Sam Omatseye Vs. Awo Family: The Incredibly Shrinking Nigerian Tribune’s Prestige

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Sam Omatseye’s recent commentary on the Awolowo family – “Awo Family Without An Awo” – has generated quite a furor. Scores of Yoruba people have written letters to the Tribune editors and to online media outlets, castigating Omatseye for the supposed disrespect of the Awolowo family. Chief Oluwole Awolowo, son of the sage and publisher of the Tribune even wrote a rejoinder suggesting that Omatseye’s column amounted to the desecration and demystification of the Awolowo family. Raising Omatseye’s criticism to a frightening crescendo, a group calling itself Yoruba Unity Forum (YUF), which had Ebenezer Babatope as one of the signatories to its communiqué and Oladipo Diya in attendance at a meeting in Awo’s Ikenne residence, demanded an unreserved apology from Omatseye. Below, I have reproduced in italics, excerpts of HID’s “response” to Omatseye’s piece and most of Omatseye’s offending piece.

The strangest of vituperations lobbed at Omatseye came from – the Tribune would want us believe – Mama Hanna Idowu Dideolu (HID) Awolowo, the 96-years-old widow of Chief Awolowo. In the piece, HID prefaced her “response” to Omatseye by saying:

“…Ordinarily, I do not join issues with uninformed individuals, nor do I comment on articles written in uncouth and downright vile and violent language. Hypocrites that claim to be more catholic than the Pope or more Awoist than his family when they, in fact, hobnob with so-called pariahs when it suits them and their pockets, certainly, do not engage my attention, usually.”

In the fist instance, I find it impossible to believe that the venerable HID would descend so low as to respond to an article from ANYBODY, let alone a Sam Omatseye. Second, I do not believe that a 96-year-old woman has the time and energy to write (or even dictate) such nonsense as attributed to her in the Tribune. Third, the HID that we all know, the Yoruba grand-elder that we all aspire to become, will never write back in such caustic language. Mama Awolowo is just too revered and too solid to get in the gutter like that. The Tribune editors and managers ought to bury their heads in shame for this cheap attempt to use HID to score points in their fight with Omatseye. HID, we all know, would never have written this self-aggrandizing crap:

”…At 95, I have lived long enough to expect common civility from younger ones, assuming that they received and imbibed proper home training…”

Nor this:

“The abject insult that was heaped on my person by Omatseye…can only be dealt with by offering it to God, whose wheel of justice may grind slowly but is guaranteed to grind exceedingly fine…I notice a reference to ‘dynastic curse’ in the article under reference. I totally reject that in my family, by the blood of Jesus and I decree, by His power, that any contrary pronouncement shall return to its sender.”

Haba! Even my dog knows that HID would never have directed such language at General Olusegun Obasanjo, Alhaji Shehu Shagari or Chief Ladoke Akintola, who were his sworn political enemies, let alone a Sam Omatseye. Those Tribune kids (and I refer to them as “kids” on purpose) wanted a fight with The Nation newspaper, which is reportedly owned in part by former Lagos State Governor, Bola Tinubu. HID did not write that junk and it is an insult to the readers of Tribune for its editors to slap HID’s by-line on that nonsense. That piece reads like something written by HID’s daughter, Dr. Awolowo-Dosunmu, the one whose foray into politics ended in an unmitigated disaster. That piece is laden with such rage and bitterness that I just can’t believe resides in the heart of HID. And if the Tribune swears that HID did write that stuff, then it is quite unfortunate…unfortunate because it misses the points raised by Omatseye as a legitimate commentator on Nigerian socio-political development.

At the risk of reproducing most of Omatseye’s article here, let’s examine, with some degree of objectivity, some of the salient points he made:

The Awolowo rebirth in the Southwest has inspired gongs, songs and rhetoric of sorts. But they have missed one point. [He is referring to the re-capturing of most of the Southwest by the ACN.]

It occurred to me in Abeokuta last week amidst the big crowds and euphoria of the swearing-in of Senator Ibikunle Amosun as governor. In all the states from Lagos to Edo, where Awo has witnessed ideological resurgence, hardly a single family member has played a role.

[Well, if any member of the AWO family played a role, let them controvert that. Omatseye is right.]

So we have an Awo family without an Awo. That is an irony. But history overwhelms us with this sort of twist. Obafemi Awolowo toiled for his reputation. His roots were lowly, he toiled to school both home and abroad, launched into careers in law, business, journalism and eventually politics. He carved a niche for himself, and became the first methodical and charismatic leftist in our history. Other leftists abounded but they did not inspire comparable drama and following.

[Far from heaping scorn and insults on Awo, it appears to me that Omatseye is eulogizing him here. So, where is the beef?]

He faced tribulations, went to jail, failed in elections, won a few, but he imprinted his ideas and legacy in the country, and no single mortal has beaten him in the history of this country. His greatest achievement was in the area of ideas, and that was how he fashioned a family. Most families are born of biology but his issued from ideology. That family suffered with him.

[Here too, I do not see an insult on the Awo family. Even long-term Awo’s personal secretary, Odia Ofeimun, cannot dispute the record. It is a fact that Awo went to jail, lost elections and imprinted his ideas and legacy on Nigeria and Nigerians. It is equally true that more than his biological family, Awo spent time with his political family which ranged from MCK Ajuluchukwu, to Michael Imoudu, Jonathan Odebiyi, Joseph Olawoyin, Bola Ige, Akin Omoboriowo, Sunday Afolabi, Lateef Jakande, Adekunle Ajasin, Bisi Onabanjo, Ambrose Alli and Ebenezer Babatope, just to name a very few right out of the top of my head.]

In a spoof of Jesus Christ, these were the men who followed him in his teachings, and endured with him in his temptations. So he formed a kingdom for them in the Southwest, in the old Western Region, presiding over his projects, his legacies and people.

[Debatable, but not insulting.]

In all of these, the family he had was not his flesh and blood. In another spoof of Christ, who were his family anyway? Those who were with him must be counted as his family. So, I combed in the ambience of Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN), and I found none. I went to Ogun, I frisked the crowd under Amosun’s bower, hardly any. Around Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola in Osun, I could not lay a finger. With Governor Kayode Fayemi in Ekiti, where are the forbears of Awo? Yet, I can hear the chants of Awo. Hardly in any of the inaugural speeches or any of their other public intervention would you miss the philtre and filter of Awo from these gentlemen. To parody Novelist Joseph Conrad, they are the sparks from Awo’s sacred fire, the messengers of the might within the man.

[Okay, Omatseye did not see any of Awo’s children at any inaugural ceremony marking the ACN’s near sweep of the Southwest. He did not se

e Awo’s imprimatur in any of the victories even though the new governors claimed allegiance to Awo and his doctrine. Still, I see no insults here.]

Already all of them are pursuing the legacy ideas of Awo: free education, free health services, infrastructural development, urban renewal and economic engineering.

[True, but maybe not all of them.]

Lagos has posted itself as the John the Baptist. The others are putting up valiant efforts, and the world of course is watching to see how well they will perform. It will call for great work, resourcefulness and cooperation. They are the real Awoists, and Awo was a man of rigour and vigour.

[True.]

The Awo son that many expected to take after the father was Olusegun, who unfortunately died in a car crash. [Very True] We shall never know if he could have pulled it off. [No, we can never know] But the others have not shown much of the paterfamilias’ brio and depth.

[Ahem! Here is where the rubber meets the road. “…the others have not shown much of the paterfamilias’ brio and depth.” This is the insult, not at Awo and his legacy in Nigeria and especially among the Yoruba, but at his children. This is the indictment that has caused so much head- and heart- ache in Awoland. This is the statement that has riled Awo’s children so badly that they are now throwing everything, including the kitchen sink, at Omatseye.. Unfortunately though, the statement is very true! Oluwole Awolowo, before becoming ordained as a church minister, was a socialite, basking in his father’s name. I challenge anyone to name any of his personal achievements/endeavors. Did he write any book? Did he set up any business? Did he serve the people, like his father, in any serious position in any political party? Okay, he took over as publisher of the Tribune; what has happened to that newspaper since then? It has degenerated into the megaphone of the PDP and of Alao-Akala in Oyo State. What has Oluwole Awolowo done to advance the cause of his father? When his sister, Dosumu-Awolowo entered politics, she did not have any ideas, neither did she have the charisma, charm and leadership qualities that made people worship her father. She was a “pedestrian” candidate, expecting to be anointed just because she was Awo’s daughter. Of course, she was routed. I know that it is always an uphill task for the child of a legend to match up to, or surpass the parent, even if the child is a prodigy himself or herself, but Awo’s children did not even come close to their father’s achievements! Let’s call a spade by its real name.]

In the past decade, under this republic, they have blended with the wrong crowd. Even H.I.D, hobnobbed with Alao-Akala, who brought illiteracy to governance; with Oyinlola who turned the grace of office into a hell-hole of despots; with Daniel who could not arrest his quick fall into megalomania.

[I know this is another hard pill for the Awolowo children to swallow, but who allowed Alao-Akala in the presence of Mama? Certainly, HID does not screen her visitors herself; her children and protocol officers control where she goes and who visits her. It was so when she was younger and Awo was alive, and it is certainly so now that she is in her 90s. Who allowed her to be photographed with that moron from Oyo State? At any rate, I still do not see an insult in that observation.]

I wrote once that this woman whom Awo once described as the jewel of inestimable value has lost value to his cause. If he came back to life, he would have committed the extraordinary act of divorce after death. Even his newspaper, The Tribune, has so stumbled and fallen that it swims in Awo’s vomit.

[Alright, the first two sentences here sting too badly, and for the Yoruba, they rise up to insults, not to Awo himself (which would have amounted to desecration), but to some in his family (which does not amount to desecration).

Groucho Max, one of the funniest satirists in American history, said of a man that he got his looks from his father. Then he quipped, “He was a plastic surgeon.” That means the son is not his real son, or he did not inherit his natural looks. Ideologically, when we talk of Awo’s family, the chief inheritor is Asiwaju Bola Tinubu as the leader of all the others. He was the one who stuck his neck out. He could have lost his life or ended his career in politics. The so-called real Awolowos who bear his surname cannot come up for mention. They are Awolowos but not Awoists. They stabbed their father in the back. They have committed ideological parricide.

[Here Omatseye the Piper, is playing the tune probably dictated by Tinubu. But this is something that folks at the Tribune have done for years. I see no insults there. He is right that Awolowo’s children are not Awoists – the movement; the ideology. Paternal relationship is not questioned here. So, I see no insults.]

The only person that made a real try was Awolowo-Dosunmu in the early 1990s and she lost roundly. She was accused of trying to ride her father’s coattail. Political families are good for democracies. They can exemplify the high ideals of diligence, dignity, ideas, character. We have seen these in such families as the Kennedys, the Adamses, the Roosevelts, the Ghandis. They just don’t claim family. They appeal to the high ideals that endeared the families to their societies.

[True. No insults.]

It’s also an irony that these families are falling into twilight. Some of them have vanished. Enoch Powell, a British MP, once gave us the famous line: “All political lives, unless they are cut off midstream at a happy juncture, end in failure because that is the nature of politics and human affairs.”

[True. No insults.]

Columnist Ambassador Dapo Fafowora adverted to this idea in a recent outing, and I debated it with him afterwards. I don’t believe that a political life should be judged by how it ends but what it means. The quote is often missed by many who mistake “careers” for “lives.” A political life should be judged by its legacies. If we judged Awo by how he ended, we would look at him only as the loser to Shagari. That is why I see an intrinsic mischief in Enoch’s quote. But I would agree that political families end also in failure if you judge how they peter out and not the legacy.

[Probably true. No insults.]

Awo’s legacy is alive and well. Members of other families in flesh and blood can carry on. Immediate families tend to suffer from what an author, Noemie Emery, describes as dynastic curse. The children tend to be intimidated by the standards set by the fathers. So they just don’t want to try. They feel they cannot match them or come even close. The problem probably comes from the fathers themselves. The Adams, who produced important presidents, later gave birth to moral vagrants and drunks. The Bush daughters showed themselves as party girls when their father was contesting the political battle of his life.

[Tribute to Awo. No insults discerned.]

But Joe Kennedy groomed his sons assiduously, and they excelled in politics. They also had a fair share of tragedies. Ted Kennedy regained his sobriety and voice in America after a season of debauchery. In Nigeria, we are seeing the Sarakis fade. A Saraki – Bukola – is wiping out the Sarakis from politics. It is a classic case of oedipal tragedy, something I pre

dicted earlier this year on this page.

[True to some extent, but no insults.]

It is not late though for the flesh-and-blood Awolowos to join their father’s fold. But they must be genuine. Awo was the most important Yoruba personage in history after Oduduwa. They had stellar men like Oranmiyan, Balogun Latosa, Lisabi, Sodeke, et al. None of them had the unifying vision and organisational acumen that Awolowo gave the race. The wife, children and grandchildren should not watch others glow in his jewel without them.

[More Tribute to Awo and a Clarion Call to the Awo family by a Nigerian who has the inalienable right to make such calls. I see no insult]

The uproar generated by Omatseye’s article became one because the children (not the wife) of Awo thought they had been slighted. They now equate an insult upon them as one on the Yoruba as a whole, and we, the Yoruba, should fight this “civil war” on their behalf. It seems to me they forgot that even when Papa was alive, he didn’t achieve political homogeneity of the Yoruba; not even of the Ijebu people. And certainly not even that of the Ikenne people. Many Yoruba hated him and did not hide their opinions. If people can disagree with Awo in life, who are his children to expect (even demand) homogeneity of respect and reverence from people after the man is long gone? We, the Yoruba, by and large, love, respect and appreciate Awo. We hold him and his ideals high as our beacon and compass to better lives. But the esteem in which we hold Awo is not (and should not be) automatically transferable to the rest of his family. They do not automatically inherit our respect and adulation. Awo earned it. If they want it, they must earn it too.

It is also noteworthy that the Awolowo-owned Tribune, which Omatseye rightly describes as fallen, and swimming in “Awo’s vomit,” has insulted many a Yoruba elder or icon for years, on behalf of Awo and his causes. I recall, even in Awo’s days, The Tribune dedicating column upon column to the assassination of Adisa Akinloye’s character. It went after the Ladoke Akintola family, insulted the father of the current Alaafin of Oyo who was banished from the throne, embarrassed Oba Sikiru Adetona, heaped abuses and insults on MKO Abiola, Richard Akinjide, Omololu Olunloyo, Olusola Saraki, Nnamdi Azikiwe, and a host of others who did not share Awo’s political views. Read the Tribune’s columns written by the incorruptible and indomitable Tai Solarin on President Shehu Shagari in the early ‘80s. They were weekly insults galore, and I loved them. Read those written by one Ebino Topsy – Oops! He is the same Ebenezer Babatope who joined with the latter-day-saints YUF that I mentioned above, to sign a communiqué demanding an apology from Omatseye – the same firebrand vituperative former Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) Organizing Secretary that took bombast and lambast to a new level even while Awo was alive and regularly read the Tribune. Don’t get me wrong; I was an ardent follower of Tai Solarin, an admirer of Ebino Topsy in those days, and I believed Shagari was not qualified to be a Local Government Councilor, let alone President of Nigeria. But Babatope once confided in a friend that he was tired of his Marxist/Leninist bent which had perpetually placed him in the opposition party. He then joined the PDP and served miserably as a Minister.

So, I am surprised that the Tribune now takes offense at Omatseye’s insults. A decent news organization would have stayed out of the whole issue and allowed others to call Omatseye to order if, indeed, he crossed the line. The family could have hired (if they don’t already have one, a press secretary, who would respond to Omatseye. It was ill-advised and politically naïve of them to have Chief Oluwole Awolowo and HID sign rejoinders to Omatseye’s article, commanding him to apologize as if he was one of Awo’s children or worked for the Tribune. Haba! I can’t imagine the Punch editorializing about an insult to the Olu Aboderin family. I can’t imagine the Vanguard editorializing about an insult to Sam Amuka Pemu’s family. And I can’t imagine The Guardian editorializing about an insult to the Ibru family. But then, why commit heresy by mentioning the Guardian in the same sentence with the Tribune? The point I am trying to make here is that our beloved Tribune has sunk into the deepest abyss of professional decadence. Rudderless, leaderless, visionless and voiceless, it has lost its legitimacy as a serious news organization. Its editorials are bereft of heft and its reporting lacks luster.