The Ikemba Nnewi and erstwhile leader of the ill-fated Republic of Biafra, Chief Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, described Chief Jeremiah Obafemi Awolowo as “the best president Nigeria never had”. That was after the transition of the Sage, Chief Awolowo (Awo) in 1987. Such assessment meant a lot, coming from someone highly intelligent as Ojukwu who had also followed the path of all men by his transition to the great beyond. In fact, most available records show that Ojukwu held Awo in very high esteem throughout. General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, the self-styled military president in Nigeria between 1985 and 1993, also made allusion to the immeasurable socio-political worth of Awo in Nigeria during a birthday message while the Sage was still living. According to Babangida who was then a military dictator in the country, every socio-political issue in Nigeria (in the last analysis), is about Awo, and that you are either on his side or you are against him. No wonder then that a former British leader once described Awo as someone who came to Nigeria’s socio-political and economic space before his time or before the nation could be ready for his social, political, and economic stature. The British leader was quoted as saying that if Awo had been born in the United Kingdom, he would have been one of the best Prime Ministers to be produced by Britain.
Also a foreigner, Walter Schwarz, from his own perspective, assessed the four frontline Nigerian political leaders who were Awo’s contemporaries, as they featured in the evolving polity before and immediately after independence in his book on Nigeria published in 1968. On Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe he said: “Nnamdi Azikwe, the local Ibo boy made good returning from America, laden with degrees; author; newspaper magnate; pan-Africanist, was a brilliant figure. Yet, for all his vision in the end, he lacked the political common sense to remain a national leader”. On Awo he said: Chief Awolowo, his early rival, was an equally articulate nationalist, and a forceful lawyer. He seemed born to be a leader but after independence, found himself in opposition and became impatient.” Schwarz however did not elaborate why and how a man born to lead eventually “found himself in opposition” among those less endowed like him. On Balewa, Schwarz said: “Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, federal Prime Minister, developed a truly Nigerian outlook, he was in many ways a wise and gentle ruler, but he lacked the forcefulness for holding a centrifugal federation together”.
On the Sadauna of Sokoto, the author said: “The Sadauna of Sokoto, the flamboyant conservative champion of the Northern rights, was on the contrary, too ruthless and never managed to become a Nigerian”. Concerning Awo, the law of atrophy appeared to have played a fast one on Nigeria. That law of atrophy says that anything that you have and failed to make use of, you lose it. Both the friends and those who made themselves irreconcilable enemies of the Sage in his life time started acknowledging his invaluable worth after his transition. But the law of atrophy concerning Nigeria on Awo had already been fulfilled. This write-up is more of a response to a piece which I came across on social media that reflected the age-long anti-Awo blackmail and propaganda in Nigeria, beginning from the pre-independence era. The propaganda, ostensibly by IPOB propagandists, was enveloped in arrant ignorance or wicked falsehood for selfish motive just like their forebears since the beginning of the contraption called Nigeria. Let me quote from the false propaganda in which they claimed inter-alia that: “Awolowo was released from Calabar prison by Biafran leader Odumegwu Ojukwu and there was an agreement while Ojukwu declares Biafra in the East July 1967, Awolowo would declare Oduduwa Republic in the West. The British…..convinced Gowon and the North to checkmate Awolowo by appointing him the vice chairman of the Federal Executive Council.” By this, according to the propangadists, “Awolowo quashed the Biafran dream while the Northern establishment killed the Oduduwa dream…..”
The ignorance or deliberate falsehood of those behind this propaganda is glaring to the blind and audible to the deaf. In the first instance, Ojukwu was not in a position to release Awo from prison at this time. The political situation was so cloudy and tense immediately after the counter-coup of July 29, 1966 carried out by young Northern mutineers in the army such that Lt.Col. Ojukwu, the Governor of the Eastern Group of Provinces himself was not sure of his safety.The whereabouts of the toppled military head of state, Major General J.T.U. Aguiyi Ironsi was still unknown to Ojukwu and most Nigerians at the time. So Ojukwu was running helter-skelter, hiding from one place to the other until the cloudy political situation became clearer. I will advise young Igbo and other Nigerians who desire the truth about the situation especially at that time to read the accounts of the secretary to the Biafran Government, Chief N.U Akpan, in his book: “The Struggle for Secession.” Not only this, it is too late for the propagandists to present any Igbo leader as the very kind and friend of Awo or the Yoruba at this time. After all, before this time, an Igbo man, Major General J.T.U Aguiyi Ironsi had been in the saddle in Nigeria for the past six months without heeding the pleas from many quarters to set Awo free. Ironsi, for whom a Yoruba man, Governor Adekunle Fajuyi, had to lay down his life, was the man in position to set Awo free which he refused to do and not Ojukwu who was even a very close ally of Ironsi then.
Lt Col. Yakubu Gowon (later a General in the army) who emerged as the choice of the Northern mutineers, to steer the ship of the polity, no doubt, as part of a wise political strategy at the time, promptly released Awo from the unwarranted incarceration planned and executed through political conspiracy of both Igbo and Hausa/Fulani political enemies of Awo in the pre- and post-independent Nigeria. It is quite unfortunate that throughout his political career, Awo was never spared any moment of not being blackmailed and the pull-him-down syndrome that characterized national politics at the time. His major offence was being conspicuously outstanding among his contemporaries. So, his travails were rooted in envy by many of his contemporaries throughout. Awo’s sagacity that really attracted the envy of his contemporaries and competitors started to manifest after the formation of his Action Group political party before the nation’s political independence in 1960. His outstanding performance as the first Premier of Western Nigeria that made the Region the cynosure of all eyes aggravated his travails in the hands of contemporaries some of who made themselves his eternal enemies.
For instance, the late Sir Ahmadu Bello, was quoted during a political campaign journey on a dusty road as saying: “I will never forgive Awo”. The bias, envy and enmity against Awo were passed down by some of his contemporaries to their coming generations. Many of the new generations had stuck to this as seen in the IPOB propaganda quoted earlier. Even before now, the late Chinua Achebe, demonstrated this envy and enmity in his vituperations against the Sage immediately after his transition. He found it difficult then to hide his hatred for him. The level of enmity and envy inadvertently incurred by Awo in his political career among his contemporaries and already passed down to the coming generations, was vividly demonstrated in 2009 in Abuja during the celebration of 50 years of television in Nigeria. Since the organizers of the anniversary found it difficult to re-write history, they embarked on some ludicrous actions to deny Awo the sole glory of that day. Without controversy, the first television in Nigeria and Africa, was solely brought by Awo and his government in defunct Western Region in 1959. It was then known as the Western Nigeria Television/Western Nigeria Broadcasting Service (WNTV/WNBS). Awo’s contemporaries; Azikiwe; Ahmadu Bello and Tafawa Balewa had no influence or contribution to the introduction of the first television in Nigeria.
Yet, the then Director General of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), a Northerner, who headed the organizers of the 50th anniversary programme, did not mention the name of Obafemi Awolowo in his long speech at the event as the man who brought the first television into Nigeria. Just a way to circumvent history and undermine Awo even many years after his transition!
The bias or enmity against Awo became more ludicrous and more glaring as the plaque meant as award for the brain behind the first television in Nigeria of which they were celebrating the 50th anniversary, was not just given to Awo, but was duplicated for his contemporaries who had no input or influence whatsoever in the introduction of the first television in Nigeria. Thus, the award for the first television in Nigeria was also given to Sir Ahmadu Bello; Dr. Nnamidi Azikiwe and Alhaji Tafawa Balewa.
To aggravate the ludicrousity of the efforts to undermine Awo at the occasion, the plaque presented to Awo had the name of Tafawa Balewa written on it. This writer was the one mandated then by Mama, Chief (Mrs) H.I.D Awolowo, to represent her at the event. So, on getting to my seat after collecting the award for Awo, I discovered that the name of Balewa was written on it. I had to take it back to them and collected the one on which Awo’s name was written. Because it was Awo, there was no difference between the award for the man who brought television to Nigeria and those being attached to the award as part of ethnic consideration by the organizers.
It is high time those who inherited deep animosity against Awo embarked on genuine research into the real Nigerian political history and the unbiased contributions of Awo and his contemporaries so as to purge themselves of inherited envy, bias and enmity against Awo.
Adesua is a former MD/Editor-in-Chief of the African Newspapers Plc
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