FROM THE ARCHIVES: What Felix Adenaike Wrote About Awo/AG in Response to Mathew Mbu [On the Carpet Crossing Palavar of 1951/1952]

[Mobolaji ALUKO]

 

February 2, 2009

 

 

Dear All:

 

 

In this centenary year of the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo - he would have become 100 years old come March 6, 2009 - certain lies and untruths told about him and his Action Group party, particularly in respect of the September 1951 elections / January 1952 "carpet crossing" issue,  must be de-bunked once again.  These lies fester particularly among our Igbo compatriots, many of whose leaders, starting from Chief Nnamdi Azikiwe, down to Dr. M.T. Mbu, to Dr. Mbadiwe,  and even up to some today who shall remain un-named -  have over the years repeated the same lies and untruths ad nauseum. Even when the facts and figures are repeated and stare the face, a return to the same lies and untruths appear and re-appear like a bad coin, victims of Oko Oko Ndem-like propaganda.  It has infected quite a very few of our young and not-so-young Igbo compatriots in the Diaspora, who parrot these untruths and lies without attempts at independent verification, and when you show them facts and figures, they get angry at being so confronted, and strenously avoid any confusion from past wrongly-held beliefs.  It has even infected some young Yoruba and other Nigerians, who occasionally pander on this particular issue without their own attempts at verifying the truth.

 

Repeating the truth is never burdensome though....

 

So here goes far below, once again...."What Felix Adenaike Wrote...", where, what, when, how and why, thanks to Mr. Leye Ige.

 

 

 

Bolaji Aluko

 

PS: BIBLIOGRAPHY OF MY OWN PARTICIPATION IN THESE CARPET-CROSSING DISCUSSIONS SINCE 2001

 

http://messageboard.biafranigeriaworld.com/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=print_topic;f=1;t=000129

Thread:  The 14th Anniversary of Awo's Death [May 2001]

 

where I wrote:

 

QUOTE

 

3. Alexie Njoku wrote that Zik "was a man who felt so much at home in the West that he canpaigned and won the west to become the premier, which of course was destroyed by Awo through the notorious carpet crossing." This is a propaganda piece that have been propagated by many an Igbo since time Imo River - except that it is a distorted lie which, though it will never go away - because that is the nature of that propaganda beast - it must be debunked EVERY TIME for what it was.

First, when this event occurred in 1952, THERE WAS NO CONTEST FOR PREMIER!  There was a contest for SEATS in a Regional Assembly, and the political expectation was that the leader of party that formed the government had the best inside track to become LEADER OF GOVERNMENT within six to eight months afterwards, and then PREMIER IF AND WHEN the British gave home rule to the region - which was still some years down the road - in 1954.

 

Secondly, the Action Group WON more seats than either NCNC or the Mabolaje Grand Alliance (MGA, an Ibadan-based, Muslim-oriented party), but the total number of seats of NCNC+MGA was greater than that of AG. So to thwart AG forming a MINORITY GOVERNMENT, talks of a super-alliance between NCNC and MGA broke down over when Zik (an Igbo who had won a seat from
Lagos after the British colonialists had forcefully joined Lagos to the Western Region, against Western Region objections, and virtually the only indigenously non-Westerner in the government) should be the leader of that Alliance government. The talks broke down because Western (and largely Yoruba) members of both the NCNC and MGA insisted that one of their own should be leader, after which some members of NCNC crossed-carpet to AG, making it possible for the AG to form a MAJORITY GOVERNMENT.

 

SO why, for God's sake, blame AG and AWO for NCNC members CROSSING CARPET to their party? Even if he persuaded them to cross to his party, why do we continue this calumny when the facts are so clearly written?

 

UNQUOTE

 

 

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/abujaNig/message/7927

Thread:   Re: The Genesis of Carpet Crossing [Nov. 2001]

 

where I wrote:

 

QUOTE

 

5. Read this piece:
 

"On the floor of the Western House of Assembly, S.Y. Kesington Momoh crossed the carpet from NCNC to
 the AG, so did J.G. Ako and Awodi Qrisaremi. They all wanted Action Group votes to enable them to get elected to the House of Representatives... " The  AG parliamentary Council admitted them. But they had to  pay fees and make generous contributions to AG coffers. The first two bought their way in.

Orisaremi failed to get in as there were only two seats allocated in the HOR, to their division. He promptly filtered back - after this set back to the NCNC the platform on which all three were elected.
 
Note that NONE of these people - Momoh, Ako and Orisaremi were Yoruba.
 

If AG were so desperate to have Momoh and Ako, WHY THE HECK WOULD IT INSIST THAT THEY PAY "FEES AND MAKE GENEROUS CONTRIBUTIONS?" And since Orisaremi also won on the NCNC platform, is it not possible that these people were simply politicians shopping for where they were most likely to win, rather than any ethnic sentiments?
 
6. Finally, the only honest paragraph in Ben Obi's piece: "The AG crusaded for loyalty switcheds, followed by pacts, from party members and independents who  could be seduced. In this way it kept on swelling its ranks from the 39 published after results were declared on September 21 to the peak of 67, with the Adedoyin change over coup on the floor of the Assembly on January 10, 1952. Indeed, horse trading and pinching of NCNC victorious candidates, and those inclined towards the party - as in the case of Awosika and Falaiye of Ondo - and the Ibadan group, won the day for the AG."
 

Yep! Straight politics! Horse-trading, etc. It is the depth of political infantility to think otherwise.
 

UNQUOTE

 

 

http://messageboard.biafranigeriaworld.com/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=print_topic;f=1;t=001745

Thread:  Itsekiri to resist Yoruba land grab  [December 2004]

 

where I wrote:

 

QUOTE

 

Thanks for the opening. I intend to set you and your co-travellers straight little by little on the untruths that you have been fed for a long time over the episode that you mentioned.

I will try to do so little-by-little so you are not too overwhelmed with the facts.

1. First the so-called "carpet-crossing" occurred in the Western Region House of Assembly on January 10, 1952 and not anytime in 1953.

2. AG won 37 votes, NCNC won 18 seats, Mabolaje Grand Alliance won 6 votes and Independents won 19.

3. 41 seats were required for ruling, and no party won a clear majority. A coalition had to be formed.

4. Zik, as head of the NCNC, was "under the impression" that all the other seats would vote with NCNC. Not only did that not happen, 2 or 3 from NCNC crossed over to AG, leaving AG with 57 seats and NCNC with 23 seats (mostly from the Midwest.)

5. To claim that tribalism was introduced into Nigeria with this event is to stand history on its head.

 

UNQUOTE

 

QUOTE

 

We must first note that:

- AG was formed on March 10, 1951, after a year of secret planning (with the core group being Egbe Omo Oduduwa members);

- NCNC was next formed as a political party on March 17, 1951; it was a collection of loosely affiliated organizations with nationalist credentials before then.

- IPP (aka Mabolaje) was formed as a political party June 21, 1951, essentially to oppose the AG in Ibadan, because of Ibadan/Ijebu antipathy

- the upcoming 1951 elections were the FIRST elections for ALL the political parties.

In those two Sept 21/November 20 elections of 1951 in the Western Region,

- AG won 37 seats [36 in Yoruba-West, 1 in Mid-west]
- Mabolaje won 6 seats [all in Yoruba-West]
- NCNC won 18 seats [5 in Lagos-West, 13 in Mid-West]
- Independents won 19 seats [9 in Yoruba-West and 10 in the Mid-West]


The balance of the AG seats was what NCNC (and Zik) claimed qualified it for majority control - that is 43 seats - when in fact it could lay claim solidly to only 18.

By the time the Assembly met on January 20, 1952, AG's number became 57 (after retaining all its 37 won seats) and NCNC became 23 - a 20-person defection to AG, effected as follows:

Mabolaje - 5 out of the 6 it won [Adelabu remained]
NCNC - 5 out of the 18 that it won [1 from Midwest, 4 from Lagos-West]
Independents - 10 out of the 19 Independents

The 4 that had defected from the NCNC were made up from:

Mabolaje - 1
Independents - 8

such that there were now 23 NCNC members and 57 AG members, with the NCNC made up as follows:

Midwest - 21 out of 24 [gone to AG were: Enahoro, Prest and Ighodaro]
Lagos - 1 out of 4 [only Zik was left; Adedoyin, Olorunimbe, Adedoyin and TOS Benson had gone or voted with AG]
Yoruba-West - 1 [only Adelabu of IPP remained]


These are the facts, MeBiafran, give or take a few numbers and personalities, and I stand to be corrected. I have done my homework, not the propaganda untruths that you may have been fed (up) with !

UNQUOTE

 

 

 

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From: Leye Ige <ige.leye@yahoo. com>
Subject: Re: [NaijaPolitics] AWO WAS A SPECIAL GIFT TO NIGERIA !!!
To: NaijaPolitics@ yahoogroups. com
Date: Sunday, February 1, 2009, 9:05 PM

- materials deleted....

 

This is what Felix Adenaike, a long time journalist, wrote about it, in response to Mathew Mbu.

 

"Dr. Mbu said of that election held on 24 September 1951 that: "Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe was betrayed by the Western Region of Nigeria, not by the electorate, but by the leaders. The NCNC won the election against the Action Group (led by Chief Obafemi Awolowo), but the Action Group introduced what was unknown to Nigerian history", namely, "carpet crossing. They Action Group bought members of the NCNC to join the Action Group after these people had won election on the platform of the NCNC. Zik, the leader of a majority party in the Western Region became the Leader of Opposition overnight".

Reminded by the interviewer that the late Chief AMA Akinloye had maintained in his lifetime that he and his group had contested the election on a neutral platform from the NCNC, Dr. Mbu said: "That is his version... He is entitled to say what he wants to say. I don't want to say ill of the dead.. He knew he was NCNC and his group was NCNC. Adelabu remained NCNC. He stuck on to NCNC till he died".

 

The late Dr. Kingsley Ozumba Mbadiwe said in his autobiography, Rebirth of a nation, among others that: "But in pursuance of the policy of creating a political climate healthy enough to make one a citizen wherever he lived, Dr. Azikiwe contested and won the general elections in 1951 into the Western House of Assembly. To stultify this policy of one Nigeria in favour of his tribally-based philosophy, Chief Awolowo got some elected members to cross carpet from the NCNC to his AG side. Zik the victor lost. And Awolowo's party was able to form the government of the Western Region."

At a news conference in Lagos on 20 September 1989, more than two years after Chief Awolowo's death, Dr. Mbadiwe returned to the topic saying: "Dr. Azikiwe and his party won the majority of seats in the Western House of Assembly. He was due to be elected the Leader of Government Business, when overnight, the Action Group introduced the notorious carpet-crossing. By this manipulation, members who won under the NCNC crossed over to the Action Group building it to become the majority party in the West. As a result of this, Chief Awolowo was elected Leader of Government Business and Dr. Azikiwe had to resign."

 

Neither Dr. Mbu nor Dr. Mbadiwe named the members of the NCNC who contested the election on the party's platform and later joined the Action Group to enable Chief Awolowo form the government to the exclusion of Dr. Azikiwe. These are weighty allegations such that they would have assisted their readers to clear the issues rather just repeat their own version of the events at that time in the hope that such repetitions would turn falsehood into facts.

To avert conflicting claims over candidates, Mr. Harold Cooper, the Government Public Relations Officer, wrote to the parties to furnish a list of the candidates contesting election on their platforms. Only the Action Group complied with this request and its list of candidates was as follows: Ijebu Remo Division – Obafemi Awolowo and M.S. Sowole; Ijebu Ode Division – S.O. Awokoya, Rev. S.A. Banjo and V.D. Phillips; Oyo Division – Chief Bode Thomas, Abiodun Akerele, A.B.P. Martins, T.A. Amao and SB Eyitayo; Osun Division – SL Akintola, JO Adigun, JO Oroge, S.I. Ogunwale, I...A. Adejare, J.A. Ogunmuyiwa and S.O. Ola; Ondo Division – P.A. Ladapo and G.A. Deko; Okitipupa Division – Dr. L.B. Lebi, CA Tewe and SO Tubo; Epe Division – SL Edu, AB Gbajumo, Obafemi Ajayi and C.A. Williams; Ikeja Division – O. Akeredolu-Ale, SO Gbadamosi and FO Okuntola; Badagry Division – Chief CD Akran, Akinyemi Amosu and Rev. GM Fisher; Egba Division – J.F. Odunjo, Alhaji A.T. Ahmed, CPA Cole, Rev S.A. Daramola, Akintoye Tejuoso, SB Sobande, IO Delano and A Adedamola.

 

The others were as follows: Egbado Division – J.A.O. Odebiyi, D.A. Fafunmi, Adebiyi Adejumo, A. Akin Illo and P.O. Otegbeye; Ife Division – Rev S.A. Adeyefa, D.A. Ademiluyi, J.O. Opadina, and S.O. Olagbaju; Ekiti Division – E.A. Babalola, Rev. J Ade Ajayi, S.K. Familoni, S.A. Okeya and D Atolagbe; Owo Division – Michael Adekunle Ajasin, A.O. Ogedengbe, JA Agunloye, LO Omojola and R.A. Olusa; Western Ijaw Division – Pere EH Sapre-Obi and MF Agidee; Ishan Division – Anthony Enahoro; Urhobo Division – WE Mowarin, J.B. Ohwinbiri and JD Ifode; Warri Division – Arthur Prest and O. Otere, and Kukuruku Division – D.J.I. Igenuma.

Of the names on the list, only MA Ajasin from Owo Division, which comprised Akoko then, did not run because of party solidarity and unity in Owo. He stood down for A.O. Ogedengbe and R.A. Olusa to contest two of the three seats, which they won, while D.K. Olumofin won the third for the NCNC. Three secretaries of the Action Group, who ran as independents and won were: Alhaji D.S. Adegbenro, Egba Division; J.O. Osuntokun, Ekiti Division and S.O. Hassan, Epe Division.

 

At the close of polls on 24 September 1951, the Action Group had won 38 of the 72 seats in contention in the Regional Assembly. There were a total of 80 seats. Lagos had five seats in the West Regional Assembly all won by the NCNC in the election of 20 November 1951, while Benin had three won by Otu Edo candidates in the election of 6 December 1951. The poll had been postponed in Lagos and Benin following security concerns. Of the 68 candidates on the list furnished by the Action Group to the Government PR Department, 38 of the elected AG members were from that list. And they were as follows: Ijebu Remo – Obafemi Awolowo and M.S. Sowole; Ijebu Ode – Rev. SA Banjo and S.O. Awokoya; Oyo – Bode Thomas, Abiodun Akerele, ABP Thomas, TA Amao and SB Eyitayo; Osun – S.L. Akintola, J.O. Adigun, JA Oroge, S.I. Ogunwale, I.A. Adejare, J.A. Ogunmuyiwa and S.O. Ola.

Other elected AG members from the list were: Egba – J.F. Odunjo, Alhaji AT Ahmed, Rev. S.A. Daramola and Prince Adedamola; Egbado (now Yewa) – J.A.O. Odebiyi, D.A. Fafunmi and A. Akin Illo; Ekiti – E.A. Babalola and Rev. J. Ade-Ajayi; Badagry – Chief CD Akran and Rev. G.M. Fisher; Ikeja – SO Gbadamosi and O Akeredolu-Ale; Ife – Rev. SA Adeyefa and SO Olagbaju; Owo – AO Ogedengbe and RA Olusa; Epe – Safi Lawal Edu; Okitipupa – C.A. Tewe; Western Ijaw – M.F. Agidee; Ishan – Anthony Enahoro, and Warri – Arthur Prest.

 

In addition to the Action Group and the NCNC, there were local/divisional parties such as the Ibadan People's Party (IPP), led by Chief AMA Akinloye; Ondo Improvement League, and Otu Edo of Benin. At the end of poll, the standing of the parties was as follows: Action Group 38; NCNC/Independents 25; IPP 6 and Ondo Improvement League 2. Otu Edo candidates won the three Benin seats, namely, Chief SO Ighodaro, Chief Humphrey Omo-Osagie and Chief Chike Ekwuyasi. Chief Ighodaro opted for the AG, while the latter two went to the NCNC. And of the six IPP elected members, only Adegoke Adelabu joined the NCNC. The rest of them: AMA Akinloye, Chief DT Akinbiyi (who later became the Olubadan of Ibadan), Chief SO Lanlehin, Moyosore Aboderin and SA Akinyemi, opted for the Action Group. The NCNC National Secretary, the late Chief Kola Balogun had sent declaration forms to the IPP assemblymen asking them to declare for the NCNC but Chief Akinloye returned all the forms uncompleted.

The three AG secretaries who had run as independents – Adegbenro, Osuntokun and Hassan, five IPP members, one Etu Edo, and one Ondo Improvement League, Chief F.O. Awosika; and Chief Timothy Adeola Odutola (Independent, Ijebu Ode) had swollen the number of the AG elected members. All the transactions had taken place before the inauguration of the Regional Assembly on 7 January 1952. These were not known members of the NCNC, nor did the party publish their names on the list of its candidates, but claimed them as its "members, supporters or sympathisers" , according to inimitable Zik in his My Odyssey. It takes more than speculation to claim a person as a member of your political party. You cannot just be under the "impression" as Zik had claimed that they were and go ahead to field them as electoral candidates.. For over a half century, the NCNC is yet to provide evidence to back its claim that it had won the West Regional election in 1951.

 

Mr Cooper absolved his department of responsibility for the controversy generated by the NCNC after the election. At a post election news conference in Lagos he said that "Of the winning candidates, the names of 38 were on the list sent to me by the Action Group. The six successful candidates at Ibadan were all among those who had been identified to me as representing the Ibadan People's Party. No claim of any kind had reached us about the party affiliation of the remaining successful candidates." Why did the NCNC not send a list of its candidates for the poll to the Government PR Department before that poll? And why have Dr. Mbu and the others not published the list of NCNC candidates to substantiate their electoral victory claim in over 50 years but merely kept reaping false claims? The records of the poll conducted in the West and all over Nigeria by the colonial administration are available at the National Archives and can be accessed by any honest researcher. In this matter, it is facts that speak, not what some political/ethnic partisan said or did not say.

Dr Azikiwe's frustration was not only in losing the regional election, he also lost the election to the House of Representatives held on 10 January 1951 at the House of Assembly, Ibadan, among NCNC members. The total tally for the 1951 poll in the 80-member Western Regional Assembly was as follows: Action Group 38; Independent/ AG 15; NCNC 24; Independent/ NCNC 3. Three members of the NCNC who had been elected to the House changed party allegiance that day ahead of the House of Representatives vote. They were: Chief SY Kesington-Momoh, JG Ako, and Awodi Orisaremi, from Urhobo and Kukuruku Divisions. They were running for the House of Representatives and wanted Action Group votes. Kesington-Momoh and Ako were elected, but Orisaremi went back to the NCNC. That was all the carpet-crossing that took place on 10 January 1952, namely, three at first to the AG and one back to the NCNC.

 

From the vote tally, it is clear that the NCNC and the Independent /NCNC totalling 27 seats altogether out of 80 seats could not have formed the Government of Western Nigeria .(emphasis mine) Even if the local/divisional parties had chosen the NCNC, it would still be some seats short of 41 required to form the government. The Action Group won 38 seats; its independent candidates – Adegbenro, Osuntokun, Hassan and Odutola won four seats making a total of 42 seats.(emphasis mine) The AG could have formed the government without the support of the other small parties. It did not have to "bribe" anybody to join it to form the government. Since politics is a game of number, only few principled politicians would not be disposed to joining the winning party, in this case, the AG.

Dr. Mbadiwe also claimed in his book: "Successful NCNC men who were not Yoruba were scared away. Dr. Azikiwe who won a seat to the Western House (of) Assembly from a Lagos constituency decided to resign. Since membership of the House of Representatives was by an electoral college in the regional house, no NCNC from the West came to the House of Representatives in Lagos". This is blatantly false. Zik resigned because he lost election to the federal house from the West, while Prince Adeleke Adedoyin, Dr. Ibiyinka Olorun-Nimbe, Chief Frank Oputa-Otutu, Chief Denis Osadebey and Sir Odeleye Fadahunsi were elected from Ibadan to Lagos. Who ever scared non-Yoruba NCNC people from the West? Chief Denis Osadebey succeeded Adegoke Adelabu as Opposition Leader in the West and the likes of Humphrey Omo-Osagie, Festus Okotie-Eboh, Chike Ekwuyasi, Fidelis H Utomi, Obi Osagie, Yamu Numa, GO Oweh and GB Ometan were non-Yoruba NCNC in that Assembly. "

 

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