MY PROBLEM WITH AWOISM

Before I begin writing this piece, I need to make it abundantly clear that I do not intend to personally attack the person of Chief Obafemi Awolowo neither do I intend to bring whatever honour is attached to his name to any form of disrepute. He was an elder statesman and today remains a reference point in the history of Western Nigeria and of course Nigeria at large.

What I am going to do in this piece however, is make clear my sincere reservations towards the saintly manner in which the AWOIST theory has been presented. The proponents of this political and administrative ideology make it appear as if Papa Awolowo’s principles of politics and administration are ideal and free of all blame. The mistake is general and I have once jumped on the bandwagon, preaching the Awoist ideology as a veritable roadmap towards fostering a united and just democratic society.

On a fateful morning, I was a drive-through in the ancient town of Ogbomoso and had to take the road from Orita-Naira to General area of the town. Unavoidably, the road I was to take passes through the front of the residence of Late Chief S.L. Akintola. On seeing this residence, I immediately began reviewing the stories I heard of this late politician and one of those stories included his violent feud with Chief Obafemi Awolowo. The feud was generally violent, a despicable show of shame between two Yoruba elders at the time. It was indeed a misrepresentation of the Yoruba people.

This review of my knowledge of history prompted my questioning the beliefs I have always had in the Awoist ideology. The proponents of this ideology presents it as a model for good governance, non-violent electoral processes, a lesson in sound public administration and a model for peace, unity and mutual co-existence. I no longer believe those things. I now believe, that whoever they are who cooked up a political ideology called Awoism did it with the mindset of pulling off a grand deception. They intended to recruit Nigerians as disciples into an almost religious belief system which shares so much in common with an aphorism.

I remember the stories I was told about the era of Chief Obafemi Awolowo. Truly, education was free in his time, he built the very first television station in the country and he pioneered a lot of innovative developmental moves while he was Governor of the old Western region. Yet, that era witnessed the deadliest and most brutal forms of election violence and political thuggery ever witnessed in the Nigerian political landscape. He was a leader who valued infrastructural development, yet he had a strong penchant for political violence which transpired in his uncontrollable feud with Chief Akintola based on elfish political interests that led to loss of many lives including that of Akintola.

How peace-loving would it sound to describe the icon of a certain political ideology as a man who could not control the violent traits of his followers? How do we explain the ‘wet e’ era (a time of great political upheaval in the south-west which was characterized by massive burning of opponents’ houses and personal properties)?

In recent times, the notable politicians who have openly declared their belief in the Awoist ideology are politicians who have had connections with electoral violence and political thuggery. Across all party divides, mostly in the PDP and APC, you find them in numbers claiming to be strict adherents to the policies of Chief Obafemi Awolowo. Yet, the violence they mastermind is such that adheres strictly to the lessons they learnt from the icon of Awoism, Chief Obafemi Awolowo.

Stated clearly, what then is my problem with Awoism? It is that part of the political ideology that depict its icon, Chief Obafemi Awolowo as a peace-loving, non-violent saint, who embraced all and hated none, who gave all the chance for survival and killed none. The truth as I realized is, Obafemi Awolowo was a very practical man, he preached peace but employed violence and force when it was expedient. He campaigned for equal rights to life yet he killed those he considered as threats to his own life. My problem with Awosim, is that it is not a model for violence-free democracy as many preach it to be.

Thank you.