THE NATION

Before I proceed, let me say that we must give the grand old man his due. He is surely a public spirited citizen who for over five decades has been actively engaged on the political terrain. It is only unfortunate that the generation of Yoruba political leaders after Chief Obafemi Awolowo, even though mouthing their fidelity to Awoism from the hilltops, have not emulated his example of publishing systematic and coherent accounts of their political thoughts and experiences as a befitting intellectual legacy to posterity. I hope that Chief Adebanjo will enjoy the good health and long life to publish a rigorous political biography for the knowledge and guidance of younger generations. Such an intellectual undertaking will surely enable him to ruminate more carefully on events, reflect more objectively on personalities, pass damning judgments on others less recklessly and exhibit less of selective amnesia in his perception and assessment of reality.

All too often, for instance, Chief Adebanjo jumps to the conclusion that money bags have hijacked the current democratic process unlike his younger and more active days in politics. He longs nostalgically for a return to the fabled ‘good old’ days when ideology and principles rather than money were all that mattered in politics. The sober reality is that there never was any such idyllic period when Nigerians inhabited the respected Chief’s political Garden of Eden. Democratic politics, particularly in an expansive plural society like Nigeria , entails political organization and persuasion on a large scale that necessarily involves huge financial expenditures. To paraphrase the famous maxim of the political sociologist, Robert Mitchell, "Who says political organization says financial oligarchy". If money is central to modern democratic political structures and processes, it will certainly be a major variable, though not the sole one, in determining political influence. And this has been the case right from the first Republic.

Chief Adebanjo recalls proudly, for instance, that he was one of the youth cadres sponsored by the Action Group (AG) for ideological (military?) training in Ghana . But that was an enterprise that cost a lot of money! The AG bore the cost of the trainees’ transportation and hotel accommodation in Ghana in addition to paying them generous allowances. A poorly funded political party could certainly not have afforded the cost. And let us not forget that in his quest to be the first Prime Minister of post-independence Nigeria on the platform of the AG, Awo embarked on one of the most sophisticated and expensive political campaigns for the 1959 general elections. Not only did he have a chartered helicopter handy to take him round the country, the AG could afford the technology that enabled Awo’s name and image to be emblazoned in the sky to the mystification of millions of Nigerians.

Indeed, as early as the first Republic, the AG had in 1959 paid in dollars to retain a US-based public relations firm, Batten Barton, Durstine and Osborne (BBDO) to handle its publicity and media relations. The role of money in politics is not therefore a recent development and it is not necessarily evil. What has changed is that the party system has been considerably weakened by the several years of military intervention. Where strong and financially viable parties used to bear the financial burden of candidates for office, it is now financially viable individuals who sustain parties and largely bear the cost of their electoral ambitions. But then, Chief Adebanjo cannot claim that he enjoyed the same clout within the AG as Chief Alfred Rewane, Alhaji S.O. Gbadamosi, Dr. Akinola Maja, or Chief S.O. Shonibare, the front line financial king pins of the party.

Again, Chief Adebanjo is utterly disdainful and dismissive of younger leadership elements within the broad Awoist progressive movement. He is contemptuous of the ‘AD Governors’ accusing them of betraying the Afenifere legacy and not living up to the required standard of performance. He asserts that neither Asiwaju Bola Tinubu nor Otunba Gbenga Daniel qualify to aspire to Yoruba leadership. Now, I cannot say much about Otunba Gbenga Daniel. He may well aspire to the leadership of the conservative wing of the Yoruba political class; the OBJ school of Yoruba politics with which he has pitched his tent in the PDP. I am however aware that neither Asiwaju Tinubu nor any of the ‘AD Governors’ have ever expressed any desire to become the leader of the Yoruba, whatever that means.  But it will be the height of conceit for any conclave of elders to assume that they have the exclusive right to anoint a leader for a group as dynamic, enlightened and self-assertive as the Yoruba. Indeed, as Chief Segun Osoba has logically argued, it is unrealistic to expect a consensual monolithic leader of the Yoruba in a democratic context where freedom of association obtains. Any group of Yoruba progressives, reactionaries, conservatives, anarchists, radicals etc are quite free to have their own leaders and refuse to accept alternative leaderships.

Even then, there are certain undeniable facts about progressive Yoruba leadership which it will be foolhardy for anyone to ignore. After Awolowo’s glorious reign as Premier of the West in the First Republic , for example, there have been about a dozen individuals with credible progressive credentials who have been privileged to wield executive authority in elective capacity in the region and thus contributed directly or indirectly to sustaining Awo’s legacy of welfarist and federalist democracy. These are Alhaji Lateef Jakande, Chief Bola Ige, Chief Olabisi Onabanjo, Chief Michael Ajasin and Professor Ambrose Alli in the Second Republic; Chief Olusegun Osoba in the aborted Third Republic (Babangida’s transition experiment); Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Chief Segun Osoba, Alhaji Lam Adeshina, Chief Bisi Akande, Chief Adebayo Adefarati and Otunba Niyi Adebayo in the first phase of the current political dispensation and now Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN) the current Governor of Lagos State. No one can meaningfully talk about contemporary Yoruba political leadership without reference to these individuals who have occupied formal elective positions of executive authority along of course with the scores of legislators and other appointed progressive office holders of the various dispensations.

Yet this is a group, especially the Governors, which Chief Adebanjo dismisses with derision. He does not recognize them as leaders in their own right. He sets up unattainable standards of excellence for them and tags them as performing below par. One suspects that Chief Adebanjo and others like him are really unable to come to terms with the inevitability of change and accept the emergence of a new generation of leaders. If they could, they would freeze time on its tracks, acquire immortality and assume the role of political leaders of the Yoruba for life. They would continue to capitalize on their claimed closeness to the immortal Awo to reign as unquestionable Monarchs of the Yoruba political kingdom. But time moves on remorselessly and the Chief Adebanjos of this world must confront unpleasant but unavoidable realities.

Of the leaders mentioned above, for instance, the unique place of Asiwaju Tinubu is beyond dispute. He played a frontline courageous role in the struggle to enthrone the democracy we enjoy today. He governed Nigeria ’s most important and populous state with resounding success for two full terms of eight years. He has strenuously advocated and fought for the enthronement of the true federalism that constitutes the cornerstone of Awoist political philosophy. He embarked on a massive infrastructural renewal in Lagos State that compares favorably with Awo’s land mark efforts in Western Nigeria . He successfully withstood the rampaging PDP blitzkrieg in 2003 remaining the only AD Governor standing to defend the turf of progressive politics in the South West. Despite the ‘do or die’ ranting of Aremu of Ota in the 2007 elections, he successfully ensured an overwhelming electoral victory for the AC candidate in Lagos State thereby guaranteeing the continuity and sustenance of the progressive legacy. Today, Lagos is the only state where Awo’s welfarist legacy continues to fly high and one which offers the progressives a place to stand in the ongoing battle to retrieve the South West from the invasion of the locusts. What more could qualify him as an effective Asiwaju of Yoruba land irrespective of the jaundiced opinions of the Papa Adebanjos of this world? Shouldn’t any genuine Awoist be proud of Tinubu’s achievements in this regard? I guess that nothing but envy is at work here.

Pa Adebanjo portrays the ‘AD Governors’ as ingrates who rode to power on the back of Afenifere only to turn around to stab their political benefactor on the back. To attribute the victory of the AD in the South West in 1999 solely to the support of Afenifere is clearly a simplistic reading and subtle distortion of history. True, the influence of Afenifere may have been dominant in the outcome of the governorship election in Ondo and Ekiti states where the late Chief Adefarati and Otunba Niyi Adebayo respectively emerged winners. However, the role of the candidates in the pro-democracy struggle as well as well as their respective political pedigrees were equally critical variables both in the choice of candidates and the outcome of the elections in Oshun, Oyo, Ogun and Lagos States. Chief Bisi Akande was a Second Republic Deputy Governor of Oyo State and a prominent member of NADECO. Alhaji Lam Adeshina was a Second Republic federal legislator, a fiery radical popular columnist and staunch supporter of the pro-democracy struggle. Chief Olusegun Osoba was a popular SDP Governor of Ogun State and a principled member of NADECO. Asiwaju Bola Tinubu was elected into the Senate of the federal Republic with the highest number of votes in the country and was one of the heroic figures of the pro-democracy struggle.

None of these men was a political non entity before 1999 that had to be weaned politically by Afenifere. Indeed, the true test of Afenifere’s electoral strength came in the 2003 election. The Afenifere college of political Cardinals blessed and campaigned for all AD Governorship candidates in the South West with the exception of Tinubu in Lagos . Afenifere’s blessing turned out to be a kiss of political death as Tinubu was the only AD Governor to survive the PDP onslaught. It is obvious that the likes of Pa Adebanjo are yet to overcome the shock of that awakening to political reality. His extreme views represent the dying gasps of a political tendency that has long outlived its usefulness. Out of its ashes will hopefully emerge a resurgent progressive platform in the South West that will help liberate Awoism from parochialism and enthrone its liberating philosophy at the centre of governance in Nigeria .