By Bisi Lawrence
The phrase, “Leaders of Thought” has been frequently used these days with little regard for the function of context. Any collection of middle-aged opinionated citizens, especially if they had once represented a shade of political effort, feels entitled to retain hold on to some semblance of relevance by declaring themselves as leaders of a people’s way of thinking, especially in matter of politics.

From such a dubious position, they make declarations of their own views which they present as the standpoint of the people they claim to be leading. They have not always got away with it, though not for lack of trying.

The antecedents of some of them are interesting, even attractive to some extent, but in the circumstance of our current political developments, any group that is not portraying the colours of a political party vividly must present credentials ,beyond its mere articulated leanings and desires to deserve the mantle of political leadership in any sector of the society at large.

Segun Mimiko, Ondo State governor

However, these groups really take on too much on themselves. No group is entitled to endorse any candidate in the name of a whole section of the society, which is what these endorsements pretend to be doing. It is of course quite different in the case of a club, or class of professionals or artisans who are bound in membership to some specified rules or objectives. That would be the difference between the Arewa Youth Council, for instance, and any of the amorphous “leaders of thought”supposedly representing one ethnic group or another.

The Yoruba group, Afenifere, defies proper classification along these lines. It claims to be a “cultural” group of the Yorubas. In that semblance, it makes people assume that it represents the best interests of their heritage. But Afenifere is really political to the core. It was to the manner born. It is the Yoruba identification of the old Action Group and remained as such until that political party was proscribed. It then resumed that description with the Unity Party of Nigeria before acquiring the identity of a cultural coloration, though it was part of the moving spirit of NADECO. Other versions of its history are rife, but it was hardly prominent in the projection of Yoruba interests immediately after the demise of Chief Obafemi Awolowo when a glaring vacuum was created in the leadership profile of the Yoruba people. Some ethnic groups indeed took advantage of that gap, and some of their elements even openly mocked the grief of the Yorubas. There had been no clear line of succession which gave room for a soft scuffle for leadership. Before it was resolved, people like Chief Bola Ige had been marginalized; upstarts like Olu Falae had been installed.

Then from almost out of the clear blue emerged the Oduduwa People’s Congress. It reflected the spirit of the times in its aggressive assertion of the Yoruba heritage. It revived the pride of the people in their heritage, and in their history. And the Yorubas could sing again.

President Olusegun Obasanjo, himself a Yoruba man, did not even at first attempt to pretend that he was on the same page with the aspiration of his own people who, on their own part, never fully identified with his intents and purposes. But the OPC stood up for him as a Yoruba man, even though he distanced himself from them.They filled the gap between the departure of Awo and the emergence of a new leadership.

Unfortunately, that is yet to be one today. There is still no group that can fully claim the backing of the Yoruba—not even the OPC today or the APC.Only the All Progressives Congressmay boast of a political sway in the South-West, the home of the Yorubas, having once grabbed the governorship of each of the States from their political opponents. But an issue of acceptance(or a personality clash) persists yet between the leader of the APC and his opponents in the enclave. So that the Afenifere, which should have been part and parcel of the APC as a descendant of the Yoruba political progression—AG to UPN—has been swamped by sundry interests and ambitions.

But then, there has been no cohesive or consistent pattern to Yoruba politics for some time now. For instance. It seemed that the APC, which still holds the torch, was dead against that hoax of a conference in Abuja until there was a sudden switch in favour of the confab which was designed and executed as a mere diversion all along. But when the South-west delegation finally decided to go along with the jamboree, it held aloft the banner of a regional dispensation for the country. That might have been a saving grace if they could pull that off. However, they ditched that position without batting an eyelid and returned home, as they left, with nothing. In any case, that was the sum total of the entire conference, anyway — nothing.

In the meantime, fresh influences in other directions had been “pluming wings for higher flight”. The Ondo State Governor had dumped the Labour Party, which saw him through two elections, to embrace the PDP. He gradually wormed his way to the higher rungs of the part in power where there is sure to be a vacancy in the cabinet to continue his political fortune. He began to be the favoured mouthpiece after the executive council meetings and so acquired nation-wide recognition as a man of “timbre and calibre” within the PDP hierarchy. That was how he matter-of-factly rounded up the Afenifere to endorse his principal, Goodluck Jonathan, as its presidential candidate. A few years back, you might have been wondering who Olusegun Mimiko was beyond Ondo State. But the looseness of the political fabric of Yorubaland has provided a sure footing for a hoist upward.

OluFalae too came by that route of gaps in forthright leadership, the same way as Faseun has compromised the sterling image of the OPC by going ahead to revive the name of a former political party which is well known to have passed into history. There are one or two similar groups which, while not directly declaring for the PDP, or APC for that matter, that are poised to whittle shreds from the candidacy of the other camp in the coming election. They have fancy names in some cases. But they all answer to the title of “leaders of thought.”

The case of the Afenifere in its declaration for the Jonathan’s presidential bid, however. Has the peculiarity of, in the parlance of football commentary, going “against the run of play”. As we have tried to explain earlier, the Yoruba so-called cultural organization would have been expected to follow the direction of the discernible bent of the electorates which voted three out of five for the APC. But then politics is not football, or so it would seem.

The presence of another bearing a derivative of the same name with Afenifere should be felt in these matters. It should serve as a corrective force if the Yoruba heritage would not be vilely compromised. A similar group which seemed to have broken away from the OPC now appears to be no more than a flag-bearer of the original body, as Gani Williams, the leader, seems to have found acceptance among the “leaders of thought”.

It may indeed be in the best interests of the Yorubas to have Goodluck Jonathan as Nigeria’s next president. Those who have openly identified with that position must have their reasons. The timing of the Afenifere endorsement, however, appears somewhat delayed. It would never have seen the light of day if the election had not been delayed.

Time out