Revisiting Awo

By Bola Ige - May 8, 2001

FOURTEEN years ago yesterday, Obafemi Awolowo passed on to higher

service. Two months and three days earlier, at his seventy eighth birthday

anniversary celebration, he had spoken prophetically about the

imminence of his transition, about the fact that he had not been

allowed to achieve his highest ambition of serving the people of

Nigeria, about how he was satisfied that he was going for a greater and

higher service, and of a life after life. Only few of his listeners at

Ikenne on that March 6, 1987 comprehended fully what he was talking

about. That was why all of us, friends and foes alike, were stunned and

devastated when he moved on from this mortal plane. The greatest

Nigerian ideologue so far, and the main issue in Nigerian politics

during the previous fifty years, as General Ibrahim Babangida had

described him earlier, left us.

Since the beginning of this year when, for over three months, my foes

and friends, for good and bad reasons, made me the centre of political

controversy in Nigeria, I have had, in my efforts at self-criticism and

objective self-critical appraisal, to turn to the mental spiritual and

political guidelines which Awo bequeathed to all of us who confess that

we are his disciples. For obvious reasons, I will not write about the

mental and spiritual lessons he taught me. But I drew upon the

guidelines of mental magnitude that he prescribed, and I read, once

again, his seminal writings in which one can find his clear thoughts

and analysis on the problems of Nigeria. I have once again read, marked

and inwardly digested, his main writings: (1) Path to Nigerian Freedom

(ii) Thoughts on the Nigerian Constitution; (iii) The People's Republic

and (iv) Strategy and Tactics of the People's Republic.

In the last few weeks, our country has been agog with the news of

political activities of persons and groups who seem to want to be of

relevance or who are groping for ways to bring about some sort of

realignment of forces. The scenario is unfolding and Nigeria's

political temporary contraptions called political parties and the

desire of political theoreticians, who have no real winnable

constituencies, to configure for us Nigeria's political landscape. It

is for these and other reasons that it is desirable, at the end of the

second seven-year cycle and the beginning of the third seven-year

cycle, that we should once again remind ourselves about Awo's thoughts

on a few important issues like (a) the national question; (b)

federalism; (c) the unity of Nigeria and (d) constitution making. I

doubt whether anybody in Nigeria has written cogently on the national

question more than Obafemi Awolowo. He posited and demonstrated lucidly

how the proper resolution of the national question is fundamental to a

viable and prosperous Nigerian polity. Because of the various and

different histories and cultures of our various nationalities, and the

various and different stages of our modern and social and political

development, he recommended a federation of Nigeria of not more than

eighteen states based largely on ethnic affiliation and language.

I am glad I have never deviated from Awo's principled position. And

from what we are seeing of and in the six Yoruba States, in the five

Igbo States and the six Hausa States, and from the nationalism that

imbues organizations like AFENIFERE, OHANAEZE and the militant youth

organizations among the Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa and Izon, objective

observers can see the futility of breaking up of our nationalities into

miniscule states which have been emasculated in power, prosperity and

progress. One thing I know: the day is almost here in Yorubaland when

the Alajobi will be the Garibaldi that will write Yorubaland once

again, and we will flourish once again, like we did under Awo.

Because I have no mandate of the Igbo, Izon and the Hausa, for example,

I cannot speak authoritatively as I can for Yorubaland. But the signs

are Unmistakable. Thirty years after the Biafran civil war, the Igbos

are realizing that creating five states out of Igboland does not

empower them to move forward or even to take needed meaningful steps to

heal the scars of the civil war. As for the Hausa-Fulani,

Sharianisation as a potent political weapon of ethnic nationalism is

being fashioned and sharpened. Which leads me to the postulations of

Awo concerning federalism. For Awo, the Nigerian federation is to be a

federal republic of states (large and small) who have come together on

certain basic agreed terms reached and sealed in a constitution that

would guarantee every state the rights and resources to manage its

affairs in those areas assigned to it, and which would enable the state

to make MAN the centre, the subject and object, and the raison d'etre

of all development, whether at federal, state or local government

level.

I have read almost everything Awo wrote, and for more than 25 years, I

was directly under his tutelage. Not once and nowhere did Awo advocate

the break-up of Nigeria, or that Yorubaland should break away from

Nigeria. His first book designed the path of the freedom of Nigeria,

not Yorubaland only; his People's Republic was about the Federal

Republic of Nigeria; his thoughts on the constitution was for the

Federal Republic of Nigeria; and when he called us of the Committee of

Friends to sit with him in Park Lane, Apapa, to work out strategy and

tactics, they were to be how to capture power not in Yorubaland alone,

but throughout the Federal Republic of Nigeria, so that the best

welfare of the people could be more easily and more comprehensively

catered for.

Awo, of course, wanted Yorubaland to be strong and prosperous, but not

for any selfish end. The prosperity and well-being of the Yoruba nation

was to be a benchmark for the Federal Republic of Nigeria. As Awo used

to say, he could not be a good Nigerian, if he was not a good

Yorubaman! One can recall Awo's rebuke of my friend, brother and

colleague, Chief Bisi Onabanjo, when in 1983, following the NPN rigging

of elections, he called for a confederation. He gave him political

spanking and that publicity . I am aware of course, that not only has

Awo been vilified by Zik and other unitarists as a tribalist and

apostle of balkanisation of Nigeria, quite a few Yoruba concerned

nationalists have also queried why Awo did not lead Yorubaland out of

Nigeria during the Civil War. Chief Emeka Ojukwu's grouse, and that of

some of his misguided cronies, was that they were encouraged in their

secessionist bid by the motion which was passed by Yoruba leaders in

the Western Hall, Ibadan, about April 1967.

I know much about that motion because I was part of the group that

crafted it, and I actually moved it. It was this:

"If by any act of omission or commission the Eastern Region secedes,

Western Region will opt out" (of the Federation of Nigeria)

Only a daft person can read an invitation or encouragement to secede in

that resolution. Yoruba want to be part of Nigeria, unless pushed out

or not wanted.

And when secession was being prepared in Eastern Region, Awo led a

delegation which included Chief Jereton Mariere, that charismatic

leader of the Urhobos and erstwhile governor of Midwestern Nigeria, to

persuade Emeka Ojukwu not to secede, but join in working out a truly

federal constitution for Nigeria.

I was an unofficial adviser to the delegation from Western Nigeria to

the ad-hoc Constitutional Conference convened by General Gowon in

September and October 1966. Nowhere in our presentation did the West

advocate secession or even confederation. These things need to be

recalled so that our people must know the strategy to adopt in the

present circumstance.

Which leads me to the last point. What was Awo's reaction to

discussions about constitution-making. Awo was never passive, and he

never advocated non-participation in any discussions, however much he

knew that they would not yield the results he wanted.

Fortunately, there are quite a few Nigerian leaders who are alive and

can bear testimony to Awo's robust and all-embracing nationalism for

Yorubaland, and unalloyed patriotism for Nigeria, all his life: Chief

Anthony Enahoro, Chief Rotimi Williams, SAN, Chief Chris Ogunbanjo,

Hon. Effiong Ononopkono, Chief Felix Ibru, Chief J.A.O. Odebiyi, Gen.

Yakubu Gowon, and Alhaji Maitama Sule for example, not to talk of

Senator Abraham Adesanya, and three people who have known him longer

than most of us. Mr. Justice Adewole Thompson, Ven. E.O. Alayande and

Awo's jewel of inestimable value, our beloved Mama, Chief (Mrs) H.I.D

Awolowo. I wish great leaders like Chief Wenike Briggs, Senator J. S.

Tarka, and Ken Saro-Wiwa, to mention a few, were alive to add their

voices.

And so, on this fourteenth anniversary of Awo's transition, we who are

his devotees must learn and study him anew, in order not to lose focus

and chase shadows and false doctrines which cannot stand the test of

political rigours and constitutional engineering. I thank my creator

for this genius of a man whose political principles cannot fail and by

which I immovably stand.

Long live Obafemi Awolowo.

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