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Not Yet Afenifere’s
nunc dimitis
By TONY IYARE
For days, I’ve
been immersed in the lucid and memorable narration of The Life of
Mahatma Ghandi, a biography of the great Indian statesman revered
as bapu, father of the nation. Written by the American journalist,
Louis Fischer, the book encapsulates the life and times of Mohandas
Karamchand Ghandi, a fervent advocate of the non-violent road to
pressing for Indian rights in apartheid South Africa. As an ebullient
attorney, he had gone to South Africa, to pursue a case expected
to last not more than 12 months. The affront on Indian rights by
the white settlers particularly in Natal, Transvaal, Johannesburg
and other South African cities changed that. He got stuck and became
the rallying point for the galvanisation of the Indians against
unjust laws. For him it was better to die than subject his people
to the bestial laws. He suffered indignities, physical assault,
excruciating jail term, but was triumphant through a persevering
struggle.
The brutal murder
of this apostle of satyagraha (passive resistance) in the morning
of 1948 had shaken the Indian nation, then in its formative stage
to its roots. The lights had gone out from the young India state
on the verge of celebrating its first year of independence from
Britain. Some sudden dimness had cast specks on its glow. Jawaharlal
Nehru, the prime minister was short of words as he addressed his
countrymen on the brutal end of the Mahatma, the famed father of
India, cut down by the bullets of an upstart at a praying ground,
just ear shots from his famous abode in New Delhi, Birla House.
On his memory, Albert Einstein, the renowned scientist wrote the
most fitting epitaph: “Ghandi had demonstrated that a powerful human
following can be assembled not only through the cunning game of
the usual political manoeuvres and trickeries but through the cogent
example of a morally superior conduct of life. In our time of utter
moral decadence he was the only statesman to stand for a higher
human relationship in the political sphere” The debacle of Afenifere
and the Alliance for Democracy (AD) in the recently concluded elections
and what it portends for the future of the Yoruba has compelled
the reading and reading of Mahatma Ghandi. I have tried to search
for the Nigerian equivalent of Ghandi who also offered to put his
life on a moving train by fighting the entrenched caste system in
India, which encouraged the perpetual segregation of the Indian
society. All men are born equal, so nothing should separate them,
the famed Mahatma had reasoned.
Late elder
statesman, Chief Obafemi Awolowo did attempt a study of Ghandi.
He also attempted to pattern his life, philosophy and politics after
Ghandi. Just like the Mahatma was transformed by the epic writings
of the Russian legend, Leo Tolstoy and John Ruskin’s Unto This Last,
Awo must have followed the footsteps of the Mahatma and struggled
to rekindle a Nigerian Ghandi among his people in the West. Like
his great Indian idol, Awo was a vegetarian, became celibate as
far back as 1958, espoused welfarist ideology, became a leading
light for transforming the vision and development of the Yoruba,
a race much larger than many members of the United Nations. He also
wore the same trade-mark spectacle like Ghandi. Professor S. O.
Arifalo in his Egbe Omo Oduduwa: A Study in Ethnic and Cultural
Nationalism wrote about the dialectical transformation in the West,
from the premier political organisation, the Reformed Club to the
formation of the Afenifere some 52 years ago. Apart from the Arewa
movement in Northern Nigeria, muted by late Dr Russell Dikko, very
few political structures in Nigeria can boast of such life in a
very fluid construct. Although it took the veil of a socio-cultural
organisation to shield itself from the arsenals of successive military
dictatorship, the Afenifere has for 52 years played the role of
a political core, breathing life and providing expression to its
front organisations from time to time
. As a political
core, it was therefore inconceivable to try to separate it from
its front organisations. It is this leverage that saw it give expression
to the Action Group (AG), the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), the
People’s Solidarity Party faction of the defunct Social Democratic
Party (SDP), the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) and the
Alliance of Democracy (AD). The beauty of the political construct
was the ability to give expression to these political organisations
at different critical times. When it was necessary, it became NADECO,
a group which spearheaded the struggle against the dictatorship
of General Sani Abacha. Even though the election figures in Nigeria
are not too reliable to gauge, because of its flawed processes,
those who are making merry with the decision of the Yoruba to dump
the Afenifere front, AD and cast lot for the People’s Democratic
Party (PDP), may be dancing themselves lame too early. If the Afenifere
controlled AD became prostrate in forging ahead with the agenda
of an independently governed Yoruba region within the confines of
a federally constituted Nigeria, under what platform are the new
undertakers supposed to consummate this dream?
Don’t forget
that the struggle of the Yoruba had got to the stage where they
opted to crystallise their own militia- O’dua People’s Congress
(OPC). It has also got to a crucial stage where some are actually
pushing for a separate political identity in an O’dua Republic.
The committee working on the constitution, anthem, emblem, insignia
and map of this republic had long concluded their assignment. Could
it be that Afenifere’s waterloo could be the backlash from its vacillation
on what path to lead the Yoruba? The fact that its present leadership
is ageing and appear short on intellection unlike Awo, should have
long compelled a need for leadership renewal. At this stage where
everything appear in flux, the Yoruba need the rekindling of a Ghandi
to re-engineer their plunge to regional and national politics. Afenifere
in spite of its slump, remains the most politically superior organisation
among the Yoruba because of its history in collective interests.
I’m sceptical of the ability of the Yoruba Council of Elders (YCE)
playing that role because of its history as part of the process
to create a structure for President Olusegun Obasanjo in the West.
Like the Egbe Demo or the Imeri group which were founded as platforms
for former Premier, Chief Ladoke Akintola and General Oladipo Diya,
the Egbe Igbimo Yoruba (YCE) stand the risk of not surviving beyond
the realisation of an individualistic political enterprise.
For Afenifere
to push on with its leadership role, it must go through a fundamental
process of rebirth and regeneration through courting of young Yoruba
intellectuals, business and professional class. It must kick-start
a romance with the radical segment and give way to the emergence
of a Ghandi. If not, it may be imperilled by its intransigence to
a clean break
The abridged
version was first published by the Sunday Punch on May 18,2003..
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