turned public service into a private enrichment system. Awolowo had no security vote. He and his colleagues had no special allowance for personal constituency projects. They certainly had no luxury of personal emoluments that surpassed those of the most developed nations of their time. They invested their regional resources in the development of their regions and the nation at large was the beneficiary.

    Almost all our present leaders from local government to state and federal levels are beneficiaries of the system that prioritized the education of citizens. Our educational system would not be in the dunghill now if every one of them had followed the example of those leaders who made it possible for their generation to step into their shoes.

    The Minister of Education is right on point: “Nobody has the moral and resource capacity to intervene promptly, substantially and sustainably in all areas of education provisioning better than government.” So much for the copout of “government cannot do it alone.”

    If there is will, the way is doubtless clear. The Minister pointed out that “from 1999 to date, the annual budgetary allocation to education has always been between 4% and 10%.” The recommendation of the United Nations for financing education is at least 26% of a country’s budget. As the Minister added, “none of the E9 and D8 countries other than Nigeria allocates less than 20% of its annual budget to education.” For 2018, Mr. President’s education budget is 7%. So, we know what the problem is.

    But we are told that the funds are not there. Civil servants are owed months of salary and pensioners are starving. However, the sacrifices are not shared equally, and it is unfair. If justice is the first order of social life, every member must bear an equitable share of the social burden, from the president down to the littlest citizen.

    For a start then, if education is understood as the means to a good life and a great society, its funding must be assured by society. We have an Education Trust Fund which is made possible by the sacrifice of corporate citizens. The political class also needs to make its contribution to that pool. This can be done by committing all security votes and all constituency project allowances to the rejuvenation of the education sector to get us to at least 20% of budget for the sector.

    Surely, money is not the cause of every problem in the sector. Traditional values have broken down and parental neglect is the foremost symptom. Bringing children into the world and abandoning them to the vagaries of social life is highly irresponsible. So is using them as income generators at a tender age when they should be in school. The more than 8 million out-of-school kids in Nigeria is a national shame. We are already paying the price in various ways.

  • Amid it all, community still matters

    Amid it all, community still matters

    I have just returned to base from a long, memorable visit to the homeland, the first long visit in more than twenty-five years. Yeye and I looked forward to it with excitement, with plans for each of the forty days we had scheduled for the visit. It was going to be capped with the community celebration of Okeho, the historic land of my forebears.

    Of course, we were not unaware of the ageless dictum that man proposes but God disposes. We knew that we were mere mortals with no means of competing with God’s design for us. Yet, we prayed and hoped for the best, counting on the cooperation of the Master of the Universe.

    A few days into our arrival, tragedy chose October 1 to strike. Death snatched Kola, my younger cousin. He was full of life, and of hope. Anytime he called me on the phone, his prayers were as moving as they could be, meant to underscore the sincerity of his motives: Brother mi, bi mo ti fe ko ri fun un yin, Olorun je ko ri bee fun mi. Bi mo ba n wo iwaju, ki n maa rii yin, bi e ba n wo ehin, ki e maa ri mi. Nwon ko ni ru oku yin wale. E ko ni ba sare emi naa nile. (My brother, I want my life to be a replica of what I wish for you. When I look forward, I pray to see you. When you turn back, I pray you see me. They will not bring back your corpse home from abroad. You will not come back to be shown my grave site).

    Then Kola died, and though tradition did not allow me to be confronted with his grave site, the reality of what just struck the family did not escape me. He was the one with the proverbial legs. He ran errands across towns and villages on behalf of the extended family.

    Kola looked after the young and old. It was his lot to convey home the remains of young family members who died while trying to make it in Lagos. When his turn came, he was driven home alive by his son and as he alighted from his car, he collapsed and died. Asiwaju Bola Tinubu was then in London while Yeye and I were in Lagos as his guests. I did not tell him of Kola’s passing, but he heard through his aides. He called and offered his emotional and material support.

    Kola was a community man and the community, starting from the Alapinni extended family across Oyo and Okeogun, to Okeho at home and abroad, was wonderful in its expression of sympathy and support for the family. The truth of the dictum, eniyan laso mi (I am because we are) loudly rang through. To lose a loved one is sad. To mourn in solitude is doubly tragic. It is therefore priceless to be a member of a community which is supportive in times of grief.

    At the same time, however, a community that is supportive of its members in joy and sorrow, also gets celebrated and appreciated. Indeed, the main purpose of our long visit was to celebrate Okeho community on the centenary of its relocation to its original site in 1917. As readers of this column may recall, I shared excerpts of my book, Okeho in history, on this page over a three-week period.

    For nine days, from October 20 to 28, Okeho community had a program of events that excited and inspired. The centerpiece of those events was the historic visit to Okeho Ahoro, a serene and awe-inspiring place with magnificent landscape of hills, valleys and caves that provided security for its residents during the most unsettling period of warfare and slave raids in the 17th and 18th centuries.

    Okeho indigenes were out in thousands to celebrate their heritage. The unity was palpable. The love was infectious. For once, politicians of various hues, who had barely seen eye to eye, dropped the animosities that had motivated their politics, for the common cause of lifting the community. Thus, when traditional drummers displayed an individualistic ethos that angered the community, they were soundly condemned by young and old. The drummers quickly retraced their steps.

    The social media was put to good use by the technologically savvy. WhatsApp platforms were created and effectively deployed for the exchange of ideas and fundraising for community projects. The youth were fully engaged in various activities, including a centenary soccer league competition which drew mammoth crowd of spectators. Lectures, seminars and a major symposium were organized on various issues ranging from education to agriculture and drug abuse. Chieftaincy titles and merit awards were given out by the monarch and the community respectively to deserving indigenes and residents.

    The grand finale was the public presentation of the book, Okeho in history, with Asiwaju Tinubu as the chief launcher. Okeho indigenes couldn’t be prouder of themselves and their community. The sense of belonging was heightened with the recognition of the original eleven villages that merged to form the town and each projecting their cultural contributions to the uniqueness of the town. Invited guests were many, from Obas to intellectuals, politicians, media giants, and business titans. Those who were unable to make it in person did not fail to send their support. Iku Baba Yeye, Alaafin of Oyo was well represented. So was Oba of Lagos, HRM Oba Akiolu.

    Though he was not able to personally attend due to a conflict in schedule, Asiwaju Tinubu fulfilled his promise by sending a delegation of three led by Alhaji Hakeem Fahm to represent him with a generous donation to the causes the community identified as its priorities.

    For someone so generous with his time and resources, we have always prayed for enormous blessings in return. Certainly, we did not expect a tragic occurrence to befall him. But we are all puns in the hands of fate and the gods. We are the helpless grass while they are the wild wind. They toss us around at will as we are no match for their smartness, wit, and what our human understanding counts as their capacity for mischief.

    Sadly, on the first day of November, tragedy struck again. Jide, the first son of Asiwaju Tinubu was snatched by the cold hands of death in the middle of the night. Shocked and traumatized, words took a flight from our shuttered mouths. How does a loving father come to terms with a spontaneous emotion of grief over dashed hopes? How is a loving wife to express her fear of the future that suddenly appears cloudy? Or how are three brilliant boys to cope with a loss that they probably still do not understand.

    Yet amid it all, two entities have remained constant.  First is our faith in the author of existence who alone knows best and who alone gives and takes. Tinubu clearly understands this. Expressing his abiding faith in the Almighty, he has not allowed himself to break down in despair or bitterness. As he thoughtfully puts it, “mortality comes upon us all. We have no choice in that; but we do have a choice whether we shall be good or bad, just or unjust. Let us all strive toward the best in ourselves.” It is the mark of leadership.

    Second is the community. Across the six zones of the federation, communities stood by Asiwaju in his time of need for comfort. Hundreds of sympathizers thronged his Bourdillon residence even after he had travelled to London to be with his grandchildren and daughter-in-law. Sympathizers also flew to London, showing sincere fellow feeling. That Tinubu did not mourn in solitude is a testament to the importance of community in human lives.

    In joy and sadness, community endures. We must therefore strengthen the spirit of community. However, a desirable strong community spirit is threatened by the hopelessness that characterizes our local communities. We must therefore work for their educational and infrastructural development. For, as our local communities develop, the nation will reap quantum benefits.

  • In all things, be thou thankful

    In all things, be thou thankful

    A good place to start this discourse is to give some thought to the significance of thanksgiving. Every human creature has a moral duty of gratitude, the duty to express appreciation for favor received, for undeserved gift or honor bestowed, for superior service rendered by others, for unmerited grace from God, and even for what human beings or the world around us may consider to be a setback in our journey of life.

    A favor, by definition, is a benefit that is bestowed without a corresponding service on the part of the recipient. It is an unusual act of kindness which is not extended in exchange for an immediate return. For this reason, moralists and spiritualists of different faiths suggest that gratitude is due to the moral agent who extended the favor in the first place.

    As an act of kindness, favor may be extended in various ways and by various means. It may come in the form of a gift to the needy, not because the recipient has a right to it, but because the giver is inclined to give.

    We receive such acts of kindness on a daily basis from the ultimate gift giver, the Almighty God. It is what we understand as grace, an unmerited favor. Notice the difference. The favor we receive from human beings like us may be based on the individual’s evaluation of our standing. It may be an expression of approval of our conduct. However, the grace of God is bestowed on human beings despite their inadequacies.

    Finally, an unanticipated outstanding service deserves a heart of gratitude. Sometimes, and in some climes, the expression of gratitude is so ingrained in the culture that any positive act of service is taken as a favor and as an object of gratitude or appreciation. Thus, a professional hair dresser or barber may render a regular service for which he or she is paid what is due. But he or she not only gets a tip for the job, but also a thank you from the customer.

    On what ground do we have a moral duty of gratitude, appreciation, or thanksgiving? What creates the duty? What is the basis of the obligation? Why do we need to offer thanks for a kind act? This question is not out of place. Expression of thanks is not inborn. That is why we teach our toddlers to say, “thank you” to those who favor them with gifts.

    From our faith-based understandings of life and its vicissitude, we thank our benefactors because it is divinely ordained. Every religion preaches the importance of gratitude. In the Christian faith, the story of the ten lepers whom Christ healed is a divine lesson on the importance of gratitude.

    After the ten lepers approached him with their passionate plea for healing, Jesus instructed them to show their skins to the clergy. They did. However, out of the ten, only one, a foreigner, returned to offer thanks to his healer. To which Jesus made his famous remark: ten were cleansed; where are the remaining nine? If God commands thanksgiving as a practice, then, we must obey the command.

    But there is more to the matter of thanksgiving than God’s command. After all, it stands to reason that God commands it because it is good to give thanks. But what makes it good in the first place? Thanksgiving is a moral duty, not simply because it is a commandment of God but because it is right and proper to give thanks. The question is “what makes it proper?”

    In our various traditional value systems, gratitude and thanksgiving feature prominently. There is no equivocation in the Yoruba insistence that “bi a ba se ni lore, ope laa du” (gratitude or thankfulness is a requirement when a favor is received). The statement expressed here does not appear to have a religious connotation. Thanksgiving for kindness is simply understood as good-in-itself.

    For those who would seek a firmer grounding, however, our sages have a deeper insight. They provide a useful analogy to describe a case of unappreciated kindness. It is considered not too dissimilar to a situation of an armed robber who attacked a person on the highway, robbing him of all his belongings. In other words, an ungrateful person might as well be an armed robber.

    While the analogy depicts ingratitude as armed robbery, an evil act, it does not really tell us what makes gratitude good. If ingratitude is bad because it is analogous to armed robbery, what makes gratitude good?

    We must commend the Yoruba for their pragmatic moral reasoning. For in their understanding of human life and human affairs, whatever is attributed to the divine also has a worldly character. So, it is with the virtue of thankfulness or gratitude. Thankfulness is good for its benefits. if we are thankful for a favor received, we stand a good chance of receiving more favor in the future. Bi a ba dupe ore ana, a tun ri omiran gba. Or eni yin ni yin ni, keni se omiran. Be appreciative of favor received so that the one so praised may be motivated to do more.

    Now, so much for the motivation to thankfulness because of favor received. But people of faith also know that the command of God regarding gratitude does not relate to just occasions when we are the recipients of benefits.

    Even in our moment of anguish and sadness, when it appears that God has not been good to us, or that the fortunes of life have passed us by, we are enjoined to be grateful. All Abrahamic faiths, including Islam and Judaism, share this belief in the importance of gratitude despite life’s trials and challenges. After all, God knows best.

    “In all things, be ye thankful” is the religious injunction. Why? Part of the reason has to do with the acknowledged shallowness of our human understanding vis-à-vis God’s wisdom. Sometimes, we try very hard impersonating God and pretending that we are wiser than the creator. At such times, we may be confident that we know the future and it is all shining brightly. Our aim is to capture it.

    But the divine’s plan for our life may conflict with our human understanding. Therefore, when we encounter an unexpected event, and our human understanding jumps in, it is human nature to tend to see the worst. But given the depth of his wisdom and his beneficence, it must be that God sees a different and positive ultimate outcome.

    At such moments, we are better served by putting our hands in God’s hand, thanking him for his unfailing love, and focusing on the unseen blessings even amidst the uncertainties of life that have just appeared to set us back. This was the lesson of Job who went from riches to rags and back up to riches such that his end was by far better than his beginning.

    “When upon life’s billows you are tempest-tossed/ When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost/ Count your many blessings/ Name them one by one/ And it will surprise you what the Lord has done/ Count your blessings/ Name them one by one. Count your blessings/ See what God hath done/ Count your blessings/ Name them one by one. Count your many blessings/ See what God hath done.”

    Indeed, there is reason to be thankful, despite our limited understanding of what may appear as a cruel hand of fate. Our creator knows best.

  • Okeho in history (3)

    Okeho in history (3)

    Today, I offer the third in my series on Okeho history as the community celebrates the centenary of its return to its origin in 1917 with the launching of my book, Okeho in History, on Saturday, October 28, 2017 in Okeho.

    Taking a cue from the Centenary Committee, the concluding chapter of Okeho in History is titled “Taking Okeho to Greater Heights”. It reviews the political, economic, educational, religious and social institutions of Okeho and offers suggestions on how to move Okeho to greater heights.

    Regrettably, Okeho has not been well-served by partisan politics. With intense competition, party activists throw everything into the ring and opposing sides often fail to take time to understand the points of view of their opponents. Gradually, positions were entrenched and loyalty to personalities became acceptable substitutes for loyalty to causes and ideologies in healthy competition for the development of the community.

    Unfortunately, the community has been the victim of politics of personalities. As the bickering goes on between political opponents, other communities take advantage of the crisis to attract development projects, including higher educational institutions. Thus, despite the loyal support of Okeho party leaders to succeeding governments of different political parties since 1954, none of those governments or the parties they represent has given Okeho its due in terms of development projects.

    Okeho is among a handful of major towns in Oke-Ogun without a pipe-borne water supply. And while other towns can boast of one or more institutions of higher education, as of 2017, Okeho has none to point to other than a campus of the Oyo State College of Health Science and Technology which was approved in 2016.

    Now, there must be a laser beam focus on a development agenda with traditional political institutions, politicians, and community development organizations working together in a non-partisan fashion on behalf of the community. Above all, politics and governance must focus on its original ideal, which is the good of the community.

    In Okeho, we have been fortunate that our religious differences have not conflicted with the original purpose of religion as a controller of our inner impulses. Both major religions have focused on helping us being good human beings and good communal citizens. Therefore, it has been possible for Muslims, Christians and traditional believers to work together in the various social organizations. What politics has unfortunately tried to put asunder, religion has been able to put together. Indeed, the various religious organizations have done more for Okeho educational development than the various political parties.

    The purpose of traditional education is to prepare the young for their responsibilities as useful members of the community. For a significant part of our communities across Yorubaland, this is still an operative educational objective. It includes bringing the educated up to their responsibilities to themselves, to their families, and to the larger community of which they are an integral part. This traditional view of education is still relevant in an age of individualism that threatens the survival and prosperity of the community.

    For Okeho, it worked very effectively and, despite the emergence of individualistic ethos, those Western educated individuals who had the advantage of growing up in the era when tradition still held sway, have been able to internalize its norms and to see their education as an opportunity for community service. It is evident in the way that they have made themselves available for the development activities of the community.

    The challenge for our modern educational institutions and their personnel is to advance the traditional purpose of education as an integral aspect of their mission. The youths of today are going to be adults or leaders of tomorrow. The question that we must ask of our education system is “how is it preparing the youth for the responsibility that they must shoulder?”

    First, effective teaching and learning is a must. Our pioneer teachers set the standard which must be advanced. The early years of schooling prepare children for later years and determine their success or failure. Therefore, to take Okeho to the next level, teachers at every level must be diligent and competent.

    Second, compassionate mentoring of youths is crucial to making them succeed in life. In the early years of modern education, teachers were like second parents. They modelled good behavior and students knew that they can rely on their teachers for their direction in life. This model needs to be reactivated in our community schools. Excessive interest in material acquisition should not stand in the way of role-modeling.

    Third, parents trusted and worked with teachers in the early years of modern education and the cooperation paid high dividends. The ethos of omoluabi is the essence of Yoruba morality and it is a product of parent-teacher and school-family collaboration. That model must be our guide as we crave greater heights for Okeho.

    From subsistence farming to trading and transportation, from weaving to tailoring, from logging to carpentry, from pottery to bricklaying, Okeho indigenes have engaged in assorted economic activities in the last hundred plus years. And they still keep keepin’ on. Now, the economy is widely diversified and will continue to be so in the foreseeable future.

    Fortunately, the groundwork for the take-off of this economy has been laid in the embrace of cooperatives in the last five decades. This new emphasis is based on the understanding that one hand is inadequate to carry the heavy load of our economic future. We must now combine our strength in business and processing ventures.

    With the government’s renewed focus on agriculture, and with the advantage of location that Okeho has in this area, it is essential for Okeho indigenes to set up joint ventures to further their economic interests. With a large area of gorgeous scenery and attractive landscape, Okeho also offers a great opportunity for tourism. In this area, however, individual ventures are rarely profitable. Therefore, we must learn to combine forces to take advantage of the potentials of the industry.

    My discussion of each of the foregoing—governance, religion, education, and the economy—is with an understanding of their significance as a powerful means to the goal of community health and advancement. While each of them is necessary for this purpose, we must not think that it is by itself sufficient.

    Therefore, for the advancement of the community and the health of its members, we must ensure that our focus is on the effective combination of all. We have seen, for instance, that when individuals have good education, they tend to use it for the advancement of the community. With those who are fortunate lending a hand to the less endowed, the social life of the community is enriched.

    The road to a successful focus on community interests is paved with the arduous efforts of community leaders and social organizations. This was the rationale for age-group associations in the beginning. That rationale still exists today, perhaps more than it used to be. Traditional institutions must lead the effort to put the interest of Okeho above personal interests. They will succeed in this endeavor when members of the community see that they dispense justice with fairness and they attend to the complaints of members with compassion and empathy.

    I do not intend to belittle the advances that the community has collectively made in the matter of inter-personal solidarity and empathy. Every adult of today grew up in a loving community where even distant relations and strangers make personal contributions to their education and general well-being.

    Okeho must continue in the tradition of generosity and welcoming spirit to all, natives and foreigners alike. We need others as they need us to make the world a habitable and better place for all people. But charity begins at home as the old saying instructs us.

    We must make Okeho what we want it to be by investing our intellectual, moral, spiritual, and material resources in its development and progress. Then, as the many became one more than a century ago, we can all effectively and successfully move our beloved Okeho to greater heights politically, educationally, economically, socially, and spiritually.

     

  • Okeho in History 2

    Okeho in History 2

    This is the second of a three-part series on Okeho in History scheduled for public presentation on Saturday, October 28, 2017 at the grand finale of the celebrations marking the centenary of Okeho’s return to its original site in October 1917. Today’s excerpt is from the chapter on education in Okeho.

    Indigenous education system in Yorubaland in general, and Okeho in particular, revolves around the whole person. The goal of education is to transform the child into the man or woman of character who can fit well into the service of the community. To this end, the focus of every family is to educate their children to be useful members of the community.

    Before the introduction to a life-time occupation, the child goes through formal education in ethical living with gentle reminders at every point of the history of the family lineage, the bravery of his/her ancestors, and the contributions that he/she is expected to make in return. This is the ethics of omoluabi, the person of character….

    Ethics matters and indigenous education is good at instilling ethical norms in the members of the community. Hard work, honesty, perseverance, moderation, are among the basic ethical norms that Okeho parents and family members teach their children with the expectation that when they grow into adults they will not depart from the path of honor which these norms inculcate….

    The formal education of Okeho children also benefited from foreign efforts that accompanied religious proselytization. On this, both Christianity and Islam played important roles (with the setting up of the first schools with curriculums appropriate to their missions)….

    Okeho youths also took advantage of opportunities that opened outside the town, especially with the establishment of secondary schools in Oyo, and much later, Iseyin. The foremost pioneer in the pursuit of higher education outside of Okeho was Mr. Ogunsola Ogundokun. In 1951, as a pupil at N. A. School Olele, Okeho, he sat for and passed the entrance examination to Government College, Ibadan.

    That was the flagship of secondary education in Western Region at that time. He performed brilliantly in the school and from there, he proceeded to the United Kingdom for his university education, thus becoming the first university graduate from Okeho and a role model for many Okeho youths. Mr. Ogundokun returned from the United Kingdom and began a successful career at Lever Brothers in Lagos until his retirement.  Others followed in his footstep to pursue higher education….

    In the matter of breaking through the glass ceilings of achievement, my generation has an exemplar in the person of Mr. Moyo Ajekigbe, first indigene of Okeho, indeed of Oke-Ogun, to be appointed Managing Director and Chief Executive of a first-generation commercial bank, First Bank of Nigeria, Plc. Moyo was a star in school, excelling in secondary school, higher school, and university. With a work-ethic and home-bred manners that the community instilled in him, he served the First Bank from the first day he entered the front door, giving the job his all, and going beyond the call of duty in customer service.

    Such devotion does not go unnoticed even by the most conservative and rule-based establishment. The glory of the sun is uncoverable by mortal fingers. And so, the reward was not long in coming when Moyo was appointed the Managing Director and Chief Executive of First Bank of Nigeria Plc. The appointment itself was an achievement. However, what he made of it from his first day to his retirement was even more remarkable. Through him, many families were blessed. Doors were opened for young ones with excellent resumes. And the community benefitted immensely from his foresight and his generosity….

    With teacher training colleges in Iseyin, Oyo, Ede, Iwo, etc., and the high cost of secondary school education, teacher training has been one of the readily available options for generations of Okeho educational products, and many took advantage of this, especially after having completed the secondary modern school…..

    As its youths found their ways into these other locations for educational opportunities, Okeho community also decided to open more opportunities for them. Thus, the Okeho-Iganna District Council launched the Okeho-Iganna Grammar School in February 1965, with its first students boarded at the old Oyo Divisional Teacher Training College, Iseyin.

    For many years after opening the doors of secondary education to Okeho youths, the community has tried without success to attract higher educational institutions. Even when prominent indigenes participated actively as leaders in the higher echelon of politics over the years, Okeho has been left without public higher education institutions. Shaki has a campus of The Polytechnic which has been upgraded to a full-fledge autonomous institution named Oke-Ogun Polytechnic. Ibarapa Polytechnic is located at Eruwa while Lanlate has a campus of the College of Education.

    In view of the aspiration of youths for higher education, and the struggle of the community to make it easier for them, this has been one of the frustrations of the various Okeho community organizations. A recent achievement was the approval of a campus of Oyo State College of Heath Science and Technology in Okeho. This followed the elevation of the 65 year-old School of Hygiene, Eleyele by H. E. Senator Abiola Ajimobi, the Executive Governor of Oyo State.

    In January, 2012, shortly after his inauguration, Governor Ajimobi instructed the Office of Commissioner for Health, Dr. Muyiwa Gbadegesin to work on upgrading the School of Hygiene. This required a process of engagement of stakeholders including students, instructors, regulatory bodies, members of the state executive and members of the State House of Assembly.

    Subsequently, the Ministry of Health drafted and presented bills to the House of Assembly to upgrade the School of Hygiene, Eleyele to Oyo State College of Health Science and Technology. These bills were finally passed by the House and immediately signed into law by the Governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi. The College subsequently began a process of establishing campuses to increase its capacity to train and graduate critical staff requirements for public health services in the state. With the kind approval of Governor Ajimobi, Okeho has the fortune of being the home of the first campus of the college.

    Indigenous education trains individuals for communal responsibility. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of formal education imparted through foreign paradigm which tends to emphasize and celebrate individualism. Okeho has, however, been fortunate in the sense that the seed of the indigenous approach to education with its emphasis on communal responsibility appears to have germinated successfully in the lives of many educated Okeho indigenes prior to their engagement with foreign education. This has helped in molding their minds toward community activism, which has in turn helped the community in its efforts toward advancement.

    Starting in the late fifties, educated folks inaugurated various self-help communal schemes to help struggling youths. The Okeho Literary and Debating Society was one of these initiatives. Due to the dearth of secondary schools in the area, and the limited opportunities for orientation to other professions, the first pioneers of Okeho foreign educational institutions, with few exceptions, took to the teaching profession, received training and were certified as teachers.

    Together with the few that gained admission to secondary schools such as Olivet Baptist High School, this group of pioneers put their education to the service of the community by helping the youths during holidays. This was how the idea of a Literary and Debating Society first came up and it helped many of these youths develop skills in public-speaking, use of language, and confidence-building.

     

    Education also opened the eyes of the educated to the world beyond Okeho and to the gap between the facilities available in that world but lacking in Okeho. With this knowledge came the realization of the need for organized action to pressure the authorities to pay attention to Okeho. Organizations such as Okeho Development Association (ODA), and more recently, Okeho Strategic Development Foundation (OSTRADEF) came up as responses to this knowledge…The point here is that education that stimulates in individuals the consciousness of community needs and urges action on the part of the individual has always been the tradition of Okeho.

     

  • Okeho in history (1)

    Okeho in history (1)

    Today, I begin a three-part series on Okeho in history with excerpts from my new book of the same title. The book is scheduled for public presentation on October 28, 2017 by Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu supported by eminent friends and enablers of community and national development.

    “Okeho in History was commissioned to celebrate the centenary of the relocation of Okeho back to its original site in 1917 and it comes at a very important stage of the development of our loving homeland. Now, the community is experiencing a much-needed unity of purpose even in the era of party politics, a development that must cheer compatriots who have, for many years, canvassed and labored for such a purposeful agenda…..

    “In the beginning, Okeho did not exist as one entity. Instead there were eleven villages separated by hills and valleys, each living in solitude and in fear of aggression from greedy land grabbers and heartless enslavers…..

    “However, around 1800, more than one hundred years after Ojo Oronna, legendary founder of Okeho, first settled in Omogudu, the new Onjo, Arilesòire, made the historic move of inviting the ten villages around Ijo to amalgamate as one village.

    “Onjo Arilesire was motivated by an enlightened self-interest. It was a time of uncertainties for big towns such as Oòyoò Alaafin. The Fulani had constituted themselves as a present danger to the lives and properties of Yoruba people in their towns and villages….They had the advantage of cavalry raids across the grassy vegetation of Oòyoò North. The Dahomey forces were also a threat from the West. It was therefore in the interest of small villages to combine their strength to wade off the attacks. This was the reason for Arilesòire’s invitation to the neighboring villages, which included Isia, Olele, Isemi, Imoba, Gboònjeò, Oke-Ogun, Ogan, Bode, Pamo, Alubo, and Ijo.

    “Arilesire had a good strategic reason for his invitation to Ijo’s neighbors. Apart from the combination of forces, the geographical location of Ijo offered a great security advantage and this played a role in his thinking. The heads of the various hamlets and villages must have been persuaded that it was in their security interests as well. For they agreed to move and become wards and quarters in their new location.

    “Okeho was inaugurated as a new village and Arilesire was the first head of the new village with the title Onjo of Okeho. In their native wisdom, without any exposure to Western ideas of governance, the leaders of the eleven villages started a confederal arrangement which has since morphed into a solid community of patriots. In Okeho, the many voluntarily became one….

    “It is important to note the significance of the effort at merger and of what inspired it. From the early 1500s until the time of the Yoruba civil wars of the 19th century, Oyo was a great exporter of slaves. From the year that Ojo Oronna moved to Omogudu, to around 1750, about 60,000 Africans were captured in slave raids and exported to the New World. Chiefs and aristocrats across the land were enablers of this sordid practice as they supplied captured war prisoners to the slave raiders in exchange for firearms and other goods. It was reported that during this period, King Tegbesu of Dahomey had an income of £250,000 a year from the export of slaves to Britain and other parts of the world. That would make him a multibillionaire of his time.

    “Consider the fact that Dahomey was next door to Okeho and you will begin to imagine the horror that our ancestors experienced. There was no moment of peace and they had to constantly watch their back. The physical and emotional trauma was unimaginable.

    “Meanwhile, on the other side of the fear of the loss of sons and daughters to the foreign enslavers and their local collaborators was the achievement of progress and development in Britain and the New World. Africans were forced to work under inhuman conditions to develop Britain which launched its Industrial Revolution in 1750….

    “The merger of the villages was thus a matter of self-interest for the villagers. However, with that experiment in voluntary merger and preservation of the heritage of each of the constituents, Okeho also taught us a great lesson in the management of diversity. This should not be misconstrued. They did not pull it off easily. They went through trials and tribulations. They were sometimes unsure whether they would survive. But they persisted.

    “What should be noted is that the Okeho experiment was doing very well before the colonial invasion. There was no history of internal violence prior to the introduction of a new governance structure that eclipsed the original arrangement and rendered the heads of the confederating units powerless. It was the reaction of the people to this foreign-inspired arrangement that led to violence against Obas and representatives of the colonial government.

    “The new arrangement soon forced itself on the community with a mixed result. On the one hand, modern politics of party affiliation replaced primordial affiliation of the original confederating villages as major political parties drew support across neighborhoods and quarters, though certain neighborhoods favored certain political parties. There was thus the prospect of inter-neighborhood cooperation that was lacking at the onset of colonial administration.

    “On the other hand, however, the new party system brought with it a ferocious competition that proved more inimical to the unity of purpose that the community needed for its advancement. It also had a more far-reaching consequence for the traditional institutions of the town. For, within neighborhoods, bitter political enmity due to different party loyalties meant that, even at that level, there was not going to be a united front, talk less of the level of the whole community. This was what affected the effectiveness of Egbe Omo Ibile Okeho in the 1st and 2nd Republics.

    “Thankfully, those were times of ignorance. Now, the light of knowledge has revealed itself. Now, the community will not go back to the dark days of division during which no one can really claim to have gained a lot for self or for community. Now, we must move on forward with a common purpose. For it is never too late until it is too late. The sun still shines and its powerful rays are still capable of providing the energy needed to dry up our wet clothes.

    “And the community has a lot of wet clothes hung outside to dry, one of which is the all-important jacket of education. Education has never been more important and we have never been so lacking in the matter of good educational facilities. While Okeho has a mix of public and private institutions at the primary and secondary level, it does not have much to offer in the matter of higher education. And the quality of the education that our children now receive is a mixed bag.

    There is need to revamp the legacy of quality education that the first generation of teachers labored to pass on. Many of those teachers had no more than First School Leaving Certificate. But they were exemplary in their devotion to excellence. Contemporary teachers must borrow a leaf from the example set by those pioneers.

    “Indeed, in every aspect of the community hopes and aspirations that I have identified in this volume, there is yet much to accomplish. The leadership of the initiatives and the efforts needed to accomplish the tasks must, again, naturally rest on those privileged to have the needed insight. After all, to whom much is given, much is expected.”

    As Okeho anxiously and gratefully looks forward to welcoming Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, H.E. Senator Abiola Ajimobi, H.I.M. Oba Lamidi Olayiwola Adeyemi III and eminent friends on October 28, I respectfully appeal to the generous spirit of everyone to support the community. The goal of the Planning Committee, which has invested time, energy and resources in this cause is to raise funds for the Oyo State College of Health Science and Technology, Okeho Campus, completion of the Onjo’s Palace, and community health projects.

    This successful experiment in voluntary amalgamation needs our encouragement.

     

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  • In whose interest is political restructuring?

    In whose interest is political restructuring?

    The matter of political restructuring continues to generate political heat in the public domain. It is not unusual to have the kind of robust debate that we have had especially since the beginning of the new administration of President Buhari.

    Even for a party that made change its political totem, the pursuit of change could be unnerving. Who knows what is on the other side? And how does one manage the transition state between the undesirable present and the desirable future state? Every business organisation that seeks profitability must face these questions at some point. Does a political community that seeks stability and prosperity for her citizens need to worry about such issues?  The answer is obvious.

    There is, however, a major difference between a political community and a business organization. A business organization that refuses to change in the light of new developments and the competition around it, will collapse under the weight of its own redundancy.

    On the other hand, in a political community, power is wielded by those who are entrusted with it, ideally on behalf of the people, but realistically for the interest of the powerful few. If business calculations feature at all, it is the business interests of the few that drive political calculations. Thus, the clamor for change may fall into deaf ears for fear of the unknown or for calculations of self-or sectional interests.

    What is lost to those calculations is the inevitability of change which, as Heraclitus observes several millennia ago, is the only constant. Especially, in situations of universal frustration with the status quo, where life is akin to the state of nature condition, change is the only certainty. But in the eternal wisdom of J. F. Kennedy, those who make peaceful change impossible make violent change inevitable.

    There have been many attempts at obfuscation. We manufacture confusion where there is none just so we could slow down or disrupt the course of change. There has been fear-mongering of the worst kind. A few weeks ago, I was at the annual convention of the National Association of Yoruba Descendants which had restructuring as a theme. While almost every speaker appeared to have a clear vision of what restructuring meant and what social and economic gains might accrue therefrom, there was a holdout. An otherwise smart and obviously learned gentleman expressed the fear of the unknown. “The Southwest had no oil-fields”, he observed. “From where would our wealth come and how are we to feed our populations if advocates of restructuring had their way?”

    Note that this was a convention of a Southwest Nigerian organization in the most federalized nation in the world, where presidents and congressmen and women jealously guard state rights against the intrusion of federal might. I bring it up to show that in the current debate on restructuring, the resistance to change is not a sectional one. There are equal opportunity resisters in all the zones of the federation.

    Resisters hide behind such platitudes as “we need mind-restructuring, not political restructuring”, “ we must pursue poverty alleviation not political restructuring”, or “we need constitutional amendment not political restructuring.” Still others continue to ask for the meaning of restructuring, or they dismiss true federalism as nonsensical because, in their confused judgment, there is nothing like false federalism. But pray, how else does one describe a unitary system that camouflages as a federal system?

    I have tried, in several comments on this page, to isolate the issues and clarify confusions. But it appears for one who is determined to avoid thorough understanding, there is nothing much that can be done even by the most down-to-earth simplification. But I have also learnt from the wisdom of the elders that the one who genuinely asks questions deserves satisfying answers.

    From recent debates on this matter, there are two questions that deserve answers. First, to the still yet to be convinced about what restructuring is, perhaps a better approach is to first answer the question what restructuring is not. Second, an answer is required to the question “in whose interest is political restructuring?”

    Restructuring is not secession. This horse has been flogged so mercilessly that by now one would expect it dead and buried. But in low and high places, the argument is still being frustratingly canvassed that talk about restructuring empowers and inspires the rhetoric and threat of secession. This is far from the truth.

    Secession demand is for an out of a marriage that both believe no longer works. The demand for restructuring is for an acceptable modification to the terms of the relationship to make it happy and endure the vicissitude of life. The one is negative while the other is positive. There is no denying the fact, however, that if the positive drive is discountenanced, it sends a wrong signal to those who might resolve to engage the negative gear.

    Restructuring is not against national unity. Advocates of restructuring are some of the most patriotic and nationalistic groups whose love of country is beyond doubt. What they espouse are the principles of governing a diverse nation so that the ideal of unity in diversity is preserved and respected. They are genuinely concerned that when diversity is blurred for the sake of uniformity, the country loses out on one of its most profoundly potential contributions to the world political community: the idea of the many voluntarily becoming one without losing their diverse cultures.

    Restructuring is not the imposition of the will of one group or section over others. In the first place, it is, in reality, impossible for advocates of restructuring to impose their will on the nation since their demand must go through the crucible of public opinion and be acceptable to all for it to be adopted as the law of the land.

    Second, that an individual or a group or section is persistent in the advocacy of a cause does not reveal anything about a motive and none can be judiciously attributed. In the case of restructuring, advocates have good arguments and must hope that they can persuade opponents to their side. This has always been the rational course of our political debates since the days of the nationalist struggles.

    Restructuring is not an irrational pursuit of danger. A person who runs towards an obvious danger without minding the outcome is at best irrational, at worst, insane. While some may think that advocates of restructuring are irrational, they are nothing but. As I observed above, the fear of the unknown is what is irrational. Surely, a demand for the return to a principle of governance that worked well in the past cannot be considered irrational. Besides, the only danger is to continue the path that has not worked for the good of the people.

    Political restructuring is the alignment of levels of government vertically, and branches of government horizontally, for the deepening of democracy and the promotion of the welfare of citizens.

    Advocates of restructuring have variously asked for devolution of power to the states, regionalism, or return to the 1963 constitution, which gave more power to the regions and prioritized derivation as a revenue formula. It is disingenuous to conclude that advocates are mired in confusion because of the differences in their demands. We know better that when there is a consensus on moving with restructuring, all metals will be thrown in the fire and subjected to the heat of public debate.

    In whose interest, then, is political restructuring? Every level of government, every branch of government, every zone and every state of the federation, labor, the poor, the rich, and most important of all, national unity, stands to benefit from a well-planned political restructuring.

    With states cooperating in zonal arrangements in the areas of education, agriculture, mining, and infrastructure, economy of scale kicks in for maximum benefit for citizens. As current experience demonstrates, the future of fossil fuel is bleak. In any case, this nation is sufficient evidence that it has been a curse against development and national unity. Do we really need further evidence in favor of restructuring?

     

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