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Tag: NADECO

  • Afenifere, NADECO, others remember Adesanya

    What is the role of leadership in national development? This will form the kernel of discussion at the 10th Abraham Adesanya memorial anniversary in Lagos next Wednesday.

    Eminent Nigerians will converge on the Shell Hall, Muson Centre, Onikan, Lagos for the lecture titled: “Leadership and the future of Nigeria. It will be delivered by former Commonwelath Secretary General Chief Emekaa Anyaokwu.

    Other speakers are the President of Ohaneze Ndigbo, Chief John Nwodo, former military governor of Rivers State Gen. Zamani Lekwot, Second Republic Senator Banji Akintoye and eminent journalist Dr. Doyin Abiola.

    Members of Afenifere, the pan-Yoruba socio-political group, the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), pro-democracy groups, government functionaries, traditional rulers, women and youth groups will witness the lecture, which will precede the anniversary service at the Anglican Church, Ijebu-Igbo the following Sunday.

    A member of the planning committee, Prof. Adebayo Williams, said the late Adesanya deserved the honour because of his contributions to the restoration of civil rule.

    Adesanya was the leader of Afenifere and NADECO. He passed on in May, 2008, following a protracted illness. He was a lawyer, businessman and a leader of the Alliance for Democracy (AD).

    The Ijebu-Igbo-born politician was a member of the defunct Action Group (AG), led by the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo. He represented his Ijebu Constituency on its platform as a member of the House of Assembly in the defunct Western Region between 1960 and 1966.

    During the AG crisis, Adesanya rejected the entreaties to dump the party for the Nigeria National Democratic Party (NNDP), led by Premier Ladoke Akintola. An Awoist, he stayed with his leader, Awolowo, throughout the treasonable trial. During the military era, he was a member of the Committee of Friends, which metamophosised into the defunct Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN).

    In 1979, Adesanya was elected as a senator. He was not a bench warmer in the Senate. In those days, he combined his law practice with his legislative duties. As a legislator, he did not perceive the Upper Chamber as an avenue for primitive accumulation. A loyal progressive actor, he believed in party supremacy.

    Although Adesanya was re-elected in 1983, his parliamentary career was aborted by the military coup. Following the coup, he returned to his law chamber. He shunned the politics of the Third Republic, in deference to Awo’s advice that the transition programme moderated by former military President Ibrahim Babangida will lead to nowhere.

    But, he later participated in the exercise, following a truce between the progressive bloc in Yorubaland and the late Chief Moshood Abiola. He was one of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) delegates who elected the Aare Ona Kankanfo of Yoruba as presidential candidate. Although he won the election, the results were annulled by Babangida.

    The struggle for the revalidation of the results was spearheaded by Afenifere, NADECO and other pro-democracy groups. After the late Chief Anthony Enahoro escaped abroad, the mantle of NADECO leadership fell on the Afenifere leader. Abiola died in the struggle without realising his dream of becoming the president. Adesanya and other soldiers of democracy suffered bruises under the Abacha regime.

    Following negotiations between the military Head of State, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar and Afenifere leaders, the group agreed to participate in the transition programme hurried put together by the soldiers. The beneficiary of the struggle was Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo, who ruled for eight years. Adesanya camp was rooting for Chief Olu Falae, a NADECO and Afenifere chieftain.

    But, crisis hit the pan-Yoruba socio-political group. The rifts had their foundation in the AD presidential primary, where the Afenifere Deputy Leader Chief Bola Ige was dumped in preference for Falae, and the personality clashes between former Governor Bola Tinubu of Lagos and the displaced AD chairman, the late Chief Ganiyu Dawodu.

    Although Adesanya managed to wield the two divides together, the split became more pronounced, following his demise. His successor, Chief Rueben Fasoranti, who he had named as acting leader, has been battling with the challenge of division in the fold.

    Eminent scholar, Prof. Williams, who participated actively in the pro-democracy struggle, paid tribute to Adesanya, describing him as a political titan and loyal progressive actor.

    He said: are organising the events to pay tribute to an icon of democracy, who fought the military to a standstill, on the side of his people in particular, and on the side of Nigerians in general. He was a political titan. We are celebrating him as an outstanding nationalist.”

    Williams added: “We have to reassess the trajectory of the progressive politics in Nigeria to see where we had stumbled or floundered and see where we had made progress and search for the way forward.’

  • Nigeria and NADECO’s absurd mouthing

    Nigeria and NADECO’s absurd mouthing

    Democracy in Nigeria is a precious gift to every Nigerian. That it has survived uninterrupted for over 17 years, since its return in 1999 is a big plus to the active players of the game and every other Nigerian. It is more a plus and applause to the Nigerian military under the current leadership for their absolute subordination to civil authority and faith in democracy.

    It is an apt expression of the determination of all stakeholders to uphold and defend democracy. Unarguably, democracy cannot flourish in an atmosphere of anarchy, violence and like vices. That it has survived this long is a mystery to die-hard rubble rousers and spoilers, who have become sleepless.

    The manifested angst now stems from the unexpected sustenance of democracy. So, they have risen to speak in negative tongues against the democratic leadership. And dreading shadows of their own demonic spirits, they hide under some funny excuses to attempt punching of this fledgling democracy.

    These are the same characters, who have etched their shadows as Nigerians uninterested in nurturing this democracy to attain full maturity. They masquerade variously to derail it. They have tried to wrestle it to the ground to no avail. Now new tricks are invented, which at best assault the sensibilities of the people. The perpetual power elite, the political gangs, the venomous cabals and the betrayals of democracy ethos have stepped up relevance from the absurd angle.

    Nigerians however know them as those who willfully thwart the electoral process, by deploying assorted devices against the civic expression of the masses; they abuse the vote; they frustrate accountability and transparency in public governance; they are the same Nigerians who sponsor assorted violence and crimes against the Nigerian state. They have foreign collaborators who pay them handsomely to ensure Nigeria knows no peace.

    The agitations, the restiveness’ in some parts of the country, the weird crimes, the terrorists’ atrocities and the militancy everywhere are all traceable to their satanic shadows. But in public, they pretend some saintliness and sound sanctimonious about national interest and defence of democracy.

    When the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) under President Muhammedu Buhari deflates these evil forces from crippling and crumbling Nigeria further, fresh groups reactivate to wage more wars. So, the National Democratic Coalition ( NADECO ), the pro-democracy activists of yester-years have sauntered on stage.

    Democracy is excited by divergent views, quite alright. But when such views are lubricated by malice, propelled by a mindset immersed in the desperation to be heard, more than the reason or crux the messages embody, it becomes a near intractable problem.

    The remnants of NADECO members met recently in Lagos and issued a widely publicized statement. Having been on sabbatical leave for a long time, news from the group ignited instant interest from the public. But perusing through it over and over again, the contents infinitely mocked the grandeur ideals of the founding fathers.

    Disappointingly, NADECO members are pleading the understanding of Nigerians to rejig the narrative of Nigerian military’s intervention in internal insurrections’ and the very destructive acts of terrorism which manacled Nigeria. NADECO was piqued and prophesied that the selfless and thankless job of taming these terrorists acts, and violent crimes, the Nigerian military has devoted time, energy and lives is signpost to the return of dictatorship.

    This is absolute gibberish! They can howl and scuff, but cannot convince any sane mind, simply by twisting facts, especially from Nigerians the military intervention has brought respite and peace.

    And singing the familiar song of revert to true federalism, which the likes of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar keeps singing  and someone,   suspected to have sponsored the resurrection of NADECO, it thought an impression has been ingrained on the psyche of Nigerians. Atiku feels his only and most worthwhile political asset is to preach restructuring to Southern Nigeria, as he restlessly eyes the Presidency of Nigeria in 2019 and beyond.

    It is bemusing what NADECO intends to imply by the assertion “Nigeria is back to dictatorship.” That, soldiers Operation Python Dance II in the Southeast has invaded communities, tortured civilians and scared the people and so, it is unconstitutional abuses logic. The explanation is as shallow as it sounds. Operation Python Dance II cannot be unconstitutional by such infantile reasoning. Soldiers on lawful deployment cannot be acting unlawfully by any stretch of imagination.

    But NADECO’s “conscionable” voice drained into the Ocean or  the Lagoon, when the Nnamdi Kanu’s  led Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) trampled on the rights and freedom of every Nigerian, most especially, Southeasterners’. When Kanu established a Biafran state, within Nigerian sovereignty, it was not NADECO’s business. When it formed security organizations’, which it armed and deployed to terrorizing law abiding citizens and security agents, NADECO’s wisdom never decoded it as threat to democracy and its liberties to the citizenry.

    To polish an obvious lie, NADECO faulted the FGN’s declaration of IPOB a terrorists organization, arguing lamely and insisting government has gone against the order of a Federal High Court. Did the court order restraining the FGN from declaring IPOB a terrorists organization came before the deviant and abrasive group was formally declared a terrorists sect by a Federal High Court in Abuja?

    If IPOB was ever dissatisfied with the verdict, does it not amount to abuse of court procedure for IPOB to approach a court of concurrent jurisdiction seeking to vacate a subsisting court verdict, instead of a higher court? This is the blind argument NADECO has condescended into endorsing in public domain. Are the grey hairs in NADECO members so ignorant to the extent of knowing that laws of Nigeria permits the President to invoke his execute powers to certain limits, when internal security is threatened, without recourse to the National Assembly (NASS)?

    Thoroughly washing itself in shamefulness, NADECO morphed into soothsayers by predicting the deployment of soldiers to the other two regions in Southern Nigeria. Some Nigerians you expect should exude honour are most times, prodded by the wrong instincts.  Actions of government are official. It is not a backyard discussion or a tete-a-tete with an “Iyabo” in the kitchen.

    So, utterances’ on government should not just hang in the air, but be based on incontrovertible facts, as against presumptions or anticipatory actions. It is quite strange that NADECO is arguing against deployment of soldiers in the Southeast in sympathy with Governors of the eastern states and at the same time, dubiously preferring to forget that the same Governors under the umbrella of Southeast Governors Forum (SGF), directly under the furnace of IPOB members, proscribed IPOB. The reasons for reaching such extreme conclusions cannot be diminished by NADECO’s stale blackmail of the FGN and the Nigerian military.

    Restructuring or true federalism sermons are not strange to Nigeria. Like President Buhari echoed sometime back, every region of Nigeria is capable of sustaining itself. That’s the extent God has blessed Nigeria. The resources are everywhere. But campaigners of true federalism usually prefer not to reflect on reasons Nigeria is astoundingly backward after 57 years of independence.

    Former President and elder statesman of international repute, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo (OBJ) is insistent that restructuring is not the answer to Nigeria’s present travails. He was emphatic that the canvassers of restructuring should first, “restructure” their minds. Mindless plundering of national resources by the political elite has left the country, a giant on bended kneels.

    Those irked that President Buhari has abated the pleasurable rape of Nigeria, sound loudest about restructuring, so that they can keep squeezing the juice out of states where they have imposed themselves as mini-lords and demigods. But every nation strives to forge ahead, with new ideals and actions. If all NADECO members and the likes of Atiku can propose after their resurrection is a return to the 1963 Constitution only exposes their wretchedness in ideology. It implies that they are barren of ideas, lost track of the dynamics of the world and seek, albeit questionably to again sink Nigeria into the dark ages.

    NADECO and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar are free to nurse dreams. The problem however is the intention to sacrifice the Nigerian military on the podium of political greed and interests. Nigerian military has demonstrated in the last two years that they are not just guardians’ of Nigerian democracy , but more interested in laying the template to ensure democratic institutions thrive and blossom to unimaginable levels.

    President Buhari’s choice of the present clan of the hierarchy of the Nigerian military was not carelessly selected. It explains why the military, particularly the Nigerian Army, has not only preached this sermon, but acted it in virtually all parts of Nigeria and excelling in every assignment with dignity. If world leaders take turns to salute their courage and resilience in demystifying and defeating Boko Harm terrorists in Nigeria, no amount of envy can obviate this acclaim.

    NADECO’s eyes are still dusty from the years of residence in the graveyard and cannot see beyond the veneer. Its belated bile campaigns against Nigerian military cannot fly and holding tenaciously to archaic ideas and using the military as a springboard is just in the middle of nowhere. If NADECO and its apostates are too haughty to appreciate the efforts of the Nigerian military in curbing acts of terrorism in Nigeria, it shall do its image some good by remaining silent.

    Okanga, a traditional warrior writes from Agila, Benue State.‎

  • NADECO to hold national conference on Nigeria in Washington

    The National Democratic Coalition [NADECO] has said the group is set to host national conference in Washington, DC where Nigerians will discuss the future of the country and the way forward.

    At the press briefing yesterday in Port Harcourt, Rivers State capital, the leaders of the group, Comrade Uyi Meshack and Miller Melfort, said the purpose is to save Nigeria from the present crisis.

    Meshack said they consulted with the old and new leaders of NADECO abroad and those in Nigeria before they decided to inform the public of their plan.

    He said NADECO was established in 1994 as opposition to military dictatorship and played a major role in 1994, after the June 12, 1993 crisis when Nigeria was faced with a serious political crisis, adding that NADECO rose to the occasion and fought tirelessly to usher in the democratic in Nigeria.

  • NADECO bids Ilenre farewell

    NADECO bids Ilenre farewell

    The National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) has described the death of minority rights activist Mr. Alfred Ilenre as a huge loss to democracy and the human right community.
    NADECO Chairman Vice Admiral Ndubuisi Kanu, who led its members on a condolence visit to the family of Ilenre at Ikorodu, Lagos State, said the late activist and NADECO chieftain lived and died for humanity.
    He said the late Ilenre laundered the image and integrity of the country, noting that the activist travelled abroad to defend the rights of Nigerians who were marginalised.
    Kanu said NADECO will not abandon what he stood and fought for to give the country a direction, adding that the marginalised had cause to smile in view of efforts of the activist.
    He said: “We have lost a gem. He cannot be waved or shoved aside as far as the story of rights activism is concerned. He was there during the June 12 struggle, NADECO days in the trenches, the minority agitation and many others.
    “He has joined the list of those we have lost in the cause of building a better society. Nigeria has some setbacks and, by the grace of God, she will continue to provide people like Alfred Ilenre to help us push for the integrity of the country and those of the different peoples that make up Nigeria.
    “All that he stood for must continue by the grace of God. In the struggle, we have lost Pa Anthony Enahoro; Ilenre now. Many people who have been fighting for the cause of a better Nigeria are going. Those who dialogue are going. It means those who are not willing to dialogue are on the increase.”
    NADECO Secretary Chief Ayo Opadokun said Ilenre has left indelible marks on the sands of time, noting that NEDECO will not abandon the principle the activist stood for.
    He added: “Incidentally, the people the government has been honouring in the country are people who contributed nothing to making Nigeria better. They call themselves commander officer of nonsense, grand patron of nonsense and all sorts of high sounding names without any impact on the country. These are the people they immortalise.
    “They immortalise all manner of characters. The immortalisation is ridiculous. They immortalise those of them who violently overthrew government. They killed their colleagues because they wanted to assume the leadership of the country. These are the kind of people Nigeria immortalises.
    “These people awarded themselves the highest honours of the land, whereas those who have contributed meaningfully to making Nigeria a better society have been left to rot.  Alfred Ilenre who worked hard for the emancipation of  ordinary people is not recognised.”
    Opadadkun lamented that NADECO was losing its stars, adding that the younger generation must wake up to fill the gap. He said the situation in the country called for urgent and proactive response from the youth, who must learn the ropes from the aging activists.
    He stressed:“The ball is now in the court of the younger people to learn fast enough. They must learn very fast from these decent, erudite and consistent democrats and activists in order to give the country a proper direction.
    “It is important for them to benefit from their wealth of wisdom, I pray that God  will lift up those who are following us. We have quite enough younger people who are willing to be in the struggle, they are willing to make sacrifice for the country. We pray that they position themselves fast enough for the task ahead.”
    Responding, one of the children of the late Ilenre,Irvin, thanked NADECO for visiting the family.
    He said his father gave his all making life better for humanity.”My father brought us up to be his friends. He was my encyclopedia in terms of historical materials.
    “The family will continue to reckon with his constituency, keep up his good name. We do hope that NADECO will continue to be in touch with us to console us at this moment of grief.”

  • NADECO urges Fed Govt to immortalise Abiola

    NADECO urges Fed Govt to immortalise Abiola

    EIGHTEEN years after the demise of the acclaimed winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, Chief Moshood Kashimawo Abiola, members of National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) and pro-democracy activists yesterday called on the Federal Government to immortalise Abiola for paying the supreme price for the country’s democracy.

    Abiola, after four years’ incarceration by government for fighting for actualisation of his mandate, allegedly died on July 7, 1998, as a result of cardiac arrest.

    Speaking during 18 years remembrance organised by Women Arise and Kudirat Initiative for Democracy (KIND) at Abiola’s graveside at his residence in Lagos, the Leader of NADECO, Admiral Ndubuisi Kanu (rtd), urged Nigerians to be united the way they were united for Abiola during the June 12 election.

    “For a country who wanted to become a nation-state, unity is not geography. It starts from sense of belonging of different people there. And it was the sense of belonging that brought the unity that produced MKO Abiola because people voted for him from all corners of the country.

    “Today, we are having a situation where people have less sense of belonging. Our unity is not to do MKO any favour but if we want a nation-state Nigeria, we must go back and do justice. If we don’t; there is no running away from it. All those who work against injustice in any shape or form must know that if our country does not become a nation-state, they caused it,” he said.

    The President of Women Arise and Centre for Change, Dr. Joe-Okei-Odumakin, urged government to set up a judicial commission of inquiry to unravel the circumstances surrounding MKO Abiola’s death.

    She urged the incumbent administration to consider the immortalisation ofAbiola by renaming a key national institution or infrastructure in the deceased name.

    “President Abiola displayed uncommon courage, unparallel dignity and unusual candor in defence of the mandate reposed in him by change-seeking Nigerians, who trooped out to vote for him in 1993 and engaged all the illegal regimes that held sway while the legal president languished in jail.

    “Eighteen years after his elimination in circumstances that are yet to be resolved, President Abiola still stands tall than all his adversaries and his murderers. He represents what Nigeria is capable of being, but which we are not because of the machinations of a greedy cabal.

    “We enjoin Nigerians to continue to insist that the gazette of June 12 election results as belatedly declared by Humphrey Nwosu. We also insist on the post-humous recognition of Abiola as President of Nigeria and his portrait to be displayed among past Nigerian’s Presidents and Heads of State.”

    Abiola’s son, Jamiu called on President Muhammadu Buhari, who once declared annulment of the June 12 as a crime against Nigerians by General Ibrahim Babangida’s regime, to ensure that the perpetuators were punished for annulling the most credible, free and fair elections in the nation’s history.

  • ‘Peter Pan’ at 80

    ‘Peter Pan’ at 80

    He was not the youngest editor in the history of Nigerian journalism. His more politically famous elder brother, the late Chief Anthony Enahoro, set that yet unbroken record when he became the editor of the Ibadan-based Southern Nigerian Defender, one of the newspapers in Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe’s nationwide stable, at age 21 in 1944.

    Peter Enahoro, aka Peter Pan, however, came a close second when he became the editor of the better printed, more influential and more enduring Sunday Times at age 23 in 1958.

    As if to make up for coming only second best to his elder brother as the country’s youngest editor ever, he stuck to journalism as a career and eventually established himself as probably Nigeria’s best columnist ever and one of its best editors and newsmagazine publishers.

    Peter Osajele Aizegbeobor Enahoro was born exactly 80 years ago today in Uromi, Edo State, then part of Western Nigeria. He received his secondary school education from Government College, Ughelli, between 1948 and 1953. Thus, with no more than a secondary school certificate he launched himself into one of the most successful careers in Nigerian and African journalism.

    The long rested West Africa, at one time one of the most influential African newsmagazines published out of London, once described him as the “enfant terrible of Nigerian journalism for more than three decades.” This was in the introduction to a two-page interview with him, which it published in its edition of June 10, 1996.

    My Oxford English Dictionary defines “enfant terrible” as “a person whose controversial attitude shocks others.” This characterisation of Peter Pan couldn’t have been more spot-on. For, he seemed to have been an iconoclast as a young man from day one, judging from the way his journalism career at Daily Times almost came to grief even before it truly got going. This was at least the testimony of no less a journalism icon than the late Alhaji Babatunde Jose, easily the most successful journalist and newspaper publisher in post-independent Nigeria.

    The story of Jose’s rise from copy boy to the management of Daily Times of Nigeria Ltd and eventually his transformation of the company at one time into the biggest and possibly wealthiest in Africa – again, like Enahoro, with hardly more than secondary education to begin with – is the stuff of legends. It was from him than Enahoro took over as editor of Daily Times in 1962 after he (Enahoro) had successfully edited Sunday Times for four years from 1958.

    “Before I became the Editor (of Daily Times),” Jose said of his successorin his great 1987 autobiography, Walking a Tight Rope: Power Play in Daily Times, “Peter Enahoro and Nelson Ottah, both sub-editors, had been fired by Percy Roberts for being troublesome.” Roberts was then the British expatriate in charge of Daily Times before Jose.

    On taking over, he said, he pleaded with Roberts to reinstate the two and he acceded. “Both,” Jose said, “later proved excellent leader writers and columnists.” Enahoro, he said, went on to become not only an excellent columnist but “the best so far in the history of journalism in Nigeria.”

    To which one of Nigeria’s best columnists and humourists, the veteran Dan Agbese, concurred 25 years later. “Enahoro,” Agbese said in his excellent 2012 book, The Columnist’s Companion: The Art and Craft of Column Writing, “was a brilliant writer and columnist. His capacity for vivid verbal pictures remains unequalled by any writer or columnist in the country.”

    To back this appraisal, Agbese reproduced a column Enahoro wrote as Peter Pan, his pen name, in the Sunday Times of October 23, 1960. The title of the piece alone spoke volumes about Enahoro’s dexterity with the written word; “Take it Satch – That’s All There is in Armstrong.” Enahoro then went on to narrate the story of his close encounter in a Lagos hotel with Louis Satchmo Armstrong, the late legendary American jazz musician who was on a musical tour of Nigeria that year.

    “Even without his horn,” Peter Pan began in the opening sentences of the column, “he certainly was the loudest man for a quarter of a mile – at which distance one came to the Exhibition centre.” He then went on to describe in vivid but simple figures of speech what a charming and happy-go-lucky man Armstrong was.

    His concluding paragraphs couldn’t have been more rib-cracking in their humour. They could also not have been more graphic and creative in their description of the man. “I have,” he said, “been asked what my memory of Louis Armstrong is. First of course is his roaring thunder of a voice. Every time I drive on a gravel I will remember him.

    “Then is his jet-stream humour, much of which I will forget early. On account of I don’t dig that kinda hep talk ma sef. Cause ah never been down to New Orleans meebe.” This was obviously a humourous dig at the man’s Afro-American slang and a reference to his native city.

    Six years into his journalism career in Daily Times, Enahoro was forced to flee into exile. As Jose told it in his autobiography in question, it all started with the country’s first military coup on January 15, 1966. Enahoro, he said, appeared “very pleased” with the coup, as most of the new rulers were his friends and he reflected this pleasure in his column by often praising the coup makers.

    When the tables turned following the counter-coup of late July by Northern military officers, Enahoro, naturally, felt unsafe and after a while sought and was granted permission to move to London on a six-month leave without pay by the Times management. He never returned. Instead he resigned in August 1967 and eventually settled in Germany where he took up a job as an editor and producer at Deutsche Welle, the country’s equivalent of the BBC.

    It was from there that he moved in 1976 to Africa magazine published in London by the late Ralph Uwechue, as editor. From Africa he moved to New African, also published in London, as editor and director. Eventually he founded his own newsmagazine, Africa Now, in London.

    Of the three, only New African is still alive. But long before the death of his own magazine, he returned home from exile in the early 90s and at different times, chaired the National Broadcasting Commission and headed his alma mater, the Daily Times of Nigeria Ltd, as its sole administrator.

    With his active days as a journalist now completely behind him, it can still be safely said in agreement with both Jose and Agbese that Enahoro remains the greatest columnist in Nigerian journalism. And with only two slim books, You Gotta Cry to Laugh and How To Be A Nigerian, to his name, he can also be said to be one of Nigeria’s greatest writers.

    Both books are classic satires about Nigeria and its people and are as insightful about Nigeria’s sociology and politics even today as they were when he wrote them ages ago. They are also a study in simplicity and precision in language and style.

    Take, for example, his insight in the second book into the typical Nigerian’s penchant for noise making. “In the beginning,” he said in the opening paragraph of Chapter 6 on the subject which he entitled Noise from the Soul, “God created the universe; then He created the moon, the stars and the wild beasts of the forests. On the sixth day, he created the Nigerian and there was peace. But on the seventh day while God rested, the Nigerian invented noise.”

    Or take for another example, his guide to Nigerian oratory in Chapter 8. The Nigerian, he said, “begins his marathon address with a familiar apology: ‘…I do not intend to waste your time.’ Then he goes to do precisely what you expect him to do – waste your time.”

    Or take for a third example his own take on the subject of sex in Nigeria. “Marriage,” he said in the introductory paragraph of Chapter 16 on the subject, “they say is an institution, sex is incidental. In Nigeria, sex is an institution and marriage is an incidence.”

    You rarely get to read stuff like these anymore these days.

    Enahoro is, however, not only justly famous for his way with the written word – and with the spoken word as well, to which anyone who has met him will testify – he could also be too plain speaking as was the case in his interview with West Africa which I mentioned at the beginning of this piece.

    Asked, for example, what he thought of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) led by his elder brother, Tony, he said: “Believe me, NADECO is a paper tiger.” The coalition, which was a thorn in the side of General Sani Abacha’s regime, he said, had after all, given the general one month to hand over power to Chief MKO Abiola, whose putative victory at the June 12, 1993 presidential election had been annulled by Abacha’s predecessor, General Ibrahim Babangida, but Abacha had called their bluff. “Two years later,” Enahoro said, “he is still in power and it is NADECO’s relevance that is in doubt.”

    He was, in the interview, also very unflattering about several of the coalition’s other leaders. There were people in it like Beko Ransome-Kuti, he said, whose sincerity he acknowledged. However, others like Chief Gani Fawehinmi, Professor Bolaji Akinyemi and Wole Soyinka, were, he said in effect, only dubious.

    “The trouble with Fawehinmi,” he said, “is that he is encouraged to take himself too seriously.” Akinyemi, he said, was only bitter with Abacha because the general had refused to accede to his request to be re-appointed foreign minister, whereas Soyinka was “given to staging melodramas.

    “Remember the toy pistol incident? The escalation from that prank is that, with the Nobel Prize in hand, he is playing out the fantasy of being a politician of weight in Nigeria. He is not.”

    It was, indeed, a “No holds barred” interview, as West Africa entitled it.

    Happy 80th birthday to the enfant terrible of Nigerian journalism and here’s many more returns.

  • NADECO mourns activist-cleric Adebiyi

    NADECO mourns activist-cleric Adebiyi

    National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) leaders have mourned the activist cleric, Rev. Adetunji Adebiyi, who died on Monday after a protracted illness. They described him as one of the unsung heroes of the pro-democracy struggles, advocate of restructuring and true federalism and apostle of good governance.

    NADECO and human rights crusaders, including Admiral Ndubusi Kanu, Mr. Ayo Opadokun, Mr. Yinka Odumakin and Mr. Popoola Ajayi, who have paid a condolence visit to the bereaved family, said Adebiyi was committed to the struggle for the emancipation of the people.

    Opadokun said: “He was very active during the NADECO’s struggle for the restoration of Moshood Abiola’s mandate as the winner of the historic 1993 presidential election on the platform of the defunct Social Democratic Party (SDP). He suffered the harassment, repression and intimidation in the hands of the military. The pro-democracy movement will miss is service to the down-trodden people of Nigeria.”

    The late Adebiyi was until his death the Special Adviser to Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola (SAN) on Southwest Integration. He had served under the administration as the Senior Special Assistant in Political and Legislative Matters. He was also an Executive Assistant to former Osun State Governor Bisi Akande. An Afenifere chieftain, he was the unsalaried Personal Assistant to the Afenifere Leader, the late Senator Abraham Adesanya.

    In the Third Republic, Adebiyi was an ex-officio member of the National Executive Committee of the SDP. He carried out many assignments for the party, including supervising primaries for the Southeast chapter. He was forthright and meticulous. He was very fluent and charming. The late Abiola was fond of him, when they came in contact at a party function at the Tafawa Balewa Square, Lagos. Adebiyi rendered the opening prayer at the occasion. After the prayer, Abiola shooked hands with him. He was one of the delegates who elected the businessman-turned politician as the presidential flag bearer at the Jos convention.

    During the epic battle against the military rule, Adebiyi was one of the foot soldiers of the NADECO and Afenifere. He was one of the links between the Afenifere leader, the late Chief Michael Ajasin, and the Afenifere/NADECO chieftains in Lagos-Adesanya, Kanu, Sir Olaniwun Ajayi, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, Dr. Femi Okunrounmu, Senator Kofoworola Akerele-Bucknor, and Chief Ganiyu Dawodu. The pro-democracy activist was bearing a letter from the Lagos group to Ajasin in Owo, Ondo State, when he was arrested by the police. As policemen were searching him, the letter dropped from his pocket and the police picked it, opened it and detected his mission. Adebiyi was arrested at Maryland, Ikeja and taken to the Ikeja police command. The officer-in-charge was excited when he sighted him. He jumped up, saying that his promotion had come. He was confident that the Abacha government would elevate him to the next rank because his command had arrested a NADECO spy.

    However, Abiola’s wife, Kudirat, pressed some buttons to effect his release. She promised the police officer better prospects of promotion, should Abiola become the President. Adebiyi ran other errands critical to the operations of NADECO and Afenifere during the dark days of the military rule. He was doing it without expecting any reward. He was motivated by principle and commitment to a worthy cause.

    Ironically, many confederates, lackeys and collaborators of the military took the central stage, following the restoration of the civil rule in 1999. Adebiyi was not a covetous politician. But, he thoughtb he had paid his dues. He sought for the senatorial ticket of his district in Osun State on the platform of the Alliance for Democracy (AD). But, the elders prevailed on him to step down for Sunday Fajimi, who told the elders that Adebiyi should step down because he was junior to him in age. It was distressing to Adebiyi when the newly elected parliamentarians stormed the Jibowu, Lagos office of Afenifere and the elders asked him to vacate his seat for one of them to sit because they were now elected public office holders. But, he bore it with understanding and philosophical calmness. Many of those beneficiaries of elected offices later dumped Afenifere/AD for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), to the consternation of elders.

    Adebiyi did not jump ship. he continued to labour in the vineyard of the progressives. After Akande lost power in controversial circumstances in Osun State, former Governor Bola Tinubu appointed him as a Senior Special Assistant. That was how Fashola, who was the Chief of Staff got to know him. Like Fashola, Adebiyi was very loyal, diligent and dependable. Thus, when he became the governor, he re-appointed him as a Senior Special Assistant.

    Besides, Adebiyi was the National Vice Chairman (Southwest) of the AD under the chairmanship of Chief Michael Koleoso. Not tired of pursuing knowledge, he went to the University of Ibadan for further studies. Two years ago, he earned a masters degree.

    It was distressing to Tinubu that the patriot took ill. According to a source, when he visited Bourdillon, Ikoyi residence of the former governor, Tinubu exclaimed: “What happened reverend? Is there any problem? Adebiyi replied that all would be well. It was the last meeting between him and his leader. Adebiyi was later hospitalised. He never recovered. A former commissioner had gone to visit him in the hospital. The activist-cleric was in a pitiful condition. he forwarded a text to Fashola and Tinubu. The former governor made arrangement for his transfer to St. Nicholas Hospital, Lagos. Doctors tried to save his life. But, the hand of death was heavy on the priest. Last monday, he bade the world farewell.

    Adebiyi will be remembered for his ideas. He did not abandon priesthood for politics. In both callings, he did not soiled his hand and his reputation was intact. He was an Awoist politician. He advocated for a new and restructured Nigeria, where more powers would be devolved to the component units. The NADECO priest subscribed to regionalism. He was passionate about the place of Yoruba nation in contemporary Nigeria. He spoke against corruption in high places. He decried opulence among the ruling elite.

    Adebity was unrelenting in his call for a special status for Lagos State.

  • Annals of careerism

    Annals of careerism

    In late July 2010, some three weeks before the launch of Diary of a Debacle, my chronicle on military president Ibrahim Babangida’s duplicitous transition programme, I called up one of the nation’s most accomplished technocrats to confirm whether he had received my invitation to the event, and whether he would be coming.

    I had not talked with him since the NADECO years, when he was forced to take refuge in the United Kingdom. He was one of the most valuable political and intellectual assets of the exiled opposition.  His broadcasts on Radio Kudirat, delivered with quiet authority –the type you could not dismiss as the fulminations of a fugitive wanted back home to answer for the most abhorrent crimes – rattled the regime of the loathsome Sani Abacha  even more than the street protests challenging his maniacal rule.

    He had received my invitation but could not say for sure that he would attend.

    I had thought that, as one of the stalwarts of NADECO and the struggle for the restoration of democratic rule, he would be enthusiastic in taking part in an event that was going to bring together the pillars of the movement and provide a forum for them to relive the experience, reminisce about what might have been, and contemplate what lies ahead.

    But he did not sound enthusiastic.  Rather, he sounded distant, remote.

    I was aware that he had shown little if any interest in sharing in the spoils, such as they were, which resulted directly from NADECO’s titanic struggle against the dictatorship, and had withdrawn altogether from the political process, unless it was a national assignment requiring his technocratic expertise.

    But why would he now shun the company he once kept and revelled in?

    “Look, Tunji,” he said, “Is it right that those who tormented us at home and hunted us all over the world should now occupy positions of influence and eminence in our ranks?”

    He said it with a sigh.  You could almost feel his pain.

    And the person he mentioned as an example of a one-time tormentor turned chieftain was none other than Tom Ikimi, the rambunctious foreign minister of the odious regime of Sani Abacha. He was the regime’s international face, and what an unflattering face it was. I will get to that presently.

    With the return to some semblance of democratic rule, Ikimi roamed the political landscape until he found his natural home in the PDP. There, he had a falling out with Tony “The Grand Fixer” Anenih, his one-time godfather in the PDP.

    And then, Ikimi the reactionary and the scourge of June Twelvers switched camp to the ACN, home to the rump of June Twelvers and began sounding off as Ikimi the beacon of progress, Saul the tormentor transmogrified into Paul the Apostle without a road-to-Damascus experience.

    This was what the technocrat I was talking about found so discomfiting in the emergent politics,  so discomfiting in fact that he decided to withdraw entirely from the political process. And that was even long before the ACN tapped Ikimi to head its negotiating team in the merger talks with the CPC and the ANPP.

    To Ikimi, the whole thing was a game, a way of getting on.

    To be fair, he is not the only figure enmeshed in this game of politics without principle.  One of his colleagues in the Abacha cabinet used to ask “June Twelvers” in genuine puzzlement why they were so worked up when all that was going on was just a game. He parlayed into a family  business the fortune he amassed running unconscionable errands for Abacha and prostituting his considerable learning, and has been living in quiet obscurity since then.

    Then, there is Sani Ahmed Yerima, the governor who set off a religious ferment, the like of which has not been seen in the Sahel since the jihad of Usmanu Dan Fodiyo by proclaiming sharia law in Zamfara.  The last time we heard from him, he was fervently defending his marriage to a child-bride. He did not only decamp to the ACN, he even threatened to seek its ticket for the presidential race.

    To these political acrobats and their kind – please add Dr Bukola Saraki – one political party is as good as another, provided it helps you realise your ambition or offers you the best chance to get on.

    In keeping with this orientation, Ikimi saw his assignment as chief ACN negotiator as an escalator to the national chairmanship of the APC. And when the position went instead to Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, you knew that it was only a matter of time before Ikimi would explode with his accustomed biliousness and denounce the organisation he had helped build and the officials he has accused of blocking his ascent.

    As I see it, those who blocked his ascent did the APC and the progressive cause a good turn.

    What message would they have been sending to the party faithful, to Nigerians still traumatised by the murderous rule of Sani Abacha and indeed the international community that suffered Ikimi’s tantrums – what message would these groups have taken away from the designation of Ikimi as national chairman of the APC, and its public face as such?

    As Sani Abacha’s foreign minister, Ikimi was also the nation’s chief diplomat. But nothing about  him was diplomatic. Not his tailoring, which was gaudy, nor his deportment, which was brash and overbearing, not yet his tone, which was stentorian.  He came across as someone who would sooner challenge you to single combat than engage you in civil discourse.

    Sonala Olumhense, my Rutam House contemporary and syndicated columnist, once reported how, in an encounter with the Editorial Board of The New York Times, the editors had asked Ikimi how he could in good conscience serve as the international spokesperson for a regime that had put a price on the head of the Nobelist, our own Wole Soyinka.

    To which Ikimi had replied, with characteristic hauteur, “What is so special about the Nobel Prize? Anyone can win it.”

    That fatuous remark ended the encounter.

    Ikimi’s tenure destabilised the usually sedate foreign ministry. He set aside established practice and ran the place on the principle that anyone answering a Yoruba name had got to be a June Twelver and hence an enemy who must be defenestrated.  And he went about the task with gusto, armed with Abacha’s carte blanche.

    It is not for nothing that, during a public lecture in Lagos, Professor Gabriel Olusanya, then Nigeria’s ambassador to France, described Ikimi as an exponent of “area-boy” diplomacy, an “area boy” in Lagos idiom being the neighbourhood thug or troublemaker. Olusanya was too circumspect. He should have called Ikimi’s conduct in those days of infamy by its proper name: gangsta diplomacy.

    But the blame is not entirely Ikimi’s.

    Ikimi was a competent architect in private practice when former military vice president and fellow Esan, Admiral Augustus Aikhomu, with Babangida’s connivance, planted him as the “newbreed” head of the National Republican Convention, one of the two political parties they had decreed into existence.

    When politics was politics and not a game Babangida devised to amuse himself and confound everyone else, Ikimi would have found it difficult to win election as deputy publicity secretary of a political party.  But there he was, starting his political career as the national chairman of the party that was “a little to the Right.”

    He made a hash of it. He could not give what he did not have then, and he cannot give it now.

    Oyegun, who was voted APC national chairman, is in every respect a more suitable person than Ikimi for that office.  He is brainy, suave, contemplative, sober, measured and well-respected. He is a consensus builder. He is not combative, but he is not afraid of a fight.

  • Osun poll: Opadokun, Dabiri-Erewa congratulate Aregbesola

    Osun poll: Opadokun, Dabiri-Erewa congratulate Aregbesola

    National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) Secretary Ayo Opadokun has described Governor Rauf Aregbesola’s success at the poll as a victory for democracy.

    Also, House of Representatives member from Ikorodu Constituency Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa congratulated the governor and the people of Osun State for sticking to their conscience in the face of intimidation by security agents. She described the poll result as the triumph of people’s will over the barrel of gun.

    In a statement in Lagos, Opadokun, who is the Coordinator of the Coalition of Democrats for Electoral Reforms (DODER), said “the victory is for the consolidation and polularasation of democracy in the country.”

    He added: “The victory, which is of God, had human grim determination of our people to resist tyranny, dictatorship of any kind, particularly when their political interest is being assaulted. The victory is an affirmation that our people can confidently re-assert the supremacy of the will of the people over the military surrogates, sympathisers, and loyalists masqurading as political leaders in Yorubaland.

    Noting that the people of Osun State have remained loyal to the progressive cause, Dabiri-Erewa said they have demonstrated that no amount of intimidation can stop them from voting and defending their votes.

    She added: “They have shown that their confidence in Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola  will not be shaken.”

     

     

    Osun people have sent a strong message to all Nogerians to defend their votes as 2015 approaches. For the APC, victory is assured in the future as we will continue to relentlessly sustain the confidence and goodwill of Nigerians in our party.”

     

     

  • Fashola tasks NASS on time limit for electoral offences

    Fashola tasks NASS on time limit for electoral offences

    • names Gbagada Housing Estate after Omojola

    Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, has called on the National Assembly to review the electoral law limiting to 180 days the time for seeking redress over electoral complaints.

    Positing that it would be  tantamount to an injustice to the complainant if the avenue to seek justice was constricted by time, Fashola, who spoke at the handing over of Gbagada Housing Estate which he renamed Ajibola Adewale Omojola Housing Estate in honour of the late human rights activist and former chieftain of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), said those who suffered any electoral fraud should be given enough time to seek redress, adding that doing otherwise would deny such people justice.

    He noted that access to complaints about electoral malpractices was as important as respect for the rights to cast a vote, adding that part of the process of securing and protecting the votes was where the vote was interfered with the right of the complainant to seek redress.

    “By doing so, we seem to encourage those who are intent on subverting the process to say ‘I will subvert the process and I will frustrate you in court,’ the governor posited, adding that “the National Assembly must act fast to make the amendment in order to protect the nation’s democracy.”

    Acknowledging that the reason for the 180-day time limit could be in order to ensure that the cases are concluded on time, Fashola argued that where there are clear dangers of sacrificing substance for time and therefore occasioning injustice, the law should err on the side of justice.

    The governor paid glowing tribute to Omojola, whom he said was among the men and women of honour who stood up to defend and uphold the spirit of democracy as depicted by the election of June 12, 1993, saying that one of the reasons for dedicating the Housing Estate in his honour was to leave a legacy to remind coming generations of Lagosians about the sacrifice he made to sustain democracy.

    Earlier in his welcome address, the Commissioner for Housing, Mr. Bosun Jeje, explained that the Gbagada Housing Estate was started during the administration of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, adding that the fact that the current administration dedicated itself to the completion of the project was a clear demonstration of continuity of governance.