For the Future of Edos in Nigerian Body Politic Edo Should be the "Modern Fulani"
By
Professor Omo Omoruyi, mni
Being the Keynote Address delivered at the 2002 National Convention of the Edo National Association in the Americas at San Francisco, CA on Saturday September 1, 2002.
FELICITATION
AND ACKNOWLEDGMENT
I
wish to congratulate the leadership of the Edo National Association on the
successful convocation of this year’s Convention.
I also wish to thank the national leadership of the Edo National
Association for the invitation extended to me to be the Keynote Speaker at this
year’s National Convention. It
is an honor done me to bare my mind.
VISION
AT HEART OF OUR PROBLEM
I
read the submission of the last year’s Speaker, Professor Nosa Igiebor.
What I shall be speaking on this year is a kind of an anti-climax.
Or maybe, after digesting what Professor Igiebor had to say last year
about the Edo State Government, the leadership came to a new thinking. Maybe the issues identified by eminent Professor
Igiebor must have arisen from a lack of visionary leadership in the country in
general and in the Edo State in particular.
Maybe instead of the catalog of what went wrong with the Edo State
Government, we should focus on the issue of VISION.
I
am on record in many of my publications and discussions with some of you that we
are what we are because we do not have a Vision.
The Biblical injunction is still there that “A People Without Vision
Perish”. It is my prayer
and I am sure of all of you that the Edos as a people would not and should not
be allowed to perish. If we
do not want to perish, then we need to have a VISION.
Let us look at the assumptions in the topic of the talk.
ASSUMPTIONS
IN THE TOPIC
The
first assumption is that the Edos have no choice but to stay put in the body
politic called Nigeria that has no VISION.
Is this possible?
The
second assumption is how to make the best of the bad situation in Nigeria in
which we find ourselves.
I
share your faith in and your commitment to the Edo community and to one Nigeria.
I
also share your determination and your commitment to seek a “Future
for the Edos in the Nigerian Body Politic”, no matter how bad the country
is.
EDO
SHOULD AIM AT A JUST SOCIETY
Much
as the foregoing goals are lofty, I believe that there should be a third and an
equally important goal for the Edos in Nigeria, which is a just society.
I strongly urge the Edos to be in the forefront in pushing for the
fundamental restructuring of Nigeria.
A restructured Nigeria means a Nigeria that grows out of the discussion
or dialogue among the ethnic nationalities and not the unjust political order
that was forced on the multi-society since 1914 and perpetuated since 1960.
It is not working.
It failed since 1960 to address two questions: how
the various groups can live together in peace and
how the multi-ethnic society can be governed.
I
believe that one of the objectives of the Edo National Association should be on
how to assist the Edo political class push for and achieve the end of a
just society. In
a just society envisaged, the
various groups would relate to one another as functional
equals no matter how large the population might be and the government of
Nigeria will be truly federal and not the one forced on the country by the
military.
Four issues come to mind.
One,
should the goal for the fundamental restructuring fail, what should be the
position of Edos in Nigeria?
Two, should Nigeria remain ungovernable what should or would be the
position of the Edos in a disintegrating Nigeria?
Three, should the need for us to work with others for a position or
positions arise, who shall we work with?
Four, shall we work alone, if we find it impossible to work with others?
These
four questions resemble the issues that faced the Yoruba people in 1967.
It is like posing the question Chief Obafemi posed to the Federal
Military Government of Nigeria in 1967.
To paraphrase what the sage said, if by an act of omission or commission,
the Igbos were allowed to leave the Federation, the Yorubas would leave.
This was when the Yoruba started to develop their Vision in Nigeria.
How
the Yoruba evolved a Vision should be an object lesson for the Edos.
I was a witness to how the Yoruba under the auspices of the Odu’a
organization worldwide worked after 1993.
The Yoruba of all political persuasions had virtually perfected a plan to
be on their own or secede from Nigeria when it became ungovernable after the
protracted crisis over the June 12.
Today,
it is an open secret that there is a Yoruba Agenda evolved since then in print
and known to all Yoruba political leaders in all political parties.
The northern leaders had theirs since the 60s and know the Yoruba leaders
have theirs.
Unfortunately the Northern leaders and the Yoruba leaders know that only
the Ndi Igbo and the south-south are still the areas of Nigeria that cannot
boast of a clear Vision or an Agenda for themselves and for Nigeria.
Did this lack of Vision not become evident after the death General
Abacha? Is
it not still evident today?
Still
talking of the Yoruba, for example as soon as General Abacha died, both sides of
the northern clique (military and civilian) were in agreement on certain facts
under the auspices of the military wing of the northern clique.
The military wing of the northern clique did not dispute the fact that a
northerner should not be an elected President in view of the annulment of the
June 12 won by a Yoruba person.
This was why the northern military officers prevailed on the civilian
wing of the northern clique to allow for a tactical retreat from the general
overall strategic plan (VISION) of the north in Nigeria.
This was the explanation for the tactical decision under which the north
agreed that a Yoruba person, NOT a southerner for that matter, should be made
the President in order to have “peace” in Nigeria.
This was why the north agreed that that the projected Yoruba President
should be one from his past dealing with the north be able to operate within the
“northern strategic plan” (VISION) and accommodate the “ramparts”
(elements of the VISION) the northern leaders have been guarding and guiding
since 1960.
This was why they quickly settled on the person of Chief Olusegun
Obasanjo who served them well within the northern VISION in the past.
It is now an open secret that it was General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida
that packaged the deal.
This tactical deal did not include what would happen to the Igbo and
the southern minority and it did NOT include such issues as zoning, rotation and
power shift after one term.
On
the issue of Vision and how the Edos could learn from the Yorubas, it should be
noted that the debate within the Yoruba leadership since 1998 is not about the
Yoruba Agenda.
The debate within the Yoruba political class is about the implementation
of the Yoruba Agenda.
Quite unknown to the Ndi Igbo and the south-south, the debate in 1998 in
Yoruba land after the death of Chief Abiola was not whether a Yoruba person
should assume the political leadership of Nigeria but on which kind of Yoruba
person. Because
of this agreement on Vision or Agenda in Yoruba land, there seems to be an
agreement on Vision bothering on convergence in Yoruba land that was hinted by
the late Chief Bola Ige in 2000.
I am referring to what he told the Nigerian people that President
Obasanjo was implementing the Afenifere or AD program or manifesto.
Did the President forcefully deny this?
He did not.
Have
the Edos as a people given thought to a Vision or an Agenda within which
political leaders can debate?
Just as the Yoruba resolved their political quibbles within their Vision,
would the Edos have a Vision within which politicians would quibble and contest
elections in Nigeria?
GOVERNMENTAL
PARALYSIS: SKEPTICISM/PESSIMISM/OPTIMISM:2003.
The
Edo National Association should not assume that the lingering political problems
afflicting the country would be resolved under the prevailing visionless body
politic.
The prevailing Nigerian political leadership at Abuja worries more on
what Washington would say than on what you Nigerians at home and abroad would
say about Nigeria.
In
the country today, there is a paralysis
at all levels of government (federal, state and local governments).
This paralysis is in the legislative, executive and judiciary.
It is in this context that you want me to discuss the Future
of Edos in the Nigerian Body Politic.
It is in this context that we are approaching the four-figure word, 2003
that may turn out to be instead of a four-letter word, love, but hate.
The
2003 election has many unknowns.
It is being planned and to be executed by Nigerians who have no faith in
one-person one-vote and when many issues germane to the election are still
unresolved.
The
country has revenue allocation crisis arising from the political justice over
the “off shore and on shore”.
Instead of the revenue allocation debate by the Nigerian people, it is
now part of the 2003 political gifts that the President as also a candidate
freely uses to win more friends.
Of course, the way the issue of oil is being handled in the country since
1999 can only happen to the minority enclave in the country.
The
various ethnic groups are making mutually frustrating demands on the country.
It is frightening that their demands are manifesting themselves today
within the politics of 2003.
Who knows how the lingering political problems afflicting the country
over the 2003 would end?
My
views on 2003 are in print since 2001; I cried aloud in 2001 that what we had in
the “Self-Succession Project” of OBJ is another annulment because it would
deny the Nigerian people their right to political participation or their
democratic rights.
This is the subject of my monograph, The
Electoral Act of 2001 is for Self-Succession without Contest. The monograph
contains four essays written and published in Nigerian newspapers with the sole
purpose of alerting Nigerians that the “Self-Succession Project” through the
Electoral Act would lead to a one-party/one-man rule in Nigeria.
My question is where are the pro-democracy forces in Nigeria?
Recently
the “Self-Succession Project” formed the basis of the three-part essay
titled, Neither a Candidate nor an Office
Holder Be! It was the topic of a special lecture I delivered at Vienna under
the auspices of the National
Association of Nigerian
Community of Austria (NANCA) on August 15, 2002 titled, “2003
Election could be Free and Fair and may not be Credible: Advice to the Political
Class”. They
are still available for you to read.
It
was while I was in Austria that the series of development involving the House of
Representatives and the President on the one hand and the military on the other
became top news overshadowing the 2003.
Where is Nigeria heading?
Whither Edo?
The
Edo State must have what I call a “Contingency
Plan” in case the country remains ungovernable.
To react to the quest for a Future
of Edos in Nigerian Body Politic, Edo political class should be in the
forefront in pro-democracy forces as former leaders did in 1966 in leading the
pro-federation forces.
The history of Nigeria shows that Chief Anthony Enahoro, our revered
leader, was in the forefront in both ventures in the past.
He should reclaim his original pro-democracy and pro-federation
credentials because that is what Edo stands for.
What
the Edo National Association should do is set up a Contingency Plan for the Edos that will be addressing the
foregoing situation.
I
am aware that the topic of the lecture assumes that the 2003 election would
deliver a credible outcome.
Your topic assumes some optimism.
Why are you so optimistic?
I am not pessimistic; I am just skeptical.
I thought I should throw this in for us to think about in case the
unexpected happens from the pre-Election Day activities.
WHY
ME
Of
course, one would want to know in what capacity I should be speaking to you?
I can claim to have been involved in many political decisions in Nigeria
in the past.
I have dealt at the highest levels with political/military leaders
throughout the country for a period spanning well over forty years since 1959
when I first voted.
You will have opportunity to read the account of my political life in a
book soon.
I shall not take a “fifth” if you quiz me on my past.
I
am not a politician; I am not a Chief; I do not hold a public office in Edo land
or at the Federal level.
What qualifies me to address you? I
do not expect you to answer this question.
I am already here, as your guest and you are duty bound to hear me.
I
am just a pensioner and a retired Professor by the grace of the distinguished
Senator RS Owie.
I
am an Edo-Nigerian resident in the US out of circumstances beyond my control.
I did not come to the US in search of the proverbial “Golden Fleece”;
I came to the US and remain in the US since 1995 in search of personal and NOT
economic security.
I
must use this medium to pay tribute to the Bini Community of Massachusetts.
At a time when both sides of the Nigerian debate, the pro-June 12 and the
Abacha zealots would have nothing to do with me, they received me.
They have been generous in their love for my family and me since I came
to the US.
They surprised me one day with a gift of a Laptop, which I now use to
write anywhere.
For
the record, let me mention few of the members: the Osazuwas, the Ighiles,
Attorney Osagiede, the Ekhators, the Aiwerioghenes, Ms. Pat Abbe, Ms. Florence
Ohenhen, the Omorodions, the Osemwenkhaes, the Omoregies, the Otokitis, Prince
Ayo Eweka-Oluboje, Ms. Violet Isibor, Mr. Skelly Enabulele, Prince Ekpen Akenzua,
Mr. Monday Adenomo, Ms. Josephine Erewa, Ms. Esther Egesionu, Dr. Victor
Manfredi alias “Odionwere”.
I cannot forget others outside Boston area that from time to time call me
to check on how I am faring.
In this category are Dr. Oboma Asemota, Dr. Kienuwa Obaseki and Mr.
Bazuaye.
It
is with great pleasure that I am appearing before you for the first time.
I hope I will not bore you down with unnecessary issues or personal
stories as I bare my mind on the subject of the lecture.
Since I may not have the opportunity of this kind in my lifetime, I want
to use it to the fullest.
There
are few preliminary issues that I shall try to raise as a way of launching into
the topic.
FROM
MY PAST, THERE ARE LESSONS FOR US
I
have said and done many things in the past.
Let me dwell on my immediate past that is well known to all.
I am referring to the June 12.
This
is my immediate past that some remember most and would want to raise with me.
It is part of my record that I did not only manage the transition
program, I can state categorically that I delivered
a democratic election in 1993.
As the Surgeon would say, “the
operation was successful but
the patient died”.
Why did the patient die?
This was a subject of a book, The
Tale of June 12; I would not like to dwell on the subject.
What
I’d like to say is not on the conduct of June 12 Presidential election but on
why I stuck to the June 12, like the gramophone needle stuck on the groove.
I believe there are lessons
for us as Edo people.
1.
An Edo person should work for
and defend the right of the people to elect a government that governs them.
This was what I worked for in the past that the votes of the states no
matter how small are critical to the election of the President.
To me, the vote is the voice of the people and should be subject to the
saying that the Voice of the people is the voice of God.
Since the people of Edo State were in the forefront in the election of
Chief Abiola, its leaders should have stood behind that election.
I
was the only person in the Presidency in particular and in the government in
general who dared to pronounce on the June 12 while still in government.
I told the world on June 16, 1993 “The Presidential Election was Free
Fair and Credible”.
Mark you, this was before the annulment.
This pronouncement was published by the African
Concord of June 28, 1993.
I
was the only one who dared to pronounce that the June 12 was “the best in the
nation’s history” after the military had annulled it.
You will find this in the Newswatch
of July 5, 1993.
And of course, in subsequent pronouncements even when still in
Government, I predicted that the country would not be the same again until the
issues in the annulment were resolved.
Unfortunately. no one in Nigeria and in Edo land ever asked me, what
were these issues?
I can name some of the developments that arose from the issues in the
annulment such as
1.
the emergence of General Sani Abacha in November 1993;
2.
the Politics of Abacha;s self-succession;
3.
the release of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo from Abacha’s Gulag in June
1998;
4.
the emergence of President Obasanjo in 1999;
5.
the rejection of Dr. Alex Ekwueme;
6.
the preference for Obasanjo to Chief Olu Falae; and
7.
the politics of self-succession of 2003.
2.
I learnt of the distinction between the written and the unwritten qualifications
for the office of President of Nigeria.
This fact does not seem to be obvious to the political leaders of certain
parts of Nigeria including Edo State.
The
written qualifications are in the Constitution and in various laws on elections.
What
are the unwritten qualifications for the Office of President of Nigeria?
Let me quickly identify one.
The area that produces the Chairmanship of INEC is disqualified from
producing the President of Nigeria.
Did the Edo political leaders know this when the Edo State and by
extension the South-South in quick succession produced the two Chairmen of INEC?
They would have to remove Dr. Abel Guobadia before their case can be
heard.
From
independence to date, the Chairmen of the Election Commissions were drawn from
“Non-President Producing Areas (NPPA) of Nigeria according to the unwritten
qualifications.
They are from Cross River (EE Esua, Michael Ani,) Akwa Ibom (Okon Uya)
Bendel (Ovie-Whiskey) Anambra (Humphrey Nwosu), Abia (Eme Awa) Rivers (Dagogo
Jack), and Edo (Ephraim Akpata and Abel Guobadia).
The President Producing Areas (PPA) of Nigeria have no need for the
Chairmanship of the Electoral Commission since 1960.
Do you think it is an accident that no northerner or Yoruba has even been
a Chairman of Election Commission since independence?
Do you think it is an accident that the power that be would since 1950
throw it to the South-South and the Southeast?
As
we approach 2003, Nigerians in the North, Southwest, Southeast and South-South
have different answers to this question, what are the unwritten qualifications
for President of Nigeria?
Their notion of the qualifications is usually different from what we have
in the Constitution.
To the north and the southwest, the south-south and the southeast are the
NPPA of Nigeria.
Is this what the south-south and the southeast want to change?
We read of how their leaders (Ohaneze and various groups in the
South-South) want to produce the President in 2003 in spite of the unwritten
rules.
Can
the Ndi Igbo and the minorities in the Niger-Delta produce the President of
Nigeria in 2003 and beyond without the fundamental restructuring of Nigeria?
My view is that they must first of all work to change these unwritten
rules. The
Edo people and the south-south would have to remove Dr. Abel Guobadia and
reconstitute the INEC to have a level playing field.
This should have been the first demand; Dr. Ogbemudia and CO would
have made as they were commencing the quest for a new direction for the old
Midwestern Region.
Did they know that the old Midwest has been the producer of the largest
share of Chairmen of Electoral Commission (Ovie-Whiskey, Akpata and now Guobadia)?
3
An Edo
person should speak his mind
when issue of injustice to a fellow
Nigerian is involved.
This should be done even when others kept quiet.
When an Edo person sees injustice, he should talk and tell Nigerians that
injustice should not be condoned.
This is an ideal that I have been pursuing since 1993 after the annulment
that if it could happen to one Nigerian no matter where he came from, it could
happen to me.
An Edo person should pursue
justice and be known for that.
The
“Future of the Edos in the Nigerian Body
Politic” must be founded on the
quest for justice.
Without justice, a minority like the Edos would be doomed.
You must constantly ask, if that can happen to a well endowed group like
the Yorubas, what would be the fate of a small group like mine?
The golden rule of “do unto others” etc has equivalence in Edo
language as “Yaroro ‘egbe ghe”.
An Edo person would usually ask, “Agharuere ra”, meaning would you
allow that to happen to you?
I
acted the way I did because it was the right thing to do and more importantly as
an Edo person.
This is what I expect an Edo person to do.
It is disturbing to me as an Edo that anywhere I go I am constantly
harassed by the anti-democratic statement attributed to an Edo politician that
there is no vacancy in Aso Rock in 2003.
That statement had since then been interpreted to mean that 2003
Presidential election had been fixed before the election.
Does it no bother you as an Edo person that this highest Edo person in
government today, Chief Tony Anenih is called by different names but trustworthy
and committed to upholding justice.
I
had to wrestle with an issue in Vienna recently raised by a knowledgeable
Nigerian from the north who knew I was an Edo person.
He said, “Minorities in the south-south especially from Edo State are
double dealers”.
Of course, I flared up.
When he saw my countenance he quickly threw a poser, “how
one man from Edo State could be a facilitator or “Mr. Fix It” to IBB,
Abacha, Yar Adua, Abubakar and Obasanjo in their political project”, I
had no answer.
This person said that this was how Edo people behave.
I protested that it was not.
On
a serious note, may I ask if this behavior is within an Edo Agenda?
If you know it is not and if you know that his behavior is not part of
the attributes of Edo people, it is the duty of the Edo National Association to
call that person to order.
4.
The fourth lesson is that if we are to have a “Future
in Nigerian Body Politic”, an Edo
person should have principle and
should be acknowledged so by
others in Nigeria that an Edo person stands by that principle.
What are the Edos known for is basic to the quest for a “Future
of Edos in the Nigerian Body Politic”.
Have
you ever read of what people think of the Yoruba person?
I was amazed by the lamentation of Chief Anthony Enahoro recently at the
School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) London.
He lamented
That
the Yorubas don’t like to finish their struggle.
Chief
Enahoro was generous in his characterization of the Yoruba.
Did the Yoruba ever commence a struggle in the past?
Do they believe in a struggle at all?
The
Yorubas do not believe in “a protracted struggle” for a cause from what I
knew of them in the past, especially during 1993 episode.
It would appear that other groups in Nigeria hold this view except Chief
MKO Abiola.
Chief Abiola believed in his people that they would act and make the
country ungovernable until he was installed.
Of course, they failed Chief MKO Abiola.
I knew how he felt about some well-known Yoruba leaders when he sat on my
hospital bed in London in March 1994.
You can still read my tribute to him where I recalled this incidence in Saturday Punch July 25, 1998 captioned ”Secrets Abiola told Me:
How IBB, Dasuki, US Betrayed Him”.
The
Yoruba leaders had the opportunity between June and August 1993 to enforce the
democratic rights of Nigerians and the mandate of Chief MKO Abiola, if they
applied non-violent struggle to the demand.
What stopped them?
It was not the military.
What stopped them was their lack of gut and commitment to a protracted
struggle for a cause.
General
Chris M. Alli confirmed what I knew at that time in his book, The
Federal Republic of Nigerian Army (Lagos 2001) that there was no organized
military that would have put down any civilian unrest and demands for the
actualization of June 12.
I was disappointed with the caliber of military officers from the Yoruba
land. In
fact, Chief Abiola asked this question on my hospital bed.
In fact, Chief Obafemi Awolowo knew this much in 1966 that the Yorubas in
the army were “ceremonial officers”.
Did
the Yoruba leaders and those who then became leaders of NADECO know that the
army was in factions?
General Alli who was the Director of Military Intelligence (DMI) during
this period analyzed the factions in his book.
He demonstrated that there was no visible faction behind the President on
the annulment.
I said this much in my book, The
Tale of June 12.
This was where I disagreed with my fellow Edo man, Chief Tony Anenih.
This brings me to the fifth lesson, that an Edo person should facilitate
the goal attainment of another Edo person in public life.
5.
The fifth lesson from my experience in the June 12 is that all Edo
persons in government must facilitate the goal attainment of other Edo persons
in government.
One would like to first express dismay with the poor working relation
between the Minister of Works and Housing and the former Chief Whip who were
both members of the same political party.
One should call into question the working relation between members of key
Committees in both Houses of the National Assembly from Edo State on Edo
matters.
These are cases where Edo actors frustrate the goal attainment of other
Edo actors
As
an Edo person in government I tried to do this.
I wanted an Edo person in a position of leadership in one of the two
political parties to succeed.
I was open to Chief Anenih all the time even at the risk of breaching
security.
I can vouch for it that up till July 4 or 5, Chief Anenih and I were in
communication even during the night of June 22/23, 1993 while unknown to both of
us the annulment of the June 12 was being perfected.
He constantly phoned to ask me what was going on, which I expected him to
do as an Edo leader.
I used to give him hints to make him succeed as an Edo person who is a
party leader before and after the election.
I
recall that for me and for the action that I took, the Edo person who was the
Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Bauchi would have been disciplined for
his breach of the rules governing the election.
I protected him but made sure the system worked.
It
was Chief Anenih who called me at about 12 midnight of June 12, 1993 that the
Resident Electoral Commissioner, an Edo person was planning to
“rig the election in Bauchi
when he discovered that Chief
Abiola was leading in Bauchi”.
This was a serious charge.
This was not all.
I asked; “how”?
He shouted
“don’t you know that this
NRC man was put there by Admiral Aikhomu,
who assumed all Edo leaders that the north and
the military were in support of the NRC.”
I said,
“Chief, you have not answered
my question.”
and
I asked again,
“how is he going to rig the
election in Bauchi?
He replied:
“he wants to postpone the
collation of results to the following
day”.
I
was in a dilemma; Chief Anenih making this serious report was from Uromi and the
REC was from Ubiaja and his insinuation as to the man behind the Ubiaja man was
from Irrua, all from Edo.
I had a job to do, that is promote the election according to the rules
and at the same time make sure that the Edo man did not lose his job.
My official in Bauchi confirmed Chief Anenih’s alarm.
The action I quickly took was to get the Chairman of the NEC to call the
fellow to order without blowing the security whistle on him and that worked.
If
Chief Anenih, an Edo leader had called me another Edo leader in a political
position before he yielded to the overture for an Interim National Government,
maybe the history of Nigeria would have been different today.
I
would have told him to stick to the position taken at Benin on July 5, 1993 by
his party to reject annulment.
What would the military have done?
Nothing because there was nothing so called the Nigerian Army committed
to putting down any insurrection at that time.
What would IBB have done with the army in factions according to General
Alli? I
knew as of fact that IBB was preoccupied with “safety, exit and survival”
that I handled for and with him after the annulment.
IBB can say all kinds of things today.
What I went through during this period in pursuit of these goals for and
with him is better left to God that saw me through the travail after August 27,
1993 and to be alive today.
6.
We cannot discuss the “Future of
the Edos in the Nigerian Body Politic”, if we do not know what would the Edo people have done, if the Edo person is denied his
right in Nigeria.
If as the Edo saying goes, “if what reaches our hands is not allowed to
reach our mouth” what would we do?
The question is what would the Edo people fight for?
You
saw what Chief Ovie Kokori, an Urhobo-Edo could do even under General Abacha’s
regime in 1994.
If he were to have the support of the organized labor in Lagos, the
political history of Nigeria would have been different today.
This is contained in my monograph, The
Trial of Chief Abiola, which I put together from the notes I kept on this
episode during this
period.
IDENTITY
QUESTION: WHAT OTHERS THINK OF EDO PEOPLE?
I
want to explore another area of the lecture.
This has to do with inter-ethnic group comments from inter-ethnic
attitudes in Nigeria.
Let me name some.
In conversations among Nigerians, you hear of such comments as “you
cannot trust this or that” or “this
person or this group
is an empire builder” or “this
group is a power grabber”.
Which one is the Edo?
Which one should Edos aspire to be, an
untrustworthy person, an empire builder, or a
mere power grabber?
Let
me use the expressions of two eminent Nigerians as a take off to my lecture.
The first is one by an eminent legal luminary in Nigeria, Professor Ben
Nwabueze in his book, Nigeria ’93: the Political Crisis and Solutions (Ibadan, Spectrum
Books 1994).
The second is by a noted Kanuri politician, Mallam Adamu Ciroma in his
characterization of the Fulani in Kanuri.
Professor
Nwabueze, on the HAUSA/FULANIMAN used Alhaji Aliyu
Mohammed, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation under President
Babangida to make his point.
After paying tribute to him for his kindness and competence, came to the
conclusion:
This
means that there are certain attributes when stated can adequately describe
“an Hausa/Fulaniman”.
What are these attributes?
How are they different from others?
This is a distinguished lawyer speaking.
This is not even a person on the street.
He
went on
They see nothing wrong in monopolizing all positions in a federal
establishment,
from messenger to Chief executive.
To them that is how it should be,the natural order of things.
Any Nigerian in their midst, in such an establishment is resented as an
unwanted intruder.
Professor Nwabueze came to the conclusion
It
is for this reason that a serious fear is created in the minds of other
Nigerians that after two successive terms (eight years) of a Yoruba President,
many federal establishments would have
become thoroughly Yorubanised. p.134.
What
we should note is that he wrote this in 1994; he was trying to make a case for
the action, which some Igbo
leaders took about June 12.
According to the distinguished Professor of Law, the
Igbos were afraid of an eight
years under an Abiola, a Yoruba.
They were afraid that he would make the country a Yoruba country.
He did not revise his book after President Obasanjo, another Yoruba
person from the same place as Chief Abiola was sworn in, in 1999.
Is he still hanging on to his view in view of the “self-succession”
plan of President Obasanjo that Igbo leaders already characterize as a
“pathological Igbo hater”?
Is this view at the root of the Igbo campaign for 2003 at all cost?
Because
of the role I played in the Constituent Assembly in 1977/78, Mallam Adamu Ciroma
called me the “Modern Fulani”.
He led me into how the traditional Fulani behaved in the past.
It was from I learnt of the attitude of the Kanuri to the Fulani that is
still in vogue in burial practice of the Kanuri till today.
That was when I was made to appreciate what a Fulani is, a small group
that plays a role far beyond its numerical strength.
The
Fulani, small as it, was as a group in the past that was able to sack the Habe
rulers in the far North, the Nupe in Bida and the Yoruba in Ilorin.
Finally, the Fulani was able to give these places Fulani Islamic Rulers
and establish the Caliphate.
Can Edo be a “Modern Fulani”?
Edo, like the Fulani, built an empire in the past.
How did our forefathers do it?
Can Edo do it today and if not why not?
How was my action in 1977/78 manifesting as the method of traditional
Fulani?
Mallam
Adamu saw my attempt to turn the minority caucus in Nigeria into the Fourth
Dimension and make it into a dominant political organization in Nigeria.
Was this not like the action the Fulani took in the past?
This was how the Fulani took over the North and consequently Nigeria.
For the detail analysis of the episode see Omo Omoruyi, Beyond
the Tripod in Nigerian Politics (2001).
EDO
AS “MODERN FULANI”
So
when Professor Nwabueze called Alhaji Aliyu Mohammed “as too much a Hausa/Fulaniman”
or when Mallam Adamu called me the “Modern Fulani”, one should appreciate
that a small group like the Fulani can achieve two objectives in Nigerian
politics if and only if that group has a Vision.
One,
a small and determined group led by a visionary leadership can be relevant in a
country dominated by many big ethnic nationalities.
What we should appreciate is that these major groups are pursuing
mutually conflicting agenda.
Since
independence, the leaders of the tripod are likely to adopt two strategies to
achieve their political agenda.
One is to play one against the other.
The north perfected this in 1959 and in 1979.
The other is to seek friends from the minorities in the north and in the
south. Again the north is adept at this especially since 1979.
Two
and more importantly, a small group like the “Modern Fulani” can
fundamentally restructure the Nigerian society and politics.
A fundamentally restructured political order would make “the mode of
getting to power” and “the mode of survival in power” to depend on the
indispensability of the small groups.
These
two objectives of the “Modern Fulani” as applicable to the Edo are what you
want me to discuss in this lecture.
Can
the Edo play the “Modern Fulani” today?
The Edo can.
The question is how?
If not, the question is why not?
We can, if we have a sense of self-worth and if we have a VISION of the
kind of Nigeria we want to have and the kind of Nigeria in which we want to
live. The
“Future of Edos in Nigerian Body
Politic” would depend on how we play the role of the “Modern Fulani”.
Now
coming back to the topic, “The Future
of Edos in Nigerian Body
Politic”, it would appear that there are few issues that I would like
to raise that you may want to discuss as part of the after-lecture action on my
part. I
will join you after the lecture to contribute to the resolution of these issues.
IDENTITY
QUESTION: WHAT WE ARE BINI/BENIN CITY/EDO?
The
invitation to me came from the Bini Community and I am supposed to appear and I
am appearing at the Edo Convention.
I am a Bini from Oredo/Benin City and being asked to address an Edo
Convention on the political future of Edos.
Someone who saw the announcement in the African
Market in New Jersey called me to ask if there is a confusion or conflict
with these terms, Bini/Benin/Benin City and Edo?
Can the knowledge of one spill over to the other?
In
my view “The Future of Edos in the
Nigerian Body Politic” is bleak, if at your level, there is still this
conceptual problem with these terms and their
relationships.
From your privileged position, you are the light of the Edos and you
should be in the forefront in resolving these apparent conceptual difficulties.
Let me raise eight
problem areas.
One,
I observe in the announcement in the newspaper that there is a distinction
between Bini and Edo.
This is an unresolved issue in Benin and Edo State.
Who is a Bini person?
Who is an Edo person?
Are they interchangeable in Benin City?
Are they in conflict in areas outside Benin City?
Two,
even in Benin City there is another confusion with the terms, Benin and Benin
City.
The terms Benin and Benin City are never used in everyday discussion in
our various homes.
In the various homes, the question asked is “Ovbi’ Edo No” meaning,
“he is a native of Edo”.
Why don’t we say “Ovbie Bini no”, meaning, “he is a native of
Bini”.
This confusion does not end here.
Three,
we were told that Benin City Council was changed to Oredo Council.
Is Benin City the same thing as Oredo?
The term “Ore” is used to designate an “area”, such as “Ore
Ogbeni”; meaning the “area for elephant killers” or “Ore’Oghene” to
designate “Oghene area”.
Those
of us in Benin City do not have difficulty understanding the meaning of “Oredo”.
It means the “center” of Edo; it could also mean the “source” of
Edo civilization.
It could also mean the headquarters of “Edo” people.
If this is acknowledged as such among those in Edo south, what about the
Edo north and Edo center?
This is still begging the question.
Who are the Edos?
Do the Edos have a center?
How
can the Edos have a “Future in the Body
Politic of Nigeria”, if what is Edo is not resolved?
Should this continue to be an unresolved issue?
How do we proceed to resolving it?
Four
in the everyday usage in our various homes, when those in Isi or Urhonigbe or
Iguobazuwa say, “I rie’Edo”, it means, “I am going to Edo”.
Edo here means a place that we call Benin City today.
Is Edo State a “City State” built around Edo, in this sense Oredo or
Benin City?
Five,
take another case that those of us learnt to use since 1979.
When the newly crowned Oba was asked how he would want to be addressed by
the media, he simply said, “Omo N’ Oba N’Edo UkuAkpolokpolor, Erediauwa.
To add Oba of Benin to this expression would be superfluous, in my view,
because Omo N’Oba N’Edo means the Oba of Edo.
But people make this error of adding Oba of Benin to the title.
Edo in this case means, Oba of Edo people or Oba of Edo Land.
Here we are referring to people, called “Edo”.
We could also be referring to the territory, called “Edo”.
This is not all.
Six,
we also have such distinction between Edo inhabited by the Oba and Edo not
inhabited by the Oba in such an expression as “Edo N’Oba ye” meaning
“Edo where the Oba resides”.
This means that there is “Edo N’Oba gh’ iye”, i.e. “Edo where
the Oba does not reside”.
If someone in Urhonigbe with the greatest respect to my good friend, Mr.
Frank Ekhator or in Isi with the greatest respect to my cousin, Senator RS Owie
is traveling to what is usually referred to as Benin City, how would he respond
to such question, “Vbua gh’ rie?” (where are you going)?
He would simply tell his family “I rie Edo and if he wants to be more
specific, he would say “Irie Edo N’Oba ye” meaning that “I am going to
the Edo inhabited by the Oba i.e. where the Palace is.
That is what we call “Oredo”.
This also means that there are other parts of Edo where the Oba does not
live such as Urhonigbe or Isi.
Is the relationship between the Oba and Edo No Oba ye and between Edo
N’ Oba gh’ iye”?
What is the meaning of the expression, “Urhonigbe re’ Edo”, meaning
Urhonigbe is not Edo?
Are there parts of Edo State where the Oba should not even been
mentioned?
Seven,
if the issue of the relationship between the “Edo N’Oba ye” and the “Edo
N’ Oba gh’ iye” in Edo South is unresolved, it is a serious issue in Edo
North and in Edo Central.
What does someone in Auchi say when asked where he is going, if where he
is going is Benin City?
What about Igueben or Otuo or Sabongida-Ora?
I know the Urhobo would say “Mi kpa Aka”.
Edo is Aka in Urhobo.
Why
was the only Government Secondary School in Benin called since the colonial
period “Edo” College and not Benin College or Benin City?
Why did the Igbo founder of a High School in the former Midwestern Region
name it “Edo” Boys’ High School and not Benin Boys’ High School?
This confusion does not end here.
Eight,
what do we mean by the term, “Edo-Speaking people”?
Does this apply to language alone?
Does it apply to many people in the present Edo and Delta States.
Does it extend beyond these?
Does it have implication for common root, a common source of ancestry and
by implication, the position of the Omo N’Edo in these areas?
RESOLVING
IDENTITY QUESTION: REVISIT THE PAST
When
I was preparing for this assignment, I had to consult many records of the past.
I had access to the way Oba of Akenzua tried to resolve what one could
call the Edo identity crisis.
Oba Akenzua was an exponent of the theory of ethnic federalism.
His analysis rivaled those of Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe and Chief Obafemi
Awolowo and surpassed any of the traditional rulers of his time.
Unfortunately,
we only refer to the works and advocacy of Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Dr. Nnamdi
Azikiwe as the only exponents of ethnic federalism in Nigeria during the
colonial period.
Was it because Oba Akenzua did not write a book?
He was one of the most educated if not the most educated of all
traditional rulers in Western Region who doubled as a nationalist and the
conceptualizer of EDO NATION.
We only refer to the works of Chief Awolowo and Dr. Azikiwe with respect
to the case they made for the Yoruba and Igbo respectively.
I shall take the three views, beginning with Chief Awolowo and Dr.
Azikiwe and ending with Oba Akenzua.
To
Chief Awolowo, the three regions of North, east and west were mere
administrative convenience that should be restructured to provide for boundary
adjustment.
Chief Awolowo advocated that
“each
group, however small should receive the same treatment as any other
group,however large”.
According
to Chief Awolowo, “Opportunity
must be afforded to each group to evolve its own peculiar political
institutions”.
(Path
to Nigerian Freedom, (London Faber, 1947). p. 54.
Dr.
Azikiwe on the other hand, through the Freedom
Charter in 1948 adopted by the NCNC at its Kaduna Convention approved a
plank for “the
Commonwealth of Nigeria and the Cameroon that shall be organized into states on
a National and Linguistic basis”.
Quoted
in James S Coleman Nigeria: Background to Nationalism
(Los Angeles, UC Press 1968) p. 390.
The
known record in print of Oba
Akenzua’s Vision of Edo as the nucleus of a Fourth Region can be traced to
1948. This was when he
inaugurated the Reformed Benin Community (RBC), an organization founded by his
schoolmate from King’s College and a pensioner, Chief H. Omo-Osagie who came
to Benin in 1945 after retiring from the public service.
One
of the aims of the RBC according to Chief H. Omo-Osagie was to encourage
the development and unification of the various groups of societies into
which our ancestors divided the Benin Kingdom for administrative purposes”.
Oba
Akenzua who in his inaugural address to the RBC on October 28, 1948 urged its
leaders to resolve the Edo identity.
According to Oba Akenzua, The
wrong impression that there are several Edo nations and tribes must be removed.
What
is our response to this today?
On
what the Edo people should be pursuing in Nigeria, Oba Akenzua had this to say:In
the scheme of things, all Benins should strive for a place, state or
principality of Benin in the new Nigeria.
Omo
N’Oba wanted Nigeria to be organized in a such a way that each nationality
would form the basis of the federation. According
to Oba Akenzua, The Hausa, the Yorubas, the Ibos, and other states are on the move…We
must not be deprived of our identity, custom, tradition, language and culture,
nor must we allow ourselvesto
be lulled into a false sense of security.
Oba
Akenzua then demanded for the creation of the Fourth Region to be known and
called Central or Southwestern Region.
In Oba Akenzua’s view, An
independent United States of Nigeria brought about by Federation, will be glorious, prosperous. peaceful, strong and
original.
Oba
Akenzua then urged the RBC to take the initiative to form a larger cultural
society or federal union of which Edo, Urhobo, Itsekiri, Ishan, Ora, Ivbiosakon,
and Sobe peoples would be principal member unions.
There
were two issues that would need to be further explained.
From my notes from my interview with Chief H. Omo-Osagie in 1977, I
learnt of two things that Oba Akenzua had in mind.
One
was that Oba Akenzua agreed with the leaders of the Western Igbo that the people
of the old Asaba Division should join their kith and kin across the Niger.
This would accord with his notion of ethnic federalism.
The
other was that Oba Akenzua wanted the Benin Delta Provinces to have its own
political party. He did not
like the premature affiliation of the political movement he initiated in 1953 as
the Benin Delta Peoples Party with a political party outside the area.
He saw it as a reversal of what the leaders of the Benin and Delta
Provinces were fighting for. Consequently
he saw the forming of the Midwest State Movement as an affiliate of the NCNC as
a way of sub-ordinating the Edo nation fighting to extricate itself from one
African State to another African State.
I
will leave the further elucidation of these two issues to another occasion.
(For Oba Akenzua’s message see Michael Vickers, Ethnicity
and Sub-Nationalism in Nigeria (Oxford 2000) pp. 7-8.
I
also sought guidance in the comments by the Oba Akenzua in the various places
Oba Akenzua visited in the present Edo and Delta States in 1953 to campaign for
the creation of Midwestern Region. In
all the comments made by the Oba of Benin, one is left with only one impression.
The kind of feeling of separateness between Edo South (Benin), Edo Central (Ishan)
and Edo North (Afemai) manufactured by some Edo politicians for personal gains
today did not exist during the period of Oba Akenzua.
The
politics of State Creation, which the political/military leaders in the present
Delta and to some extent in the present Edo North saw as an opportunity to
express distance with the people called the Binis was anti-thetical to the
Vision of Oba Akenzua. There
is no doubt that state creation was not handled well in 1976 and 1991.
Oba
Akenzua’s use of the term “One Nation” with a common destiny to describe
the people of the former Benin and Delta Provinces in 1953/54 and in 1963 was
never disputed by the political and traditional leaders of Benin and Delta
Provinces with the exception of the leaders of the present Anioma.
Oba
Akenzua, in his address to the Conference of Political and Traditional leaders
of Benin and Delta Provinces on September 18, 1953 was very definite as to what
we were before the White man came. According
to the Omo N’ Oba, Benin
and Delta was a “Sovereign Nation” before the occupation of the country by the British.
We
should note that a singular verb, “was” was used for the two provinces,
Benin and Delta in terms of one people divided into two provinces that is
manifesting itself into two provinces by the colonial power.
This was not an accident.
Oba
Akenzua went on
That is why Britain cannot annex “it” (Benin Delta Nation) to the
Yoruba State.
In
various parts of Oba Akenzua’s speech, the terms “National Struggle” to
enhance our “National Status” littered his description of what he was
calling on the leaders to embark on along with other “Nations” before the
British granted Nigeria independence.
Oba Akenzua kept using the singular, “it” to describe the Benin and
Delta Provinces such as in this expression
All the Nations of this country are fighting hard to assert their National
Status; it will be unwise for Benin and Delta to do nothing about asserting
“its” own.
The
above excepts are also found in Michael Vickers above)
Oba
Akenzua used the singular term “it” and “its” to describe the Benin and
Delta and at nowhere in his speech did he say “their” own. This still remains what I would consider as the
Oba Akenzua’s Vision of “unity and
solidarity” of Edo. This
is what we should aspire to emulate today, as it is still valid till today for
the Edos in quest of a “Future in the
Body Politic of Nigeria”.
The
Secretary General of the Benin–Delta Peoples Party (BDPP) formed by Oba
Akenzua in 1953 was Chief GO Odiase of Irrua.
At what stage was the term Edo used to describe the people of Edo State?
I recall that the Edo State Movement under the spiritual leadership of
Oba Erediauwa and the political leadership of Chief Anthony Enahoro in the
Second Republic had supporters from the present Edo South, Edo Central, and Edo
North. When did the term
become a disputed term? At what stage did the term become so intolerable as to
warrant the agitation for the creation of Afesan State (Afemai and Ishan) from
present Edo State?
I
was dismayed when some politicians in Auchi were raising question about the
oneness of the Edo and actually want to call themselves “northerners” maybe
because it is politically expedient and profitable to do so. Records also show too that it was at Auchi that Oba was
not received in 1953. He had
to skip that town and was received at Jattu, Uzairue, Sabon-gida Ora, Otuo and
in various part of Ishan land. Omo
N’Oba Akenzua and his delegation that included Chief H. Omo Osagie spent
nights in some of these places.
Was it that Benin City was too far to from where he spent the night?
Or was it that Oba Akenzua just wanted to establish that he was at home
in any part of Edo land? Could
this happen today? If not why
not?
Quite
unlike me, I am sorry to be personal.
When I read about Prince Tony Momoh’s “anti-Edo oneness” tirade, I
asked myself a simple question. Did
Prince Tony Momoh think that he was the most competent person when I recommended
him to be the Minister of Information?
When
I approached my cousin, Mr. Sam Eguavoen, I told him I was interested in an Edo
person who was competent in print journalism because of the problem the
President, my friend was facing. Sam
turned down the offer and recommended his friend, Prince Tony Momoh.
Later Sam brought Tony to meet with me,
From that meeting, I was convinced that Prince Momoh met both criteria.
The rest is history. Simple!
Tony
performed marvelously in the role of Minister of Information and he did Edo
proud. What message is he
sending to me today with his tirade?
I did not make a mistake for
believing that Edokpamakhin i.e. that all Edos are one? I was acting in furtherance of Oba Akenzua’s
Vision enunciated in 1948 that “the
wrong impression that there are several Edo nations or tribes must be removed”.
That should still remain the Vision of Edo State today.
The
foregoing are the issues that would be relevant and resolved, if we are talking
of a common future and a common line of action for the Edos in the “Body
Politic of Nigeria”. We
should as Oba Akenzua called on the leaders of the Benin and Delta not only to
seek ‘freedom from the White man”, but also seek freedom from “foreign
African Nation”, which at that time was the Yoruba Nation.
This means that the Edo nation should not play a second-class status to
any “African Nation”.
How
Oba Akenzua’s Vision who was instrumental to my election in 1977 became my
Vision for the old Bendel State during my stewardship as a Member of the
Constituent Assembly was discussed in my book.
I made references to this fact on June 20, 2002 in the message I sent to
Nigeria on the day of the public presentation of the book.
RESOLVING
IDENTITY QUESTION: DO NOT SPLIT EDO
How
could the Edos have a “Future in the
Nigerian Body Politic”, if the earliest opportunities we have and when
some of us are placed in a position to be helpful to our common root, we make
for the dismemberment of the present Edo State?
Do we know that it was part of the history of the creation of Edo State
that the two opportunities that came the way of Edo officers in the “military
in politics” in the past, the dismemberment of Edo was actively canvassed?
The unity and solidarity of the present Edo State and the Edos did not
form part of the mission of the political and military leaders of the Edo North
and Edo Central in the past. I
repeat in the
past.
In
fact, Chief Anthony Enahoro who was in the forefront in the campaign for the
creation of Edo State during the Second Republic was shocked that some
illustrious sons of his home were actively canvassing for the destruction of the
unity and solidarity of Edo. At
one of the meetings of the Edokpamakhim in 2000, he told us how he found this
most disappointing. This is
an opportunity for me to pay tribute to Professor Oje Aisiku an Ora Chief who
brought us together as Edo people from Edo South, Edo North and Edo Central
under the auspices of Edokpamakhin in Massachusetts.
It
is a matter of record that when many people in Edo North and Edo Central were
losing their cool over the utterances of the Governor of Edo State over the
composition of the Edo Traditional Council, it was Chief Oje Aisiku who came out
with a new thinking. He put
forward a proposal of how to accommodate all the traditional interests and
distinguished citizens in the one family called Edo State.
That is the way to evolve a Vision on a delicate issue.
That is the kind of activity that the leadership of the Edo National
Association should be pursuing. It
is not late for the Association to address delicate issues and not shy away.
As Chief Aisiku ably demonstrated, what we had in the past was the House
of Chiefs and not House of Obas. Chief
Aisiku brought out the rational in the colonial invention of the nomenclature,
House of Chiefs and not House of Obas in the past in the north, west and later
in the east and Midwest. We
will recall that the House of Chiefs included Oba, Emirs and Obis, Chiefs and
District Heads as the case maybe and non-Obas or Chiefs but who were eminent
sons and daughters. Some of
you qualify to be members of the Edo Council of Chiefs as eminent sons and
daughters of Edo land.
For
those who are calling for a “Future”
for the Edos, internal strife based on ignorance should be discouraged.
We should never give the
impression to non-Edos in the country that there is a culture of fear between
those who live in “Edo N’Oba ye” and those who live outside the “Edo
N’Oba ye” in Edo South and between the Edo
South and the rest of the State.
RESOLVING
IDENTITY QUESTION: EDO AND NIGERIA
We
should deal with the concept of “Nigeria” and how the Edo became part of it.
We cannot talk about a “Future
for the Edos in the Nigerian Body Politic”, if we do not come to term with
the concept of Nigeria. You
have to be a good Edo man and woman before you can be a good Nigerian.
It is not the other way round.
Those
who read my essay titled “God of Justice Not Associated with An Unjust
Political Order” serialized by Vanguard of
July 1, 2 and 3, 2002 would recall that I stated the origin of the term, Nigeria.
A revised edition is still on the three-major WWW (gamji.com,
nigerdeltacongress.com and
nigeriaworld.com). It was
my reaction to the many ways President Obasanjo has been trying to distort the
history of Nigeria as we know it.
I
went to the archive to demonstrate how the term came about.
It was Ms. Flora Shaw who later became the wife of Lord Lugard who first
used the term, Nigeria in an article in the Financial
Times of London of January 8, 1897.
She coined the term “Nigeria” when she was trying to make a case for
a shorter term for the “Royal Niger Company Territories”, which was too
long. Of course, we knew the
extent of the Territories under the Royal Niger Company.
It did not extend beyond what was later called Northern Nigeria.
The events leading to the amalgamation of the southern Protectorates and
the Colony and later the amalgamation of the “Nigeria” (the North) and the
Southern Protectorates and the Colony in 1914 achieved one objective.
It only incorporated the various States in the south including Edo into
the Nigeria that was fashioned as far back as 1897.
This is the history of the origin of Nigeria.
Only
those of us who went to school had any conception of the term Nigeria.
It never came into the lexicon of politics of the present day Nigeria
until after 1914. In the Edo
language, the word, “Nigeria” never still featured in the everyday
conversation until after independence.
I
recall the campaign for the 1959 Federal Elections stoutly fought by Dr. Nnamdi
Azikiwe and Chief Obafemi Awolowo in the old Benin and Delta Provinces.
We did not see the northern leaders in the south; they concentrated their
effort in the north.
To
the voters of Benin and Delta Provinces, it would seem or appear that the
contest was between Dr. Azikiwe and Chief Awolowo.
The people of Benin and Delta Provinces must have been shocked when the
radio flashed the news that a Mallam Abubakar Tafawa Balewa had been invited to
form the Government as the Prime Minister.
I
overheard the discussion among some women who called on my mother.
They were wondering aloud as to what must have happened to the man they
voted for, Dr. Azikiwe and his opponent, Chief Awolowo who took to the sky
during the campaign? One would recall how Chief Awolowo’s campaign machine
took to the air during this period.
What
was intriguing was the question my mother asked me, Is this Abubakar in the same country with Dr. Azikiwe, called
Nigeria? She wanted to know the meaning of the term, Nigeria?
We could add such question, what
is the relationship between Edo and Nigeria and their lives and in the context
of Nigeria? These
questions are critical to the examination of the topic of this lecture, “The
Future of Edos in the Nigerian Body
Politics”.
How
the Edo Nation became part of Nigeria is one issue and how the Edo nation has
been participating in the Nigerian State and in the political process since
independence is another. Nigeria
will be good, if Edo and other units are good.
This happens to be the argument of those who do not want the Edo State
broken up. The assignment you
land me with today is to discuss the “Future
of the Edos in Nigerian Body Politic”.
THE FUTURE OF EDO IN NIGERIA:
REVISIT PAST EXPERIENCE
When
I was told of the assignment, my initial impression was that there is an
assumption that the organizers of this Convention are not satisfied with the
place of Edo in the past. There
is also an implicit assumption that they are not happy with the position of the
Edos in the present day politics.
Because
of these two assumptions, the organizers would want me to hazard some
suggestions as to how to change the fortunes of “Edos in the Nigerian Body Politic” and improve the chances of Edos
in the Future Body Politic of Nigeria”.
I shall try.
I
shall not blow my trumpet. But
the plight of the minorities in Nigeria had been my preoccupation since I got
involved in student partisan politics through the Northern Peoples Congress Club
at the University of Ibadan with late Ken Saro Wiwa in 1963 before the
Midwestern Region was created.
It
influenced my academic preoccupations with “Political
Learning” and the “Politics
of Plural Societies” since I got involved in the study of Political
Science as a discipline in the Graduate School in 1965.
And my academic preoccupations had been on how to bring my academic
preoccupation to bear on my various political involvement since 1977.
I
know that the problems faced by Nigeria since independence are not unique.
They are typical problems faced in all plural societies.
They are two; how the various groups can live together and how to form a
government that appreciates the fact of the many groups in Nigeria. My concern in academic and public life has been
on how to make the country, Nigeria a better society and polity.
This
was my preoccupation when I went to the Constituent Assembly.
This was why I joined others to push for not just for the Presidential
System but also for the entrenchment of the “Geographical Spread” in the
mode of election of the President that must take the states that are homes to
minorities in Nigeria into account.
The
problem arising from the plural character of Nigeria was my preoccupation when I
went to the National Institute in 1979.
My thesis was on “How to Reduce the “Political Salience of
Ethnicity” in Nigeria.
This
was my preoccupation in my association with the “military in politics” as a
policy maker in 1985 to 1993.
FOR
FUTURE OF EDO REJECT TRIPOD OR ATOMIZED STATES.
I
have been working against the two popular notions of Nigerian society.
One is the theory of the “hegemon”
that limits the number of ethnic hegemons to three ethnic nationalities in
Nigeria around which the three administrative Regions would be built.
The three Political Regions were the North, the West and the East, with
three hegemonic ethnic
nationalities, the Hausa for the North, the Yoruba for the West and
Ndi Igbo for the East. This
was the basis for the three regions under the Richards Constitution.
As
applicable to us Edos, of course the non-Yoruba Provinces of the Benin and Delta
Provinces were for administrative purposes placed in the Southwestern Region
called the Western Region. The
harm the inclusion of Benin and Delta Provinces in the Western Region did to our
people and how this was a reversal of the promises made to our traditional
rulers by the British were issues that had to feature during the first time the
Yoruba met and humiliated the non-Yoruba in the Western Regional House of
Assembly on January 7, 1952.
These
three majority ethnic nationalities were united on one theme.
They could not stand the minorities in their regions and opposed the
creation of new homes for them in their regions.
This is why the three majority ethnic nationalities have not learnt to
reconcile themselves with the fact that new States had at various times since
1963 been carved out of the old regions.
Sometimes
the leaders of the majority ethnic nationalities want to give the impression
that the broken mirror could still be put together.
This is very evident in the north and in the east where strenuous effort
is still being made to promote a pan-north or a pan-Eastern bloc.
It should be noted that the Western leaders of old are not pretending
that the old Western Region could be recreated.
The
second is the theory of atomized
states, which says that Nigerian has over 250 ethnic nationalities with atomized
ethnic nationalities in the Niger-Delta. In order to get over this category of
‘atomized” states, some ethnic nationalities have been trying to increase
the number of hegemone from three to four or five as the case may be.
The Ijaw advocate a zone called the “Niger-Delta” instead of the
“South-South” where they would be the undisputed hegemone and the Tiv
advocate the zone for the North Central where they would be the undisputed
hegemone. This is my
understanding of why the Ijaw leaders and recently the Tiv leaders have been
trying to call themselves the Fourth or the Fifth largest ethnic groups in
Nigeria.
Those
who are agitating for a place in the queue of large ethnic nationalities are
doing so because they want to escape the category of atomized states or of the
category of minorities in Nigeria. Consequently,
they want to do away with the three majorities and replace the number with four
or five or six as the case maybe.
Where would the Edo people put themselves in the rat race of wanting to
escape the category of minorities? If
the Edo cannot situate themselves in the queue how can we ever qualify in the
politics of zoning and rotation and all that?
FOR
FUTURE OF EDO: STOP INTRA-EDO INTRIGUE
For
Edo to have a future, intra-Edo intrigues must stop. Where does the Edo fit in?
With all the intra-Edo plan of creating
more States from the present State, how can the Edos play a part in the Nigerian
politics? I recall one person
who I talked to during the state creation frenzy in 1991 that what would be left
after the Afesan should have been created would be a residue.
Could a residue be a State?
What would Afesan be without the Edo?
When would the craze for states out of the present Edo state end?
The Esan component of Afesan would want to be a State?
Maybe the Ora component of Afemai component would want to be a State.
When will this stop?
Those
who are concerned about the “Future”
of Edos must first of all come
to terms with the unity and solidarity of the Edos.
They should appreciate that more bifurcation of Edo would further
diminish the power of the Edos and not enhance it.
The “Future of the Edos” under
such a situation would result in the political impotence of the Edo
in “Nigerian Body Politic”.
FOR
FUTURE OF EDO: INSERT/ASSERT EDO IN THE US AND IN NIGERIA
I
looked at the handbook prepared for and by the US State Department on the major
ethnic nationalities in Africa. Fifteen
were identified and only three linguistic groups are recognized in Nigeria.
They are the Hausa, the Yoruba and the Ndi Igbo.
See
David F. Gordon, David C. Miller, Jr. and Howard Wolpe eds. The United States and Africa (New York, W.W. Norton and Company
1998) p. 24.
Going
through the World Press Review Online for
reference materials on the world wide web, the following information is provided
under “Ethnic Groups”. After
stating that Nigeria has more than 250 ethnic groups, it went on to state that
“the following are the most populous and politically influential: Hausa/Fulani
29%, Yoruba, 21%, Igbo, 18%, Ijaw 10%, Kanuri 4%, Ibibio 3.5% and Tiv 2.5%.
Even
the Nigerian President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo does not recognize the Edo as an
autonomous ethnic nationality. In
fact, he only recognizes the three majority ethnic nationalities.
How many of you will recall his independence Anniversary broadcast on
October 1, 2001? Let me quote
him: I particularly wish to appeal to our leaders in Ohaneze, Afenifere, and
Arewa Forum to genuinely dialogue with each other, rather than talk at one
another from entrenched positions and postures.
When
the Nigerian President only called on the Arewa Consultative Forum, the
Afenifere and Ohaneze as the three hegemonic Groups, as they are in Nigeria that
should meet and find solution to the lingering political crisis in Nigeria, some
of us are worried.
I
know that the Edos do not belong to any of these groups.
I know that none of these three groups speak for the Edos.
It is a pity that those from Edo land such as Chief Anthony Enahoro and
Chief Tony Anenih who are working for and with the President are not on record
as correcting this notion of Nigeria by the President.
I
was a Guest speaker in a function organized by a group of Nigerian-Americans and
I was asked the question: Which of these three “major” groups do I belong?
Of course, I had to dismiss the question very tactfully that the Nigerian
President was referring to the loud groups that were causing all the problems
since 1999 in Nigeria. Empty
vessels make the most noise! I
told my audience that he was not referring to those who were peaceful in
Nigeria.
Talking
seriously, what do the Edo people tell their host in the US as their
nationalities in Nigeria?
At
the individual level one could ask, “Who
am I”?
And
at the group level, we could ask, “Who
are we”?
These
are at the root of the critical issue of personal identity and national
identity. What do you tell your
children born in the US? Do
you tell them that daddy or mummy is from one of the three groups in Nigeria?
Your children read what the President of Nigeria said.
Your children are exposed to the US books and World Wide Web
We cannot talk of a “Future
for the Edos in Nigerian Body Politic” unless we know who we are and
be able to respond to question in the US that we exist.
For
those who would want to explore the relationship between personal identity, group
identity and national identity
I’d call your attention to the origin of the use of the tool “Who am I”
developed by M.H. Kuhn and TS McFarland, “An Empirical Investigation of
Self-Attitude” in American Sociological
Review vol. 26 (1954) pp 68-76. I
applied this in my research in a typical plural society in 1968.
My findings can be found in Omo Omoruyi, “The identity Question in
Plural Societies: Findings From Guyana” in Sociologus:
A Journal
of Empirical Ethno-Sociology and Ethno-Psychology Vol.
26, No. 2 (1976) pp. 150-161}.
FOR
FUTURE OF EDO: DEFEND SIZE OF CURRENT EDO STATE
What
I know about the size of States in the international community is that there is
no optimum size of population for any nation or an optimum size of a federal
unit in a federation.
But this is not a case for or a defense of those who want to break up the
present Edo State.
The present size of Edo is just right in Nigeria.
It meets three criteria of unity: common history, language and
leadership.
The current Edo State could be used to push for a relevant political
position in Nigeria.
On
the harm that smallness could do to us in the Edo land, if we continue to break
the present unit, I found the recent address of Senator David Dafinone at the
“South-South” Democracy Alliance Conference at Port Harcourt very
intriguing.
According to Senator Dafinone, the “South-South” is made up of
“people with diverse cultures, languages, and traditions”.
He went on, these groups are “in no way subordinate to one another”.
The current Edo State is relatively homogenous.
Then the question, what can these groups in the “South-South” do in
the “Body Politic of Nigeria?
Two
issues are involved in this question.
1.
Whether these atomized groups can act together and how?
2.
Whether these groups could maximize their power in Nigerian politics and
how?
These
two issues formed the basis of Senator Dafinone speech at the rally.
See This Day July 10, 2002.
They are relevant to the “Future
of Edos in Nigerian Body Politic”.
I am sure that this is what you are asking me to bare mind on in this
lecture.
I shall try.
FOR
THE ENHANCED ROLE OF EDO:
DAFINONE AS A GUIDE
In
Political Science, the concept of “Groups” in the political life and in the
process has a veritable lineage.
But this is not what I am asked to talk about.
I am being asked to deal with how the Edos as an interest group can
enhance its political stature in Nigerian politics under the rubric, the “Future
of the Edos in the Nigerian Body Politic”.
I
am attracted to the way Senator David Dafinone dealt with the matter recently.
Senator Dafinone argued that there are two ways in which a group in a
plural society such as Nigeria could be relevant.
Senator David Dafinone identified the two ways in the language that
normal politicians could and should understand.
One,
Senator Dafinone is right when he advised the small group like the Edo to “negotiate
the use of power by users of power”.
How did they do this in the past?
How are they doing this today?
How do they intend to do this in the future?
What is our success rate?
Two,
Senator Dafinone is right when he advised that a small group like the Edo should
“co-operate with other geo-political zones to capture power through
the political process”.
How did they do this in the past?
How have they been doing this today?
How do they intend to do this in future?
Senator
Dafinone did not say “zoning” or “rotation” or “power shift”, the
three buzzwords that are being thrown around in the political discourse in
Nigeria.
Let me provide two counsels here.
1.
The advocacy of zoning or rotation
or power shift would not be favorable to the Edos because the Edo
would not be able to find a place in the ethnic queue whether with the Tripod
or within the atomized states.
2.
The interplay of democratic
forces would be adequate for us, if we are able to operate as the
“Modern Fulani”.
Those
who are advocating zoning or rotation
or power shift without competition ought to appreciate that such
a practice would breed inertia.
The practice would not enhance democratic life.
FOR
ENHANCED POLITICAL ROLE FOR A SMALL GROUP LIKE EDO, GO FOR INTERPLAY OF
DEMOCRATIC PROCESS
My
view is that those who are canvassing for rotation without competition are
admitting defeat that they would not be able to participate in the democratic
process. This
is why I have always worked against the idea of prescribing zoning in the
Constitution.
This
is the point of departure in my discussion of the “Future of the Edos in the Nigerian Body Politic”.
If zoning or rotation or power shift would not be favorable to us, what
do we then do?
Do we have options?
Yes, we do; first we would have to acknowledge the status of Edo as an
integral part of the minorities of Nigeria.
I
have always argued and I will continue to argue that Nigeria as a plural society
should be amenable to the rules that govern the “Politics of Plural
Societies”.
This has been my preoccupation with the late Ken SaroWiwa as soon as we
met at the University of Ibadan in October 1962.
As
I appear before you (the Edo National Association) at the 2002 National
Convention, I want to be consistent.
Hence I am urging you to assist the Edo political class to resolve the
“Future of Edos in Nigerian Body
Politic” within the “Minority Question in Nigerian Politics”.
This means that the “Minority Question in Nigerian Politics” is very
different from the Yoruba or Igbo or Hausa Question in Nigerian Politics.
My past is there for all of you to examine.
Let
me make my views clear about the purported discussion of alliance between the
southeast and the south-south for 2003.
We in the Edo State should first resolve our problems as part of the
resolution of the “Minority Question in
Nigerian Politics”.
The “Minority Question in Nigerian Politics” is more than the
question of who would be President in 2003 that is the sole preoccupation of the
southeast as a member of the tripod.
The Ndi Igbo Presidency Project is a lofty goal; it is part of the
resolution of the “Politics of Igbo Reentry into the Political Mainstream in
Nigeria”.
My view is that the Edo should start from the position that we are
already in the political mainstream and participate.
What
ought to and should be obvious to the political leaders of the south-south is
that “The Igbo Question in Nigerian Politics” is part of the “Politics of
the Tripod”.
Noble as it is for the Ndi Igbo and for peace among the members of
the tripod, it should not be pursued at the expense of the non-members of the
tripod.
This view is not new with me.
Therefore linking the Edo with the minority caucus is not a new issue for
me as far as I am concerned.
My political career is based on it.
I
crave your indulgence to recall the position that I held and championed with
success as far back as 1977 based on my study of Nigerian plural society.
This was when I first stepped on the national scene at the Constituent
Assembly.
This is an opportunity for me to pay tribute to the three traditional
leaders of Benin, (Oba Akenzua, the two Iyase in quick succession, Chiefs H.
Omo-Osagie and SO Ighodaro of blessed memory) and the members of the Edegbe
Union of Benin who were able to convince the Councilors of Oredo to send me to
Lagos.
POLITICAL
VISION OF EDO;
Based
on what I know as a student of the “Politics of Plural Societies”, I came to
certain conclusions as to what should constitute the Political Vision of
Edo in the Nigerian Body Politic that I shall now proceed to itemize as
follows:
1.
The conception of Nigeria as either dominated by three majority ethnic
nationalities or made up of many groups is inimical to the political empowerment
of the Edos and other minorities in Nigeria.
Edo political class should lead in
fighting these two conceptions of Nigerian society.
2.
The unity and solidarity of Edo should
be the first issue to be tackled.
We should take a cue from “Oba Akenzua’s Vision for Edo”
articulated above.
3.
The Edo should adhere to the cherished principle of States as the unit of
Representation in a federal System.
4.
Edo should resolve what I might call the “Edo Irreducible Minimum”
before getting involved in alliance formation even within the old Midwest.
5.
A united Edo would serve as the
rallying point for the old Midwestern Region (minus Anioma) that was
changed to Bendel State in 1976.
6.
The old Midwest (minus Anioma) or
the old Bendel State (minus Anioma) to which Edo
is an integral part should consider itself an integral part of the “South-South” and part of the
Nigerian Minority Caucus to constitute the “Fourth Dimension”.
Put briefly, there is a need for an organization that would link the
southern and northern minorities to constitute the “Fourth Dimension” in
Nigerian Politics.
7.
The “Fourth Dimension”
should explore some relationship with other groups based on the Vision of the
Fourth Dimension”.
I am referring to the members of the three majority ethnic nationalities
(Southeast, Southwest and the North) and not with the associations that pretend
to speak for them.
8.
From the five above, a new
political party would emerge that should be able to compete for power in
Nigeria.
9.
The various fundamental
political positions such as state creation, political party formation,
mode of electing President and revenue allocation and public policies that have
implications for the power distribution in the country should be
monitored with an eye on the effect on the “Fourth Dimension”.
The Edo in particular and the Fourth Dimension in general should be
concerned about how they are resolved at anytime.
CAUTION:
May I counsel some caution.
1.
There is no rationale for
premature commitment to such organizations, as the Arewa Consultative
Forum, Ohaneze and the Afenifere before you are sure of what you want from such
an association.
These organizations are engaged in the “Politics of the Tripod”.
The three of them want the same thing, produce the President.
2.
Beside the Afenifere, the other two organizations (Arewa Consultative
Forum and the Ohaneze N’Igbo) are still to establish that they have control
over the North and the Southeast respectively that they pretend to represent.
From what I know about the north and the southeast, there are other
groups and individuals outside these organizations that are not planning
to take over the minorities in the country and would be willing to work with
them. This
is what the Edo National Association’s Think Tank should do for the Edo
people.
3.
There are individuals and groups
in the southeast, southwest and in the far north that would want to work with
the Fourth Dimension on the basis of justice and equity.
The Edo National Association through its Think Tank on Vision should work
with likeminded organizations in the Fourth Dimension assist the political class
of the Fourth Dimension to fish them out.
The Fourth Dimension political class should not be a prisoner of some
associations that pretend to speak for the north, southeast and southwest.
I know these groups and if the need
arises for me to help, I will be willing to do so.
BEWARE
OF SELF-SERVING POLITICAL LEADERS FROM THE PAST
May
I also use this medium to repeat my criticism of the self-serving defenders of
the old Midwestern Region.
Some of these politicians in Edo in particular and in the old Midwestern
Region and of the south-south in general misled their people in the past and
today misleading their people through their premature alliances and
pronouncements.
For example, they are making cases for a “North/South-South” or a
“Southeast/South-South” alliance out of ignorance.
What do they know of these areas?
They are not privy to the political agenda of the North and of the
Southeast.
Yet the debate between those who want to work with the north such as EK
Clark and those who want to work with the southeast such as Dr. Sam Ogbemudia is
carried on without first articulating a Vision for Edo in particular and for the
old Midwest in general.
May
I counsel that the Future of the Edos
in Nigerian Body Politic should NOT be approached from the point of view
of individual personal political agenda.
This is what you in the Edo National Association should discourage.
This is where you as the light of the Edo people should research.
The
Think Tank on Vision should be
able to unearth the “rampart” being guarded and guided by the Northern and
Southeastern political leaders to be used as guide to how to approach the north
and the southeast.
This is one way to stop these “self-serving political leaders” in Edo
in search of relevance.
Let
me repeat the warning, do not get
involved in alliance unless one is sure of what one wants from the alliance.
The
Edos or the new or old Midwest should not make the mistake to think that these
three regional or zonal organizations do not have their agenda.
They have and are also scheming on how to take you over and use you for
their purpose. You
should watch out for the scheme or the fine prints of the big brother.
Our political leaders should not be deceived or misled.
The Igbo, the Hausa or the Yoruba would not sit down and scout for a
minority from the south south to be the President of Nigeria.
The
Edos should prepare for the unforeseen
and come up with a “Contingency Plan”.
As I argued above, suppose the need arises for an independent State, what
should the present Edo State do?
Since this is not part of the topic that assumes the corporate existence
and integrity of Nigeria as it is, I only throw this in should in case.
Think about this thing.
HOW
TO IMPLEMENT THIS VISION: TAKE A CUE FROM 1977
All
the foregoing and what could be done to bring the foregoing about, I would have
to take a leaf from my past that is now part of Nigerian history.
It was the subject of a book recently released to the reading public in
Nigeria with the title, Beyond the Tripod in Nigerian Politics.
It is now for the people of the minorities in the south and in the north
to consider.
I
was the coordinator of this group that was new in Nigeria.
This Fourth Dimension-driven organization with its agenda was never
provided for in the Murtala/Obasanjo transition program.
It should be noted that that program was essentially focused on the
interplay of political forces involving only the tripod.
We, as the “Modern Fulani” changed the Murtala/Obasanjo’s
“Tripod-Oriented Political Agenda”.
I
recall how we, as the “Modern Fulani” substituted our own Agenda in the
Constituent Assembly in 1977.
One would have thought that t he Edo political class had opportunity to
commence an Agenda in 1998.
Why did they fail?
For the Future of Edos in the Body Politic, then this is the challenge
before the Edo National Association as a serious group with intellectual and
financial power to commence planning from today.
I
recall that the National President Dr. Oboma Asemota and Secretary Dr Kienuwa
Obaseki of Edokpamakhin had had occasion to ask me to submit a paper addressed
to the question in the past.
They raised this issue with me especially during the Abacha days when the
Yoruba organization worldwide was busy perfecting their Agenda.
Noble as the assignment was, my attitude to the task then was who would
listen or who would be my clients?
There are people who would listen today, I hope.
NEED
FOR AN EDO “THINK-TANK” ON VISION
Can
Edo still play the role today of extending the political arena beyond
the tripod? The
answer would be yes.
But this should flow from a thinking group to be called the Edo
Think Tank on Vision.
The Edo National Association worldwide should put this together.
You can take the initiative here.
I
had occasion to interact with some Edo people in Austria in August who think
along this line.
I am also due to address the Edo Convention in the UK later this year.
The initiative for a worldwide Convention of Edo people in Diaspora on
Vision is necessary.
You can take the initiative.
COUNSEL
Let me warn against certain issues.
1.
The Think-Tank on Vision is
different from the manifesto committee of an aspirant or a political party.
2.
The Think-Tank on Vision
should not be taken over by the self-serving group who would write themselves
into an Edo Vision before it commences.
That would do more harms to the Edo cause than what we have today.
3.
The Think-Tank
on Vision should prepare for a national Conference because it would
come. All signs are pointing
to a Sovereign National Conference that would arise after the collapse of the
existing political order in lieu of a ,military take over that would be resisted
by many groups in Nigeria. It
is a pity that Edo politicians are not on record as demanding for the
convocation of a Sovereign National Conference for the purpose of redesigning
Nigeria. Only Chief Anthony
Enahoro under the auspices of MNR and not as an Edo leader has been talking
about the matter. What stops
him from bringing our people together for that purpose, one does not know.
If the members of the Edo National Association were to be called upon
today to originate position papers for the Edos for a National Conference,
are you ready? The
Edo politicians in particular and the politicians of the “South-South in
general are the least prepared of all ethnic nationalities in Nigeria.
Do they have their positions on all issues?
This should be your role. You
have all the leisure? You
have all the resources. Do
not wait for the folk’ back home who are preoccupied with daily battle with
how to survive.
4.
VISION for Edos should be above partisan politics.
But politicians should be able to draw on it. I dealt with this issue in the Agenda of Liberation for the South-South. We know that the current political class in
Edo State like their colleagues in the country commenced the transition program
in 1998 without an Agenda or a Vision for the society. This year, 2002,
the Edo National Association should evolve a VISION for the Edo from which the
current political class and aspiring political class
could draw. The
difference between politicians is how they plan to implement the VISION for the Edo. You
are the better body to demand for alternative program from them within the Edo
Vision.
EDO
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION AND COMPETITIVE POLITICS
The
Edo National Association should encourage competition among our people for
elective offices.
The
Edo National Association should be a non-partisan body that should be available
to all politicians in Edo land.
Consequently,
it should set up a machinery, a Political Action Committee to do the followings.
1.
Provide a forum for Chief Lucky Igbinedion as the current Governor to
tell the Edo people what he has accomplished on his fourth year in office.
As he proceeds to seeking a second term you should confront him with the
Vision mapped out by you.
2.
Provide a forum for those in the State who are aspiring to challenge the
Governor and other elected persons within the PDP and from other political
parties within the Vision mapped out by you.
3.
Watch for the implementation of the Vision for Edos
4.
Create a level playing field for assessing the office holders and their
challengers.
5.
Encourage the Edo people to register during the voters registration
exercises
6.
Perform voter’s education to enable our people weigh the program of the
different candidates within the EDO VISION before voting.
7.
Organize
series of debates between
current office holders and their challengers at all levels.
This is to assist our people make
an intelligent choice among candidates and parties in 2003.
8.
Set a benchmark for measuring
success of office holders based on the
Vision for Edo State. This is what the aspiring political class would use.
9.
As part of your annual convention activities, organize series of seminars
on a minimum political agenda
or an irreducible minimum
in all spheres of political life in the State.
10.
Publish papers, books on the above.
EDO
CAN EVOLVE A VISION FOR NIGERIA
I
was party to how the Fourth Dimension was able to evolve a VISION not only for
the Assembly but also for the country in 1977/78.
Can this be done today? I say yes.
Could this be the position of Edo today and in the future?
I’d say yes.
I
was party to the experiment that was never provided for in the military plan or
anticipated by the three majority ethnic nationalities/ players.
To these groups, the activities of the Fourth Dimension were a
destabilizer. Has that
situation changed today, the answer is No?
They would do everything to divide and rule the Fourth Dimension.
Should something not be done about it, the answer is yes. This
is where the “Modern Fulani” comes in.
Please
do not get me wrong; those who assembled under the auspices of the BDCC were
people who had one grievance or other against existing political functionaries.
They were made up of people who from their past did not have the knack
for organization within the “South-South”.
They were made up of people who did not know how to move beyond the
tripod from their track record. An Agenda-setting body should extend beyond those who would want to run
on the agenda. To this extent,
those who assembled under the BDCC could not said to be an Agenda-Setting Body.
Let
me take two issues where these self-serving political leaders of the old Midwest
failed in the past and are still failing today.
There is no evidence that they have any clue as to how to deal with them
in future. I am referring to
the “Politics of Oil” and the “Presidential Politics”.
POLITICS
OF OIL
In
1977, even though important, OIL was not used as a political resource then.
The situation has changed today.
As a member of the Technical Committee on Revenue Allocation set up by
General Obasanjo in 1977, I knew his views.
He has not changed. That
was in 1977. How much of his
views did those in Edo and in the south-south know in 1998? Did they ask him and what did he tell them?
It would appear that they did not know his views.
It would appear that they did not ask him.
Now
and in future that he needs your votes, President Obasanjo and other competitors
should be made to come forward with their plank. Suppose
the PDP Presidential candidate Obasanjo does not come forward with what is in
accord with your Vision, what would you do?
Would you canvass for another candidate that meets your Vision?
The
political class of the “South-South” is still to succeed in defining oil as
an agenda for political action. Can
you help our people?
Since
1999, OIL ought to and should have been used as a political resource.
This should have been the basis for evaluating the Presidential
candidates of the two political parties with respect to their conception of the
issue of ownership of oil in 1999. It
was not done.
Could
one imagine, if oil were to be found in Abeokuta, Kano or Enugu!
What would be the nature of debate about oil?
Why can’t the political leaders of the oil producing states appreciate
that the politics of oil is dictated by the fact that the “South-South” is
politically impotent? This
should have been elementary.
It has nothing to do with the law.
What
is completely absent in the political discourse so far is the relationship
between law and the power distribution in society. We
should know what is law in any society.
There is no law outside what the
dominant forces in the society say it
is. You saw the way the
Supreme Court was made to handle the issue of Oil and not of Sharia.
What
do we have in Edo State like all the States in the “South-South”?
It is Oil and Gas, no matter the quantity and where it comes from in the
State. Oil,
as a political resource has been the least used political resource in the
country. That should have been the equivalent of the
Political Sharia and the Political Army.
In the second part of the three-part essay on the “Politics of Oil”
that I submitted for the consideration of the political leaders of the
“South-South, I make a case for power equivalence between “Oil”,
“President” and “Military”. I
pleaded that the “South-South” should use Oil as the bargaining issue with
those who would want the other two. The
three are interdependent from the way the country was run from 1966 to 1999.
In a democracy, this is what should be shared.
General
David Ejoor was very clear on how the northern military officers were able to
use the oil from the “South-South’ as the basis of hanging on to power
especially after 1966. The
analysis of General David Ejoor in his memoir, Reminiscences (Lagos, Malthouse 1988) still remains one of the classics
in the northern domination of the armed forces, oil and politics of Nigeria. Luckily he still told the country that same truth
recently, maybe because he was surprised that our people are still ignorant of
the political agenda of others and maybe because he just wanted to tell our
people what we could do.
It
is unfortunate that the political and military leaders from the
“South-South” in the past adopted the policy of benign neglect to the
problems of the “South-South”. Is
it late to ask of the legacies of the retired Admirals, Generals and Air
Marshals who are parading themselves as political leaders from the
“South-South”? Maybe when
they look back today, I wonder how they feel?
Would it occur to them that they abandoned their people in the past?
Did they know that their colleagues from other parts of the country were
“fleecing” the people of the oil producing areas? General Ejoor tried to address these issues and I hope
others would do so in their memoirs.
I
recall an incident at a seminar in one of the University campuses when I had to
face this problem. An Ogoni
chap with whom I was appearing raised the question that the Edo officers such as
the former Vice President Admiral Augustus Aikhomu had never shown interest in
the plight of the oil producing areas. This
was in 1997. His argument was
that Edo people did not understand the plight of the people of the oil producing
areas.
Was
this not why Chief EK Clark would have wanted Edo State removed from the Niger
Delta? It is one issue to which the only surviving nationalist, Chief
Anthony Enahoro has never said a word. Does he understand it?
What does he advise President Obasanjo on in his new capacity as a Member
of the Presidential Advisory Council of the PDP on the vexed question of
resource control? This is a
sore point in the relationship between the Edo North and Edo South.
As
someone told me, the Edo North and Edo Central are not interested in the
politics of oil since they are not oil producing communities.
This is “politics without vision”.
Even with the Edo South the situation is not clear.
How
many of you read the debate between Hon Ehiogie West-Idahosa and Dr. Egharevba
over the disbursement of money by the NDDC? I had earlier talked of how one actor frustrates the
goal attainment of another actor in Abuja.
This is a clear case. If
both of them from Edo South could not agree on the disbursement modality of oil
money within the Edo South, how would the Edo North and Edo Central feel?
Edo
State is still to make the issue of resource control a State Vision to which all
office holders and aspiring office holders would be committed.
One is shocked that the aspiring office holders are not interested in the
matter today because money to the State means more for the present Governor.
This is shortsighted.
There
is also another feeling in the Edo North and Edo Center that proceed from oil
taken to its logical conclusion, would benefit the Edo South, being home to the
oil producing communities. This
also is not only shortsighted, it is also anti-Edo.
What
we want to see in the manifesto of all political parties and their candidates in
Edo State from now on is a commitment to
the principles and practice of “local control over local resources’.
At
the invitation of one the active members of the Edo Union, Ms. Osemetiti Okosun,
I responded to the question “who owns
oil”. My response
turned out to be a three-part essay on the “Politics of Oil”. I am glad to say that the policy prescription in
the third part of the essay is still on the www. Nigerdeltacongress.com,
as a major policy position for the “South-South”.
It
is not a secret that the political leaders in the “South-South” had my
prescription in my paper, “Agenda of
Liberation”. For your information and because of the importance
attached to it, it is still being displayed as the first item on the top left
hand column of the WWW.
NIGERDELTACONGRESS.COM. Some
politicians have been using it as the basis for debating the “Resource
Control” in Nigeria. It ended with just debate.
It is sad to say that no one is using the Agenda as the basis for
political action. The Agenda
still remains the Vision for the “South-South”.
If
they were to follow my advice, the President should have been put on notice
since 1999 by the political leaders of the “South-South” based on my
prescription in “Agenda of Liberation”
that the issue of “Resource Control” was fundamental
to the continued association of the “South-South” with the PDP under
President Obasanjo’s leadership. As
soon as he took the matter to the court, President Obasanjo should have been
told that using the court to address the issue would be political suicide for
him and the PDP in 2003.
PRESIDENTIAL
POLITICS: CHIEF OBASANJO 1999 AND 2003
You
are a better judge of the performance of President Obasanjo since 1999 in Edo
land. Their leaders induced
the Edo people into the Obasanjo 1999.
They were never told what he promised to do for them. But in preparation for the 2003, Edo State is in the
category of States that are or should happy with the President because of what
he did for them in the past four years.
This was in the report submitted to the President in preparation for
2003. Is this Chief
Anenih’s report?
It
is my counsel that as part of the Vision of Edo, the Edo people should have the opportunity today to weigh all the
candidates for the various offices in 2003 based on the past performances and
the concrete promise for the
future. Not to do
this or to be denied this opportunity would amount to the betrayal of the future
generation of the people of Edo State. The
Edo National Association is the proper body to demand for this.
The
same political leaders that provided Candidate Obasanjo his Campaign
Headquarters in 1999 were not able to tell President Obasanjo to take Oredo as
another home. These political
leaders should be ashamed of what became of the Headquarters of “Obasanjo for
President, 1999”.
It
is part of the political legacy of President Obasanjo that he commenced his
political journey from the House donated by Chief Gabriel Igbinedion that he
used as the Campaign Headquarters in 1999.
Do
you know that that House is a stone throw from the residence of Dr. Samuel
Ogbemudia?
Do
you know that the House is now taken over by one of the “lakes” in Oredo?
Do
you know that a House in Abuja for his 2003 is now designated “Legacy
House”. Where he made his
historical feat should have been designated a historical site and made a
“Tourist Resort” and even protected by law.
That would have been the place he would have been using every year to
show case through workshop and seminar, etc. on what he calls the “Democracy
Day”. What do we find today?
Who
should one blame for this neglect of Edo, Obasanjo or our political leaders?
The
political leaders of Edo were so naïve to act on faith that candidate Obasanjo
on assumption of office in May 1999 would recall how he started.
The northern political/military leaders that engineered his emergence are
making demands. When they do
not get the kind of response they want, they turn round to accuse the man they
installed President Obasanjo that he betrayed the north.
Our
political leaders who provided him with his Campaign Headquarters are afraid to
say so.
The
northern leaders are always reminding the President that for them he would have
not been the candidate and President of Nigeria. Can we ever say so?
Why? Was that
what Dr. Ogbemudia was trying to tell the Edo people?
OGBEMUDIA’s
QUEST FOR MIDWEST OR EDO PRESIDENT UNREALISTIC
Lest
I be misunderstood, I am not against an Edo person or Dr. Ogbemudia for that
matter becoming the President of Nigeria.
I am not naïve; I am a realist. To
be President of Nigeria, there are too many issues that I hinted above.
On what was attributed to Dr. Ogbemudia, my view is that he was going
about it the wrong way for obvious reasons.
1.
Dr. Ogbemudia should have resigned from the PDP partly because of the
President’s non-performance and partly because he betrayed the people of Edo
State. The Edo National
Association should be courageous enough to call on Dr. Ogbemudia to resign from
the PDP if he is dissatisfied with the performance of President Obasanjo on
behalf of the Edo people.
2.
Dr. Ogbemudia should have initiated the formation of another political
formation or in the alternative he should have formally initiated the joining of
another political party. He
should then seek the nomination of that party and challenge President Obasanjo.
Can he?
3.
Dr. Ogbemudia should first remove Edo State and the South-South from the
category of NPPA (i.e. the Non-President Producing Area of Nigeria).
That means that Dr. Guobadia would and in fact should have been removed
and a Northerner or a Westerner should have been made the replace him before
commencing his presidential journey.
4.
Therefore, on whether
an Edo person should seek the Presidency now, I am a realist.
This is not and should not be the immediate goal of Edos under the
prevailing system of political parties and under the prevailing ethnic
configurations in the country.
For the “Future of Edos in
the Nigerian Body Politic”, I would counsel that the Edo National
Association should discourage those who want to use “seeking
Presidential nomination from Edo land” for their personal end.
5.
In my appreciation of the ongoing political practice in the country since
1999 at Houston in November 2001, I had reason to categorize the
“South-South” and the “Southeast” as being on the “loser” column.
These two areas never had a political party of their own and never had a
Vision compared with the north and the southwest. To me, it would be unrealistic to base the “Future of Edos in Nigerian Body Politic” on the
alliance of two losers. Has
the situation changed today as we proceed to 2003?
Do the political leaders of the southeast or the south-south have
political party or parties they could call their own?
What is their message to the country
beside the urge to replace Obasanjo?
You are better judges.
NO.
OF PARTIES AND FATE OF MINORITIES
A
six-party system is untidy and would further weaken the power of the minorities
in Nigeria and enhance the omnipotence of the hegemons.
It is in the best interest of the minorities in the north and in the
south operating as the Fourth Dimension to operate under the two party system.
Again
speaking from experience, modesty aside, it was under the instrumentality of the
two party system that I was planning to use for the nomination of two
illustrious sons of the old Bendel in the past. I can assure you therefore that it easier to canvass
for and in fact work for the position of President or Vice President or
Chairmanship of a Party through the interplay of democratic forces. This is where an Edo person would play the “Modern
Fulani.
It
would be daydreaming to think that through the zoning method, or through the
political parties not founded by you, an Edo person in particular and a
south-south person in general would be a President of Nigeria.
If it is zoned to the south-south, it is more likely going to go to the
largest group in the zone. From
the above population, the Ijaw would naturally lay claim to the slot.
Afterall the Ijaw is already laying claim to the fourth place in Nigeria.
With the natural endowment the Ijaw would want to do away with the tripod
or replace the Igbo.
Without
attempting to blow ones trumpet, I was involved in the attempt to make two
illustrious sons of old Bendel State to become Presidential candidates (Olorogun
Chief Michael Ibru and Dr. Sam. Ogbemudia) in 1988 and 1993 respectively.
In
the past, the two political parties had two Edo persons at different times as
the National Chairman. Chief
Tom Ikimi was the National Chairman of the National Republican Convention (NRC)
between 1989 and 1992. Chief
Tony Anenih was the National Chairman of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in
1993.
CONCLUSION
1.
For the “future of Edos in the
Body Politic of Nigeria” is inextricably linked with what we are and with
what others call us. If
we are men of our word and others know us to be so, they would be prepared to do
business with us. This is my
first concluding remark.
2.
The fortune of the Edo people is linked with fortune of the atomized groups in the south in the first instance and with
the atomized groups in the north.
This is the genesis of the “Fourth Dimension”.
3.
It is my view that Edo should be in the leadership in developing a
political plan for the “Fourth Dimension”.
This is the only way we can avoid the danger of being swallowed up by the
majority groups in Nigeria.
4.
The fact of a “Fourth Dimension” does not mean that the majority groups should be avoided like a plague.
Once a political plan has been worked out, the plan should be worked out
later with other users of power within the leaders of other three Dimensions.
5.
As
part of the conclusion, I would want to leave you with two challenges.
The
first is that of unity and solidarity.
Those who would breach the “unity and solidarity” injunction would be
visited by the kind of sanction imposed on those who would vote No in 1963
during the Referendum for the creation of Midwestern Region.
According to Oba Akenzua at Agbor on March 12 1963:
Whoever
does not drop his or her paper into the White Ballot Box will
be condemned by future generations.
Even those who die before the plebiscite takes place will be condemned in
theOther World; if they die with the bad intention of voting
against or persuading people to vote against the creation of a Mid-West
Region.
Can
we apply this injunction to the present Edo leaders that anyone who threatens
the break up of the Edo unity and solidarity would be visited by the same
injunction against those who would not support the aspiration of freedom that
our forefathers preached and gave us in 1963.
The
second challenge is that of wanting to be the “Modern Fulani” in
Nigeria. The modern Fulani is expansive; he is an empire
builder. This is not through
war but through some networking. But
this is possible after putting your home in order.
We should stop all these attempts at dismemberment of the Edo State with
the earliest opportunity.
We
should defend not just the territory of
Edo State but also the people within and without the four walls of Edo State.
The Edos cannot have a future in Nigeria if the Edo people do not have
secured boundaries.
Should
Nigeria break up today, the neighboring States would lay claim to parts of the
Edo State in the North, South, East and West.
This is what Alhaji Mohammed Ighile calls “encroachment” that has not
assumed a pride of place in the politics of Edo State so far.
To Alhaji Ighile, what you call “encroachment” with respect to
boundaries of Edo South is equally affecting other parts of the State and yet
politicians are ignoring the matter.
You should add the cultural encroachment to the land encroachment.
The
Edo National Association should appreciate
five principles governing a
State, whether in the international community or in a federation.
They are (1) a secured boundary, (2) a people, (3) a system of
government, (4) an economic base and (5) a system of transportation and
communication. The boundary
of Edo State is a problem and the people of Edo State are changing everyday.
Your “Contingency Plan” should deal with these principles as they
apply to Edo State.
To recap, may I state that “The
Future of Edos in Nigerian Body Politics” depends on
1.
what we as Edos individually and collectively stand for in the
multi-ethnic society and what do other ethnic groups in Nigeria know us by;
2.
the resolution of Edo identity crisis;
3.
the avoidance of intra-Edo intrigue and the commitment to the goal of
unity and solidarity in dealing with others;
4.
the cultivation of relationship with others in concentric circles with
Edo in the center, beginning with our relationship within the former Midwestern
Region, then the south-south and later the minority caucus and finally with
others in Nigeria;
5.
the setting up of Think Tank on
Vision;
6.
the setting up of a Political
Action Committee to guide and monitor the implementation of Vision
7.
the adoption of the tactics of “Modern
Fulani”.
STUDY
AND DEBATE ISSUES
I
purposely went to town to develop this paper on the firm belief that the Edo
National Association is actually concerned with dealing with the complexe,
the Future of Edos In Nigerian Body
Politic. The length
is intended to provide the Association with enough materials as a road map for
coming to terms with the problem.
I
do not expect the members would be able to digest the issues in the address
during the San Francisco Convention.
Consequently, I want to strongly urge the Edo National Association during
this Convention to set up the machinery to examine the issues raised in the
address.
May
I also advise that the Edo National Association should send the paper to the
various branches of the Association to devote some time to examine the issues in
detail.
I
am willing to engage the members of the Association on the issues raised in the
address. May I plead that the
comments should be directed to the issues raised and not on personalities.
I
thank you for the opportunity extended to me to appear before you and bare my
mind on the complex issue of “The Future
of Edos in Nigerian Body Politic”.
I
wish you a successful deliberation.
OMO
OMORUYI.