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SOGunronbi@dla.gov.za Pretoria, South Africa

REVISIONISTS, AMNESIA AND SLA AKINTOLA

randishing 17 years experience in journalism suggests that the ‘truth’ will not be muddled up with personal prejudice or defaced when attempts are made to state historical facts! In his piece “Samuel Ladoke Akintola and History”, Remi Oyeyemi continues the re-circulation of historical fallacies which is the hallmark of many unemployed graduates-turned-journalists in Nigeria. Ironically Remi stated “that there may be the need to try and heal some old wounds. But this should not be at the expense of historical facts” yet he reveled in it. I take a few in turn.

In stating that “(w)hat history told us was that his father detested the Igbo. Chief Ladoke Akintola repeatedly made jokes about them and never hid his disdain for them” Remi omitted the fact that the extra-ordinarily good humoured Akintola made the same of Ekiti, Ibadans, Hausas and others. It would be nice if Remi produces any shred of historical evidence to suggest that Akintola’s jokes were intended beyond good humour or achieved the so-called “detested Igbo” image sought to be re-invented. On the contrary, the person praised at the expense of SLA is notoriously known not only for his contempt for the Igbos but insults to them. The efforts of Awo after the civil war evidence this.

The oft-repeated assertions that Awolowo faced trumped of treason charges in the early 60’s is one Yoruba national disgrace that deserve a collective soul search to determine its impact on our national-ethnic psyche. No matter how much we wish that Awolowo didn’t go to jail, it is not equal to the facts and circumstances leading to the trial itself. Whilst not handy at the moment, the court case is well reported and Remi and other apologists may well start their inquiry from that. Justice Sowemimo’s (the presiding Judge) hands were indeed tied by the weight of compelling evidence led before him! The Coker Commission of Inquiry Report (at least still available at the then University of Ife Library in the mid/late 80s when we were there) tellingly rebuts the collective amnesia of the revisionists! For Remi to have claimed that “(o)ne of the reasons the Yoruba rejected his NNDP in 1964 was a perceived perfidious role (rightly or wrongly) of Chief Akintola in the persecution of Chief Awolowo in the cooked up treasonable felony trials” without adding to this fallacy betrays the agenda. Will Remi categorise the testimonies of those “eminent” Yorubas who were sent to Ghana for military training and who gave evidence against Awolowo as part of the persecution plot? Can Remi offer any historical material suggesting a rebuttal from Awolowo himself that the charges were trumped up?

The theme of the Yoruba revisionist seems always the “political character, philosophical principles and ideological commitment in the services of their people and country” personified in late Awolowo. Mine is not to deny achievements, but the expense at which such is made is a duty that should not be muddled in undeserved accolades. In alluding to the “difference between politics for personal aggrandizement and politics for the glory of country” I venture to ask whether denigrating the late Zik at the expense of Awolowo speaks not too loud of this historic amnesia? Zik took the less glorious titular presidency at a time when Awolowo personified the “I know all: me or no-body attitude.” This tendency is both the cause and consequence of Awolowo’s plan to topple the civilian government by the less than noble armed means! If all principled persons were to, on the basis of their avowed best intentions, seek unconventional means to achieve their best intentions then the consequences would make the Rwandese theatre of war a child’s play!

The renaming of University of Ife in honour of Awolowo can and should be justified on grounds of his other achievements than the “fact” that he was the founder. Can Remi, at the pain of a public apology from m e publish any historical fact attesting to his insinuations that “(t)hey also know who laid the first block for its foundation”.

The incontrovertible facts are that (1) Awolowo was the Leader of Government Business/Premier in the Werstern Region between 1954 and 1959; (2) SLA was the Premier from 1959 to 1966; and (3) the University of Ife was founded in 1962 – three years into Akintola’s tenure and at a time SLA and Awo’s relations were already strained (check the report 1962 AG conference in Jos). I state without fear of contradiction that neither Awolowo nor any person in his government ever made any intention either verbal or otherwise to establish the then University of Ife. Without conceding, even if such was Awo’s intention, he neither laid a block/brick nor did he introduce a Bill or any other measure to demonstrate such ascribed intention. My personal search reveals that the only time Awo alluded to an intention to create a university apart from University of Ibadan was at one of his campaigns for the 1959 federal elections when he stated that upon becoming the Prime Minister he would create in each of the then Regions a federal university. On this particular Awolowo’s campaign entourage was Akintunde Emiola, a journalist and former editor of The Tribune. (Emiola later read law, practiced at Ibadan, was a senior lecturer in law at the then University of Ife up to 1986 and later Dean and Professor, Faculty of Law at Bendel State University, Ekpoma. Remi should know that if there is any truth to such statement that Awo founded Great Ife (which was a Western Region’s establishment) the Tribune would have reported it, his contacts at the Tribune can assist in this.

Will Remi draw historical parallels between the “treatment” Akintola meted out to the Odemo of Ishara and what Awolowo did to Iku Baba Yeye, the Alaafin of Oyo, and also His Majesty Sir Olateru Olagbegi, the Olowo of Owo? Insinuations of “eating money” is perhaps better suited to the stupendous wealth of our late sage and of his coterie of that generation. Is it an open secret that the attempts to remote-control the government of the SLA from Ikenne after the loss of the plum Prime-Ministerial post was in parts due to the “institutionalised” distributorship rights tied to the office of the first lady? Otherwise, is there any other rationale behind the wealth of Dideolu Investments or any tangible testimony to its investment activities? The Maroko land-grab (or ownership?) lends credence to the socialist legacy of those held out as prime candidates for sainthood! Same cannot be said of Akintola! Modesty was it. Generalised assertions like “there is no doubt about the fact that Chief Ladoke Akintola during his heydays lacked the capability to "rally" the Yoruba people about whatever his "vision" was. He failed woefully to inspire trust and confidence” fly in the face of the fact that SLA, apart from being former Minister (Aviation, Labour & Productivity) and the Leader of Opposition in the Federal House, did more on the “Nigerian Project” than any politician of his time. He built bridges where other burnt them, emphasised unity in our diversity rather than the ethnic chauvinism of the AG-UPN-Afenifere progenies of Awolowo, and was enlightened and accommodating in the true hallmark of democratic politics rather the exclusionary-parochial-dictatorial tendencies of those who sought to undermine his tenure as Premier. “Trust and confidence” were what many Yorubas had in Akintola, in concert with Adisa Akinloye, Adegoke Adelabu and others, to upturn the NCNC victory in parts of the West in 1954 to save the AG from humiliation. It is not here to eulogies but to confront the evils of semi-truths and twisted facts!

It is not the Akintola brothers “trying to insult our intelligence or indirectly suggesting that we all have collective amnesia” the truth is that the likes of Remi who all along have access to the media should cover their heads in shame for putting forward a version of history denying the l egacies of SLA at the expense of a leader (Awolowo) who led the Yorubas to a timid and narrow of politics of exclusion for too long.

Sunday Ogunronbi is Director: Land Planning & Property Law, Department of Land Affairs, Pretoria, South Africa.