INTERVIEW : IF AWOLOWO INTRODUCED ETHNICITY INTO NIGERIAN POLITICS, AFTER 70 YEARS PETER OBI ADDED RELIGION-SEYE AKANMU-BODE

INTERVIEW : IF AWOLOWO INTRODUCED ETHNICITY INTO NIGERIAN POLITICS, AFTER 70 YEARS PETER OBI ADDED RELIGION-SEYE AKANMU-BODE



#Iroyinominira
17th June, 2023

Chinua Achebe accused Awolowo of introducing ethnicity into Nigerian politics in 1953, 70 years after, Peter Obi not only elevated it but added religion to it ------ Comrade 'Seye Akanmu -Bode, author, UKULELE: 2023 ELECTORAL PROCESS; ISSUES, OUTCOMES,AND BEDLAM.


Comrade Oluseye Akanmu -Bode is a Political Scientist and a political activist. He's the Convener of the National Support Group, and a Fellow of the Emerging Political Leaders Fellowship of The Bridge Leadership Foundation , founded and chaired by His Excellency, Senator Liyel Imoke, the former Governor of Cross River State.

He speaks with us on his forthcoming book on the 2023 electoral process and his views on some salient issues affecting the body-politic.


Congratulations on your sophomore book as I can recollect that you wrote a book on the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, prior to the 2023 election


Thank you very much. Yes, I did. It was titled "The Legend: Atiku, Oyoyo". I wrote it out of conviction that he was and still the best of all the candidates on parade, but majority of Nigerians decided otherwise, at least, base on the election results released by INEC .



Your new book , why did you decide to write on the electoral process?


My decision was borne out of certain reasons. First, when I was a student of Political Science at the University of Ibadan, I read a book on the 1979 election by late Chief Bola Ige, I thought I really liked it as I was able to connect with a fascinating political history even though I was not born then. So I felt I should write such for those interested in the political history of the country as it relates to elections. I want the future generation of students and the general public to be able to have a documented history of the 2023 electoral process.

Another reason was to use my knowledge as an insider in the PDP to discuss why the party failed in the election even when I thought it was the easiest election for His Excellency Atiku Abubakar since his first attempt on the ballot in 2007.


The third motivation to write the book is to clear certain misconceptions and perennial accusations our lovely Igbo people like dishing to other ethnic groups particularly the Yorubas and the core north of intolerance and betrayals when in the real sense, there's never been anything of such but pure politics, even from the politics of the pre independence era.


You mentioned you're an insider in the PDP, can you shed more light on why the party failed?

( Laughs) I used being an insider in a relative term. I was not a member of the Presidential campaign council of the party at any level, I only worked briefly as a Special Assistant, Print Media to Hon. Bolanle Sarumi Aliyu, popularly known as BASA especially in Oyo State. She was the Director of Youth Campaign ( women) of the PCC in the south west. She also doubled as the National Coordinator of the Atikulated Global Movement. By virtue of this, I saw some of the challenges the party especially the presidential candidate faced during the campaigns particularly in states where he had issues with the G-5 Governors. It was the most chaotically organised presidential campaign anyone could have. Atiku was turned to a ping pong ball by these governors. It was so bad that one of the governors promised to lend some cash to the Presidential campaign council in his state 24 hours to the election which of course never came. I don't blame him, he's just a politician, I only blame those who never moved on with other options available to them.

Being an insider, I was able to meet some key figures of the Atiku campaign team in Abuja, I saw hubris! Obi was never given a chance to alter significantly the votes of Atiku in the East , and the latter was expected to trounce President Tinubu in the North, but it never happened.

There are some impressions I had with certain top members of the National PCC, but I won't want to mention names in order to avoid discussing personalities. But I would say that the Labour Party and the APC seemed to have more committed campaign team members than the PDP. At least,in my own assessment.




So, in your view, the PDP lost the election?

INEC results clearly stated this and should the court not prove otherwise, it stays as such. As someone who loves the Waziri Adamawa, it's not going to be nice to say such when the matter is still before the Tribunal and surely going to the Supreme Court. Election petition is try your luck as former president Olusegun Obasanjo said. Who knows, the Waziri Adamawa may be lucky.
The purpose of the book is to state the facts as I have in my disposal. As a democrat , I won't want to preempt the judiciary.




You also alluded to certain misconceptions the Igbos have against the Yorubas and the Muslim core North. Can you please shed more light on it?


I remember reading the book " The Trouble With Nigeria" by Chinua Achebe of blessed memory. In it, he accused the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo of introducing ethnicity into Nigerian politics by orchestrating the carpet crossing of some parliamentarians from the NCNC to the Action Group , leading to Awolowo " stealing" the premiership of the Western Region from Dr Nnamdi Azikwe. This assertion from Achebe is false but let me pretend to conceed to him in that regard, but it will suffice here also to state that Peter Obi not only elevated ethnicity to the highest pedestal in national politics, he added religion to it as he based his campaign on these two cleavages in the cheqeured history of Nigerian politics.


I don't think Peter Obi and his supporters would agree with you on this.



I don't need their concurrence on it with all due respect. Just as Achebe stated his without minding if Awo supporters agreed with him or not, I also do not expect them to share this view with me. However, as a Political Scientist, I included in the book certain empirical data which certain deductions and inferences were made. The Result in the South East is there for all to see where Obi was the only candidate with over 87.78% votes when none of his opponents had up to 55% in their regions. One of them even lost his state and another lost a local government, both to Obi. There were actions and speeches made by Obi himself to support my claim that clannishness was the major impetus that drove his campaign.

Then we had the whole issue of " Lagos is a no man's land" by the Igbos just few weeks to the Lagos governorship election. This essayed land grab statement to me was rather provocative and insensitive to the camaraderie and amity that have existed between Yorubas and Igbos in Lagos.


You have spoken about Obi in a light that his supporters won't agree with you, do you then mean Obi is essentially an ethnoreligious bigot?


I may not be that firm on him with such descriptions even though we read how he divided Anambra along religious divides of Anglican and Catholic when he was a governor of the state. However, Obi is a politician, he tried to use ethnicity and religion to his advantage which unfortunately didn't work for him. I felt he should have learnt from ex president Buhari who ran on such orientations on three occasions but never got the national votes he needed until he decided to abandon his parochialism by embracing a pan Nigeria approach to politics.

In a positive light in the book, I likened Obi to a great former French President, Charles de Gaulle as his personal charisma gave some électoral fortunes to his party, even though he failed at his own objective.



Now , let's discuss the umpire, do you think INEC was compromised in the election?

Which election in Nigeria has never been compromised in Nigeria? I mean, shenanigans have always followed the trajectories of our elections. The only issue is the level of such compromise and the source . Is it from the ruling party or the president himself, or some entrenched party members and petite bourgeoisies who can influence local elections as indunas?

These are the questions and I think we all await the decisions of the Tribunal on this. Suffice to state here that INEC has a lot of issues to address especially on the real time electronic transmission / transfer of results which it promised vehemently before the election.



Why did you then decide to write on a process yet to be decided in court?

I'm a political scientist, I have already seen what really interests me. Lawyers maybe more interested in the legal aspect of the process.

To be specific, the book focuses on the political actions of the political gladiators and spectators during the electoral process. No court judgement can change certain actions that happened during the process such as the Silly Season of Campaign, the PDP/ Atiku issue with the G-5 , the Obidients Movement foray into national political consciousness and the impact of Obi in the election. These are occurrences that no decision of the court can alter.


So when do you expect the book to be out?

Before the end of July, it will be out.


Meanwhile, why did you assign UKULELE to the title of the book? Ukulele is a small Hawaiian guitar, reading the book will surely elucidate on the congruence between it and the electoral process under review.


Thank you for speaking with me and u wish you success in the book project.

Thanks for having me.

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