have just read Sunday Ogunronbi's piece with the above title. Obviously he (Ogunronbi) was pissed off with my 17 years experience in journalism that he felt if he started with that he might be able to buy some credibility for himself and deodorant the nauseating memory of his hero in Ladoke Akintola. Ogunronbi without doubt felt this was a personal thing and that was his mistake because it is not. There has never been a politician in my family and there are about to be none yet. But as a citizen concerned about what should be important in the annals of public policy making because of the potential effects on ordinary men like me, I reserve the right to hold any view based on my experience and knowledge to advance the cause of good governance.

Ogunronbi appeared to feel superior to those he called "unemployed graduates turned journalists." With that opening salvo, he betrayed his odious thinking as to what kind of politics Nigerians should hold dear, even though no single person has all the answers, but definitely, his own kind of answers would never sell. Nevertheless, I as a person left a well paying job to take journalism as a profession (and actually some of my family members thought I was crazy), and regardless, those unemployed graduates were victims of the legacy of misgovernance that characterized the Nigerian polity, an example of which Ladoke Akintola represented and which his memory glorifies in my own personal opinion.

Spending too much time in the bush "planning land" in far away South Africa seemed to have impaired Ogunronbi's thinking and to imagine that generations in Ijeshaland have been doing such an elementary thing for hundreds of years without the benefit of the white man's elementary education and still able to maintain a clear focus is a serious challenge to his University degree(s). It is nothing special by any means to survey bushes and "plan" lands!

On my observation that Akintola has disdain for the Igbo, Ogunronbi felt I was stretching the truth to make SLA look bad because SLA did the same thing about other groups. Ogunronbi obviously refused to acknowledge the fact that I was only specifically responding to the "historical fallacy " of one of the SLA's children. This was made clear enough in that article. But to say the truth, the only thing SLA did not have disdain for was his determination to acquire power unscrupulously and by all means without regard to any principle or sound philosophy. That was his credo and history bears testimony to this.

Omoba Oladele Osinuga in his piece "CONTRASTING PERSPECTIVES TO SLA'S VISION" actually put it better that anyone in recent times as follows:

"The genesis of the rift between SLA and Awo can be traced back to 1959 before the events at the AG conference in Jos in 1961 when the matter came to its head. An accurate version facts of what happened in 1959 is brilliantly outlined in an article titled Beware the Ides of April by Ben Lawrence in The Vanguard Newspaper of March 9, 2003 and posted on the web on http://allafrica.com/stories/200303100189.html, according to Lawrence, "That 1959 incident when a call came from the northern premier, Alhaji Ahmadu Bello, while Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe and Chief Obafemi Awolowo ironed out terms of coalition at Onitsha, to announce that Akintola and Rosiji were with him discussing broad-based coalition, should still be fresh in the memory of any student of Nigeria politics. Awo had taken the receiver from Zik to ask Akintola his mission in Kaduna and the western premier had said that he was sent by the fathers of the party". IN A DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY BASED ON A PARTY SYSTEM, MAJOR DECISIONS RELATING TO SHARING A JOINT PLATFORM OR COALITIONARE TAKEN BY THE LEADER IN CONCERT WITH THE PARTY'S DECISION MAKING BODY, THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE, THIS IS WHAT SLA FAILED TO DO AND IN TAKING THAT DECISION HE BETRAYED THE TRUST OF THE PARTY THAT ELECTED HIM TO OFFICE." (emphasis mine)

Let us call a spade a spade. What SLA did above could be described with any of the following adjectives - PERFIDY, TREACHERY, TRAITOROUS or BETRAYAL. SLA might be a very brilliant mind, good administrator, seminal orator and a gifted humorist as Omoba Osinuga and Dr. Wumi Akintide have written. But, if one may ask, what is the benefit of a talent employed in deception, chicanery, charlatanism, denigration of others, and persecution of innocents? Ogunronbi must be suffocating in his skin to read this about his hero, but the fact remains that this was what Akintola did and people like that have never found favour with history and would never do. What SLA did, "fails to bridge the distance" between him and the Party that brought him to power. Rather than elicit "mutual trust" his chicanery created an atmosphere of suspicion. When Omoba Osinuga said that history has been unkind to SLA, he was just stating the obvious. But I would like to be educated if this has anything else to do other than with SLA's handiwork and legacy of which the bad far outweighs the good? Moreso, I am still trying to figure out how acts of perfidy and deliberate visitation of social anarchy, political commotion and economic ruination on the people qualify any leader for greatness? Yes, I am still trying to figure this out because this is what SLA did to Yorubaland. Or has Ogunronbi forgotten the apt description of Major Kaduna Nzeogwu of SLA and his ilk after they were kicked out of power? Oh! Sorry, may be Awolowo wrote the speech for Nzeogwu from his Calabar Prisons to make SLA and his fellow travelers look bad!

Ogunronbi wrote inter alia:

"The oft-repeated assertions that Awolowo faced trumped of treason charges in the early 60's is one Yoruba national disgrace that deserve a collective soul search to determine its impact on our national-ethnic psyche."

Yes, that decision to haunt Awolowo to jail on trumped up, repeat, TRUMPED UP charges was political. This has become more obvious than ever. Up till today, Ogunronbi and his fellow travelers, include those who got paid for the heinous project in kind, have never been able to prove the availability of cache of ammunitions or show the world any photograph and the name of the place where this was found. Awolowo was jailed on the so-called allegation of "military training" in Ghana and coerced witnesses. If I am wrong in this, I would gladly love to be educated. That court was a kangaroo court and the presiding judge was a coward in my view because there was never any physical evidence or document to support the charges. Just because fascists like Ogunronbi and his heroes who could not tolerate fair political competition simply because they lack ideas and sellable vision want us to buy their lies hook, line, and sinker would never work. And if there is any "Yoruba national disgrace," that disgrace is represented by SLA and his coterie of lackeys who sold out their friends, their colleagues, their people and compromised their country for a pot of porridge in the name of political appointments and regardless of the needs of the people they purportedly represented.

Ogunronbi further wrote as follows:

"In alluding to the "difference between politics for personal aggrandizement and politics for the glory of country" I venture to ask whether denigrating the late Zik at the expense of Awolowo speaks not too loud of this historic amnesia? Zik took the less glorious titular presidency at a time when Awolowo personified the "I know all: me or no-body attitude."

If Ogunronbi was not actually sleep walking when he wrote the above, then he must be shamelessly intellectually dishonest. I do not know how relating what Nnamdi Azikwe did could amount to his denigration? Or Is Ogunronbi insisting that Zik did not serve as a powerless president in Tafawa Balewa government when he could be the leader of the same government as Awolowo offered him? Is Ogunronbi insinuating that Awolowo never acknowledge Zik's leadership and offered to work under him as the Finance Minister? If Ogunronbi is not the real "revisionist" how does his claim that "Awolowo personified the 'I know all: me or no-body attitude' stand when juxtaposed with the fact that Awolowo humbly went to Onitsha to make his offer to Zik in his (Zik's) house?

In an attempt to be salacious, Ogunronbi contended as follows:

Generalised assertions like "there is no doubt about the fact that Chief Ladoke Akintola during his heydays lacked the capability to "rally" the Yoruba people about whatever his "vision" was. He failed woefully to inspire trust and confidence" fly in the face of the fact that SLA, apart from being former Minister (Aviation, Labour & Productivity) and the Leader of Opposition in the Federal House, did more on the "Nigerian Project" than any politician of his time.

Ogunronbi should take time from rummaging the bushes and take fresh air occasionally. This might probably enhance his thinking capability. Obviously, this is a very serious limitation of which those "unemployed graduates turned journalists" are not inflicted with. Otherwise, how could Ogunronbi suggest to the world that Akintola has the capability to "rally" the Yoruba to whatever his vision was? Is Ogunronbi insinuating that SLA has the majority of the party, AG and the people behind him? Is he suggesting that Akintola was not impeached and removed from power by democratically elected majority members of the Western House of Assembly? Is he telling the world that Oba Adesoji Aderemi, the Ooni of Ife who was Head of Government acted unconstitutionally by carrying out the decision of the elected majority members? If SLA was able to rally the Yoruba people, how come he was roundly rejected in 1964 elections? If that statement was "generalized" as Ogunronbi insinuated, why would SLA engage in murder, maiming, persecution and vendetta against a people that supposedly "believed in him"? Now who is peddling "half truths" and "twisting facts"? Yes indeed, SLA "did more on the Nigerian Project than any politician of his time." We are all witnesses to the fruits of his efforts and the travesty such constituted to our lives!

Ogunronbi also wrote as follows :

Will Remi draw historical parallels between the "treatment" Akintola meted out to the Odemo of Ishara and what Awolowo did to Iku Baba Yeye, the Alaafin of Oyo, and also His Majesty Sir Olateru Olagbegi, the Olowo of Owo?

As I pointed out above, the credo of the SLA and his crowd was to muffle opposing views. Their method was to suffocate those who do not share croked beliefs and styles. That was why people like Odemo of Ishara, Oba Samuel Akinsanya could become a victim with reduced salary of a penny, because he was only being punished for holding a different political belief! But Awolowo was not moulded to dispense public power in crooked ways for less than noble objectives like SLA and his crowd shamelessly did. What late Oba Adeyemi experienced (exile to Ilesha) was a punishment for causing unrest in Oyo town because the people of the town believed he had "something to do" with the death of Chief Bode Thomas, the former Deputy Leader of AG who hailed from the town. Chief Thomas and Alaafin Adeyemi had disagreement and it was in the public domain. All leaders of the AG including SLA prevailed on Oba Adeyemi to allow amicable solution to the disagreement, Oba Adeyemi refused. Chief Bode Thomas later died shortly after and the people of the town were not happy about that. It was for the sake of peace in the town that Oba Adeyemi was sent into exile. And this served the public interest. In my view, the Alaafin got a slap on the hand because of who he was.

Talking about revisionism, Ogunronbi set the template as follows:

The theme of the Yoruba revisionist seems always the "political character, philosophical principles and ideological commitment in the services of their people and country" personified in late Awolowo.

The above quote from Ogunronbi betrayed his disdain for serious approach to politics and public policy as opposed to political dealership approach of SLA and his cohorts. Omoba Osinuga called it "a misunderstanding of the role of ideology in the fashioning of a truly creditable political party". Omoba Osinuga explained further:

An analysis of SLA's vision leaves a lot of unanswered questions because it is difficult to define what SLA's core principles were post AG. Should the lust of power or indeed the attainment of power be the criteria and end all in determining a viable political vision, I think not.

Awolowo has been pilloried and vilified for being a principled politician. He was made butt of jokes because he believed in certain philosophical rules as framework for public policy. He always did his home work and was very grounded on whys, hows, ifs and whens of any policy he enunciated or supported. That is the standard for committed leadership and that is why he was very successful in improving the lot of his people. Even, Ahmadu Bello once said "With Awolowo, you always know where you stand." This is a departure from the foxy, amoebic, amorphous, nebulous, cunning, wheeling and dealing approach of Akintola and the gang that has neither a philosophical basis nor a goal other than mean spirited pursuit of power for its own sake. Omoba Osinuga did help put the nail on the controversy when he wrote:

"We all know that power is a drug which if not properly used is prone to intoxicate an individual who is over indulgent in its use. The problem a party or an individual who holds such a position has is that the way party gains power has a significant impact on the type of government it would turn out to be as cherished principles of good and responsive governance are thrown to the dogs. In essence that was the bane of SLA's vision and its purported relevance and comparison to the recent electoral success of the governing PDP�.."

If this is "revisionism," then Ogunronbi must be suffering from chronic intellectual aridity and he would need more than to survey the bushes and measure the lands to be taken seriously. The measure of any leader in history is HOW DID THE PEOPLE FARE under his or her leadership? On broader terms, of what benefit to humanity is someone's leadership? If history has been unkind to SLA, it is because these questions could not be effectively and convincingly answered by his legacy. It is too late now for Ogunronbi and the Akintola children to do anything about this. What they are trying to do now to remake the memory of SLA would not work. It is like some people coming around thirty years down the line and attempting to convince the world that Sani Abacha, Olusegun Aremu Obasanjo and Ibrahim Babangida were great men simply because they once ruled Nigeria. It does not work like that because by their fruits we shall judge them.