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 IDENTI