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Remembering Western Region election crisis
By Enoghase Sylvester
Research & Data Desk
Dateline October 11, 1965:
Perhaps the greatest problem facing Nigeria as a
post-colonial state is that of democratic sustenance. Having experienced
transition from colonial autocracy to independence and civil rule in 1960, the
country has experienced the woes of bad governance, massive corruption, human
rights abuses and economic deprivation in the hands of greedy political leaders
and military dictators. What we have today is not only military dictators but
civilian dictators
The displacement of the Union Jack on October 1, 1960
ignited a mere polite and calm applause that was hoped to prove the colonial
masters wrong that Nigerians were inherently incapable of charting a civilised
and democratic course for themselves.
But all the same, there was a cause to celebrate; that
Nigeria now belongs to Nigerians, although there was still some doubts in
certain quarters then whether Nigerians would be able to manage their new-found
freedom.
Despite this freedom from foreign domination, Nigeria was
far from being independent, internally. The centrifugal forces at work were far
more overwhelming than the need to gravitate toward a collective goal. The
federal structure then was absurd. The Northern region alone had 174 seats in
the House of Representatives as against a combined 138 seats for all the other
regions of East, West and Lagos.
In reaction to this anomaly, S.G Ikoku had said: “The
central government dominated by Northern Nigeria as a result of that
region’s in-built majority in the House of Representatives was given a
Constitutional shield against democratic ferment from either the South or
within the Northern region.”
This shaky foundation is what makes the rigging of elections
an attractive excuse for the politicians to remain in power even when not voted
for by the electorate. Under such circumstances, the ruling party creates a
precedent in the act of forceful seizure of power, which is then
"welcomed" by the disenfranchised voters, particularly when it is
evident that there is no alternative democratic political platform inform of
opposition leaders to control the affairs of the state. A case study is the
2003 general elections in Nigeria.
Underlying this scenario was the peace that eluded the West
before and after the 1965 Western Region elections. Before that time, Chief
Obafemi Awolowo had tried to give the Action Group, his political party, a
national appeal, but it was bogged down by its own internal contradictions. The
Action Group, according to him, was to make the political force of the Western
Region relevant in all aspects of the political and economic history of
Nigeria
Ikoku wrote: “In an attempt to erect a platform that
cuts across the country, the Action Group, the Federalist and the Regionalist
quickly emerged. Chief Awolowo led the former and Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola
led the latter. Chief Akintola was quick to secure a working understanding with
the NPC. Chief Awolowo could not get the NCNC support because that party was in
alliance with NPC. Accordingly, Chief Awolowo fell back on external support
— Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana for external aid, and British public opinion for
pressure on the United Kingdom government”
The understanding and working relationship between Akintola
and NPC was an embarrassment to Awolowo who saw the whole exercise as a
betrayal.
Akintola, who was the second Premier of the old Western
Region, then committed a major sin of his political life by having to openly
disagree with his party leader, Obafemi Awolowo, on some political decisions of
the Action Group.
Akintola had then become the deputy to Awo following the
death of Bode Thomas, the young ideologue lawyer from Oyo who had to be put to
sleep, in very mysterious circumstance, following a feud with the late Alaafin
Adeyemi, the father of the present Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi.
Left to Awolowo alone, he most probably would have preferred
Chief Akin Deko from Idanre, Ondo State or Alhaji Soroye Adegbenro to succeed
him instead of Akintola. That scenario had only added more fuel to the growing
political battle between Awolowo and Akintola for the rest of their life.
The internal political war between Awolowo and Akintola
had become so tense that Awolowo had tried to use the party machinery to remove
Akintola as Premier while putting in Alhaji Adegbenro. A joint meeting of the
party executive and the Western Region Executive was summoned on May 19, 1962
at the Action Group Headquarters, Ibadan. The meeting, whose decision appeared
pre-planned, merely complicated the already tensed situation. Chief Samuel
Ladoke Akintola was found guilty. A resolution was adopted by the majority of
the executive that Akintola should resign both his position as Premier of the
Western Region and deputy leader of the Action Group.
Acting on the purported Akintola’s removal, the
Governor, Sir Adesoji Aderemi, who was also the Ooni of Ife, formalised the
removal by signing it into law, appointing in his place Alhaji Dauda Adegbenro.
Apparently acting on the powers now conferred on him by his new appointment,
Alhaji Adegbenro summoned the Western House of Assembly on May 25, 1962 to add
legitimacy to his new government by way of moving a vote of confidence.
Immediately the issue came up in the House, there was confusion between
Akintola’s supporters and majority members opposing his action. The
timely intervention of the police firing teargas saved the day. Like the sheep
without shepherd, they fled in different directions.
Later, Akintola moved to fight back by joining forces with
the NPC-led Federal Government to neutralise Awolowo's plan to impeach him and
disgrace him out of office. When the situation had degenerated into an
uncontrollable violence, the then Prime Minister, Alhaji Tafawa Balewa, had to
declare a state of emergency in the West by nominating his personal physician,
Dr Majekodunmi, to administer the West for six months. One crisis led to
another, culminating in the 1964 elections which were massively rigged. A
large-scale violence followed the rigging, which subsequently led to what was
popularly dubbed, “Operation wet e’ in the West.
The 1964 general elections saw a new alliance emerging.
Chief Akintola, who was re-elected as Premier of the Western Region, founded a
new party, the United Peoples Party. The UPP and NCNC went into coalition in
the Western Region in early 1963 making Chief R.A Fani-Kayode as the deputy.
But when their romance turned sour, the party was changed to Nigerian National
Democratic Party (NNDP). The NNDP led by Chief Akintola entered into a
coalition with the NPC to form the Nigeria National Alliance(NNA).These
alliances within political groups led to confusion, gangsterism and looting in
the Western Region which resulted to the boycott of the election by the United
Progressive Grand Alliance of the Action Group and NCNC’s coalition.
The elections into the Western House of Assembly in October
11, 1965 became the final straw that broke the camel’s back. The
disputes that accompanied the election into the Western House of Assembly
occasioned by disagreements between supporters of the Action Group and the NNDP
government gave rise to an unfortunate incident. There was lawlessness
everywhere in the Western Region. Supporters of the Action Group had gone into
full-scale fight with the NNDP controlled Western Region.
On October 15,1965, the citizens had waited patiently for
the much-anticipated broadcast by the Premier of the Western Nigeria, Chief
Akintola. Security was beefed up. This was understandable in view of the
political and social rancour prevalent then in the region. In the cubicle of
the newsroom of Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC), were Akinwande Oshin,
leader of the team, Lajide Ishola, Stephen Oyewale and John Okungbona. The four
men were on an important assignment to air the recording of the speech of Chief
Samuel Akintola to millions of Nigerians. The recording had earlier been made
in the Premier’s Lodge in two tapes. Chief Akintola had taken time to
explain the true situation of things in the region in the recording which was
completed a few minutes before 7 p.m
As Oshin, the leader of the team, led his men into the
studio at about 7.15 pm, clutching the two tapes containing the premier’s
recorded speech, one in English and the other the Yoruba, and as he was about
to play the first tape, one bearded “stone looking” young man
appeared like a thunderbolt from the blues, pointing a pistol at Oshin’s
head demanding with a degree of authority for the two tapes that were about to
be played. Oshin quickly obliged. Not done yet, the gunman handed over his own
tape which he had brought along to Oshin and ordered him to play it. This Oshin
also complied with as the gunman spent some few minutes to listen to part of
his speech and disappeared miraculously as he had come into the studio. It was
like a Sylvester Stallon’s bizarre operation that has remained to be equaled
ever since that Nigerian was born in 1913.
As the message of the tape hit the airwaves, there was
confusion all over Nigeria. The policemen on alert at the NBC rushed to the
studio only to discover that the gunman and Mr. Oshin had disappeared into the
thin air. The three other members of Oshin’s team were however arrested
and taken to the station where their statements were taken.
The gunman’s message on the tape is as follows:
“This is the voice of the people of Western Nigeria,
and all the voices are saying simply: Akintola get out. Akintola get out and
take with you your band of renegades who have lost with you any pretence to
humanity and have become nothing.
“But murdering beasts. Take with you your goons, who
would sooner kill and maim, than acknowledge that you are all now an outcast to
human society.
“The lawful government of Western Nigeria is the
people of the West. Let every self-seeking impostor get out now before the
people, losing patience, wash the street in their polluted blood.
“Get out, and take with you lepers, your things, your
army, your police, in their kits and armoured cars frightening old women in
their markets, pumping bullets through the doors of female students and
dragging their brave bodies down concrete steps because they have protested.
“The children loathe you, mothers curse you; all men
despise you. And the youths of this country long for the moment when your
presence will no longer pollute their hope for a decent future.
“In the name of Oduduwa and our generation, get out.
Before the frustration of this country ten million people, their anger and
their justice in an all-consuming fire come over your heads.
“And to you the police, who think you merely obey
orders; to you, the Army, who commit these crimes in the name of obedience and
to you, our Obas who have lost shame, honour and dignity; to you the civil
servants, radio, press, who think more of your bellies than the legacy you have
bequeathed to our generation; to you, the intellectuals, who sit while acts of
horror are committed before your eyes; to you priests, Bishops, Imams, who do
not use your pulpits to the benefit of our generation.
“We remind you that the floods that have waited many years
to break loose will not have the leisure to choose between the hovels and
palaces….”
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