CONTINUED FROM LAST WEEK
I am sure I can say, without fear of contradiction, that our Obas are noble and exalted kings in their own right. They are as responsible and respectable as any monarch that occupies a throne anywhere in the world. The derogation from their status which we witness today is due to the enslaved condition in which British rule places them.
On the other hand, however much our white detractors may malign us behind our back, our legislators in the House of Assembly have shown by their past performance that they are as judicious, discreet, and responsible as any body of legislators anywhere in the world. In any event, we are, both Obas and commoners, accredited representatives of our people. In passing the resolution which I have just mentioned we have reflected the wishes and yearnings of our people. Indeed, the latter have at various meetings publicly affirmed the stand taken by our houses of legislature.
It is astonishing, therefore, that in spite of all this public declaration, the lieutenant-governor could be so impudent impertinent as to propose to us names other than those of the resigned ministers.
The imputation is quite clear. The lieutenant-governor undoubtedly regards our resolutions as the senseless vituperations of a pack of imbeciles or irresponsibles.
Mr President, I have had intimate dealings with the governor of this country at a very high level. I have had similar dealing with the lieutenant-governor of this region. I have met and read about leading public men in the United Kingdom and I would like you to believe me, Mr President, when I say that I am still to be told of any virtue in administration and public affairs which any of these eminent people have that our Obas and the present generation of Nigerian politicians do not possess in equal or in some instances fuller measure.
The only difference, Mr President, between them and us is that they are free and we are politically enslaved. It is the difference in relative political status that induces every white Tom, Dick and Harry to feel that he is superior to those who are, on intrinsic personal merits, his betters.
Judged from any standpoint, the lieutenant-governor’s recommendations as well as the governor’s proposal of the Hon S.O. Awokoya’s name is not only an unparalleled affront to us and the entire people of this region, but it is also a challenge to our national dignity and individual self-respect. For this reason alone, Mr President, if for no other, this proposal should be vehemently opposed by all. It is only in this way that we can reassert our resolve and firmness and demonstrate to the cynical Britons in our midst that we meant what we said and that our word is our bond.
Ever since the lieutenant-governor informed me of his intention to summon this Joint Council to consider the names which are placed before us this morning. I have been trying to puzzle out in my mind what can be his motive for this flagrant effrontery. It was Edward Coke, a countryman of the lieutenant-governor’s, who said that ‘even the devil knows not what goes on in the mind of man’. I do not, therefore, claim to know what went on or still goes on in the mind of the lieutenant-governor. But I do claim that it is possible, by a careful assessment of the surrounding circumstances, to make a shrewd conjecture as to what the lieutenant-governor has in mind.
What are the circumstances? The two houses of legislature in this region have unanimously passed resolutions, as I previously indicated, that under no circumstances would they appoint as central ministers persons other than the resigned ministers. In private discussions on different occasions with the lieutenant-governor, the Oni of Ife, the Alake of Abeokuta and myself have reiterated the irrevocable resolve of our people to stand by their plighted word. Furthermore, the Oni of Ife is known to be one of the fathers of present-day Nigerian nationalism. He is a man of iron determination who never makes a vow or promise in vain. The Hon S.O. Awokoya, Hon. S.O. Ighodaro and Hon. Anthony Enahoro are indisputably staunch and loyal members of the Action Group. Above all, the unshakable solidarity of the Action Group as a party, and of the union which exists between them and their Obas is a bye-word, and well-repeated throughout the world.
Yet, Mr President, the lieutenant-governor and the governor, in the full awareness of all these circumstances, have the audacity respectively to recommend and propose the names of my honourable friends on this order paper. The perfidious and wicked intent and design behind this apparent compliance with the letters of the law are clear. The lieutenant-governor, in complicity with the governor, desires to put our much-vaunted solidarity and discipline to the test in the hope that if the test is severe enough, that solidarity may crack to the evil delight of the imperialists. Further, there is an unmistakable imputation that the Africans are by nature treacherous, corrupt and selfish; and that if the inducement is big enough, such as an offer of a central ministry, the chances are that they would prove traitors to the cause, and seek selfish gains at the expense of national aspirations.
It grieves me, Mr President, beyond measure, and it augurs ill for the future, particularly the future relationship between this region and its lieutenant-governor, that the lieutenant-governor could imagine for a moment that the Hon S.O. Awokoya who has maintained an exemplary and unassailable rectitude, grit and devotion in public life, is capable of such dishonourable conduct as I have just enumerated.
There is only one cause open us now. To show our unmitigated resentment by rejecting the governor’s proposal, not because of our disrespect for our beloved countrymen and colleagues, but in order to demonstrate our downright contempt to the governor and his faithful Lieutenant in our Region. Let it be borne in mind “Mr President, and I do wish you, Mr President, to convey this to the lieutenant-governor of the Western Region – let it be borne in mind by a.’ concerned, that contempt begets contempt, and that an abuse or misuse of power begets defiance and revolt.
I now come to the fourth and last ground. In his recent broadcast on the subject-matter of this meeting, the lieutenant-governor said, inter alia, as follows:
‘That responsibility is no easy one. For it affects not only the Western Region but the whole of Nigeria, and in making recommendations I deem it my clear duty to stick to that first essential which I have so constantly stressed in this talk – the need to form a team; to ensure so far as possible that each member of the team shall be a person who will be able to work for the good of Nigeria with each and all of his colleagues. That, in my view, must be the guiding principle and that is the principle by which I have been guided in making my recommendations.’
In other words, by disregarding the resolutions ‘of our Legislature, by rejecting my advice, and by recommending and proposing the names now before us, the Lieutenant-Governor and the Governor are in effect saying that Bode Thomas, Prest, and Akintola are temperamentally and otherwise incapable of working harmoniously in a team, and that they are not persons who will be able to work for the good of Nigeria with each and all of their colleagues.
The Lieutenant-Governor’s broadcast was not the first occasion when the character of these trusted countrymen of ours has been attacked and impugned. The Lieutenant-Governor himself has on previous occasions told me that the reasons why the gentlemen mentioned were not wanted back in the Council of Ministers were that they had on several occasions been rude to the Governor and that in any event the Ministers from the North and the East were not prepared to work any longer with them. The Northern and Eastern Ministers feel so strong and adamant about the matter that they have threatened, so I was told by the Lieutenant-Governor, that if the resigned Ministers were sent back they would resign. I must stay in this context that I was not told what the Governor would do if they were returned. But there is no doubt that he himself feels so bitter about what he considered to be rudeness to him that he would probably prefer to pack and go rather than have our revered friends back.
The position in which we now find ourselves in this Region, Mr. President, is the extremely humiliating one in which not only the Governor but also the traitorous elements dictate to us who and who shall not be our representatives in the Council of Ministers. The Governor has alleged rudeness to himself, but no concrete instances of this act were been given at any time. No one has yet told me why the Northern and Eastern Ministers do not want our resigned Ministers back. One is therefore left free to examine all the available evidence and to make his own deductions.
Ever since Sir John Macpherson started his whispering campaign against Bode Thomas and others, I have taken steps to find out the facts.
And what are the facts? From the inception of the Council of Ministers, our four resigned Ministers have constituted themselves into indivisible and unyielding champions and defenders of the rights and liberty of our people. Without them on that Council, the British enslavement of this country would have become more grinding and oppressive. Many a diabolical measure has had to be shelved, withdrawn, or deferred because of the strenuous, relentless, and intelligent opposition of our Ministers.
It must be generally known by now that Sir John Macpherson is a die-hard imperialist of the deepest dye. I have no doubt, Mr. President, that it is also notoriously known that the Ministers from the East are spiteful and treacherous, and that the Northern ones are unsophisticated and extremely pro-imperialist. Above all, Mr. President, it is widely acknowledged that the resigned Ministers are brave, independent, progressive, patriotic, and anti-imperialist to the core.
Now, Mr. President, because Chief Bode Thomas and Mr. S.L. Akintola have been the chief spokesmen of this formidable team from the West, the Governor and his Northern and Eastern allies have marked down the heroes of our freedom struggles for utter destruction. To achieve their end, they have invented this story of rudeness to the Governor. If that were all the offence, one would have thought that it was insufficient for the evangelist, who preached that others should forget past animosities and think the best of others, to resolve not to have anything more to do with them. Mr. President, I assure you, Sir, that, knowing the truth as we do, the more the Governor and his allies hate these four stalwarts of ours, the more will our affection for them grow. For it was due to their heroic and unbending efforts that the conspiracy to enslave this country in perpetuity has not been hatched by the Council of Ministers. As an earnest, therefore, of our unshaken confidence in the four resigned Ministers, and in pursuance of our resolutions to the same effect, it is our bounden duty here this morning to reject this proposal. More so, because there is the added imputation that, if appointed, this gentleman who is one of our foremost nationalists would lend himself to the diabolical machinations and conspiracy of the Council of Ministers.
Mr. President, today we are being forced against our wish to take part not in a drama, but in a burlesque – a burlesque which not only depicts the incapacity of Britons to rule this country any longer, but also brings vividly home to us the humiliation, insult, and degradation which we will continue to suffer as long as we remain under alien rule.
‘The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings.’ All human beings are born free and equal as to their rights and dignity. Our enslavement today is the outcome of our weakness in military might as well as in the effective application of our spiritual power. The former we have not. But the latter we have in the fullest measure, because we are images of God just as the whitemen are. I have no doubt that if we apply our spiritual power, we shall be free; and by God’s grace we will then put an end to this type of infamy.
CONTINUES NEXT WEEK
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