Renaissance of Awoism in S/West

IF there is any home-grown political philosophy in Nigeria that seems not just popular but immortally relevant in the politics of Nigeria’s South West, it is Awoism. This welfare-oriented legacy of the legendary Obafemi Awolowo indeed stands out not just as a priceless bride every Yoruba politician seeks to court but also as that Olympian height towards which the average Yoruba soul seems to race eternally. But, it appears that this is as far the good news has extended, since the 1987 demise of the iconic Founder of a political ideology that places premium on the masses in the choice, design and execution of government programmes and policies. An immortal ideology has been half-dead – dead in soul and spirit, living in bodyand appearance. Truth turned falsehood in a Region where acclaimed Awoists would rather wear Awo’s cap instead of Awo’s mind, turning an intrinsic beauty into a pedestrian treasure which ownership right had been a function of party membership, affiliation or even lip service, until posterity recently brought forth what, in my view, represents the rebirth of Awoism in its true shape and colour.

Without mincing words, the strangeness of the general dispositions, attitudes and actions of Engineer Oluwaseyi Abiodun Makinde towards governance, since his emergence as the executive governor of Oyo State has manifested in two simultaneous effects.  One, it has sent a surging stream of surprise and shock through the veins of not just residents of the Pacesetter State but also of Nigerians in general. What Nigerians currently perceive as amazing and enticing in Makinde were not his beautiful post-inauguration promises that the interest of the good people of Oyo State would always decide the policies and programmes of his government. Rather, it was the fact that a Nigerian political leader has been walking his talks – keeping faithfully to his promises in a context where the citizens had hitherto resigned to the fate of habitual lip service by their political leadership and elite in general. Or, how and why would Nigerians easily take a newly-inaugurated governor’s promise to donate and convert the entirety of his four-year salary into supplementary earnings for pensioners in his State? A governor who emerged outside the acclaimed party of progressives? In a country where acclaimed progressive political leaders, parties and administrations have ironically introduced the concept and practice of political office-holders’ pension into our national political lexicon?

Also easily explainable is the obviously pessimistic, siddon look attitude of Nigerians towards Makinde’s initial declaration of free education and war against corruption in Oyo State. For instance, the sad realities of education in the entire South West of Nigeria, since the demise of the Second Republic has unfortunately changed the perception of education as a social product into a purely commercial one, in the psychology of a people whose group identity used to be free and qualitative education championed and erected by Awo, the first Premier of the old Western Region. But rather than being distracted, as the typical Nigerian political leader would characteristically be, by the post-election litigation that sought to remove him prematurely from office, Makinde instantly hit the ground running, delivering all he had promised in phases, waking Nigerians up from the slumber of political pessimism and hopelessness.  Stirred from their protracted pessimism by the swift nomination and inauguration of commissioners within a twinkle of an eye, Nigerians, home and abroad, instantly sensed that governance in Oyo State would not be business as usual.

Little wonder, therefore, the good people of Oyo State and South West, as a whole, were understandably united in their fervent prayers against possible abortion of the pregnancy of hope that Makinde’s initial performances meant to them. If anything, the recent Kogi and Bayelsa war masqueraded in the fake garb of re-run elections tells the humanity why they must be fearful.  The second effect of Makinde’s strangeness is more far-reaching and fundamental in implication. It has reincarnated the long-dead hope of the Yoruba people in the possible rebirth of puritan Awoism.   Since the demise of the Second Republic, Awolowo’s political tradition that had made the then Western Region the pioneering hub of socioeconomic development and model of political sophistication in teething Nigeria has been forced to exist only on the lips of political elite and in the nostalgia of the masses. My drift is that in the contemporary South West of Nigeria, Awoism has been reduced to mere lyrical rhetoric spewing forth the mouths of politicians for the sole purpose of reaping from the deeply-rooted yearnings and aspirations of the masses for the return of politics of service of yore.

And as the cycle of broken promises became the norm of politics, our people involuntarily resigned to fate but, nevertheless, remained sophisticated in their political psychology. What played out in Oyo State before, during and after the 2019 general elections is, in this regard, highly significant. Bearing the fact that Ibadan, the capital of contemporary Oyo State, was the Headquarters of the defunct Western Region where the tradition of political excellence and sophistication was founded and bequeathed on the modern day South West, the choice of Makinde of the People Democratic Party over the anointed candidate of the class of political elite which trademark is the cap of Awo may be rightly interpreted as the revolution of a sophisticated electorate against prolonged deceit on the South West political landscape.

I’m not saying that the Oyo State masses voted massively for Makinde because they were sure he would meet their yearnings for the reincarnation of the good old days. No! Far from that! They only manifested their irrepressible sophistication of discretion which places higher premium on intrinsic development over and above pedestrian and cosmetic progress.  Specifically, the seeming widespread shift of governmental emphasis from human capital development to cosmetic infrastructure development has been one tragedy too many that the masses of Oyo State, being historical pacesetters in sophistication, could no longer stomach.

Hence, they decided to take a risk by giving a man that had consistently been dogged in the face of unyielding powerful odds a chance.

However, judging by the masses’ general perception and reactionstowards the ‘business unusual’ approach of Makinde to governance, it appears that the risk has, so far, been worthwhile.

Perhaps, Makinde’s magic wand has been sincerity of purpose which our people had hitherto felt would never again feature in the implementation of governmental policies and programmes however beautifully conceived and packaged.

The fact that education, at the primary and secondary level, is now totally free is, to the discerning, not the core signal of sincerity. It is the totally strange manner of its implementation. Or, isn’t it strange to find that no single copy of the free notebooks and exercise books distributed under the current administration in Oyo State is used to advertise the picture or name of the Governor or his party?

Similarly, no single penny of the tax payers’ money has been used to buy official vehicles for either elected or appointed public officers in Makinde’s government. Each of them, till date, operates using his own personal vehicles, in the spirit of governance as public service imbued in them by a leader who has refused to exempt himself from sacrifices even greater than this.

I suspect that the humongous volume of state resources that Makinde would probably have expended to provide comfort for the members of his Cabinet and other categories of public officials was what he has deployed to procure improved security for the people of Oyo State. In less than six months in office, a total of one hundred ultra- modern patrol carswere procured by this administration for the Oyo State Command of the Nigeria Police Force, thus boosting their response rate and presence in every nook and cranny which in itself is crime preventive.

It is against this background that the latest affirmation of the victory of Governor Makinde by the Supreme Court may be rightly described as the final consolidation of the rebirth of Awoism in its true spirit to henceforth reshape the colour and shape of governance in the entirety of Nigeria’s South West.

• Fagbemi is a public commentator