AD/Afenifere: the Squandering of Heritage
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ADAfenifere The Squandering of Heritage Page 1 of 6 AD/Afenifere: The Squandering of Heritage By Dr. Wale Adebanjo Now that the Yoruba have overwhelmingly voted, as the election results indicate, for the People's Democratic Party, we must note that it will not be the first time a people will vote against what they do not 'like' and vote for what they do not 'need'. The electoral defeat of AD has come to be seen as a major rupture in Yoruba politics. It is not. Rather, it is the consolidation of a process that began much earlier but distinctively in 1998/1999 when the Afenifere leadership started behaving like autocratic inheritors of a democratic legacy. In an earlier essay, 'Obasanjo, Yoruba and the Future of Nigeria' (ThisDay, The Sunday Newspaper, February 16, 2003), I had referred to the soon-to-be ex-Governor Bisi Akande's statement that the soon-to-be two-term President Olusegun Obasanjo would always be an embarrassment to himself. I had added, crucially, that that was not the whole truth, and that it was an abdication of the predisposition to face the whole political truth, for, indeed, President Olusegun Obasanjo would always be an embarrassment to the Yoruba. Now, Akande, who made bold to reveal this partial truth, has been kicked out of Osun State Government House and Obasanjo, about whom the partial truth was revealed, has been overwhelmingly returned to Aso Rock Villa. Beyond that, Akande's party, the Alliance for Democracy, has been overwhelmingly rejected by the people for whom it was primarily created, and Obasanjo's party, the People's Democratic Party, a largely derelict association of mostly light-hearted buccaneers, has been overwhelmingly voted into the government houses in the West, except Lagos. It is a great irony of fate. In 1999, it was Obasanjo who couldn't win his ward, punished for his many years of working hard against his people. In four years, it was Abraham Adesanya, the leader of the people, who could not win his ward, punished for his lack of foresight and flexibility. However, more than at any other time in the four years of Obasanjo's presidency, the results of these elections have confirmed that Akande indeed never saw or told the whole truth. Now, more than ever before, is the chance to prove that Obasanjo is an unmitigated embarrassment - in the long term - to the Yoruba. And more than any other factor, it is the leadership of the Afenifere, which stubbornly, and against all wise counsel, tied its umbilical cord to that of the AD, that is responsible for the collapse of the party's goodwill in Yorubaland. How did we get here? Some historical backdrop will be crucial. When General Ibrahim Babangida said Chief Obafemi Awolowo, regarded in his lifetime as the leader of the Yoruba, was the issue in Nigerian politics, it was not just because he attracted so much love or hate, it was because he was an ideas man - http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/articles/adafenifere_the_squandering_of_h.htm 7/21/2008 ADAfenifere The Squandering of Heritage Page 2 of 6 so you had no choice but to strongly agree or strongly disagree with Awo, given the intensity and passion of his ideas. It was not because he could not chant incantations or pursue his internal political adversaries without relenting, like the present 'inheritors' of that mantle. It was about the transformatory power of his ideas and politics, in spite of the eagerness of his adversaries then and now to brand him a 'tribalist', even while they enact/ed their own unspeakable bigotry. He was also a very practical man; a man of praxis, if you like. There was no idea that Awo espoused that he did not back up with either practical examples of how it could be done or practical processes of how it should be accomplished. More than any other of his peers, Awo was the one who gave practical examples of the possibilities of the Nigerian Union - first, while he was the Premier in the West, and later, as the federal finance minister and beyond, as leader of a party - after espousing them in Path to Nigerian Freedom (1947), Thoughts on Nigerian Constitution (1966), The People's Republic (1968), The Strategy and Tactics of the People's Republic of Nigeria (1970), The Problems of Africa (1976), Path to Nigerian Greatness (1981), and the speeches collected in the Voice (1981) trilogy. His peers towered above him in some other qualities but could not march the penetrating power of the mixture of his vision and politics. Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, the singular most famous Nigerian at independence, was more resonant in his idea of continental and national transformation, possessing an oratorical and rhetorical flourish that Awo could not match. At the level of ideas in the air, which could move millions of people and set them in a particular direction of emancipatory politics, Zik was nonpareil. But he lacked the knack and talent for the practical administrative manoeuvres that translated such ideas in the air into concrete practical politics, particularly in a post- independence era. As for Ahmadu Bello, the late Premier of Northern Region, Awo could not also match him at the level of practical manoeuvres for political engineering. Bello only lacked a broad vision of emancipatory politics - that was the forte of a Zik - produced as he was from a very aristocratic background, even where, as Karl Meier points out in his important book, This House Has Fallen, his mother was of opposite pedigree. Bello lacked, largely, an elaborate vision of a modern, efficient, egalitarian and thoroughly democratic polity, buoyed as he was by a politics of tradition and of total advantage. It was the combination of practical vision and a quality of mind that accomplished purposes (where there was the opportunity to be in charge), and to set out how (where the opportunity to be in charge was lacking) through a deliberately designed programme, that marked Awo out and put him above his peers, so much so that in a hundred years hence, you can still engage with Awo's ideas, where you can only support or oppose Bello's politics and only admire Zik's contribution to Nigeria's freedom. Awo's exit left the political space in Yoruba land with a yawning hole to be filled by the second eleven made up principally of the erstwhile Unity Party of Nigeria governors. The battle was open, but then Adekunle Ajasin, who obviously was not running, was the natural choice to take over the mantle of, at least, the titular headship of the political clan. He had age and wisdom on his part. In fact, he was more a part of the first eleven than he was a part of the second eleven. He was only part of the latter by 'default'. So, the (politico-cultural) leadership shifted to Owo. Meanwhile, the jostle for political visibility and ascendancy continued among the authentic second eleven, as it was clear that Ajasin had neither age on his side nor the ambition to be president. Bisi Onabanjo, the thinker and organizer in the clan, was soon to be taken out of the orbit by death, caused in part by incarceration by the sadistic duo, Generals Buhari and Idiagbon. He was a major contender for Awo's vacant stool. Reputed to be one of the boldest among the Awo followers with a knack for saying his mind even in the august present of the Sage, Onabanjo would have been difficult to shove aside in the battle. Death also took Ambrose Folorunsho Alli - perhaps the least reputable among the UPN governors - out too, even though his own contest for the stool would have been vitiated by his location at the fringe of the Yoruba nation. That left Bola Ige and Lateef Jakande. Jakande was a consummate administrator who, more than any other of his peers, had taken on the image of Awo's demonstrable competence in public administration and attention to details. But in one or two moments of political http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/articles/adafenifere_the_squandering_of_h.htm 7/21/2008 ADAfenifere The Squandering of Heritage Page 3 of 6 indiscretion, the affable and beloved Baba Kekere, (literally, Junior Father, or metaphorically, Junior Awo), blew his widespread goodwill based on his reputation for efficient and effective administration in Lagos. He had something going for him, he was the most earthy among the UPN governors. He had a warmth and austerity around him that was endearing to the masses. He was unlike the aristocratic Ige or Onabanjo, the effervescent Alli or the paternal Ajasin. Where Ige exuded charisma and authority, Jakande matched it with his down-to-earth nature and disarming mien. For Ige's aristocratic and scholarly bearing, Jakande presented a thoroughness, native originality and sincere forbearance that were difficult to ignore. He was powerful enough then to 'experiment' what has now come into full relief. In the SDP gubernatorial race in Lagos in the Third Republic, Jakande's candidate, Femi Agbalajobi, who won the party primary had his election quashed by the Baba Gana Kingibe-led national executive. Then Kingibe's ward, Yomi Edu, was installed as the party's candidate. Jakande confirmed his supremacy in Lagos politics by ordering the people to vote for SDP candidates in the State House of Assembly elections and switch to the other side to vote for the NRC gubernatorial candidate, Michael Otedola, who of course won. It was an experiment in how to vote against a candidate by voting for another, which you really do not support.