I knew Dr. Tunji Otegbeye in Ebute-Metta, Lagos, where I grew up. This was partly why I welcomed the opportunity to review his autobiography titled ‘The Restoration’.
The book’s focus is virtually a preoccupation with Nigeria in the wider world. We are taken through features like the Cold War, Nigerian politics, how the appellation ‘Egbado’ was changed to ‘Yewa’ and, of course, Tunji Otegbeye’s role of in all of these. In view of the immediate foregoing, young readers are likely to have a better appreciation of, shall we say, a vanishing world which they probably know little or nothing about.
The book consists of nine chapters and an epilogue, as well as a number of reminiscences and tributes. Taken together, they shed a lot of light on the turbulent life and times of Otegbeye.
Let me confess, however, that prior to encountering Otegbeye in this book, I had two encounters with him. I will only recall one of them.
As is well known, Otegbeye is a household name, right across the country. This populism was particularly manifest in an area like Ebute-Metta, Lagos, where I grew up. On this note, my vivid and initial recall of Otegbeye was in the sixties as a primary school student. Somehow, I found my way to a rally at Rowe Park in Yaba, near the Casino Cinema. My impressionable mind took in the songs at that rally. There he was, in his trademark beard, all decked in white, singing along with others a song which goes thus:
Capita… capita… capita… capitalism,
We shall fight until we win,
Nepoti… nepoti… nepoit… nepotism,
We shall fight until we win.
Whether we have won or not is really a question for another day. However, what is most pertinent here is that, as I read through the book, the song came to mind. It is a song which reflects a lot of the drama, spectacle and turbulence which hallmarked Otegbeye’s life.
The book itself does not stand on its own. ‘The Restoration’ is part of a quartet. This is because on previous occasions, Tunji Otegbeye had written and published earlier parts of his life. Such publications include ‘A Humble Beginning’ (1995), ‘The Turbulent Decade’ (1999), and ‘The Tempest’ (2005).
Unfortunately, I have not read any of these other books, and to that extent I do not have a comprehensive insight into the entirety of Otegbeye’s life. However, this particular handicap has partly been compensated for. This is in view of the fact that there are flashbacks and cross-references to these earlier works.
The title of the book, ‘The Restoration’, is to some extent mystifying. But this was partly demystified in the foreword to the book by Femi Dada. Dada took some time to explain what ‘restoration’ could well have meant. Otegbeye himself also did this in the book, when he explained that ‘restoration’, for him, did not mean compensation in monetary terms. Rather it meant some form of relevance for him in public affairs.
Apparently, virtually all through his life, Otegbeye can be regarded as an outsider, a rebel, who decided to take on the status-quo forces in the Nigerian social formation. But in the evening of his life, some form of accommodation evolved between him and the caretakers of society. What could well be responsible for this could have been age. After all, my ancestral folks in their eternal wisdom will tell you that when one reaches a certain age, sobriety should set in.
Again, the ‘restoration’ could well be due to the end of the Cold War. As can be seen in the book, Otegbeye, in the thick of the Cold War, was there taking on the Nigerian authorities who were on the side of the capitalist West.
Thus, after the Cold War, it could well be that some form of restoration was inevitable. What, in my own opinion, was particularly endearing was that to Otegbeye, restoration was not about restitution in the form of naira and kobo. Rather, it was in the form of being recognized for his contributions in the struggle against imperialism and any other form of brutalization.
Therefore, it was just as well that the chapter on Namibia was regarded by Otegbeye as the first step in the journey to restoration. How could this have been so? By way of answer, it is possible to contend that an invitation to Otegbeye from Namibia, by no less a person than the Namibian head of state, Sam Nujoma, was some form of recognition and, by extension, restoration. Apparently, in the days of the struggles against colonialism, Sam Nujoma and Otegbeye had been comrades of sorts. By the time the former assumed the presidency of his country, long memories prodded him to invite Otegbeye as a guest of the Namibian government.
In this particular chapter, Otegbete conveyed to the reader the down-to-earth profile of the Namibian leadership. This disposition was reflected in the familiarity with which Namibian leaders mixed with supposedly lesser beings. Moreover, they did their own shopping themselves as revealed by Otegbeye in the book.
Clearly, much of the immediate foregoing speaks to the suffocating contrasts in our own Nigeria leadership. Here, our leaders are steeped in various shades of grandiloquence.
Q: To Otegbeye, restoration was not about restitution in the form of naira and kobo. Rather, it was in the form of being recognized for his contributions in the struggle against imperialism and any other form of brutalization
Kayode Soremekun
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