The Yoruba After Adesanya

Taiwo Adisa, Abuja

AdesanyaThe demise of the Leader of the Pan-Yoruba socio-political Organisation, Afenifere, who doubled as the indisputable leader of the Yoruba nation, Senator Abraham Adesanya on Sunday, April 27 marked a milestone in the trajectory of the modern day Yoruba.

Throughout the latest struggle for democratic rule in Nigeria, Adesanya was the leader voice and the warlord who stood firmly on the warfront. His reign was widely accepted by those who regularly refer to themselves as progressive politicians as well as those they refer to as conservatives. Even those who attempted to set themselves apart from his leadership during the dictatorial reign of the late Gen. Sani Abacha by pleasing the central military government with the setting up of a sort of Yoruba leadership knew within their hearts that the leadership of Yoruba by Adesanya cannot neither be hijacked nor mimicked.

It soon dawned on all that leadership among the Yoruba is not assumed or grabbed, it is a natural process that when conferred, can only be opposed on emotional (not factual) grounds. With the emergence of Adesanya on the scene, the unity of purpose among his peers in the pro-democracy world got further tight knitting and his qualities as a quintessential leader would shine through the period he lived.

He led the Nigerian pro-democracy forces in the search for enthronement of democracy during the military and the steel in him was to surface fully when the late General Sani Abacha bared his dictatorial fangs on the pro-democracy forces. Adesanya led the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), the group that had a good compliment of its leaders operating from exile, to demand the restoration of democratic rule by Abacha. It was a venture akin to standing in front of a moving train.

Abacha was rabidly against the call for a return to democracy. He was set on his own ways and when you talk about a return to democratic rule before him, he could only fathom himself transmuting to a civilian leader. So the gospel according to Adesanya and co was a tune Abacha was not ready to listen to. The antagonism between the Adesanya-led NADECO and the government of the day was an orchestrated one. Every single thing that went wrong under the Abacha regime was blamed on NADECO, including the shooting of the late Kudirat Abiola, wife of the late winner of June 12 1993 presidential election, Chief MKO Abiola on June 4, 1996 as well as the shooting of Adesanya himself shortly afterwards. Whenever there was a bomb blast in those years, NADECO was the culprit and its chieftains were hulled into detention camps.

While Adesanya was spared the jail house, his compatriots including Chief Olu Falae and Dr. Frederick Fasheun were victims of some plots which saw them languishing in detention till the end of Abacha’s rein. But even out of jail, Adesanya was not a free man. He was held hostage by the government of the day and millions of his people who were victims of the reign of terror. His law office at Victoria Island, Lagos and his home at Apapa were refuge homes for millions of the haunted and the deprived Nigerians who saw hope in the ageing leader.

Adesanya’s strength of character translated to the unity in the Afenifere during those years. Notwithstanding the division that was to set into the works of Afenifere at the commencement of democratic rule, Adesanya discharged his assignment creditably. One of the challenges Adesanya and his colleagues in the Afenifere and NADECO had to contend with after the demise of Gen Sani Abacha in 1998 was the setting up of a political party that would be acceptable to all, just like the democratic coalition.

By the time Abacha died, the conviction was there that the nation could no longer hang on as a pseudo-democracy. Those who backed Abacha’s five political parties which had adopted the late dictator as their sole presidential candidate (in pursuant of the self transmutation plot), also realized the folly and retraced their steps to the democratic front. But there was the contention as well on how to lead the path to true democracy. While those at the forefront of the democratic struggle were of the opinion that those who worked with Abacha had been tainted, those who participated in the ill-fated Abacha match felt they had the right to belong to associations seeking to rebuild the nation’s democracy.

Leaders of the Afenifere had resolved to group together in the emerging political assembly. They were being courted by all and many were seeking to come through their umbrella. A huge political group was emerging with the emergence of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), when the Deputy Leader of Afenifere and leader of the political party formation team, the late Chief Bola Ige identified some characters that the Afenifere could not work with in the new party.

The leaders moved to the All Peoples Party (APP), and while a deal was about being struck, the similar push that sent them away from PDP emerged again. The leaders of Afenifere eventually landed in a conclave called the Alliance for Democracy (AD), which became the third political party registered to participate in the Gen Abdusalami Abubakar-led transition programme. One of the major challenges Adesanya faced as leader of Afenifere was the battle with his deputy, Chief Bola Ige.

On several occasions, the Afenifere as a group, moved to expel Bola Ige, but on each occasion, Adesanya’s wisdom prevailed. While many Afenifere followers felt bitter that Chief Bola Ige decided to join the government of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, Adesanya felt that expelling the man could further expose deep cracks in the organization. The genesis to that was the presidential primaries of the AD which produced Chief Olu Falae ahead of Ige as the presidential candidate. Ige felt shortchanged that his colleagues would pick a newcomer in the fold ahead of him as the presidential candidate. The bad blood created the foundation for his acceptance of the ministerial slot offered by Obasanjo.

Up till the time Ige was murdered in December 2001, Adesanya found a way of managing the crisis in such a way that the former Minister still attended meetings of Afenifere both in Ijebu-Igbo, his ancestral home in Ogun State, and in his Apapa home in Lagos. AD and Afenifere were like Siamese twins but at the end of electioneering campaigns of 1999, it was obvious its strength lied in the South West alone.

It had splinter of seats in the other zones but won nearly all the positions available in the South West. That created a further challenge for Adesanya and his followers as the Yoruba people expected a return to the good old days of the Action Group (AG), the party that was successfully led by Chief Obafemi Awolowo. It was the lot of Adesanya to ensure that the six governors of the Yoruba states ruled according to the tenets of the defunct AG and recreate development focus.

The late Adesanya set up a review panel of the Afenifere to see through the activities of the governors and ensure that they fall in line with the objectives of the party. Somehow, Adesanya attempted to keep the focus of the AD by using the instrumentality of Afenifere to serve as the ombudsman. But such an attempt clashed with the contemporary political thinking among the governors who are younger than the Leader. The governors felt that the discharge of their constitutional powers cannot be left to the control of another group, even though the group was instrumental to their emergence as governors.

The crack between the Afenifere and the governors led to the defeat of five of the six governors in the election of April 2003. Many of the citizens felt that the governors failed in the first four years of democratic rule to show the difference between them and the so-called conservatives. But the bigger blame was heaped on the heads of Afenifere for paving the way for the defeat. The contention was that Afenifere and the AD aligned with the PDP to ensure that Obasanjo remained the only presidential candidate from the South West. It was a tactical move by the Adesanya-led Afenifere to ensure that even though Obasanjo was not the candidate of the zone in 1999, he should not be denied the second term ticket on the basis of the opposition by his kinsmen. Somehow, the decision on Obasanjo was the main assignment Adesanya directly presided over in the Afenifere. He took ill after the general election of 2003 and could barely manage to intervene from the fringes.

At a point, Adesanya sanctioned the inauguration of Chief Reuben Fasoranti as acting Leader of the Afenifere in view of his ailing health. Unfortunately, he did not come out of the health situation stronger; he joined his ancestors on Sunday April 27. With his show of commitment to the Yoruba, the cause of democracy and humanity, Adesanya can only be recorded on the positive side of history.

He led a good fight, which his compatriots have to carry on; the search for good governance championed through the tenets of democracy. Though his reign coincided with the entry of the so-called conservatives into positions of power in at least five of the six South West states, it is clear that Adesanya performed his duties as Leader of the region creditably. The challenges before those he left behind is to bring up the region to the pride of place the first generation politicians left it. There is the need for them to shake off the pervasive disunity and rudderlessness that rumple the ranks at present for a show of direction to the path of growth and development.