2021 Awo Lecture
Toyin Falola
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Cornelius Hamelberg
The existence of a / the Yoruba Nation can be stated without courting any controversy. If we want to be pedantic about it, Nigeria is composed of many nations welded together under a federal Constitutional umbrella, so that today, no matter where you may come from in Nigeria it says so in your, passport: Nationality: Nigerian.
Therefore, for those who see themselves as Nigerians, it must be a jarring first encounter with “the various nationalities in the country” as a very telling, conscious and purposeful (not mistaken) truthful formulation by a doctor of the English language, aimed at awakening and alerting everybody. The hour is getting late. On the surface at least, the self-interest that governs “...the various nationalities in the country” does not augur well for the unity of the country at this stage of anarchy when national cohesion is the missing link(age). Of course the rest of the lecture – fortuitously delivered at an auspicious venue, goes on to explain at length and in depth, to argue forward, thankfully not to a parting of the ways. Hopefully, this powerful, impressive preamble to the issues/ agenda that would be central to any next national conference will be commented on (by e.g. His Excellency Ayo Olukotun) widely discussed and debated by various spokespeople among Nigeria’s Government movers and shakers, and serious people like Auwal Ibrahim Musa ( Rafsanjani) , in the weeks and months ahead, all in the true national spirit of finding pragmatic, feasible and do-able solutions which we all know cannot be instantaneous / as by legislation alone, but must be a continuous process.
We do remember that President Buhari warned at the beginning of his first term, back in 2015 , “Don’t expect miracles”. Down to earth realists didn’t expect a nightmare either. As always, what the man at the helm of the ship of state can say about the unforeseen is “the impossible we do immediately miracles take a little longer!”
Fela & Roy: 2000 Blacks got To Be Free
Cornelius Hamelberg
That was a brief response to the written version of the Awo lecture, but it turned out that the live 3hours long marathon video event, The 2021 Obafemi Awolowo Lecture on 'Whither Nigeria?' was indeed more eventful and more dynamic with a very capable and jovial MC, kudos to him, and to the star-studded panel comprising dignitaries such as His Eminence the Sultan of Sokoto Muhammadu Sa'ad Abubakar, who graced& blessed the venue with his presence, Nobel Laureate and Human Rights Activist Wole Soyinka, eloquent Elder Statesman and former Secretary-General of the British Commonwealth, Chief Emeka Anyaoku with his characteristic pondus and gravitas, and from the audience a surprise guest turned up as if from a resurrection, in the shape of Sanusi Lamido Sanusi (the deposed Emir of Kano) who made it a point of duty if not of honour to snub His Eminence the Sultan of Sokoto - twice - that is each time he popped in to make his comments, greeting Soyinka and Anyaoku et alia rather lavishly, effusively, according them their full titles, his voice dripping with awe and respect, whilst pointedly ignoring the presence of His Eminence the Sultan of Sokoto, as if His Eminence was not there. If, like yours truly you have the keen eye of the theatre goer for the theatrical of the eye of the not so super sleuth – for the devil in the details you don’t miss that kind of public display of retaliation.
And last but not least our own erstwhile endangered specie Obadiah Mailafia (former Deputy Governor of Nigeria's Central Bank)popped up in Jesus name Amen, and I was wondering what is he going to say now, and was a little worried, that he was probably going to blast the powers that be – to his own detriment although it was now a past event and he had already said what he had to say, but last night as I watched the video event I found myself praying that he had better be careful and indeed he started off most reasonably, by asking the obvious: How would The Great AWO himself have been approaching the current, sad state of affairs? The star of the Show Odia Ofeimun responded to that question with an answer that thrilled me and I guess an answer that should also thrill all Nigerians and other Africans hailing from ethnic minorities.
With all due respect, I was surprised – astounded by the third of Chief Anyaoku’s four characterizations of Nigeria’s democratic nature – his mention of “ The rule of Law” as the third characteristic of Nigeria's functioning democracy – and this he said in exactly so many words. How could he possibly say such a thing when it is precisely the rule of law that is so abysmally absent and that’s why Nigeria is currently tottering on the brink of anarchy. The rule of law? Not to mention the law’s delay, the decades long bottleneck deferments when it comes to hearing corruption cases, that Baba Kadiri has been crying over, so many times in this forum…
In an AWO memorial lecture, inevitably, the miracle wrought by AWO’s education policy in Western Nigeria is bound to be highlighted. However, the most surprising issue of all was the reform prone and therefore now deposed Emir Sanusi Lamido Sanusi still on his campaign for the education of the girl child in Northern Nigeria, in his view education as the sine qua non of development, the problem that most of us know so little about was brought to our attention, that when schools are built in Nigeria’s Islamic North, girls (Muslim girls) simply don’t attend, perhaps denied the opportunity by their parents - or are school fees too exorbitant? Previously, the impression was that is it otherwise, considering the much publicized kidnapping of the Chibok Girls and other kidnappings of students from both girls and boys schools…
Hopefully, this issues of national concern raised in that Wither Nigeria lecture and discussion, will continue to reverberate in other debates and discussions in the days and weeks ahead...
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