If youre an Igbetian, this may interest you. Even if youre not, it still may... POLITICS AS A STRATEGY FOR UNITY AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT – THE CASE FOR IGBETI BY MUDATHIR GANIYU Being a paper presented at the Annual General Meeting symposium of Egbe Omo Igbeti Toro on the 29th of December, 2014 at Igbeti Town Hall. INTRODUCTION I have been asked to speak about politics as a strategy for unity and community development using our own dear town as a case study. This brief presentation shall be divided into four parts. We shall endeavour to first understand the nature of politics by seeking to understand the meaning of politics, and then delve into the political history of Nigeria and Igbeti to see what unifying role, if any, politics had played in the past up to the present moment. We shall also look at the role of the traditional institutions in the politics of the town as well as the political economy of the town since we are talking about development, and we cannot do that without delving into political economy. We need to dwell on the political economy of the town as we all know that politics and economy go hand-in-hand, and the whole purpose of politics is the allocation of economic resources for the betterment of the society. This is more so now that we are in the era of “stomach infrastructure”. We are in the era of electioneering and party politics and Igbeti, as indeed, the whole of Nigeria, is agog with campaign hustings between the various political parties, particularly, the All Progressives Congress (APC), the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the Accord Party (AP), and to a far lesser extent, the Labour Party. As we are all aware, political party affiliations in Igbeti, especially during electioneering periods like this, have created fissions and divisions in the society occasioning bitter rivalry in the contest for power and political offices. These fissions and divisions are not just inter-party, but even intra-party as disagreements over the sharing of party offices, political offices and booties or what we refer to as dividends of democracy, have led to the intra-party intrigues. This paper shall conclude by proposing ways in which we can harness these divisions as strengths for the development of Igbeti. THE NATURE OF POLITICS Since we are discussing the role of politics in the development of our dear town, it is important for us to understand the nature of politics. The word ‘politics’ connotes different things to different people and conjures up different images in our minds. To some of us, politics is a dirty game, to others, it is a means of appropriating our commonwealth to themselves and yet to others, it is about thuggery. But for us to truly comprehend what politics is all about, we need to turn to the experts. To Anifowose (1999), politics is the process of making and executing government decisions or policies; the authoritative allocation of values, or who gets what, when and how; the quest for power, order and justice; the art of influencing, manipulating and controlling others; a process of resolution of conflict in the society and a struggle among actors pursuing conflicting desires on public issues. Politics is the activity by which an issue is agitated or settled. When we talk or think about politics in our society, what often comes to mind is the intra and inter party politics played in the society at large. But Henslin (1995) divides politics into two broad categories: Micropolitics and Macropolitics. He points out that micropoliticts refers to the exercise of power in everyday life. “Routine situations in which people jockey for power include employees attempt to impress the new boss-who is going to decide which one of them will be promoted to manager-as well as by parents to enforce their curfew on a reluctant daughter or son- and as has become a topic of comedians – who controls the remote to the TV.” He goes on to conclude that “Every group, then, is political, for in every group there is a power struggle of some sort.” It is this kind of politics at the micro level that made the Aristotlean dictum that “human beings are political animals”, popular. Macropolitics, on the other hand, refers to the exercise of power on a large-scale; that is over a broad group. Governments as we have at the Federal, State and Local levels exemplify politics at the macro level, and it is this type of government and politics that will form the basis of our discussion in this paper. POLITICAL HISTORY OF IGBETI Politics in Igbeti did not begin with the coming of party politics in the 1950s when the pre and immediate post independence political parties made incursions into Nigeria and by extension into Igbeti. If politics, as we have seen in our definition above, is about the exercise of authority and influence, the struggle for the control of resources, then the traditional institution headed by the Onigbeti of Igbeti, under the suzerainty of the Alaafin of Oyo, exemplifies politics in the pre-colonial and pre-party politics. Igbeti was a part and parcel of the old Oyo Empire which, as history tells us, extended as far as Egba and Egbado, Sabe, Ketu, Ajase, Dahomey, Whydah and Badagry. Falola et al, (1989) had this to say about the Alaafin and the old Oyo Empire: The Political administration of the old Oyo Empire centred around the Alaafin of Oyo who was the head of the imperial administration. He combined spiritual and temporal powers in his office. In his spiritual capacity, the Alaafin was seen by his subjects as the companion of the gods. As far as temporal powers were concerned, he exercised political control over central administration; designated administrative officers reported to him as well as owed him allegiance in exercising power over provincial matters. Igbeti was one of those provinces and the Onigbeti, who was answerable to the Alaafin, oversaw the administration of the town on behalf of the Alaafin. As we all know, old Oyo is not very far from here, and in fact, Sango, a one-time Alaafin of Oyo, sojourned in Igbeti before ascending the throne as Alaafin (Jimoh, 2011). Even within the traditional political institutions, there had always been intense jostling for power and influence as exemplified by the crisis between the Onigbeti and his chiefs in 1938 during the days of colonialism when there was yet to be strident nationalism and agitation for independence. Sometime in March 1938, the District Officer (D.O.) visited Igbeti from Oyo and found that certain chiefs in Igbeti were at loggerheads with the Onigbeti. These chiefs included Seriki, Aboke, Ikolaba and Eleyinke. When the D.O. sent for them and they arrived at the court (aafin), they (the chiefs), in the words of the D.O., “treated the Baale with marked disrespect”. When the D.O. got back to Oyo, he reported his findings to the Alaafin, who summoned Onigbeti and the malcontent chiefs to Oyo. According to the D.O.’s reports: From what I can see a the present time, the blame lies with both sides, the Bale (sic) has I believe exercised undue levy on the market, but against that the complaint is that he did not share his gains with the others; The Bale (sic) has also called on them for what they consider to be an unfair share of public entertainment, namely he has collected from them to pay for his guests without their approval; but on the other hand the Bale (sic) is Bale till he is removed from office and they (the chiefs) have no right to stir up strife unless they have failed to obtain redress through constitutional means,(Unrest in Igbeti, Residents Office, Oyo Province, file No. 2014). The D.O.’s records shows that the above incident was not the first time Seriki would rebel against the Onigbeti, and this ties in with the current problem in the town between the Seriki and the current Onigbeti occasioned by the Ologbon Family’s claim to the Onigbeti stool, which has been a subject of litigation, and the support lent to this claim by Seriki. As I understand, the current Seriki has been declared a persona non grata in the Onigbeti palace because of this case. These altercations past and present in the traditional institution of Igbeti is being recalled to show that politics in Igbeti predates party politics, and has contributed to the development or otherwise of the town. Even though the political administration of the town is now under the local government, and by extension, the state government, the traditional institution in Igbeti, as indeed, in other parts of Nigeria, still exerts great influence in the political, spiritual and even economic realms. As a matter of fact, when colonial administration started in Nigeria, the colonial government co-opted the traditional institutions in the indirect rule of administration introduced by Lord Lugard. The colonial government ruled, especially in the Northern Protectorate and Western Nigeria, through the traditional rulers (Akinboye & Anifowose, 1999). PARTY POLITICS IN IGBETI Party politics started in Nigeria after the introduction of the first constitution in Nigeria, the Clifford constitution in 1922, which established an Executive Council for the Sothern Protectorate comprising 46 members out which four were elected, three from Lagos and one from Calabar. The period also witnessed the formation of the first political parties in Nigeria, the Nigerian National Democratic Party (NNDP) by Herbert Macaulay, and the Nigerian Youth Movement, which later metamorphosed into the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NNC) (ibid). These political parties dominated the political space in Nigeria until late 1940s, but they were still essentially a mainly Lagos affair, as interior provinces like Igbeti did not feel the influence of these parties. The NCNC was later to dominate the political space in Nigeria with the return of Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe to Nigeria from the United States, en route Ghana, and the launching of his newspaper, the West African Pilot. The NCNC under the influence of Azikiwe bestrode the political space like a colossus in the 1940s and it is inconceivable that the few educated elite in Igbeti at the time would be unaffected by it. However, in 1945, the Egbe Omo Oduduwa was formed by Yoruba students in London, namely, Obafemi Awolowo, Ayo Rosiji, Oni Akerele, Abiodun Akerele, Akintola Williams and others (Osuntokun, 2010). The Egbe Omo Oduduwa was transplanted to Lagos in 1948 when some of the students graduated and returned to Nigeria, and it was the nucleus of Egbe Omo Oduduwa that later transmogrified into the Action Group party to counter the influence of Azikiwe and galvanize the Yoruba as a political force to be reckoned with in Nigeria. Awolowo and his friends went round the Western Region to sell the Egbe Omo Oduduwa as a socio-cultural renaissance movement and Igbeti was not left out as the group, comprising Awolowo, Bode Thomas, Abiodun Akerele, Ladoke Akintola and others, came to sell the association to the people of Igbeti. They met at the UMCA Mission House, and the meeting was attended by prominent Igbeti elite of the time including Oderinde Aremu, who chaired the occasion, Folarin Oyewumi, who later became the Onigbeti, and a host of others. When eventually the Egbe Omo Oduduwa transformed into the Action Group political party in 1951, it was natural that Action Group became the dominant party in Igbeti as in most parts of the Western Region, and Awolowo was to later win election in 1954 to the premiership office on the platform of the party while Akintola won election into the Federal House of Representatives. Crisis began in 1959 when Awolowo, as party leader, decided to reverse roles with Akintola – that is become a member of the House of Representatives at the federal level with the hope that the party, Action Group, would win majority of the seats to form the government and he, Awolowo, would be the Prime Minister of Nigeria, while Akintola became the Premier of the Western Region. Crisis erupted when Awolowo, as party leader, tried to exert undue influence in the day-to-day administration of the Western Region headed by Akintola as Opposition Leader in the House of Representatives, having failed to win majority votes to become the Prime Minister of Nigeria. This crisis split the Action Group into two factions – those who were pro-Awolowo and those who were pro-Akintola. By the time of the 1965 regional elections, Akintola had formed his own political party, the United People’s Party (UPP), which went into alliance with the Northern People’s Congress. Predictably, the people of Igbeti were equally divided and aligned to the different factions of the Action Group and later they were divided between the Action Group and the UPP. While the Onigbeti, Oba Folarin, was in support of Akintola, as usual, Seriki was on the opposing side, supporting Awolowo, thus again pitting himself against the Onigbeti. Since it was Akintola who was controlling the government of the Western Region, his faction naturally had the upper hand and meted out oppression to the Action Groupers as they were arbitrarily picked up and sent to jail on spurious and cooked-up charges. This led to angry retaliation by the Action Groupers which resulted into arson and lynching on a wide scale. This state of affairs also permeated Igbeti and when the Army struck in January 1966 and overthrew the civilian government, those opposed to Akintola in Igbeti descended on his supporters, including Oba Folarin, burning down the palace. The Oba abdicated his throne and ran for his life to exile in Ogbomoso, the home town of his political mentor, Ladoke Akintola, who himself had been murdered in the coup that brought the military to power. Folarin only regained his stool after the military regime had settled down and put a stop to the killings and arson going on all over the Western Region. MARBLE POLITICS The crisis cited earlier between Onigbeti and his chiefs in 1938 was economic in nature, as the chiefs were unhappy that the Baale did not give them a share in the undue levy on the market while at the same time calling on them to contribute an unfair share to public entertainment. Economic activities surrounding the mining of marble deposits were also to form the fulcrum of political agitations in the town during the military era when party politics was banned. Throughout the military era, which lasted from 1966 to 1979 in the first instace, party politics in Igbeti as in other parts of the country went into limbo as the military not only suspended the constitution but also the political parties and political activities. But politics in Igbeti continued by other means. The political economy of the town as represented by the marble deposits became an issue of contention amongst the town’s folks. Large marble deposits were discovered in Igbeti in 1969 as a result of demand for the product by an Italian firm, Renaissance Marble Works based in Lagos. The company entered into negotiation with the Seriki family which laid claim to the land, but the negotiations were inconclusive until an indigenous industrialist, Chief E. O. Ashamu, got wind of the marble deposits and moved in to clinch the lease for the land on which the deposits were found, and began mining activities in 1970. The mining activities by the Igbeti Marble Mining Company accelerated economic activities in the town, providing employment for many and enriching the pockets of the Baale and the Chiefs in the town. However, throughout the 1970s, the operations of the marble mining company were to become subjects of great controversy among the elite of the town and this crisis came to a head when the company was eventually taken over by the government which marked the beginning of the end of active economic and business activities on the marble site. As experience has shown, whatever business activity government dabbles into in this country suffers decline and neglect and this has been the fate of the Igbeti Marble Mining Company as efforts to revive the company by successive governments in Oyo State have proved abortive. RETURN OF PARTY POLITICS When the military in 1978 lifted the ban on political activities, the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), again formed by Awolowo dominated the politics of the states in Western Region, now split into a multiplicity of states while the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) captured power at the federal level. The other prominent political parties were the Nigerian People’s Party (NPP) and People’s Redemption Party (PRP). These political parties were only a regurgitation of the Action Group, the Northern People’s Congress and the NCNC of the first republic and the same kind of politics of ethnicity, acrimony and intolerance for the opposition characterized the activities of the second republic and it was no wonder the second republic collapsed like the first republic with the return of the military once again onto the political scene. The dominant party in Igbeti at this period was the UPN, and to a lesser extent the NPN. General Ibrahim Babangida’s third republic was short-lived because of his insincerity to leave the scene and return power to civilians, and we are all players in the current republic and the politicking going on is still unfolding which time would not permit us to analyze. WAY FORWARD AND CONCLUSION We started this paper by looking at the nature of politics which is fractious as it engenders conflict, but it is also about the resolution of conflict. Politics is about the quest for power, influence and control by individuals and groups, and let nobody deceive you politics is, first and foremost, about individual and group interest, before the welfare of the masses. In this circumstance, how do we harness the benefits of politics for the development of our town? The only way to harness the benefits of politics, whether at the traditional level or party level, for the development of Igbeti is to put the interest of the town high above our personal and primordial interests. Politicians, the Oba and his chiefs, must subsume their selfish, individual interests whenever such interests clash with the goals and aspirations of the town. We must recognize that whatever our political affiliations our primary goal is to bring the dividends of democracy to the town and grow our town better than we met it. The incessant crisis within the traditional institution must be brought to a close, for if the elders and custodians of our culture are at loggerheads, who would resolve the bitter contest for power among the politicians? Who can call the politicians to order when they go astray when our traditional leaders themselves are at daggers drawn? If we want politics to augur development for Igbeti, we must also hold our political office holders, the chairman, the councilors and even the civil servants, to account for the monthly allocations and internally generated revenue accruing to the local government. In fact, we should insist they give us an account of how they spend each monthly allocation before they start spending the one for the following month. Our politicians should put party affiliation aside when elections have been won and see the whole town as their constituency and embrace everybody in the town. They must also put Igbeti first in all they do. I thank you all for your patience. Long live Igbeti! Long Live Olorunsogo! Long live Oyo State! And Long Live the Federal Republic of Nigeria! References: Anifowose, R. (1999), The Nature and Scope of Political Science, in Elements of Politics ed. Remi Anifowose and Francis Enemijo. Lagos. Sam Iroanusi Publications. Henslin, J. M. (1995), Sociology – A down-to-Earth Approach. Massachusetts. Simon & Schuster Company. Jimoh, S. A. (2011), The Contribution of Marble Mining Company to the Economic Development of Igbeti Community from 1969 to Present. Research project submitted to the Department of History and International Studies, University of Ilorin, Nigeria. Omole, F. K. (2012), Effects of Marble Exploration on Physical Development of Igbeti Community in Oyo State in International Journal of Innovative Research, Vol.1, Issue 3 Osuntokun, A. (2010), S. Ladoke Akintola – His Life and Times. Ibadan. Mosuro Publishers. National Archives File No. 2041, Unrest at Igbeti, registered 30th April, 1938.
Posted on: Tue, 30 Dec 2014 21:15:14 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015