Ayo:
I was "recruited" into the June 12 movement in the US by Chief Ojo Maduekwe and Dr. Kalu Idika Kalu when they both came to give a rip-roaring speech in support of the Abiola mandate at a symposium at Catholic University (near my Howard University) during one fine August 1993 evening during the Sonekan administration - first to a very skeptical Igbo community abroad (in a closed session) and then to the larger Nigerian community. Until then, I was completely on the sidelines of Nigerian politics, minding my own academic business, already tenured, but trying to get promotion to full Professor - which did happen in June/August 1994, within months of Abiola's incarceration (June 23, 1994), and within months of when my own father had joined the Abacha government as NEIC Chairman (in January 1994).
My life has not been the same ever since. The pro-democracy movement took over my life, as I held one office after the other, and rallied all ralliables, from the US to the UK to Asia and Africa, fighting ethnic conflagrations (mainly of our Igbo compatriots and their Biafran stance, as well as the stauncher Awoist Yoruba compatriots and their anti-Abiola stance), incurring personal abuse, and private suspicions with respect to my father's service - including from even Prof. Wole Soyinka himself who on occasion surrounded himself with dubious young lieutenants elbowing others away from him and wishing to luxuriate exclusively in his "star quality." [You should re-read my constant co-conspirator Kayode Fayemi's book: "Out of the Shadows...." - the index has a few references to yours truly.]
I met MKO Abiola briefly after a Washington DC town hall meeting with Nigerians, and he seemed lost about his next moves. Clearly, he was not surrounded by the best of advisors: he even asked me the way to get to Lincoln Pennsylvania, where he was heading (rather late) to a Zik memorial event. My pointed public questions to Abiola at that particular symposium caused his daughter Hafsat who I had never met up until then - at the urging of an American advisor to Abiola - to call me later to ask what I thought Abiola's next moves should be. I could think of only two moves then: go back home to continue the struggle, and set up a radio station to continue to get his mandate message across to the Nigerian people. He did the former, but Soyinka, Fayemi and others of us where to do the latter much later on, and become "instant correspondents." My code name was "Ben Ayorinde", as I broadcast weekly "Oppression Watch" and inveighed against the Abacha regime. [I was told later that my disguise wasn't quite fire-proof, but at least my parents were never worried about that aspect of my activism.]
My major fear throughout the Abacha regime was not for myself, but that somehow my father, who I revered, would die either naturally or un-naturally, and I would not be able to attend his funeral in Nigeria because I had been declared "persona non grata" by the regime because of a wrong and stupid accusation of planning to "chemically bomb" the country. Luckily - but sadly - my Dad passed last year February 7, 2012, and I was able to give him a decent burial while working in Nigeria persona grata, long after Abacha was gone. There was nothing I thanked God for more than that Abacha did not come between father and son, both in life and in death.
Fast forward - or should I say fast back? - to after Abacha died (June 8, 1998) but before Abiola did (July 7, 1998). My father remained in Abdusalami's post-Abacha administration. I got a plaintive call from him urging me to urge the pro-democracy movement to have Abiola to renounce his mandate - he had reconciled himself to me being an acknowledge exiled "NADECO" leader abroad, even though I was never a NADECO member, but merely a sympathizer and president of a loosely-affiliated Nigerian Democratic Movement and USA Representative of UDFN (I was never a member of NALICON, a pre-UDFN outfit of Soyinka.) Prof. Sam Aluko felt that the PDMers were the ones INSISTING that Abiola not renounce his mandate, and that they were endangering his life unnecessarily. His reasoning was that it was only a persona alive who could LATER claim his mandate, and not a dead person. It was a curious plea that he had never discussed with me before, and I wondered why.
Anyway, I immediately wrote a secret memo to about ten of our PDM-ers - some of them must be reading me - telling them what my father had transmitted, and asking whether we should not TRICK the Military into letting Abiola renounce, only to have him announce his mandate again after being in a safe house. None of them would hear of it, lest the very fear of death or harm expressed would cause the very death or harm to Abiola.
So I relented - and the man died within a week or two, drinking tea.
Clearly, my Dad knew something that he did not fully tell me when he called. He was later to ask me "S(h)o tan?" - roughly translated "Did I not tell you?" but more dramatic when spoken in Yoruba.
And there you have it. So much more yet to write about those times...but there is a time for everything under the Sun.
Bolaji Aluko
On Fri, Jun 14, 2013 at 6:22 PM, Ayo Obe <ayo.m.o.obe@gmail.com> wrote:
I suppose that the use of "so-called" is designed to indicate that those who fought for democracy in Nigeria - and are in many cases still fighting - for democracy are charlatans, fakes "bereft" as you say, "of ideals".What happened on June 12th was that Nigerians departed from the script set for them. They rejected the identity/religious politics that the Babangida administration imagined would scuttle the return to civilian rule and showed a capacity to rise above that. It was an election conducted in a way that more accurately reflected the actual votes cast than any other election held in the country.Is June 12th held up as "the epitome of democratic practice" by every pro-democracy activist? Quite obviously not. What one should understand is that June 12th 1993 was twenty years ago. Does anybody expect to step into the same river twice? When June 12th is marked, it is in recognition of how much more advanced our democratic journey would have been had the process started on June 12th continued. We would have elected - not a candidate anointed and installed by an outgoing military dictatorship - but one who might just possibly have understood that he owed his victory to the voters. Voters would have understood that too. Had we held fast to that, who knows where our understanding of accountability might be now.When the die-hard June 12ers insisted that it was "the freest and fairest election in Nigeria's history", many of us always add "on the day" in recognition of the limits of what was achieved. Some of those in the fight have shuffled off the mortal: I guess of these, Chima Ubani represented one end of the spectrum while Gani Fawehinmi was at the other. Indeed, when we formed United Action for Democracy, we got a lot of flak from Gani for not adopting a total "On June 12th we stand" position and I do recall writing about those who were fond of "sniping from the sidelines". Plus ça change, eh? There is always an undercurrent of ethnic tensions in discussions about June 12. Inside UAD (of which Gani was never a member) we worked hard to overcome that tendency and achieve a common platform from which to oppose military dictatorship. Outside it, well ... I guess the struggle continues.
AyoI invite you to follow me on Twitter @naijamaThat our so called pro-democracy activists would hold up the event of June 12th 1993 in Nigeria as the epitome of democratic practice shows how bereft of democratic ideals they are.
CAO.
On Wednesday, 12 June 2013 14:41:49 UTC+1, Ayo Obe wrote:--Ikhide, are you hoping to get a rise out of anybody? Is that why you are wishing your days away? I'm sure you are a secret admirer of what Nigerians achieved on the actual day, June 12th 1993 (I say nothing of the process by which we reached that day) and are just burying your disappointment that we continue to have to look back because there isn't enough going forward from that day to celebrate or emulate.But if it is just a date on the calendar to you, live through it like any other day. After all, it's not as if someone tied your eye to Bola Tinubu or Hafsat Abiola Costello's remarks on the event being commemorated, is it?
AyoI invite you to follow me on Twitter @naijama--"June 12 shined the light of hope; its termination enveloped us in darkness. Some claim we regained civilian democracy in 1999; that claim is not completely true. What took place in 1999 and what is taking place now is but a shadow of June 12. Things are such that many wonder if we, having lost this great chance, will ever revisit the fullness of that moment. I pray we do. The fate of the nation and the over 150 million people occupying it hang in the balance. The past has not always been kind to us; we hope the future does what the past has not."- Bola Ahmed TinubuSigh, cannot wait for this stupid day to be over. June 12 my foot! Somebody tape his mouth shut!- IkhideStalk my blog at http://www.xokigbo.com/Follow me on Twitter: @ikhideJoin me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ikhide
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
For previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfric...@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-
unsub...@googlegroups.com
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
For previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-
unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
For previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-
unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
For previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-
unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
