All For Awo

 

 

By Nehru Odeh

A sense of history was imprinted on the minds of Nigerians on Thursday 25 June in Lagos. That day, Lagos State governor, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN, officially presented a museum dedicated to the late sage Chief Obafemi Awolowo. The museum is significant in many respects. Not only is it the building in which Awolowo was detained in 1962 during the treasonable felony trial, it is situated in Lekki, a coastal town which Awolowo loved so much.

 

During one of his visits to the town, Awolowo had predicted that the sleepy community would be a tourist destination in the future. More than two decades after his death, that prediction has come to pass, courtesy of the Lagos State government. The Museum, part of the Institute for Government and Public Policy, is a repository of knowledge and contains all the archival materials about the birth and the continuing growth of Nigeria as a nation. Indeed, pictorial representations, news reports and statues which dot the museum encapsulate not just Awo’s life and times but Nigeria’s colonial and post-colonial history as well. Standing side by side with the museum is the Resource Centre in which lectures, seminars and symposia will be held.Members of the board of trustees of the Institute include the former governor of Osun State and National Chairman of Action Congress, Chief Bisi Akande, Mr. Biodun Fakeye, Mr Odia Ofeimun, Professor Adebayo Williams, Professor Segun Gbagedesin, Mrs. Fancesca Emmanuel and Dr. Wale Adebanwi. Ofeimun, poet, scholar and the late sage’s former private secretary is upbeat about the museum. He believes the Museum will not only be a storehouse of knowledge but will also reveal many things Nigerians are unaware of. “It is important to know what happened to a country in the past and how those decision makers who affect what happened to us now, did or did not do what they did. This is because it is important that we know how we landed ourselves in what everybody regards as a mess today,” Ofeimun told TheNEWS. According to him, it is important that people visit the Museum to see how the years of the locust creeped into Nigeria’s history. “That chaos brought in authoritarianism in our lives. And why we must not allow it to happen again,” he said.

However, Ofeimun believes the Museum will also rekindle memories. “The Museum is aimed at helping to preserve a sense of memory among our people. Memory empowers a people and when you lose it, you also lose direction and you lose a sense of both,” Ofeimun intoned. However, while the ground-breaking efforts of Lagos State government are commendable, Ofeimun decried a situation where Nigerians have to travel overseas to get a sense of Nigeria’s history. “The truth is, we have institutions in Nigeria that ought to be better funded. Our history is so much in Europe that it is painful when you are searching for these things that you have to go to Europe. Very many institutions in Nigeria were designed to help protect Nigeria’s history. The Nigeria Archive is supposed to be one of the best kept historical monuments in this country. But unfortunately it is not well funded,” Ofeimun lamented.

Professor Adebayo Williams likened the Awo Museum to the Museum of Atrocity in North Korea. Still, the renowned academic believes the museum will be a storehouse of not just dead history but “history as a living witness to the struggle of a people to emancipate their land and the kind of injustices they suffered and endured.” However, Chief Bisi Akande believes that the youths have a lot to learn from the Awo Museum. “The Museum is significant because it protects the high qualities of endurance in the man, Awo. So that our oncoming youths shall be able to cultivate the habit of courage in the way to tackle the problems of this country,” he said. Akande is excited about the Museum because it evokes nostalgic feelings, adding that he was a happier person when Awolowo was alive than now. “Nigeria was a better place to live in then. But when he (Awo) was disturbing the corrupt leaders in those days, they became angry. And since then, Nigeria has never had peace because it has never had stable democracy,” Akande regretted.

The host community, Lekki, is in a joyous mood because of what they regard as government presence in the ancient town. The Onilekki of Lekki, His Royal Majesty Oba L.O Ogunbekun spoke on behalf of the community. He said the “community is highly delighted with what government is doing here. We are very happy that Lekki, being an ancient community has taken its rightful place in Lagos State.’’ Awolowo’s encounter with the Lekki community is already part of the people’s folklore. And they all relive memories of his detention . They believe that before Awolowo was detained there in 1962, he had visited the town in 1961 during his annual vacation. According to them, the late sage visited the town again as leader of the Unity Party of Nigeria, UPN during his presidential campaigns. “When Awo was here, I saw what I had never seen before, because there was visible improvement in the town. We heard names we had never heard before, names like Chike Obi, Odebiyi etc. They all came here. But Awolowo had only about three minutes to spend with each of them,” Alhaji Olayemi Ogunbekun recalled. Ogunbekun also told TheNEWS that the community was witnessing a fulfilment of a prophecy Awolowo had made . “Papa Awolowo had already informed us that at the end of the day, some people from the upper land would come and see Lekki. And that Lekki will develop. Now, that dream is becoming a reality,” he noted.

This view was also echoed by Alhaji Rafiu Salau. “When Awolowo came to campaign in Lekki in the Second Republic he promised that if elected, he would do something for the community. Though he did not fulfil the promise because they did not allow him to do so, that promise is not lost as the Lagos State government is now doing it,” he intoned. Jelili Abiodun Bakare told TheNEWS that Awolowo was loved by everybody in the community because he spoke the truth ad because and always had foreknowledge of what was going to happen. Prince Lanre Olanrewaju Ogunbekun also has vivid memories of Awolowo’s detention in Lekki. According to him, Awolowo always came out of the balcony of the house in which he was detained to greet his visitors by making the victory sign amidst shouts of Awo! Awo! “Awolowo was brought to Lekki in an helicopter. Yet people moved there en mass every morning just to pay homage to him. To show the kind of love Awo’s colleagues had for him they came to Ebute-Lekki- about a mile from Lekki- by speedboats to welcome him. Even many years after his death, some of his children came to this house just to celebrate in remembrance of Papa Awolowo,” Ogunbekun recalled.

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