The title of Chief Ayo Adebanjo’s autobiography “Telling it as it is” is most appropriate and comprehensively describes the Afenifere colossus in terms of his personality and ethos: I think one thing everyone-friends, adversaries, opponents and supporters of Chief Adebanjo will agree on is his candour and frankness. He speaks his mind, and he does so with forthrightness and without dissimulation!
I have had three recent opportunities to observe the great man at relatively close quarters – twice at Akure, and once in a meeting in his Lekki Phase 1, Lagos home and on all occasions, the attributes that you observe are always the same-boldness; direct and forthright communication without mincing words; a willingness to challenge and even to confront; and of course his irrepressible energy and vigour, which for a man who has lived a very full and active life in journalism, political party organization, law practice, community affairs, pro-democracy advocacy and agitation, and to the ripe, old age of 90 is truly remarkable.
I picked up a copy of “Telling it as it is” at the book launch on April 3, 2018 in Victoria Island and I started reading it in the car as my driver navigated out of the venue. I did not drop the book through the drive back to my office in Lagos Island; though a hasty lunch on my desk; as I signed off on various letters and documents in the office; and until around 8pm same day when I reached the last page, I didn’t stop reading-the insights and reflections on multiple issues including his early life and education; his early experience as Action Group Organising Secretary in my Sagamu, Remo home town; his relationship with Chief Obafemi Awolowo and the Awo family and household; his lifelong friendship, indeed partnership with another long termAwoist,recently departed Sir (Chief) OlaniwunAjayi; the crises in the Action Group and the treasonable felony trial of Chief Awolowo and his own escape to exile in Ghana; the AD crisis and especially his evidently troubled relationship with late Chief Bola Ige; his unsurprisingly negative views on former President Olusegun Obasanjo; and his experiences around love, courtship, marriage and familyoffer a depth of insight and context on multiple topics in Yoruba and Nigerian history and politics.
The book could have been fuller and grander, but it is still a very valuable and important contribution to our recorded history. I congratulate Baba Adebanjo; my friend, AdeolaAzeez, his first daughter by his loving wife, Chief Mrs Christiana Adebanjo; and the entire family for his enduring health and his relevance and influence on the Yoruba and Nigerian polity.
Recently I have spent a lot of time reflecting on ceaseless and perennial conflict in Yorubaland-in our communities, our traditional institutions and in our politics. Reading Chief Adebanjo’s autobiography reinforced my concerns on that subject. Conflict is off course unavoidable-politics is itself about the negotiated and non-violent (hopefully) resolution of conflicts over power and interests, but in a multi-ethnic country like Nigeria in which ethnic, regional and religious interests actively seek hegemony over others, it does not help that the Yoruba often dissipate our energy and creativity on internal battles! I have indeed settled on a hypothesis that we usually wear ourselves out fighting ourselves inside Yorubaland that we are exhausted and thus unable or unwilling to confront the external dangers that confront the Yoruba people, until they become existential!!!
That was our experience with series of internal crises that consumed the AG, UPN and AD, all of which provided an opportunity for conservative or infact retrogressive political groups usually nurtured north of Yorubaland (NPC, NPN, PDP, APC) to penetrate the region and subvert its politics and leadership. The Afenifere-Obasanjo antagonism, for which I mostly blame Obasanjo, ensured the West derived modest, if not marginal benefits from Obasanjo’s eight years in power; and the Afenifere-Bola Ige conflict destroyed the AD and culminated in our recent drift and risk of political subjugation! Most debilitating has been the Afenifere-Bola Tinubu crises which divided Afenifere itself, and now presents Yorubaland and Nigeria with the real threat of external hegemony!
I am not a proponent of ideology or principle-free politics just for the sake of achieving unity and avoiding conflict, but surely it could be possible and must now be imperative for Yoruba politicians and leaders to reserve our greatest energies and resourcefulness for development within the West and protection of Yorubaland and its people and interests from external threats.
To Chief Ayo Adebanjo’s credit, no one could accuse him of playing the type of transactional, commercially-oriented, prebendal and “Afonja” politics that threatens to become mainstream fare of professional “oselu” in Yorubaland, a brand of politics that is devoid of purpose beyond self-enrichment, personal power,office-seeking and prebendal access to state resources; and that impoverishes the people and compromises Yoruba collective interest and heritage. Chief Adebanjo has been a committed “Awoist” his entire political career and for him and his remaining colleagues in the Afenifere old guard-Professor BanjiAkintoye, Senator Femi Okurounmu, Chief OluFalae, Papa Reuben Fasoranti, Hon. Oladipo Olaitan, DrA. A Akingba and others; they face a (probably) last challenge-to prevent the final defeat of Awolowo’s political, development and socio-cultural legacy in the politics of Western Nigeria.
As Baba Ayo Adebanjo celebrates this epoch of his 90th birthday anniversary, I wish him wisdom, strength and power for the challenges that lie nearby and pray that he may be with us for longer still!
Opeyemi Agbaje
