Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim canvasses the need to document the lives and times of activists for posterity
Over the Easter weekend, two core Nigerians that my generation produced fell to the cold hands of death. Yinka Odumakin, better known as Afenifere spokesperson in the now highly convoluted Nigerian politics charged with identity politics, but known to us the generation of pro-democracy activists of the 1980’s as Comrade Yinka, gave in.
Just when many were making efforts to pay their tributes to the departed soldier of freedom, Yinka, another one, Innocent Chukwuma, the Executive Director of CLEAN gave up after a struggle with leukemia. It is barely two months that Didi Adodo, the General Secretary of Iron and Steel Senior Staff Association, gave up the ghost. I met with Didi in 1987 at Benin, in one of those marathon meetings of patriots plotting to get our country out of underdevelopment. We became flat mates in a shared three-bedroom accommodation alongside Tony Iyare. Didi died too as a result of ill health. The trio were in their fifties as almost all of us in that generation, except a few ahead of us who had attained the age of 60.
I used the word “tribe” very deliberately, because whether of Igbo origin, Hausa, Isoko, TIV, Yoruba, or Kamberi, we were a tribe of patriots in the revolutionary 1980’s. Whenever there was call to struggle against injustice and a protest match or lecture boycott was needed, the whole country, the entire studentry, the youth, organized labor and the intelligentsia responded at once from Sokoto to Port Harcourt, Maiduguri to Lagos, Ilorin, Jos, Ife, Ibadan, Benin, Warri, etc., all rose up at once. The youth movement and the studentry were the most important contingent of the radical movement of the 80’s struggle.
And those struggles were yearly occurrences or at most bi-annually. For the records they were 1984 Boycott of classes, 1986 Ango must go struggle after the massacre of students in ABU, Zaria; the 1989 struggles against increase in petrol prices, and the 1989 Anti-SAP protest. The struggle normally resulted in more killings by security forces, arrests, detention of student activists, aborted trials sometime at Military Tribunal as with the planned trial of Emma Ezeauzu, Chima Ubani (both late) and others at Military Tribunal in Enugu in 1987.
The planned trial was aborted as great lion and lionesses at UNN Students started marching from Nsukka to disband physically the military tribunal, simultaneously as we were getting Akokites (from University of Lagos), Great Ife (from University of Ife), and all the campuses to stage solidarity protests or march on Enugu. Innocent Chukwuma (now late), was one of the expelled UNN students in the wake of that crisis in 1987.
While the 1986, 1987, 1988 struggles were reactive to events the 1989 Anti-SAP protest was a planned and a massive uprising beyond issues limited to the educational sector; it took on an economic policy of a regime that had global consequences together with the military regimes political transition programme. And therefore involved extensive consultation as well as organization.
I met Yinka who was the PRO of University of Ife, in one of those mobilizational activities. I was a guest speaker at a symposium organized by Obafemi Awolowo University Students Union. I was the PRO of the National Association of the Nigerian Students (NANS) as well as the Head of Bureau of Information.
Activists of the 1980’s were a close-knit family despite our diverse cultural and social backgrounds. We were bound in the expectation of a revolutionary change that would transform our nation.
Not all of us were from poor homes: Yau Yar’Adua was one example, he was younger brother to the late Nigeria number two, Gen. Shehu Musa Yar’Adua. As we struggled between 1988 and1989, one of us Lukman Salihu’s uncle, – Rilwan Lukman was Nigeria’s Minister of Petroleum; my dad was a senior Police Commissioner and my step dad, a senior civil servant, while my Mum a business tycoon of reasonable means. We were ready to sacrifice anything for our country including our lives.
We were bond in love and solidarity, we shared our resources and ate in the same bowls at meetings. I still remember vividly Chima Ubani’s big mussels of Eba compared to his fragile frame; the times we were hosted by Chris Abashi, NANS president 1983 at Barawana residence in Kaduna. Unfortunately Chris died of ill-health as well, while Chima died in a ghastly motor accident.
In the 1970’s and the early 1980’s Nigerian’s health system was good enough to support the health of activists of the anti-colonial struggles; the ones of the 1950’s and 60’s also had the solidarity of the then socialist world to fall back on. The radicals of the 1980’s are an endangered species. Worst still for this tribe of activists is that they are not even well celebrated and recognized for their sacrifices for democracy.
The new Nigerian rulers not connected with any struggles for democracy deliberately side-line the activists. They obviously cannot stomach the excessive criticisms of this tribe.
Tragically, not any serious record exists of the roles of these radical young men and women in history to inspire contemporary positive natural values. Not much has been written about them, neither did they document their own experiences. I must admit quickly that lack of adequate historical records is not limited to the struggle of 1980’s which makes our country a dwarf in history, an injustice we consistently melted to ourselves and forbearers.
From the Aba Women Riot of 1929, to the Coal Miners’ strike of 1949 (Iva Valley massacre), the struggles of Satiru in Sokoto, the Agbekoya Revolt, the struggles of Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, the Gaubo Sawaba struggles, the struggles of the Zikist Youth, the struggles of Saad Zungur, records are scanty and absent in the consciousness of our children. And without blaming the young people, it is one of the reasons why some youth protesters during the EndSars protest imagine that they were doing for the first time what their parents never did. Quite to the contrary, Nigeria has such a rich history of struggle for freedom unmatched by the history of any other country in Africa.
The remaining tribe of freedom fighters must do something for posterity, start writing biographies and history books as I have started working on my own biography. We should not leave historiography at the mercy of those who stole and raped the country and now funding dubious version of what happened before our very eyes.
One of the major handicaps of this tribe is that many are barely managing to survive in the Nigeria’s desperate social-economic theatre that has become the survival of the fittest. Many of this generation of activists did not make effort by choice, to economically and politically empower themselves in order to win themselves voices in the political space.
It’s customary to find the bulk of this tribe of freedom fighters in the civil society groups sustained largely by foreign aids, a few who went to the bar perhaps a bit stronger motivated by the example of Alao Bashorun (former President of the Nigerian Bar association), Gani Fawehimi, and Olisa Agbokoba, Femi Falana, and Abdulraman in Kaduna. Some found relevance in the media on the heels of Dapo Oloruyomi, Kayode Komolafe, Lanre Arogundade, Chris Mamah, Kabiru Yusuf, Femi Ahmed, Bolanle Omonijo, etc. Apart from the media, the trade union were the comfort zone of these crusaders for freedom. The early entrants were Sulisu Mohammed, John Oduah, Chris Uyot, Chom Bagu, Isa Aremu, Denja Yakubu, Shola Olorunyomi, followed by Lukeman Salihu, Olaitan Oyerinde (late) , John Sani (late) and Benedict Ederhue, etc.
Very few of the activists of the mid and late 1980’s ventured into business, army, civil service, police force or even politics. These generation of freedom fighters also made a catastrophic mistake to stay out of politics. The few of us who ventured in were ostracized and mocked. We were “renegades” and petty bourgeois opportunists. And when we were taken on the establishment on their terms the reaction was scornful “look at him, he thinks he can play bourgeois politics”.
The tribe missed a critical chance to create a platform in the polity, they desperately desire that now but are not too humble to learn. In frustration and to seek relevance, many are queuing behind ethnic irredentist elements and using their organizational talents to stock division. But make no mistake about it, the freedom fighters of the 1980’s are very talented intellectuals, extremely patriotic, and energetic. They are the custodians of important values required for national transformation.
Thankfully, the leadership core of that movement is still alive, especially from the mid and late 80’s. In the time of yore, leadership will revolve around:
One, the Secretary General of the Patriotic Youth Movement of Nigeria, the vanguard core organization of young activists.
Two, The President of National Association of Nigeria Students (NANS) as head of secretariat of NANS.
Three, the Public Relations Office of NANs as Head of Bureau of information.
Four, the Senate President/Deputy State President as Head of the Senate NANS (a collection of presidents of affiliate unions).
The movement had public faces of some collegiate leadership. The spots were filled as follow; 1984-1986 Lanre Arogundade and Ngozi Ojidioh (Iwere); 1986-1988 Emma Ezeazu (late) and Labarun Maku; 1988-89 Lukeman Saliu, Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim and Gbenga Komolafe; 1989-1990, Opeyemi Bamidele, Luke Aghanem and Fola Odili.
Let the freedom fighters of the 80’s redeem themselves for posterity and in history and let the nation benefit from their enormous talent and experiences, so that it will not just be praises about wasted values after they have departed as one have seen in the past few days: excellent eulogies and robust statements about our departed friends, Yinka and Chukwuma. What did we do with them when they were here?
––Olawepo-Hashim, former student union activist, former presidential candidate in the last general elections, is an oil and power sector business executive.
