History has, more or less, consigned the late Samuel Ladoke Akintola (SLA), the second Premier of 1st Republic Western Region (December 1959 to 15 January 1966), as the ultimate villain of his political era — a perfidious fellow that met a tragic end.

But the historian demurs, insisting that grim verdict is brutally unfair — for SLA, to use the words of Thomas Hardy, in Tess of the d’Ubervilles, echoing William Shakespeare’s King Lear before him, would appear more sinned against than sinning.

In any case, that is Prof. Akinjide Osuntokun’s take in this posthumous biography, clearly aimed at rehabilitating SLA’s place in history. Osuntokun is one of Nigeria’s finest historians.

That grim take — yes, grim: by the way the author went about his task — is both the strength and weakness of the work.

Strength, because a renowned historian, by providing “facts”, did a doughty swim against the roaring wave — and verdict — of history, already ingrained, and held near-immutable, by not a few. Call it a profile in scholarly courage!

In a Yoruba political cosmos, ripped in a stark saint-sinner divide — Awo and immaculate clan, the eternal saints; Akintola and fallen brood, the execrable sinners — it could well have been a stunning and refreshing triumph of reason over base passion.

And weakness: that paradise of lithe scholarship, come to soar over flabby emotion, was all too soon lost, with the distinguished historian himself spraying a relay of base — well, unscholarly — commentaries, on the Awolowo persona.

Awolowo sited a rubber plantation in his village (Ikenne) “against expert advice”; Awo was arrogant and insular, while SLA was affable and debonair; folks, the author prattled, shunned Awo’s imperious summons to his Ibadan home, en route to forming the Action Group (AG), though SLA managed to send a representative.

The AG journey would start with a more successful — and clearly momentous — meeting at Owo (in present Ondo State) later.

Even the furious spousal front, of the ferocious war of titanic husbands, from where Hannah Awolowo was uncritically loyal to her husband’s political cause, and Faderera Akintola, the restive one goading her premier-husband to throw off the Awo yoke (both portraiture, the author’s) wasn’t enough to sway the author’s own saint-and-sinner cosmos: Saint SLA; Sinner Awo.

Nor could this authorial dichotomy flag on the politics-governance-policy front: after the AG crushing defeat at the 1959 federal elections, SLA brought unprecedented regional popularity for the party, to herald his reign as premier (politics); SLA retained most of the Awo era ministers, even if most of them were imposed by the ancien regime (governance); SLA was hobbled in his policy choices because the outgone Awo pre-programmed the cash, in the regional till, to specific projects, aside from having drained most of the regional reserves before quitting as premier (policy).

Read Also: Buhari to Pa Ayo Fasanmi: You’ve truly upheld Awolowo’s legacies

Now, some of these assertions may have been extracted from clinical historical facts. For that, the author cannot be blamed. On the contrary, he should earn praise for unearthing facts, to paint a more balanced picture, of that tempestuous and momentous era.

But the problem, with all due respect to the distinguished historian, was the array of those facts, arraigned as a rich spray of snide remarks, which ran from the beginning to the end of the work. It was as if the historian had a personal axe to grind with one of his two grand historical subjects.

That, again with all due respect, would appear the major flaw of the work, despite its in-depth research; and rich vein of immaculate prose, crystal clear and uncluttered, like sparkling spring water.

Still, on the SLA question, and his fair place in history, this is a welcome work. It is the story of an ara oke (up-country bumpkin) — with heavy scarification to boot! — unfazed by the cocky Lagos coastal elite: fashionable conceit, wry condescension, empty superiority complex, and all.

At Baptist Academy, then on Lagos Island, he not only proved a brilliant and dutiful Science teacher, he was the true Renaissance man: master of the English language, spoken and written; but also arch-purist of his native Oyo-Yoruba tongue, lest any invasion from its Lagos conceited and cosmetic variant.

That would lay the foundation for SLA, the nonpareil political orator, with savage puns and caustic tongue! Before then, he had taken his mastery of English into the Daily Service editorial suite. As editor, he jousted with Nnamdi Azikiwe’s West African Pilot and its alleged Ibo hegemonic plot, for the political soul of colonial Lagos — and Nigeria.

SLA’s niche for language and logic would fetch him a glorious berth in Law, after harrowing training in England; and gift him a platform to land big in politics, as other Titans of that era.

In politics, he would become two-time federal minister (unlike now, there were regional ministers too) before climaxing everything with Awo’s succession as Western Region Premier and AG Deputy Leader.

But as the ripest fruits are saddest (to raid Wole Soyinka’s rebel poem, “Abiku”), history clearly judged SLA, not by his fine personal qualities of early years but by his execrable conduct at his political peak — which also turned his historical nadir — as Western Premier, and (in)famous Awo adversary.

On that, however, the author argues — and not a few also hold this view, even if fewer still are bold enough to write a treatise to back their claim: SLA was too harshly judged, simply because he eventually lost out, in the titanic political sweepstakes.

Which puts the question: was Awo over-eulogized, just as SLA was over-demonized?

Awo, over-eulogized? Maybe on the human front, in the latter years, when he became a living saint that could do no wrong. No living being, after all, is perfect!

But on cutting ideas? Certainly not! Awo is the near-sole reason his political generation still hit daily news: thanks to his cutting mind on federalism (which still holds the structural key to Nigeria’s unity-in-diversity); and his developmental torch in social democracy, epitomized by his 1955 free primary education success, a well and truly Nigerian social developmental classic.

SLA over-demonized? Ay, but also only on the human front. Surely no one could be so bad, sans any redeeming features? Yet, that would appear SLA’s lot — the bogey this work admirably attempted to banish.

Still, on the legacy front, SLA and Awo couldn’t be more starkly different: the one, the consummate politician that looks no farther than the next election; the other, the astute statesman that looks no nearer than the next generation — and his ready to ride the short-term pain to his long-term gain.

Not even SLA Akintola: His Life and Times could not fault that assessment.

History soured by prejudice
January 28, 2020
By Olakunle Abimbola

Book: S. Ladoke Akintola: His Life and Times

Author: Prof. Akinjide Osuntokun

Publishers: Mosuro Publishers, Ibadan (2010)

History has, more or less, consigned the late Samuel Ladoke Akintola (SLA), the second Premier of 1st Republic Western Region (December 1959 to 15 January 1966), as the ultimate villain of his political era — a perfidious fellow that met a tragic end.

But the historian demurs, insisting that grim verdict is brutally unfair — for SLA, to use the words of Thomas Hardy, in Tess of the d’Ubervilles, echoing William Shakespeare’s King Lear before him, would appear more sinned against than sinning.

In any case, that is Prof. Akinjide Osuntokun’s take in this posthumous biography, clearly aimed at rehabilitating SLA’s place in history. Osuntokun is one of Nigeria’s finest historians.

That grim take — yes, grim: by the way the author went about his task — is both the strength and weakness of the work.

Strength, because a renowned historian, by providing “facts”, did a doughty swim against the roaring wave — and verdict — of history, already ingrained, and held near-immutable, by not a few. Call it a profile in scholarly courage!

In a Yoruba political cosmos, ripped in a stark saint-sinner divide — Awo and immaculate clan, the eternal saints; Akintola and fallen brood, the execrable sinners — it could well have been a stunning and refreshing triumph of reason over base passion.

And weakness: that paradise of lithe scholarship, come to soar over flabby emotion, was all too soon lost, with the distinguished historian himself spraying a relay of base — well, unscholarly — commentaries, on the Awolowo persona.

Awolowo sited a rubber plantation in his village (Ikenne) “against expert advice”; Awo was arrogant and insular, while SLA was affable and debonair; folks, the author prattled, shunned Awo’s imperious summons to his Ibadan home, en route to forming the Action Group (AG), though SLA managed to send a representative.

The AG journey would start with a more successful — and clearly momentous — meeting at Owo (in present Ondo State) later.

Even the furious spousal front, of the ferocious war of titanic husbands, from where Hannah Awolowo was uncritically loyal to her husband’s political cause, and Faderera Akintola, the restive one goading her premier-husband to throw off the Awo yoke (both portraiture, the author’s) wasn’t enough to sway the author’s own saint-and-sinner cosmos: Saint SLA; Sinner Awo.

Nor could this authorial dichotomy flag on the politics-governance-policy front: after the AG crushing defeat at the 1959 federal elections, SLA brought unprecedented regional popularity for the party, to herald his reign as premier (politics); SLA retained most of the Awo era ministers, even if most of them were imposed by the ancien regime (governance); SLA was hobbled in his policy choices because the outgone Awo pre-programmed the cash, in the regional till, to specific projects, aside from having drained most of the regional reserves before quitting as premier (policy).

Read Also: Buhari to Pa Ayo Fasanmi: You’ve truly upheld Awolowo’s legacies

Now, some of these assertions may have been extracted from clinical historical facts. For that, the author cannot be blamed. On the contrary, he should earn praise for unearthing facts, to paint a more balanced picture, of that tempestuous and momentous era.

But the problem, with all due respect to the distinguished historian, was the array of those facts, arraigned as a rich spray of snide remarks, which ran from the beginning to the end of the work. It was as if the historian had a personal axe to grind with one of his two grand historical subjects.

That, again with all due respect, would appear the major flaw of the work, despite its in-depth research; and rich vein of immaculate prose, crystal clear and uncluttered, like sparkling spring water.

Still, on the SLA question, and his fair place in history, this is a welcome work. It is the story of an ara oke (up-country bumpkin) — with heavy scarification to boot! — unfazed by the cocky Lagos coastal elite: fashionable conceit, wry condescension, empty superiority complex, and all.

At Baptist Academy, then on Lagos Island, he not only proved a brilliant and dutiful Science teacher, he was the true Renaissance man: master of the English language, spoken and written; but also arch-purist of his native Oyo-Yoruba tongue, lest any invasion from its Lagos conceited and cosmetic variant.

That would lay the foundation for SLA, the nonpareil political orator, with savage puns and caustic tongue! Before then, he had taken his mastery of English into the Daily Service editorial suite. As editor, he jousted with Nnamdi Azikiwe’s West African Pilot and its alleged Ibo hegemonic plot, for the political soul of colonial Lagos — and Nigeria.

SLA’s niche for language and logic would fetch him a glorious berth in Law, after harrowing training in England; and gift him a platform to land big in politics, as other Titans of that era.

In politics, he would become two-time federal minister (unlike now, there were regional ministers too) before climaxing everything with Awo’s succession as Western Region Premier and AG Deputy Leader.

But as the ripest fruits are saddest (to raid Wole Soyinka’s rebel poem, “Abiku”), history clearly judged SLA, not by his fine personal qualities of early years but by his execrable conduct at his political peak — which also turned his historical nadir — as Western Premier, and (in)famous Awo adversary.

On that, however, the author argues — and not a few also hold this view, even if fewer still are bold enough to write a treatise to back their claim: SLA was too harshly judged, simply because he eventually lost out, in the titanic political sweepstakes.

Which puts the question: was Awo over-eulogized, just as SLA was over-demonized?

Awo, over-eulogized? Maybe on the human front, in the latter years, when he became a living saint that could do no wrong. No living being, after all, is perfect!

But on cutting ideas? Certainly not! Awo is the near-sole reason his political generation still hit daily news: thanks to his cutting mind on federalism (which still holds the structural key to Nigeria’s unity-in-diversity); and his developmental torch in social democracy, epitomized by his 1955 free primary education success, a well and truly Nigerian social developmental classic.

SLA over-demonized? Ay, but also only on the human front. Surely no one could be so bad, sans any redeeming features? Yet, that would appear SLA’s lot — the bogey this work admirably attempted to banish.

Still, on the legacy front, SLA and Awo couldn’t be more starkly different: the one, the consummate politician that looks no farther than the next election; the other, the astute statesman that looks no nearer than the next generation — and his ready to ride the short-term pain to his long-term gain.

Not even SLA Akintola: His Life and Times could not fault that assessment.