AWO’S CAP FITS TINUBU, SAYS U.S-BASED PROFESSOR

The popularity, political accomplishments, leadership virtues and dedication to the people’s cause of former Lagos State governor, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, were celebrated yesterday at the presentation of a book written by an associate professor at the University of California, the United States, Dr Wale Adebanwi.
The book, entitled Yoruba Elites and Ethnic Politics in Nigeria, was presented at the MUSON Centre, Lagos. It brought together political heavyweights, especially in the Southwest, as well as other parts of the country.
At the event were Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola; Interim National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Bisi Akande; former Ogun State governor, Chief Olusegun Osoba; frontline Yoruba elders Chief Olanihun Ajayi and Senator Ayo Fasanmi; former Lagos State governor, Alhaji Lateef Jakande; a chieftain of the defunct Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), Chief Ayo Adebanjo; renowned academic and columnist, Prof. Adebayo Williams; Hon. Wale Osun, Rev. Tunji Adebiyi, Senator Olabiyi Durojaiye, Bashorun J. K. Randle and Chief Ajibola Ogunsola.
The royal fathers included Oba Adedokun Abolarin, Oba Abimbola Akinyele and Oba Kola Ibiyemi; Lagos politicians Cardinal James Odunmbaku and Mr Jimi Agbaje; wife of a late legal luminary, Alhaja Alao Aka-Bashorun, wife of the late legal luminary, Mr Alao Aka-Bashorun; former Transport and Aviation Minister, Chief Ebenezer Babatope; the Senator representing Ekiti Central, Babafemi Ojudu and representatives of Ekiti, Ogun and Oyo states’ governors.
Dr. Adebanwi paid glowing tributes to Asiwaju Tinubu’s dedication and courage.
He noted that the APC chieftain is the most qualified, among the present crop of leaders in the region, to step into the shoes of the late sage and former Western Nigeria Premier, Chief Obafemi Awolowo.
Reviewing the book, frontline journalist and Executive Editor of The News, Mr. Kunle Ajibade, quoted the author that Awolowo’s cap fits Tinubu.
Ajibade said the masses of the Yoruba have always insisted on Awolowo, for their political direction.
But in the absence of the late sage, the journalist asked rhetorically: who becomes the new leader of the progressive movement? Or, who steps into the big shoes of the late Awolowo?
Ajibade answered the question.
He said: “Adebanwi, in the light of other contenders for the throne, thinks the cap fits Bola Tinubu, who has ‘pursued the ambition to become both the leader in Yoruba politics and the leader of the progressive movement in Nigeria’.”
Adebanwi, according to Ajibade, noted “that while Awolowo believed that one ought to mobilise for power on the basis of ideological interests, Tinubu has demonstrated that it is only by accessing power that one can mobilise one’s interests and make one’s vision of society practical.”
In his review, titled, The Genius of Obafemi Awolowo and the Contest for His Political Space, Ajibade quoted the author’s belief in Tinubu’s political prowess to take over from the late Awolowo.
He said Adebanwi “tells us that Awolowo’s investment in education and agriculture brought into being a middle class to engage the rest of the world”.
The reviewer noted that Awolowo remains a hero in the dominant progressive Yoruba politics. This is why even before he died, in 1987, some of his associates, specifically the late Justice Minitser, Chief Bola Ige and Alhaji Jakande, had been preparing to take over the mantle of Awo.
The chairman of the occasion and Nigeria’s former Ambassador to the United Nations (UN), Prof Ibrahim Agboola Gambari, hailed Adebanwi’s work.
He said writers like him are important in the society because they capture the ideas that are needed to move the nation forward.
“No nation moves forward unless ideas move them,” Gambari said.
Ambassador Tokunbo Awolowo-Dosunmu, the Executive Director of The Obafemi Awolowo Foundation, who representative of her mother, Mrs. H. I. D. Awolowo, said the Yoruba played a significant role in stabilising the country in the past.
He noted that such a role is required now, as the nation struggles to find a good direction towards progress.
Dr Awolowo-Dosunmu said she was usually upset when people said it was impossible to replicate what her late father and his associates did in the First and Second Republics.
She said: “As the author states in the book, Awolowo saw power as a tool to deploy for the service of the people. I am very happy that this is being put out there for everyone to read.”
But Dr Awolowo-Dosunmu expressed dissatisfaction with today’s style of politics in Nigeria.
She said: “But how can we play that role (of stabilising Nigeria) when many are pursuing their personal agenda?”
She thanked Dr Adebanwi for his courage and sacrifice, saying: “I can safely say that he is the authority on Chief Awolowo among his generation.” The Obafemi Awolowo Foundation worked in partnership with Afenifere Renewal group (ARG) to present Adebanwi’s book to the public.
Tinubu, who was the chief presenter of the book, noted in his address that the first reason the late Awolowo remained relevant to Nigeria’s present era was his reputation as a great alliance builder.
The APC chieftain, who was represented by Aregbesola, noted that contrary to what the ill-informed about Awolowo’s politics would say, Awolowo never discouraged the possibility of cross-national alliance to save Nigeria.
Tinubu said even though Awolowo started from Western Nigeria, he made efforts to go into alliances but “he did not always succeed”.
The APC chieftain said there could not be a better moment in Nigeria’s political climate to celebrate Awolowo, by remembering the lessons he taught Nigerians, than now.
He said Nigeria was faced with the urgent challenge of creating an alternative order at the federal level, adding that there was a lesson for Nigerians from the ideas the late Awolowo provided as well as the force of his examples.
Tinubu said the challenge “before those of us, who have been tasked with responding” to the moment, is clear.
“What we need to do is to build on those ideas, modify them – where need be – and then concretise them in the context of the strategic and tactical challenges of our own time,” he said.
Ajibade noted that even though the narratives of Awolowo and the Awoist movement had been subjects of rigorous and vigorous scholarships, Dr Adebanwi had deepened the knowledge with new perspectives.
He said: “In Yoruba Elites and Ethnic politics in Nigeria: Obafemi Awolowo and Corporate Agency, he (the author) writes lucidly about the crises that the physical absence of Awolowo brought about and the appropriation of his symbolic presence in Yorubaland.”
Source: The Nation