By Kunle
Ajibade
Bill
Clinton, in an article he wrote for TIME
magazine in 1999 titled “Captain
Courageous,” described one of the best American presidents, F.D. Roosevelt,
as an architect of grand political designs.
Obafemi Awolowo could also be described as an
architect of grand political designs. He was a great political builder among
great political builders. If he remains a commanding intelligence in modern
Yoruba and Nigerian history, it is because he worked tirelessly to shape some
significant events of his time. He chose courage over cowardice. He chose competence
over mediocrity. His legacy teaches us diligence, it teaches us hard work,
integrity, fortitude, honesty, self sacrifice, responsible leadership and
accountability. We are taught by his inspiring example that true leaders must
work for the common good. We are taught by him that genuine leaders ought to
have purposes greater than themselves. Obafemi Awolowo was a moral force who
taught us to live a life that meets the ideals we profess.
In Yoruba Elites and Ethnic Politics in
Nigeria: Obafemi Awolowo and Corporate Agency, Wale Adebanwi renders the significance,
the prestige, the influence and the messianic drama of Obafemi Awolowo’s life
in incisive, brilliant, elegant and engaging narrative. He combined his skills
as a trained journalist, a political scientist and anthropologist to conduct a
research which ranges across important territories and domains. This book, in
its first formulation, was his Ph.D thesis at the University of Cambridge.
Adebanwi displays in it fireworks of theories especially in the introductory
parts which may overwhelm the lay readers but will gladden the hearts of his
academic peers immensely. He interrogates some received theories in order to
propound his own. The theories, if you take time to crack their nuts, will
yield useful insights. Theories that explain and describe Obafemi Awolowo as a
peerless leader who kept the political promises he made. Theories that help to
deepen our understanding of the Awolowo’s mystique, his phenomenon and
charisma. Theories of a leader who remained focussed and kept expanding the
magnitude of his mind and the frontiers of his vision till the very end. And
theories of friends who betray their friends and principles.
Adebanwi
tells us that Awolowo’s education policy, his investment in Agriculture, his
social welfare programmes and a vibrant, productive economy in Western Region
brought into being a vast middle class that had enough energy, buoyant optimism
and supreme confidence to engage the rest of the world. He was s game-changer
who really made politics admirable and respectable. The author shows that,
compared to his contemporaries, Awolowo was the most articulate advocate of the
rights of the minorities and a clear-headed defender of federalism. By the time
he died in 1987, he had not only been justly monumentalised, he had been
variously mythologised. In the words of Adebanwi: “Years after Awolowo’s death,
and more than half a century after he left office as the premier of Western
Region of Nigeria, the Yoruba elites continue to regard him as the very symbol
of their ethnic nationalism and a shining example of the benefits of
self-governance, not only in Nigeria but in all of Africa.”
Adebanwi
agrees with Banji Akintoye and Toyin Falola and other scholars who argue that
if Oduduwa, the progenitor of the Yoruba, founded the Yoruba nation, Awolowo
came to modernise it. He observes that at the start of his political career,
Awolowo knew that the Yoruba were a highly progressive but badly disunited
group, that they paid lip service to a spiritual union and affinity in a common
ancestor – Oduduwa. They waged war against one another. The Yoruba, in the
course of the British and Portuguese slave trade, had conducted violent and
merciless slave raids on one another. And when the inter-tribal wars and slave
raids were brought to an end by the British, mutual hatreds among the Yoruba
continued. Given the propaganda of Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, the younger elements in
Yorubaland saw themselves as inferior to the Igbo. According to Adebanwi: “Awolowo’s declared
resolve in the early 1940s was to save the Yoruba from ‘the state of impotence,
into which they were fast degenerating’. Awolowo further resolved ‘to infuse
solidarity into the disjointed tribes that constitute the Yoruba ethnic group,
to raise their morale, to rehabilitate their self-respect, and to imbue them
with the confidence that they are an important factor in the forging of the
federal unity of Nigeria’”.
Egbe Omo
Oduduwa and the Action Group took on these cultural and political projects.
This mission of what Adebanwi describes as “the construction of a pan-Yoruba
identity,” was resisted by Awolowo’s political adversaries like Dr. Azikiwe and
Adegoke Adelabu, the feisty Ibadan politician who wrote Africa in Ebullition. The formation of Egbe Omo Oduduwa was not his
only political achievement at this time when he was studying law in England, he
also wrote Path to Nigerian Freedom
in which he shared his ideas of how independent Nigeria should be governed.
With his ideas and politics, Adebanwi argues, Awolowo “became both a symbol of
the Yoruba nation and its ethnic nationalism, as well as a symbol of the
struggle towards a ‘more perfect’ Nigerian nation; a concept that included the
federalist ethos, good governance, egalitarian rule, enlightenment, modernity,
bureaucratic rationality and welfarism.” Adebanwi observes that while some
among Awolowo’s followers are able to embrace their Yoruba identity as well as
the acceptance of a Nigerian identity, other ardent followers embrace the first
and not the other.
The Yoruba
identity and Nigerian identity is a paradox which Awolowo’s political enemies
have capitalised on. But to Awolowo, there is nothing wrong in combining Yoruba
nationalism with a progressive, federalist, egalitarian, democratic nationalist
politics. It is important to note that, in concrete terms, Egbe Omo Oduduwa set
out “to study fully the political problems of Yorubaland, combat the
disintegrating forces of tribalism, stamp out discrimination within the group
and against minorities and generally infuse the idea of a single nationality
throughout the region; to study its economic resources, ascertain its
potentialities, and advise as to the wisest utilisation of its wealth as to
ensure abundance and prosperity for its people; to plan for the improvement of
educational facilities both in content and extent; to explore the means of
introducing mass education promptly and efficiently and to foster the study of
Yoruba language, culture and history; to promote the social welfare of
Yorubaland, combat the cankerworm of superstition and ignorance, spread the
knowledge of medical relief and stimulate the provision of hospitals, maternity
homes and suchlike amenities.” The Egbe Omo Oduduwa also aimed to co-operate in
the fullest measure with other regions to see that its aims are applied to the
whole country. One of its objectives was to aid and encourage similar groups in
the other regions in every way possible to achieve their ideals. Ire ti won fe fun ara won, won tun fe fun
gbogbo Nigeria. What could be more egalitarian than that?
Those
objectives formulated in the 40s are still relevant today, and they show the
excellent organisational capacity of Obafemi Awolowo. Shortly before the Action
Group was launched on 21 March, 1951, Awolowo said that any new party under
which he was prepared to work and serve must place a premium on action rather than words. Awolowo was
never mealy-mouthed about truth. He told The
Guardian in May 1987: “I do not rank myself with great leaders, but those I
am trying to emulate – Churchill, Nehru, Jesus Christ, Mohammed, Gandhi –
provoke extremity of hatred and affection.” In 1979 when many ardent followers
of him insisted that they saw him in the moon smiling and waving at them,
Awolowo must have been very amused by that extremity of affection. Relying on
the incontrovertible evidence of Ganiyu Dawodu and Odia ofeimun, Adebanwi
shows, for instance, that the extremity of Chinua Achebe’s hatred for Awolowo
was based on big lies of history. No one can rob Awolowo of his achievements.
Awolowo struggled against Nnamdi Azikiwe and his NCNC and against the ultra
conservative northern political elite in NPC just so that Nigeria could become
a better place. If the country had listened to him, we won’t be singing songs
of lamentation today.
In the
dominant progressive Yoruba politics, he remains a hero which is why even
before he died, in 1987, some of his associates, specifically Bola Ige and
Lateef Jakande, had started scheming to take over the mantle of Awo. The
narratives of Awolowo and the Awoist movement have been subjects of rigorous
and vigorous scholarships. What Adebanwi has done here is to deepen our
knowledge with new perspectives. In Yoruba
Elites and ethnic Politics in Nigeria: Obafemi Awolowo and Corporate Agency, he
writes lucidly about the crises that the physical absence of Awolowo brought
about and the appropriation of his symbolic presence in Yorubaland. He recounts
the long history of internal wranglings in Afenifere culminating in the
assassination of Bola Ige on whom other elders wanted to foist the mantle of
Samuel Akintola but who in death wore the mantle of Awolowo. For about a
decade, Adebanwi spoke to all the parties involved, he spoke to their camp
followers, he attended some of their meetings, he read minutes of their meetings,
he read many of the abusive interviews in newspapers and magazines, he read reports
of all the reconciliatory efforts that failed woefully. The conflicts, he
believes, were driven by animosities bordering, not strictly on ideological
matters, but largely on towering ego and pettiness. As Yoruba would say, ija ilara kii tan boro. The elders in
the Awo Movement from AG through UPN down to APC have been engaging in what Margaret
S. Archer describes as a “competitive contradiction” which “prompts attempts at
mutual elimination.” This part of Adebanwi’s book will make not just every
proud Yoruba man and woman uncomfortable but will make every progressive
Nigerian sad. The Awo Movement should not have come to this sorry pass.
In the
course of their deep personal rivalries, Olusegun Obasanjo, who hates Awolowo
with passion, has always moved in to establish himself as the new patriarch of
Yoruba politics. But the masses of Yoruba people have always said: Give us Awo! Give us Awo! Give us Awo! But
who becomes the new leader of the progressive movement? Or who steps into the
big shoes of Awolowo? Adebanwi, in the light of other contenders for the
throne, thinks the cap fits Bola Tinubu, who has “pursued the ambition to
become both the leader in Yoruba politics and the leader of the progressive
movement in Nigeria.” He observes that while Awolowo believed that one ought to
mobilise for power on the basis of ideological interests, Tinubu has
demonstrated that it is only by accessing power that one can mobilise one’s
interests and make one’s vision of society practical.
Let me end
with the Obafemi Awolowo’s preamble to the speech he gave in Ondo Town Hall in July
1974 at the presentation of Gani Fawehinmi’s book, People’s Rights to Free Education At All Levels. In that preamble,
he praised the brilliance, the diligence and hard work of Fawehinmi. He said that
“the trouble with many Nigerian youths is that they sleep too much, play too
much; and indulge too much in idle chatter and gossip.” He then advised them to
“take each day as a sacred unit which must not be misused or dissipated.” Out
of 24 hours available to them, he said, at least eight concentrated hours
should be spent on work, eight should be spent on serious study, creative
leisure and self-development. He then concluded that eight hours are enough for
feeding, relaxation and sleep. If Obafemi Awolowo were to be in this hall at
this moment, he would praise Adebanwi’s brilliance, diligence and hard work.
—Mr. Kunle Ajibade, Executive Editor of TheNEWS/P.M.NEWS,
read this review at Agip Recital Hall, Muson Centre, Onikan, Lagos on April 17,
2014.
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