In an interview with Sahara TV, the writer, poet & social critique
said late premier of the old Western region, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, was a
greater man than South African anti-apartheid revolutionary, Dr. Nelson
Mandela.
I am too much of an Awolowo man not to
see that the process of moving into independence in South Africa and in
Nigeria followed exactly the same pattern. It was based on a negotiated
settlement. The liberation struggle did not create the end of apartheid.
It was a negotiation and Nigerians negotiated exactly the way Mandela
negotiated.
“You can hype it if you like, but the
pattern was exactly the same. You move from one meeting to the other,
discussing politics and economics, and they successfully convinced
Mandela to buy the pig in a poke of an economy and they also successfully succeeded in convincing Nigerians to buy the pig in a poke of an economy.
“The only man in Nigeria, who stood up
against it, was (Obafemi) Awolowo. He was quickly jailed and all his men
scattered across the prisons in Nigeria. Some driven abroad and the
educational system that he had put in place was smashed.” Ofeimun said
"People talk about Mandela’s capacity to
put various classes (of people) together as theory, but Awolowo ironed
it out very clearly, why you don’t need a class struggle, in order to
create a society in which all children can go to school; in which
everybody can get a job, and in which old age pensions will be paid to
people.
“It is not just love and I want to
emphasise that. Those who criticise Awolowo’s socialism for wanting in
love are obviously basing their argument on his claim that a government
should be like a sun that shines on all equally. If it is about a theory
of how to bring the people together on the African continent, none is
as good as the Awolowo’s and I’m not trying to pretend.
“Bring all their writings, fine phrases,
alright, but reduce them to economic terms, and I can tell you that
there is only one man who rivals Awolowo in this respect and that is
Nkrumah. Unfortunately unlike Awolowo, Nkrumah did not believe in either
a democratic or a federal theory. If you want to save Africa, you need
those two.”
Ofeimun said he chose Awolowo over Mandela because..
"The simple reason is that what needed to be
done in South Africa, after apartheid was precisely what Awolowo wanted
for Western Region and Nigeria after independence. Which is to say put
every child at school, ensure that productivity takes the creativity of
the individual citizen into proper focus and build the relationship
between people and not on whether they did not love each other? But
whether there is justice and equality.”
Interview transcribed by Punch. What do you guys think of the comparison ?
