Change Agents In An Emerging Democratic Process (2)

Who Is Afraid Of Change?

In social science thought the concept of change is employed to designate a significant alteration in social structures, rules of conduct, values, cultural products, and symbols. In the intellectual context, change also refers to development and transformation of human society from a lower to a higher or more advanced level. The use of the term connotes progress, growth, qualitative leap and even revolution. In Nigeria’s political experience, almost all electoral parties subscribe to or proclaim the goals of change. Quite often, many politicians interpret change to mean no more that the replacement of one set of administrators or office holders by another. In this discussion, we hope to examine the idea of change that relates to significant alteration in social structure, rules of conduct, and values.

Change Agents In An Emerging Democratic Process (1)

Owing to the manipulation of British colonial powers, conservative political parties have always held sway in Nigeria’s electoral system. Yet the advocacy for radical change has had a long history in the country. During the final push of the anti-colonial mobilization in the 1950s, socialist thinkers propounded revolutionary change in the anticipation of independence from colonial rule. One of the iconic figures of that era was Alhaji Adegoke Adelabu (1915 – 1958), otherwise known as “penkelemes” of Ibadan politics. He was a leading member of the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC) which was led by Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe. In his political manifest  published as AFRICA IN EBULLITION, Adelabu described change as “complete freedom, unqualified, unreserved, and unlimited freedom to order our lives as we deem fit” but must come within five years, that is, 1956 when Nigeria was expected to gain independence. This freedom, he declared” is here in West Africa, the black man’s paradise, here in Nigeria, the heaven of the Negro race, here in the Western Region, the chosen land of a modern Songhay…” The citations are from the 2008 edition of the book by the Ibadan-based Board Publications Limited.

Adelabu identified four pillars of post-colonial change, namely, education, agriculture, industrialization and africanisation of the civil service. On education, he stated that Education is the foundation of freedom. Ignorance is the basis of slavery. If you would free a people, first and foremost educated them” Adelabu placed equal stress on agriculture and industrialization. In his words, “If education is the foundation of freedom, then, agriculture is the life blood of Nigerian livelihood.”

Chief Obafemi Awolowo (1909 – 1987) was in the Action Group, the opposition party to the NCNC yet he shared the same revolutionary vision with Adelabu. Both nationalists also subscribed to the ideology of socialism even if they differed on what brand of it to apply. The commitment to socialist revolution inspired Awolowo’s government in the Western Region (1954 – 1962) to achieve spectacular success in the implementation of these pro-people programmes of free education, industrialization and agriculture. Awolowo’s memorable thoughts on these cardinal matter are available in his books, “The Peoples Republic” (1968) and “The Strategy and Tactics of the People’s Republic” (1970). Adelabu died in his mid forties in 1958 and Chief Awolowo was framed up on treasonable felony charge by the conservative federal government and was jailed for ten years in 1962. When Awolowo returned to electoral politics in 1979 -1983, he hoped to reinvent the radical dreams through the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN). His aspiration to rule Nigeria was thwarted by the constellation of reactionary forces, culminating in the military takeover of power in 1983. I have recalled these details in order to show that the ideology of radical change is a critical heritage of the politics of the Yoruba-speaking areas of Nigeria. It is a worthy legacy to reinvent and innovate on in meeting contemporary challenges. I will return to some of these issues.

Furthermore, in the Second Republic (1979 – 1983), there was a resurgence of radical change in the heartland of conservative politics in the north of Nigeria. This was recorded in the electoral victory of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) over the ultra-reactionary National Party of Nigeria in the region. The PRP won the governorship polls in Kaduna and Kano states, with Alhaji Balarabe Musa and Alhaji Abubakar Rimi as Governors respectively. The two of them initiated unprecedented reforms in administration, education, and welfare programs for the oppressed and exploited masses (talakawa). The PRP support came from this class of the population largely because of the long history of revolutionary work done under the leadership of Mallam Aminu Kano and his fellow travelers. The reactionary forces rallied around the NPN and fought back viciously. In 1983, Balarabe Musa was impeached by the State House of Assembly dominated by NPN stalwarts. The PRP itself was split into two antagonistic factions. By the end of the year, the military usurpers struck and General Muhammadu Buhari became head of state. He abolished electoral politics forever.

The emergence of Governors Abubakar Rimi and Balarabe Musa generated internal debate in the ranks of Nigeria’s socialist and Marxist Politian’s. Some denounced the development as capitulation to bourgeois electoral booby trap. Others saw it in the light of the strategy of minimum program in pursuit of the long, zigzag revolution in a non-industrialized setting. Whilst these dialectical exchanges raged, the masses of Kaduna and Kano knew that a new and more equitable social system was being implemented in their favour. They responded with fervor and fearless support.

In the midst of these tumultuous events, the Kano State government hosted a conference of leftist thinkers and scholars under the rubric of “progressives” and “change ideology”. Seventeen of the papers presented were edited in a book by Askipo Essien-Ibok as TOWARDS A PROGRESSIVE NIGERIA (1983). In his introduction, Essien-Ibok defined “change” as a “revolutionary concept of societal transformation from neo-colonial, feudal, imperialist and cut-throat capitalist relation.. “He added that change “relates to the construction of social consciousness where by the people are mobilized to work in harmony for the development of themselves and the society. Change mean the development of class consciousness of worker, and explaining to them their historical mission as a class that of fighting to exterminates of forms of exploitation, nepotism, corruption, bad government and class society oin general and of building a new social economic order”.

Comrade Ola Oni and his socialist party of workers, Farmers and Youth gave strategic support to the PPR governors, much collaborative work was out between the two group in the area of cadre training, propaganda, research and publication. Yet comrade Ola Oni did not share the illusion that what was taking place in Kano and Kaduna was the equivalent of a socialist revolution. Rather, he interpreted the changes as necessary radical reforms on which the revolutionary movement of the working class could build in future. His paper delivered at the Kano conference bore the title “Reformist Political Movement in Contemporary Nigeria” He  characterized the programs of Awolowo’s UPN as bourgeois reforms aimed at spreading “palliative to the working class, to divert them from the revolutionary alternative” adding that the ‘capitalists who own and monopolize the resources will not release the resources without struggle” He illustrate this aspect with the difficulty the UNP had in funding the free education in the states under control.

Ola oni agreed that the PRP comrades had opened up “class struggle for structural changes” but the party understand the violent character of the enemy and placed “too much trust in bourgeois process of fair play and justice. The party underrated the fascistic nature of the counter-revolutionary forces. The party did not play attention to mass mobilization for mass action “Ola Oni made these points about 30 years ago, but they are pertinent in assessing the fortunes of change and reforms in Nigeria today.