Dele Farotimi, an ideologically driven patriot

MaTaZ ArIsInG
Dallas, Texas

There is some method to Dele Farotimi’s radicalized message and revolutionary streak

The Revolution Farotimi is soliciting and canvassing to me, is for beyond just trying to defame Aare Afe Babalola for those who have the ears to hear and the eyes to see what the young man, a patriot of a different stripe from Pa Afe Babalola as I hear him out thru few of his interviews I have been privileged to dissect and assimilate.

I call him a young man because he is about the same age as my first child and I am convinced he is making some very serious points we cannot dismiss with the wave of the hand

I am old enough to be his father to put it bluntly and what I write here should be seen from the prism of a father just trying to understand what his troubled child wants him to understand about what he is deeply concerned about in reference to our country

Farotimi is asking Nigerians to refuse to die in the War engineered by their oppressors and victimizers but to pick and fight their own battles to salvage our country before it goes under.

To die in a War they don’t believe in or understand is to die in vain and I totally agree with him on that now that I have read his new book from cover and now that I have had to listen to few of the interviews Farotimi has granted in the Social Media including the one or two he has had with Arise News Talkshow moderated by Ojy Okpe and the one moderated or anchored by Reuben Abati and Oseni Rufai and few of their panelists

Dele is painstakingly canvassing for Civil Society Engagement in Nigeria and not necessarily for a violent Revolution as some of us might have thought initially.

He argued and rightly so that Nigeria was meant to be a federal system and that Democracy was expected to evolve from that Federalism but he regrets that the Nigeria we currently have today, is neither a Federation nor a Democracy.

He argues that our rulers have nothing to be proud of. Their failure to balance power was what had led to the acrimony and the “Wet e” Revolution which had led to the Declaration of Emergency in the old Western Region in 1964 and the unfolding series of events that had led to the Coup of the Majors on January 15, 1966.

Part of the evolvement of the Parliamentary Democracy which we embraced following our Independence on October 1st, 1960,was part of what had led to the creation of the MidWest Region in Nigeria.

He argued that what we have today in Nigeria is a far cry from what we had prior to the Coup of the Majors on January 15 1966 which was highjacked by Aguiyi Ironsi and Professor Nwabueze who became his Attorney General and who introduced the Unitary System in the hope and belief that it was the Igbos that would stand to benefit the most from it.

Aguiyi Ironsi had made sure that it was the man who acted as Acting Governor General for Nnamdi Azikiwe, who deliberately went on vacation because he had a tip off about what was about to happen.

So it was that man another Igbo man who acted for Zik that formally invited Aguiyi Ironsi to take over after the Coup appeared to have failed once the Coup plotters were rounded up and put in detention by Aguiyi Ironsi.

But before that happened the Coup plotters had managed to eliminate the Sardauna of Sokoto as Premier of Northern Region, Chief Ladoke Akintola as Premier of Western Region and Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa and his Finance Minister Okotueboh in what was viewed as a one-sided Coup that created so much resentment and bad blood in the country.

So what was initially supposed to be an arbitrary seizure of power by the Military as contemplated by Chukwuma Nzeogwu and Emmanuel Ifeajuna became a somewhat proper or legitimate handover of power from an elected Government to an unelected one represented by Aguiyi Ironsi as the most Senior indigenous Military Officer in the Nigerian Military at the time

That development was further canibalized by the July 29 Revenge Coup masterminded by Murtala Mohammed and Olusegun Obasanjo and few of their top guns like Theophillus Danjuma who went to Ibadan to arrest Aguiyi Ironsi while Ironsi was on official visit to Ibadan where he was hosted by Lt. Colonel Adekunle Fajuyi.

Farotimi submits that Nigerian problem is a systemic problem that has totally collapsed and it is totally irredeemable.

He has used, in my opinion, too wide a brush to describe what is wrong with Nigeria.

I agree it is a systemic problem problem but it is still redeemable, if we try.

The truth is that we have not tried hard enough in my opinion.

My proof for saying that is because some have made efforts in Nigeria to redeem our situation in their different region or state and they have succeeded. What is needed is the will and the discipline on the part of our leaders to develop a system that guarantees the Rule of Law and equal treatment under the Law as emphasized by Dele Farotimi

Some of our leaders have done that before and they have succeeded.

The first was Chief Obafemi Awolowo and his experiment in the old Western Region which became the pacesetter not only in Nigeria but also in West Africa and arguably in much of Africa south of the Sahara Desert.

Another one was Samuel Osaigbovo Ogbemudia and his experiment in the old Mid West as the first Military Governor by following on some of the experiment set in motion by Obafemi Awolowo while the Mid West was still part and parcel of Western Region.

It was an experiment that quickly turned the old Midwest to a pacesetter in Nigeria during much of the 8 to 9 years of General Yakubu Gowon as Head of State from July 29, 1969 to 1975.

The third one was the experiment by late Civilian Executive Governor of Lagos State Lateef Kayode Jakande and his very prudent management of the Lagos State Budget and his management of Primary and Secondary education in Lagos State and his building of low cost and affordable Housing for people in Lagos state.

LKJ was not the only civilian Governor to make the free education work in his state and to immediately tackle and resolve the problem of Housing in Lagos State pretty much like Onabanjo had done in Ogun State and Bola Ige in Oyo and Cornelius Adebayo in Kwara State and like Pa Adekunle Ajasin had done in Ondo State and like Ambrose Ali had done in Bendel State.

So the Nigerian problem is not irredeemable as implied or insinuated by Farotimi.

It only requires some focused discipline and dedication and tenacity of the leadership as a role model for the followership.

I try to put side by side the interview granted by Tinubu and the one granted by Dele Farotimi on their analysis of the Nigerian Problem and the pathway to solving them.

I also compare the interview granted by Peter Obi on the problem of Nigeria and I find the interview granted by Farotimi to be far more analytical and brilliant and superior to that of Obi while the one by Tinubu has come a distant third to both in term of clarity and eloquence, if you saw what I saw.

If you ask me based on that interview, who is more ready to lead the country, and based on objective and unbiased analysis, my response to you would be Farotimi with Peter Obi coming a close second while Tinubu’s performance in his own interview would take the rear even though it was one of his best performances I have seen, if you ask me.

Part of the problem of Nigeria is that we, more often than not, put in power or elect the wrong candidate.

Obafemi Awolowo was the more qualified by track record to lead the country in 1979 and in 1983, but the country chose instead to elect Shehu Shagari.

When Atiku Abubakar and Ahmed Bola Tinubu and Peter Obi ran for President in 2023, Peter Obi was obviously the best candidate but guess who won the election it was Tinubu who appeared to be the weakest of the three in recognition of his poor health at the time and all things considered.

Dele Farotimi is a rock-solid ideologically- driven patriot with very sound ideas to turn our country around.

We hope he gets justice from the Law Court on his case now pending in Court but I think the amount set for his bail is just damn too high for a man who is not going to be a fugitive and who has pretty much pled he is going nowhere because he believes he has not committed any crime and is determined to prove his case..

I rest my case.

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