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  • Awo and the longest goodbye….

    Awo and the longest goodbye….

    While we are still on the plight of a historic and heroic people, it is meet to dwell on the plight of the greatest conglomeration of Black people. History is a cruel and unforgiving taskmaster and the more you try to ignore it, the more it refuses to ignore you.  Almost forty years after what was mortal of him was laid to rest, the man behind the horn-rimmed glasses continues to haunt the nation with his icy stare and the hint of sardonic bemusement.

    Exactly twenty years ago on March 15, 2004, yours sincerely journeyed from his base in America to deliver the inaugural Afenifere Lecture to an enraptured audience. It was titled, Awolowo and the Longest Goodbye. Penultimate Wednesday, it was obvious that the spirit of the old titan from Ikenne was still very much around as the Awolowo Foundation gave its prestigious Leadership prize to Akinwumi Adesina. It has been, and remains till date, the longest goodbye in postcolonial Africa.

      It will be recalled that in his last interview, the late sage, a man of occult and oracular wisdom with a very deep understanding of the mysteries and mysticisms of historical occurrences, had informed his interviewer that were he to come back in thirty years and Nigeria were still a cesspit of corruption and political malfeasance, he would be found at the head of a stone-throwing mob. 

    No one is sure whether Awolowo, thirty seven years after his heroic recall, has not berthed in Nigeria again. An ominous cloud is gathering in the horizon. Corruption and legislative larceny seem to have gathered a fresh and irreversible momentum. There is a foul and nasty distemper everywhere, accompanied by a resurgence of ethnic baiting and political gaming which feeds on the mismanagement of diversities.

    Once again spurred on by a delinquent political class, Nigeria is in danger of dissolving into its ethnic particularities as the north spirals out of control from mass abduction and radical predation. The hegemonic party appears lost and totally incapable of either providing stirring political leadership or reining in its openly errant members.

    The internal mechanisms for party coherence and for maintaining and instilling party discipline appear to have collapsed. To be certain, the major opposition parties are in an even worse shape, unable to provide the nation with quality alternative policies or conduct themselves with the honour and discipline required of serious political parties.

       What will Awo think of this radical devaluation of politics and ideological meltdown which according to sages and soothsayers are usually the harbingers of far more ominous developments? The answer could be found by decoding the mixed signals emanating from the banquet hall of the glitzy Intercontinental Hotel where Adesina’s investiture took place penultimate Wednesday.

     It was indeed a gathering of the best and brightest of the land; a moveable feast of class and political panache such as befitting the memory of the greatest African organizer of all time. Everything, including the sitting arrangement, was organized with precision and meticulous attention to details. The melodious music wafting unobtrusively in the background was as sober as it was soul-stirring, reminding one of happier and more benign times in this land.

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     Yours sincerely chuckled to himself as some bounders whose sense of unearned importance has become a social menace in this country, were put in their place either by a disobliging stare, a courteous frown or by more direct and brisk restraining. The Yoruba have a saying that it was only the God of yesteryears that could be slow in effecting retribution and swift restitution.

       Hesitant and a shade timorous in dumping their political and traditional leaders probably because of their social and emotional investment in them, the Yoruba political multitude can nevertheless be prompt and punitively proactive in their hostilities and disavowal of errant aspirants to political nobility. From the acerbic comments emanating from where one sat about so many men of yesterday struggling for recognition and relevance which never came, one can only shudder in premonition.

      There is nothing anybody or any society for that matter can do about an idea whose time has come. When Adesina mooted the idea during his lecture that the solution to Nigeria’s restructuring impasse might lie in reconfiguring the nation into a United States of Nigeria, the heart warmed up instantly. About twelve years ago when the idea was pushed in this column using exactly the same words, an irate reader shot back accusing the columnist of harbouring treasonable thoughts. It is the treason of ideas whose momentum can no longer be halted.

    Awo was made to pay a stiff price for his intellectual temerity. But that we are still discussing how to reconfigure Nigeria almost eighty years after the avatar wrote The Path to Nigeria’s Freedom shows why it will be impossible to shake off the man behind the horn-rimmed glasses until we do the needful. It is the longest goodbye indeed.

  • Redeeming features of Awo’s statue

    Redeeming features of Awo’s statue

    So much has been said about this statue of a man in a million. It is larger than life as it sits magisterially on a gigantic ornate seat befitting of a man of leadership mien. Here sits the most hallowed Yoruba person living or dead – the figure of the legendary sage himself: the veritable Chief Jeremiah Obafemi Awolowo.

    Awolowo, London-trained lawyer and economist, did very well as a political leader. He became the premier of the Western Region in the years immediately before and after the nation’s independence. It was during the same era the Sardauna of Sokoto, Sir Ahmadu Bello was premier of Northern Region and the Owelle of Onitsha, Dr. Benjamin Nnamdi Azikiwe was premier of Eastern Region.

    The man more popularly remembered by his sobriquet Awo, was highly knowledgeable, disciplined, strict and skilful. He worked with the best of heads and hands in his government and was adjudged by most Nigerians, including his political opponents to have performed meritoriously at his post.

    He built the first television station in Africa. He built the multi-storey Cocoa House and the giant state-of-the-art Liberty Stadium. He also built a labyrinth of tarred roads throughout the region. These stood the Western Region out as most developed among the regions in the First Republic before the invasion of the military in 1966.

    Pertinently, Awo built schools in every town and village, and declared free education throughout his region. Yours faithfully was a beneficiary between 1961 and 1962 at Iyanfoworogi, Ile-Ife in today’s Osun State.

    This declaration of free-education throughout Western Region placed most of the children and youth of the region in the school system when majority of their counterparts still remained as cow-drovers, palm-wine tappers, fisher-men and rustic farmers in other zones.

    Even Awo’s fellow-leaders from other regions of Nigeria have given the sage hi-falutin plaudits. The most famous of such praises came from no lesser a personality than the Ikemba of Nnewi, Dim Chukwuemeka Ojukwu who described Awo as “the best president Nigeria never had”.

    So great has Awo grown in the heart of Nigerians, especially those of the Yoruba stock that right now the current Lagos State government which wants to leave a legacy of great service to the people, like Awo, has decided to further honour Awo with a statue.

    This Akinwunmi Ambode government that has turned the Lagos metropolis into a giant construction site has rolled out the drums to celebrate the exemplary leadership that Awo gave in his time.

    The government thus decided to build a new statue to celebrate Awo. It has been erected at the junction of Lateef Jakande and Obafemi Awolowo ways at Alausa, the seat of Lagos power.

    This latest honour done Awolowo has been hailed by all and sundry, especially as it has placed the man strategically at the entry-way to the place of Lagos governance.

    But there have also been some critical voices, not against the creation or location of the statue but voices pointing out some inexactitudes in finishing details of the figure.

    Prominent scholar, diplomat and columnist, Professor Jide Osuntokun in his column in The Nation on November 9, in frowning at some questionable traits in the visage, says the statue does not sufficiently resemble Awo and demanded that it should be uprooted and discarded.

    In a recent interview with Vanguard, Awo’s son-in-law, Pa Soyode (father of Nigerian’s current deputy first lady, Mrs Dolapo Osinbajo) also mildly criticized the statue saying “Awo never wore a boot”. He also revealed that Awo went for the best of shoes and would buy three pairs of his favourite, keeping one in Ikenne, one in Ibadan and one in Apapa. He said the shoe worn for Awo’s statue does not reflect Papa Awo’s preferences.

    Government has answered all criticisms by saying the statue is a work of art that cannot be expected to come out exactly as God created Awo.

    Nevertheless, when yours faithfully went to see the statue on Saturday November 11, it was highly impressive, attention arresting at its post in the administrative heartland of the Centre of Excellence. It has become a tourist landmark, where the young and old visit to catch a glimpse of the famous sage. It is the object to which all eyes are fixed as the traffic light turn red arresting vehicular movement to give right of way to others at this major road junction.

    It is the spot where some pedestrians halt the trek to see and reverence the great leader. It is the place where phones, cameras are put to much use snapping images of the legend.

    In truth, more traits that didn’t quite recommend the statue were also observed. The shoes were not boots if by a boot is meant a footwear that covers the ankle and sometimes part of the feet. But it was definitely pachydermous and not related to the elegant shoes that Awo wore.

    Similarly the Yoruba native agbada, buba and soro in its pristine Yoruba culture that Awo symbolized are not worn with socks or shoes that have strings.

    All said and done, all inexactitudes of the Awo statue are not enough to warrant its dismantlement. That would amount to throwing away the baby with bathwater. A skilful artist can still make all amends with the statue on its seat.

    All these done, it will be easy for Nigerians to side with Awo’s daughter, Ambassador (Dr) Tokunbo Awolowo-Dosumu who in an interview in The Punch praised Lagos State that has generously honoured Chief Obafemi Awolowo by this statue.

    The messages thereby will not be lost that Lagos State is advocating that we as a nation should have a new beginning of building Nigeria a-right. A task that is possible as Awo has shown how – more than 50 years ago – before the advent of petro-dollars

     

    • Amupitan writes from Isolo – Lagos State.  
  • Awo’s Bu(r)st

    Awo’s Bu(r)st

    During the week, a statue startled. When alpha governor Akinwunmi Ambode unveiled it to the delight of some Awo faithful and family, he probably did not expect such firestorm from the critics. Some loved it as a tribute to an artist’s sense of the avatar. Others embraced his cap, his rimmed glasses, his stately pose.

    Others cavilled at the face. They railed at its lack of statesmanlike poise. They said its neck was too thin, his girth to fat, his shoes a fashion faux pas: Awo did not wear lace-up beneath his buba and sokoto.

    Suddenly, Awo was back again from the grave, just like when he was here in flesh and blood. Some were awestruck, some struck him. While he was god to some, he was Mephistopheles to others. Critics forget, as is often the case with every work of art, that an artist can give a new twist to reality. It can be charmingly bland if you look at it from the familiar. But the artist can defamiliarise to refocus attention on the familiar. The critics had a field day, but remember the words of Finnish violinist, Jean Sibelius: “Pay no attention to what the critics say. A statue has never been erected in honour of a critic.”

    This is not the first statue to rake up dust. They said the Martin Luther King Junior one made him arrogant, the monument to Princess Diana caused an accident, the Peru Jesus made the Lord too flamboyant, many saw the Peter The Great statue in Moscow as bizarre and nothing like the iconic Russian leader. Today, confederate statues are generating raw passion on both sides in the U.S. when Awo’s bust was removed in Ibadan under Alao-Akala, it led his lovers to the genius’s burst of ideas.

    Everyone cherishes their own Awo. Those who want him ugly will condone no Adonis Awo. The one who wants him a god will preserve his shrine. Those want him buried and forgotten will preserve his ashes. The person who turns him into a bigot will violate any other kind of purity. So Awo is handsome, detestable, divine, dystopic, visionary, shepherd, shelter, depending on the court where you declaimed your verdict. All want to breathe their own life into a still Awo. For the sage who tenanted his genius in the west while the rest envied, this is a Pygmalion moment.

    Everyone is entitled to their own view of Awo as a still image as they are of his life. But the flurry of verbal rage only shows how Awo has remained the significant personage in Nigerian history. By unveiling the statue at this time, the Lagos State Governor only unwittingly restored Awo’s stature  on the front burner of the Nigerian debate. Some want to burn him, others want to burnish him. But no one can banish him. In either case, he is aflame in glory. He is the dead, whom Senegalese poet Leopold Senghor wrote, “have always refused to die.”

    Nothing shows this more than the current jaw-jaw over our future. The key word is restructuring. Why is everyone speaking about it? It is because Awo made a pearl of his region. If the West failed in the first trial, few will have any cause to cast back our course. Memory has become refuge because Awo is that memorial. He set the West as a city on the hill. He lit it with free education, lifted its infrastructure, made cocoa into wealth and built a monument, the Cocoa House, as Nigeria’s first such edifice, built an envy of a civil service, instilled a work ethic we crave wistfully, installed a politics that looked inward and shone to the world.

    Hence the recent meeting in Ibadan. Among other things, they called for regionalism. They wanted Awo’s rebirth in the West. They were endorsed by the East and South-south. The East under Zik also aped Awo’s doing with good success, if not up to Awo’s stellar colours. The Midwest was part of the West and, when it came to its own, it still bore the image of its forbears.

    Yet, as Awo’s still figure in Alausa sparks different views, the Ibadan meeting forgot that the Awo that bloomed in the Westminster system believed Nigeria should do away with it. The Ibadan meeting wanted us to go back to the parliamentary system. But Awo hailed the presidential. This point was amply explained by columnist Segun Ayobolu in his analysis of the sage’s book, Thoughts on Nigerian Constitution. We take what we want from our heroes. Awo knew that the parliamentary system was effective before it became effete.

    But it is a system that courts alienation of the people, according to him. Once the parliament is formed, government becomes a collusion of prime minister and his law makers. Awo also witnessed the presidential system, and he lamented it when the NPN routed his UPN and acted like a monarchy and manipulated the courts. His last interventions showed that he did not expect that generation of Nigerians to witness good governance. In Babangida’s time, he said we were involved in a “fruitless search.”

    Awo’s despair about Westminster made him call for the presidential, which also torpedoed our hopes. Our present return to presidential politics has exposed something that many are not willing to address. It is not about the system. It is about us. “No constitution, no document can govern a people if the people are not ready to govern ourselves,” noted former Ghanaian leader Hilla Liman.

    That is the crux. We can call for restructuring. Some Southeast elements can call for Biaxit. But what is at stake is not restructuring, however desirable it might be. It is a sense of values. If we still do not believe in a template of justice, where everyone acts by a moral code and the rule of law, we can restructure the country to the finite detail, but we shall never be content with ourselves.

    It is because we distrust ourselves that we argue over restructuring. One person’s restructuring is another person’s disfiguring. That is the case with Awo. Hence his image will continue to become a source of tweaking. Some see Westminster and forget he had outlived it. Others see his love for economic development. Some forget that if Awo were a creature of the 21st century, he wold not be obsessed with television as with the new frontiers of Apple, Facebook, etc.

    Societies often wake up past heroes to redefine contemporary challenges. Reagan governed in the 1980’s but we still have Reagan Republicans and Reagan Democrats, each defining him their own way. Charles de Gaulle still haunts French politics today. Although the Republican Party is the party of Lincoln, it is doubtful if the man who stopped slavery will hug a Donald Trump. President Andrew Jackson, a self-confessed racist who tormented Indians with a trail of tears, is Trump’s hero today. Last week, German polls gave Hitler’s descendants significant seats in parliament and Chancellor Merkel is forced to dialogue with them. When people look back they see different. On addressing the Renaissance and Reformation, historians said “Erasmus laid the egg, and Martin Luther hatched it, but Erasmus said the colour of the feathers was different from the one he intended.” So, is Awo going to accept what the Awoists are saying today?

    Awo was dynamic in life. We expect him not to be static in death. As we seek a new nation, the greatest Nigerian ever tugs us out of our ideological complacency, out of our doctrinaire closets. We could search for him with the optimism of poet Edmund Spenser: “For there is nothing lost, that may be found, if sought.” In doing so, we should find us in him and he in us. Awo is a guide, not a doctrine.

  • Awo and the Ibadan declaration (2)

    Awo and the Ibadan declaration (2)

    In the first part of this piece, we examined the implications of the call in the ‘Ibadan Declaration’ for a return to the 1963 constitution with regard to the parliamentary form of government under which the country was governed during the First Republic (1960-1966). Reflecting on the issue through the intellectual prism of the great statesman, lawyer, politician and first Premier of Western Nigeria in the First Republic, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, we recalled the sage’s clinical dissection of the parliamentary form of government as well as the very strong reasons he advanced for jettisoning the British model on which the 1963 constitution was based. As far back as 1966, Awo had been a strong advocate of the adoption by Nigeria of the American-type presidential system with creative adaptations of some aspects of the French model of executive authority.

    Another key plank of the ‘Ibadan Declaration’, certainly its central thrust, is the proposal that the country revert to a region-based federal constitutional structure as obtained in the 1963 constitution. Specifically, proponents of the ‘Ibadan Declaration’ canvass that Nigeria should become a federation of six regions with each of the regions having its own constitution and the power to create its own states and local governments within its sphere of jurisdiction. The Declaration proposes a new revenue allocation formula with states allocated 50% of tax revenues, the proposed regions 35% and the Federal Government 15%.

    Under this proposed arrangement, local governments are not abolished but they are deprived of constitutional recognition and are totally subordinated to the states. Thus, the states and regional governments are liberated from the suffocating grip of the central government on one hand while, on the other hand, local governments are pushed further into the stultifying stranglehold of overbearing state governments, a situation which will now be further worsened by the interposition of a new layer of government at the regional level.

    One of the assumptions and often cited factors for the advocacy of a return to regionalism is the rapid pace of development witnessed in the regions in the first republic, particularly in the pace-setting Western Region under the leadership of Awolowo. Was the impressive rate of development in the immediate post-independence era solely a function of the existence of healthily competitive regions? Most certainly not. As we have argued in this space in the past, no less critical to the developmental successes recorded in the Western region, for instance, were the personal discipline, vision and exemplary leadership qualities of Awolowo; the astuteness, industry and competence of his Ministerial team; the restraining influence of a strong, ideologically-driven political party with clearly stipulated aims and objectives; the accountability of the government to the party that provided it an electoral platform as well as the careful and continuous nurturing of a development oriented and thoroughly professional civil service as the engine room of governance.

    Yes, the revenue allocation formula that enabled the regions to retain a substantial chunk of revenues derived from their jurisdictional territories at a time when agriculture was the mainstay of the economy was critical to the laudable progress of the regions. But this can easily be exaggerated. It is trite that the profusion of resources does not automatically translate into the judicious utilization of such for impactful developmental purposes. That, after all, is the enduring story of the reckless squandering of Nigeria’s munificent oil bounties at all levels of government for the better part of Nigeria’s post-independence history.

    In any case the much derided extant 1999 constitution does not enshrine a revenue allocation formula cast in marble. No constitution can realistically do so and enact a revenue sharing formula that is valid and unchanging across time and space. The 1999 constitution makes provision for a continuous revision of the revenue allocation mechanism every five years obviously to take account of changing dynamics and circumstances. If the political actors refuse to continuously adjust the revenue allocation formula  as constitutionally stipulated and the electorate is impotent to elect into office those who will do so, is the constitution to blame?

    It is instructive that Awolowo performed with the same distinction and record of excellence he exhibited as Premier of the West in the regional, federalist dispensation of the First Republic when he served as Federal Commissioner of Finance and Vice-Chairman of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) under military rule during the civil war. That was after the regions had been abolished and 12 states created.  In the same vein, the governors of Awo’s Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), particularly Alhaji Lateef Jakande of Lagos State, acquitted themselves most creditably in terms of quality and impact of governance in the Second Republic. As the story of remarkable positive change and progress in Lagos State since the commencement of this dispensation in 1999 undeniably demonstrates, where there is the requisite leadership quality, programmatic vision and political will, the present constitution does not pose an insurmountable obstacle to meaningful development.

    There are those who propose a reversion to regionalism as a way of regaining the relative autonomy of the federating units and liberating the sub-national governments from the perceived tyranny of the centre. From this perspective, the prevalent state structure attendant on the abolition of the regions is the product of a conscious conspiracy to enhance the influence and power dominance of a section of the country, specifically an often nebulous and ill-defined north, to the detriment of other parts of the country. This may not necessarily be so. A more historically accurate reason for the pressures that resulted in the splitting of the regions into states was the strong determination of the minority ethnic groups to be freed from what they perceived to be the oppression and unjust hegemony of the major ethnic groups that dominated the various regions.

    As a notable student of Nigerian history and politics, Professor Richard Sklar, aptly puts it “The lessons of Nigerian political history teach that political regionalism is not compatible with the empowerment of a multiplicity of politicized ethnic groups. Once regions are established and endowed with political power, ethnic interests are routinely sacrificed for regional interests, which often prove to be interests articulated by the leaders of large ethnic groups. Smaller ethnic groups then look to the centre for protection against their overbearing neighbours within the region”.

    Interestingly, Chief Awolowo was himself one of the strongest advocates of the breaking up of the regions of the First Republic into smaller states. Although only the Mid-West Region was eventually carved out of the West in the First Republic to weaken and spite the ruling party in the region, the Action Group (AG), Awolowo relentlessly canvassed that smaller states be created to accommodate the demands of the minority ethnic groups in the Eastern and Northern regions. Again, to quote Professor Sklar in another article, ‘Nigerian Politics in Perspective’, “After independence, the anti-regionalist cause was espoused by Obafemi Awolowo, leader of the Action Group…”.

    In his book ‘Thoughts on the Nigerian Constitution’, written in prison after a rigorous study of virtually every existing constitution in the world at the time, Awolowo made a vigorous case for the splitting up of the polity into eleven states based on what he described as the ‘linguistic principle’ while also canvassing the creation of an additional seven states made up of ethno-lingual groups, which were too small at the time to stand alone as separate states, thus bringing the states to a total of 18. Even then, he proposed that provision be made in the constitution for the creation of more states in the future. In Awo’s words, “…the constitution should provide that a linguistic unit could, under specified conditions, have its own separate state at any future time. Such conditions would include the viability both of the new state and the residual state…”

    True, the number of states mushroomed under the military with many of them being created arbitrarily with little or no concern for their economic viability. But it would appear to me that the structural challenges that confront the polity today do not necessarily stem from the number of states. The problem is that we have a so-called federal structure that emphasizes the sharing of largely oil-derived revenues rather than ensuring that the component states of the polity are economically viable and productive entities. Do we need to create an additional layer of government at the regional level to address this problem as advocated by the ‘Ibadan Declaration thus significantly escalating the cost of governance in an already over-administered polity? I don’t think so. The present multi state structure is not inherently incompatible with the practice of true federalism. No one doubts the imperative, indeed inevitability, of fundamental constitutional changes if Nigeria’s trapped potentials are to be unleashed for the benefit of her people. It is my view, however, that exploiting the opportunities provided by the current constitution to eliminate identified shortcomings and introduce necessary structural changes in accordance with stipulated procedures is far more preferable to embarking de novo on a constitutional journey of uncertain destination thus rendering the experiences of the past 18 years – good and bad – an utter and regrettable waste.

  • Lagos and the ‘resurrected’ Awo

    In Othello, one of his famous works, iconic playwright, Williams Shakespeare, flawlessly stresses the importance good reputation with the following words: “Good name in man and woman, dear my lord, is the immediate jewel of their souls: Who steals my purse steals trash; ’tis something, nothing; ‘was mine, ’tis his, and has been slave to thousands; But he that filches from me my good name robs me of that which not enriches him, And makes me poor indeed.”

    This, perhaps, amply describes what the motivation of late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, throughout his political and public service career in building for himself a rare reputation that was hinged on integrity, sacrifice, commitment and selflessness. No wonder, 30 years after his demise, his name still rings a bell across the land and beyond, opening impregnable doors for members of his family as well as political associates.

    It is therefore not surprising when the late sage metaphorically resurrected in Lagos State on Tuesday with the state government’s unveiling of a new iconic statue in honour of the revered icon that many simply refer to as Awo. The striking sculpture located along Obafemi Awolowo Way by the Lagos Television (LTV) junction in Agidingbi, Ikeja, is no doubt a befitting replacement to the old Awolowo statue that used to be at the Allen Avenue round-about in Ikeja, Lagos. Standing at 20 feet, the new Awo statue reinforces the unwavering commitment of the Lagos State government to appreciating the contributions of patriots whose deeds and ideals were instrumental to the social-economic and political well-being of Lagos State in particular and Nigeria in general.

    Designed and produced by Hamza Atta, the Awo bust represents and projects the true value of the late sage and calls the attention of everyone, especially students of history to the legacy of the leading statesman. Undoubtedly, the statue will serve as a constant reminder to all, especially future generations of the need to value the sacrifice of our heroes and strive towards upholding and promoting the ideals which some of them lived and died for. It is mainly in doing this that we can truly ensure that the labour of our heroes past is not in vain.

    Hannah Arendt, German-born US philosopher and historian, once said that the connection between history and nature is by no means an opposition. History receives into its remembrance those mortals who through deeds and words have proved themselves worthy of nature, and their everlasting fame means that they may remain in the company of the things that last forever. Immortalizing our heroes, is surely one way of spurring present and future generation of Nigerians to effectively connect  with our past with a view to committing them to the vision and ideals of our founding fathers. With several agitations for one thing or the other across the country, there is, indeed, no better time to do this than this particular period in the history of our dear nation.

    In Nigeria, the subsequent drop in the quality of leadership inevitably is the result of decline and seemingly loss of hope by many in the nation.  One of the most important ways of instilling patriotism and inculcating self-belief and a ‘can do’ spirit in our youths is through immortalizing our heroes, both past and living. It is important that we regularly cull from the life of our heroes, great lessons in discipline, altruism, honesty, focus, perseverance, patriotism and hard work among other useful virtues. It is hoped that by immortalizing our heroes and ultimately calling attention to the ideals they hold in high esteem, our compatriots, young and old, would be encouraged to live a selfless life that is anchored on patriotism and integrity.

    These are some of the virtues that made Chief Obafemi Awolowo, one of the founding fathers of Nigeria, traverse the country’s socio-political landscape as a colossus for decades. Born in Ikenne, Ogun State, on March 6, 1909, the late sage has been variously described by different people in diverse ways. For instance, he was once described by late Chief Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu as the ‘Best President Nigeria never had’.  Former military ruler, General Yakubu Gowon also dubbed him as a ‘reverred political leader’ while   former military dictator, General Ibrahim Babangida, once referred to him as ‘the main issue in Nigerian politics’.

    In 1954, Chief Awolowo became the first Premier of the defunct Western Region and it was during this era that the foundation for the evolution of modern Yoruba land was effectively laid. With an economy that was mostly agrarian, Awolowo developed and made the then Western Region a model for the rest of Africa in terms of socio-economic development. Some of the infrastructures that were put in place by his administration endure till date.   These include the first television station in the Africa, (now National Television Authority, NTA), the University of Ife, Ile-Ife (now, Obafemi Awolowo University), the Liberty Stadium, Ibadan, Cocoa House, Ibadan, various industrial hubs across the region among others.

    A strategic thinker and visionary leader, Chief Awolowo had an intriguing political career. In 1963, he was found guilty of conspiring to overthrow the government of Nigeria and was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment. In 1966, while still in prison, Awolowo wrote Thoughts on the Nigerian Constitution which talks about the upholding of a federal form of government composed of 18 states. Later, in 1966, he was released from prison by the Federal Military Government of General Gowon and the following year he was invited to join the same government as Federal Commissioner of Finance and as Vice Chairman of the Federal Executive Council.

    Chief Awolowo actively served the Gowon Military Government throughout the duration of the Nigerian civil war from 1967 to1970. In The Strategy and Tactics of the People’s Republic of Nigeria, a book he wrote in 1970, Chief Awolowo came up with strategies and plans that could make the then Federal Military Government’s post-war spending to be  wholly devoted to socio-economic development rather than military adventurism. He resigned from the Federal Executive Council in 1971 to protest the continued retention of military rule.

    In 1975, following the overthrow of the Gowon government, he issued a statement questioning the country’s military spending. In 1979 and 1983 respectively, he ran for president as the candidate for the defunct Unity Party of Nigeria, UPN, losing on both occasions to Alhaji Shehu Shagari. He returned to private life upon the termination of democracy by the Buhari –Idiagbon led military junta in December 1983. But then, he was always commenting on national issues, offering wise counsels to those in power from time to time.

    Though he died in Ikenne, his country home on May 9, 1987 at the age of 78, 30 years after, the good deeds that he did has continued to live after him. Herein lies the foremost message behind the recent unveiling of the imposing Awo bust in Ikeja, Lagos. One only hopes that current crop of leaders across the country would see beyond the allure of power, but search painstakingly to properly unearth what made Awo and his likes thick.

     

    • Ogunbiyi is of the Lagos State Ministry of Information and Strategy, Alausa, Ikeja.
  • Awo and the Ibadan declaration (1)

    Awo and the Ibadan declaration (1)

    On Thursday, 7th September, a cross sec
    tion of Yoruba leaders and representa
    tives of diverse groups and interests from the region including the Yoruba in Kogi and Kwara states converged on the Lekan Salami Stadium, Adamasingba, Ibadan, to deliberate on and ratify a charter proposed as the position of the South-West on the path to the widely advocated restructuring of Nigeria. Whether or not one agrees with the proposals of the charter known as ‘The Ibadan Declaration’, there is no doubt that it constitutes an important document, which cannot be disregarded in any meaningful discussion on the path forward towards actualizing the Nigeria of our dreams. Some have questioned the legitimacy of the group’s claim to speak on behalf of the South-West since they do not have any mandate from the people. That is beside the point.

    The critical thing is that the conveners of the forum have demonstrated sufficient conviction in their beliefs to canvass their ideas and mobilize far and wide towards galvanizing popular support for their cause. Others with alternative views are equally free to propagate their position and organize for support around their vision of Nigeria. It is unlikely that a region as politically sophisticated and vibrant as the South-west can have a monolithic political position on restructuring. The beauty of democracy is for divergent ideas to contend for ultimate legitimation and the approval of the vast majority of the people through free, fair, credible and generally acceptable processes.

    Others have sought to fault the validity and credibility of the ‘The Ibadan Declaration’ by reference to the ‘questionable’ motives and political antecedents of some of the key actors who attended or sent representatives to the Adamasingba event. The chairman of the occasion, respected legal luminary, Chief Afe Babalola (SAN), to cite one instance, is said to be a ‘unitarist’ who kept his peace with and was completely at home with the centralist status quo during the 16 years that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was in power. Well, to impugn or question the motives behind an idea, proposal or recommendation is not to credibly disprove its validity or desirability. Rather, the ‘Ibadan Declaration’ must be examined with reference to its contextual historical adequacy, logical coherence and its internal analytic consistency.

    I intend in this piece to briefly interrogate some of the recommendations of the ‘Ibadan Declaration’ within the framework of the political and constitutional thought of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, first Premier of Western Nigeria in the First Republic and one of Nigeria’s most astute and foresighted statesmen ever. For one, many of the key figures in support of the ‘Ibadan Declaration’ swear by the late sage’s name. They claim that their vision of a restructured Nigeria based on a return to regionalism is inspired by Awolowo’s path-breaking and still unequalled performance as Premier of the Western Region; a period when the West was the indisputable pacesetter in the country in virtually every sphere of governance and development. Beyond this, it is exceedingly difficult to find anyone who had studied Nigeria’s constitutional problems as meticulously and rigorously as Awolowo, which enabled him to proffer solutions to the country’s socio-political and economic problems that still resonate today in terms of relevance, foresight and enduring efficacy.

    What then would have been Awolowo’s views on the key planks of the ‘Ibadan Declaration’, which include a return to the 1963 constitution, a reversion to a region-based federalism predicated on a six-zonal structure with each region having its own constitution and the adoption of a revenue allocation formula in which 50% of national revenues will go to states, 35% to the proposed regions and 12% to the Federal Government? Awolowo’s rigorously articulated positions on these issues can be found in his immortal books, ‘Thoughts on the Nigerian Constitution’ (1966) and ‘The People’s Republic’ (1968).

    It would appear to me that a return to the 1963 constitution necessarily implies the adoption of the parliamentary form of government which obtained in Nigeria under that constitution. Some have advocated a return to the parliamentary system on the ground that it substantially reduces the cost of governance, which is unnecessarily prohibitive and counterproductive under the presidential system currently in practice. On pages 255 to 263 of ‘The People’s Republic’ Awolowo undertakes a scathing critique of the parliamentary system contending that “Hitherto, we have, all of us, indiscriminatingly and unscientifically followed the British democratic practice, as if it was the best method…But we now know better. From the exposition which we have made, it is quite clear that the American method is better than the British, and that the French method under de Gaulle is better than the American…In the proposals which follow, we will try to adapt the best in the French and American methods and introduce our own innovations”.

    Thus, Awolowo advocated that the position of Head of State to perform purely ceremonial functions and play a ‘Father-of-the-Nation’ role to be separate from that of Head of Government, who would wield effective executive authority as provided for in the 1963 constitution. However, he canvassed that, just as in the American system, and contrary to what obtained under the 1963 constitution, the Head of Government “should be directly elected by an absolute majority of the registered electors of the Federation and of the Region respectively, voting at the election”.

    Continuing his penetrating critique of the form of government under the 1963 constitution, Awolowo writes, “The defects inherent in the former system are serious and harmful. It automatically gives rise to a situation in which the Head of Government looks upon his constituency as the only ladder by which he climbs to power, and regards his party together with his colleagues in Parliament or Legislature as constituting the only solid ground on which the ladder is based. Three things, therefore, matter to him above all else: his constituency, his party, and his parliamentary colleagues. It is these three, in the Nigerian experience, which he most sedulously cultivates and nurtures, to the comparative neglect of the people under his rule with the result that he commits acts or lays himself vulnerable to charges of parochialism, nepotism, and narrow-minded partisanship”.

    With the entire country or region as the constituency of the Head of Government at the different levels of government as the case may be, Awolowo contends, occupants of that office would be more inclined to be broad minded and less parochial in their worldview, political outlook and approach to governance. And if the Head of Government had any “tendencies towards parochialism or sectionalism”, Awolowo argues, he would have to “kill or curb them” if he still wanted to continue in business i.e. win future elections requiring that he enjoys broad, nationwide electoral support. One hopes that the ‘Buharists’ who defend a 95/5% appointment ratio into public offices that marginalizes entire sections of the polity take note of this.

    Another advantage of the American system noted by Awolowo is that, unlike the provisions of the 1963 parliamentary constitution, it does not compel the Head of Government to pick his ministers from among the legislature thus helping to encourage and strengthen the separation of powers between the executive and legislature. Furthermore, under the presidential system, the Head of Government is free to nominate his ministers from outside his party’s membership thus enabling him, as Awolowo put it “to assemble the best team of ministers which his party or region can offer”. It was in the light of this, among others, that Awolowo claimed that the 1979 constitution had largely incorporated ideas he had canvassed in his books and numerous public lectures over a decade earlier despite his declining to serve as a member of the Constitution Drafting Committee set up by the Murtala/Obasanjo administration under the chairmanship of the late Chief Rotimi Williams (SAN).

    If the 1963 parliamentary constitution is believed to be more cost effective than the presidential constitution currently in operation, what explains the Ibadan Declaration’s proposal of another layer of government at the regional level that would gulp 35% of national revenues according to the suggested new revenue allocation formula? Will this not unwarrantably increase the cost of governance? And in advocating a revenue allocation of 15% to the Federal Government, does the Ibadan Declaration take into consideration Awolowo’s sound advice in his address as Federal Minister of Finance to the Conference of Finance Commissioners in Kano on 23rd February, 1970, that one of the seven factors he identifies as critical to determining an appropriate revenue allocation formula for the country is the need “to put the Federal Government in sufficient funds to enable it not only perform its allotted functions in the national interest, but also to come readily to the aid of any state in need”.

    Expatiating on this point, the sage averred that “…if perchance, any state fell on an evil day, it should be the duty of the Federal Government, acting as the accredited agent of all the other states, to come to the aid of such a needy state, without delay. To this end, the Federal Government should be provided with sufficient funds. It will not be easy in the beginning to estimate how much this will be. But as time goes on, experience will guide us”.

  • Awo: 30 years after

    Awo: 30 years after

    The Obafemi Awolowo Foundation has marked the 30 years anniversary of the demise of the first Premier of the defunct Western Region, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, with a series of events. One of such was the dialogue session for youths drawn from across the country, where the discussants extolled the virtues of the late sage. Assistant Editor LEKE SALAUDEEN was there.

    THERE is no doubt that the first Premier of the defunct Western Region, the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, was a great Nigerian who was probably not appreciated in his life time. He died 30 years ago at the age of 78. But his ideals and philosophy are evergreen and have become a reference point in public administration. He was described by one analyst as a political giant with an extraordinary mind and talent.

    His achievements as Premier are still evident and remained unmatched by any leader in modern Nigeria. At considerable expense, he introduced free and compulsory primary education for all and free healthcare for children. He established the first television service in Africa in 1959; he built Cocoa House, Ibadan, which was the tallest building in Nigeria for many years; he built Liberty Stadium also in Ibadan. The projects were financed from the highly-lucrative cocoa industry, which was the mainstay of the regional economy. Perhaps, the most enduring legacy of the man popularly known as Awo was that, under his watch, the economy of the region became very buoyant. He used the resources to provide infrastructure and set up a business conglomerate known as the Oodua Group, which has become a money spinner for the states in the Southwest.

    Awo crafted the strategic policies that ended the three-year civil war (1967 to 1970), a feat that was openly acknowledged by the former Military Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon, under whom he served as Federal Commissioner of Finance and Vice Chairman of the Federal Executive Council. Gowon said: “Awo worked with me at a difficult time in the life of this country, but throughout this time, he kept sharing ideas for the development and survival of Nigeria. Together, we succeeded in keeping Nigeria one without borrowing a kobo.”

    From the beginning of his political career to the end, his mission was to make Nigeria better than he met it and also to secure Nigeria’s economic, social and political future for the next generation. Though he was unable to achieve his presidential ambition, Awo’s contribution to the socio-economic development of the country was not in doubt.

    To mark the 30th anniversary of Awo’s death, the Obafemi Awolowo Foundation organised a forum for the youths. Tagged “Conversation on Awo”, the participants had the opportunity of getting first-hand information from Awo’s disciples, associates and family members on how he succeeded as a public officer and a family man. The event, which was held at Awolowo’s country home, Ikenne, Ogun State, was attended by youths drawn from the six geo-political zones.

    The Executive Director of the Foundation, Dr Tokunbo Awolowo-Dosumu, said the discourse became imperative so that the youths could imbibe and embrace the virtues and ideals of the late sage. She explained that the meeting was part of the leadership project of the foundation to address the dearth of good leadership in Nigeria, adding that the “Awo Conversations” series would generate strategies for building a new generation of selfless leaders for the country.

    The lead discussant and emeritus Professor of History, Banji Akintoye, explained why Awo was different from the leaders of today. He said: “Awo came with a mission: to do good to the society. He knew his mission from day one.” He regretted that, today, such leaders do not exist.  According to him “the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) legislators during the second republic were not in the National Assembly to make money but to serve and to set a standard behavior which we imbibed from Awo.”

    Akintoye said: “Papa Awolowo relentlessly put himself in search of knowledge. Therefore anyone of you can also start from somewhere in search of knowledge. At 37, Awo had stepped into greatness by forming the Egbe Omo Oduduwa, a feat that was followed by the publication of his first book on Nigerian Federalism which was channeled towards Nigeria’s greatness in 1939.” He was politically savvy and when he returned to Nigeria, it was the beginning of modern awareness.

    He added: “This is a reminder that we can achieve anything we set our minds on. This is the message to our youths in these terrible times and history of our country. I was just a university professor when I went to the Senate in 1979. I had only a small car that I used throughout. When salaries were increased to N3, 000, Papa called me and exploded in my face. I heard that senator’s salaries were increased and you were there. Why did you not speak against it?”

    Akintoye said the country was being confronted with many challenges because the people had rejected the wisdom of Awo. He advised the youths to think big in their youthful age. He said: “Awolowo loved his people; he lived for his people; he was a human being; he did a lot of great things for our people. Why can’t you begin to do big things now that you are in your 30s. You can achieve as well because he has showed you how to do it.”

    He said Nigeria could break up, if not restructured, adding that the country should not have found itself in this position where ethnic groups lord things over themselves. He added: “We are not a conquered people. We say this now because we have ignored what Awo saw clearly at 39 in 1947. The Federal Government is meant to be a coordinator not a controller. A controlling Federal Government is a recipe for danger. Chief Awolowo knew his vision from his childhood. Today, we don’t have such leaders. People leave office richer. When I was a senator, the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) senators were big men. They were getting import licenses. We of the UPN were only thinking of how to make the country better.”

    A close associate of Awo, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, told the youths that all the programmes implemented by the late sage were backed by philosophy. He said the free education programme was introduced to ensure egalitarian society where everybody would be equal.

    Adebanjo said Awo succeeded in the implementation of his programmes because he did his homework and trusted his colleagues who assisted him in running the government. He said the people believed him and his government. He added: “When his government introduced a levy of 10 shillings on every adult to finance free primary education, the people of Western Region agreed to pay.”

    He recalled how Awolowo surcharged the late National Chairman of the defunct NPN, Chief Adisa Akinloye, who went on a foreign trip sponsored by the Regional Government. Akinloye, he said, took his wife along without government approval. When he returned, Awo instructed that all expenses incurred by Akinloye’s wife should be deducted from his salary.

    Tokunbo-Awolowo recalled that her father told her that when the 10 shillings levy for free education was introduced, the reigning Deji of Akure, who belonged to the opposition party, invited Awolowo for a discussion on the levy. Awo honoured the invitation and met the traditional ruler and his chiefs at his palace in Akure. The question put to Awo by the Oba was, if he paid 10 shillings, would all his children benefit from free education programme? Awo said no matter the number of your children, they will benefit. Then, the Oba instructed his chiefs and subjects to pay the levy.

    Awo’s personal secretary, Mr Odia Ofeimun, described the late sage as a man of ideas and an advocate of true federalism. He said: “I related with Papa Awo, not as an employer or leader, but as a man of ideals.”

    Ofeimum said Nigeria would not split, despite agitations from a section of the country. He said the people of Nigeria shared a strong bond and affinity. He said if Nigerians could honestly find out about their history, they would discover the bond of unity and similarity among them and none would sincerely wish for a break.

    A participant, Malam Isa Usman, said the North had over the years had a negative impression of Awo. He said: “When I read about his laudable achievements in the West, I found him to be honest and dedicated to the welfare of his people. Had it been Awo was given a chance to rule this country, we won’t be where we are today. I am happy the suspicions between the North and Southwest are gradually disappearing and that explains the political alliance that brought about the formation of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the election of President Muhammadu Buhari.”

    Usman said the youths should see beyond ethnic and religious boundaries and imbibe the virtues of past leaders, for the country to move forward. He added: “Awo was not a saint; he was a human being like us. Whatever his shortcomings, we should celebrate him. He towered above his contemporaries. Not only that all the leaders we’ve had since his exit from government and politics have not matched him. Awo served his people such that the Yorubas will never forget him.”

    Usman said Awolowo was born at the right time and that he lived his life in the right country. He added: “But whether our country was right for him is another question. His impact on the lives of millions of Nigerians is immeasurable. He lived his life for the people. Three decades after his death, he remains the yardstick by which greatness is still measured in the most populous and most important country in the Black world.”

    To Alex Nwokocha, Awo was truly a great man. He said: “Because of his brilliance and strength of character, he was very much misunderstood and envied; and because most couldn’t measure up to his expectation and greatness, they vilified him.  He was graceful; he was charismatic; he was purposeful. Most of all he had a clear vision of what he wanted for Nigeria and for humanity. Above all , he was a nice and decent human being.”

    Nwokocha said: “Awo never became the president of Nigeria, because he refused to compromise his principles; he refused to betray his constituent and his conscience; he refused to bow to the wishes of the colonialist. For these and other reasons, therefore, he was denied the ultimate political price and because he was denied his political aspiration, Nigeria has remained in the doldrums ever since.”

    On Awolowo’s unrealised wish to be president, Nwokocha said the country lost the brightest star it ever had and may have to wait another 70 years for a man like him to emerge and free the country from bondage.

    He added: “To say he was a statesman is an understatement. If he was an American or a European, the world would have placed him in the same league as Churchill, Roosevelt, Charles de Gaulle and many others. But, because Nigeria is what it is, we have no regards for our heroes. Any wonder then that no one wants to lay their lives for a country that does not appreciate her citizens?

    “I wonder what would have become of our country, if Awo had ruled this country. I think of how far we would have gone in terms of human and economic development. I think of all the possibilities and the dreams and aspirations we had as a nation; we missed a great man.”

     

  • Awo: 30 years after

    Awo: 30 years after

    Thirty years after the death of the first Premier of the defunct Western Region, the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, his admirers still hold him in high esteem. This was demonstrated at a lecture organised to mark his 108th posthumous birthday in Lagos. Assistant Editor LEKE SALAUDEEN reports.

    Nigerians from all walks of life converged on the auditorium of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), Lagos, last week, to witness the 2017 Obafemi Awolowo Memorial Lecture. It was one of the activities put in place to mark the 108th posthumous birthday of the late sage.

    Despite the fact that the programme was held on a Monday — and it rained in the early hours of that day — the turnout was highly impressive. The auditorium was filled to capacity such that some guests had to hang around.  An octogenarian, Pa Isola Adeniran came all the way from Oyo town, because of the lecture. He said: “I attend the lecture every year as a mark of respect I have for the late Chief Jeremiah Oyeniyi Obafemi Awolowo.”

    Adeniran, a retired permanent secretary in old Oyo State Civil Service, said: “Every year, I gain a lot from the exemplary life of Awo; his dedication to serve humanity and his legacies as a family man and a public officer.”

    There is no doubt that Awolowo was a great Nigerian who was probably not appreciated in his lifetime. At considerable expense, he introduced free primary education for all and free health care for children in the defunct Western Region. He established the first television service in Africa in 1959, and the Oduduwa Group; all of which were financed from the highly lucrative cocoa industry which was the mainstay of the regional economy.

    It was Awolowo that crafted the strategic policies that ended the three-year civil war. But, the hero of the war on the rebel side, the late Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, was gracious and truthful enough to describe him as “the best President Nigeria never had”.

    Observers say this year’s Obafemi Awolowo Memorial Lecture is unique, in the sense that it is the first time it would involve the youth. The organisers apparently heeded the advice of Professor Ladipo Adamolekun who chaired the 2016 lecture that the youth should be involved in subsequent editions. The lecture took place under the theme: The Awolowo Legacy and its Message to Nigerian Youths.

    Besides, Mr Segun Awolowo (junior), the grandson of the late sage, featured at this year’s event, unlike before. He served as programme co-ordinator. Observers say it may be the beginning of devolution of responsibility in the Awolowo dynasty.

    The guest lecturer, Professor Banji Akintoye, advised the youth to take over the struggle for the restructuring of Nigeria. He challenged them not to allow the struggle to be championed by politicians. He classified the youth as those within the age bracket of 18 and 40, who, he said, constitute about 55 per cent of the nation’s population.

    Akintoye said any youth who wishes to leave an indelible mark on the sands of time must emulate the Awolowo ways. He said: “Do not leave the struggle for restructuring of Nigeria to politicians. They are playing with your future.

    “Any youth who chooses to learn from Awo stands a chance to live a life that influences others, enriches and builds for themselves respectable images all over the world. Though things are tough in Nigeria today, but things will eventually work for those who are given to learning and who continuously strive to learn new ideas. This is the Awolowo way.

    “Papa Awolowo relentlessly put himself in search of knowledge. Therefore, anyone of you can also start from somewhere in search of knowledge. At 37, Chief Awolowo had stepped into greatness, by forming the Egbe Omo Oduduwa, a feat that was followed by the publication of his first book, which was channelled towards Nigeria’s greatness two years later.

    “This is a reminder that we can achieve anything we set our minds on. This is a message to our youths in these terrible times and history of our country.”

    On the state of the nation, Akintoye believed that Awo would not be happy with the present situation of things in the country, especially when considering his dream of a Nigeria where the rights of any tribe, irrespective of population or location, would be respected. This, he said, could be hinged on the gross neglect of individual ethnic rights under the guise of building of a central government system.

    The professor of History noted that over concentration of power in the Federal Government is the root of all evils threatening Nigeria.  He warned: “Except room is given for proper restructuring of Nigeria, where no single tribe’s right is subsumed by another, Nigeria is heading for disintegration. If you deny any nation such as the Igbo or Yoruba nation or others of their nationality, then we are piling more problems for the future.”

    Akintoye said: “Awo remains alive because his legacies continue to impact the lives of Nigerians. There are thousands of Yoruba professors scattered in different universities and other parts of the world. Majority of these are products of the free education programme introduced by Awolowo.”

    In his opening remark, the Chairman of the occasion, General Yakubu Gowon, noted that Awo never did anything by half measure, adding that his life would forever remain a reservoir of knowledge for all Nigerians, especially the youth. According to the former military Head of State, the youth need at this time to benefit from the wisdom of the sage.

    He recalled the immense contribution Awo made when he was Vice Chairman of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) and Federal Commissioner of Finance, particularly during the civil war of 1967 to 1970, thus: “Awo worked with me at a difficult time in the life of this country, but throughout this time, he kept sharing ideas for the development and survival of Nigeria. Together, we succeeded in keeping Nigeria one without borrowing a kobo

    “Awolowo was not for Yoruba nation only, but for entire Nigerian nation. We can call him ‘Father of Nigeria’.  So many things stood him out like loyalty, perseverance, hard work and sacrifice. We were relatively young when we assumed leadership of Nigeria in 1966. We listened to the elders like him in the cabinet. We took decisions in the best interest of Nigeria. I appreciate Awo, because he always made sure we got it right and did it right.”

    Chairman, Selection Committee, Obafemi Awolowo Prize for Leadership, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, announced that there is no award for this year. According to him, the committee considered seven names of intellectuals submitted to it by the Technical Committee. He said, regrettably, while some of the names were able to demonstrate some of the Awo’s attributes, they did not combine those attributes with what Awo represented in his life. He named such qualities lacking in the nominees as: cerebral capacity, pro-people attitude, impeccable patriotism and love for the country without counting inconvenience. It was the combination of these attributes and qualities, he added, that singled out Professor Wole Soyinka and former President of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, to become the first and second winners respectively.

    On the state of the nation, Anyaoku said if Chief Awolowo and other founding fathers were alive today, they would be full of lamentation and disappointment for the state the country has found itself. He said: “I have often wondered how Nigeria’s founding fathers

    — Nnamdi Azikiwe, Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Ahmadu Bello — would have felt today, if they were to rise up to see Nigeria as it is today.”

    The former Commonwealth Secretary General said he had no doubt that lamentation and deep disappointment would fill their minds, especially Chief Awolowo, who championed the cause of true federalism and, as premier, brought about very effective rule in the old Western Region. He added: “Chief Awolowo would be disappointed that, instead of having viable federating units in which effective human and economic development could thrive under a peaceful atmosphere, the country has non-viable federating units with an all-powerful centre.”

    According to him, it was this situation that gave rise to the do or die politics prevalent today, among other things. He said the lopsided federal structure is equally to blame for the worsening ethnic and religious divisions in the country, which has weakened its national unity. Anyaoku urged Nigerians, particularly media practitioners, the youth and political leaders, to invoke Awo’s attitude and assimilate them.

    Governor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State shares Anyaoku’s view. He wondered what statements Awolowo would make on the state of the nation were he to be alive today. Aregbesola said however that he does not believe in restructuring, because it is not the real problem facing the country.

    He said the real issue is that Nigeria cares less about how its income is being distributed. This, according to him, is the root of poverty in the country. He cited the case of Europe that was redeveloped after being ravaged by war and Britain in particular that suffered hunger for months with no food being allowed into the country, but still came out of the problem.

    His Lagos State counterpart, Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, said: “The gathering here today is a testimony of the special place Awo occupies in our heart. It is to remind ourselves about our old leaders like Awo. We should learn from their ideas; the physical development experienced in the old Western Region when he held sway was a testimony of his great ideas.”

    Ambode, who was represented by his deputy, Dr. Idiat Adebule, said the gathering was an opportunity for both the new and old leaders to rob minds. He added that there was the need to exemplify Awolowo’s characters, not by the relationship people had with him, but by putting into practice what he stood for and demonstrated.

    The Ooni of Ife, Oba Enitan Ogunwusi, urged the political leaders to be mindful of what would be said about them after they must have died. According to him, it is not about wealth and estates left behind, but the positive impact one would make on the lives of the people.

    Oba Ogunwusi said: “They would not remember the estates. They are ephemeral. All those things will leave you when the separation comes. Separation will come; death is the price that all of us will pay; it is unavoidable and inevitable.”

    Earlier, the Executive Secretary of the Obafemi Awolowo Foundation, Dr Tokunbo Awolowo-Dosumu expressed her appreciation and delight at the support the Foundation had been enjoying from Nigerians since it was set up in 1992.

    Other dignitaries present at the event  were the Obi of Onitsha and Patron, Obafemi Awolowo Foundation, , Igwe Nnaemeka  Achebe, former  governors Olusegun Osoba (Ogun), Dr  Emmanuel Uduaghan (Delta), former Editor, Daily Times, Chief Areoye Oyebola, Chief and Mrs Adekunle Ojora, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, Arch Bishop George Amu, General Alani Akinrinade, Chief (Mrs) Nike Akande; former Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral Akin Aduwo, Lady Maiden Ibru, Professor Adebayo Williams and Ayo Opadokun.

  • From Awo to Tinubu

    From Awo to Tinubu

    It has been unceasing bedlam from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) — unceasing bedlam that suggests unceasing dissonance.

    A grave dissonance that paints two armies, locked under the same command, but sworn to a fight-to-finish, from which no soul might survive.

    But that ode to unbridled anger automatically shutters the grand significance of the electoral breakthrough of 28 March 2015, starting from the North Vs West no-retreat-no-surrender temper of the Obafemi Awolowo era; to the hideous stalemate of the June 12, 1993 presidential election annulment.

    That annulment consumed both MKO Abiola (the winner) and Sani Abacha (the usurper); but relegated Ibrahim Babangida (the “annular”) into something of the living dead, in Nigeria’s hurly-burly politics of endless conspiracies.

    Such muddying up of waters is fine by the heinous characters, plotting and scheming to ship-wreck the state for personal fortune.

    But it would be plain catastrophe for those in the opposite camp, clearing the perpetual mess, a camp which incidentally both President Muhammadu Buhari and Asiwaju Bola Tinubu belong.

    So, if the APC work themselves into an explosive emotional lather, that suggests intra-party reasoning has imploded.  That is bad news; which sketches a party on a merry voyage to self-ruin.

    But make no mistake.  Were Ripples to weigh in, on any side of the reported principal disputants of Buhari and Tinubu, his sympathies would be with Tinubu.

    The reason is simple.  Given the stupendous powers of the Nigerian presidency, Tinubu is the clear underdog.  Besides, a detached interpretation of the emerging facts, about the dispute, shows Tinubu as the wronged party.

    Worse: most of the wrongs would appear to stem from the sheer ingratitude to deny and undermine Tinubu his true place in the APC triumph, and the subsequent sharing of political spoils.

    Yet, Ripples’ thinking would be much more strategic than raw anger, to willy-nilly tear down the 2015 alliance. Neither Buhari nor Tinubu would benefit from that.

    Of course, when unflagging emotion rules, mischief and sheer folly leap in.  That perhaps explains why a Bukola Saraki lobby would, in a piece written by Abdulwahab Oba, chief press secretary to Kwara Governor, Abdulfattah Ahmed (‘Many troubles of the ruling party’,  The Nation,  October 27), would equate Saraki’s perfidy against his party for personal gain, with Tinubu’s intra-APC odyssey.

    An enemy of my enemy is my friend may well be an unfazed Machiavellian quip.  But the Oba piece was amity-in-grudges pushed too far.

    While the Saraki misadventure draws odium to itself by its sheer perfidy, the Tinubu challenge draws sympathy by the essential fairness of its claim.  Let no one mix up the two.

    The emotive opportunism from the Saraki camp also draws attention to the rather revealing profile of Tinubu’s latter-day supporters in this new campaign: the Afenifere old guard, the Femi twain of Fani-Kayode and Aribisala, a pair that guns for raw emotions, doubly sure their victims are unthinking robots, if not outright zombies; and of course, the unfazed champion of gubernatorial push-and-shove, Ekiti’s Ayodele Fayose, who with every second, continues to blight the high office of governor.

    Of these latter-day Tinubu friends, perhaps only the Afenifere old guard could claim something of a Brutus in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, who committed himself to slaying Caesar not because he hated his bosom friend, but because he loved Rome!

    Even then, Afenifere would appear driven by the same philosophy as the so-called Buhari cabal: primordial distrust, ogling ethnic nationalism, bordering on ethnic irredentism. That is bad for all.

    The others in the assemblage?  Equal-opportunity mischief merchants, that thrive only in confusion.  Throw in the vitriol the Fani-Kayodes, the Aribisalas and the Fayoses hauled at the enterprise of 28 March 2015, and you probably would figure out their base motives, by this new-found solidarity.

    Which is why the Buhari and Tinubu camps must pause, eschew whatever bitterness plaguing their hearts and constructively engage each other.  This battle is theirs to lose — and lose they will, if they don’t immediately wear their cap of vigorous thinking.

    That brings the subject back to the Awo and Tinubu era in Nigerian politics, using June 12 as mid-point.

    To start with, June 12 demonstrated — and conclusively too — the utter futility of any segment of Nigeria essaying a domination agenda. Yes, Babangida pulled off his annulment crime. MKO — and wife, Kudi — died without consummating his presidency.  And Abacha perished in sleaze.

    But what did that yield those rascals that hid behind the ‘North’ to perpetuate that evil?  A capitulation six years after in 1999, that returned Olusegun Obasanjo, defeating another Yoruba son, Olu Falae, just to appease the MKO injustice.

    That should be serious food-for-thought for the so-called cabal allegedly hiding behind Buhari to clip Tinubu’s wings; and erecting malicious blocks between the two, for personal and ethnic gains.

    By the way, that experiment from 1999, no matter how imperfect, has not only birthed Nigeria’s first minority President, Goodluck Jonathan, whose presidential ruin is best forgotten; it has also delivered the defeat of a federal ruling party, in the landmark election of 2015, despite the unconscionable dollar-rain and sundry subterfuge, by the then extant powers.

    However, the alliance lined up behind Tinubu, eager to smash the progress he and Buhari have chalked, also needs some historical checks.

    Sir Ahmadu Bello, the late Sardauna of Sokoto and premier of the 1st Republic Northern Region, was quoted to have sworn to dip the Koran into the Nigerian southern sea.  Even if that quote was apocryphal, conquest was perhaps the only world the Sardauna knew, being the scion of the Usman Dan Fodio Islamic conquest of the much of Nigeria’s North.

    But he was historically matched by Chief Obafemi Awolowo, whose counter-world was freedom, since bar slave trade and British colonization, his  Ijebu people were never captives to any other peoples.

    That shaped the Awo no-retreat-no-surrender temper of the 1st Republic.  The tragic push to alter that balance, by a parliamentary forgery that created a phoney Western emergency, led to the crash of the 1st Republic.

    Now, that collapse offers two valid lessons.  First, the Tinubu protégées in Abuja, and top APC hierarchs, friends turned alleged foes, would do well to remember the tragic fate of Chief SLA Akintola.

    The Yoruba world may have changed drastically between 1962 and 2016. But little has changed in the Yoruba psyche’s zero tolerance for perfidy, particularly when the victim is perceived right and just.

    That canonized Awo.  It may yet canonize Tinubu.  But the Yoruba can do without new age SLAs, for aside from his rankling political memory, SLA was among the brightest and best of his era.

    Then, the Afenifere foes-turned-friends.  They were so bitter about Tinubu’s bold entente that made APC a reality, and landed Buhari the presidency.  However, they now are near-rabid in their Tinubu support.

    Still, they must admit some fixation with the past, which Tinubu broke to achieve the 2015 breakthrough — an entente that, other things being equal, promised some pan-Nigeria rapprochement.

    Buhari and Tinubu must lock themselves up somewhere and talk.

    Lest the ongoing conspiracies, of subversive love and base motives across the aisle, smash what they have worked extra-hard to build.

  • ‘How the North chased Awo with bees’

    ‘How the North chased Awo with bees’

    Pa Raheem Olajide Adegbite was a youth leader of the defunct political party, Action Group in Remo in the early 1940s through till  1967. Now at 85, the old man looks back at those exciting days, when the enigmatic late Chief Obafemi Awolowo and his contemporaries bestrode the politics of the time with lofty ideals and rivalries. He spoke to Taiwo Abiodun about the politics of the time.

    HUNG on the wall of his living room were youth photographs of him with prominent people of his time on different political occasions. In one of them, the chubby-cheeked youth was with the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo and a monarch in 1958; in another, he was with party leaders and supporters among others in his prim black suit and tie; whilst in yet another,  he was reading out a speech while the late Awolowo sat with a monarch and looked on.

    Now an octogenarian, Pa Raheem Olajide Adegbite paused, brought out another picture, gave it to this reporter and spoke slowly, as he pointed at a figure. “This is the late Tai Solarin in the middle, delivering his speech when we visited him at his Mayflower School, Ikenne.”

    Uncle Tai, as he was popularly called, was in a Yoruba flowing gown (agbada) and it was on an occasion when the youths were coming from a meeting with the late Awolowo in 1960.

    As he sorted quietly through some more papers and documents, Adegbite, who was then youth leader and Social Secretary of the Action Group party, Remo Division in the then Western Region (now Ogun state) spotted his old membership card, with the inscription, ‘Action Group Youth Membership Card’ and the palm tree symbol on it, picked it up and brandished it with pride.

    Said Adegbite with visible nostalgia, “The late Awo,” as Chief Awolowo was fondly called, “was an enigma, faithful and strong leader, whom the youths of the time looked up to; believing in his ideas and principles to deliver his political manifestos. Awo was known to us generally; he was simple and spoke to us in the language we understood.”

    My Closeness to Awo

    Adegbite, who hails from Sagamu, the divisional capital of Remo in the old Western Region, was however quick to say that he didn’t have any special closeness to the late sage, except that “as secretary of the youth wing of the Action Group Party, I used to go to him with one Mr. Makanjuola Lawal.”

    Reminiscing further, he said: “What I understand about him was his greatness, agility, brilliance, dexterity in politics, humility and faithfulness. He was a gift to Nigeria; little wonder he was described as the ‘best president Nigeria never had.’ He was a clean man; very clean and straightforward. His type of politics is rare. He possessed that magnetic power, such that wherever he was, he enjoyed loud ovation. He was just great.”

    Passage of time

    Just as he reflected on the passage of most of his contemporaries with whom he rocked the political terrain in the 1940s and 1960s, Adegbite said he is pained that the late Awolowo died without becoming president of Nigeria as his followers wanted. “Many of us who were members of the youth wing have passed on. Even though I am based in Lagos and have not been going home regularly, I can still remember people like L. Abiodun, Amusa Shittu, Isiaka Adewale, Mustapha Erinle, M.O. Akodu, although I am not too sure who is still alive or gone amongst them even as I speak.

    The Awo campaign train

    Reflecting on the campaign train, Adegbite said “Whenever Awo arrived at a campaign ground, people would cheer and cheer and cheer because of his charisma, exposure, education and promising manifesto. He was treated with honour and respect. He was an icon, an idol. Whenever there was a campaign, I would be asked to mobilise our people to meet him. I was the social secretary and it was my job to go round and announce his coming. It was a highly honourable job to do and an influential position too.  I used to go with him to the campaign ground anytime he came to Remo.”

    The many attacks on Awo

    Adegbite confirmed the hostilities among politicians of the time and the use of voodoo, assassination and verbal attacks on the late Awo. “Yes, the politicians used juju to attack one another. Then assassination was not as rampant as we have these days, so Awolowo was attacked several times with juju. He was also verbally and physically attacked; but he always escaped unhurt because he was very powerful. There was a time he went to Oyo town with the late Bode Thomas and they were accused of being rude to the Alaafin of Oyo (the father of the present Alaafin). It was alleged that somebody used juju on them, but Awo was not affected. The rest, like they say, is history.

    “Not only that. The Igbos refused to vote for Awo, alleging that he had campaigned that he would ban stock fish, which is a popular item amongst them. Up north, he went to campaign and they said he was a pagan and stoned him. They even sent bees to sting him, but he brought out his handkerchief and warded them off. But in spite of all these, he made friends amongst Northern leaders like the late Aminu Kano, JS Tarka amongst other.”

    Penkelemess

    Asked to explain what the ‘penkelemess’ slogan was all about, Adegbite said “From the beginning there was friendship. Awo was in Action Group and the late Adegoke Adelabu, who was an Ibadan indigene, used to say all what Awo was doing was ‘a peculiar mess.’ They used to tackle him by going to motor parks, but Awolowo used to do his own in a very decent way.”

    As a rule, no civil servant could join in active politics, but Adegbite sort of contravened that instruction, as he participated actively in politics as secretary of Remo Local Government. But that, he said, was possible because he was a member of Action Group and Action Group was the ruling party at the time.

    The Awo magic

    On the story that Awo performed magic by writing his name in the sky during a campaign, the old man laughed and said it was not magic but scientific. “Awo only flew a balloon in the air and wrote Action Group on it. That was new then and everybody looked at him in amazement.”

    The AG crisis

    At this point Adegbite said he didn’t want to talk about the crisis any longer but volunteered that it was a result of a power tussle between Awo and Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola between 1952-59. “Awo was Premier of the Western Region, but had to go on to play federal politics. But when he came back and wanted his seat back from Akintola, there was a disagreement and this led to a split in the party ranks, as some people followed Akintola, while some followed Awolowo.”

    Again, when there was a need for the party to form an alliance, Awo wanted the NCNC but Akintola preferred to go with the NPC (Northern People’s Congress) led by the Sardauna, late Sir Ahmadu Bello, because he could speak the Hausa language. But this led to rioting all over the place, with people burning houses in the South-West. Many houses were burnt in Sagamu, Iperu, Ishara, Ode Remo, Ikenne and other places. Many ran away for their dear lives , while majority of us could no longer attend party meetings. But Awo was not happy with the situation and appealed to the people for calm.”

    An ardent Awo disciple, Adegbite said, “Our hope was that if Awo became president, he would provide employment for the youth; but since he lost, he couldn’t do anything and there was bitterness amongst his supporters in Remo and Sagamu and elsewhere, where people believed in him.

    Adegbite said it was a sadder occasion, when Awolowo was jailed in 1963. “People were not happy about it; he was our messiah; he was an idol amongst the youth.”

    God, greater than all

    The former youth leader was however not happy with the way the late sage’s body was treated after his demise, arguing that it was against God’s wish for a dead body to be preserved forever. “I was in Ikenne after he died to pay my condolence and pen down my thought in the register, but I believe he should have been buried thereafter.”

    He said the attempt to preserve his body, however failed, when his remains began to rot and the family had to hurriedly bury him. “It showed us that God is powerful and greater than us all.”

    While admitting that Awo had his weaknesses, Adegbite said he is still baffled by his ability to woo people, likening it to a magic wand. “People would be held speech-bound for hours, shouting ‘Awo!, Awo!!, Awo!!!’ He was a good leader, no doubt; a good teacher and a pace-setter. He was the first to bring television and radio to Nigeria.”

    Was Awo a proud man?

    The self-confessed Awoist said: “I cannot say he was proud, but he knew what he wanted. He used to say ‘It’s not life that matters but the courage you put into it.’

    “I followed his principles. I have only one wife. I am honest and will never steal a pin. After retiring from working at the Remo Council, I also worked at Nigerian Paper Converters; manufacturers of “Day by Day ” toilet paper, drinking straws, printing and stationery manufacturers. When I resigned from there, I went into rug business and retired into selling cement.”

    Asked if his sticking to one woman was all about following Awo, he said: “My father had three wives; my grand-dad had five wives, but they were always quarrelling. My mother actually wanted me to have more wives but I said ‘no.’ When wives fight, they always sided with their children. I am 56 years in this marriage and we are still alive. I have no child outside and I am contented.”

    Between Buhari and Awo

    Adegbite  praised Buhari for trying to tackle corruption. He said “Buhari is in Awo’s shoes. Awo said he would probe the military but lost the election; but Buhari said the same and was elected. That is life. Now we are all seeing how corruption has destroyed the country. We should all support Buhari for toeing Awo’s line.”