n February, this year, the article "IN THE NAME OF AWO: Of Leadership and Elections in Yorubaland," was published by this writer. Prior to that, in June, 2002, another article "AFENIFERE LEADERSHIP: The Beginning of the End," was also published. The Afenifere essay dwelled on the duplicity of those who called themselves leaders of the Yoruba and how they seem to have outlived their usefulness in the scheme of things where the yearnings of the Yoruba people were concerned. The essay, "In the Name of AWO," essentially challenged the Yoruba nation to cease buying hook, line and sinker those who stump their doorsteps as "Awoists" or "inheritors of Awolowo political goodwill" and let any aspiring politician not only bear his or her father's name but also present credible credentials and pass a leadership litmus test.

In the Afenifere essay, it was written inter alia:

"From the heights of noble objectives of democracy and freedom for Nigerians and the Yoruba in particular, they have condescended to mortgaging the general cause for individual pursuits in the most obnoxious and opprobrious manner. Not only were they engaged in uncharacteristic acts of perfidy against each other and the Yoruba interests, they became petty-minded, quarrelsome, odiously arrogant and incorrigibly dictatorial."

……..How do you explain the unwholesome manner in which some undeserving elements became governors in Yoruba states regardless of their suitability and the desires of the people? I thought their singsong under Abacha was democracy, how come they are so scared of it? What happened to Chief Bola Ige during the AD presidential nomination imbroglio was as a result of these odious dictatorial practices by the Afenifere of which Chief Ige himself was not very innocent. That perfidious act snowballed into a major crisis and the Yorubas have been the worse for it.

……..How does one explain some Afenifere leaders' complain that some people are playing Awolowo politics" and not their ( Afeniferes' ) kind of politics? So there was a difference between Awolowo and Afenifere politics? Yet they go all over the place, on the rooftops, in market places, in the street corners, using Awolowo as the reason the Yoruba should continue to believe in and follow them? Does this mean that they are just "followers" of Awolowo not believers in Awolowo? Does this mean that they only cared what Awolowo's name could buy them in the political market and not what it could get for the poor masses of Nigeria and the Yoruba in particular?

With the results of the just concluded elections, what the Yoruba nation is saying is that "Afefe ti fe, a ti ri furo adiye" meaning that "the breeze has blown and exposed the behind of the hen." It is a testimony to the sophistication and the education of the average Yoruba voter. It is the vindication of the strength and triumph of the Obafemi Awolowo vision - sufficient empowerment of the people through education for them to become captain of their own souls!

The Afenifere never believed in the ideals of Awolowo. It is the reason their leadership has been roundly rejected by the Yoruba people. In the name of Awolowo, they have deceived the Yoruba people, installing their friends and godsons at the detriment of the collective aspiration of the Yoruba people. They became arrogant and highhanded. They were and are still very dictatorial. They were and are still selfish and visionless. And the Bible says that where there is no vision, the people perish. The Yoruba as a people and a nation is not ready to perish, hence the rejection of the pretenders to the Awolowo's political legacy.

For those who have forgotten history, let us briefly refresh our memory. Chief Awolowo in 1979 wanted Pa Adekunle Ajasin to be the governor of Ondo State. He did not dictate Pa Ajasin's candidacy but allowed the process to do so. Senator Ayo Fasanmi almost defeated Pa Ajasin in the primaries, but the people appealed to Senator Fasanmi to give Ajasin a chance. And there was no crisis. In Oyo State, Chief Obafemi Awolowo wanted Pa Emmanuel Alayande as governor. But he also allowed the process to determine the outcome. Chief Bola Ige, through a pact with Chief Busari Adelakun, upstaged Pa Alayande. Chief Awolowo accepted the result as vox populi. In 1983, Chief Awolowo wanted Chief Sunday Olawoyin to be the Unity Party of Nigeria (U.P.N.) candidate for Kwara State, but the party followers in the state wanted Chief Cornelius Adebayo. Chief Awolowo accepted the outcome and Chief Adebayo went on to become the governor of Kwara State.

Not only that, the nerve center of Awoism - the political, economic and social philosophy of Obafemi Awolowo - is THE PEOPLE. Yes, for Awolowo, the people are all in all. The people determine whether you are in the office or not. The people determine the relevance of a policy or not. The percentile of the people that benefit from a policy determines its failure or success. The extent to which such policy empowers the people determines its efficacy. One of Chief Awolowo's favourite quotes is the Chinese proverb that says when you give fish to a man, you have fed him for the day, but teach a man to fish, and you have fed him for the rest of his live.

Awolowo believed in the people. He uncompromisingly invested in them and earned their trust. When you are invested with that trust, you must never betray it. He defined his own ambition in the context of the hopes and aspirations of the people. In 1983 at Mapo Hall in Ibadan, reacting to those criticizing him for not "compromising" his principles and telling some "wjhite lies" so that he could get elected, he said that one should always stand for the interest of the people and that leadership is not for personal aggrandizement. The Afenifere never believed in this. They are too scared of the people hence they had to resort to scaring the people. Thus when their "selectees" for public offices got there, they never cared about the people but their own pockets. They abandon the people and their aspirations, hopes and yearnings. They became power drunk, arrogant and condescending. They forgot that the only reason anyone ever got to be called a "leader" was because there were "followers."

Not only that, Awolowo believed in the youth as leaders of tomorrow. He courted them. He nurtured them. He guided them. He trusted them with responsibilities and prepared them for leadership. When the Bola Iges, Lateef Jakandes, Banji Akintoyes, Bisi Onabanjos, Ayo Fasanmis, Joseph Tarkas et al emerged in the late fifties and early sixties, he never complained that they were too young and that they should wait for their time. He listened to them, incorporated their ideas and allowed them to influence his philosophy of governance. This was the generation that changed Awolowo from being a full blown capitalist to a social democrat. Not so with the Afenifere leadership. They are too scared of the youth. They could not trust the youth. They whined everyday how impatient the youth of today are. Yet they forgot the Yoruba aphorism which says that "Omode gbon, agba gbon ni a fi da ile Ife" meaning "it is the wisdom of the youth and that of the elders that was used to create the land of Ife."

The Afenifere leaders are akin to false prophets who come in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to perpetrate fraud on the faithful. They live in conspicuous, though not necessarily ill-gotten opulence, while the followers wallow in want. They displayed an unnerving degree of visionlessness, planlessness, and sauntered all over the political and economic landscape aimlessly with exasperating arrogance and infuriating insensitivity. The Afenifere took our love for granted. They took our loyalty for ignorance. They misconstrued our respect for idiocy. They misinterpreted our patience for stupidity. They misconceived our tolerance for ineptitude.

Thank God that Awolowo chose to go through Nigeria at the time he did. Much more thanks to God that the Yoruba were able to taste the fruits of his leadership. His belief that a man could never be truly free unless he is sufficiently educated could never have been more vindicated. Hence, he gave us education. He liberated our minds. He freed our potentials. He prepared us. He opened our inner eyes.

So that we may not become slaves to our generation, he gave us education. That false prophets a la Afenifere may not hold us in perpetual bondage, he made education free. That we may not follow dubious leaders blindly, he made education compulsory for all of us. That we may be the captains of our own souls, he invested heavily in education. That we may appreciate the tradition of respect for old age but still be able to ask questions, he insisted on our education. That we may be able to differentiate integrity from hypocrisy, he provided scholarships. Yes, he gave us education to equip us to be able to determine the course of our individual lives in a very competitive world and by implication, determine the fortune of our families, our various communities, our towns and cities, our race and when the time is ripe, our country.

It is a pity that it took this kind of earth shaking message for Governor Olusegun Osoba whose administrative acumen as a media chief one used to admire to realize that the people are the repository of power. It is a matter of regret and disappointment that it took this kind of shake up for someone like Governor Lam Adesina to remember those good old days in his Felele residence when we used to lament how things have degenerated because of lack of respect for the people's wish. It is befuddling that Governor Bisi Akande never learnt from the 1983 experience that you could never suppress the desire of a people.