By Uzor Maxim Uzoatu
A seemingly innocuous spark in an otherwise isolated part of a nation can change the course of history.
Nigerian history as we have it today owes its shape to the handling or mishandling of the Action Group crisis of the early 1960s. The initial crisis led to a chain of events culminating in the Nigeria/Biafra war and the deeply polarized and wounded nation such as we have today.
“May you live in interesting times,” is a twice-told charge; and thus Chief Simeon Olatunde Oloko found himself through forces beyond his control to be in the epicenter as a witness of the events that reshaped Nigerian history. Born at Agodi in Ibadan, the author who studied at the esteemed London School of Economics and Political Science, and was called to the bar of Inner Temple in 1958, served as secretary of the pivotal Western Nigeria Development Corporation (WNDC) from the vantage point of which he lived through the manifold crises that bedeviled the old Western Region and Nigeria.
According to Chief
Oloko, in his book, And The West Went Wild (Aftermath
of the Action Group Party Crisis of 1961/1962), “One of the questions I try
to find the answer to in this book is how the Western Region, the foremost, the
wealthiest, and the most dynamic of the three regions that made up the country
at that time became a political football and object of derision and contempt by
those that thitherto used to look up to her as a model. Was it merely a failure
of management leadership or a mismatch of economic and political variables?
Might events not have turned out differently if the resources of the region had
been better husbanded and the cart not put before the horse? Was it just a
coincidence that the crisis broke out at the time the region was broke? What
lesson in human management and control of resources can the future generation
learn from the catastrophic events that plagued the region?”
The author answers these
questions and more. Even as he stresses that a greater part of the book came
from memory and personal recollection, Chief Oloko assures that as much as
possible memory slips had to be guarded against through cross-checking with
other living witnesses and newspaper records. A good chunk of the book is made
up of actual court judgments such as Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s treasonable felony
trials and government commissions like the Coker Commission of Inquiry.
“Nigeria has so often
been described as a mere geographical expression,” writes the author who goes
on to assert that “Nigeria is a creation and victim of British imperialism, and
administrative contrivance to suit the whims and caprices of Frederick Lugard…”
He iterates the early
nationalist movement as championed by Herbert Macaulay and Nnamdi Azikiwe and
deposes: “Dr Azikiwe was not cast in the mould of a regional leader as he had
always seen himself as a federalist. Chief Awolowo was at that time a
regionalist, a tribal leader who owed his leadership to a pan-Yoruba cultural
group known as the Egbe Omo Oduduwa.
Sir Ahmadu Bello distrusted them both and wanted the north to develop at its
own pace without any pressure from what he considered as the radical south.”
The 1951 election to
usher in internal self-government for the regions brought with it the spectre
of carpet-crossing based on tribal linkages, and Chief Oloko writes: “The NCNC
and its allies did very well at the polls, but between the time the results
were declared and the first sitting of the House of Assembly, the picture
changed miraculously.” Adegoke Adelabu was the only man left standing in Zik’s
corner at the NCNC while Adisa Akinloye led others to cross carpet into Awo’s
Action Group. Zik perforce left the West to oust the Eyo Ita regime in the
East, and the old nation was thus divided along the tribal lines of the major
ethnic groups and the marginalized minorities.
It was in 1959 that
Chief Oloko was employed as Senior Assistant Secretary (Legal) of the WNDC and,
according to him, “Had I gone back into legal practice and left the WNDC, I
would not have been able to witness at close quarters the cataclysm which
engulfed the western region not long after and which is the main subject of
this book. The WNDC was a good vantage point from which to see all that was
going on in the Western Region. It was the economic hub of the region, the
region’s window to the business world. The top political party men were all
there either as executive directors, board members or representatives in
associated companies.”
The book is rendered in
chapters that overlap with headings such as Chief Obafemi Awolowo; Chief Samuel
Ladoke Akintola; the National Investment and Property Company; Chief Mrs H.I.D
Awolowo & Faderera Akintola; the Action Group Crisis of 1962; State of
Emergency 1962; the Coker Commission of Inquiry; Chief Akintola’s Government;
the Treasonable Felony Trial; the NNDP Government and the Aftermath;
Treasonable Felony – Extracts from Proceedings; the 1965 Western Regional
Election; the 1966 Military Coup and Beyond; the Release of Chief Awolowo from
Prison; the Nigeria of Tomorrow; and Nigeria’s Leadership. As can be seen from
the titles of the chapters, Chief Oloko tackles well-known, if controversial,
issues in Nigerian history. What he brings to bear on them is bold and fresh
personal insight.
“Writing on the Action
Group is tantamount to writing on Awolowo,” asserts the author, adding, “The
Action Group was his party to which he invited others to join. The Party and
Chief Awolowo were two sides of the same coin.” Chief Oloko cites the
disparaging saying by some that “the Action Group was a tribal political party
formed by Chief Awolowo to propel him to the leadership of Nigeria.” Awo
carried a messianic aura on behalf of the Yorubas who were “affronted by the
Igbos boasting that their domination of Nigeria was a matter of time.” Chief
Oloko admits that Awo was not Zik’s match at the national level, though a
particular poem “If we must die let it not be like hogs…” which he attributes
to Zik was actually written by the African-American Claude McKay!
Awo was venerated to the
extent that Chief Alfred Rewane who was the author’s boss always took off his
cap whenever talking to the sage on phone! Others such as Chief S.O. Awokoya
who fell out of Awo’s grace were summarily discarded. The Action Group led by
Awo “believed fervently in the power of money.” The chieftains controlled all
the business pies, notably Dr Akinola Maja, Chief S.O Gbadamosi, Chief S.O
Shonibare, Chief Rewane, Dr Doherty etc.
Chief Akintola, as Awo’s
deputy, fell into trouble with the leader in the field of undiluted loyalty.
The author believes that the Action Group crisis could have been averted if Awo
had remained in the West and left his subaltern Akintola to fight the elections
at the centre as Ahmadu Bello did with Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa in the north.
Just as Awo had a powerful wife in HID, Akintola had an equally powerful missus
in Faderera who would not submit to the further humiliation of his husband by
the leader. Akintola found allies in the north. Awo had to undergo the Coker
Commission of Inquiry and the treasonable felony trial and was eventually
jailed even as Justice Mbanefo wrote a minority judgment that cast a smear on
the process. Awo was thus propelled to the realm of martyrdom.
Akintola and Chief Remi
Fani-Kayode rigged elections in the west and the people rose in protest wetting
their oppressors with petrol and burning them to death on the freeway. Even
Chief Oloko escaped death by whiskers when he had to hide inside a vehicle in
1965 during a trip home while honouring the President of Nigeria’s scholarship
to pursue a postgraduate course in Industrial Management at the Centre d’Etudes
Industrielles in Geneva, Switzerland, which he won.
When the military coup
supervened to halt the madness in the west it was as though Awo’s prophecy had
come true. Akintola lost his life as did Ahmadu Bello, Tafawa Balewa and many
military officers and politicians in the north and west but hardly any in the
east. There was euphoria in the west through the charge of “Igbo coup’ and the
feared Igbo domination soured up things until there was a revenge coup by the
northern officers. Awo was released from prison to a tumultuous welcome by
unimaginable crowds and he fittingly donned the toga of “leader of the Yorubas.”
Chief Oloko offers this
lament about the rise of Awolowo: “His return from prison was at first widely
acclaimed as a masterstroke for peace in the Federation and provided him with a
great and unbeatable opportunity to put himself at the head of a country that
needed reconstruction, reconciliation and restitution. But he did not avail
himself of the opportunity. He came back with vengeance, with visceral
animosity running through his veins. He saw his release as a victory against
his political enemies, the living and the dead. Like the French émigrés after
the French revolution, he learnt nothing and forgot nothing.”
This is indeed a very
bold and courageous book. He is not interested in writing a hagiography as
several authors are wont to do in dealing with subjects such as their political
heroes. He pillories Nigeria’s lack of quality leadership and critically
assesses the privatization regime of ex-President Obasanjo. The few pitfalls of
the book can only be located in the misspelling of words such as “accused”
which is spelt as “accused” in some places. The attribution of Claude McKay’s
poem as Zik’s has been highlighted earlier.
Even so, Chief Oloko has
written a very rewarding book that is recommended reading for anybody anywhere
interested in Nigerian history. The pity is that this book I am writing about
here is hardly ever seen anywhere in Nigeria, especially at this time that the
country is travelling the old familiar road of crisis!
*Uzoatu is
a poet, journalist, playwright, scholar and public intellectual
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