Was the Awo/Akintola feud ‘senseless’?

By Ochereome Nnanna
HOW seriously do we take our history as a nation or even as members of its constituent parts? How important is our history to us? I know for one that America does not joke with her history.
If you are a guest of the United States of America or declare your intention to travel to the US within the purview of the State Department, two of the many literatures you will be given are (a) the history of the US and (b) the US Constitution and its system of governance.
When you get to America as a guest of the government you are likely to be taken around Washington DC and shown the various historical memorials and monuments that made America. And if you live in America and you want to obtain its Green Card one of the requirements is to test your savvy of basic American history and system of governance.
Engaging our history: The other day we were told that the Federal Government granted 43 foreigners the citizenship of Nigeria. I wondered what criteria were deployed to certify them. Was the knowledge of Nigeria’s history part of it? Fewer and fewer Nigerians can tell, with authoritative certitude, the outline of our nation’s history. Nigeria’s disregard for its history is evident in the fact that our leaders do not learn anything from our history or experiences. We are, therefore, forced to repeat our mistakes and keep on recycling even failed ideas.
The need to start engaging our history even on these pages arose from an interview I read in THE SUN of Sunday, March 18, 2012 entitled: “Fight between my dad and Awolowo was senseless”. It was credited to Chief Yomi Akintola, first son of the second Premier of the defunct Western Region, Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola, the late Oloye Aare Ona Kakanfo XIII of Yorubaland. In that interview, Yomi did not tell us why he thought the feud which helped define the political history of the Yoruba people and Nigeria at large was “senseless”. I am sufficiently interested in profiling its significance for the evolution of today’s Nigeria. You can then see for yourself if it was as “senseless” as Yomi would have us believe.
Cultural umbrella
It all started in 1945 in London when
young professionals of Yoruba origin, such as Oni Akerele (President), Obafemi Awolowo (Secretary), Saburi Biobaku, Ayo Rosiji, among others, got together and formed the Egbe Omo Oduwuwa. It was a cultural umbrella uniting all the Yoruba dialectal groups towards preparing their people for self-government. Earlier on, the Ibibio had formed their Ibibio State Union (the first of such) followed by the Igbo which had its Ibo State Union. The Egbe was inaugurated in Lagos in 1948 with practising politicians/professionals such as Chief Bode Thomas, Dr. H.O Davies, Dr. Kofo Abayomi, Sir Adeyemo Alakija, all of whom were already very active members of the Nigerian Youth Movement, NYM, featuring prominently.
The group was transformed into a political party (the Action Group) in 1949 with Awolowo as the Leader and Bode Thomas as Deputy. However, following a clash with the Alaafin of Oyo, Alhaji Adeniran Aderemi II in a power struggle over the Oyo Divisional Council, Bode Thomas died mysteriously in November 1953 at the age of 34. Before his death he represented the AG as the Minister of Transport at the Centre. Bode Thomas’ colleague, Samuel Akintola, who was also an AG Federal Minister, became Awolowo’s Deputy in the AG and was, in fact, appointed as the leader of the Party in the Federal Parliament after the 1952 elections. The AG won the majority seats in the Western House of Assembly (following the carpet crossing event). Awolowo was sworn-in as the first Premier of the Western Region.
Northern infiltration: There was a general turn of events in all three regions after the House of Representatives election in which the Northern People’s Congress, NPC, won 142 seats followed by the National Council for Nigeria and the Camerouns, NCNC, which got 94 seats. Awolowo’s AG secured 73 seats.
The NPC and NCNC went into an alliance and a power sharing government, whereby the NPC produced the Prime Minister. The leader of the NPC, Sir Ahmadu Bello, opted to stay back as Premier of the Northern Region while asking his Deputy, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, to go to Lagos and become the Prime Minister. Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, the Premier of the Eastern Region also went to Lagos to assume the post of ceremonial President while handing over the Premiership to Dr. Michael Iheonukara Okpara.
Just like what took place in the North, Chief Awolowo surprised many when he voluntarily gave up the post of Premier of the Western Region, handing it over to the Deputy Leader of the AG, Sir Akintola. He proceeded to Lagos as Leader of the Opposition. With his contemporaries active at the federal level, perhaps Awolowo did not want to be left in Ibadan. Some say it was probably a tactical error in that it paved the way for the infiltration of his domain by the NPC.
The Action Group was unabashed in projecting itself as a regional party. It was primarily formed to ensure that the NCNC or any other party controlled by politicians from outside the Western Region did not take it over. Awo believed that each ethnic group was a “nationality”; and because their cultural backgrounds, social outlooks and indigenous institutions differ, the only viable constitution for Nigeria was a federal system. He was thus the only one of the leaders of the three big ethnic political organisations to champion the creation of states for the Minorities.
Alliances with political groups
Awo did not, however, rule out the possibility of creating alliances with political groups from other parts of the country to form a broad national ruling coalition with, of course, the AG being in control of the Western flank. In fact, he made several efforts to form such alliances with the NCNC and the NPC. Ironically, it was while he was having talks with leaders of the NPC in 1955 that the first successful NPC/NCNC alliance was announced. It was from this moment that Awo foreclosed any such talks with the North and instead concentrated on consolidating his gains with the Minorities of the North and East in his drive to emerge as Nigeria’s leader.
The NPC/NCNC alliance after the 1959 elections ensured that both the North and East shared the federal cabinet almost equally. With the Yoruba leaders in the opposition and lacking in visibility at the federal level so soon after independence, opinions began to divide among the ranks of the AG as to the continued usefulness of shying away from alliances with the North. Akintola became convinced that the strategic political interests of the Yoruba would be more fulfilled in an alliance with the North.
Thus was born the two flanks of the Yoruba political persuasions. Northern leaders threw their doors open to Akintola. The two rival factions went head-on and after the mace was broken in the Western Region House of Assembly in 1962, Premier Tafawa Balewa imposed a state of emergence in the West, appointed Dr. Adekoyejo Moses Majekodunmi as the Sole Administrator of the Region, while Awo and many of his disciples were arrested and put on trial for treasonable felony. In 1963 a court cleared Akintola to resume his post as Premier. He proceeded to form the Nigerian National Democratic Party, NNDP and went into an open alliance with the NPC called the Nigerian National Alliance, NNA.
Meanwhile, the NCNC, with Dr. Okpara in charge, also forged the United Progressive Grand Alliance, UPGA, with Awo’s followers. When Akintola’s party “won” the 1965 Western Regional parliamentary election all hell broke loose in the Region. One of the consequences was the coup of the Five Majors, the killing of Northern leaders and Akintola, pogroms against the Igbos in the North and the declaration of secession by Col. Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu.
How Awo embraced Akintola’s idea: Ironically, as soon as the war started, the Nigerian leader, General Yakubu Gowon, offered Awolowo the Vice Chairman of his ruling council and Finance Minister. Thus, the same idea earlier propounded by Akintola (alliance between North and West) was consummated as other Nigerian nationalities joined in the war to stop the secession.
Enormous clout in the economy
It was through the war that the likes of General Olusegun Obasanjo (a diehard believer in the North/West alliance) emerged. Through the North/West alliances, the defunct Western Region has produced three presidents of Nigeria (Olusegun Obasanjo 1976 to 1979, 1999 – 2007) and Chief Ernest Shonekan (81 days). Yorubas regained enormous clout in the economy, federal bureaucracy and the armed forces as the formerly surging Igbos were marginalised. So, Akintola was right, or so it seemed.
However, Yoruba joined the North to rule Nigeria and share power but as a junior partner. Yoruba never really ruled Nigeria; was never allowed to do so. The Awoist ideologies that made the Western Region the richest and most rapidly developing among the Big Three was never brought to bear on Nigeria’s development. Instead Northern rule (even when Yoruba was in power) increasingly transferred poverty and underdevelopment to the whole country.
Everybody (except the North) now buys Awolowo’s view that only true federalism will bring development to Nigeria. In fact, Ojukwu fought and lost his bid to enforce it. The concept of “ethnic self-determination” is now a touchstone of activism. Awo died “the best president Nigeria never had”. His true federalism has remained the best system that can only make Nigeria work.
The fight between Awo and Akintola was not as “senseless” as it looked if viewed from the two clear models of politics it presented to the Yoruba people and Nigerians. But viewed from the fact that when Akintola was killed Awo went into an alliance with the North to reclaim his kingdom and re-launch Yoruba at the centre, then the quarrel was senseless!