USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Yoruba Affairs - Fw: Prof. Olukotun's Column

Dear Prof Olukotun,

Please accept our condolences on Baba's transition. May the Lord bless his soul. E u aseinde.

Tunde Babawale

University of Lagos

Asoka.

Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android

On Sat, 11 Mar 2017 at 6:51 am, Bayo Omolola

<sanwolade@yahoo.com> wrote:

Can someone wake him up?

Can yesterday return?

And twist today and reenact the good old days of prosperity?

Who can wake him up, wake he that knew the way?

Who can wake the seer up,

The seer who the stubborn agents never wanted but avoid?

Who can tell him to return to the land that was once full of energy?

Who can wake him up

He whose whisle  covered the land of Oduduwa

And echoed beyond?

Who can wake him up,

The one who lived and remains as others blood today?

Who can wake him up,

The one whose fight for the masses

Never ends?

Who can wake him up,

The one that put a smile on the faces of his admirers

And made his enemies to wonder and wander about?

Who can wake him up,

The one that appeared to illuminate the land of his people and the territory of all that cared?

Who can wake him up,

The one whose ideas never die?

Bayo Omolola

--------------------------------------------

On Fri, 3/10/17, ayo_olukotun via Yoruba Affairs <yorubaaffairs@googlegroups.com> wrote:

Subject: Yoruba Affairs - Fw: Prof. Olukotun's Column

To: "Ayo Olukotun" <Ayo_olukotun@yahoo.com>

Cc: toyinfalola@austin.utexas.edu, "Tunji Olaopa" <tolaopa2003@gmail.com>, "Tade Akin Aina" <tadeakinaina@yahoo.com>, taleomole@yahoo.com, "Tanure Ojaide" <tojaide@gmail.com>, "Awolowo Foundation" <awolowofoundation@yahoo.com>, r-joseph@northwestern.edu, "Bolaji Akinyemi" <rotaben@gmail.com>, "M Insa Nolte" <M.I.Nolte@bham.ac.uk>, "Bolaji" <erinje@yahoo.com>, mvickers@mvickers.plus.com, "nimi" <nimiwari@msn.com>, "Olajumoke Yacob-Haliso" <jumoyin@gmail.com>, hafsatabiola@hotmail.com, "Adigun Agbaje" <adigunagbaje@yahoo.com>, "USAAfricaDialogue" <USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com>, "olubomehin d" <olubomehind@yahoo.com>, "Ebunoluwa Oduwole" <ebunoduwole2k2@yahoo.com>, "Felicia Ohwovoriole" <eruvwe2006@yahoo.com>, "Wale Adebanwi" <waleadebanwi@gmail.com>, "Yoruba Affairs" <yorubaaffairs@googlegroups.com>, "Femi_Osofisan Osofisan" <okinbalaunko@yahoo.com>, "Odia Ofeimun" <odia55@yahoo.com>, "Paul Nwulu" <p.nwulu@fordfoundation.org>, "Prof. Bayo Okunade" <bayookunade@gmail.com>, profbayo_adekanye@yahoo.com, "nikeajayi_52" <nikeajayi_52@yahoo.com>, "Redeemer's" <vc@run.edu.ng>, "Bisola F" <bisolafalola@gmail.com>, "Jide Owoeye" <Babsowoeye@gmail.com>, jadesany@yahoo.co.uk, "Olukoya" <koyaogen@gmail.com>, chibuzonwoke@yahoo.com, "Akinjide OUNTOKUN" <josuntokun@yahoo.com>, "Olufunke Adeboye" <funks29adeboye@yahoo.co.uk>, "Chukwuma" <innocent.chukwuma@fordfoundation.org>, "Lanre Idowu" <lanreidowu@gmail.com>, "mimikofemi" <mimikofemi@yahoo.com>, "Chukwuma" <innocent.chukwuma@fordfoundation.org>, "Noel Ihebuzor" <noel.ihebuzor@gmail.com>, "Aribidesi Usman" <ARIBIDESI.USMAN@asu.edu>, "Wale Ghazal" <walegazhal@gmail.com>, "William Fawole" <fawolew@yahoo.com>, "Wale A.Olaitan" <anujah@yahoo.com>, "Kayode Soremekun" <paddykay2002@yahoo.com>, "obasa" <segunob@yahoo.com>, "Prof. Gabriel Ogunmola" <gbogunmola@gmail.com>, "SEGUN" <gbadeg2002@yahoo.com>, "Oyebanji Oyeyinka" <Oyebanji.Oyeyinka@unhabitat.org>, "Lanre Idowu" <lanreidowu@gmail.com>, "Prof. Lere Amusan" <lereamusan@gmail.com>, laioso@ymail.com, "Abimbola Asojo" <aasojo@umn.edu>, "Abiodun Salawu" <abiodun.salawu@nwu.ac.za>, "Christian Ogbondah" <chris.ogbondah@uni.edu>, vc@abuad.edu.ng, "dele Ashiru" <ashirudele@yahoo.co.uk>, kpdasylva@yahoo.com, "Olukotun Bob-Kunle" <bobkunle@yahoo.com>, "Adebayo Olukoshi" <olukoshi@gmail.com>, adebayow@hotmail.com, "Akinjide OUNTOKUN" <josuntokun@yahoo.com>, "bode fasakin" <bodefasakin@yahoo.co.uk>, "Olayemi Foline Folorunsho" <offlinenspri@gmail.com>, "Albert Olayemi" <bolayemi_2005@yahoo.com>, "Azubuike Ishiekwene" <azuishiekwene@gmail.com>, isumonah@yahoo.com, satobiyan@yahoo.com, tobajane@yahoo.com, "arinpe adejumo" <agadejumo@yahoo.com>, "fatunde" <ariyikef@hotmail.com>, rotimisuberu@yahoo.com, "Toks" <olaoluwatokunboh@gmail.com>, "tunde babawale" <tunde_babawale@yahoo.com>, "Solomon Omorodion Uwaifo" <so_uwaifo@yahoo.co.uk>, segunabujinadu@yahoo.com, "Jinmi" <jinmiadisa@gmail.com>, "Mojubaolu Okome" <mojubaolu@gmail.com>, "hassansaliu2003" <hassansaliu2003@gmail.com>, "Warisu Oyesina ALLI" <alliwo@yahoo.co.uk>, "Babatunde" <babatunde@lincoln.edu>, anujah@yahoo.com, "Attahiru" <attahirujega@yahoo.com>, "david atte" <david_atte@yahoo.com>, "ADEBAYO OYEBADE" <aoyebade@tnstate.edu>

Date: Friday, March 10, 2017, 12:13 AM

           

                                                           

           

                                                     

                                                           

                 

                                             

                                                           

                                                           

                            Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone.

                                                           

                                                           

                                                     

                              From: Femi Babatunde

<ofemibabatunde@yahoo.com>Sent:

Thursday, 9 March 2017 07:57To: Joel

Nwokeoma; Ayo OlukotunReply To: Femi

BabatundeSubject: Prof. Olukotun's

Column

Awo

Lecture: The past as compass

Ayo

Olukotun

"Much

of Chief Awolowo's success was due to his confidence that

the white British

rulers of Nigeria were not superior to Nigerians, and that

Nigerians can indeed

achieve great things that the British rulers cannot." –

Topnotch historian, Banji

Akintoye at Awolowo's Birthday Lecture, March 6,

2017

 

Ordinarily,

Birthday

lectures, even of influential leaders are tiresomely

repetitive, sometimes

incredibly boring. The same familiar praise words, the same

sacred priests

ministering at the shrine of carefully policed

interpretations of history, and

much the same true believers affectively slain in the spirit

year after year.

Interestingly,

however,

there was an unusual high turnout of citizens, high and low,

cutting across

political persuasions at Monday's Awolowo Birthday

Lecture, delivered by

globally acclaimed historian, Professor Banji Akintoye. How

do we explain the

fact that a huge and diverse audience showed up on Monday

morning to join in

the celebration of a politician, admittedly a hugely

successful one, who died

almost 30 years ago?

Of

course, I know about

the administrative and organisational skills of Dr

Olatokunbo Awolowo-Dosumu,

Nigeria's former Ambassador to the Netherlands and the

Executive Director of

the Obafemi Awolowo Foundation. In this respect, she of

course evokes her

father who manifested the unusual combination of social

vision with

administrative acumen, as General Yakubu Gowon, former Head

of State and the

Chairman of the event reminded the audience. But the more

fundamental

explanation is that, admit or not, Nigeria is once again,

drifting in

treacherous political waters and is in need of consolation

from its glorious

past, as it is in need of a compass to guide it out of what

Akintoye called "these

terrible times".

There

is no better

illustration of the current impasse than the imposed mystery

and political

abracadabra surrounding the health of President Muhammadu

Buhari, currently on

extended so-called medical vacation in London. As a

substitute for clear

political communication and trust generating openness we are

fed at intervals

with news about whom Buhari has lately spoken to on phone.

This is a vacuous

and unintelligent political strategy which has the intended

intention of

showing that something is wrong.. For ordinarily, it should

not be news that

the President who has been away for over a month called his

spokesperson who

should otherwise be in close touch with him or condoled with

a former head of

state over the loss of a relation. So, the political class,

in what is

unfolding, as a replay of the late President Umaru Musa

Yar'Adua saga, has

dropped the ball and owes the nation an explanation and open

apology for

leading us into a wilderness brimming with ghosts and

gnomes. It was as if

Nigerians are once again rummaging aspects of their

illustrious past to glean

comfort, insight and understanding last Monday. Akintoye,

whose lecture is

titled "The Awolowo Legacy and its Message for Nigerian

Youths", did not

disappoint the expectations of the audience. He succeeded,

as the opening quote

suggests, in explaining why Nigeria dropped from a projected

world class

stature to its current morass. Before developing the

narrative further, this

writer characteristically digresses to offer a short, if

somewhat personal

take.

On

Monday, as I

returned from an assignment, word was given to me by a

relation that my father

whose 100 years Birthday celebration we had planned for

April had passed on. Pa

S.D Olukotun, in whose library I discovered early in life,

the pleasures of

reading widely and wildly, had been with us for so long,

hardly ever falling

sick, that we took his age and vigour for granted. Surely,

or so we assumed, his

medical vacation in Ibadan would be a short-lived one, more

so, as he was being

treated by some of the best experts in Nigeria. There was

one foreboding

however. He showed little, if any, enthusiasm about our

plans for his hundredth

Birthday. He did not object but hardly passed any comment

either.

Displaying

a rare gift

of scanning future events, my senior colleague and Punch

columnist, Professor Niyi Akinnaso, spoke with Daddy on the

phone and actually begged him not to depart before the April

celebrations. This

turned out to be a futile plea. The senior Olukotun will be

remembered and

sorely missed for his love of education, community

leadership, acute intelligence

and the ability to turn the tables on adversity, ability

which had obviously

waned in his final encounter with mortality.

To

return to the

initial discourse, Akintoye summoned a vast array of

empirical evidence,

anecdotes and reminiscences to suggest how wayward and

disabling the country where

Awolowo and other pioneers stood at par with the white man

had become. For

example, the famed educational innovations of Awolowo, for

which Universal Free

Primary Education is merely a generic metaphor, had given

way to the disastrous

neglect and underfunding of that social service by

successive leaders. Hear

him: "The persons who have been controlling most of the

affairs of Nigeria

through the federal government since independence are

apathetic or even

downright hostile to education". A passionate federalist

in the mold of

Awolowo, Akintoye went on to lament that federal "policies

and federal

dictation of the nature, content and direction of

education", have had tragic

effects.

The

point here is that

even if we had a visionary federal government which we have

never had the luck

of having thus far, it will still have been unwise for that

government to

squeeze educational policy into one suffocating straight

jacket, as this runs

against the logic of federations in which the federating

units are co-equal

with the centre. But then, the woes of imposed uniformity,

in which even the

curriculum of university education is determined by the

National Universities

Commission, are compounded by an often mediocre centre

lording it over

constituent nationalities. Akintoye points up as fallouts of

governance failure,

the victimization in xenophobic outbursts of Nigerians in

South Africa, East

Africa and imaginably under a Donald Trump presidency in the

United States.

Obviously, were Nigeria a better governed country, the

deluge of immigrants

frantically besieging other nations for what their country

does not offer them

will be very much reduced.

Importantly,

Akintoye

draws the portrait of Awolowo as an unequaled planner,

political and policy

strategist who developed a template for governance rather

than make policy on

the run or in reaction to contingencies. This is one lesson

which successive

generations of politicians has failed to learn. And in this

respect, what comes

to mind is our current situation in which, as former Central

Bank Governor

observed, Buhari inherited a bad economy but made it

worse.

The

final part of

Akintoye's message to Nigerian youths contains advice and

suggestions on how

our youths orphaned by non-performing governments can turn

things around.

Specifically, he urges them to believe in themselves,

downgrade complaints

about an inclement environment and strike out for their

future. They can best

do this by reading about inspiring steps taken by leaders

such as Awo at very

tender ages. That will not be enough. They should devote

themselves, as Awo did,

to the love of learning by relentlessly seeking information

and knowledge.

Finally, they should join the struggle to make Nigeria

better through a

reversal of the current over centralised mode of

governance.

--

You received this message because you are subscribed to the

Google Groups "Yoruba Affairs" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails

from it, send an email to yorubaaffairs+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.

To post to this group, send email to yorubaaffairs@googlegroups.com.

Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/yorubaaffairs.

For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.