Case dismissed
By
ANY lawyer would tell you that that simple pronouncement has dual implications: one to the plaintiff and the other to the defendant; one to the accused and the other to the prosecution. That pronouncement will mean one lawyer losing a case and another winning it; an accused getting off the hook and the accuser being asked to lick his wounds. It is in this wise that I feel today to discharge the six governors of AD States. It has been difficult for me to hold the hurt within me reading some reports in the last few days.
In actual fact, an elderly acquaintance had asked last Wednesday what I thought about the shenanigans that went on in Ibadan and the purported resolution that the governors made concerning their purported concession to and support for President Olusegun Obasanjo in the impending 2003 Presidential election.
I found the report very preposterous. How can a mandate freely given in the name of a party be traded out by the franchised without recourse to the owners of the mandate? Who says we all want Obasanjo to return? Who says we, the people of the South-West, would not do it the way we did it the last time - support the party of choice - AD for all other elections?
Perhaps, I would not have been agitated if there had been no discussions of Afenifere merging with some other people in some other party; if there has been no news about Olu Falae moving to PLP; if there has been no news of expulsion of Lam Adesina from Afenifere. The situation cannot be said to give cause for happiness. And I wondered where it would leave the Afenifere. And I wondered what would be the reaction of the leadership of Afenifere not to talk of Pa Abraham Adesanya.
I thought something was wrong with the report of the governors’ seeming capitulation. If it were true it would be a signal for defeat; an admission of lack of performance; an indication that AD has disintegrated to the extent that its chief standard bearers want to jump boat. All of these do not make sense to me. If I do not know other terrains, at least I know Ogun State and I know Lagos. I know that the PDP or whatever party may make some ineffectual noises; I know the party on the ground is AD whatever its hues or its variants. The accomplishments of these two governments are sure testimonies to their achievements and credentials that can be flaunted. I do not know that the Akinrogun considers his virtually impregnable political position inferior to the phantom figures my brother Bode George claims; the same is true of Bola, despite the antagonists’ claim, is more grassroots man and would worst the best of them.
Why would strong men throw in the towel; why would a winner beg to win? The much I have gleaned from Lam, Niyi Adebayo and Chief Adefarati is convincing enough. They owe the aces in their domains. Except the write-ups on their achievements are phoney, something must be the matter for the strong to want to change place with the weak.
The situation, however, poses its own questions to AD and to Afenifere. The dichotomy has to be defined once more. The answer may be in settling petty personal scores; but it has to be much more than that. Afenifere will have to be strictly defined as a mainstream Yoruba socio-political (and it follows, cultural) body of the Awo socialist school that may be in any national or regional party that approximates its ideology. AD will have to be defined as a political party that has socialist/welfarist credentials and goals to which any group may belong.
The necessity for that will now be clearer more than ever before with the preference of Chief Falae for PLP and with Professor Bolaji Akinyemi recommending NF to the leadership of Afenifere. I know that Afenifere has not disowned one of its steadfast children.
I knew Papa in his characteristic firmness, would have declined to put the heavy weight of Afenifere carte blanche behind the sacrilege that the papers reported. For it would have put a price on Afenifere’s principles, it would have compromised its stand.
As I have stated on a number of occasions, parties ought to be formed in accordance with their mission and vision. Afenifere can transform into a political party of the Yoruba if it chooses. This is because its primary concern is the Yoruba and their well-being. It can be part of another in extending the laudable world view to others.
The Yoruba need not be ashamed of thinking first about themselves and others afterwards. Afterall, self-survival is the first law. Nobody can help another except he survives first.
I am happy to note the resolution of Afenifere not to fuse with another political organization. Yoruba cannot afford follow-follow as Fela would say. We must be equal joiners if it comes to it.
The Akinrogun has put my mind at rest that he and his counterparts have not, did not, and do not contemplate endorsing Obasanjo so that he could endorse them (the governors). So, the case that I was contemplating to be raised against them stand dismissed.
August, 2001