Who
Is Afraid Of Change?
In
social science thought the concept of change is employed to designate a
significant alteration in social structures, rules of conduct, values, cultural
products, and symbols. In the intellectual context, change also refers to
development and transformation of human society from a lower to a higher or
more advanced level. The use of the term connotes progress, growth, qualitative
leap and even revolution. In Nigeria’s
political experience, almost all electoral parties subscribe to or proclaim the
goals of change. Quite often, many politicians interpret change to mean no more
that the replacement of one set of administrators or office holders by another.
In this discussion, we hope to examine the idea of change that relates to
significant alteration in social structure, rules of conduct, and values.
Owing
to the manipulation of British colonial powers, conservative political parties
have always held sway in Nigeria’s
electoral system. Yet the advocacy for radical change has had a long history in
the country. During the final push of the anti-colonial mobilization in the 1950s,
socialist thinkers propounded revolutionary change in the anticipation of
independence from colonial rule. One of the iconic figures of that era was
Alhaji Adegoke Adelabu (1915 – 1958), otherwise known as “penkelemes” of Ibadan politics. He was a
leading member of the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC)
which was led by Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe. In his political manifest published as AFRICA IN EBULLITION, Adelabu
described change as “complete freedom, unqualified, unreserved, and unlimited
freedom to order our lives as we deem fit” but must come within five years,
that is, 1956 when Nigeria was expected to gain independence. This freedom, he
declared” is here in West Africa, the black man’s paradise, here in Nigeria,
the heaven of the Negro race, here in the Western Region, the chosen land of a
modern Songhay…” The citations are from the 2008 edition of the book by the
Ibadan-based Board Publications Limited.
Adelabu
identified four pillars of post-colonial change, namely, education,
agriculture, industrialization and africanisation of the civil service. On
education, he stated that Education is the foundation of freedom. Ignorance is
the basis of slavery. If you would free a people, first and foremost educated them”
Adelabu placed equal stress on agriculture and industrialization. In his words,
“If education is the foundation of freedom, then, agriculture is the life blood
of Nigerian livelihood.”
Chief
Obafemi Awolowo (1909 – 1987) was in the Action Group, the opposition party to
the NCNC yet he shared the same revolutionary vision with Adelabu. Both
nationalists also subscribed to the ideology of socialism even if they differed
on what brand of it to apply. The commitment to socialist revolution inspired
Awolowo’s government in the Western Region (1954 – 1962) to achieve spectacular
success in the implementation of these pro-people programmes of free education,
industrialization and agriculture. Awolowo’s memorable thoughts on these
cardinal matter are available in his books, “The Peoples Republic” (1968) and
“The Strategy and Tactics of the People’s Republic” (1970). Adelabu died in his
mid forties in 1958 and Chief Awolowo was framed up on treasonable felony
charge by the conservative federal government and was jailed for ten years in
1962. When Awolowo returned to electoral politics in 1979 -1983, he hoped to
reinvent the radical dreams through the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN). His
aspiration to rule Nigeria
was thwarted by the constellation of reactionary forces, culminating in the
military takeover of power in 1983. I have recalled these details in order to
show that the ideology of radical change is a critical heritage of the politics
of the Yoruba-speaking areas of Nigeria.
It is a worthy legacy to reinvent and innovate on in meeting contemporary
challenges. I will return to some of these issues.
Furthermore,
in the Second Republic
(1979 – 1983), there was a resurgence of radical change in the heartland of
conservative politics in the north of Nigeria. This was recorded in the
electoral victory of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) over the
ultra-reactionary National Party of Nigeria in the region. The PRP won the
governorship polls in Kaduna and Kano states, with Alhaji
Balarabe Musa and Alhaji Abubakar Rimi as Governors respectively. The two of
them initiated unprecedented reforms in administration, education, and welfare
programs for the oppressed and exploited masses (talakawa). The PRP support
came from this class of the population largely because of the long history of
revolutionary work done under the leadership of Mallam Aminu Kano and his
fellow travelers. The reactionary forces rallied around the NPN and fought back
viciously. In 1983, Balarabe Musa was impeached by the State House of Assembly
dominated by NPN stalwarts. The PRP itself was split into two antagonistic
factions. By the end of the year, the military usurpers struck and General
Muhammadu Buhari became head of state. He abolished electoral politics forever.
The
emergence of Governors Abubakar Rimi and Balarabe Musa generated internal
debate in the ranks of Nigeria’s
socialist and Marxist Politian’s. Some denounced the development as
capitulation to bourgeois electoral booby trap. Others saw it in the light of
the strategy of minimum program in pursuit of the long, zigzag revolution in a
non-industrialized setting. Whilst these dialectical exchanges raged, the
masses of Kaduna and Kano knew that a new and more equitable
social system was being implemented in their favour. They responded with fervor
and fearless support.
In
the midst of these tumultuous events, the Kano State
government hosted a conference of leftist thinkers and scholars under the
rubric of “progressives” and “change ideology”. Seventeen of the papers
presented were edited in a book by Askipo Essien-Ibok as TOWARDS A PROGRESSIVE
NIGERIA (1983). In his introduction, Essien-Ibok defined “change” as a
“revolutionary concept of societal transformation from neo-colonial, feudal,
imperialist and cut-throat capitalist relation.. “He added that change “relates
to the construction of social consciousness where by the people are mobilized
to work in harmony for the development of themselves and the society. Change
mean the development of class consciousness of worker, and explaining to them
their historical mission as a class that of fighting to exterminates of forms
of exploitation, nepotism, corruption, bad government and class society oin
general and of building a new social economic order”.
Comrade
Ola Oni and his socialist party of workers, Farmers and Youth gave strategic
support to the PPR governors, much collaborative work was out between the two
group in the area of cadre training, propaganda, research and publication. Yet
comrade Ola Oni did not share the illusion that what was taking place in Kano and Kaduna
was the equivalent of a socialist revolution. Rather, he interpreted the
changes as necessary radical reforms on which the revolutionary movement of the
working class could build in future. His paper delivered at the Kano conference
bore the title “Reformist Political Movement in Contemporary Nigeria” He characterized the programs of Awolowo’s UPN
as bourgeois reforms aimed at spreading “palliative to the working class, to
divert them from the revolutionary alternative” adding that the ‘capitalists
who own and monopolize the resources will not release the resources without
struggle” He illustrate this aspect with the difficulty the UNP had in funding
the free education in the states under control.
Ola
oni agreed that the PRP comrades had opened up “class struggle for structural
changes” but the party understand the violent character of the enemy and placed
“too much trust in bourgeois process of fair play and justice. The party
underrated the fascistic nature of the counter-revolutionary forces. The party
did not play attention to mass mobilization for mass action “Ola Oni made these
points about 30 years ago, but they are pertinent in assessing the fortunes of
change and reforms in Nigeria
today.
No comments:
Post a Comment