Permit me to open this unique dialogue with the following unimpeachable facts sourced from few credible historical accounts including “AWO.” The Autobiography of Chief Obafemi Awolowo: Path to Nigerian Greatness, and face-to-face interviews with Chief Awolowo, Chief Adekunle Ajasin and other distinguished participant actors and prolific writers like Chief Wumi Adegbonmire, who later became Secretary to the Alliance for Democracy-led government of Chief Adebayo Adefarati between 1999-2003 among others concerning the pace setting achievements of Afenifere in Nigeria’s political epochs. I unreservedly acknowledge the copyrights of original writers of all quotations and references made in this discourse because they were invaluable to making this statement much more informative, educative and instructive.
Action Group (AG) as a political party, among others, was dissolved by the military decree and public gazette in January 1966, but its movement called Afenifere remains the only one of its kind that precedes Nigeria’s political independence and has gone through circumstantial, existential, external treats, assaults and self-inflicted injury of fractionalisations, (Papa Fasoranti/Adebanjo; Late Senator Fasanmi; Senator Olabiyi Durojaiye; Afenifere Renewal) and still counting in spite of its current limitations over time.
Action Group as a National Political Party was the brainchild of the late sage, Chief Jeremiah Obafemi Awolowo, SAN, GCFR and his untiring efforts, grim determination to prepare and get the Western Nigeria ready for productive responses to the then on-coming constitutional exigencies which the Richard Constitution provisions would demand on Nigerians. After Egbe Omo Oduduwa had decided not to take part in politics and approved of Chief Awolowo’s pioneering efforts to form a virile political organization, he invited about 60 persons for a meeting. Of all these invitees just the following seven persons namely:
Mr. S. O. Shonibare
Chief Abiodun Akerele
Chief S. T. Oredein
Mr. Olatunji Dosumu
Mr. J. Ola Adigun
Mr. Adeyiga Akinsanya
Mr. Ayo Akinsanya; attended the first meeting.
The first meeting held on Sunday, March 26, 1950 at 9.0’clock in the morning at the Oke Ado Residence of Chief Awolowo in Ibadan. Before the public announcement of its existence, nine secret meetings of the Action Group had been held between 26th March 1950 and 4th March 1951. The secret meetings were necessitated to avoid the virulent attacks and hostility that could have been unleashed by Dr. Azikiwe and his media stable. Chief Awolowo could not forget in a hurry, the strident, vile and unbelievable hostility which Dr. Azikiwe and his ethnic nationality students unleashed on him and the associates when Egbe Omo Oduduwa was formed in Great Britain in 1945 not minding that there were already in existence, the Ibibio State Union as well as the Ibo State Union respectively.
3 (a) The Action Group was publicly inaugurated at the historical hall on the hill in Owo, Town in Ondo Province on the 28th of April 1951 and had representatives from 22 out of the 24 Administrative Divisions of the Western Region. AFENIFERE therefore could not have been created by anybody recently as was attemptedly claimed in revisionism to fit for the purpose of a private agenda. What is true and factual were that:
3 (b) After the inauguration of the Action Group in Owo, the leaders returned to Ibadan to campaign and for a public inauguration and presentation. There and then people were asking what was going to be the interpretation of the meaning of Action Group in Yoruba language.
At a party campaign rally in Adamasingba/Dugbe, the party Leaders led by Chief Adisa Akinloye were informing the public that the Action Group policy was summed up in Egalitarianism, Free Education, and Medicare, affordable Housing, and affordable Food, Minimum Wage to guarantee life more abundant that party loyalists and faithful started to describe the Action Group as a Movement of People wanting the best for ordinary citizens and who were committed to providing better quality of lives for all persons. Then, Chief Meredith Augustus Adisa Akinloye CFR helped them to sum up their descriptions as Afenifere. He later became the National Chairman of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) in the Second Republic. The name was popularised through diverse ways, songs and lyrics, poetic renditions and banters until it became an household watchword. In fact, a textile factory was commissioned to manufacture bales of cloth materials with the picture of Chief Obafemi Awolowo on it and was worn as apparels by all and sundry even as caps and headgears for women.
It is important to state that AFENIFERE from its inception remained a MOVEMENT of people who are committed to the greatest welfare of the people as enunciated by Chief Obafemi Awolowo SAN, under the philosophical caption of EGALITARIANISM, LIFE MORE ABUNDANT. AFENIFERE was never a registered political party, but it was the propelling Movement of people behind the Action Group that was registered. There had been no time when Afenifere was a cultural organisation. Egbe Omo Oduduwa which was a cultural organization decided not to transform into a political party after exhaustive discussion because they believed that such a transformation into partisan politics could compromise the organisation and divide the Yoruba nation, which was the very people it set itself up to protect and defend. Interested readers can Google the internet to be familiar with the names of the Yoruba distinguished leaders who collaborated with Chief Awolowo to establish the Egbe first in London and later in Nigeria in order to provide a credible voice for the Yoruba people in the immediate nationalist struggle for self-determination.
Three important decisions had to be made; the first was whether the Action Group should continue to function as a separate political organization, or whether its members should dissolve it and transfer its activities to the Egbe Omo Oduduwa which was then contemplating the formation of a political wing. The Egbe was not a political party but was savagely attacked by Dr Azikiwe, thus drawing most Yoruba politicians to rally round the Egbe. From all available accounts, the Nigerian Youth Movement had become fractionalized in 1941 because many members had political disagreements with Dr Azikiwe who himself became party-less until he in 1945 joined the NNDP formed by Dr. Hebert Macaulay. Again, the National Emergency Council (NEC), which was formed in 1949 when Dr Azikiwe was outside the country, died soon after his return.
Chief Awolowo at a meeting on 4th June 1950 was prepared to disband the proposed Action Group if the Egbe decided to have a political wing. This was according to him, “because party organization cost money and the people he looked up to for financial support were in the top hierarchy of the Egbe”. Chief Awolowo could only continue with the first meeting for the party organization after the Egbe had given its blessing.
The second decision was taken at the sixth meeting held on 8th October 1930, where nine persons were present and Chief Awolowo was so disappointed that he suggested winding up the meeting.
It was Mr. E. A. Babalola, first time attendee, Chief Sowole and Mr. Ajasin who opposed the suggestion to wind up the meeting. They argued that such a major project did not need a large number of people to get started. At the very next meeting which was the seventh, 27 people attended, encouragingly.
Furthermore, the third decision arose because of the higher number of attendees. Chief Awolowo suggested and ensured that the group set up a SHADOW CABINET. Each member was placed in charge of a subject and was also appointed as Chairman of such committee. Each committee was to study its particular subject thoroughly enough to be able to produce a policy paper on it.
The formation of the Action Group became a kind of necessity because the sage observed that the performances of the Western Region Representatives in both Regional and General Conferences for the review of the Richards Constitution exhibited lack of organization and they were lacking programme and effective leadership. For example, the then Mr. Anthony Enahoro deplored the weakness of the Western Members of the Legislative Council. They never knew what the other person was doing thereby exhibiting such kind of undisciplined disposition. Chief Awolowo in his Autobiography reiterated that the |new Constitution would be a test of the readiness and fitness of Nigerians to manage their own affair.”
The Action Group was the first to propose and establish the institution of “SHADOW CABINET.” This is the practice in parliamentary system whereby the opposition party has permanent people to oversee different departments of government with a view to getting themselves well acquainted and knowledgeable about their ministries so that if their party were to win at the next election, they will be ready to hit the ground running from their first day in office.
The Action Group was the first to have a party motto: FREEDOM FOR ALL, LIFE MORE ABUNDANT when Nigerians have
(i) Freedom from British rule;
(ii) Freedom from Ignorance;
(iii) Freedom from disease; and
(iv) Freedom from want.
In the 1951 Regional Election, the Action Group was the only party that published policy papers as well as a manifesto. There is a detailed account (Annexure 1) attached to this narrative to debunk the reactionary and false allegation that the Action Group introduced carpet crossing to Nigerian politics. Read the authentic account of the Colonial Government public relations official in charge of the election. Also the late Alhaji Ganiyu Dawodu, one of the first set of the Action Group organizing secretaries along with Papa Adebanjo, who was a participant actor had written a credible account about the 1951 Election.
In 1949 as a result of series of editorial comments written personally by Chief Awolowo entitled “CRY HAVOC” in the Nigerian Tribune, the Lieutenant Governors who thought that the power vested in them to nominate and pick ministers had no condition precedent, i.e. their powers were unfettered had to accept the painful reality that such powers could only be exercised after the advice of the majority party. The Colonial Officials erroneous impression got corrected in favour of the majority party. The East and the North in sequence followed and enjoyed the advantage that the Action Group courageously fought hard to achieve against the wishes of the colonial officers who wanted to continue to dominate the government formed by the Nigerian elected party representatives.
The Action Group was the pacesetter in the following among others, namely:
“ i. Voting by symbol was introduced into Nigeria by the Action Group and was first practised at the Local Government Elections in Ijebu-Remo in 1953.
Steel ballot boxes and security-printed ballot papers were first used in the Western Region in 1956, at the instance and insistence of the Action Group Government.
iii. The first motion calling for Nigerian Independence was moved by Chief Anthony Enahoro, CFR of the Action Group in 1953.
The first motion ever for the creation of a new Region – in this case for the creation of a Midwestern Region now broken into Delta and Edo States – was moved in the Western Region House of Assembly by an Action Group Member of the House.
It was only in the Western Region that the Leader of Opposition was elected Deputy Speaker of the House of Assembly.
It was also in the Western Region that Ministers of Finance and of Works were withdrawn from the Tenders Board, and the membership of the Board was restricted to Officials headed by the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance, together with known members of the Action Group and of the NCNC chosen, from time to time in equal numbers by the said Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance.
vii. Agricultural Settlements and Institutes were first established in the Western Region.
viii. It was in the Western Region that a minimum living wage was first introduced in Nigeria, and paid to workers in the Region.
The first-ever industrial estate and housing estate in Nigeria were established in the Western Region.
The first television service in Nigeria, indeed in the whole of Africa, was established in the Western Region in 1959.
The very famous Liberty Stadium was the first and the best of its kind in Nigeria when it was built in 1959. In terms of elegance and comfort, it still remains the best in the country.
xii. Before 1952, the Nigerian Government had never awarded as many as twenty university scholarships a year to Nigerian students. In that year (1952), the Western Region Government became the first ever to award two hundred university scholarships in one year to students of Western Region origin.
xiii. It was in the Western Region, on 17th January 1955 that Free Universal Primary Education, and Free Health Services for children up to the age of eighteen, were first introduced in any part of Nigeria. It was also in the Western Region that a six-year primary course, instead of the then existing eight-year primary course, was first introduced.
Some people have disrespectfully and insultingly described the Western Region as “the wild, wild west”. No people with predominant wild inclinations such as are implicit in the description can record in a short period of eight years the supremely impressive, epoch-making, and pacesetting innovations and achievements which have been itemized above. The truth about the people of the Western Region is that they are sufficiently enlightened and bold to refuse to be led by the nose by any person or group however sophisticated such person or group may appear. They are slow to anger; robust in contentions; alert to their rights, and will fearlessly resist and combat evil whenever and wherever they discern it, with all their might and resources. To the people of the Western Region a leader is made, not born. He is expected to justify his leadership by his personal attributes, and by his works for the good of the people. Whereas in some other parts of the country a leader is born and it is the followership that are expected to justify their worthiness to follow by the extremity of their obedience and subservience”.
There is no attempt here to claim that the Action Group was perfect as it never obtains in human domain. Yes the AG in fact erred on some policy measured which the party had to correct in conformity with the popular will of the electorate. In fact there were many parts of Western Region which detested and rejected the Action Group party till the January 15, 1966 violent military insurrection against Alhaji Balewa’s led NPC/NCNC coalition government.
EXISTENTIAL TRANSFORMATION/METAMORPHOSIS OF AFENIFERE
13(i) After the first military insurrection of January 15, 1966, the Military Junta under General Thomas Aguiyi Ironsi issued series of decrees that suspended and abrogated the 1960 & the 1963 Republican Federal Constitutions to give itself some semblance of legitimacy. Let it therefore be stated again and for posterity that the negotiated 1960 Independence Constitution which was amended to produce the 1963 Republican Federal Constitution remained the only legitimately produced constitution that was democratically subscribed to by Nigerians. Nigerians have not been given the democratic rights to produce an Autochthonous Constitution but rather, the Military Junta have severally imposed decrees called “Constitutions “ that have unitarised and centralized Nigeria for the undue advantage of a section of Nigeria till date.
(ii) Major General Johnson Thomas Aguiyi Ironsi, the new Military Head of State and Commander In-Chief on the 24th of May 1966 issued supplement to Official Gazette Extraordinary No. 51, Vol. 53, 1966 part A in a THE PUBLIC ORDER DECREE 1966 where in section 1 he announced the Dissolution of Political Parties, Tribal Unions and Cultural Organizations.
(iii) In schedule, Part 1, Section 1 and 12, the gazette listed the Political Societies or Associations. 84 Political Parties and Organizations that were dissolved. Along with that, the decree also dissolved 26 Tribal and Cultural Associations. The names were contained in the decree that is hereby annexed as Annexure 2 with explanatory remarks.
14 As soon as Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the sage left and resigned from General Gowon’s Government, on July 1, 1971, (General Gowon’s response to Chief Awolowo’s resignation is hereby attached as Annexure 3), he and his closest allies started to brainstorm on the prospect for Nigerian political future ie the Second Republic. The group eventually crystalized into what was known as “The Committee of Friends”.
15 Part of their resolutions had to do with the name to be adopted for whatever political organization they formed. The Committee was composed of star studied people in several respect, quite a number of old faithful and respectable guards of the Action Group were the initial frontliners. They were mindful of the Military Decree No. 33, A. 149 of 24th May, 1966 which had dissolved Political Parties Societies and tribal organizations and the transition decree of Muritala/Obasanjo government which prohibited any linkage with the First Republic Political Parties. Arising from the variously adopted policy options, the group adopted the name UNITY PARTY OF NIGERIA, UPN which was a National Political Party but was equally known as EGBE IMOLE in Yoruba land. So, AG/AFENIFERE became muted.
However, as Gen. Ibrahim Babangida’s unending political transition agenda was evolving after the transition to glory of the AVARTAR, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, SAN, the former Governors of the UPN commenced meetings under the Chairmanship of Chief Michael Adekunle Ajasin, CFR, in Owo and was called Owo Group for sometimes before the group became People’s Consultative Forum, PCF. At the first meeting of the Governors, the meeting decided to invite me to join their next meeting and to be its General Secretary and Spokesman. That was how I served the organization for 15years honourarily.
TO BE CONTINUED
Text of a press statement to mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of Egbe Afenifere, issued by Mr Ayo Opadokun, former General Secretary of Afenifere, former general secretary and spokesman of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), founding convener, Coalition of Democrats for Electoral Reform (CODER) and former Assistant Director of Organisation of the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) on April 27, 2021.
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