“For behold the darkness shall cover the earth and gross darkness the people but the Lord shall arise upon thee and his glory shall be seen upon thee.”
(Isaiah 60:2).
Picture this for a minute. A man you consider your enemy has been caged. You mount your white horse. Lion. Conqueror. Lord and master of everything. Think of Mufasa, (Sardauna) in the Lion King saying to his son (Akintola) Simba—-“everything that the light touches is yours.”
Imagine Ladoke Akintola clinking glasses with the Sardauna and Balewa. “We’ve finally put that Brat away. He thinks he’s all that.”
Truth be told, Awo was really all that. In six short years, he had done magic with Western Region in a way even his detractors could not deny. 1 million Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa children living in the Western Region enrolled in school over a 3-year period funded by profits from Cocoa and a Ten Shilling tax from every male adult.
Awo was the ultimate Philosopher-King that writers through the centuries had dreamed of and written about.
If Awo were a drink, you would need to mix the foresight of a Thomas Jefferson, the courage of a George Washington, the pragmatism of an Otto Von Bismarck, the tenacity of a Winston Churchill, the iron will of a Maggie Thatcher and the combined brilliance and eloquence of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama to create it. He was heads and shoulders above those in his generation and remains the leader of our dreams still.
Odumegwu Ojukwu said of Awo—“He was the best president Nigeria never had.”
In the run-up to the 1959 election, as all three giants met at Lancaster House, he advocated creation of new States to protect minority rights. His advocacy was over the heads of his peers as he also supported the insertion of a Bill of Rights in the Independence Constitution.
The Sardauna, a product of aristocracy was aghast. He was virulently opposed to anything that would give rights to ordinary people, educate them, enlighten them and especially, he was opposed to allowing women to vote. If Awo was Synthesis, the Northern establishment represented by the Sardauna was Antithesis.
Imagine therefore how the dream of the Amalgamation of 1914 which was meant to help the North was quickly becoming stillborn. The stage was set for the Nigeria of 2026 to be the way it is today—-for the cruelty of the Northern elite to rise to a crescendo that would make their youth turn to self help. Awo saw the future and he was deeply disturbed.
Awo said, “If I had won, I would have deployed substantial resources into developing education in the North and bringing them to the level of the South.
Sadly, the North remains where it is and the solution to their problems remains what it has always been—-massive onslaught of emergency proportions to inject money, resources and energy into education in the North to save the next 50 years of the North and of Nigeria.
Remember that Lord Lugard had said in doing the amalgamation that there could be “no prospect of divorce.” He meant it then. They mean it now.
Looking back, Awo reminisced that he believed he would have gotten better results if he had negotiated the future of Nigeria directly with the Sardauna because as he said, “with the Sardauna, you knew where he stood on issues,” whereas that was not the case with Balewa who always had to seek clearance from the Sardauna before taking a position on major issues.
Enters the Nigerian Census of 1962 and subsequently, 1963.
Right in the throes of the Western Regional crisis, Awo having been caged, Nigeria conducted a census. Results were as follows: North—22.01
South —-23.25.
These new figures, if accepted, would have changed the balance of power from the clearly contrived arrangement of 1959. Looking back, it is probably to be believed that the Southern politicians who were clearly desperate for unity and independence against the reticence of the North decided to let the 1959 estimates slide for the sake of exigence.
If they had stood their grounds in 1959, one of three things might have happened. Firstly, independence would have been delayed, or else, the North which was not ready for independence in the first place and also, which by the disposition of its leader, a great grandson of Uthman Dan Fodio was not predisposed to playing second fiddle to Southern leadership—would have pulled out of Nigeria.
A third option might have been a Civil War which was postponed for 7 years. It could be argued that given the obvious injustice of the allocation of Seats in the Federal Parliament, a Civil War was going to be inevitable. It was just a matter of time. There are historians, separatist minded all-be-it who still believe that it was a missed opportunity.
Be it known that all the questions and assumptions raised above were crafted for rhetorics.
In 1950, representatives of the three proposed regions under the McPherson Constitution met in Ibadan to discuss the future of Nigeria.
The British proposition was for equal representation for all three regions at 44:33:33 each. The North said—-“it’s either 50% of all Federal Seats or else, we will pull out of the Nigerian arrangement.”
The Southern representatives backed down. The North got 68 Seats, the West 34, and the East, 34.
A deal is a deal. If it was a deal, with no one pointing a gun at anyone’s head, then, we have an obligation to abide by the arrangement made by our founding fathers.
In framing the future of the United States of America, the delegates in Philadelphia had to confront the same kind of issues—-What is fair? What is right? What is equitable and What is pragmatic?
The South needs the North. The North needs the South. The marriage as conceived in 1914 stands with no prospect of a divorce.
As it should be.
The issues which we face in 2026 are no different from other issues that we have overcome in the past. The looming issues such as poverty, insecurity and other matters arising from the situation of “Two Jurisprudences, one nation,” will eventually find resolution as we continue the March towards nationhood.
Michael Ovienmhada.
Author, Playwright and Filmmaker. (omeekey@hotmail.com)
FYI: There’s a short movie everyone needs to watch. It’s titled: 3 Friends. Check it out on O’meekey TV. You will love it. See link below.
