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Tag: memory

  • June 12: Memory that can’t fade away

    June 12: Memory that can’t fade away

    Twenty-four years after, the memory of June 12, 1993 presidential election lingers on. Assistant Editor LEKE SALAUDEEN examines the relevance of the historic election in the present dispensation.

    The presidential election of June 12, 1993 remains a watershed in the political history of Nigeria. It was the day Nigerians from all walks of life spoke in unison, albeit with their votes in electing a business mogul, Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola (a.k.a. MKO) and Alhaji Baba Gana Kingibe as president and vice president respectively.

    It was adjudged by local and international observers as the freest and fairest election in Nigeria. It was the day Nigerians refused to be divided along religious, tribal or ethnic lines and cast their votes for the person they believe can deliver. June 12, 1993 represented the day sanctity of the electoral process was established in the country and it was the day Nigerians voted for commonality of purpose and identified where they wanted to go and be.

    Those who were up to 18 years and lived in Nigeria in 1993 would be familiar with this song: “Nigerians on the march again…. On the march again! Looking for Mr President …. Mr President! MKO… He’s our man ooh!” It was the first stanza of the late Abiola’s Hope ’93 campaign jingle for the June 12 election entitled “Farewell to Poverty”. It was soul inspiring and became the household song even among school children.

    Twenty-four years after, the song is still fresh in the minds of many people who witnessed the electrifying campaigns that preceded the historic elections. The campaigns were programme based and violence-free. In a keenly contested race Abiola standing on the platform of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) beat his National Republican Convention (NRC) challenger, Alhaji Bashir Othman Tofa with 2.25 million votes.

    To the surprise of many Nigerians and the international community, the Babangida regime that conducted the election annulled it. The Chairman of the National Electoral Commission, Professor Humphrey Nwosu was still announcing the results when the annulment order came. The order set the polity on fire and marked the beginning of a six-year pro-democracy struggle that culminated in the return of civil rule in 1999.

    The June 12 election scored many firsts in the history of electioneering in Nigeria. It was an election that broke ethnic and religious barriers by featuring a Muslim-Muslim ticket depicted by Abiola and his running mate Ambassador Baba Gana Kingibe that defeated a Muslim-Christian ticket of Tofa and Dr Sylvester Ugoh. It is interesting to note that Abiola defeated Tofa in his home state-Kano. It was in June 12, 1993 that only two candidates contested the presidential election for the first time. It was also the first time that presidential candidates participated in live television debate.

    Prior to June 12, 1993 presidential election, Nigeria had conducted several elections and even after that, elections have been held no one seems to remember the campaign jingles of the other elections

    The June 12 was a battle between the military rulers represented by Babangida and the people represented by Abiola. It was the first time that the oppressors were defeated. It marked the beginning of the end of military dictatorship in Nigeria.

    Chairman of the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR) Lagos chapter, Comrade Isiak Buna, said June 12, 1993, can never be forgotten in the political history of Nigeria because it was the day MKO Abiola won the freest presidential election in the country. He said: “it was the first time that the oppressors were defeated, and they now precipitated crisis, and arrested the person that that the oppressed class gave their mandate to, incarcerated him and eventually killed him. Abiola died in the struggle to liberate the Nigerian people from the clutches of the military dictatorship; Abiola and June 12 live on in the hearts of the people.”

    Buna further stated: “It is not Babangida that annulled the June 12, 1993 presidential election; he only represented the interest of a clique dominated by their class character while Abiola represented the interest of the masses.”

    He said “prior to the June 12 election, there was division in the country between the rulers and the ruled; we had different people representing different interest. So when the country pushed for democratic rule, it was June 12 and the late MKO won the collective mandate of the oppressed class in 1993.

    “It was the day Nigerians reclaimed their sovereignty and seized power from the military. Even though the democracy being practised in the country is not perfect, with time the country will get it right. He urged the leadership of the country to give a befitting recognition to Abiola, the winner of June 12, 1993 presidential poll”.

    There has been controversy over whether June 12 or May 29 should be Nigeria’s Democracy Day. The current democratic dispensation was inaugurated on May 29, 1999, hence the sitting President Olusegun Obasanjo declared May 29 as Democracy Day. The argument of many observers is that June 12 should be Democracy Day, because it laid the foundation for the return of civilian rule which is being enjoyed today by the political elite. They argued further that June 12 should have been a new beginning for Nigeria politically and that the bitter experience and sacrifice of men like Abiola should have infused a sense of equity, fairness and justice, as well as other ideals of democracy such as ballot integrity and freedom of choice, which would have brought in its wake the reduction of poverty and the enhancement of security of lives and properties of Nigerians.

    As the country marks the anniversary of June 12 election today, there are indications that it is going through a trying period in its history as a nation. This is evident in all facets of its national life, from the challenge of insecurity facing the country, economic decay, poor infrastructure to the rising unemployment among the youths. Observers say Nigeria is plunging into a deeper political morass, following the way and manner issues surrounding the annulment of June 12 election was resolved.

    While some have proposed a national holiday as a tribute to Abiola, others have suggested the naming of a key national edifice in the nation’s capital after him. Curiously, Obasanjo, Abiola’s kinsman who benefitted indirectly from the injustice meted to the late business mogul did not make any attempt to honour him.

    Human rights lawyer Mr Femi Falana (SAN) said Obasanjo’s government picked May 29 as Democracy Day to spite June 12. He said: “nobody ever made a case for the celebration of May 29 as Democracy Day; it was meant to spite those who celebrate June 12 by the Olusegun Obasanjo-led administration.”

    Falana berated Obasanjo’s decision when he said: “No serious person ever celebrates the day he was attacked by the armed robbers; you always want to put it behind you. Military rulers behave like armed robbers; they raped and robbed the country. One cannot account for $12 billion. His comrade in arms made away with $5 billion. No serious democratic country in the world ever sets aside a day to mark the exit of military dictators. Holidays are declared to mark significant events and individuals who have contributed positively to the development of societies. When Martin Luther was assassinated, it was unthinkable to honour him with a public holiday. But several years later, a public holiday was set aside to honour him by the United States’ government, which appreciated his audacity to challenge racism and contribution to political plurality.

    “Like many other aspects of the struggle, June 12 cannot be forgotten. The June 12 phenomenon transcends the individuality of Abiola. Although he was a symbol of the struggle, the election itself was a clear demonstration of the resolve of the people to end to shake off the yoke of unending military dictatorship. The Babangida regime engaged in the reckless manipulation and sabotage of its own political transition agenda. Politicians were banned and unbanned. Political parties were proscribed, while official ones were set up like parastatals”.

    He recalled that former President Goodluck Jonathan described June 12 as a watershed in the history of democracy in Nigeria. He attempted to name the university of Lagos after Abiola, but it was rejected by the students, the alumni and alumnae of the school for pure sentimental reasons.

    Second Republic Governor of Kaduna State, Alhaji Balarabe Musa was excited by the recognition of June 12 by the Jonathan administration but regretted that it didn’t go the whole hog by declaring it as Democracy Day which would have been the highest posthumous national honour for Abiola. The National Chairman, Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP) said there is no democracy yet without declaring Abiola winner of June 12, 1993 presidential election. “There has not been qualitative achievements since the annulment of June 12 election. Therefore June 12 will continue to be relevant, until the issues are addressed.”

    With the benefit of hindsight, many Nigerians now regard June 12 as a missed opportunity to unite the country and set democratic values to build a just society and join the fast lane of development as a nation. This is particularly because the search for free, fair and transparent elections has not been visible over the years. In 2007, alone no fewer than nine governorship elections results were either reversed or reruns ordered by election petition tribunal.

    Even the late President Umaru Yar’Adua admitted that the process that brought him to power in 2007 was flawed. He was prompted to set up the Justice Muhammed Uwais Electoral Reform Committee. But unfortunately the government did not accept some of the critical recommendations of that committee. One of such was that the sitting executive should not appoint the electoral umpire to avoid manipulation of electoral process in favour of government.

    To a political activist, Alhaji Yakub Alhassan, government should declare June 12 public holiday in appreciation of the sacrifice made by Abiola in ending military rule in the country. He said: “Abiola died to ensure that Nigeria remained a democratic nation. But for the death of Abiola, Nigeria will probably still be under military rule.

    “Abiola did not die in vain since June 12 lives after him. June 12 will forever remain the watershed; we are merely sidelining it but it will not subsist because June 12 is moving on. The only thing I regret over Abiola’s death is that his business empire died with him.”

    Abiola’s physician, Dr Ore Falomo, has urged the Federal Government to compensate the family of the presumed winner of June 12, 1993 presidential election because he died in government custody.  “The Federal Government is morally bound to compensate Abiola’s family for letting him die in custody without trial.

    “The government deprived the family of his patrimonial care and attention for more than four years and he eventually died in mysterious circumstances.”

    Falomo recalled that the former military Head of State General Abdul-Salam Abubakar during whose tenure Abiola died, promised to compensate the family when he paid them a condolence visit. He said the promise has not been fulfilled.

    He called on the Federal Government to make public how much it owed the family and when it will pay. Falomo warns that if the government fails to disclose its state of indebtedness to the late Abiola, the family will not hesitate to release the facts and figures to the public.

    “The best way to honour Abiola is to implement his campaign promises as enshrined in his blue print- Hope ’93. He promised to stamp out hunger and poverty, revolutionise agriculture, creates jobs and enabling environment for investors.

    “It is my belief that if Abiola had been allowed to rule for only four years, Nigeria could have changed for better. The impact of his administration could have been felt in other African countries because his mission was not only to rebuild Nigeria, but to assist other African countries so that the black nations would be accorded global respect.”

  • General Adebayo in our ever green memory

    When I heard the news of the demise of General Adeyinka Adebayo known as “Bob” to his friends and “Oga Bob” to younger Ekiti people who were close to him, I felt a large part of my lived history and experience are gone. General Adebayo’s place in Nigeria’s history is settled. He was the first Nigerian chief of staff, army, a position he held before the cataclysmic events of 1966 when the army intervened by force in the politics of Nigeria. When the counter coup d’état took place and General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi was killed, he was next to Brigadier Babafemi Ogundipe in rank. When the latter’ s orders were refused by a sergeant who said he was waiting for his captain, it became obvious that order had broken down in the chain of command  in the army and that only the person who had the command of the troops could lead.

    Brigadier Ogundipe was spirited to London leaving Adebayo as the most senior combatant officer, senior to Lieutenant Colonel Yakubu Gowon who was announced as the new head of state, an appointment which Lieutenant Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegu Ojukwu rightly but unrealistically disputed saying Colonel Adebayo was next in rank above them and should rightly have been given the command of the armed forces and therefore headship of the Nigerian state. This was a rather difficult time in Nigeria. Colonel Adebayo as a senior army officer at that time having experienced the killing of fellow senior officers like Ironsi, Brigadiers Ademulegun, Maimalari and others like Colonel Yakubu Pam, Abogo Largema, Ralph Shodeinde, and Unuigbe, felt that there was no point offering himself to be slaughtered just to prove his seniority. He also knew that in a military putsch, seniority would give way to those in effective command of troops. Initially he wanted to retire but he was prevailed upon by his colleagues to stay and that if he left, the unity in the increasingly polarized army would be gone.

    The killing of his junior colleague Lieutenant Colonel Adekunle Fajuyi, the military governor of Western State and a compatriot from the same Ekiti where Adebayo came from provided a solution of what to do with the most senior officer not having a command.  He was quickly made to replace Fajuyi at the beginning of the gathering storm of an impending civil war. He tried very much to use the rapport he still had with Ojukwu to persuade him against secession from Nigeria especially during the negotiations at Aburi in Ghana. The pain of the slaughter of Igbos in the north was too much to overcome. War became inevitable.

    Administering the West posed some problems for General Adebayo. He needed to collect poll tax to finance his administration at a time when there was no oil revenue because of the war. Secondly, the shadow of Obafemi Awolowo just released from prison loomed very large in the region. It was as if the people did not really know who was in charge. There was also the enduring bitter division in the West between the Awolowo and Akintola forces with the effect that even the military governor had to gingerly negotiate his way in the treacherous political firmament of the region. Trouble in form of farmers’ revolt soon reared its head occasioning the loss of several souls before the so-called “Agbe Koya” rebellion could be put down by negotiation and by force involving chief Awolowo coming to the region to meet rebelling farmers.

    While this was going on, war was raging in the eastern part of Nigeria and Adebayo was constantly in Lagos to advice on the military strategy needed to end the military campaign. When the war mercifully ended, Major General Adeyinka Adebayo was posted to the Nigerian Military Academy in Kaduna to undertake the arduous task of training and retraining junior officers and military cadets of the army. I believe he remained at this post before he retired after the overthrow of General Yakubu Gowon in 1975. One of the ‘ifs’ of Nigerian history is whether the civil war could have been avoided if the order of succession in leadership had been respected and Adebayo rather than Yakubu Gowon had become the head of state. One thing that is certain is that Adebayo as a sociable man would have gotten along well with his officers because he was a polyglot, comfortable in the major languages of Nigeria. He was a thorough and total soldier and had risen through the ranks and could be called a soldier’s soldier. He loved the army and soldiering as a profession. The 1966 interruption in normal military and army life horrified him.

    On a personal note, I got to know him through my brother Captain Edward Abiodun Osuntokun of the Nigerian Army Electrical, Mechanical Engineers (NAEME) of the old days in 1963. Adebayo even though a senior officer as a colonel, brought him close to himself and when my brother died as a result of medical malpractice at the Military Hospital in Yaba , the then Colonel Adebayo was inconsolable. He insisted on court martial trial of those culpable but our family prevailed on him that it was not necessary because the deed was already done and no useful purpose will be served. This was a terrible time in our family and it was through this tragedy that our ties with Adebayo’s family became strong. When he was military governor in the West, my brother Kayode Osuntokun served pro bono as State House doctor. When I was a young lecturer in the Jos campus of the University of Ibadan between 1972 and 1974, I always stayed in his house at the Military Academy in Kaduna en route to Jos.

    On his staff in the academy were Colonel Ibrahim Babangida and Major Ike Nwachukwu. He was always protective of his junior officers. I remember going out with them to Hamada hotel for a night out one day and when he sighted a soldier wobbling along the hotel corridors he shouted at him to halt, then he enquired who he was. He turned out to be the drunken driver of the then Brigadier Murtala Muhammad who was sleeping in the hotel. He promptly ordered the driver to be locked up while his boss should be informed in the morning. Adebayo cared for people. He was generous to a fault. He was particularly fond of his Ekiti people especially those who were making waves in academia and the professions. When he joined politics in 1979, he surprised many people about the effortless ease with which he operated almost capturing the chairmanship of the NPN without spending a dime compared to the huge amount the likes of Moshood Abiola and Adisa Akinloye spent. He found a niche in politics and remained engaged in politics till the very end as one of the leaders of the Yoruba elders. He finished his earthly journey well and strong. He was a contented man and all his children did well with Adeniyi Adebayo, a lawyer, and his first son rising to the position of governor in his own state. Adebayo deserves national recognition for his service to the nation and country. He was not a tribal or sectional leader or a local champion. Nigeria must find an appropriate symbol for his services. Naming a military institution or cantonment like Odogbo in Ibadan or the one in Ikeja would perhaps be the least that can be done to immortalize this great and worthy son of Nigeria.

  • OBJ vs Adenuga: A memory

    OBJ vs Adenuga: A memory

    The following, an abridgement of a twopart series entitled “Michael Ishola Adenuga” and “Of War, Stray Bullets & P.O.Ws” first carried 11 years ago (2006) by Sunday Sun, is rerun today with a view to offering readers some illumination to better dissect the epistolary grenade hurled Wednesday by former President Olusegun Obasanjo against Oba Sikuri Adetona of Ijebuland over the latter’s claims in an autobiography, “Awujale”

    Though isolated by space, a correlation of irony is easy to decipher at two events in Brussels and Lagos in July 2006. In a landmark pronouncement, the European Union fined Microsoft a whopping $357 million for its refusal to obey an anti-trust ruling, thus opening yet another epic chapter in international jurisprudence.

    The computer software giant, it is alleged, would not avail rivals of technical information pertaining to its Windows operations. Earlier in 2004, the EU had levied a record 497 million euro fine on Microsoft and ordered it to hand over communication code to rivals that complained that they were being crippled by its vice-like hold on the market. Naturally, Microsoft objected to both rulings. As the world awaits the outcome of Microsoft’s objection, the political undertone of this potentially explosive international legal slugfest will certainly become audible soon.

    Microsoft, owned by American Bill Gates, is being challenged by competitors on European soil. True, America may be signatory to relevant international info tech protocols which owns make its corporate citizen, Microsoft, liable. But notwithstanding, it would be entirely surprising if the dominant mood back in the States would be that of a lynch mob, due primarily to the spirit of nationalism.

    Now, contrast that with the spectacle witnessed in Lagos on the night of July 8, 2006 when business mogul, Otunba Mike Adenuga, was seized from his residence by a team of gunmen who practically broke down walls in a mafia-like operation.

    When the news broke Monday, many feared the worst had happened. Until the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) issued a statement claiming responsibility, followed with another disclosure Thursday that the Globacom boss is still innocent after all; that no felony had been established against him yet. From the latest seven-point release, perhaps the only fresh angle the anti-graft body gave is that the investigation of the business mogul has “international dimension”.

    To be sure, this writer is one of those who subscribe to EFFC’s puritan philosophy to reclaim the nation’s lost moral territory, setting a new creed in corporate conduct. But as one had observed on this platform countless times in the past, for EFCC, the big challenge remains the ability to enforce moral order without creating an atmosphere that, in turn, stifles or weakens the very basis of society itself: loss of human dignity by individuals.

    True, conflicts are inevitable in the dog-eatdog world of business, much less in an underdeveloped political economy such as ours. What counts really is the degree of the benefit of doubt a state is indeed willing to concede to a defendant, especially if he/she happens to be its own national. National interest – much more, pride – is certainly not served if operatives of a national agency begin to conduct themselves in a way that suggests that its own nationals, against whom a protest is purportedly lodged by a foreigner, is treated ab initio as guilty even before trial.

    No self-respecting nation acts that way. That perhaps explains why a Bill Gates would readily enjoy the sympathy and solidarity of the American establishment in the times ahead in case the EU monitors seek instrument to shut the cyber space against Microsoft.

    In its statement, EFFC stated that the investigation of the Globacom boss has “international dimension”. In the absence of further clarification, perhaps it is safe to assume a conflict of international dimension has ensued. In the circumstance, what could then be considered a bigger tragedy is if it’s proved that Adenuga’s detention was indeed prodded externally, as the EFCC statement seems to suggest.

    Given his role in many jobs-creating enterprises in Nigeria, the least Adenuga deserves is some respect. With a business empire straddling banking, oil and gas, and lately, telecoms, the magnate singularly provides a source of livelihood for tens of thousand of Nigerians, and much more indirectly. Who, in turn, pay taxes to the state and tithes to the temple.

    At a personal level, with the deeply contemplative eyes, avuncular agility and folksy sense of humor, the merchant from Ijebu could, in fact, be described as the personification of that daring instinct, optimism against adversity, the can-do spirit that readily set the average Nigerian apart from the rest of the human race.

    Really, nothing could be more iconic of the very new liberal economic order the Obasanjo reforms seem to envisage. In terms of scale, perhaps the only other Nigerian entrepreneur in his category is he whiz-kid of the sugar/salt/cement market, Aliko Dangote.

    For instance, in the telecoms sector, it is doubtful if the GSM line would have become so readily accessible to the Nigerian poor today without Adenuga’s Globacom. After the first GSM line buzzed in 2001, we were told thereafter by South Africanowned MTN that per second billing (PSB) was not feasible in the nearest future. Of course, the GSM landscape was still monopolized then by foreign players.

    When we made a second call then, we were billed by the minute, giving glamour to a new form of corporate heist. But not after Adenuga stormed the arena. Globacom started PSB from the outset. Suddenly, PSB became possible for others. By that gesture alone, Adenuga no doubt gave one thing to long-suffering Nigerian consumers: victory.

    Of course, given what is now known to the public, there is surely more to the Adenuga/ EFCC romance. This becomes even more evident if we put the theory of “international dimension” to some scrutiny. So far, we were told that the detention of the tycoon extra-ordinaire was in connection with “international crime”. Isn’t ironic that the same man, apparently no longer sure of his own safety, has since taken the “NADECO route” to London, a supposedly now hostile territory for financial criminals from Nigeria?

    Of course, the phrase “NADECO route” is euphemistic of the somewhat ingenuous self-preservation tactic adopted by “dissidents” when Sani Abacha began to limit the political space beginning from 1994. Since the hunter had resolved to police all official gateways, the hunted too soon learnt to plot their gateway through border bush-paths.

    There have been conflicting accounts on how Adenuga was seized on the night of July 8. Whereas EFCC claimed that “minimal force” was applied when the Globacom boss repeatedly rebuffed invitation to its office, the Adenuga people insisted that the operation was cruel and humiliating, typical of Hitler’s Gestapo. Apparently, it took public uproar before the business mogul was released from detention.

    In letting him off, the anti-graft commission made us believe that investigations of the alleged “international crime” was ongoing, hinting that the matter was not over yet. Indeed, from the constellation of information now put in the public domain, Adenuga’s “sins” can be reduced to a four-count charge: that the PTDF placed deposits in Equitorial Trust Bank owned by Adenuga; that public fund was converted to augment payment for GSM license of Globacom in 2002; that he donated a building to ABTI University owned by the Vice President (Atiku Abubakar) apparently as “gratification” for his influencing the lodgement of PTDF money in ETB; that the Vice President owned a stake in Globacom.

    The last charge would seem to have been informed by the fact that the Vice President presided over the FEC meeting that approved the GSM license for Globacom while the president was on official trip abroad. The inference to be drawn here, therefore, is that, left to the president, Globacom would not have secured the license.

    But truth be told, these facts can hardly be said to correlate today when subjected to the rigour of simple logic or even common sense. If Adenuga must be nailed, then it is better to start digging elsewhere for skeletons. For instance, it is well documented that Globacom paid for the license in 2002 with a loan facility from BNP Paribas while the PTDF money was lodged in 2003.

    Again, it is hardly a secret too that in the pre-consolidation era, banks in Nigeria mostly specialized in jostling for public sector funds to bolster their liquidity. So, how could it now amount to a crime for ETB to have been favored to bank PTDF money? Again, on the issue being made out of donation to ABTI University, it is also well documented that Adenuga had donated generously to causes involving the president (including the Presidential Library in Ota).

    Against this backcloth, argument by the Adenuga people that the man is only being witch-hunted would, therefore, now seem strengthened. What is invariably left unsaid is that perhaps authorities are just unhappy that Adenuga, known to be very close to the Vice President, refused to squeal information to nail him on his alleged “shady deals” in Obasanjo’s desperation to nail his deputy since they fell out.

    Of course, it is now also public knowledge that Adenuga had famously committed a grave verbal indiscretion early in 2006 in the heat of the desperate manouvre by Obasanjo’s strategists to wangle tenure elongation. At one of the nocturnal conclaves to which he was invited to fine-tune the strategy, the guileless business mogul had reportedly proposed the idea of a “Plan B” in the event that the Third Term bid refused to fly.

    Just as he feared, not only did Third Term fail like a pack of cards even after billions of naira was given to federal lawmakers as bribes, Obasanjo’s political humiliation was compounded by the lack of any dignifying “Plan B” immediately. There is, therefore, some sense in the argument of those interpreting the new frenzy of clampdown by EFFC on perceived “opposition elements” and anyone related to them upon the collapse of the tenure elongation agenda at the National Assembly gallery in May 2006 as OBJ’s vicious fight-back.

    Like the NADECO exiles of old, Adenuga can only pray that the Abuja warriors (OBJ and Atiku) bury the hatchet – a remote possibility now – to enable him return home and continue his normal life. God save the P.O.Ws (prisoners of war).

  • In memory of Nigeria’s future!

    The future comes slowly, the present flies and the past stands still forever. – Johann Friedrich Von Schiller.

    Barring any unforeseen circumstances, Nigeria’s journey to 2019 has already started and one can only wish the country well!

    Having run its first full-circle four year-term,  2019 will put to test the capacity of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to renew its contract with Nigerians as well as the opposition’s ability to reassess itself, especially, in the light of significant challenges of poverty, unemployment and ethno-religious fundamentalism currently confronting the country.

    Well, while some of us on this side of the divide may not be seeing what others elsewhere are seeing in terms of the epileptic existence, structural weakness and economic vulnerability that have unfortunately-yet-understandably taken the shine off this administration, that Nigerians are hungry  and that President Muhammadu Buhari needs to put some smiles on their faces before the situation gets out of hand is no longer in doubt.  As it stands, there is too much anger, which typifies the frustration of the people; and there’s too much capability to deliver violence in the midst of little or no tolerance. Perhaps, the more reason there are so many deaths in the land.

    With the benefit of hindsight, the 2015 presidential poll was a battle fought, largely, between a “populist appeal” and an “outlandish profligacy”. In that election, Nigerians saw in Buhari a clear, credible, reliable, forward-looking and development-oriented leader who would not only give the arrogance of office and insolence of power that had taken the better part of former President Goodluck Jonathan’s government arun for its money, he was also seen as the preferred brand who possessed an enormous amount of political capital to take key transformative decisions that would positively affect the fortunes of the downtrodden. Little wonder the former president was bent on capturing power by any means and at all costs. Though the rest, as it is often said, is history, the reality in this widely-diversified, ceaselessly-varying, half-organized and half-conscious society of which the electorate forms a part, is that Nigerians are always at home with “the concept of change in the metaphysical sense but not in any way that hurts them and their families or friends”.  This is where the problem lies and this is why the government has to do more in terms of communicating well with the citizens if it is indeed interested in retaining the electorate’s confidence in 2019.

    So far, so fair for the tragedy of victory which is much more than its defeat! Key indices have so far attested to how the worst of Buhari’sgovernment could be preferred to the best of Jonathan’s. But that is not what we are saying here! The rate at which Nigeria is going is very worrying and something needs to be done to salvage the precarious situation. Precisely, the naira is in bad shape, revenue generation is proving to be pressingly challenging even as the country is seeing a lot of household and international debts. Oil production recently sank to as low as800,000bpd  even as government revenues have declined by more than half of what it used to be, pre-Buhari era. While it cannot be denied that this government has done some good job in its anti-corruption crusade, it needs to be noted that less than 10% of our collective patrimony can actually be attributed to this socio-economic malaise while a greater percentage of the rest is siphoned out of the country by multinational companies with little or no effort by the government to remedy the situation.

    In the first quarter of 2016, Gross Domestic Product (GDP)was said to have contracted by 0.36%, the first negative growth in many years. During this period, unemployment rate stood at 12.1%; underemployment, 19.1%; and youth unemployment, 24%. Even, in crime rate, Nigeria ranks ‘high up’ there, Boko Haram terrorists and Niger Delta militants are her ‘prized’ jokers! As a matter of fact, Nigeria was said to have had the highest case of kidnapping in 2013 and 2014, after equally-endowed countries like Mexico and India. Threateningly too, she’s found a ‘comfortable’ seat among world’s most dangerous countries like Yemen, Afghanistan, Iraq, North Korea and Libya. And, as if these are not enough, the murderous activities of Fulani herdsmen have ‘spiced’ our broth as world’s fourth most deadly terrorist organization!

    In his remarkably personal book, How will you measure your life? Clayton Christensen describes management as “the most noble of professions, if practised well”. Christensen might be right, at least to the extent that “no other occupation offers as many ways to help others learn and grow, take responsibility, be recognized for achievement, and contribute to the success of a bigger team and a bigger purpose.” But then, I doubt if those who contended that Buhari was too old a warhorse to lead a country as vastly endowed as Nigeria on the road to socio-economic recovery were not too enmeshed inthe intricacies of inanity to have realized that the major contenders for Barrack Obama’s throne are also drinking from the same cup of age with our president. On the other hand, while other candidates were unadulterated lightweightswho merely wanted the electorate to learn how to pronounce their names, those who opposed the emergence of Buhari as the preferred choice in the last election have so far fallen short of telling Nigerians in what garb an alternative to Jonathan would have appeared.

    Yes, Buhari did inherit a past laced with selfish whims and inevitable traumatization.  Still, he can explore the womb of his party’s deliberate strategies, even the unanticipated alternatives that have so emerged, to create a future of opportunities and prosperity for Nigerians! The bitter truth is that a government that fails to adequately cater to the needs of its citizens will sooner than later provide space for the people to go haywire. So, the earlier the president realizesthat the honeymoon on Nigeria’s Qadesh-Barnea adventure is over, the better for Nigeria.  To the best of my understanding, the people are not asking for too much from this government. Their only demand – and, a legitimate one at that – is some relatively strong amount of confidence, happiness, and self-esteem, not dissatisfaction, frustration or ingratitude.

    Ours need not be like that popular actor who decided to apologize to her ‘big auntie’ for not being with her in her time of need only after her ‘big auntie’ has accessed afterlife! If Singapore could rise above the vagaries of a developing country to become one of world’s great success stories in one generation, that it is achievable in Nigeria is already conceded!

     

    • Komolafe writes in from Ijebu-Jesa, Osun State.
  • Memory without memorial

    Memory without memorial

    History shone like a headlight. It did not happen alone in Lagos, where the life of Festus Samuel Okotie-Eboh, swam under searchlights. Samuel Akintola of the acerbic wit also roared from the grave. In the North, the Sardauna of Sokoto, swaggered for attention.

    The triumph was for history. In a nation doomed from generating a new generation of historians for banishing history from the academic curriculum! Never mind that in those events you find only those who studied history or witnessed it.

    At the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, I moderated a colloquium on Okotie-Eboh, and the speakers were mainly witnesses of the life and doings of the colourful Nigerian politician. The speakers included Dara Mbazulike Amaechi, a surviving First Republic minister; Alhaji Ahmed Joda, Chief Philip Asiodu, Senator Ben Obi and Chief Brown Mene.

    If last week marked 50 years of Okotie-Eboh’s death, it was five decades since five majors popped our political cherry. The soldiers stepped over the lion’s piss, played Samson to the head of the pride, shaved off the mane and raped the lioness. The offspring was a hybrid political system that gave us neither the sophistication of man nor the ferocious dignity of a cat.

    Okotie-Eboh, known as Omimi Ejo, was glamour as politician. Yet all we remember of this man was that he shepherded First Republic finances and was slaughtered savagely as well as Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa. The panelists showed that the Omimi Ejo’s narrative had been skewed by the false heroism of the majors, especially Kaduna Nzeogwu’s 10 per cent speech. So, if he was finance minister, he was the chief 10 percenter. As Amaechi noted, no one had evidence about these allegations. He said all NCNC office holders were obliged to pay 10 per cent of their incomes to the political party.

    The inimitable orator, Alhaji Maitama Sule, also his colleague, gave the keynote and rambled along elegantly about the virtues and humour of the man, his cosmopolitan virtues, his commercial acumen, his gregarious wit, his fierce nationalism, a man who was born Urhobo and died not only Itsekiri but also a Nigerian. The panelists reminded us that he gave us the Central Bank and the mint company, set up the financial infrastructure of Nigeria at independence.

    On wealth, they said he was richer than his political party before he became a party wheel horse or minister, that it was the great Zik who chose him to represent the NCNC in the cabinet against the ambitions of men like Sir Ojukwu, incidentally one of Zik’s close friends. They implied he was too wealthy for the corrupting wiles of office. He had built schools and other institutions.

    Some of these narratives shine in a book edited by Professor Jide Osuntokun titled Festus Samuel Okotie-Eboh: In Time and Space. What the colloquium achieved was to excavate the man from history. It beckoned us to look again at the man’s tale beyond the long, interminable, serpentine textile tail. We should examine him not as part of the vast sweep of that event alone but also as an individual, a visioner, patriot, bureaucrat, technocrat, parliamentarian, business mogul, cosmopolitan, etc.

    We know that the Nzeogwu coup came with a mixed bag. The young men wanted to save the country in their own light. They left it misshapen for half a century. No man can call them heroes in my book. They even knew nothing about organising a putsch. They ethnicised it, killed the Yoruba, killed the Hausa Fulani, left the Igbo unhurt, including Aguiyi-Ironsi. No one is sure who the leader was. Nzeogwu would not bow to Ifeajuna, while Ifeajuna bellyached that Nzeogwu would not acknowledge him as the sovereign of the conspiracy. They slaughtered Akintola and Sardauna, and that reflected their naivety. The shedding of blood never healed any society in history. Nzeogwu studied history amiss. Blood begets blood. Check all the revolutions. English. French. Soviet. Chinese. The turning points of Europe in mid-19th century. Napoleon’s bloodlust. Bismarck’s iron dream. Metternich’s nationalist fury. The Nigerian majors stepped onto the lion’s piss, shaved the beast and expected the raping of the lioness to achieve the weariness of all flesh. But the nation has paid with its pound of flesh year after year. Coup after coup. Corruption scandal after scandal. The topsy-turvy of its political elite. The friction over consensus. And the consequential slide in every facet of our lives.

    They exploited the frustration of the average Nigerian to satiate a lust of power. They claimed they wanted Awo to hold the fort. That sounds beautiful, but history is not about what might have been. If they bungled the coup itself, killed those who they should not and ignored those who they were supposed to kill, what else guaranteed that the Awo narrative was not part of a face-saving pastiche, a gimmick to salvage a flawed heroism? Or that after the quarry is quiet, they would not turn the hunting gun at each other. Just like Nzeogwu versus Ifeajuna, woeful losers with empty gunpowder.

    That is why today an Akintola can get a renaissance as well as the Sardauna. The southern elite defended theirs while the northern ones dangled swords for their icon. So, there. In spite of the spirit of contagion of coups in Africa, the base behaviour of our elite did not justify the mass slaughter. It ignited the rage that precipitated the pogrom of the Igbo that precipitated the civil war, a 30-month absurdity that bloodied the nation’s map.

    I noted at the colloquium that the phrase ‘a man of the people’ popularised by Achebe’s novel of that title had problematised the concept and conceit of a popular politician. Chief Nanga, with Achebe deft hand, turned out to be a man for himself. The Scandinavian playwright Ibsen wrote a play titled Enemy of the People, and it turned out that the so-called enemy was the friend of the people.

    That is why, for me, the beauty of this season is to wake up our study of history. It is clear we have not analysed our past enough. Because we have not researched enough, we make cartoons of our past. A man is either a villain or hero, depending on who subverts the narrative. When Okotie-Eboh’s daughter and former permanent secretary, Dr. Dere Awosika, put together the NIIA event, I recalled Winston Churchill’s words about what history would say about him. “History will be kind to me for I will write it,” he noted. He controlled his narrative, although that might be an exaggeration. Dr. Awosika and her family certainly gave the family patriarch the beginning of a make-over. The event was not an ethnic one, but a sweep of Nigeria’s ethnic physiognomy. Obj chaired it, and a broad spectrum of Nigerians from East, West and North were happy to be there, including the Emir of Kano, Sanusi 11, former Delta State governor Emmanuel Uduaghan, Chief Segun Osoba.

    If last week was a triumph for history, it was an episodic one. A few days later, we will be back to our default amnesia. The last time we had a feast like this was when General Alabi Isama released his epic account of the civil war, The Tragedy of History. How many schools study that book, or will study Osuntokun’s book on Okotie-Eboh? Triple-in-one minister Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN, who was represented at the event, hit the bulls’ eye when he mused on the absence of historical consciousness among our young. They know American history, and that’s because they schooled abroad. But they will have to learn our history. Was it not here that a student in Ikenne knew Obafemi the footballer and Obafemi the political genius? If they don’t know the story of the Sokoto Caliphate or the Niger Delta city states or the Yoruba wars of the 19th century or the so-called Benin massacre, what of a recent event like the civil war? Not many have ever heard of Gowon. In Journalism, I met some students who know nothing about Ray Ekpu or Dan Agbese. That’s why we have no fitting memorials for any period of time. We have memories. But memory without documentation or authentication is like oral history. We pass facts and parse them. We are left with biases, pastiches, myths and outright lies.

    Our amnesia reminds of Gabriel Garcia Marquez novel, Love in the Time of Cholera, where a man spends all his life waiting for the husband of the love of his life to die. By the time it happens, he is wrinkly, withered fuddy-duddy and the woman also an expired fig. They marry with no juice, a romantic desert. So, they go around in circles on a ship with no anchor but only a chorus of encores.

    If we don’t study our history, we will be, as the historian asserted, “a rudderless craft in the uncharted sea of time.”

  • Fayose’s denigration of Yar’Adua’s memory

    SIR: It would be unusual for President Jimmy Carter to make an unkind remark about President John F. Kennedy : they both were members of the Democratic Party. What might be offbeat is to hear a president mention in a feature interview that another president from the opposite camp is his best friend. Carter so described Gerald Ford even though both were of different political camps.

    Real statesmen rise above petty-mindedness, they conquer self, consider the feelings of other people and desist from demeaning the dead.

    Whilst it is in order for the electorate to worry about a presidential candidate’s (and other office-seekers) state of health and mental well-being to direct the wearisome day-to-day affairs of state, it is improper, and ill-advised to have statesmen make derisive statements about the health of these contenders in a discourteous  manner to score cheap political point, in this case, the fitness of  Buhari to run for office as credited to the Governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose to the “effect that General Muhammadu Buhari does not enjoy good health.”

    Worse yet, mischievous, if a passing reference is made to a deceased statesman, particularly with the comparison between, the late Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and General Buhari.

    This linkage calls for concern: Nigerians do not speak ill of the dead especially if that person was a good leader.

    The late president who by the way belonged  to the same party as Fayose (PDP), was his national leader and should be celebrated, not otherwise. The late President was not arrogant, overly-humble, nationalistic in his views, never, religiously opinionated. Yar’Adua was prudent enough to understand his ally and political rivals, he reasoned with several, saw situations with them and, not about them, and negotiated an armistice that saw the end of militancy because he understood what most leaders do not know: situational awareness.

    Great countries are celebrated because of the power of collaboration; he was wise enough to know that all people, of differing faith matter. He embraced alliance, the same way most middle-eastern countries do with western industrialists leading to their vibrant economies, one imagines how unfledged these countries would have been without western involvement despite their insularly partisan religious orientation.

    He was never weak and refused to be despoiled by the frills of power and was ready at a point to submit his office to the opposition if it became clear that his ascendancy to the office was rigged in. He almost turned Nigeria into Ghana where incumbents lose elections.

    He was not known to scapegoat the opposition and tried to disrobe some people duplicitously robed by the establishment.

    Under him, there were shadowy (faceless) cabals who tried to hijack his presidency, but they remained just that: faceless because they lacked guts. But in our day, we have assemblages gutsy enough not to wear veils, who have chosen to daringly make scathing pronouncements promoting ill-will.

    Umaru Musa Yar’Adua had a directorial belief which made him a man of exceptional sterling quality, “I think people should know that you derive the greatest satisfaction from serving others, rather than serving yourself, I would want more and more Nigerians to define themselves also in this light of service to the nation and service to humanity,” he said.

    It is incumbent upon the PDP to polish the image of Yar’Adua by carrying out his programmes perceptively the same way Lyndon Baines Johnson did after the assassination of President J.F Kennedy.

    Could the governor of Ekiti State show democratic-sportsmanship by not joining issues with the dead?

     

    • Simon Abah.

    Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

  • On memory lane

    On memory lane

    Monologue

    What can one say of a man who fixes his eyes on the sun but does not see it? Rather, he sees a chorus of flaming seraphim announcing a paroxysm of despair. That is the similitude of a country called Nigeria a country in which the   formation of the head and the body of her populace is a paradox of inexplicable nature. And her existence to this stage is a miracle of inestimable nuisance.

    Or how can one classify a situation in which some parents were weeping and wailing over the mass murder or maiming of their children by the evil insurgents called Boko Haram somewhere in the Northeast of the country while some so called leaders were jubilating and chorusing political songs in the capital city of the same country all within an interval of 24 hours?

    Today’s article is motivated by the recent dedication of a library to the memory of Alhaji Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto. That historic dedication was a great reminder of a great past in Nigeria which the present generation seems to have consigned to the debris of history. The opening monologue is a mere digression meant to reflect the current mood of the nation.

    This column will never be tired of quoting Arab poets because it is in the residue of those their poems that wisdom can be found. Thus, one of such poets is hereby quoted again in relation to topic at hand. It goes thus: “Eight conditions of life are inevitable for man. And there is no single living human being without the eight. These are: happiness and sadness; meeting and parting; fortune and misfortune; then, sickness and healthiness.”

    When, as a human being, you are not happy, you must be sad. When you are not meeting with some people, you must be parting with some. When you are not fortunate in a venture you must be unfortunate in it if momentarily. And when you are not healthy you must be sick or ill.

     

    Conditions of Life

    Happiness, meeting, fortune and healthiness, all may seem to show the positive side of life just as their abstract counterparts may reflect its negative side. But the reality is that not everything that glitters can be gold.

    Happiness may be Pyrrhic. Meeting may cause trouble. Fortune may be short-lived. And healthiness may engender restiveness. Incidentally, however, it takes both the positive and the negative sides of life to keep the world of man going.

    Life is neither static nor rigid. Rather, it randomly changes like weather. If it brings you happiness today, do not expect it to remain so tomorrow. Life is like a horse. You can ride it only if it surrenders itself to you. But as soon as it becomes tired of you and beckons to a new rider, you automatically become its own horse and it may then ride you to death.

     

    Sources of happiness

    In life, happiness is not about money or position. Neither is it about power or governance. Each and every one of these is transient even as the life of its custodian is ephemeral. As a matter of fact, there is no cause of happiness that cannot be a cause for sadness. The only known source of genuine happiness from the primordial to the modern time is contentment guaranteed by conscience. And that is the only passport on which the visa of paradise may be issued. Without contentment based on conscience, no one can appreciate the bounties of God.

     

    Past leaders

    Looking at the phenomena of human life critically, one may conclude that human world is depreciating geometrically. The men of yesteryear were greater than those of today. Their lives were more qualitative.

    Their thoughts were richer. Their intentions were purer. Their gazes were more visionary. Their dispositions were more human. It is upon the foundation of their thoughts and deeds that today’s technological pyramid is built. Yet, they did not allow their reasoning to be driven by the material life of their time.

    Fearing for their hereafter, some disciples of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) once asked him a probing question about the quality of their lifestyle saying in a quivering voice thus: “Dear Prophet! The wealthy ones amongst us seem to have gone to the world beyond with all the existing rewards. They worshiped Allah as we are worshiping Him. They fasted as we are fasting today. Yet they were giving in charity, huge amounts of resources according to the sizes of their wealth. What is then left for us, if the paradise will be determined by the amount of our rewards?”

     

    Exemplary Hadith

    Replying, the Prophet said: “Has Allah not endowed you with what can fetch you the ticket to paradise? Every glorification of Allah you chant is charity; every praising of Allah you engage in during days and nights is charity; every deification of Allah you do in thought or in action is charity; encouraging good deed is charity; admonishing against evil is charity; even, mating with your wives is charity”.

    Piqued by the last assertion, the disciples asked the Prophet in unison: “Haba! Dear Prophet, how can mating with one’s wife fetch ticket to paradise?” The Prophet in a jovial tone but serious mood retorted thus: “Don’t you know that mating in the manner of an adulterer can fetch hell (because it is evil deed)? Thus, mating with legitimate wives can fetch paradise (because it is a good deed).”

     

    Nigeria’s founding fathers

    In semblance of the above, the great fathers of Nigeria’s independence left a legacy that can be called a footprint on the sands of time. By whatever standard they are measured today, the late Sardauna of Sokoto, Alhaji Ahmadu Bello; Nigeria’s first and only Prime Minister, Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa; the first Premier of Western Region, Chief Obafemi Awolowo and his counterpart of the Eastern Region, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe as well as Mallam Aminu Kano and Chief SLA Akintola were all exemplary in their styles of life, their personal weaknesses notwithstanding.

    Their legacy is a fortune which amazingly turned into misfortune in the hands of the military rascals who succeeded them. Thus, the great hope which those fathers had embedded into our destiny became colonised and turned into personal property by their political heirs.

    Were those great fathers to wake up from their graves today and see what has become of their sweat, they would just shake their heads in sorrow and return quietly into their graves without comments.

     

    Dream and despair

    It is rather a luxury that those of us who were children during Nigeria’s independence can still talk of hope even if in retrospect.

    Neither the children of today nor those of tomorrow have the benefit of such a luxury. If the future generations of Nigerians will lay claim to any heritage from the current leadership, it is a paroxysm of despair. And when the morrow of a country depends on despair rather than hope what else should be expected other than ruins?

    Against our initial prayer and wish as a people, our country became a lily by the mossy stone in recent years. At the dawn of Nigeria’s 4th Republic in 1999, an unexpected bull strayed into our national china shop and before we knew it the falcon had lost contact with the falconer. Things fell apart and the centre became the seat of the Lucifer. Thus, a bud of thorny mistletoe grew wild under the armpit of a magnificent almond tree thereby making normal access to the tree impossible.

     

    Wishes and intentions

    Incidentally, most human prayers are erroneously based on wish out of sheer ignorance. But since unlike humans, Allah judges by intention and not by wishful action He granted us our prayer and not our wish.

    And that was because He knew that wish is like a whirlwind which could blow in any direction and blind the wisher.

    As our Creator, He knows what is best for us and the right time for it. He is too kind to be indifferent to our plight and too wise to make mistake.

    Now, having realised that we need a new round of prayer, we must learn not to take wish for intention in prayer again. If our prayers seemed unaccepted in the past we must re-examine ourselves. “God does not change the situation of a nation unless the people of such a nation change their ‘negative’ way of life to a positive one”. Q. 13:11

     

    Thanking God

    We thank You oh Allah, for taking us through decades of undeserved hardship imposed on us by a political clique of evil agents in the name of rulers. During those unbearable decades, many people lost their lives, many lost their jobs and many more lost their wealth without any hope of a better tomorrow.

    At the instance of evil policies and vindictive attitudes of those we call leaders, Nigerian youths have become wild and heartless, parents have become helpless and frustrated, families have become dismembered, patriots have become rebels, genuine businesses have folded up thereby paving way for dubious ones, innocent men and women have been viciously hounded in jail or wallowing in penury even as friends have become foes.

     

    Painful reminder

    Shortly after the commencement of the current republic, the great serenity expected to come with democracy vanished into thin air while the future became bleak even for those who should ordinarily have a stake in it with confidence and hope. Except for Your grace and mercy Oh Allah, no one knew what the next day would bring at that time. It was one seemingly tortuous but undeclared war, the end of which only a few could hope to see.

    But by your grace we endured it all and waited patiently to bid the demonic sphinx that cast that spell on Nigeria adieu forever. Why won’t we thank You once again for granting us that wonderful gesture.

    The year 1999 started with a rain of hope but a vicious rain maker thought that what we deserved was storm rather than rain and opened the furnace of tempest on us. Yet, we survived it all. When we became like a cow without a tail, it was only your grace that scared away the flies from feasting on our wound. Your promise has never been in vain.

    Thank You for bailing us out of a mental and psychological gulag into which we were then hounded by the new-colonialists of those days who were masquerading in the cloak of democrats. We shall forever be grateful to You as long as we remain alive.

    Incidentally, however, while we were glorifying You for giving us a fresh opportunity to dream and expect the transformation of our dream into a positive reality, a new calamity struck. The symbol of that dream was suddenly taken away from us like a star that turned into a meteor. And, now, we are back in a ship being piloted by a sailor who neither knows his destination nor possesses a compass with which to find his way.

    Yet, we know that you do not do anything without reason and whatever comes the way of man from You is in the best interest of man even if he does not know it.

     

    New Appeal

    Once again, we want to appeal to you Oh God to please equip us with diving suits with which to swim across the ocean of life as the present ship is heading for the rock.

    Give us a leader from amongst us whose piety will be the basis of his leadership; whose conscience will be the scale of his conduct; whose words will match his deeds and whose temperament will check his greed and avarice. Select a leader for us who will be meek and affable and not one whose ambition will be so blind as to render him desperate for power at all costs.

    Choose a leader for us Oh God who will be disciplined enough to know that leadership is a privilege and not a right and therefore remember that he will one day vacate the office of power and recall his achievements or otherwise in quiet retrospect.

    Bless us with a leader who will not promise us light and spend our hard-earned billions of naira to throw us into a permanent dungeon of darkness. We pray for a leader who will not promise us employment and use our resources to render us jobless (husbands and wives) through deliberate impoverishing policies after selling our national heritage to himself and his cronies.

    Appoint a leader for us who will not grant a paltry salary pay rise to an insignificant percentage of the citizenry and then turn round to inflict unbearable hardship on the overwhelming majority of the populace through unjustifiable price increases on our social amenities and thereby further aggravate poverty in the land.

    We are at your door oh! Allah, raising up our hands to You in prayer and placing our final hope on You without an iota of doubt. To You alone we pray and from You alone we expect mercy. AL-FATIHAT!

     

  • In memory, and for memory

    In memory, and for memory

    (On the passing of Yoruba Paterfamilias)

    Once again, the Yoruba people have been thrown into a state of joyous mourning, if ever there could be such an oxymoron. They are mourning the passing of some of their most respected and revered fathers who recently joined the ancestors. But at the same time, they are celebrating the lifetime achievements of these Yoruba avatars, and the honour and respect they have brought to their ethnic group and their nation.

    The grim reaper has been busily at work. One after the other, the old men have been falling, like the last lap of honour after a great race. At the last count, there were five of them who had bid the nation a final farewell, and in quick succession, too. When shall we see the likes of these great men again?  When shall the Yoruba race be host to such exemplary individuals who made a shinning difference to their community and country at large?

    The youngest of them was the legal luminary, G.O.K Ajayi , who was buried at Ijebu Ode on Thursday on what should have been his eighty third birthday. Next was the urbane and quietly cultivated Sir Michael Otedola, a former governor of Lagos state, who was interred in his idyllic village of Odoragunse on Friday. Then there was Chief Degun, the distinguished civil servant.  After them the duo of the nonagenarian OtunbaO.A  Osibogun and the centenarian Professor C.O Taiwo.

    In Godwin Olusegun Kolawole Ajayi, you had the exemplary legal genius who deployed his formidable forensic endowment in the service of progressive social engineering. In Chief Degun, you had the quintessential technocrat and unblemished public servant who joined others in laying the foundation of Yoruba bureaucratic modernity. In Otunba Osibogun you had the exemplary community leader who left his society much better than he met it.

    In the refined and ever urbane Sir Michael you had a man of amazing grace and courtly civility who retreated in retirement behind a wall of statesmanlike rectitude and almost prudish decorum. In Pa Oledele Taiwo, you had a man who refused to deploy his outstanding intellect for selfish personal gains.  They no longer come like these avatars.

    Of all these titans, it was perhaps G.O.K  Ajayi who struck the cord of affection and wild adulation with the Yoruba public imagination. Yet he was ever so retreating, so self-effacing and so modest. He was a star lawyer in every material respect. He brought class, elegance and a natural distinction to bear on the profession. With his quiet imperial carriage and aristocratic bearing, there was something about the man which reminded one of an ancient Roman proconsul. He looked noble and acted like a nobility.

    His dazzling gifts could have propelled him to the highest echelon of politics. Yet he shunned partisan politics like a plague. After the epic battle to restore Chief Ajasin’s stolen mandate, snooper recalled the great man warding off with a polite but firmly disobliging frown the mob that wanted to carry him shoulder-high.  He had merely done his duty to his profession, his community and country at large. It was time to go home. Thirty one years after, G.O.K has truly gone home to join his ancestors but the Yoruba people would not be in a hurry to forget this man particularly when recalling their electoral traumas in the hands of a diseased Nigerian post-colonial state.

    Yours sincerely attended Professor Taiwo’s final burial rites in his Oru Ijebu homestead. It was like the departure of a major royalty. The crowd would have been unprecedented for that rural community. From Ijebu Igbo through Oru and on to Ago Iwoye and Ilishan, the entire Ijebu outpost rose as one to give their departing illustrious son a resounding send off. The reception that followed interment would have made even a bi-centennial egungun cringe in envy.

    Yet, It says something about the seemingly Sisyphean fate of Nigeria that after contributing so much to the development and upliftment of their fatherland these titans should depart at a time of great stress and strain for the nation. Nigeria is in desperate straits. The omens are not too good. The tumult and turbulence arising from the abduction of the Chibok girls is merely a sub-text for something far more threatening. These are mere symptoms of a deeper national malaise, an organic crisis of the state in which the main actors appear perplexed and disoriented, in which the very structure of the state is in danger of being overwhelmed by forces of adversity.

    As we have had cause to note once or twice in this column, an organic crisis of the state occurs when the ruling class fails in a fundamental national project. It may be failure to safeguard the territorial integrity of the nation, leading to widespread insurrection. It may be due to failure to sustain or valorize democracy leading to a situation of anarchy and disorder. It may arise from the endemic inability of government to satisfy the basic yearnings of the populace for food, shelter and transportation manifesting in widespread discontent and edgy distemper. It may also arise from the inability of the state to protect the citizens and the failure of the army to uphold the territorial sanctity of the nation.

    To be sure and to be fair, this organic crisis of the state preceded the Jonathan administration. In a sense, it can actually be argued that Jonathan himself is a product and manifestation of the crisis. To be precise, Jonathan himself looked originally like a polytechnic pawn on the vast chessboard  of political intrigues. It is therefore no surprise that under him the organic crisis has worsened to include all the major indices of state failure.

    As usual with every major crisis of the state in post-independence Nigeria, the Yoruba have been caught in a double-bind in this one as well. It reflects a deep ambivalence about a Nigerian project that has turned into a horrific human abattoir; a roiling hell on earth. Going forward and oscillating between a rationally conservative Pentheus and a radically idealistic Prometheus, the Yoruba character as it has evolved over a thousand years of empire-building and empire-dismantling is also marked by a deep ambiguity.

    It is this ambiguity which is often a source of deep frustration and perplexity for their ethnic cohabitants in the Nigerian nation-space . It often leads to charges of double-dealing and perfidy. Historical evolution often determines national character.  For example, as empire builders themselves, the conserving and conservative aspects of the Yoruba character may lead to the conclusion that not everything about empires is evil and abhorrent. It is not impossible that the Yoruba aristocracy nurse a deep fascination and even respect for the Hausa/Fulani power masters and their hankering after order, stability and societal coherence.

    But the obverse of the coin is that the libertarian and forward looking side to the Yoruba nature also harbours a deep admiration and approval of the fiercely republican ethos and the revolutionary dynamism of the Igbo society. No society can progress without its revolutionary firecrackers. Where the Yoruba seem to part way with the Fulani oligarchy is in the stagnant and stagnating vision of human society which abhors inevitable change and the transition to modernity. It is sheer bunkum to imagine that some group of people are pre-ordained to be slaves. On the other hand, the Yoruba will balk and shudder at the radical disorder, the anarchic steamrolling, the sheer human wastage and perpetual convulsion of the Igbo permanent revolution.

    It will be stupid in the extreme to argue for the superiority of one social model over another. Such analysis always comes with a freight of primordial prejudice. Nevertheless, it is often crucial and even critical to isolate these traits with as much analytical integrity as possible with a view to throwing light on the social contradictions that drive contemporary Nigeria. Had these major nationalities been independent nations, they would have found within themselves the inner strength and internal resources to overcome these internal contradictions.

    For example, the flame throwing Yoruba dissidents of the First Republic had virtually succeeded in overthrowing their local tormentors but for the Federal might which kept the local tyranny going. But flame throwing was not nearly going to be enough to throw off their tormentors hiding under the federal might. It would require the radical republican daredevilry and fire power of mid-ranking Igbo officers whose worldview could not abide stability and order anchored on feudal injustice.

    Yet a few months later when the Igbo leadership wanted to bid a precipitate goodbye to Nigeria, Chief Awolowo demurred. It was either out of the Yoruba traditional fear of the unknown or fear of radical anarchy precipitated by a revolutionary rupturing of the old order. This tact and restraint when the chips are down and the temple is terminally threatened, the measured discerning to know when to pull the plug on the rampaging mob, is what many neutral observers see as a reflection of Yoruba political sophistication. Others not so sanguine are not impressed. They see it as evidence of rank dishonesty.

    It is a classic conundrum. Since they know how much it takes and costs to conjure order and stability in any society, natural empire builders can never be natural revolutionaries. No one can accuse Awolowo and his lieutenants of political cowardice. They were very clear in their mind about the radical frontiers of human endeavour to be traversed in the Yoruba march to full modernity. Yet It is also the law of nature and logic of human evolution that in any society at a given point, the most radical segment and most natural agents of change are those with little or nothing to lose.

    This classic conundrum and historic ding-dong in which conservative fear of the unknown mixes with radical optimism about the future has shaped and framed  the nature and terms of Yoruba engagement with Nigerian post-Independence politics. By paradoxical default, it is what has ensured a measure of stability for Nigeria and boosted its chances of survival. In times of stress, the howls of secession may loudly emanate from certain Yoruba trenches, but it is also the very moment the hegemonic political leadership of the race act in concert with others to find a way forward for the nation.

    In coming months as the crisis of the state deepens, the Yoruba political leadership will be forced by historical pressures to take some decisive steps which may well affect the stability and continued survival of the Nigerian nation. For example, it is well known that the dominant faction of the Yoruba leadership has been trying to forge a fraught alliance with the core north in order to heave the country forward.

    But it is becoming clearer by the day that the forces of entrenched status quo in the old north are bent on frustrating this alliance by insisting it is either their way or the highway. With its political back to the wall, the old north is in no political shape to give preconditions or to suborn attempts to craft a consensus from contending contraries. The west has nothing to seriously gain from this alliance. It is borne of the typical Yoruba obsession that this nation can still be fixed. But if the west were to pull out of the alliance, it will leave the road very clear for the return of the inept and clueless PDP piranhas. Whether the country can then survive another four years of such rule is another matter.

    From a different perspective, is also clear that the few patriots who went to the so called National Conference with the forlorn hope of radically restructuring Nigeria have had their balls smashed by the forces of entrenched status quo. It is now clear that if Nigeria is ever going to be genuinely restructured it is not going to be at a tea party. With the hope of radical restructuring dashed and the door of political redemption closed, the continuous slide into anarchy and anomie now appear to be irreversible. The Yoruba mob is already abroad. The nostrils pick the familiar smell of Mushin circa 1965 with much trepidation. There may just be a new Omo Pupa around the corner. Oh Yello!!!!

    It is just as well that these Yoruba exemplars have gone to join their ancestors. They have made their mark. Only a glutton for punishment would insist on living longer with such grim conditionalities. It is well. Goodnight sirs.

  • Aunty Ngozi: Forever is thy memory

    Aunty Ngozi: Forever is thy memory

    Philip James Bailey, an English poet, rightly observed that “it matters not how long we live, but how.” An anonymous writer also said: “What will matter is not your success, but your significance. What will matter is not what you learned, but what you taught. What will matter is every act of integrity, compassion, courage or sacrifice that enriched, empowered or encouraged others to emulate your example. What will matter is not how many people you knew, but how many will feel a lasting loss when you’re gone. What will matter is not your memories, but the memories that live in those who loved you. What will matter is how long you will be remembered, by whom and for what. Living a life that matters doesn’t happen by accident. It’s not a matter of circumstance but of choice.”

    I totally agree with these opinions.

    Exactly two years ago, student-writers across campuses woke up on Democracy Day and got a shocking news of the death of Mrs Ngozi Agbo, who was fondly called Aunty Ngozi by CAMPUSLIFE correspondents. Like a wild fire, the news spread across campuses and higher institutions were almost shut as though, she was the Visitor to all Nigerian schools.

    Aunty Ngozi’s demise dealt a terrible blow on students’ collective psyche. The matriarch of our much-cherished pen family, we learnt, had kicked the bucket on Monday, May 28, after giving birth to a baby boy. We were sad and, indeed, we almost thought an end had come for the well-thought CAMPUSLIFE project.

    However, two years after her departure, it is heart-warming that her brainchild, a weekly pullout in The Nation, is still making impact across campuses.

    Since its inception, CAMPUSLIFE has been a veritable platform for students in higher institutions to make their voice heard, and has given them a rare opportunity to practise journalism, as it were, regardless of their disciplines. Her Page 30 column – Pushing Out – spoke volumes about her passion for youth development and rebirth of the country through morality and spirituality.

    Like I wrote in my piece titled: Good night, Aunty Ngozi Agbo, published on this page on May 31, 2012, “she (Aunty Ngozi) was an Amazon; tall and strong. She bestrode the journalism firmament like a colossus, armed with a tall dream and a strong determination. Her dream was to salvage the future of the Nigerian youth; to raise role models in a depraved society through the instrumentality of the media. So, she launched into her dream, believing passionately in its reality and efficacy. And then she hit the ground running.”

    It needs to be repeated here that the late Aunty Ngozie was not only a trailblazer as her brainchild – CAMPUSLIFE – became a template for several other newspapers, she was also a mentor, a teacher, a source of inspiration, a friend, a change agent, and an enabler of dreams to many young persons, not only to those of us in the pen family.

    The fact that Wale Ajetunmobi, one of her mentees in the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN), has been coordinating the affairs of CAMPUSLIFE since her demise speaks volumes about Aunty Ngozi’s efforts at mentoring and building young people for the good future she dreamt about. Wale, who observed his National Youth Service at The Nation, worked closely with her for two years until her “leap into the dark”, apologies to Thomas Brown.

    To be sure, the story of my journey into journalism as a career, after a hard-earned strong 2:1 degree in Accounting, cannot be complete without a mention of the impact Aunty Ngozi made in my life through CAMPUSLIFE. The first time I met her in 2009, my passion for writing literally shot up because her advice boosted my confidence in honing my writing skills.

    Like I wrote in 2012, “she will eternally be etched in my memory because she made positive indelible impact on me.” And I know there are many young people, who are very grateful that they met her because she left them better than the way she met them.

    “A teacher affects eternity,” said Henry Brooks Adams.  “He can never tell where his influence stops.”

    Although Aunty Ngozi is no more, her impact is very much alive. It is alive in me and many others who are poised to make the society better in our own unique ways.

     

    Femi, a former CAMPUSLIFE reporter in Ekiti State University, is a reporter with a Lagos-based finacial newspaper

     

  • In memory of a ‘dear father’

    The Akin-Olugbades on Tuesday in Lagos celebrated the 100th posthumous birthday of their patriarch, the late Chief Ohu Akin-Olugbade, who died 25 years ago. PRECIOUS IGBONWELUNDU was there.

    HE died 25 years ago, but he left a worthy legacy which his children are proud of today. To mark the 100th posthumous birthday of the late Chief Ohu Akin-Olugbade, who was a lawyer and politician, his children launched a book: The Great Statesman in his memory. The book was unveiled at a public lecture to mark his birthday at the Agip Hall of the Muson Centre, Onikan, Lagos on Tuesday. The hall was packed full with politicians, professionals and captains of industry. They were ushered into the hall after filling the arrival and registration forms at the entrance.

    The event kicked off with an opening prayer by Revd S.A. Fagbemi, followed with the recitation of the National Anthem and a welcome address by head of the Akin-Olugbade family, Omo Oba Olasunmade Akin-Olugbade.

    Highpoints of the event were the singing of the Egba anthem, the book launch and group photographs.

    The guests relished the light refreshment served at the foyer.

    Delivering the lecture entitled Self interest, Game theory and Nation building, Prof. James Fabunmi, an aeronautical engineer, urged leaders not to allow their interest to conflict with the national interest.

    Fabunmi urged the country to adopt a different approach to governance, advocating that local governments be strengthened to avoid the current wasteful system inherited from the colonial masters.

    The book editor, Prof. Akin Odebunmi, described the late Akin-Olugbade as exceptional.

    Odebunmi, a professor of Psychology, said he would forever remember the late Akin-Olugbade’s statement that “the difference between you and your driver was opportunity”. This means: “we should not hesitate to help anyone who is in need and should always render selfless service.”

    Odebunmi added: “In Abeokuta, Akin-Olugbade left his footprints as an industrialist and employer of labour who left behind a chain of companies. He built a hospital and social centre for the people of Egbaland. He spearheaded efforts to build a befitting palace for the Olowu, united the warring Owu chiefs, gave scholarships to indigent students and gave employment to many Egba youths.”

    Former Attorney General and Minister of Justice Prince Bola Ajibola, who chaired the occasion, recalled his experience with the late Akin-Olugbade.

    The former Judge of the World Court at The Hague drew laughter from the audience during the reminiscences.

    Ajibola who said he shared many significant moments with the late sage, told the audience that the figure 13 was also special to both of them.

    “Akin-Olugbade was born in 1913 as an only child and ended up with 13 children, while I was the 13th child out of 25 children.”

    Olowu of Owu Oba Adegboyega Dosunmu could not control his emotions as he recounted the support he got from the late Akin-Olugbade.

    The monarch, who was close to tears, told the audience that Akin-Olugbade remains the best Balogun Egbaland ever had.

    He said: “I can hardly talk about Akin-Olugbade without crying because he impacted my life.

    “He was a hard drive behind me and many others. He was a man who gave meaning to the life of our people. He cannot be forgotten at all. He gave me strength and courage and taught me the history of the Owu people. He loved his people and gave anything that was needed to establish the importance of his people.”

    He described the book as “a great record of a great man” urging the people to buy, read in order to understand the principles of greatness in a challenging world.”

    Omo Oba Akin-Olugbade described his father as a great man. He described him as a father in a million.

    He said: “My father was born in 1913 as an only child but he left behind 13 children from five women at the time of his death and he never discriminated against any of his children and my mother was mummy to all the children.

    “My father died peacefully. I can remember he had called me and said I should ensure that all his children were adequately educated. He had ordered for a glass of drink and his cigarette. He drank from the glass without finishing it, and then smoked half of his cigarette, after which he gasped and passed on.

    I met great leaders like Leopold Senghor, Babacar N’Diaye, Robert Mugabe and the one and only Madiba, Nelson Mandela.”

    He said: “My father was a straight man, kind, and honest. He never took any piece of land at the high brow areas as a politician neither did he receive fat salary unlike what is obtained today. He worked hard in his business to make money and also touched many lives with the resources he had.

    “I think people should be made to explain how they made their money. Our father always told us to avoid anything that will tarnish his name. In Nigeria today, people are just worshipped because they have money and no one bothers to inquire how they made the money.”

    In attendance were: the Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuwade II, represented by his wife; the Alake of Egbaland, Oba Adedotun Gbadebo III, also represented by a chief, Sonny Oyekunle; former Ekiti State Governor, Otunba Niyi Adebayo; former Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Akin Aduwo; former Minister for Planning, Chief Rasheed Gbadamosi.

    Others include Prof Adebayo Williams; Chief Executive Officer, Zerox Company, Femi Oguade, who represented the chief launcher, Dr. Oladele Fajemirokun; Convener, Safe Nigeria Group (SNG) Pastor Tunde Bakare; Chief Ayo Adebanjo; Chief Ladipo Latinwo; Chief Frank Akinrede; Asiwaju Alex Duduyemi; Justice Rosebolt Nonye Ukeje (rtd.) and Chief Joko Akin-George.