It is not every day that you find an Igbo man eulogizing the integrity of a Yoruba elder no matter how virtuous that elder is. This has always been the case in Nigeria’s 61 years history of ethnic rivalry but particularly true in this Buhari’s regime when Nigerians are divided along ethnic lines as never before. But praising Pa Ayo Adebanjo, the illustrious Yoruba Son of the Yoruba nation and perhaps the only man of integrity alive in Nigeria today is essence of this paper. What could be the motivation for this?
Election is around the corner and many writers and social commentators are praising the Yoruba nation for obvious political reasons. Few days ago, Reno Omokri, an aide to the former President, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan praised the Yoruba nation to the highest heaven calling them the most successful people in Nigeria and the whole of Africa. I bear no grudges against Reno. He is a politician and is doing what Nigerian politicians do best.
However, in all truth and honesty, my decision to pen down this tribute to Pa Ayo Adebanjo has nothing to do with politics. I am no politician but simply a preacher of the Gospel, a teacher and a writer. I have no interest on who becomes the president of Nigeria, the governor of Lagos state or any state in South West Nigeria. In fact, I have no interest on who becomes the governor in any state in Nigeria. No matter whoever wins or loses election in Nigeria tomorrow, I will continue to do what I enjoy doing most: teaching, writing and preaching the Gospel of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Having made this fundamental clarification, I shall say in addition that I am pending down this eulogy for Pa Adebanjo for two reasons. First, I was impressed and touched by the uncommon integrity he showed in the recent interview he granted to Channel News and second, I am working on myself to draw some moral lessons from his life of honor and wish to propose him for emulation to others.
Pa Ayo Adebanjo and Nigerian Politics of Lies and Ethnicism
One thing Nigerian politicians are good at is lies and deception. In fact they wear lies like trademarks and there is a popular belief in Nigeria today that you can’t be a successful politician if you are not good in telling lies. Election is around the corner and this is the time you see politicians putting up all kinds of pretentious behaviour: eating corn on the street with the poor and entering markets to interact with poor market women. All these end immediately the elections are over.
The other political vice which Nigerian politicians celebrate is ethnicism. If not for ethnicism, tell me how any reasonable person will still support President Mohammadu Buhari after the walking failure that he has become. Thanks to ethnicism, President Buhari still has a strong support base in the North. In fact, almost all the presidential aspirants in the ruling party (APC) are campaigning under the promise of continuing in Buhari’s legacy and one would ask: which legacy?
The truth is that these politicians want to cash in on Buhari’s strong electoral base in the North because when it comes to politics in Nigeria what counts is not performance but the part of the country where you are coming from. This is why you still see people shouting Osibanjo for 2023 after the Vice-president’s almost 8 years catastrophic outing with Buhari. It is also the reason why you see many Northerners and Yorubas saying openly that an Igbo man can never become a president in Nigeria.
It is in the midst of this ethnically charged political environment, that Pa Ayo Adebanjo is calling on other parts of Nigeria to give justice and fairness a chance by allowing the Southeast to produce Nigeria’s president come 2023. You may not understand the moral enormity of what Pa Adebanjo is doing until you consider firstly, that he is not from the Southeast and secondly, that the frontrunners in the ruling party (Tinubu and Osibanjo) are Yorubas like himself.
Why is Pa Adebanjo doing this? What does he stand to gain personally for rooting for a Southeast president? The answer is completely nothing. This illustrious son of Yoruba nation simply wants justice and equity to prevail in Nigeria. On a very deep personal reflection, I have come to the conclusion that the likes of Pa Adebanjo are very rare in Nigeria. The very few of them in this country are the very people who love Nigeria and understand that without justice and fairness Nigeria is going nowhere. Every other person, from the East, from the West and from the Northern part of the country, including the Tinubu’s, the Atiku’s and the Kalu’s who want to rule Nigeria either by hook or crook are just after their personal interests.
Moral Lessons from the Example of Pa Ayo Adebanjo
There are a lot of lessons to be drawn from Pa Adebanjo’s altruistic life but the most important of these is that justice and fairness are indispensible in a multiethnic country like Nigeria. No institution can develop without justice. Any organization where members feel disenchanted and cheated cannot grow. Sooner or later, such institution will remain redundant or collapses entirely and this has been the cause of Nigeria’s many problems. Many parts Nigerians, especially the Southeast are not happy the way they are excluded from the political life of the country and Nigeria cannot grow in the environment of such high degree of unhappiness.
In addition, Pa Adebanjo is teaching us the importance of placing the common good over parochial and ethnic interests. Undoubtedly, Pa Adebanjo will personally benefit more from a Tinubu’s or Osibanjo’s presidency than from a presidency headed by a Southeasterner but he knows that will not be good for the security and economic development of the country. He chose to put aside his personal and ethnic interests for the wellbeing of the nation. This is what I call patriotism and what Nigeria needs to sort herself in her current political challenges.
Whatever happens, whoever eventually becomes the president of Nigeria; whether the person is from the North, the Southeast or the South West, this will not make as much meaning to me as the fact that this illustrious Son of the Yoruba nation chose to put aside his ethnic interest and stand on the side of truth, justice and fairness. Thank you Pa Ayo, you have taught many of us who have lost hope in one Nigeria that everybody in the country has not sold his soul to corruption and ethnicism.
