By Owei Lakemfa
AT the beginning of 1990, things were pretty bad for the country; it was reeling under directionless military dictatorship. Some Nigerians like Tanko Yakassai, Uche Chukwumerije, R B K Okafor, Frederick Fasehun, Beko Ransome-Kuti and Mahmud Waziri were convinced that something needed to be done fast to save the country from the rapacious military and possible disintegration.

Led by the unforgettable Alao Aka-Bashorun, this group which was later joined by giants like Adeoye Lambo, decided to hold a National Conference in Lagos which would attempt to push the military led by Generals Ibrahim Babangida and Sani Abacha out, restore the confidence of the people in the country, restructure it along the lines of a federation and build a democratic country.

This group which I was later to become its publicity secretary, became known as the National  Consultative Forum (NCF)

A few months later, there was the Orkar-Mukoro-Nyiam-Ogboru coup attempt that tried to excise parts of the country. That was on April 22.  Five months later, the National Conference was crushed. Rather than give up, Aka-Bashorun led some of us and the leading civil society organisations to found the Campaign For Democracy (CD)

As part of attempts to build  a wider coalition, a CD delegation comprising  Beko, Femi Falana and I were asked to sound out what was called the Enahoro Group.

That organisation, led by leading independence nationalist, veteran politician and journalist, Chief Anthony Eromosele Enahoro was quite formidable. It had people like environmentalist, Ken Saro-Wiwa, mass mobiliser, Baba Omojola, leading lawyer, Olu Onagoruwa and the intellectual of the working people, Mokwugo Okoye. It was later to become known as the Movement For National Reformation (MNR)

Enahoro had far more ideas about democracy and federalism than we had. He told stories of past struggles and how we can attain  victory in the struggles we had embarked upon  . Over time, for me, going for meetings with Enahoro whether in Benin or Lagos was like going on a pilgrimage.

The CD and MNR  were convinced that Babangida’s endless transition  programme was a fraud; CD chair, Aka-Bashorun had accused the military regime of having a “Hidden agenda”. This was to become a popular expression as the fraud enfolded.

By the end of 1992, the regime had cancelled the presidential primaries and on December 5,Enahoro announced the formal birth of the MNR with “the stated desire to reawaken the vision of the founding  fathers of the Federation of Nigeria by restoring true federalism in the country”

New primaries were held and on June 12, 1993, presidential elections were held and it seemed that the transition had finally ended. But within a fortnight, the results were annulled. However, the pro democracy groups were ready for a war to chase the military out of power and their patron saint was then 70-year old Enahoro.

The struggles were bloody but Babangida was forced to step aside  and within 82 days, the Interim Government contraption he left behind had been demolished. The country was confronted with the last evil emperor from the barracks; Sani Abacha.

That regime banned newspapers and curtailed freedom of expression, and that was how Enahoro resumed full struggles. He and his nationalist friend, Pa Alfred Rewane and few courageous people like Chief Ayo Adebanjo floated a media trust fund to cater for the welfare of  journalists whose media had been shut down. It was a clear political statement which was not lost on the rampaging regime. I attended those meetings in Pa Rewane’s Ikeja, GRA home  where assassins were later to murder him.

It was good political lesson watching these veterans amidst ceaseless banters, work out how to raise huge funds for journalists welfare. At the end of the meetings, Pa Rewane would hand out gifts. It was considered an ‘offence’ not to accept the Rewane gifts which were usually British-manufactured big tins of biscuits and the like.

Enahoro was the undisputed leader of the resistance movement  as all deferred to him; when the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) was established in May, 1994 as the major movement against endless military misrule, he was the natural leader. In expanded NADECO meetings which Alhaja Kudirat Abiola  hosted, Enahoro channelled the meetings towards achievable programmes. When the Abacha gang began another rigmarole called transition programme, Enahoro told us that the best reaction was not to protest or shout, but to present a viable alternative programme which we would popularise and work for its implementation.

The Alternative Transition Programme which Enahoro read to the press was a simple, straight forward two-page document; it was the ultimate challenge to the murderous regime and we knew there would be a backlash. That was the last day I saw Alhaja Kudirat as she was gunned down by the Abacha strike force in broad daylight on a Lagos street. Enahoro managed to  escape into exile as he put it “through the help of God and the agency of man”. It was not an unfamiliar journey as he had been forced to undertake  same three decades before.

When the United Nations  Team that visited Nigeria recommended that the dubious Abacha transition programme be supported, Enahoro’s response was that “the military junta has no mandate to devise  and operate  a transition programme. At best, the junta might claim that they have the mandate of the gun, which is the rule of the jungle…our people, must regain their sovereignty, which they won from the British  without support from the military”

When the Abacha junta collapsed like a pack of cards, Enahoro cautioned against a headlong rush to merely replace military rule; he argued that we must work out  a true federation and a people-based democracy.  The failure to do this, continues to haunt the country through the resurgence of militancy in the Niger Delta, insecurity, lack of people-based sovereignty and its attendant do-or-die politics.

On Wednesday,December 15,2010,  fifty seven years after he moved the motion for the country’s independence from slavish British colonial rule, Enahoro departed the human stage. He had played his part well and engraved his name  in the indestructible scroll of history.