More than any other Nigerian nationality, the Yoruba nation often suffers this periodic backlash arising from traumatic stress and disorder. On at least three occasions, it has led to low intensity civil wars resulting in the liquidation of many of its illustrious children, particularly during the “Wetie” civil insurgency, the revolt against massive rigging that sank the Second Republic and the uprising that marked the annulment of the June 12 presidential election.
Yet despite all this , and all things considered, there are those who argue that Akintola was a better focused and more realistic politician than Awolowo. In their estimation, SLA probably discovered very early enough the gigantic fraud that the post-colonial nation was and how every heroic effort to reform it is doomed to tragic failure. Since politics is ultimately about who gets what and at what time, it is better to let the status quo be as long as the Yoruba elite were allotted their fair share, after all what the bird eats is what it flies with no matter the complexion of the skies.
This was the early prototype of the later mainstream argument. Akintola acquiesced in the feudal supremacy of the old North. It should be recalled that his battle cry of “Ekiniani” and Ekejiani was directed against the dominant Igbo elite whom he felt were greedily gulping up what should belong to the Yoruba elite but which was denied them as a result of Awolowo’s political intransigence. In fairness to them, Akintola and his colleagues did manage to claw back some concessions.
But there were also many who saw through all this as sheer political chicanery, an attempt to appease the greedy palate of a few Yoruba right wingers even as the entire Yoruba society lay under the hammer of the feudal oligarchy and with its authentic leadership in jail. In sharp ideological contrast to Akintola, Awolowo heroically believed that Nigeria was redeemable but that it would know neither peace nor development until feudalism was smashed in the north.
Prolonged and protracted military rule stalemated the argument, with the Yoruba society oscillating between confrontation and guarded collaboration with the military-feudal complex. After Chief Awolowo’s departure, and in a significant play of signifiers across rigid ideological divides, it took a habitual right winger who had transited to the left to break the deadlock.
Before his Pauline conversion, M.K.O Abiola’s apostasy knew no bounds or limits. But he brought immense rightwing resources to bear on a leftwing cause. These are the resources of immense wealth, wide contacts across the political spectrum and a liberal attitude to political impurities. Abiola triumphed but panicked an outfoxed military high command into annulling the freest and fairest presidential election in the history of the country.
In retrospect, it can be seen that it was Awolowo’s tradition of heroic defiance which facilitated Abiola’s dramatic victory. Awolowo’s courageous opposition made it possible for the Yoruba nation to maintain its position as a hegemonic power bloc even while being out of power and contention. The northern power masters knew where the real threat to their hegemonic stronghold on the nation lies. In turn, it was Abiola’s heroic defiance and self-martyrdom coupled with the NADECO insurrection which made an Obasanjo presidency possible.
Of the four Yoruba titans, Obasanjo, the lone soldier, is arguably the outstanding political games-master. It will be recalled that Akintola’s supine deference led to a stiffening of feudal arrogance which in turn invited a violent military reprisal. Awolowo’s disdain and defiance led to a cycling of the wagon by his adversaries which prepared the Yoruba for a long siege. Abiola’s in your face conversion panicked the military feudal complex into a nation-destroying annulment. But Obasanjo stooped to conquer, feigning bucolic ignorance and enduring humiliation and indignities along the way until he acquired enough leverage of power to wreak untold havoc on his feudal tormentors.
It will be left to future historians and psychoanalysts to ponder whether Obasanjo was in the best psychological state to lead a nation shortly after he was sprung from jail by his wily benefactors who had looked the other way as Abacha summarily impounded him. A man with the legendary memory of an affronted elephant, Obasanjo simply returned the toxic compliment in full measure. By the time he had finished with them, the hallowed aura had vanished and the feudal power mongers were looking very ordinary and most politically vulnerable. For the first time in the history of the country, we have what looks like an open playing ground among the ruling class.
But it is also obvious that Obasanjo lacks the temperament, the political skills, the psychological disposition and the intellectual wherewithal to build and sustain a mass political movement or even a regular political party. More shattering is the fact that having ruled the nation for the longest period as a civilian and having been able to impose the last two presidents on the nation, the current chaotic mess is a damning testimonial against the substitution of benign, visionary and transformative statecraft for petty and vindictive score settling. Rather than being the solution, the general is part of the problem.
With the old pacted consensus gone, with no overriding pan-Nigerian statesman in sight and with no dominant power broker in the horizon, it is clear that once again Nigeria has entered uncharted waters. Yet our story of avatars shows the immanent rationality of history, how unjust visions of human development will ultimately succumb to bitter reality, no matter how long and what it costs, and how different people with different goals, in a different, contradictory and even adversarial manner, can end up contributing to the same historical cause without their ever being aware of the end result.
