A review of Wale Adebanwi’s ‘Yoruba Elites and Ethnic Politics in Nigeria: Obafemi Awolowo and Corporate Agency’. Cambridge University Press; 295 pps; 2014
Reading through Dr. Wale Adebanwi’s ‘Yoruba Elites and Ethnic Politics in Nigeria: Obafemi Awolowo and Corporate Agency’, it is easy to see why the sage remains relevant and constant in Yoruba and Nigerian politics almost 30 years after he passed on.
Indeed, we have a lot to be grateful to the author for, as he highlights through painstaking research, Chief Awolowo’s enduring legacy on Yorubaland and Nigeria. “He was the most qualitatively outstanding and memorable legend of Nigerian politics and governance since the 1940s. He was the one whose role in politics and governance could still be a reliable guide for any first time President of Nigeria even though Nigeria lost the opportunity of having Awolowo as its national president,” the author quotes northern politician and former governor of Kaduna State, Balarabe Musa, as saying in this beautifully designed and printed work published by Cambridge University Press.
Though it appears scholarly with its title and packaging, ‘Yoruba Elites and Ethnic Politics in Nigeria’ is accessible. The author’s decision to start each of the seven chapters with an introduction and then summarise its content by way of conclusion, is also commendable as it helps in keeping abreast with the flow of the narrative. This style enhances the work in no small measure.
People interested in elites and ethnic nationalism, Awolowo and why he remains the idea, the ideal and the representation of all that is good and imperishable in Yoruba history; the Afenifere and its implosion after the deaths of Chiefs Abraham Adesanya and Bola Ige amongst others will find this book unputdownable. It is a quality work that shatters myths, clarifies, and illuminates hitherto unknown facts about events and personalities in the politics of Yorubaland. It also gives the background to some practices that have become entrenched among political parties in Nigeria. It is a treasure trove of information.
The 295 page book opens with an explanation of concepts including elites, agency and corporate agency of an elite before the author dwells on the history of the Yoruba, the emergence of Awo as a political leader in the 1940s; his role as premier of the Western Region and leader of opposition in the first two chapters. Other issues examined here include Awolowo’s imprisonment, return to influence during military rule, recognition as leader of the Yoruba and his demise.
How did Awolowo become the modern Oduduwa? How did he go about his project of unity and progress for the Yoruba? What led to the formation of the Egbe Omo Oduduwa and in turn the Action Group? Who were the foundation members? What were his dreams for Nigeria, why was he supportive of federalism and what were the challenges he confronted as he attempted to move from regional to national politics? Answers to all these questions and more are provided in the first two chapters of the work.
The author also helps correct the notion that Chief Awolowo introduced tribalism into Nigerian politics in these early chapters. That credit, in fact belongs to Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe who had formed the Ibo State Union (also called the Ibo Federal Union) in 1943, two clear years before Awolowo founded Egbe Omo Oduduwa in London.
Another take away from the first two chapters is Awolowo’s introduction of ‘party caucus’, discipline and secrecy to Nigerian politics. Interestingly, almost every extant political party in the country today have caucuses; a core that tenaciously protects the secrets of the group and takes crucial decisions. Those blaming the old Alliance for Democracy and defunct Action Congress of Nigeria that eventually morphed with others into the All Progressive Congress for the concentration of power in the hands of a few, penchant for choosing consensus candidates and secrecy in their activities shouldn’t blame them too much. They are simply following the lead of their leader, who it must however be pointed out, was not a dictator. He deferred to his subordinates when they did not approve of his candidate for political office as happened between the late Archdeacon Emmanuel Alayande and Chief Bola Ige when they both aspired for the governorship of the old Oyo State.
We should also be grateful to Adebanwi for proving, with facts, that the famous carpet-crossing saga of 1952 where Chief Awolowo allegedly ‘stole’ the premiership of the Western Region from Chief Azikiwe is a lie. Sadly, the late Professor Chinua Achebe and his biographer, the poet and academic, Ezenwa Ohaeto persisted in perpetuating this lie. This, and Chief Awolowo’s role in the Civil War perhaps explains Achebe’s hatred for Awolowo and his several uncharitable comments about the sage. Awolowo’s death, burial, the drama of the construction and destruction of his statue in front of the Oyo State Government House, Agodi, Ibadan and symbolic presence even in death, did not escape the author’s attention here.
Part two of ‘Yoruba Elites and Ethnic Politics in Nigeria: Obafemi Awolowo and Corporate Agency’ does not make for easy reading because of the high level of betrayal, deceit, wrangling and distrust among Awolowo’s followers in their bid to succeed him. Afenifere and its late and living leaders do not come out well in this part because of the actions of its members. These are well heeled, eminent elders of Yorubaland who allowed petty jealousy and unbridled ambition to weaken their ranks and leave them open to the onslaught of opponents.
Reading this part was a bit distressing because of the actions (and inactions) of some of these revered leaders. The succession war after Awolowo, especially the aspirations of the late Chief Ige to become Awolowo’s heir and presidential candidate of the Alliance for Democracy after return to civil rule, the truncation of his ambition by the old men of Afenifere who supported Chief Olu Falae against him, gives insights into the fractionalization of Afenifere and its now seeming irrelevance.
Similarly, Chief Ige’s role in the ‘destruction’ of Afenifere by surreptitiously backing the creation of the Yoruba Council of Elders; how he barely escaped being tarred with the same brush as the late Chief Ladoke Akintola, and former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s elaborate schemes to take over Yorubaland after Ige’s assassination are all highlighted. Obasanjo’s rabid desire to rubbish and upstage Chief Awolowo in Yoruba land – a quest in which he ultimately failed woefully is also analysed in this work.
I dare say that part two and its five chapters are the most interesting part of ‘Yoruba Elites and Ethnic Politics in Nigeria’. It is rich, insightful and highlights the role of players in the Awolowo movement as well as the qualities that qualifies one as a ‘proper’ Yoruba. The concepts of ‘Awoness’ ( a body of politico-cultural practices) and ‘Awoism’ ( a political philosophy) are also explicated by the author who concludes the work with an analysis of how former governor of Lagos State and All Progressives Congress chieftain, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is emerging as the latter day Awolowo.
Expectedly, Tinubu’s aspiration to become the new leader of the Yorubas is not without opposition, especially from the elders of Afenifere and younger elements of the group. He also highlights how Tinubu differs from Awolowo and Ige and his different perception of power. “Tinubu challenges existing assumptions and practices (within the Yoruba-Awo-progressive fold) which approach politics as a ‘morality play’. He constantly dramatizes his conception of politics as war by other means: not a tea party in which you expect the best conduct from all players,” Adebanwi writes of Tinubu.
But even at that, there can never be anyone like Chief Awolowo again in Yorubaland who not only continues to influence contemporary politics in the region but according to the author is, “the central signifier of modern Yoruba culture.” Little wonder then that Chief Ebenezer Babatope, another follower of Chief Awolowo but now a member of the ruling People’s Democratic Party concludes all his articles about the sage with “You live oh Jeremiah”
