Enahoro: A Colossus & his Lilliputians

Enahoro: A Colossus & his Lilliputians

By Sam Onimisi

It has been a privilege for me to read various commentaries by different people on the person and life of Late Chief Anthony Enahoro. I have had the opportunity to pay tribute to the great man at his 87th birthday anniversary in July last year. On that occasion, I had said what was germane and enough for a birthday. Even now at his demise, I don’t see what else I could add to better what I had written, except that I need to recall some of what I said in view of certain opinion expressed by some people after his demise. It is also compelling to offer some explanation on certain issues to which I was privy and others which I had the good fortune of hearing from the icon of Nigerian nationalism.
“For those waiting for his demise to acknowledge and eulogize him, he is already a phenomenon whose followers are brimming with his progressive ideas that are sure to outlive him” This is part of what I said in tribute at his 87th birthday. Among those who paid tribute to him, Sam Omatseye of the Nation newspaper and another writer had raised three issues, which he regarded as standard yardstick by which they found it difficult to hold the late nationalist in high esteem. The issues are Chief Enahoro’s membership of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN), his negotiation with the People’s Democratic Party in 2003 and the way he handled the finances of the Pro-National Conference Organization, PRONACO. Let it be known that I subscribe to the truism that no mortal man is perfect and neither Chief Enahoro, Sam Omatseye nor I is an exception. However, I also believe that some men are better than others in their efforts towards perfection.

In 2001, I summoned the courage to ask the late Chief Enahoro in an interview why he had to join the NPN in 1979. He said it was his friend, Chief Joseph Tarka who came to him and revealed that a cross-section of the chieftains of the NPN had offered him the presidential candidacy of the Party and sought for his support. Pa Enahoro said that given his knowledge of and friendship with J.S Tarka during their days in the opposition and in the Federal House of Representatives, coupled with their experience and travails in the hands of the conservative leaders of the NPC which became NPN, he could neither doubt nor deny J.S Tarka of his support. In addition, he reasoned that if ever a minority ethnic group will ever accede to the leadership of Nigeria in a democracy, the offer to Tarka was an excellent opportunity, which, he as an advocate of equal rights for minorities could not decline. To me, no reason could be more plausible, even if it led to a miscalculation or a mistake.
On the vexed question of Chief Enahoro’s parley with the PDP in 2003, I was privy to that negotiation as a member and Director of Research and Plans of the Movement for National Reformation, MNR. It all began when President Olusegun Obasanjo invited Chief Enahoro to work with him, and the Chief felt that he was a leader of a group and was obliged to inform his members before taking a decision. He summoned the N.E.C of MNR and tabled the issue before us. Majority of us advised against it on the ground that Obasanjo could not be trusted. Our fear was that our leader could be lured, used and dumped by OBJ as he was wont to do. We also feared that the PDP as a party of the establishment will not be comfortable with a progressive of the caliber of Chief Enahoro in their midst. As a consummate democrat, our leader opted to subject the offer to a wider spectrum of MNR and thereby summoned its National Working Committee. His view was that in a democracy, the minority and the majority must be given equal opportunity in decision-making process, and that which ever way the issue goes, no one will be the loser. At the NWC, it was resolved that the MNR should raise a team to negotiate with the PDP on condition that the core values and programme of MNR are non-negotiable and must be accepted as a pre-condition to work with the PDP. What are these values of the MNR?
The MNR believed that an Independent National Conference was imperative to negotiate more equitable terms of co-habitation as a nation-state in order to stem the tide of becoming a failed state. It was also the position of MNR that the Presidential System is too costly and prone to corrupt tendencies and therefore unsuitable for a multi-national country such as Nigeria. In its place, we advocated the parliamentary system, a more open and collegiate system that accommodates or is conducive to the country’s plurality. The MNR also believed that the states as they exist are too weak structurally to be true federating units, especially in the minority regions. In their place, the MNR proposed an eight regional structure and so, advocated the restructuring of the country-all of which will evolve into true federalism in political and economic terms. The PDP led by its then National Chairman Engr. Barnabas Gemade, included Chief Tony Anenih, Gov. Lucky Igbinedion and the Edo-State Chairman was non-committal. They said they will take back our conditions to the President and that was the last time we heard from them! End of story!! Do not ask me if we were politically naïve to think that the PDP would accept those conditions. However, what if they had agreed? Perhaps, we could have avoided or aborted the ethno-religious crisis of central Nigeria, the Niger Delta crisis, the Boko Haram terrorism of the North East and the Jam’aa Nasril Islam’s bombing of Jos and Abuja. Perhaps! Who knows, may be.
From that moment, it became clear that the conservatives would never agree to any system that will dissolve power along the lines of organic federating units. Which was why MNR joined other civil society and ethnic nationality groups to form the Pro-National Conference Organization, PRONACO? Now, PRONACO consisted of over 150 organized, autonomous groups where binding force was the quest for an agreeable system and structure of government that is best suited to out diversity. Those groups had their own ideas many of which were as divergent as the country’s diversity. It was the lot of PRONACO under the leadership of Chief Enahoro to harmonize the different viewpoints and get every group to agree on a common agenda. Was this an easy task? By no means!.
The government of Obasanjo wanted to scuttle the Peoples National Conference convoked by PRONACO in 2005, by faking a so-called National Political Reform Conference. He invited PRONACO leaders such as Chief Enahoro and Prof. Wole Soyinka and they declined. The rumble in PRONACO was therefore partially instigated from without, and Enahoro became a target for smear campaign, being the arrowhead of PRONACO.
As a voluntary organization driven by private-sector initiative, funding was also by voluntary donation by member-bodies and individuals, which were never adequate. Most donors did so under conditions of strict anonymity for fear of government’s backlash. The available funds had to be applied to the most important areas of need, especially the plenary sessions where vital decisions are taken. It was a situation, which does not lend itself to strict accounting procedure or the type of openness demanded by a few.
Without being or intending to be immodest, PRONACO was led by very strong characters who were difficult to buy over, to be persuaded, not easy to placate and steadfast on principles. A congregation of such human elements must experience its own combustion and so, it was not a surprise that Chief Enahoro and Dr. Beko Ransome-Kuti had to clash over the question of accounting details. The feud was contained by the moderating role of Prof Soyinka assisted by Baba Omojola and others who played supportive roles in PRONACO. That we were able to conclude our self-given assignment by producing a Draft Constitution as mandated by the Peoples National Conference, was akin to a miracle. The full story of PRONACO will be told on a later date, when the individuals who made the feat possible will be unveiled and complimented. For a leader who had the courage and the vision to move a motion for Nigeria’s Independence in 1953, went to jail several times for the same reason went into exile twice in 1962 and 1997, formed MNR and PRONACO just to ensure the unity of Nigeria and steer her away from the path of disintegration, he was simply a colossus – a great statesman. It is only human that he had his faults, like everyone else. I am now convinced that Lilliputians are needed around a Colossus if only to show the difference between the two Chief Anthony E. Enahoro left great legacies, which are sure to outlive him. Adieu, the Adolor Uromi of Nigeria!

(Sam A. Onimisi was the Secretary General of Pro-National Conference Organization, PRONACO).