OSUOLALE RICHARD AKINJIDE

OSUOLALE RICHARD AKINJIDE: THE EDUCATION OF A PUBLIC MAN

Osuolale Abimbola Richard Akinjide, Senior Advocate of Nigeria, [SAN], former member of the House of Representatives in the First Republic, Minister of Education in the so-called broad-based Tafawa Balewa government of 1964-66, and Attorney-General and Minister of Justice in the Shehu Shagari presidency in 1979, turned seventy years old in October 2001. In an interview he granted to ThisDay, he went the memory lane. As to be expected, Akinjide demonstrated a firm grasp of the fundamentals of the political history of what is today called the Nigerian federation, from the imperial intrigues that occasioned her birth to the present. Akinjide is a brilliant lawyer and student of history. Many who are familiar with Akinjide’s politics from the 1950s to 1983 when Shagari was overthrown by Muhammadu Buhari, would not recognize him today. In that political transformation, he is not alone but he is one of the most visible and public with his views. As a matter of fact, I was going to title this article ‘OsuOlale Richard Akinjide; What Manner of Politics?’, before I realized that Akinjide’s political position today represents either an education in realpolitik, political naiveté, political cynicism or misadventure, for anyone interested in public office [elective or appointive] and the future of our country. Why do I say this? I shall explain.

Osuolale Akinjide was in the first republic, a member of the National Council of Nigerian Citizens [NCNC] and later Nigerian National Democratic Party [NNDP] which was an ally of the Northern Peoples Congress [NPC]. The NNDP was the final political mutation [at first under the name of United Peoples Party,{UPP} ] of the faction of the Action Group, led by Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola, that was routed in the unforgettable Jos convention of the party in 1962. Akinjide left the NCNC for the NNDP. I tried to raise the question, ‘What was the animating principle, nay philosophy that informs Akinjide’s political engagement?’ Was it quest for federalism, rapid socio-economic development, welfarism, laisssez-faire economy…? Akinjide is a man of keen mind and sharp intellect, but try as much I did, I am unable to locate his motif for political engagement beyond the quest for personal aggrandizement. For a man who knows and has had priviledged access to the secret imperial papers that led to the founding of colonial Nigeria as well as the machinations of native colonialism, I find his choices tragic as well as confounding.

For the record, Akinjide was the General-Secretary of the NNDP whose brazen and flagrant electoral malpractices in 1965 suffused the western region in violence, and put life and limb in peril for the generality of the people. All this was done in an attempt to hold on to power by hook or crook. In the first republic, Akinjide held on to his seat as a member of the House of Representatives, however in 1979, trying his hands at state wide election to be governor of Oyo state, he obtained a scant 12% of the vote. Nonetheless, his party, the National Party of Nigeria [NPN] won the presidency on account of the famous 12 2/3 of 19 states case and Akinjide became the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Nigeria. Using some of the same dramatis personae of the first republic, Akinjide inclusive, the NPN then visited on Oyo state in 1983, the scenario of 1965 in a desperate attempt to carve a political space for themselves in the southwest.. The NPN was as brazen in 1983 as the NNDP was [as the government in power in western region] in 1965 because it controlled the Federal Electoral Commission [FEDECO]. .

In the town of Modakeke, in one of the most naked examples of the manipulation of the electoral process, FEDECO simply ignored a court injunction against the use of the fraudulent electoral register. The NPN was declared the victor in the gubernatorial election; but it was a pyrrhic victory. The prospect of an NPN president from the southwest under whose illusion Akinjide and his confederates labored did not materialize. What they got instead was Muhammadu Buhari. Akinjide’s politics led him into a cul de sac in January 1984 as it did in January 1966. Now, are you ready for this? What does Chief Akinjide see as the fundamental problem of the federation of Nigeria? After expending his entire political life in the service of the northern political establishment, Akinjide in the 21^st century Nigeria has come to the following conclusions, which he made in an interview in the Vanguard [October 1^st 2000];

1 "In 1966, the North seized military power. They have been using that military power to rule Nigeria until Obasanjo came….For the forty years of independence, the military was the political arm of the north.

2 The north has never pretended to be part of Nigeria. That is why you continue to see them meeting in Kaduna….And the meeting is held to decide how to dominate the country with military might….The reality is that that is no longer possible ….any part of the country that believes it can rule the country with military might …is only inviting chaos.

3 The solution is that those calling for a Sovereign National Conference are right in doing so. That is the only option, to go back and decide whether we want to live together or not.

4…If Shagari had not been overthrown, the zoning formula of the National Party of Nigeria then was meant to produce a southern presidency after Shagari. And you will find that once Shagari was overthrown, the northerners continued to rule because they did not want the zoning system of the NPN to work. In fact, I know of two prominent northerners whose names I would not want to mention who said in spite of that zoning formula, they would still stand for election and oppose any southerners who wanted to be president. There are certain northerners who do not want any southerner to become president of this country.

5 We all know that the population figures from the census are fake. There is no way it can be justified on any grounds. Throughout West Africa, from Mauritania to Cameroon, we all know that the population of the coast is more than that of the savannah. It is only in Nigeria that you have the population of the savannah being more than the coastal areas and that shows the determination to use census to determine political power and justify domination. For instance, they say Kano has 2,270 schools whereas Lagos with its about 12 million population is having 920 schools while you have a state like Jigawa having over 1,000 schools. It is just unbelievable. A state like Sokoto is said to have 10.158 classrooms. The reason for all this is quite simple. The more schools you have, the more pupils you claim to have, the more money you get from the central purse.

6 What we have now is a unitary system masquerading as a federal system. You even now see that judges of the High Court for the states are being approved from the center.

7 We substituted foreign colonialism for internal colonialism. This is what people resent and if people want a unified Nigeria, then everybody should entitled to be Chief of Army Staff or Head of State or Prime Minister. But you have a situation where you have 90% of the wealth from the South, especially from the Niger Delta, and certain people from the North want to have political power to sit on that wealth. That won’t be accepted by anybody. Anybody who wants to continue to the old system of holding other people down is asking for chaos.

8 You see, you have to understand Nigeria very well and understand the thinking of people from different zones…..When Obasanjo succeeded Murtala Mohammed, some people did not forgive themselves. That was why since the exit of Obasanjo, they ensured that even when they were in power, they ensured that nobody from any other tribe could get close to the number one position. Look at the recent regimes whereby a naval officer from the south is made number two, knowing fully well that when the chips are down, he would have no base for succession. When Buhari came in, he was a northerner, a Fulani, number two was Fulani from Ilorin, and number three from the north. Anybody who thinks that was that was by accident must be out of his mind. It was deliberate. When Obasanjo came in, it was not because they wanted him but because of what happened to Abiola…..the sentiments in the south, particularly in the west and they believed they could use Obasanjo as window-dressing. Put him in office, don’t put him in power, leave the army intact which is dominated by the north and after a term or two, take back their power. But it has not worked out like that and it will never work out like that again.

9 What the country needs now is restructuring. When we carry out a proper restructuring then true political parties that will represent the interests and yearnings of the people will emerge.’

Before you start asking yourself if this man went through an epiphany or what, you need to read the following. Do you want to know what the Chief said about his regrets when asked in the aforementioned ThisDay interview? Then, if you are standing down, I ask you to please sit down to take this. When asked if there is anything he regrets about his role in Nigerian politics? He said his regret is that it was not possible for him ‘to be in the same party as Chief Obafemi Awolowo’ No, I did not misquote him, that is what he said. ‘Not possible?’, you might ask. The interviewer probed further.,’ And why was that?’ Chief Akinjide did not provide an answer to this question, instead he threw it out to commentators and analysts.. I shall endeavor to answer that question.

Akinjide for a quarter of a century deployed his considerable talents to an end that is hard to discern; at critical junctures, in 1965, 1979, and 1983, he made choices that in his twilight years he has come to repudiate. Did he misread the facts available to him? Was it a matter of deploying the wrong method to achieve an end? If so, what was that end? Did he draw wrong conclusions? It is hard to answer these two questions in the affirmative because he was so eminently opportuned to know as he freely admits himself. He knew the figures bandied about as representing Nigerian population were fictitious. He knew the orientation of the northern leadership vis-à-vis the Nigerian federation even in colonial Nigeria. He knew the British design to foist a permanent northern leadership on Nigeria; he knew the northern political establishment was loath to countenance a Nigerian federation headed by anyone but their representative. He knew what the Nigerian army had become since 1966 and as a cabinet member, he knew what Muhammadu Buhari was about since 1981. He knew all this and yet his politics was directed to maintain the status quo. Was he just a power monger or is his an example of Ghandian injunction of politics without principle? Did he ever believe in democracy? If so, how can he justify his role in 1965 and 1983? His thesis about what Nigeria became from 1966 onwards is unassailable. In the second republic, was he just naïve or a dupe of the northern political establishment or was his, a case of illusion of inclusion? On what basis did he ever believe the NPN zoning policy was anything but an electoral gimmick? Was Shagari according to the understanding reached in 1978 not supposed to serve one term? Why did he, Akinloye et al go along after the understanding was broken at their pre-83 convention? Did he fail to see that what happened to Abiola at the convention was a mere precursor of how far the northern establishment would go to preserve their stranglehold on power?

Alhadji Tanko Yakassai, his old cabinet colleague in the Shagari’s presidency was so exasperated by Chief Akinjide’s present position, he told the Vanguard [Aug 16, 2001], ‘all along Akinjide has been regarded as a friend of the North, that is why he has served in the Tafawa Balewa and Shagari’s regimes. It is therefore baffling to most of us that he has completely changed….he is pursuing an ethnic agenda.’ A friend? Alhadji Yakassai might be forgiven if he thinks a friend and a dupe are one and the same thing.. Ethnic agenda? Whose agenda has the institution that goes by the name 'Nigerian army' been pursuing since 1966? The Alhadji may want to read Major-General Chris Ali’s recent book or General Akpode Ejoor’s. In 1979, if there was fidelity in the NPN, why not zone the presidency to the Southeast or Southsouth? Afterall, Ifeyianwuchukwu. A. Ekuweme’s credentials can only be characterized as intimidating and Dr. Clement Isong had been Governor of the Central Bank.. Once Buhari came in January 1984, it was fifteen years of baton-changing with the exception of the 82-day detour of the hapless Shonekan.

Chief Akinjide also made another statement in which he said the lot of the Yoruba would have been different if he had been in the same party as Chief Awolowo. He also said he apologized in advance for making this statement. I was tempted to dismiss this as misplaced hubris. On reflection, I thought not, but I cannot say I am able to explain it.

The chief has publicly stated that he would carry some things he knows or was privy to, to his grave. I sincerely hope he would reconsider that position, write his memoirs and state things as he saw and knew them. It would be a welcome addition to the growing body of books about how our society got to where we are today.

December 2001