Between Akintola and Enahoro

Between Akintola and Enahoro

There are several aspects of Nigerian politics that I find unacceptably distasteful and it is why I personally, have never shown any interest in participating actively in Nigerian politics. The major one among these is a predilection towards personalising issues and ignoring historical facts. The result of this is to postulate opinion and bias as historical fact. To quote from an article by one David Eromosele: "Some elements of the Nigerian National Democratic Party (NNDP) popularly referred to in political cycles (circles!!) in those days as 'Demo' that has been in limbo, since the exit of their leader SLA have since seized the initiative to swing to reckoning in the South-West politics via the unwarranted attack on Chief Anthony Enahoro to possibly curry favour of the Yoruba and take the shine off the Afenifere leadership..."

I do not quite understand the convoluted logic being expounded in the above quoted extract. My family is being accused by Eromosele of running down Chief Enahoro, (who has joined the PDP) and at the same time being a part of a plot to discredit Afenifere. Maybe I am just being dense!

Be that as it may, those who know me fairly well are aware that there are essentially three obsessions in my life: the justification and placing in the right historical context the life of my late father, Chief S.L. Akintola; the restoration to its former glory and level of excellence of my alma mater, St. Gregory's College, Ikoyi, Lagos; and the acceptance of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) as a world class professional accounting regulatory body. I definitely have no political ambitions nor will I accept to be a pawn of any group or body of individuals.

Now let us again look at the issue in contention. When I was studying "British Constitution" as one of the subjects I sat for at GCE Advance Level, I learnt that parliamentarians introduce motions for passage and end with the phrase: "Mr. Speaker, sir, I beg to move." The motion then goes through three readings, after the third reading, the question is put (the parliamentarians are asked to vote on the motion. If the vote is for the motion, the motion is described as having been moved and carried. Chief Enahoro's motion of 1953 only went into the first reading and was not moved and carried! This is a matter of historical fact and no amount of emotional diatribe and objection can change the fact.

It is not true that Chief Akintola had never laid claim to having successfully moved the motion for the Nigeria's independence. In an interview conducted by Mr. Sam Amuka-Pemu in 1964 and in response to the question "What would you consider as your greatest achievement?" Chief Akintola's response was "The successful passage of my motion for Nigeria's independence!"

To further buttress the above fact, I will quote from Prof. Sanya Onabamiro's book, Glimpses into Nigerian History. With reference to Sir Ahmadu Bello he wrote: "He was the bridge between the North and the South, between the old and the new, between the fast and the slow. Without such a bridge to swing the votes of the Northern members of the House of Representatives in support of the votes of the Southern members, there was little hope that the crucial motion on 'independence on April 2, 1960' moved by an Action Group member of the House of Representatives in July, 1958, would receive the unanimous endorsement of all the parties in the House as it did." (Page 140.)

Apart from errors as to the exact dates, Prof. Onabamiro was writing about the Akintola Motion of 1957. As to the Akintola family not having made any such claim until this present time, this is just not correct. In my book: Akintola The Man and the Legend, I stated that Ladoke Akintola was the one who successfully moved the motion that resulted in Nigeria's independence. This book was written in the mid-1980s. More to the point, the noted historian and distinguished diplomat, Prof. Jide Oshuntokun also stated this same fact in his book, S.L.A. Akintola again published in the 1980s. Furthermore, I made this same claim in various interviews and pieces published by most of the major newspapers in Nigeria Vanguard, ThisDay, Punch and The Guardian. These were carried over a period covering the last 10 to 15 years. On the 20th anniversary of the death of S.L. Akintola we took out a full page In Memorial, in The Guardian, quoting the full text of the motion for independence.

Journalists were brought up to believe the axioms "...the truth shall set you free "and" Facts are sacred." Why are so many people so bent on avoiding acceptance of proven fact. Enahoro introduced a motion in 1953 as a member of coalition government. It failed to be moved and carried fact! S.L. Akintola introduced a motion making the same request as the Enahoro motion of 1953, as the leader of opposition and his motion succeeded in being unanimously moved and carried fact! How is the education of Nigerians as to facts about our national history considered a slight against Chief Enahoro? The fact is that Chief Enahoro knows that Nigerians do not view him as a pioneer or revolutionary who introduced the first formal motion demanding self-government for Nigeria but as the individual whose motion led to the nation's independence. I will make the claim that seems to have been the cause of so much animosity by Chief Enahoro's supporters and this is that the Chief "has by his silence on the issue given the impression that his motion resulted in Nigeria's independence. He is guilty of accepting credit for the cardinal achievement of another."

Chief S.L. Akintola by virtue of his various and several motions that he succeeded in getting moved and carried was probably the most successful parliamentarian of his era. This is more significant when one notes that he was a member of a minority political party that was in opposition!

Such was his reputation that Chief Jonathan Odebiyi in welcoming Chief S.L. Akintola to the Western House of Assembly in 1960, described him as one who could be said to have been running the government of the federation from the Opposition Bench.

The Akintola family has no 'grouse' with Chief Enahoro who by all measures of assessment is a truly great Nigerian but is concerned with setting the record straight as regards all historical events of which Chief S.L. Akintola was a principal player. There are many more issues of this nature to come and they do not involve the respected and highly thought of elder statesman, son of Uromi, Chief Anthony Enahoro.

V.L. Akintola is a son of the late Chief S.L. Akintola.

October 2001