Written by Akin Onigbinde
Nigerians love heroes, people who would volunteer themselves for collective salvation. Even where there are none, we are eager to create one, and a phantom one would do, even when we cannot readily see what makes them deserving of our adoration. At least we have a god to worship, as in the days of old. But it is not as if we have really lacked the tribe of people we can really bestow genuine honour on, beside the yearly circus show on parade in the nation’s capital, all in the name of conferment of national honours to ‘deserving Nigerians’. The fact of our history is, such men and women had walked the streets and lanes of Nigeria. Regrettably, the very elites, indeed, the generality of the people for whom such gallant men had sacrificed their quality social life, and that of members of their immediate families, would also have excuses not reasons, rationalisation, not justification to deny them their respective places in the nation’s hall of fame, beyond platitude and club-houses recount of their heroic deeds.
Till day, no one would come up with justifiable ground as to why Emmanuel Ifeajuna, the first Nigerian to place Nigeria in the hallowed hall of Olympic gold medalists is continuously denied a deserved corner in the hall of fame. Yet, this high jumper of uncommon style (jumping with one shoe) gave Nigerian its first gold medal in the Olympics. The unprecedented feat was accomplished in Vacouver, Canada in 1963. Because he was adjudged to be on the wrong side of Nigeria political card shuffling, for taking part in a failed coup of January 15, 1966, his achievement on the field of sports has been denied, so far.
The Egba elites in Abeokuta, among the Yoruba of the South West, are yet to tell the rest of us, equal stakeholders in the town established under the protective rock by the legendary Lisabi, why Mrs. Funmilayo (Anikulapo) Ransome-Kuti was never accorded the exalted rank of Iyalode of Egbaland. Yet, her legendary struggle for the emancipation of the woman folk of Abeokuta, which culminated in the fight against the unfair taxation of the fair gender class, had become part of our national history. And this is apart from her being recorded as the first Nigerian woman to own and drive a car on the Nigerian narrow roads. Perhaps, that was the price she had to pay for her confrontation with despotic royalty which forced a crown head out of a filthy throne. At least, for a while.
Gani Fawehinmi raved against military authorities in their different colouration, from Yakubu Gowon to a stone-age despot called Sani Abacha. He did all of these to restore some of our stolen humanity by men who would play the gods on feet of clay. Before him, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti was the one-man battalion against human degradation. For their respective efforts, at different seasons of our unenviable history, these iconoclasts suffered cumulative physical assaults on their bodies, and were not less traumatised emotionally, and this is if we are not in a position to itemise the loss in material assets in the course of their heroic deeds; on behalf of our common humanity. Yet, their immediate family members bore the distress associated with their many forced absence from home, away in detention camps across the country. There was nothing really wrong in their engagement with conscienceless power, on behalf of powerless conscience. What is wrong is in the way such people are treated and shunned when our genuine and collective support is needed for our common benefits. I shall explain, shortly.
In the second Republic Fela Anikulapo sought to extend the frontiers of his struggle by enlisting into the political ring to fight ‘water, light- e no dey’, ‘suffering and smiling’, ‘ninety nine standing’ in a crowded bus, ‘army go whip’ ‘police go slap’ Trust Nigerians, we loved his heroism, his one-man confrontation with power which got his legendary mother, Olufunmilayo Anikulapo (Ransome) Kuti, thrown down from atop the musician’s house during the army raid on his Mosalasi, Lagos property before the property itself was seized by the government of Olusegun Obasanjo. But when he beckoned to us to follow him into the ‘Movement of the People’ (MOP) Fela Anikulapo was given a wide berth. Perhaps, the Afrobeat music maestro could not be taken seriously because of his ‘unusual’ life style, especially his sartorial taste. Afterall, we may not favour our president in under pant with a foot-long wrapped marijuana hanging between his lips as he play host to foreign dignitaries, even if we were already used to his unconventional dress code.
But same treatment was accorded Gani Fawehinmi’s Nigeria Conscience Party (NCP) when we equally rejected him and his party when he needed our support to put an end to ‘human right abuse’ and ‘griding poverty’. Instead, we preferred to team up with the creations of our military oppressors as they gathered together under the leaking umbrella of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the very traducers of Chief Gani Fawehinmi in his many travails that was his ‘untimely’ departure from amongst us. Again, we denied our heroes of their dues (even as enlightened self-interest dictated we signed up with them) since a support for them would not translate into any gain of immediate value. That is, the Gani Fawehinmi of this world, could not ‘mobilise’ us to encourage us, in the Nigerian politician understanding to queue up behind him and his party.
It should also be remembered that Professor Wole Soyinka floated a political party in which he expected every subscriber to be co-owner through the donation of a minimum of N100.00 to enable the party sponsor candidates to various elective offices. The novel idea from the Nobel Laureate was a response to the monetised power game that was (is) prevalent in the existing political parties, a situation whereby candidates seeking nomination were (are) made to pay exorbitant fees before obtaining forms, thus fueling corruption-bid of elected officials in their desparate bid to recoup money expended on election processes. While I may not be able to proffer an opinion on what has become of Soyinka’s dream political party. I am sufficiently informed that I never heard of anyone discuss the matter in any serious manner, except to deride it as a falutin idea from the fertile imagination of the eminent playwright.
But no time has our hypocrisy and betrayal of our heroes most displayed than in the unnecessary reaction to the renaming of the University of Lagos after the illustrious memory of Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola, the winner, (not the presumed winner) of the 1993 presidential election, a.k.a., June 12. While it is possible to excuse the hysterical, bordering on violence, reaction of the students, consequent of the presidential nationwide broadcast where the change was announced on ‘Democracy Day’ of May 29. You see, the students may be excused for not appreciating the pedigree of the man on whose grave they were dancing. They were too young to understand why Chief Abiola decided to die with his honour intact, rather than live a shameless life of a betrayer if he had elected to trade off the mandate of Nigerians on June 12 for his life and business empire, now ruined.
Written by NEWSTRAWL ONLINE UPDATE
Sodiq Oyeleke is a Media, Human Resources, Project Management and Public Relations Practitioner
0 comments:
Post a Comment