Category: Tuesday

Tony Akhakon Anenih’s passage (4 August 1933 – 28 October 2018) at 85, like the death of any elder, is sweet and sour, especially for his kith and kin.

Sweet, because he was an old man.  Sour, because no matter how old your old folks get, you hate to see them go.

So, you can’t but bond with the Anenih family, in their grim gaiety — empathy with them while mourning their dead; but gaiety too, because their patriarch died at ripe old age.

But outside that intimate family circle, in the broad public sphere where he played for almost 40 years (1981-2018), Anenih was one of those unsavory figures of Nigerian politics and governance.

But the redeeming grace was his ideological fealty, extremely rare, in the quicksand of Political Nigeria.

Anenih rose or sunk with his conservative class; and would do whatever it took to put his talents at their disposal — no matter how ugly or dire. In Soyinka-esque quip, the end justifies the meanness!

So, he didn’t earn that moniker, Mr. Fix It, for nothing — the ultimate muscler-in-chief, in the Olusegun Obasanjo (dis)order, which pitiably collapsed in 2015, on fall guy-in-chief, Goodluck Jonathan.

Neither, for nothing, did he, at the zenith of conservative power, earn President Obasanjo’s fond praise: “My Leader” — perhaps, comparable only to Obasanjo’s rogue praise of the late Lamidi Adedibu, the Obasanjo-era South West “garrison commander”.

Anenih made his political debut as Bendel State (now Edo and Delta states) chairman of the 2nd Republic National Party of Nigeria (NPN).

He not only ousted another Tony, the great Chief Anthony Enahoro, iconic 1st Republic (1960-1966) progressive voice turned 2nd Republic Bendel conservative guttural. Via another controversial election, Anenih led the local NPN to electorally sack Governor Ambrose Alli, the Bendel Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) governor (1979-1983).

Their triumphant candidate was the iconic Sam Ogbemudia, who nevertheless was governor from 1 October till the putsch of 31 December 1983, that terminated the 2nd Republic.

Read also: Anenih’s unsung wonder

Incidentally, Ogbemudia (also now dead) would later distance himself from the Anenih-powered Edo politics of underdevelopment; which came crashing with the Adams Oshiomhole governorship, birthing in 2018, with the reclaim of a stolen mandate.

The great Enahoro too would later sever his interregnum with the political conservatives, to launch his Movement for National Reformation (MNR), which with other allies, staged the Pro-National Conference Organizations (PRONACO) national conference, proposing a new constitution to re-federalize Nigeria, in Lagos, 2005.

But not Anenih!  He lived and died a conservative, warts and all, though even he fell into some eerie (dis?)quiet, very close to his grave, when he declared himself “retired” from politics.

Chief Anenih would burst on the Nigerian consciousness, as second chairman of the Ibrahim Babangida-created Social Democratic Party (SDP), after his more conservative People’s Front (PF) faction, of the late Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, had trumped, in party posts, the more progressive People’s Solidarity Party (PSP) faction, peopled by the older Awoists.

Anenih’s SDP faction conspired with anti-democratic military elements and other reactionary forces to negotiate away Basorun MKO Abiola’s June 12, 1993 presidential mandate.

The result was the Ernest Shonekan-chaired Interim National Government (ING), which the grim Sani Abacha would later shove aside, to inflict his own iron rule.

That brazen rape of the sanctity of the vote established Anenih’s political notoriety, once and for all.  That violent assault, and its impassioned challenge by MKO, and other pro-democracy forces, threw Nigeria into a dire crisis.

But it also exhausted the historical possibilities of an uppity but hypocritical military; quick to grab power, but a sheer epitome of galloping graft, wanton sleaze and crippling decadence.

For all its needless trouble, however, the June 12 crisis shut up — forever — the noxious Nigerian breed of military politicians, bringing their once respected institution into disrepute, with their uncommon greed. That was one unintended good for the polity.

Still, the leading figures, of that ING conspiracy, only had own self-tragedies to show — for causing the majority much anguish and pain?

Yar’Adua died in Abacha’s gulag; Obasanjo barely escaped that doom, before powering back as first 4th Republic elected president, no thanks  to the eternal plotting of the generals; Abacha himself died in office, but blights his loved ones with an abiding, rotten memory of irredeemable sleaze; IBB endures long, long post-office blues, after all the power and all the glory, of not only being in office but also being in power; Shonekan, never garrulous at the best of times, keeps a sensitive quiet at the worst, the placid face of a roaring, vicious conspiracy; and Anenih had his reputation, and political essence, permanently blighted, long before he breathed his last.

Just as well, perhaps?  Brutal question but hardly an unfair query.

Anenih, led by his party leader and then sitting president, Obasanjo, were unfazed anti-democratic elements.  Yet, they ended up as prime beneficiaries of MKO’s martyrdom, after four years in Abacha’s gulag, for claiming a rightful mandate.

Still, they were cavalier, in their politics and policies, that reward for anti-democracy is prime and juicy democratic office.

Obasanjo went on a tangent of unfazed presidential imperialism, ready to crush any opposition to its power — no matter how outrageous that exercise of crude power; or how reasoned or towering, the moral authority of the challenge.  If your doubt, ask Lagos State and its seized local government funds.

Anenih, meanwhile, was festooned up there, to fix everything fixable or execrable, just to maintain power, no matter what.  That hubris led to the attempt to “fix” the Oshiomhole election result, which failure eventually led to, in Oshiomhole’s own biting own words, “retiring” the Edo political godfathers.

That is the long and short of the Obasanjo-led PDP order, that collapsed on Jonathan in 2015.

Though Anenih sunk into some loud quiet, after that order had crashed in 2015, Obasanjo appears fated to rattle until he breathes his last, given his latest activism to promote Atiku Abubakar’s PDP presidential candidacy, even after publishing unprintable stuff about that same Atiku; beside, without much ado, abandoning his own so-called “Third Force”, that he had announced, with much pomp, less than nine months ago.

But Obasanjo labours in vain, for the order he promotes is too rotten to receive a new life.  Anenih’s death may well be an earlier spiritual warning, about the eventual but dismal death of that misadventure.

Anenih was a prime study in the fatality of turning reactionary, even as a conservative.  But make no mistake: reaction is no sole monopoly of conservatives.

As the 2019 elections approach, this polity teems with virulent progressive reactionaries, selling pure falsehood, just to stay alive and relevant.  But again, all that would end in vain — and pain.

Anenih never ranked among the salutary politicians of his time.  Still, may God forgive his sins and grant him eternal rest.

Paramole!

That about captures the essence of Asiwaju Olorunfunmi Basorun, who turned 80 on October 15; and marked that epoch with a biography: Paramole O Koro Iwosi: Asiwaju Reuben Olorunfunmi Basorun, authored by The Nation’s Soji Omotunde.

“Paramole” is the Yoruba for rattlesnake, which though is famously tranquil, strikes with fatal devastation when rattled.

That was exactly Basorun’s public service essence. Teasers:

It was the low blues of military overthrow of the 2nd Republic (31 December 1983); and the popular fib that everyone, in the overthrown old order, was a thief.

This reconstructed dialogue ensued between a cleared Basorun and the Police at CID Panti, Ebute-Meta, Lagos. Basorun had gone to re-claim his international passport.

Basorun: “Where is my US$ 1, 900 armed policemen took from my official GRA, Ikeja, quarters?”
Police: “We have spent it on a number of things, including imprest. But we have small change left — in Naira”!
Basorun (taking the Naira wad and putting it in his jacket pocket), roaring: “Now, you say we politicians are rogues! Why should you spend my money?”
Police (mumbling): “It was not our fault …”
Basorun (bawling): “Whose fault — the Army’s? Shame on you, all!” — and he stormed out of Panti.

Indeed, Paramole ko ‘ro ‘wosi — the rattlesnake brooks no insult! How Basorun earned that cognomen was no less dramatic.

Dada Adepari Paramole, his grandfather had, in his native Igbogbo, announced, with grim gaiety, that newborn Olorunfunmi would hasten his departure. Pronto, a few weeks later, Grandpa Paramole died! Enter, Olorunfunmi, the Paramole incarnate!

No less gripping, was Albert Adewamiwa Ogumuyiwa, his biological father’s early death; and his mother, Abigail Bosede Ogunmuyiwa’s betrothal to Pa Yesufu Adeniji Basorun, a World War II veteran, then domiciled at 47, Oluwole Street, Lagos.

The denizens of Oluwole would later be resettled at Ogba, Ikeja, segment of “new Lagos”; after Ebute Meta, Yaba and Surulere.

Ogunmuyiwa died when Olorufunmi was five. The boy knew his father as much as a close five-year old would; since he always accompanied the parent to his farm. But the Ogunmuyiwas’ loss would appear the Basoruns’ gain, since the boy had to formally take his stepfather’s name.

But at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Reuben Olorunfunmi Basorun would tangle with another Basorun, Alhaji Shittu A. Basorun (no blood relation). The older Basorun threatened to scuttle his subordinate’s promising career, for inadvertently sighting the senior’s pay advice — a fulsome £100!

CBN headhunted the younger Basorun on 5 January 1959, following his dazzling prowess in Mathematics, during his secondary school years, at Eko Boys’ High School (EBHS).

Still, the youngster survived that initial threat — thanks to fasting and prayers, from a white garment church. He would, much later, rise to become the spiritual head of one of such churches, The Gospel Church of C & S.

Nevertheless, that initial battle would trigger his Paramole spirit, to fight for his right, and those of his colleagues’ at CBN, no matter the odds — and triumph, most of the times.

Basorun would lead a strike — drafted when the initial leader was pressured out by the Gowon military government — for better welfare for CBN staff, until the Gowon government passed a decree outlawing such.

He also wrote an unsigned, though hand-written letter, to protest CBN staff injustices, causing the Thomas Aguiyi-Ironsi first military government to formally warn the CBN management against such conduct.

Later, he would lead a group of four to write daily letters to protest being looked over for promotion, when lesser qualified staff were promoted, during the Clement Isong CBN governorship. Though the others soon chickened out, he continued the daily protest letter, for which he was threatened with a sack by Governor Isong.

But then, came the Murtala Muhammad coup, the sack of Isong and the appointment of Mallam Adamu Ciroma as new CBN governor. Ciroma finally addressed the problem and Basorun (with other cheated but qualified staff) got his promotion as Assistant Director, thus attaining the CBN executive rank.

That vaulted him into some instant CBN staff champion — “For any problem,” his fellow staff would crow, “call Basorun”!

When he exited CBN in 1979, to join the elected Lateef Jakande government, as secretary to the Lagos State Government (SLG), he had attained the post of Deputy Director.

Even with punitive postings to Maiduguri and volunteering to go run the Jos branch of CBN during the Araba crisis of 1966, at the apex of the Igbo pogrom in Northern Nigeria, he had rendered stellar service to the apex bank.

That was aside from, as part-time student, earning professional epaulets as chartered banker, chartered secretary, and a BSc in Business Administration from the University of Lagos. He would, post-Second Republic, study Law at the same Unilag; later proceeding to the Law School, Lagos, to earn a BL.

Indeed, Basorun’s punitive posting to Maiduguri nearly scuttled his Unilag BSc programme, but for the understanding of his Dean, Unilag’s Faculty of Business Administration, Accounting Professor, Michael Adeyemo.

Yet, Basorun responded with nothing but excellent service to his bank. It was no wonder then, that his latter days at CBN, under Olabiyi Durojaiye (later Senator) and Ola Vincent as Governor, was much more enjoyable.

Paramole got to know Alhaji Jakande, in his bid to checkmate a perceived marginalization, by Ikorodu indigenes, of other natives of Ikorodu Division.

Jakande referred him to Femi Alokolaro, a Lagos lawyer, who was coordinating Jakande’s — and Chief Awolowo’s — Committee of Friends in Lagos, the precursor to 2nd Republic Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), that won power in Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Bendel and Ondo (LOOBO) states.

But no sooner than he joined the Committee of Friends than he became one of the brain boxes of that spectacular 2nd Republic Jakande government. He was that government’s first SSG. This biography also opened an intimate window into that government’s policy thrust.

Indeed, that Basorun inevitably was made “secretary” to almost all organizations he belonged to — Lagos-wide; and in his native Igbogbo, where he has amassed tremendous community value — underscores his unstinting and meritorious service: Jakande’s SLG, secretary to the Ikorodu Division arm of Committee of Friends; and to umpteenth Igbogbo development unions: cooperatives, community banks, etc.

But despite the Jakande link, Basorun joined the PRIMROSE — People Resolved Irrevocably to Maximizing Resources of State for Excellence — anti-“Baba sope” [the patriarch has decreed] rebellion, against the Jakande order, in 1991.

Paramole is as much about the personal, political, community and spiritual history of His Eminence, Olorunfumi Basorun, spiritual head of The Gospel Church of C & S, Orile-Iganmu, Lagos; as it is about the formative history of CBN and a whistle-stop history of Political Lagos, from the 2nd Republic (1979-1983) till date; and the dynamics of Igbobo’s development — at least from the subject’s agile eyes.

It’s a treasure everyone curious about Nigerian political history must have.

Quote: “Paramole is as much about Olorunfumi Basorun, as it is about the formative history of CBN and a whistle-stop history of political Lagos from the 2nd Republic”

Paramole!  That about captures the essence of Asiwaju Olorunfunmi Basorun, who turned 80 on October 15; and marked that epoch with a biography: Paramole O Koro Iwosi: Asiwaju Reuben Olorunfunmi Basorun, authored by The Nation’s Soji Omotunde.

“Paramole” is the Yoruba for rattlesnake, which though is famously tranquil, strikes with fatal devastation when rattled.

That was exactly Basorun’s public service essence.  Teasers:

It was the low blues of military overthrow of the 2nd Republic (31 December 1983); and the popular fib that everyone, in the overthrown old order, was a thief.

This reconstructed dialogue ensued between a cleared Basorun and the Police at CID Panti, Ebute-Meta, Lagos.  Basorun had gone to re-claim his international passport.

Basorun: “Where is my US$ 1, 900 armed policemen took from my official GRA, Ikeja, quarters?”

Police: “We have spent it on a number of things, including imprest.  But we have small change left — in Naira”!

Basorun (taking the Naira wad and putting it in his jacket pocket), roaring: “Now, you say we politicians are rogues!  Why should you spend my money?”

Police (mumbling): “It was not our fault …”

Basorun (bawling): “Whose fault — the Army’s?  Shame on you, all!” — and he stormed out of Panti.

Indeed, Paramole ko ‘ro ‘wosi — the rattlesnake brooks no insult!  How Basorun earned that cognomen was no less dramatic.

Dada Adepari Paramole, his grandfather had, in his native Igbogbo, announced, with grim gaiety, that newborn Olorunfunmi would hasten his departure.  Pronto, a few weeks later, Grandpa Paramole died!  Enter, Olorunfunmi, the Paramole incarnate!

No less gripping, was Albert Adewamiwa Ogumuyiwa, his biological father’s early death; and his mother, Abigail Bosede Ogunmuyiwa’s betrothal to Pa Yesufu Adeniji Basorun, a World War II veteran, then domiciled at 47, Oluwole Street, Lagos.

The denizens of Oluwole would later be resettled at Ogba, Ikeja, segment of “new Lagos”; after Ebute Meta, Yaba and Surulere.

Ogunmuyiwa died when Olorufunmi was five.  The boy knew his father as much as a close five-year old would; since he always accompanied the parent to his farm.  But the Ogunmuyiwas’ loss would appear the Basoruns’ gain, since the boy had to formally take his stepfather’s name.

But at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Reuben Olorunfunmi Basorun would tangle with another Basorun, Alhaji Shittu A. Basorun (no blood relation).  The older

Basorun threatened to scuttle his subordinate’s promising career, for inadvertently sighting the senior’s pay advice — a fulsome £100!

CBN headhunted the younger Basorun on 5 January 1959, following his dazzling prowess in Mathematics, during his secondary school years, at Eko Boys’ High School (EBHS).

Still, the youngster survived that initial threat — thanks to fasting and prayers, from a white garment church.  He would, much later, rise to become the spiritual head of one of such churches, The Gospel Church of C & S.

Nevertheless, that initial battle would trigger his Paramole spirit, to fight for his right, and those of his colleagues’ at CBN, no matter the odds — and triumph, most of the times.

Basorun would lead a strike — drafted when the initial leader was pressured out by the Gowon military government — for better welfare for CBN staff, until the Gowon government passed a decree outlawing such.

He also wrote an unsigned, though hand-written letter, to protest CBN staff injustices, causing the Thomas Aguiyi-Ironsi first military government to formally warn the CBN management against such conduct.

Later, he would lead a group of four to write daily letters to protest being looked over for promotion, when lesser qualified staff were promoted, during the Clement Isong CBN governorship.  Though the others soon chickened out, he continued the daily protest letter, for which he was threatened with a sack by Governor Isong.

But then, came the Murtala Muhammad coup, the sack of Isong and the appointment of Mallam Adamu Ciroma as new CBN governor.  Ciroma finally addressed the problem and Basorun (with other cheated but qualified staff) got his promotion as Assistant Director, thus attaining the CBN executive rank.

That vaulted him into some instant CBN staff champion — “For any problem,” his fellow staff would crow, “call Basorun”!

When he exited CBN in 1979, to join the elected Lateef Jakande government, as secretary to the Lagos State Government (SLG), he had attained the post of Deputy Director.

Even with punitive postings to Maiduguri and volunteering to go run the Jos branch of CBN during the Araba crisis of 1966, at the apex of the Igbo pogrom in Northern Nigeria, he had rendered stellar service to the apex bank.

That was aside from, as part-time student, earning professional epaulets as chartered banker, chartered secretary, and a BSc in Business Administration from the University of Lagos.  He would, post-Second Republic, study Law at the same Unilag; later proceeding to the Law School, Lagos, to earn a BL.

Indeed, Basorun’s  punitive posting to Maiduguri nearly scuttled his Unilag BSc programme, but for the understanding of his Dean, Unilag’s Faculty of Business Administration, Accounting Professor, Michael Adeyemo.

Yet, Basorun responded with nothing but excellent service to his bank.  It was no wonder then, that his latter days at CBN, under Olabiyi Durojaiye (later Senator) and Ola Vincent as Governor, was much more enjoyable.

Paramole got to know Alhaji Jakande, in his bid to checkmate a perceived marginalization, by Ikorodu indigenes, of other natives of Ikorodu Division.

Jakande referred him to Femi Alokolaro, a Lagos lawyer, who was coordinating Jakande’s — and Chief Awolowo’s — Committee of Friends in Lagos, the precursor to 2nd Republic Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), that won power in Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Bendel and Ondo (LOOBO) states.

But no sooner than he joined the Committee of Friends than he became one of the brain boxes of that spectacular 2nd Republic Jakande government.  He was that government’s first SLG.  This biography also opened an intimate window into that government’s policy thrust.

Indeed, that Basorun inevitably was made “secretary” to almost all organizations he belonged to — Lagos-wide; and in his native Igbogbo, where he has amassed tremendous community value — underscores his unstinting and meritorious service:  Jakande’s SLG, secretary to the Ikorodu Division arm of Committee of Friends; and to umpteenth Igbogbo development unions: cooperatives, community banks, etc.

But despite the Jakande link, Basorun joined the PRIMROSE — People Resolved Irrevocably to Maximizing Resources of State for Excellence — anti-”Baba sope” [the patriarch has decreed] rebellion, against the Jakande order, in 1991.

Paramole is as much about the personal, political, community and spiritual history of His Eminence, Olorunfumi Basorun, spiritual head of The Gospel Church of C & S, Orile-Iganmu, Lagos; as it is about the formative history of CBN and a whistle-stop history of Political Lagos, from the 2nd Republic (1979-1983) till date; and the dynamics of Igbobo’s development — at least from the subject’s agile eyes.

It’s a treasure everyone curious about Nigerian political history must have.