Akinjide’s final bow…and lost dreams

…as he severed relationship with the North

By OLUSESAN LAOYE

Chief Richard Akinjide was one of the few Nigerians who had the opportunities to serve the country on many capacities and was able to live through many regimes as a power broker. The astute and erudite lawyer of his time could be described as someone, who saw and conquered. He saw through thick and thin and had fought many battles, right from the colonial era till he bid Nigeria good night at the ripe age of 88.

He was there in the First Republic, Second, third and saw the most crucial moments of governance in the on-going political dispensation. He was a man who had offered so many recipes that could move Nigeria forward and beyond her present stagnancy.

Chief Akinjide no doubt, was the proponent of the 12-2/3 electoral formula which he propounded at the Presidential Election Tribunal in 1979 which made late President Aliu Usman Shehu Shagari of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) win the presidential election.  It was an ingenious proposition, which though won the case it had no precedent and could not be used as one.

Chief Akinjide till he died remained a highly principled man who stood firmly with what he believed in,  especially in politics, just like the late sage  Chief Obafemi Awolowo. Although both never belonged to the same political camp because Akinjide always remained himself, he never for once joined the crowd, but despite this, both shared some ideologies concerning Nigeria and ways of life.

Just like Awolowo, Akinjide was a cerebral, true professional, and mortally disciplined. Ranked with Awo, the two never soiled their reputations with womanising or carousing around in the dark with women of easy virtues. They both lived an upright life. Although to some people, equating Chief Akinjide with Chief Awolowo, especially given their political differences, may sound odd, the events and utterances of Chief Akinjide proved those who did that were right, at least in their views about Nigeria.

Chief Akinjide till his death, just like Chief Awolowo, believed in the confederal system of government for the country, or what was regionalism in the first republic. He advocated it to the last and never stopped talking about the restructuring of Nigeria and his advocacy, for this, cost him the presidency of Nigeria.

It was his quest for the restructuring of Nigeria that also made him part ways with the North and made him stay with his people where he belonged. The events of 1998 should still be fresh in the mind of those who were privy to them.

After the annulment of Chief MKO Abiola election and it was decided that the Yoruba be allowed the presidency as a way of stabilising Nigeria, which was definitely on the verge of collapse, the North went shopping for a candidate that would suit them.

The political class proposed Chief Akinjide, and the late Alhaji Arisekola Alao who was then the Publisher of the Monitor Newspapers was co-opted to facilitate the arrangement and the Newspapers was more or less mandated to start promoting him, while series of stories and interviews were conducted.

There were also a series of meetings with the political class in the North spearheaded by the late President Shagari. Some of them felt that Chief Akinjide with his pedigree, loyalty, and considering the role he played to ensure that the North got the presidency in 1979, stood a better chance to be trusted. But unknown to Chief Akinjide, the North kept him under a close watch.

The legal luminary who was a Minister of Education in the First Republic under Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa and Minister of Justice and Attorney General in the Second Republic under Shagari was a man of his own, who could not hide what he strongly believed in. At a public event of Pan Yoruba Congress held at the Premier Hotel Ibadan, he advocated for restructuring and for Nigeria to go back to the regional government, which he was convinced would be better for the development of Nigeria.

Although Chief Akinjide was not physically present at the Congress, his letter to the Yoruba gathering was read on his behalf for Regional government was applauded and was commended by those who commented on it. The position of the late Attorney-General though, stunned the Yoruba gathering, that he had shifted position to speak the minds of the Region, it was a welcome development to his people but not to the people in the North who had proposed him for the presidency

That position of his was used to convince those who were not in his support in the North and other areas of Nigeria that he was dangerous. The statement that Nigeria should go back to the Regional government to those in the North meant restructuring from the presidential system, which they believed favoured them than to go back to the old system, where economic powers would reside in the Regions.

If that presentation were from someone else, the North would not have counted it very serious but knowing him, as someone who had taken full participation in both the parliamentary and presidential systems, they admitted that it was not the Akinjide they knew and that as a typical Yoruba man he would pursue restructuring with the full backing of his people,  who were at home with the new political order he presented before them.

Since the death of Chief Akinjide, many people had commented about him on many things he had done politically and otherwise. On his botched Presidential ambition which showed his preference for the people of the South West, the person he contacted to prepared a position paper for him, spoke exclusively with BusinessHallmark.

Elder Moses Olorode who was the press Secretary of the former Governor of Oyo State, Dr Omololu Olunloyo, revealed how he was contacted by Chief Akinjide on his presidential ambition.

According to Elder Olorode, “during the parliamentary for the presidential elections that were to take place in 1998, Chief Akinjide called me and said I should package a proposal for him because he wanted me to handle his publicity. I then went ahead to prepared a position paper and on the proposal, I told him that as far as South West was concerned, he should forget about it because the strength of Bola Ige was too much for him, since I was a disciple of Chief Awolowo and Awo who ‘owned’ the West.

I then advised him that he should concentrate his energy in the North and the East. I further told him that if he went to the North, he should tell them that am nowhere, Mr. 12-`2/3. I supported your son Alhaji Shehu Shagari to win the presidential election, now I have come for my reward. The role I played at the Tribunal  was decisive  enough and helped Shagari  to come  to power,  so, this is the time to repay me.”

I further told him “that by the time he went around and attended rallies in the North his message would sink to the people and the electorate”.

Elder Olorode went on” I also asked him to go to the East that here is your true friend that he has been with Zik right from day one, and never aspired to leave him despite tremendous pressure to do so and that he never once aligned with Awolowo but stood with Zik in NCNC to the end. That now that he wanted to be a presidential candidate that he would need their support and they should rally round him.. I also told him that if he adopted these approaches,  he would  win a lot of solidarity votes in the East at  the expense  of Bola Ige, Falae, Obasanjo and others  as the case may be.:”

Elder Olorpde said ” I thought he would jump at my proposal but he got furious and told me that why should I think that he would have no chance in the South  West, that he and others were equally acceptable to the South  West electorate. But at the end of the day, he saw that my predictions were right. He was floored at the early stages.

Be it as it may I still have a lot of respect for him. He was cerebral, true professional in his chosen career and morally disciplined too.  He is ranked with Awolowo. The two never soiled their reputations with a woman or carousing around with women of easy virtues. He lived an uptight life like Awo.” Elder Olorode concluded

Truly like Elder Olorode said, it dawned on Chief Akinjide later at the early stages of the contest, that he was no longer the darling of the North to be trusted with the presidency.  That was what informed the choice of former President Olusegun  Obasanjo another Yoruba man they believed could be trusted, both in the Military and political circles. Ironically both  Chief  Akinjide and the then  General Obasanjo, who was the Head of State in 1979 played significant roles for the emergence of Shagari as the president.

Sources later made Chief Akinjide know that the major factor used against him was his letter to the Pan Yoruba Congress over his stand for Nigeria to go back to a parliamentary system.  Whatever people may say about him, Chief Akinjide was a nationalist and a patriot. He never hid his love and the preference he had for his people. This reflected always in many of his participation and presentations at any Pan Yoruba congress and elders forum he attended till he died.

Also, his passion for the restructuring of the country remained on his lips while his displeasure for the amalgamation of Nigeria by Lugard was not hidden as well in his speech at the presentation of the book titled “Fellow countrymen–the story of a Coup d’ tat in Nigeria” by Richard Akinjide on June 12, 2000.