Members of his immediate constituency, the politicians, have performed abysmally since his departure. The crop of aspiring leaders who queue up for political offices after him espouse leadership frameworks that are devoid of his kind of charismatic and humanistic essence. Awo’s philosophy had at its epicenter the Jeremy Bentham utilitarian philosophy of the maximum happiness for each member of society and the reduction of pain to the barest minimum. It was encapsulated in the expression, “Life more abundant.” He was unarguably Nigeria’s equivalent of Nostradamus who saw the tomorrow of Nigeria and Africa and who, creatively, tried to navigate his people from the deterioration that he saw from his creative binoculars.
Thirty years after, Awolowo and all he stood for have, consciously or unconsciously, but essentially tragically, slid into the realm of mythology. His philosophy of governance and development which he put into practice as Premier of the Western Region between 1952 and 1959, manifest administrative acumen as Vice Chairman of the Federal Executive Council, 1966 – 1972, superior organisational ability as founder of the Action Group and Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) and life of an exemplary statesman post-1983, till his departure in 1987, are daily becoming unachievable to the present crop of politicians. That essentially is the missing gap of the Awolowo phenomenon, 30 years after. This is not, however, to deny that there have been a few valiant efforts to follow in his footsteps.
The current stasis in Nigeria, the uninspiring leadership, the selfishness among politicians, the dearth of thinkers in politics and the glaring hopelessness in the land are indices that make the myth of Awolowo thick, 30 years after. Operationalising the Awolowo ideal as a very essential weapon of transforming Nigeria’s leadership and the Nigerian into a beacon that would lift the country into the ranks of world leaders has become a mirage ever since. For Awolowo as a person, apart from seeking immortality in the hearts of his people, which he got many times over, pleasure over pain for man and a value-added existence for every earthly sojourner mattered most. The above is grossly missing in the leadership that Nigeria has been unfortunate to encounter, post-Awolowo. Nigeria is confronted by leaders whose excitement in seeking power and office is the perpetuation of self, their progenies, as well as familial and group interests in office. The leadership thinks for today and damns the consequences.
The people are no longer at the epicenter of the thoughts of those who seek political power. Mediocrity is a prevailing principle of power while a cancerous thirst for acquisition of wealth is now the credo of governance. At the age of 38, in his 1947 book, Path to Nigerian Freedom, Awo had successfully put his thoughts together succinctly and cohesively on how Nigeria could be administered. He had made a tasking but productive assessment of the people he wanted to administer and had prepared what looked like a dictionary of how to go about administering his people. Unlike elites the world over whose major aim of seeking power is to continue watering the trough of the gulf that separates them from the people, Awo sought to bridge the gap between him and the people by propounding an education policy which would lift the children of the peasants and the poor to his own level. This was one “weird” leadership philosophy which his political opponents could not understand or fathom. Their own leadership mode of operation was to widen the gulf between them and those they sought to lead.
Awolowo’s frank assessment of who a Nigerian is, is that he must first and foremost identify himself as belonging to a nation among the plural Nigerian nations, before professing to be a Nigerian. This was what he meant by that evergreen pronouncement that there were no Nigerians as we had the English, Welsh or the French and that Nigeria was a mere geographical expression. The task then was, and still is, to be a good Igbo, Yoruba, Fulani, Kanuri or Tiv before you can aspire to be a good Nigerian. This cultural exemplar is encompassed in the principle of federalism which entails that the regions are fortified and strong, while the centre is like a superintendent over the collective affairs of all the regions. The unitarist government or pseudo-federalism that became the lot of Nigeria since the 1966 takeover of power by the putschists of that year has since stripped Nigeria of its flourish and essence and thus the collapse of every national thing bright and beautiful.
The enemies of the memories of Awolowo are those who today consistently and illogically resist the restructuring of Nigeria. Restructuring of the country is another name for federalism, which Awolowo lived and died for. To administer a plural nation like Nigeria with diverse cultures, history, geography and what the Germans call Volksgiest – national spirit – in a unitary way is a recipe for chaos. That is why calls for disintegration are on the upswing today. The lesson of Awolowo’s 30th posthumous anniversary is for the Nigerian nation to look backwards to move forward. It is almost inconceivable to see any variant of Nigeria’s current challenges, whether economic, political or social, on which Obafemi Awolowo had not proffered solutions. The task for Nigeria is to dust up all those suggestions and run with them if indeed it genuinely seeks remedies to its national malaise.