“No man is worth his salt who is not ready at all times to risk his well being, to risk his body, to risk his life, in a great cause”. Theodore Roosevelt, 26th American President 1901-1909, Republican.
In remembering Chief Jeremiah Obafemi Awolowo, elderstatesman, sage, politician, administrator, lawyer, journalist and a one-time typist as well as secretary, I have to quote his statement for the guidance of our politicians and modern-day top civil/public servants “I must say, however, that in all conscience, I felt and still feel that a truly public-spirit person should accept public service not for what he can get for himself such as a profit and glamour of office, but for the opportunity which it offers him of serving his people for the best of his ability, by promoting their welfare and happiness”. In this connection therefore, we should avoid corruption, which is now endemic, epidemic and special cancer in our system. Furthermore, we should address the welfare of public servants. In other words, there is the need to be imbibed with Mandela’s stoicism and Caesar’s bravery in services to the people.
It is on record that Chief Awolowo’s last public outing was the installation of the Olu of Warri Ogiame Atuwase 11 twenty-five years ago. While addressing a press conference at the popular Palm Groove Motel in Warri after the Olu’s installation, he said and I quote “My next journey nobody will accompany me” few days later, the Chief kicked the bucket in his house while brushing his mouth.
Chief Awolowo’s forthrightness and uncompromising disposition in the pursuit of worthy objectives for the people of the defunct western region won him admiration and aroused the envy of many others. He left lasting structures behind especially his free education in the western region. Chief Awolowo’s critics say he could be intarnsigent and stubborn. However, his admirers earnestly reminded critics of his forthrightness and transparency in matters of public service. Chief Jeremiah Obafemi Awolowo had that indomitable spirit against oppression and injustice. His integrity, ability, agility, financial transparency and honesty of purpose could hardly be assailed. At a public forum, Awo made it crystal and abundantly clear that he was the first and only Nigerian with B. Comm degree as at the time he made the statement.
From records available, Chief Jeremiah Obafemi Awolowo, an administrator par excellence, a politician of high repute was too clean to lie; too principled to compromise unnecessarily, too intelligent to be manipulated, too proud to fail as a determined person; too certain not to bow to pressures; too sure of his goal in any assignment; too excellent as a national schemer. The Chief’s credentials and achievements in the various fields where he ventured were as profound as they were intimidating. He was a master of language. He had no respect for sloppy assignment and had a pathological hatred for creeping colloquialism in any job.
The Chief’s story is the classical tale of a man who had very humble beginning but deliberately refused to sit on the back-bench. He passed through life with amazing grace and contributed immensely to politics and journalism in Nigeria that his name will forever be enshrined in the two fields.
It is a truism to say that Chief Awolowo created what may be called ‘the permanent campaign’ of his political career. This was because Sir Fredrick Lord Lugard, the colonizer, whose duty it was to pacify and make the natives amenable to British exploitation. Awolowo believed in the empowerment of Nigerians to stand up against foreign tyrants and home-grown despots, especially those who believed in Lugard’s conservative, exploitative and decidedly reactionary legacy.
From March 1950, when he became the leader of the welfarist anti-colonial political party that is the Action Group (A.G.), secondly as leader of opposition to all successive governments, Awlowo provided the strategic vision for decolonization, eventual self-governance and the progressive ethic that, against all odds, has been the source of the key material developments that sustained Nigeria nationhood in the 20th century. I think and believe that was why the ex-Biafran warlord, Chief Chukwuemeka Odumegu Ojukwu, the Ikemba of Nnewi (of blessed memory) wrote on the condolence register on the death of Awo “The best President Nigeria never had”. General Ibrahim Babangida’s 1986 birthday tribute, “Awolowo for four decades had remained the issue in Nigerian politics”, former British Prime Minister, Harold Wilson stated that “Awolowo was one African leader who could have made a good job of being the Prime Minister of Britain or President of the United States of America (USA).
Interestingly, Chief Jeremiah Obafemi Awolowo preached the need for equality of nationalities, and autonomy of ethnic groups as a necessary corrective of the colonial ‘dual mandate’, which required an ethnic group to supervene over a region and for the largest region to exercise a veto power over the rest of the country. Based on this, he persistently and consistently demanded for each nationality within the country to be allowed to form a self-governance within the federation. He never pleaded for only Nigeria. He saw it as a universal imperative that all multi-ethnic and multi-national states must eventually observe. Chief Awo stood against those who resorted to describing his federalist project either as Pakistanist, because they saw it as a secessionist or a tribalist based on the autonomy for ethnic groups.
Whatever the case may be, Awo (as he was fondly called) needs to be distinguished from some African leaders like Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Sekou Toure of Guinea, Julius Nyerere of Tanzania and Leopold Sedar Senghor of Senegal with whom his pre-eminence of stature especially as thinker is often compared. However, these leaders, notwithstanding their qualities are remembered also for asserting themselves and legitimizing their dominance over their countries, not just through their personal qualities, but the power of incumbency, securing followership by dispensing the largesse of office, deploying the instruments of intimidation, corruption and a near-monopoly of the means of formal violence.
As a voracious writer, reader and author, Awo turned out several books like 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); Problems of Africa (1975) and his four collections of speeches; Voice of Reason; Voice of Courage; Voice of Wisdom and Path to Nigerian Greatness. His autobiographies Awo (1960); My March Through Prison (1981); Travails of Democracy and the Rule of Law (1987) are all making ways in history because many articulate and intelligent Nigerians turn to them when there are problems and get solutions. We may term the books and collections “The Bibles of Solutions”.
As a federal commissioner for finance and vice-chairman of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) during the Nigerian civil war under General Yakubu Jack Gowon, his financial management was transparently honest and open. This was because Nigeria never engaged in external borrowing. It was fantastic indeed! Even when Britain devalued her currency during the period of Nigeria’s civil war, Awo rejected outrightly devaluation. This quickly showed that he had in mind for the rise and shine of all Nigerians.
Finally, it must be said that Chief Jeremiah Obafemi Awolowo was adequately and strongly prepared to play the role of the messianic figure who gets crucified for even the good he did. As a child at Ikenne-Remo in the present Ogun State, it was extremely difficult to feed himself. This was because his father died when he (Awo) was 11 years old. Awo served many masters who at the end refused to sponsor his education. As a result, he went through many trades like a labourer, a teacher, a typist for a multinational company, secretary to his old college from where he dropped after one year due to lack of funds, a newspaper reporter, a money lender, transporter, trade unionist, contractor and eventually lawyer, businessman and politician. Awo remained himself throughout his life, he was always persistent, consistent, dedicated, hardworking and making his feelings known through the media at any point in time in order to move Nigeria forward in the right direction. Awo was a strong believer in knowledge, industry and its superiority to all other attributes as well as preoccupations. He was indeed a leader. His free education in the defunct western region later came up in the defunct Bendel State under his party, Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN). Those who would not have seen the four walls of primary schools, Teachers Training Colleges, secondary schools, colleges of education, polytechnics and universities saw them because of Awo’s policy which was implemented intoto then in Bendel State by Professor Ambrose Folorunsho Alli, a morbid anatomist (of blessed memory) the first and only executive governor of the defunct Bendel State. Today, majority of such persons are holding leadership positions in the academia, industry, etc.
Charles Ikedikwa Soeze, fhnr, fcida, fcai, cpae, son, emba, ksq
is a mass communications scholar from first degree to doctoral level cum professional public relations practitioner and Head, Academic and Physical Planning (A&PP) at the Petroleum Training Institute (PTI), Effurun, Delta State, Nigeria. (08036724193).
charlessoeze@yahoo.ca
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