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The trajectory of the murdered General Rabe Abubakar is tragic. So, also its nauseating narratives. A sad but stark reality dawning on a lying nation. And its lying government. Confirmed beyond reasonable doubts.
They came to us in 2015 with a deodorised General Muhammadu Buhari. They told us he would be the best to happen to us. That he was the messiah we lost in the Sage Obafemi Awolowo. And missed in Chief MKO Abiola.
They knew they were lying, big time. You could see it all over them. They were not clever enough to hide it. Their thick lying lips. Lousy mouths easily sold them out. They were submerged in the deluge of their lies
Some of us were convinced within us. That Buhari would be a monumental disaster. We didn’t miss it. From day one; from start-to-finish. It horribly turned out to be so. Wicked soul!
He deliberately sank us from-top-to-bottom. For his tiny Fulani tribe to thrive. Throughout his despicable eight years. It was a lying galore. Never witnessed before that time in our chequered, ugly history.
While he held sway. Not a day did he miss to take revenge on us. For the sins we never committed. We knew Buhari inside-out. For what he was and who he turned out to be. He changed not.
He was a deeply and heavily militarised nepotist. In his warped mindset and thought process. He did not fail to display these queer qualities. He flaunted them brazenly. We weren’t strangers to his weird antecedents. Even long before they forced him down our cracked throats.
His enforcers were aware of all his misdeeds in the past. They knew him far more than we knew him. But a hideous ambition for power was driving them all. They couldn’t see above what they chose to see. They believed Buhari was their only viable enabler. They greedily exploited him to the hilt.
And nothing. Absolutely nothing would hinder them. They swore to high heavens. They did not care. The consequences of their diabolical actions and inactions wouldn’t perturb them. They would rather feign ignorance. They pretended not to know what we knew they knew.
We have lied to ourselves for too long a time. We’ve equally deceived ourselves for that long. Destroying, ruining ourselves in the process. Also, for too long. We’ve encircled this same mountain for far too long.
Now that we’re too lazy to think out of the box. Or our rulers are too stubborn to listen to us. Even for once. We still have windows of rare opportunities widely open to us. We have doors of escape in our forefathers.
We’re lucky to have their legacies to fall on. Their thoughts and deeds are our present help in trouble. We don’t even need to search far. They’re all over us. Overwhelming; priceless but prized. Let’s wisely tap into their evergreen and everlasting wisdom. And we would be forever glad, grateful we did.
Awolowo’s “Thoughts on Nigerian Constitution” readily comes to mind. The sage’s thoughts fit the bill. And will fix whatever our predicament is. But we have to be faithful like never before.
We need to be willing, honest and sincere. Those are the ultimate watchwords to drive Awolowo’s thoughts. Ignore the sage to your eternal perdition. This golden chance must not slip away again carelessly and recklessly.
It’s delicious. Have a useful bite:
“After that essay went viral, the one on the late sage Chief Ọbafẹmi Awolọwọ, where I calculated the 39 years of his glorious demise, the question from the comments was this: ‘If Awolowo saw it all coming, what did he prescribe, and why are we still sick?’
“In his final years, when journalists pressed him for solutions, the old sage pointed to his books. ‘They ask me what to do,’ he reportedly said. ‘I have already written it. The question is whether Nigeria will ever read.’
“The book we keep ignoring is: ‘Thoughts on Nigerian Constitution’, written in 1966 while he sat in prison (before the Civil War). In that book, the late sage turned federalism into pure science.
“First law: ‘If a country is unilingual and uni-national, the constitution must be unitary.’
“Second law: ‘If a country is unilingual or bilingual or multilingual, and consists of communities which have developed divergent nationalities, the constitution must be federal, and the constituent states must be organised on the dual basis of language and nationality.’
“Third law: ‘If a country is bilingual or multilingual, the constitution must be federal, and the constituent states must be organised on a linguistic basis.’
“Fourth law: ‘Any experiment with a unitary constitution in a bilingual or multilingual country must fail in the long-run.’
“Nigeria has over 250 ethnic groups and hundreds of languages. By Awolọwọ’s measure, a unitary constitution is not just a bad idea, IT IS DOOMED.
“He explained why: ‘In any country where there are divergences of language and of nationality, a unitary constitution is always a source of bitterness and hostility on the part of linguistic or national minority groups.’
“Then he warned: “If the linguistic or national group concerned are backward or too weak vis-a-vis the majority group, their bitterness may be dormant. But as soon as they become enlightened and politically conscious, the bitterness comes into the open, and remains sustained with all possible venom and rancour, until home rule is achieved.’
“That is not a prediction. That is the actual description of Nigeria in 2026. Now, why did Awolọwọ refuse to join the Constituent Assembly that drafted the 1979 Constitution?
“In 1978, General (Olusegun) Ọbasanjọ invited him. He said no. Because the Assembly was not sovereign. The military had kept the right to change or reject anything. Certain ‘no-go areas’ were off limits.
“Awolọwọ said the Assembly would be nothing more than a ‘mere debating society.’ He was absolutely right. The 1999 Constitution was not born in a sovereign assembly either. It was a military decree wearing democratic clothes.
“Chief Afe Babalola, that nonagenarian legal luminary said: ‘The constitution they made was done in such a way that it will allow the military to perpetuate themselves in power.’
“Chief Emeka Anyaoku, a nonagenarian technocrat reminded us: ‘Our present 1999 Constitution was not democratically formulated; it was imposed by military decree.’
“Now let me show you where the sabotage happened, line by line. The 1999 Constitution gives the Federal Government exclusive control over 68 items, including police, mines, oil, aviation, defence, foreign affairs. States control almost nothing that matters economically.
“Under the 1963 Constitution, regions controlled education, health, agriculture, housing – the things that touch your life, my life every day.
“Awolọwọ warned: ‘The work of government in Nigeria under a unitary constitution is bound to become unduly complex, inextricably tangled, extremely unwieldy and wasteful, and productive of disharmony and discontent.’
“He said that unless you have a superman at the helm, ‘the administrative machinery would eventually disintegrate and break down under the crushing weight of bureaucratic centralism.’ We have not found that superman.
“Now the police. Section 214 says no other police force shall be established for the federation or any part thereof. One clause forbids any state from having its own police. Abuja controls every gun.
“So, when bandits terrorise Zamfara, the state government cannot act. When the South-West proposed Amọtẹkun, the Federal Government declared it illegal.
“Awolọwọ defined true federalism: ‘A Federal State is a Composite State in which the supreme legislative power is divided between the Central Authority and the State Authorities in such a manner as to make them co-ordinate with and independent of one another.’
“He warned that Nigeria was moving away from this: ‘It appears to me that the system we are now operating is a Unitary Constitution with heavy devolution of functions to the so-called State Authorities which are becoming Provincial Authorities. With politics at its best, it would groan poignantly; at its worst, it would suffer nervous breakdown.’
“That nervous breakdown now has a name: (terrorism, banditry, kidnapping, a flag in the forest.
“Now money. The Federation Account gives the Federal Government 52.68 per cent, states 26.72 per cent, and local governments 20.60 per cent.
“Every month, every governor goes to Abuja with a begging bowl. Lagos generates over 60 per cent of Nigeria’s non-oil tax revenue yet receives less than five per cent back.
“Awolọwọ said a unitary constitution would ‘have the effect of repressing healthy rivalry among the different regions. Rivalry is the soul of development and progress.’
“Now education: Section 18 says the government shall ensure equal educational opportunities. But Section six makes these directive principles non-justiciable. You cannot go to court to enforce your right to education. You cannot sue the government for failing to build a school.
“Awolọwọ called rights you cannot enforce, ‘empty platitudes and hollow admonitions which have no place in a Constitution whose provisions must be justiciable and legally enforceable.’
“The result? Nigeria has 13.5 million out-of-school children, the highest in the world. Teachers unpaid. Schools closed. A generation left uneducated. And the children of that generation are now carrying guns.
“Awolọwọ said it: ‘The kids you refused to educate are coming back to haunt you down.’
“So now you understand the wound. What is the way forward? Undo the sabotage, line by line.
“State police: Delete Section 214. Awolọwọ was clear: ‘In all the instances when a regional government had been suspended, far more mischief had been brought on the people than would have been the case if the government had been left severely alone till the next election.’
“Fiscal autonomy: Abolish the Federation Account. Let states keep 70 per cent of what they generate.
“Justiciable rights: Move education, healthcare and housing to Chapter Four. Make them something you can sue for.
“Shrink the Exclusive List from 68 items to five, defence, foreign affairs, currency and immigration. That is it.
“Delete the President’s power to suspend state governments. Awolọwọ warned that Nigerians were, ‘unwittingly creating a Leviathan for themselves before whom they would have to go on their knees.’
“Above all, convene a Sovereign National Conference. No military veto. No no-go areas. No predetermined outcomes.
“If someone asks for the short answer. Awolọwọ answered this 60 years ago in ‘Thoughts on Nigerian Constitution’ – true federalism, state police, fiscal autonomy, justiciable rights and a sovereign national conference.
“The 1999 Constitution sabotaged every single one. The way forward is to undo that sabotage, line by line. I hear the objections: ‘It’s impossible. The northern elites will never agree. The political class benefits too much.’
“These are the same objections they raised against Awolọwọ in 1951 when he proposed free education. They said it was impossible. He did it anyway. They said the Cocoa House (in Ibadan) would collapse. It still stands. They said the Western Region would go bankrupt. It prospered.
“The people who tell you change is impossible are the same people who have benefited from the absence of change.
“Seneca wrote: ‘No man was ever wise by chance.’ Awolọwọ’s wisdom came from nights spent alone, worrying about a nation that did not want to be saved.
“He sat at his desk while others partied. He thought while others caroused. When we laughed at him, he did not laugh back. He just kept writing, kept warning, kept pointing to the rock while the helmsman steered straight toward it.
“Now the ship has hit the rock. The hull is cracked. The water is rising. And the captain is still asking the passengers to keep calm and wait for the next allocation from Abuja.
“Here is the difference between 1981 and 2026. Back then, only a few were listening. Today, the children of the uneducated have made sure that everyone is listening.
“Every kidnapping, every armed robbery, every flag raised by bandits is a sermon on the text Awolọwọ preached 45 years ago. A nation that refuses to educate its poor will be hunted by the ghosts of its neglect.
“Do not let anyone tell you Nigeria’s problems are too complex. They are not complex. They are deep. And as Awolọwọ said, ‘only the deep can call to the deep.’
“The shallow – those who carouse while the ship sinks, who mock prophets while the fire spreads – cannot hear him. They never could. But you, reading this, are not shallow.
“You felt the weight of 39 years, one month and one day. Now you know what the compass looks like. It is in his books. It is in the four laws, the warnings about education, the plea for true federalism.
“The question is no longer, what did Awolọwọ say? The question is: ‘Will we finally read? And if we read, will we finally act?
“I only pity the South Westerners. By error of omission and commission, through this unproductive, fraudulent amalgamation, the wisdom and administrative wizardry of this man, Awolọwọ, was unable to be harnessed to our benefit before his demise.
“The rest of Nigeria lost a prophet. But we lost our own compass. And that is why the weight of 39 years, one month and one day falls hardest on us.
“Awo’s voice must not die.” Generous courtesy of Taiwo Lawal.
Profound, devoid of ambiguities. Awolowo wasn’t a saint. Nor was he a tin-god. He never at any point in his life pretended to be one. All the same. The sage clearly saw the past, the present and the future. You dare not denying him that luxury. He saw clearly, precisely and succinctly.
He left us to our woeful fate 39 years ago. And his thoughts are still refreshingly fresh. The very reason we should have a reasonable reset of our senses.
Let’s all be sincere. Read, eat, chew, drink and digest, interrogate his thoughts. They’re our surest path to perfect, permanent peace and prosperity.
Still in doubt? Go over the thoughts many times over, again and again. No two-way!
