It’s good that as a result of the reactions he received from some readers of his column, that Chief Mike Ozekhome last week corrected the mistake he made a fortnight ago, that General Ibrahim Babangida was the one who described Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the leader of the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), as the best president the country never had. Instead of reaching out to him privately as the others did, I decided to write about the issue because as I pointed out in last week’s column the error has been on since Awo died 30 years ago. Only that instead of Babangida it was Chief Emeka Ojukwu, the Military Governor of the defunct Eastern Region in the late 1960s, that others claimed paid the tribute to him.
I was therefore not surprised that he was the one those who reacted to Ozekhome’s mistake credited with making the statement. When as I revealed last week it was Dan Agbese, a Newswatch Magazine columnist, who first gave the UPN leader the title. Given the misconceptions on the issue, there was therefore the need for me to publicly put the record straight. Ditto the equally three – decade old mistake many make that instead of Sina Odugbemi, a Nigerian Tribune columnist, that it was Chief Olabisi Onabanjo, the Second Republic Governor of Ogun State (October 1, 1979 – December 20, 1983), who in 1986 or 87 gave General Babangida the nickname Maradona. The Military Head of State (1985 – 93) was given the name to show that he was not sincere with his return to civil rule programme which he kept on adjusting. And that he was only dribbling Nigerians in the deft and mesmerizing manner Diego Maradona of Argentina waltzed through the players of opposing teams during the 1986 World Cup tournament.
There is also the issue that Chief Bola Ige, the 2nd Republic Governor of Old Oyo State (now Oyo and Osun States), was the one who came up with the phrase “siddon look” (sit down and watch or sitting down and watching). An expression he used to inform Nigerians that he would not participate in Babangida’s dubious transition to civil rule programme of 1987 – 93.
I was the Editor of the no longer existing Sunday Concord newspaper when Awo passed on May 9, 1987 and in that position I was supplied all the major national newspapers every day and the leading magazines every week. Consequently, I knew Dan Agbese was the first person who referred to the UPN leader as the best president Nigeria never had in an article he wrote before Awo went to glory and not after his demise as I had it in last week’s piece.
And as I disclosed in that write – up, in paying tribute to Awo in 1987 Ojukwu acknowledged that someone, whom he did not name, gave such compliment to the UPN leader before him. Chief Ige too did the same when he first used siddon look, which originated from Ama Ogan, the Editor of The Guardian on Sunday, who came up with the expression in her column in the weekly newspaper. She used the phrase to show her disgust at the crafty way Babangida was making changes in his transition plan and that she would not comment on the issue again, but just watch from the sideline how things unfold.
So, how come that people attributed what the three columnists came up with to Ige, Onabanjo and Ojukwu? The reason is that only those who read the columns of Ogan, Agbese and Odugbemi would have known they were the authors of the statements or words credited to the three former governors. Of course, in the 1980s when they penned their articles, I do not think that each of the Nigerian Tribune, The Guardian on Sunday and Newswatch sold more than fifty thousand to two hundred thousand copies per edition.
Whereas as leading national personalities, the statements made by Onabanjo, Ige and Ojukwu were published conspicuously as news items on the front, inside or back pages of major national and local newspapers and also carried by radio and television stations in the country. As a result, several millions of people would have read or heard what the three statesmen said. So, to the vast majority who did not read the articles of Ogan, Odugbemi and Agbese, Chiefs Ige, Onabanjo and Ojukwu came up with siddon look, Babangida’s Maradona appellation and Awo as the best president Nigeria never had respectively.
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Post-mortem of Obama’s presidency (2)
The first of the eight of the 44 presidents of the United States that I consider to be the greatest in their performance and who left better footsteps on the sands of time is George Washington. The Commander – in – Chief of the army that won the war of independence against Britain and got the first 13 colonies to come together as one nation known as the United States.
As the pioneer head of state (1789 – 97) it was under his leadership the country adopted the presidential system and in the interest of promoting national unity came up with the electoral college in which all the colonies (states) no matter their size, population or wealth must have equal number of voters in electing the president. And the decision that while the candidate who came first would be president the second person would be the vice – president no matter the party to which he or she may belong.
This was how John Adams of the Federalist Party became president in 1797 and Thomas Jefferson of the Democratic – Republican party the vice – president. The joint ticket of the president and vice – president belonging to the same party began with the 1832 election.
Washington also indirectly instituted the two-term presidential system when in 1796 against the popular demand of Americans he declined to seek re – election for a third term. An example others followed except Franklin Roosevelt, the 32nd president (1933 – 45), a cripple, who won four elections. He was probably re-elected for a third term in 1940 and a fourth term in 1944 because of the outbreak in 1939 of the Second World War and which ended in 1945. The law on a maximum of two presidential tenures was introduced on March 1, 1951.
For continuation next week