Awolowo and the Immortals

Saturday 6th March 2021 was the posthumous birthday of the sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo GCFR. Emeka Ojukwu famously described him as “the best president Nigeria never had”. Indeed, former military strongman General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida described him as “the main issue in Nigerian politics”.

Awolowo’s shadow continues to hover over our political firmament like a colossus. Had he been alive today, he would have been 112 this month. Chief Obafemi Jeremiah Oyeniyi Awolowo, made the transition into the great beyond on 9 May 1987. He was seventy-eight.

Last Saturday, the Obafemi Awolowo Founded hosted the 2021 Annual Lecture in honour of the sage. It was delivered by the poet, journalist, iconoclast and public intellectual, Odia Ofeimun, who was once his principal secretary.

Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka chaired the event, while the Sultan of Sokoto, Sa’ad Abubakar was Royal Father of the Day. Emeka Eleazar Anyaoku, world diplomat and former Secretary-General of the Commonwealth of Nations was a Special Guest. Awolowo’s daughter and last remaining offspring, Tokunbo Awolowo-Dosunmu, was a benign presence throughout. The Moderator was the no less illustrious Professor Michael Faborode, Vice-Chancellor of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife.

Communities facing an existential threat to their very survival, have both a right and a bounden moral obligation, to defend themselves if government is unable and/or unwilling to defend them

In his welcome address, Chief Emeka Anyaoku underlined the two grim realities facing the nation: deepening poverty and worsening insecurity. He pointed out that everybody would gain from belonging to one stable, united and prosperous country instead of a fractured one. Decrying the over-dominance of the federal centre at the expense of the federating units, Anyaoku advocated the Indian model of federalism instead of the American model that we adopted as the best hope for peace, stability and progress.

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In his own remarks, the Sultan of Sokoto underlined poor governance as the principal challenge; warning against outbursts that could further fuel the embers of strife. He said that, as a military officer, he did combat duties on the Pakistan-Afghan border and warned that war could not be an option.

The Guest Lecturer, Odia Ofeimun, spoke on the theme, “Whither Nigeria?” In his opening lines, the poet went straight for the jugular. He criticized General Muhammadu Buhari for abandoning the project agreed by his political party and, instead, pursuing an illusory “cattle republic”. He condemned a situation whereby, under the full protection of our armed forces, alien Fulani militias with deadly military weapons, have been killing, raping and maiming defenceless communities; dispossessing them of their lands. He described the Nigeria of today in Joseph Conrad’s terms, as “the heart of darkness”. A situation where people were being asked to make the impossible choice between their ancestral homelands and their lives was an evil and unacceptable scenario.

Odia, however, concluded that Nigeria is worth fighting for. He argued that the best way to save the country is to re-design the federating units in a manner that accords full autonomy to our ethnic nationalities.

He also decried a situation whereby 20 million children in this country are wandering the streets instead of being in school; underlining education as the key to liberation and social progress.

Ultimately, according to Odia, we have to plan our country all over again; describing it as one of Awo’s greatest legacies. “Awolowo was a great planner”, he revealed.

In his own privileged intervention, deposed Emir of Kano and former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, complained that we seem to be chasing shadows instead of focusing on “the real issues”, which for him, centre on poor governance and leadership. He also decried the “cultural narrative” about the challenge of education in the North. He maintained that right from colonial times, the British administrators did not want education for the North because they did not want to re-create the scenario in the Sudan where well-educated elites led by the Mahdi challenged their British overlords.

Odia begged to disagree. He recalled that former Sokoto Governor Attahiru Bafarawa once built many schools, but the buildings remained empty. Odia insists that challenge of education in the North is largely cultural.

One professor from a Northern university bewailed the fact that the so-called “Awoists” of today have almost nothing remotely resembling the sage’s golden ideals. Most are driven, according to him, by money and the pursuit of power for its sake.

In his summary intervention, Chairman of the occasion, Nobel laureate Professor Wole Soyinka, noted that there is an emerging consensus on the need for re-configuration and restructuring of our federation; pointing out that an overburdensome centre must devolve power to the regions if our country is to survive and prevail in the years ahead. In lieu of such re-engineering, Soyinka urged the state governors must use the existing constitutional framework to wrest more power to the federating units while advancing the security, prosperity and welfare of their peoples.

In my own contribution, I raised issues about what Awolowo would have done had he been alive today. We all agreed that he would have confronted the incubi and succubae that are currently hell-bent on destroying our country. A genius of statecraft, and a dogged fighter for justice, he practised the discipline of “Mental Magnitude”; believing that the power of thought can overcome all temporal challenges.

I also made the point that victims have a right to defend themselves. Municipal and international law and the precepts of natural justice, equity and universal ethics prescribe that communities facing an existential threat to their very survival, have both a right and a bounden moral obligation, to defend themselves if government is unable and/or unwilling to defend them.

The father of pan-Africanism, Edward Wilmot Blyden, wrote a famous essay on, “The Legacy of a Permanent Influence”. Awolowo was a Pan-Africanist who has achieved a permanent influence. Wale Adebanwi, Rhodes Professor of Race Relations at Oxford, described him as a “recent ancestor”. He now belongs among the pantheon of Yoruba orishas, alongside Obatala, Ogun, Sango, Erinle and Osumare.

Philosopher, avatar, statesman, economist and lawyer, Awolowo belongs among the immortals of Africa.