Leadership in Yoruba nation is earned. Among a people that read meanings to ordinary greetings, leadership cannot be bought through distribution of patronage to siblings of your political opponents to undermine their credibility, terrorizing people with political thugs to prove you are in power or by whimsically declaring yourself a ‘constituted authority’. Leadership requires selfless service. And it is not just to the Yoruba people but to the larger society.
The Yoruba who are in the modern times led by a socio-cultural council of elders with Afenifere acronym – wanting the best they want for themselves for others, fully understand that the wellbeing of others is the only guarantee for their own continued wellbeing and security. By 1947, their leader, Awo had come up what he called ‘Path to Nigeria’s Freedom’, where he recommended a federation of major ethnic groups as the building block for Nigerian federation. At the London 1957 Constitutional Conference, Awo, regarded by the British press as the only one among the nationalist leaders who spoke like a statesman, insisted not only on freedom for ethnic nationalities but independence for individuals as citizens of the new nation.
Awo and his Action Group party from then on led a crusade for the creation of states for minorities in the North notably Benue and Plateau and, Ijaw, Ibibio, Efiks and Anang, in the Eastern Region. Barely two years after independence, he was framed up and jailed by those who wanted to run the country according to their own distorted vision of society.
Following his release from prison in 1967 by Gowon, he embarked on his crusade for a return to the ‘Path to Nigeria Freedom’ never taken while those who plunged the nation into civil war regrouped as NPN and NPP. In the Second Republic, the new inheritors of power in the West took up the crusade by establishing free primary schools and state-owned universities in Midwest, Ondo, Ogun and Lagos which were opened to everyone from other parts of the country.
Olusegun Osoba, Bola Tinubu and others took up the battle from their illustrious fathers during the short-lived Third Republic and in the Fourth Republic, when they rejected Obasanjo and his ‘mainstreaming’ agenda. Speaking of Pa Abraham Adesanya during his burial ceremony, Obasanjo confessed: “Pa Abraham told me if I join, things will change but I refused to join them. I went back the second time but they refused to work for my emergence…I went there again the third time but Afenifere maintained their stand, they refused to vote for me but I secured my votes outside Yoruba land”. Of course Obasanjo lost even in his polling booth in Abeokuta even though Pa Adesanya never publicly asked anyone not to vote for Obasanjo. The same scenario played out in the First Republic when in 1965, the Yoruba roundly rejected Samuel Akintola, imposed on the West by the Balewa’s federal government. In recent governorship election in Ogun State, the people rightly identified Osoba as their true leader in spite of the antics of Amosun. In Yoruba nation, the people know their leaders and leaders speak for their people.
Read Also: Osoba at 80
In 2003, when Obasanjo who has always claimed to be a Nigerian leader pretended to identify with aspirations of Yoruba people, they demanded no special favour for the Yoruba nation. According to Chief Segun Osoba, “The conditions presented to Obasanjo, among others were: the restructuring of the Nigerian federation, devolution of power, including moving some items from the exclusive to the concurrent list and ensuring fiscal federalism. Obasanjo was made to agree to organise a credible and transparent national census”. Obasanjo according to him assured them that he was satisfied with all the conditions tabled before him but as documented in his book, “It was later that we realised that we had been fooled. Obasanjo merely played along with us and ended up deceiving us by telling our leaders what he knew they wanted to hear, but which didn’t come from his heart.”
Obasanjo was responsible for the division in Afenifere. But while speaking to Fasoranti, leader of the pro-PDP Afenifere faction shortly before the 2019 election, he had said. “You have been talking about the interest of Yoruba, while I have been talking about the interest of Nigeria. Our paths crossed. Our priority is now one. If we did not repair this country, it will be disastrous.” Obasanjo says the solution is in rescuing the country from the hands of the All Progressives Congress and President Buhari.
But Osoba, who prides himself as having undergone a tutelage under Awo and “did his PhD in public life by being mentored” by him understands Buhari is just a symptom of our crisis of nationality and that the way forward is retracing our way back to the ‘Path to Nigeria Freedom’ never taken through restructuring of the country. He has therefore suggested the 9th National Assembly be allowed to carry out that function. And with the encomiums pouring in from his political associates, his professional peers and from powerful people from across the nation, during the launching of his autobiography The Battle lines: My Adventures in Journalism and Politics, all extolling his virtue as a patriotic Nigerian, who built bridges across ethno-religious divides, the question as to who between the two Egba chiefs speaks for the Yoruba is settled.
Everyone attested to Osoba’s selfless service to his people and to the nation. President Buhari affirmed that “the real impact of his wealth of experience, selfless spirit and many sacrifices in leadership will continue to resonate in the many lives he had touched”.
Babajide Sanwoolu, Lagos State governor praised him for the “documentation of his journey as an elder statesman, as a politician, a true Nigerian, a true democrat, an Afenifere to the core, a NADECO stalwart”. Bola Tinubu, his soul mate in the struggle for implementation of ‘Nigeria’s Path to Freedom’ spoke of his “honesty and openness adding that even when Osoba was sick, his main concern was the struggle for Nigeria”. Abdulsalami Abubakar, said he and Osoba possessed deep interest in the affairs of the nation and that they both “want Nigeria to remain a blessing for Africa, want Nigeria to move higher worldwide and want Nigerians to believe in their nation”. Gen. Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida (rtd) in his “Tribute to a great mind and uncommon Nigerian” described him as “detribalized and a patriotic Nigerian who speaks truth to power.”
Everyone also admitted Osoba has massive contacts across the country. But like his illustrious forbears there is no evidence Osoba ever exploited these contacts for personal gain. He could have bargained for oil block, private bank or private university licence for himself. The only time he sought the goodwill of Abdulsalami Abubakar, his friend of many years was when he wanted Yoruba-backed AD registered as a political party. And he did this, not for himself or even for the Yoruba, but according to him, for the stability of the Fourth Republic.
Osoba’s recognition as ‘a detribalized and patriotic Nigerian leader” despite waging his forebears’ uncompleted battle for ‘Path to Nigerian Freedom” for years has shown there is no contradiction in being a good representative of your people and being a patriotic Nigerian. Indeed as Awo, Osoba’s mentor observed, ‘You cannot be a good Nigerian without first being a good representative of your people’.
Leave a Reply