OBASANJO'S CONTEMPT FOR THE MIDWEST: A REMINDER OF ALAKE’S INSULT IN 1952

By

Prof. Omo Omoruyi

With humility one has to make some comparison between the event of January 7, 1952 and the recent event with respect to the attitude of President Obasanjo to the leaders and people of the old Midwest in the old Western Region. I had thought that the event of January 1952 was part of our past and should be left to the archive. But the recent utterances of President Obasanjo made me recall it that there is a continuity between what the Alake of Abeokuta said on January 7, 1952 and the recent utterances of President Obasanjo. There is no doubt that both came from the same benign neglect to certain facts of Nigerian history such as:

ALAKE OF ABEOKUTA’S DEFINITION OF THE WEST IN 1952.

On January 7, 1952 at the opening of the Western House of Assembly the Alake of Abeokuta said this:

On my right sits the Oni of Ife; On my left, the Leader of our Government, Obafemi Awolowo. The Voice of the West is complete. (Reference: Hansard of Western House of Assembly)

It should be noted that as of January 7, 1952, the Western Region was an administrative arrangement created by the British colonial administration to house the Yoruba and non-Yoruba of the Benin and Delta Provinces. It was therefore not a Yoruba State or Region. Therefore the Oni of ife, Chief Awolowo and the Alake of Abeokuta could not be the "Voice of the West", because there were other voices.

It should be recalled that in late 1951 there was the first election to the House of Assembly. It is also part of the political history of Nigeria for reasons that are outside this essay that the Benin and Delta Provinces did not support Chief Awolowo and his party. Consequently the members from Benin and Delta Provinces for reasons that are outside this essay became members of the opposition.

The fact that majority of the members from Benin Delta Provinces were no supporters of Chief Awolowo did not mean that they were not part of the West as to be excluded from the "Voice of the West". In clear disregard of the sensitivity of the feelings of others in the House, the Alake of Abeokuta made his unguided statement. Did he not know that the House of Assembly had members from the Yoruba part of the Region and from the non-Yoruba part of the Region? Of course, he knew, except that he did not think that they were authentic leaders to be part of the "Voice of the West". Did the Alake not know that Britain created that Region for Yoruba and non-Yoruba like?

ALAKE IGNORED THE PRESENCE OF OBA AKENZUA

Most importantly the House also had Traditional Rulers as there was no separate House of Chiefs then. So the House of Assembly had Traditional Rulers from the Yoruba and non-Yoruba parts of the Region. From the non-Yoruba parts of the Region the House of Assembly had the Oba of Benin and other distinguished leaders from the Benin and Delta Provinces.

For the Alake of Abeokuta to rise to speak after the Speech from the Throne delivered by the Lt. Governor, Sir Hugo Marshall in preference to the Oba of Akenzua was an insult enough. But for him to declare that the "Voice of West was complete" with the presence of the "Oni of Ife on his right" and "Chief Awolowo on his left" was arrant nonsense and a contempt for the Traditional leaders and people of the Benin and Delta Provinces. The reaction of the Oba of Benin to this insult from a fellow Traditional Ruler is part of the history of Benin that I would not like to go into here. The reaction of the political leaders from Benin and Delta Provinces lived with them since then. What should be noted was that the Alake utterance was the impetus that led the Traditional Rulers and political leaders of the Non-Yoruba part of the Western Region to seek a political home outside the Western Region for their people and leave the Alake to his West.

A scholar, Michael Vickers called the Alake’s speech an "unfortunate statement" of the "old Alake". One could ask some questions. Was it really an unfortunate statement? Was it not just the way the Yoruba looked at people of the old Benin and Delta Provinces? If one had reason to doubt the relationship, one had reason to seek answer to the attitude of the Yoruba leaders to the old Midwestern Region in the way Chief Olusegun Obasanjo views the Nigerian plural society as made up of many distinct ethnic nationalities and not of the tripod.

OBASANJO ONLY RECOGNIZES THREE GROUPS IN NIGERIA

During the Independence Anniversary celebration in 2000, President Obasanjo called on the leaders of the Arewa Consultative Forum, the Afenifere and the Ohaneze N’Igbo to dialogue and that between them, they should resolve the lingering political issues afflicting the land. Why these THREE bodies? Are these the only bodies in Nigeria representing other ethnic nationalities?

I was provoked to ask one simple question in the past. Where are the Lars, the Anenihs, Danjumas and now the Ogbehas the Enahoros and Ikimis and others in the same political party with the President? Did they not tell President Obasanjo that they do not belong to any of these three bodies? Did they tell the President that these three bodies only represent the interests of the Hausa/Fulani, the Yoruba and N’Igbo? Why did they not remind the President, the titular head of their party that there are other ethnic nationalities outside the Hausa/Fulani the Yoruba and NdiIgbo in the North, Southwest and the Southeast respectively?

The leaders of the non-members of the tripod through their act of omission failed to teach President Obasanjo the elementary lesson in the character of Nigerian plural society that the size of the ethnic nationalities does not confer a preeminent status to any group.

OBASANJO ONLY RECOGNIZES THREE REGIONS IN THE PAST

It was reported in the newspaper, This Day of June 26 2002 that the President was not against the Sovereign National Conference. This was not the issue even though this flip-flop was serious enough to warrant some commentary. What amazed me and made recall the "unfortunate statement of old Alake" of January 7, 1952 was the way President recalled what he knew about the Nigerian past.

Reacting to the plea of the Ohaneze Youth Council for fundamental restructuring of the country, President spoke as follows:

Governance, has become expensive to run due to the creation of many states and local government unlike before when there wereonly THREE Regions.

THREE Regions! How can! Where does he put the only democratically created Region, the Midwestern Region?

When did the three regions end in Nigerian history?

As far President Obasanjo is concerned, the fact of the existence of Midwestern Region living side by side as Region with the Western Region for three years in early 1960s is not part of the past of Nigeria. He is behaving like some Ndi Igbo leaders who are still questioning the rationale behind the creation of States in the old Eastern Region in 1967.

President Obasanjo ought to have appreciated that elementary part of Nigerian political history that MIDWESTERN REGION once existed like the Western Northern and Eastern Regions and that there were FOUR Regions in the past and certainly not THREE. For him to remember the Nigerian history before the creation of Midwestern Region in his statement referred to above is an attempt to rewrite the history of Nigeria.

But to President Obasanjo and some Yoruba leaders like himself, the creation of Midwest did not take place. It is part of the history of that part of Nigeria that the creation of that Region after the Plebiscite supported by the people of the Benin and Delta Provinces was never supported by the Yoruba leaders.

But despite the Yoruba opposition to it, the creation of the Region in 1963 through the democratic process and in accordance with the Constitution is part of Nigerian political history. Unlike the military created states since 1967, MIDWESTERN REGION was the oldest State before the State creation exercise of 1991 that split the old Bendel State into two, Edo and Delta States.

President Obasanjo ought to have known or should have been told by his handlers or speechwriters of the existence of that Region for three years before the first military coup in January 1966. Whether he likes it or not, he cannot change the history of Nigeria. The MIDWESTERN REGION should have been acknowledged as part of Nigerian history.

WHITHER PRESENT LEADERS OF MIDWEST

Unlike the Traditional Rulers led by the Omo N’Oba UkuAkpolokpolor, Oba Akenzua, Oba of Benin and the political leaders who frwned at the uttrances and attitude of the Yoruba leadrs in 1952, whither the present leders today? None of the present leaders of the old Midwest Region seems to be alert to the attempt of President Obasanjo to write off the old MIDWESTERN REGION. And more seriously, Obasanjo is doing this when the present leaders are planning to recreate the past glory of the MidWest. I am still studying the recent developments in the Edo/Delta meetings organized by Dr. Samuel Ogbemudia and others. A small matter like this ought to have been an opportunity for them to assert themselves by challenging the President to correct the statement credited to him that gave the impression that he did not acknowledge that Nigeria’s past included the MIDWESTERN REGION. It is not late for them to tell President Obasanjo that in spite of the Yoruba opposition, the Midwestern Region once existed as the Fourth Region in Nigeria. They should tell him that Midwestern Region existed before he got onto the political scene through the military in 1966.

Those who are clamoring for a recognition of the old Midwestern Region in the politics of Nigeria should be out for little things like President Obasanjo’s mischaracterization of our past.

So, President Obasanjo is repeating the insult on the Traditional Rulers, the political leaders and the people of Benin and Delta Provinces by the Alake of Abeokuta on January 7, 1952. That of President Obasanjo is worse. He failed to acknowledge what the people fought for and won through the democratic process and in accordance with the Constitution.

June 2002