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To Kunle Ajibade At 50 —Bola Tinubu
July 07, 2008 13:40, 1,187 views
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It is so easy for us to take for granted the man and the occasion we have gathered here to celebrate today. Just think of it. The man Kunle Ajibade, who attains the golden age of 50 and is launching What a Country! today, would still be in jail for life if our tormentors and oppressors of yesterday had their way. He was one of those pro-democracy activists and committed journalists framed for treason and unjustly jailed by those bent on imprisoning the freedom of a nation in perpetuity. Think back at that hour of darkness and madness. Let us imagine how Kunle must have felt as the criminal sentence was pronounced and he descended into what must have seemed an endless valley of darkness.
At that time those who had the power to trample on the liberty and rights of the innocent with impunity loomed so large. Their might appeared invincible. It looked so futile for puny pro-democracy Davids to battle the daunting Goliaths of oppression and injustice. How tempting it must have been for Kunle and the other unarmed soldiers of conscience like the late Dr. Beko Ransome-Kuti to cave in and compromise their principles. How easy it could have been to trade their cherished values for the poisoned offerings of temporary wielders of corrupt power. But they said no to cowardly capitulation. They rejected the illusion of freedom devalued by the loss of human dignity. They stood firm for truth and principle with confident faith in the ultimate triumph of justice, defined by our own Wole Soyinka as the first condition of humanity.
Let us not take for granted, I repeat, the great life and worthy symbol we have come here to honour today. After all, Ken Saro-Wiwa was not fortunate enough to survive his captors and tell his story. What about the graceful old Pa Alfred Rewane or the youthful and beautiful Kudirat Abiola? What about MKO Abiola himself? What about Bagauda Kaltho? What about General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua? What about the countless others whose names do not ring a bell who lost lives and limbs in the struggle?
They all watered the struggle for the democracy we enjoy today with their blood. Let me not talk of a certain farmer from Ota who narrowly survived a harrowing and unjust prison experience and was transported to the highest level of political power in his country. After eight years in power, the primitive prison system so graphically portrayed in Kunle’s Jailed for Life, under which he suffered so gruesomely, remains unchanged. But that is a tragic story for another day; not for this joyous occasion.
Kunle, we thank God Almighty for your life. We are grateful that he has preserved you for us. At 50 you continue to season and flavour our national life with your inspiration and ennobling example. You continue to stimulate our imaginations with the offerings of your ever fertile mind. You continue to utilise your professional talent to help chart a path to greater freedom and dignity for our long suffering people. It is so easy for those who sacrificed so much to enthrone democracy in Nigeria to despair and give up hope given the many disappointments of the last eight years.
But your example teaches us never to lose hope in the triumph of good over evil or faith in the possibilities of our fatherland. I have not read your new book but I know it is a labour of love for the liberation of a country you love and cherish against all odds. And because this country possesses human treasures like you, we have every reason for confidence that we shall yet redeem our future and actualise our potentials. I rejoice with you on this occasion. I rejoice with your faithful and resilient wife and your lovely children. I pray that God Almighty will preserve you for many more years in good health and deserved prosperity.
— Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is the immediate past governor of Lagos State.
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Inaobatan Nojim
19 July 2008 13:49Kunle Ajibade is the “Aare Ona Kakanfo “of the journalist profession.He found himself in the battlefield, he fought and he conquered. He has no guns, grenades or machine guns but his pen as his weapons. You are a winner.The News is in another battlefield with the ursurpers in Osun state but victory is certain. I gives you the victory over Osun state tribunal judges as a birthday present. Happy birthday Kunle.