As the nation celebrates the passage of Yeyeoba Hannah Dideolu Awolowo, Political Editor EMMANUEL OLADESU reflects on the life and times of her husband, Chief Obafemi Awolowo the political colossus, who has remained the pathfinder and role model to progressives.
Twenty eight years after his death, he remains a household name. His legacies have endured. His good works have constantly reminded the people that a great leader had passed through the political firmament. Before and after his death, he has remained the main issue in politics.
His achievements as the premier of the defunct Western Region and war-time Federal Commissioner for Finance have remained the benchmark for successive administrations. Young ideologues in search of heroes perceive him as a mentor and role model. Every day, references are made to his indelible contributions. To his adversaries and conservative rivals, he was a tribal champion and symbol of ethnic politics. But, to his admirers, he was a foremost nationalist and man of ideas deliberately under-utilised by a beleaguered nation-state thirsty for transformation.
While Former military President Ibrahim Babangida described the indomitable Chief Jeremiah Obafemi Oyeniyi Awolowo as the main issue in Nigeria’s politics, former Biafran warlord, the late Dim Chukwuemeka Odimegwu-Ojukwu, described him as the best President Nigeria never had. However, the dark side of the post-Awolowo era is that the political machinery he built is in now in disarray. Awoists are now scattered across some political parties like sheep without shepherd. Things have continued to fall apart and the centre cannot hold. The political idea subsists, but the men and women on the field in the Awoist political vineyard are at loggerheads. They are not divided by the idea, but by conflicting approaches to the targeted goal.
Awo’s road to fame was rough. His personal style of self-confidence, intolerance of injustice and avowed commitment to principle also made life uncomfortable for him. A historian, Insa Nolte, noted that whole Awolowo continues to be admired for his steadfastness today, it did not always make life easy for him. It is an understatement. As Nolte recalled, when Awolowo asked the wealthy Ijebu-ode merchant and NYM leader, Timothy Odutola, to finance his UK law degree, he framed his request as a business proposition. “Refusing to acknowledge his position as a hard-up young man from a small Remo town when he was addressing one of the most prominent citizens of Ijebu-Ode, Awolowo’s leeter was astonishingly irreverent and, perhaps, not surprisingly, unsuccessful. It ended with a precis, both of his proposal and his own sense of merit”. Awo wrote to Odutola: “You have my request before you, and thee reasons why I make the request, It is left to you to decide whether it is worth your while to take the risk of helping me in the manner outlined above or not.” To the wealthy man, the letter smacked of arrogance.
Awolowo was a man of many parts. He was a teacher, stenographer, journalist, produce buyer, philosopher, author, and nationalist politician. He came into limelight as the irrepressible secretary of the Nigeria Youth Movement (NYM), Ibadan branch, at the same time when the late Chief Ladoke Akintola was Lagos NYM secretary. He had acquired a bachelor’s degree in Commerce through private study before travelling to London to study Law at the School of Economics and Political Science. He was the moving spirit behind the formation of Egbe Omo Oduduwa, which later metamorphosided into the Action Group (AG). In 1947, he released his book, ‘Path to Nigeria’s Freedom,’ which is contains panacea to the multi-ethnic challenges, which give clear expression to the core national questions critical to the survival of the fledging federation.
Awo took off as a grassroots politician. He had a base. The Ilishan-born politician started elective political career as a councillor in old Remo District Council presided over by the Akarigbo, Oba Christopher Williams Adedoyin. Like his colleagues, who were pioneer members of the Western Regional House of Assembly, he became a legislator at a time when township associations and unions serve as political platforms. However, when AG was formed, these legislators, many of who were members of Egbe Omo Oduduwa, and some who had intimate relationship with Dr. Nnamidi Azikiwe’s National Council of Nigerian Citizens (NCNC), formally joined AG on the floor. When AG commanded the majority in the House, Awo became the Leader of Government Business and Minister of local Government.
As Premier of Western Region, Awolowo presided over a dynamic, path-finding and productive administration that was second to none in Africa. His free education programme gave the region a head start. Two years after ZIk replicated it in the Eastern Region, he retraced his steps due to failure. Awo tarred more roads in Western Region within eight years more than the British did in forty years. At a time France did not have a television station, Western Region had opened a station at Ibadan, the capital. Cocoa House, Liberty Stadium, schools, farm settlements, hospitals sprung up. Before he left for the House of Representatives in 1960, paper work on the proposed university of Ife was ready.
Awo was aided by the cabinet of talents he assembled. He had the vision of building AG, which was one of the best organised parties in Africa, to rival foremost democratic socialist parties in Europe and America. While alive, Awo’s camp was not for the feeble-minded and intellectually lazy elements who suffered from ideological malnutrition. Foremost Awoists were therefore, competent experts in diverse fields ready to devote and deploy their talents, wit and energy towards the propagation and furtherance of AG causes and implementation of its laudable programmes as encapsulated in its slogan of ‘Freedom for All, Life More Abundant’. The careers of these disciples blossomed, with Awo serving as their collateral assets during electioneering.
As the Leader of Opposition in the Federal Parliament, Awo and other AG members and their allies were like sheep among wolves. He proffered the alternative route to national greatness, but his suggestions were ignored to the country’s peril. Unable to withstand his power of logic, he was roped into a ‘coup plot’ and jailed for treason. A pall of darkness enveloped the nation for four years. By the time he left jail, leading actors who arranged his imprisonment had been consumed by the effects of inferno they engineered.
Awo met Yorubaland in turmoil as members of the farmers’ union, “Agbekoya” was on rampage. The Odemo of Isara, Oba Samuel Akinsanya had been chased out of his palace. The Soun of Ogbomoso, Oba Jide Olayide, was not that lucky. Awo promptly restored order into the state of pandemonium. Yoruba elite were impressed by that outstanding performance, and during the preparations for the ad-hoc conference, he was nominated by the late Chief Adeniran Ogunsanya for the honorary position of ‘Asiwaju of Yoruba’. Later, as Finance Minister and Vice Chairman of Federal Executive Council under Gowon Administration, he successfully managed the war economy. Before the administration derailed, he had called it quits. In 1979 and 2003, he lost the presidential contest to Alhaji Shehu Shagari. In May 1987, he bade Nigeria farewell.
However, cracks have appeared before the wall before Awo died. The first test was the split in the AG in 1962, when Awo and Akintola could not agree on principle. It was evident that, though AG leaders believed in the same principles, they differed on how to attain the goal. Tension brewed between the protagonists of mainstream politics, represented by Akintola, Chief Ayotunde Rosiji, Oba Cladius Akran, Chief Adisa Akinloye and others and Awo, Enahoro, Chief Ohu Akin-Olugbade, Alhaji Soroye Adegbenro, Dr. Samuel Ikoku, Chief Bola Ige and others who loathed fraternity with the conservative forces. Efforts to find a common ground failed woefully. Ahead of the critical party congress in Jos, Awo and Akintola’s friend, Canon Emmanuel Alayande, the AG chaplain, had in a letter admonished the Party Leader to demonstrate “extreme sacrifice and self-abnegation”, adding that Awo should be less inflexible and more condescending. The appeal came too late. The struggle within the fold led to polarisation and parting of ways in the Jos Convention, with dire consequences for political unity and national progress.
In the Second Republic, old allies had deserted Awo in droves. When he resigned from Gowon government, it was curious that his associates; Chief Anthony Enahoro and Joseph Tarka, stayed on in the cabinet. In 1979, when UPN was formed, the seats of Enahoro, Akin-Olugbade, Ikoku, Toye Coker, Akanbi Onitiri and Tarka were vacant. Enahoro, Ikoku and Onitiri, who were heroes of the treasonable felony trial had gone to NPN, PRP and NPP. However, in their new parties, they did not fire any salvo at their former leader. Also, in Remoland, two promising lieutenants; Chief Ola Yesufu and Chief Olu Awotesu; quarreled with him over the Constituent Assembly election of 1978. Awo, who had declined to participate in the constitution making exercise, supported Chief Awoniyi. But Yesufu and other Awolowo boys supported Awotesu who defeated Awoniyi, the candidate of Awolowo. Reflecting on the incident in his memoir, Yesuf said that Awo later discouraged them from joining his party, UPN, when it was being formed and he and other ‘rebels’ joined NPN.
In 1983, Awo’s camp was further decimated by the internal struggle for power. Deputy governors and commissioners led onslaughts against governors ahead of the governorship nominations. When the five UPN governors; Adekunle Ajasin (Ondo State), Bola Ige (Oyo), Bisi Onabanjo (Ogun), and Ambrose Ali (Bendel) and Lateef Jakande (Lagos) won nominations again, hell was let lose in the party. At that critical stage when Awolowo was seeking the highest office for the last time, he was deserted by hitherto trusted allies, including Chiefs Akin Omoboriowo, Sunday Afolabi, Soji Odunjo, Busari Adelakun, Joel Babatola, Olawumi Falodun, and Sikiru Shitta-Bey.
Before his passage, a succession battle had started among core loyalists, especially Jakande, nicknamed ‘Baba Kekere’, Ige, who was described by fans as ‘Arole Awolowo’, and Onabanjo, the veteran journalist with the pen name, ‘Ayekooto’. Out of envy, Ige’s political career was to be liquidated at the UPN congress in Yola, when Adelakun reported his romance with former Military Head of State Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo to the party. Obasanjo had waded into the conflict between the former governor and his deputy, Afolabi. To the UPN, that amounted to anti-party activity. Awo saved Ige during that night of long knives. When Onabanjo died, his family complained that the testimony of a top UPN member before the military tribunal made the military to send him to prison where his health suffered.
However, when Awo died, the mantle of leadership fell on the First Republic federal parliamentarian, Ajasin, who in 1966 was the last President of Egbe Omo Oduduwa. This did not go down well with some young turfs who continue to hold meetings in the Ikenne home of the late sage because they felt that the widow, Yeyeoba Hannah Dideolu Awolowo, should lead the political family.
Of course, Awo’s children had exhibited the same feeling, but their argument was ignored. In Lagos, when his last born, Dr. Tokunbo Dosunmu, aspired for the governorship of Lagos, she was rebuffed by Jakande, who said he was not ready to serve father and daughter in quick succession.
At a ceremony in Ibadan, Oluwole Awolowo, had also canvassed the dynasty route to power, wondering why Nigeria refused to take after India and other Asian countries, which gave permission for political authority to flow from one family for generations. In reaction, Ajasin, who fired back, queried; “Is any of them deep enough for political leadership?”. Of course, circumstances made Ajasin as the natural successor to Awolowo at a critical time in history when the military chose to toy with the destiny of the country.
It appeared that Awo’s men were in a hurry to embrace the dubious transition programme of babangida Administration, contrary to the sage’s counsel. Awo had warned his camp to dine with IBB, the evil genius, with a long spoon. When the Political Bureau chaired by Dr Cookey set out, Awo declared that the country had embarked on a fruitless search for democracy, stressing that when they imagined that the new order had arrived, they would be terribly disappointed. To avoid the danger of political exclusion, Awo’s disciples participated in the prolonged exercise which culminated into the annulment of the most credible presidential election won by the late business mogul, Moshood Abiola. Ajasin died during the imbroglio. The mantle of Afenifere leadership fell on Senator Abraham Adesanya, a staunch National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) chieftain and man of principle and honour.
Predictably, Awo’s camp rejected the interim contraception led by Chief Ernest Shonekan. However, the group somersaulted when two foremost members, Jakande and Ebenezer Babatope, former UPN Director of Organisation, were accepted ministerial appointments under Abacha regime, following persuasion by Abiola, who deluded himself into thinking that the military would hand over power to him. When representatives of Yoruba race asked them to resign at the historic Ibadan conference, they turned a deaf ear, because, as it was later rationalised, it was dangerous to pull out. However, when the tempest was over in 1998, Jakande and Babatope, who had been kicked out of the cabinet, could not be re-admitted into the Afenifere, the pan-Yoruba socio-political group, where Awolowo aides called the shots. In the absence of the time-tested culture and machinery for reconciliation in the fold, the door was effectively shot at them. Babatope joined PDP and Jakande, who first stayed in APP, and later another mushroom party, could not regain his lost political influence.
However, Afenifere/Alliance for Democracy (AD) did not fare better. When its 23 wise men selected by Adesanya, Ige, Adebanjo, Olaniwun Ajayi, Solanke Onasanya and other elders converged on D’Rovans, Hotel, Ibadan, little did they guess that their action would forever affect the future of the group. Then, the presidential ticket was zoned to the Southwest, apparently to placate the zone for Abiola’s demise and accord it a sense of belonging. Confidence and trust were cripples among the men of the old order who were to choose between Ige, former AG National Publicity Secretary and Olu Falae, former Secretary to Federal Military Government and Finance Minister. It was not clear why Ige decided to travel out during the shadow poll through collegiate system. When he was rejected by his colleagues in preference for Falae, he cried foul, saying that it was the second fall of man. Apparently to spite them, he accepted a ministerial appointment under President Olusegun Obasanjo. His colleagues said he was on his own. Although plans to suspend him as the deputy leader of the group was mooted, Adesanya objected to the idea. In Ondo and Ekiti, two progressive politicians; Mrs. Mobolaji Osomo and Chief. S.K. Babalola, left AD for PDP, saying that the governorship primaries were conducted in a manner that edged them out.
Promptly, there was renewal of old rivalries in the Awolowo political family. Two Afenifere chieftains; Venerable Alayande and Justice Adewale Thompson; rejected Adesanya’s leadership of Afenifere and they became President and secretary of Yoruba Council of Elders (YCE), which people thought had the backing of Ige. “is it because we asked him (Adesanya) to carry the gown of Dingle Foot that he now sees himself as Yoruba leader?”, Alayande queried.
Ige, who was bitter, decided to wield more influence in AD, having lost the confidence of the Ijebu Igbo mafia, which Wale Oshun described as the “controlling Leadership” of Afenifere. He anointed Ahmed Abdulkadir as the national chairman. Lam Adesaina and Bisi Akande, governors of Oyo and Osun States also sponsored Michael Koleoso for the deputy chairmanship, thereby robbing Adebanjo the chance of bouncing back to the position. Adebanjo, Dawodu, Okunrohunmu bloc queued behind Ambassador Tanko Yusuf as chairman.
The state chapters of Afenifere/AD were also not at peace. Remarkably, many politicians who did not believe in Awo credo had joined the Afenifere/AD to realise their ambitions. But even among the old order, there were suspicions. In Osun, Akande and his deputy, Iyiola Omisore, were locked in a war of attrition. In Lagos, former Governor Bola Tinubu and his deputy, Senator Kofoworola Akerele-Bucknor, never saw eye to eye. in Ondo, the 2003 governorship battle had divided Governor Adebayo Adefarati, Health Commissioner Olusegun Mimiko and dr. Akerele Adu. In Ekiti, there were frictions between Governor Niyi Adebayo and two Afenifere chieftains; Dayo Adeyeye, national publicity secretary and Funminiyi Afuye. Fed up with the protracted crises, Afenifere advised deputy governors who could not cope with their bosses to resign. Omisore and Bucknor later went to PDP.
Reconciliation and crisis solution are usually difficult in Afenifere. As Ige and Adebanjo/Ajayi were fighting at the national level of AD/Afenifere, Tinubu and Dawodu were fighting a battle of supremacy in Lagos AD. Dawodu wanted to retain his seat as party chairman, but Tinubu, who wanted a second term ticket, acted fast. He urged Dawodu to accept appointment as chairman of two big parastatals and yield the ground to Abiodun Ogunleye. Dawodu refused. two parallel congresses were held in Lagos, but the electoral commission gave recognition to Ogunleye leadership.
Two Afenifere chieftains had warned that the group was running out of ideas. Former Foreign Affairs Minister Prof. Bolaji Akinyemi and another diplomat, Dr Dapo Fafowora, who had joined the fold, bowed out. They were surprised that Afenifere was not adapting to modern trends and ideas in this age of dynamism. “Nigeria and Africa have been plagued with the tensions arising from making a transition from political systems dominated by founding fathers to systems managed by first among equals’, noted Akinyemi, whose father, Canon Akinyemi, was an AG regional and federal legislator.
Others in ige’s camp were later to allude to double standard in the fold, for while Senator Cornelius Adebayo, a non-AD member of Afenifere, was appointed minister by Obasanjo, criticisms by Afenifere did not trail his acceptance of the slot, unlike when Ige accepted similar offer. Also, some people felt that the former secretary, Ayo Opadokun, was asked to vacate his position for fracternising with former ANPP Kwara State Governor Mohammed Lawal, pointing out that the punishment was rather too harsh by the same organisation that approved of a pact with PDP President Obasanjo. Instructively, as crisis polarised Afenifere/AD, politicians who had come on board in 1998/99 because of the group’s popularity left for the PDP, citing the crisis in the party as reason. Among them are Senator Adeseye Ogunlewe, Senator Wahab Dosunmu, Mrs. Patricia Etteh, Hon. Onimole and Sunday Fajimi.
Adesanya saw danger coming ahead of 2003 polls, urging a truce in Lagos. That was in post-Ige era, the colourful politician having been assassinated in December 2001. The Ajayi Committee, which was set up suggested a 60:40 formula for distribution of appointive and elective offices. It was turned down by Tinubu/Hamzat/Ogunleye/ camp. Dawodu ‘pulled’ out of AD, but Tinubu won re-election, making people to now embrace the fact that, with or without Afenifere, political success was still possible in Lagos. Although Afenifere backed other governors, they all lost their deposits to the curious pact sealed between them and Obasanjo, with Afenifere as witness. AD, owing to this understanding, did not field a presidential candidate in 2003.
Shortly after the 2003 elections, the crisis deepened as AD prepared for national convention. Now, Ige’s camp had split, with Akande and Senator Mojisolowa Akinfenwa, slugging it out. Afenifere leadership and Obasanjo government backed Akinfenwa, but the five AD governors supported Akande. At separate conventions in Abuja and Lagos, Akinfenwa and Akande emerged as factional chairmen. When Adesanya died, the Acting Leader of Afenifere, Chief Rueben Fasoranti, inherited the crisis. However, at the Akure meeting of the group, Fasoranti, declared Akinfenwa as the authentic AD national chairman, claiming that the convention that produced him appeared to have satisfied laid down requirement.
AD was seized by tension. The party was finally balkanised. Akande/Tinubu/Osoba/Adebayo forces rejected the ‘Akure Declaration’. However, by the time a High Court pronounced Koleoso as the authentic chairman, Ad had become a shadow of itself. Tinubu and other governors, except Adefarati, formed Action Congress (AC) and other Afenifere leaders floated Democratic Peoples Alliance (DPA). Then, the battle shifted to Afenifere, he umbrella group. Tinubu, Adesina, Akande, Osoba, Olabiyi Durojaye and Niyi Adebayo rejected Fasoranti’s leadership and proclaimed Senator Ayo Fasanmi, who is based in Osogbo, as the Deputy Leader in succession to the late Bola Ige. But, Ajayi, Adebanjo, Okunrounmu and Falae insisted that Fasoranti was appointed by Adesanya to deputise for him before he passed on, based on the counsel of Adeyeye and Afuye, who complained that making another Ijebu or Remo man his deputy would make other sub-Yoruba ethnic groups feel that they lack a sense of belonging. Both Fasoranti and Fasanmi joined AG in 1951.
Amid the crisis, Fasoranti announced at a meeting held in Jibowu office of the group that the door of the group was opened to all Yoruba under 18 years, irrespective of political leanings. The decision infuriated some members who believe that believe in the progressives ideas of Awo should have been the baseline for recruiting new members.
The 2007 governorship contest also took its toll on the group. Ahead of the general elections, Niyi Owolade and Adeyeye called it quits and teamed up with the PDP in protest against the handling of governorship primaries in Osun and Ekiti states. During the funeral of Adesanya in Ijebu-Igbo, Fasoranti and Fasanmi factions went to the ancient town to demonstrate their strength. Clerics who officiated at the ceremony shook their heads for Afenifere, which had completely lost its cohesion, unity and peace.
When it appeared that the two Afenifere factions would not close ranks, concerned young men and women who had looked up to them for direction and leadership decided to regroup under Afenifere Renewal Group (ARG). The group led by Oshun, former Social Democratic Party (SDP) Chief Whip of House of Representatives brokered peace, but without success. The Ibadan retreat, which was organised for that purpose, failed to achieve the goal of reconciling the two factions. Key members of the two factions appreciated the need for reconciliation, but they backed their dream of unity with hypocritical commitment.
On the eve of the reconciliation meeting called Yeyeoba Awololo, Fasanmi’s group stormed Ikenne, tendering reasons why key members would not be able to attend the meeting. Adesina and Olusi were asked to represent the group at the meeting. The meeting failed to achieve truce. Although the 80th birthday of Adebanjo provided another opportunity for both camps to come together, the inflammatory interview by the celebrator angered Tinubu and Osoba because the octogenarian put the blame for the crisis in Afenifere on the two former governors, who he described as new comers into the fold who did not know Awolowo. Returning the missile, Osoba reminded Adebanjo of his contributions to the progressive cause in the country as a journalist, stressing that, though he may be his senior in the Awolowo political family, he was very close to the late sage who had categorised him, Peter Ajayi and Felix Adenaike as the three media musketeers.
In 2011, Afenifere finally lost its grip and influence. The Controlling Leadership, which had become an ally of the PDP governor of Ogun State, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, supported the governor’s candidate on a new platform outside PDP. When Akande, Tinubu, Osoba, Adesina, Adebayo, Durojaye, Hamzat, Olusi, Koleoso, Rafiu Ogunleye, Gbenga Kaka and others were locked in battle with the PDP for the soul of the Southwest, the absence of the Afenifere Controlling Leadership was not felt.
Today, what unites Awoists are not Afenifere or any political group, but the yearly post-humus birthday of the revered sage and activities of Awolowo Foundation set up to immortalise him. Personal interest has often displaced collective interest in post-Awolowo era. But Awo lives on in the minds of the people, nation and country he served diligently for almost 60 years of active politics. Also, his ideas are imperishable, serving as guide to progressives. They also evoke passion and loyalty arising from what Prof. Akinyemi described as “fond memories of freedom for all, life more abundant; a lasting benefit of this being free education”.
But, Awolowo added more value to politics through his moral values. For example, Babatope noted in his book, “Awo and Nigeria-Setting the records straight”, that the old man had admonished his to flee from corruption. “When you are in government, do not enjoy all those things you will be able to afford while out of office”, said Awo, who shunned the use of sirens, official government quarters , cars and travelling ecstacode or foreign travelling allowances while in public office. In fact, when former Governor Ali made use of public money for his father’s burial, the UPN leader frowned at it and directed that he should refund the money to government’s coffers.
Born on March 6, 1909, Awolowo passed on on May 9, 1987. He founded Nigerian Tribune in 1949. He was Pro-Chancellor of University of Ife, named after him, and Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. In 1976, be became a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN). He was the Asiwaju of Yoruba, Asiwaju of Remo, Losi of Ikenne, Apesin of Osogbo, Odole of Ife, Ajagunla of Ado-Ekiti, Odofin of Owo, and Obong Ikpan Ibong of Ibiobioland. In 1982, he was given the highest national honour, the Grand Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic (GCFR).
Awoloeo disciples, associates and members of Awo political family still alive include Jakande, Adebanjo, Sir Olaniwun Ajayi, Fasanmi, Fasoranti, Professors C.O Taiwo, Akin Mabogunje, David Oke, Banji Akintoye, Muyiwa Igbalajobi, Hon. George Sadiku, Tayo Soyode, Akande, Akinfenwa, Adesina, Koleoso, Olusi, Segun Adegoke, Adu, Rafiu Jafojo, Ehinafe Babatola, Osoba, Opadokun, Sesan Soluade, Dr. Bolarinwa Balogun, Okunrounmu, Adegbonmire, Alhaji Karimu Laka-Orelope, Hamzat, Alebiosu, Babatope and wife, Biola, Akin Omojola, Olorunfunmi Basorun, Bimbo Awofeso, Supo Sonibare, Femi Lanlehin, Tunde Onakoya, S.K Kolawole, Olawale Idris and Willy Akinlude.
