FRUSTRATED @70 BUT— Being The Birthday Address Of Akogun Iyiola Oyedepo
I was born before Nigerian Independence, but burst to a bit of political consciousness at Independence on the 1st October 1960. My faint memory of independence-on-Independence Day was not about the struggles of Herbert Macauley, Azikwe, Awolowo and Ahmadu Bello as I was too young to know all those. My memory of it was that on that memorable and eventful day, the sleeping community of Isanlu-Isin, my home town, was awaken to a street parade of the elderly men dancing and singing. My father was one of them. I could still not remember what the lead singer of the excited crowd was saying, but I could hear the chorus-ominira oni yotomi; meaning this independence of today is refreshing. They danced to the palace of the reigning Oba Oyinloye and I and other children followed them to share in the excitement of the day.
Perhaps politics is in my gene. I do not know. My father was not a member of a political Party of his time. He might know about the limelight political leaders of his days, but he never discussed politics with me and I was twenty-one years of age before I lost him. I saw and knew him as a Chief in the community and a leader of a thrift ad savings organization, where he organized people to save money and lent it out to those in distress and those that may want to establish or improve their businesses. He was a trader in clothing and a farmer. He was never in partisan politics but was active in the affairs of the community. If participation in partisan politics is a means of leadership recruitment, then my father’s leadership roles in the community must have robbed off on me. As to my mother, she was a Christian enthusiast and prayer warrior, and was completely apolitical. The bottom-line is that I am not from a political family and my family background could not have assisted my political ascendency thus far. That I have spent thirty-five years in politics and still politically relevant, is by the grace of God.
I love politics because I always have a burden for the development of the society. I believe that it is in politics that I could be fulfilled in life. Otherwise, I could have taken entirely to the practice of law as by profession, I am a legal practitioner. I could also have taken to the academics and excel in the teaching of political science as by training, I am a political scientist. I am also fascinated by farming as I learnt the art of farming through my father. But I believe that politics defines my essence.
I took to partisan politics in 1989, and with this my 70th year on earth and 36th in politics; about a half of my years on planet earth have been spent in this highly demanding work of politics. Before a foray into politics, I had a stint in community organizations. But what sharpen and strengthen my political interests and created in me political aspiration to lead was the impression and impacts created in me by two books that changed my life for good and forever. The first is, The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fannon, a political radical, Pan Africanist and Marxist humanist and How Europe Underdeveloped Africa by, Walter Rodney; a Guyanese historian, political activist and academic. While Franz Fannon in the Wretched of the Earth provides a psychoanalysis of the dehumanizing effects of colonization upon individuals and the nation; Walter Rodney’s How Europe Underdeveloped Africa describes how Africa was deliberately exploited and under developed by European colonial regimes. The two capture the degradation, oppression, abject poverty externally induced by the relationship of Black African with the white. The two books posit how slavery and colonialism are the sources of the Blackman’s backwardness. These books and others radicalized my tender heart and almost made me an atheist but for the grace of God that used the Bible to tame my wild imagination.
Some first generation of post-colonial African leaders like Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Patrick Lumumba of Congo, Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, Obafemi Awolowo of Nigeria, Aminu Kano of Nigeria and Nelson Mandela of South Africa among others, understood the true meanings of colonialism and its successor, neo-colonialism and in their own ways devised the ways and manner to combat the evil aggression of the system. I read the policies and many available literatures on these exceptional African leaders. What I read fired my enthusiasm for politics and made me to see politics as the only reliable instrument to confront inequality in the society.
I have followed some masters in politics, especially in Kwara State. Stepping my foot into partisan politics, the late Olusin of Isanlu-Isin, Oba Solomon Bolarin, Arepokeye 1, advised me to follow the progressive leaders of the time. He specifically told me to join partisan politics through the political structure of Chief CO Adebayo, a former Governor of Kwara State. From 1989 to middle 1991, I was a member of the junior caucus of Chief Adebayo’s political family. What I learnt from that political relationship was the imperative of principle and organization in politics. In the middle of 1991, I fell out with the group and joined the structure of Dr Abubarkar Olusola Saraki through Alhaji Shaaba Lafiagi, Governor of Kwara State 1992-1993. In the political structure of Dr Olusola Saraki, I was made a commissioner in the government of Kwara State. My take from Dr Olusola Saraki’s structure is the need for politician to mobilize and bond with the people for durable leadership in politics. After the Commissionership in November of 1993, my restless spirit carried me to head a political party, Democratic Party of Nigeria (DPN)-one of “the five leprous fingers of General Sanni Abacha”, according to the late Governor Bola Ige. The platform of this party gave me political independence to build a strong structure that was good enough to challenge established old order. In that party we had a good outing in Isin, Offa, Irepodun and Oyun LGAs. We had no money, no money bags and no godfather and we won councillorship seats in Isin, Irepodun, Offa and Oyun. The big lesson I learnt from what people might call a political gamble was determination, courage and commitment which can be used to displace any political order. Our then impressive outing made the great Oloye to send for me and urged me to come back to his political family. With the DPN, I had started building my political clout and worth. My political thought moved from continuing to be a political pet of any godfather in politics. I was waiting for an auspicious time to hit the wall of anti-democratic forces. When the opportunity came, I hit it too hard.
From 1999-2003, I was a member and the Chief Whip of Kwara State House of Assembly representing Isin state Constituency. Without being immodest, my performances in the years in the Assembly were outstanding. And since this is not my memoir, I recommend my years in that House for studies for those that aspire to make a stint in the legislature. I remain proud of my years in the Kwara State House of Assembly. That was a House, where though, I was in the majority Party, my acts, focus and actions were dictated by objectivity and the real needs of the people of Kwara, particularly people of my constituency.
The watershed of my political career thus far was when I was made the Chairman of Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), 2014-2018. We used the platform of that party to establish a viable opposition in the politics of Kwara State. By the grace of God, I was the first to establish in Kwara State, Radio political broadcast as a means of sensitization, Mobilization and Organization of the people to change government in the State. The essence of OTO GEE was not in the 11th hour noise making between November 2018 and the elections of March 2019. Some people had done consistent sensitization programs of more than four years between 2014-2018. The effort even yielded fruits in the Local Governmrent election of 2017. The sitting government was rattled and embarrassed and when the government claimed to have won all the councillorship and Chairmanship seats in the sixteen Local Government Areas of Kwara State; the State Independent Electoral Commission (KWASIEC) could not announce the election results five days after the conclusion of the polls. A lot of manipulations had to be done to arrive at winning formula. Opposition had defeated the incumbent in 2017, coronation was done in 2019 with the APC wearing the crown.
To the glory of God, my fruitful leadership roles in the OTOO GE Movement cannot be in doubt to Kwara political watchers and analysts. But what several people know was my PDP Chairmanship years. History is often made in solitary places of confinements. It is the manifestations of efforts made in self-imposed or law-imposed confinements that people do celebrate. Such has been my lot in the politics of Kwara State. It was in year 2002, under the leadership of the Late Mohammed Lawal that I started to participate in earnest in the activities that led to regime change of 2019. I fought for regime change as either the chairman or member of Action Alliance, Action Congress, which later became Action Congress of Nigeria, Peoples’ Democratic Party and All Peoples’ Congress. Outside the Party system, I wrote books like, Shonga and the Looting of Kwara Treasury, Letters to the Emir and Twenty-One political lies in Nigeria. I wrote several articles as a columnist and opinion writer in some Nigerian Newspapers analyzing the governmental decisions in Kwara State. I have been detained on occasions in both Ilorin and Abuja as a result of my political struggles. I have been denied business, economic and political opportunities as a result of my political stand. All these are part of my experiences of my thirty-six years in politics and they follow me to 70.
The past five years have been the most traumatic part of my political life. At the thick and peak of the struggle for regime change, I did not show any interest in any office that could be a direct benefit to my person. The struggle for actualization of purpose consumed my time, talent, commitment and financial resources. Many people were absent from the theatre of war, others sat on the fringes or on the fence watching where the direction of things was going, I was deep in the trenches. Those that were not visible at the war fronts carried the trophies of our collective endeavor. The sad thing is that they forgot to remember the war commanders. I did not struggle for office because I believed that once we achieve a regime change, all other necessary advantages like consultation and influence in the project we built together will follow. We worked hard to displace the ancient regime, thinking it would advance our political career and serve the interests of the people of Kwara State. Our thinking remains an error. We have a government that is a misnomer of one-man majority in a democracy. We have a government that makes us to ask ourselves: why have we fought the battle or what is the essence of the change we championed? And that is my frustration at 70.
But there is no need for despondency when we are still alive and have raised up many that believe in the cause we still pursue. There is only the need to be more focused with meticulous planning for the desirable change that the people of Kwara State have yawned for this long. The episode of the past five years that expected to last for eight years must have taught us a big lesson. Some of those that fought for OTOO GE of 2019 were strange bed-fellows that were only envious of the regime that was checked out of power. They just want to be in office as a mere replacement-and an ugly one for that matter. Events have shown that they were only looking for a platform to pour in our blood stream the venom of poisonous snake whereas we were earlier bitten by scorpions. For several people of my age, this perhaps is the final onslaught. We owe it as an obligation to those immediately behind us and generations that will follow, to create a Kwara State that will put emphasis on good governance and ensure equity, fairness and justice in the operation of our government. Never again should we allow democracy to be this abused.
I am however more concerned about how I drop this drawn sword than when I drop it. When and where I drop this sword, others will pick it and carry on.
I am delighted to be a septuagenarian.
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