By Pastor Tunde Bakare
It  was Frank Rooney who once said: “Immortality is the genius to move others long after you yourself have stopped moving.”  Not enough can be said of  the contribution of Col.  Adekunle Fajuyi to the greater good  of our nation. Few in history ascend to the heroic heights  attained by this icon.  His  reported  words  to his principal,  Major General  Aguiyi-Ironsi,  in that fateful moment in history,  are the stuff epoch-making rallying cries are made of:

Adekunle Fajuyi

“I make bold to declare to you that I am with you soul, spirit and body. And mark my words, whatever happensto you today happens to me. I am your true friend like the dove to the pigeon, and by the grace of God, so will I humbly, yet proudly, remain till the very end.”

Whether these words were actually configured  in this manner by the subject of our discourse today, or they  belong to the class described by  the Guest Lecturer,  Professor Niyi Osundare,  in his brilliant presentation as “fictive recreations or mythic accretions”, the ethos of Fajuyi’s  alleged response at that moment in  the valley of decision,belongs in the same category as  the unforget-table  words of  his  iconic  contemporaries  when they each  stood trial for their convictions.  It  echoes  the courage of  Chief Obafemi  Awolowo,  who,  facing sentencing for treasonable felony,  marshalled  the words of Peter the Hero of Hugh Walpole’s novel,  Fortitude: “It isn’t life that matters but the courage you bring to it.”

The great Awo then added:

“It is, therefore, with a brave heart, with confident hope, and with  faith in my unalterable destiny, that I go from this twilight into  the darkness, unshaken in my trust in  the Providence of God that a  glorious dawn will come on the morrow.”

The  ageless words of Adeku-nle Fajuyi also echo the spirit of  Nelson  Mandela who,  having been  condemned  to life imprisonment, declared:

“During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against White domination, and I have fought against Black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”

However,  except where the  gloom  of intellectual  darkness has  been  pierced  through by  rays  of truth, history  stands the danger of being  viewed through the  dark clouds  of  primordial  interests,  particularly sectional political  motives. Consequently,  societies, by their actions and inactions,  have tended to  accord  to George  Santayana  a prophetic status  as they  facilitate the  self-fulfillment  of  his  indicting  words: ”Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”

No greater  honour can  society accord to its heroes than the reshaping  of national  psyche  and the renewal of national attitudes along the lines of the values such heroes died for. No matter how many roads, stadia, airports, universities and buildings are named after them,  society’s  failure to imbibe the highest ideals for which they lived and died  amounts to  a fulfilment of the Biblical truth: “A prophet is not without  honour  except in his own country…”

Was Fajuyi then a prophet? Perhaps not by any exercise of supernatural powers;  perhaps not in the style of the founders of the world’s great religions;  perhaps not in any  clerical or orthodoxicalorder; but the  sacrificial  circumstance  of his death is  laden  with answers to the existential crisis  that has,  for decades,  bewildered this nation  and, like a prophet, his deeds point the way to the essence and future of our nation.  As Prof. Osundare alluded to in his deeply insightful lecture, the  sacrifice of Adekunle Fajuyi is central to  the  resolution of the National  Question.  In this light, I will  examine the  import of the heroism  of  this gift of the Yoruba people to the Nigerian nation in three broad  strokes.

Firstly,  as alluded to by Prof. Osundare, Fajuyi ought to be a rallying point in  our search for  a  common  national identity.  The heroic soldier lived in an era that saw a  budding  nation  of  multifarious constituents grappling  with  the challenge of self-definition  within  the  whole.  The struggle for identity soon  degenerated into  distrust and distrust  deteriorated  into  mutual  suspicion.  That  atmo-sphere of  extreme  sectional sensitivity  proved too volatile to sustain  the aftermath of the first coup and, in no time, suspicion further  congealed  into hate which resulted  in senseless killings.  Adekunle Fajuyi, caught up, as it were, in  the crossfire, chose to pay the ultimate sacrifice. By  that act, he gave “Nigerianness”  a new definition – that  to be Nigerian is not to be  Ibo,  Hausa or Yoruba;  that  to be Nigerian is not to be eastern, western, mid-western or northern;  that  to be Nigerian is not to  accord ethnic colouration  to national challenges;  rather,  to be Nigerian is to be  a person of valour and virtue; one  whose word is his or her  bond and who  would  rather die than betray  the trust reposed in him or her.  Such was the  Omoluabi  bequeathed to the  Nigerian  nation  in Adekunle Fajuyi  by the Yoruba people.

I understand  that  Prof.  Wale Adebanwi, in his brilliant piece titled:”Death, National Memory and the Social Construction of Heroism”,compared the tendency to find  inspiration in the deeds of the dead to ancestral worship  or necromancy.  This point was reiterated by Prof. Osundare as he cited the  erudite University of California don.  This assertion is culturally accurate.  However,  in drawing inspiration from the Fajuyi story, I am  not  in  the least influenced  by  any  recourse to ancestralism;  instead, I draw  inspiration from  the  Hall of Faith  in the Biblical book of Hebrews, the 4th  verse of which states of Abel who was murdered by his brother, Cain:  “… he being dead still speaks.”

Secondly, in the Fajuyi sacrifice,  our nation may  find a compass  as she navigates the lingering structural challenge. Adekunle Fajuyi served in the government that  put  the true Federal Republic of Nigeria to death. In the search for unity after the January 1966 coup, the Aguiyi-Ironsi-led government, through  the Unification Decree  of May 24, 1966, abrogated the federal structure and instituted a unitary system.  To this day, Nigeria  has  not  recovered from the structural  anomaly that resulted from that action  which, ultimately, was a major contributory factor to the deaths  of  Aguiyi-Ironsi and Fajuyi.Ironically, 50 years later,  whereas there is an increasing agitation in the South  for the restructuring of Nigeria, this call for restructuring is being downplayed, if not scuffed at,  by certain interests, mostly northern,  upon the claim that the current pseudo-federal structure suffices.

As Prof. Osundare observed, some of the “neo-restructuralists”, whether of northern or southern extraction,  are mere opportunists seeking relevance in a political equation that has dealt them a deficit.  The Prof.  has already emphasized the need to address the structural challenges from a national, not sectional, perspective. This, I agree with entirely. However, in order to win over the section most averse to the call, I will  focus on the  seeming northern opposition to  the case for restructuring.

Any anti-restructuring position taken by the North  would  bring to the courts of historical opinion  the  sincerity of the  motives of the  perpetrators  of  the countercoup that led to the  death  of Adekunle Fajuyi.  The elders of the North who, today, are opposed to  the call to restructure Nigeria have deviated from the ideals of the founding fathers of Northern Nigeria  –  the likes of the  Sardauna, Sir Ahmadu Bello and  Tafawa Balewa;  leaders  of our nation  who  were forerunners of Fajuyi  in the Nigerian hall of martyrdom.  Lest we forget, these great Nigerian  leaders  from the North made it clear in the series of  constitutional  conferences that heralded Nigeria’s independence that  true  federalism  with regional autonomy  was the only condition under which they would exist within a Nigerian nation.  Need we remind those in opposition to restructuring today that  one of the main grouses of  Nigerians of northern extraction within the army and civil society after the  first  coup was the abrogation of the federal system by the Aguiyi-Ironsi-led government?  This, without doubt,  was the main reason  the  northern leaders and the  counter-coupists who took the lives  of  Aguiyi-Ironsi and  Fajuyi  demanded  a reversal of the unification decree and a return to the federal system of government.Consequently, to oppose restructuring now, 50 years after, is to confirm the words of Aesop, that “the injury we do and the one we suffer are not weighed in the same scales.”

In case it is not clearly understood by the antagonists of restructuring,  whether they be from the North or the South,  let me make it clear that the call for restructuring is  a demand for true federalism;  a demand for federating units that can truly self-administer like the regions in the  days of our  Founding Fathers;  a demand  for the prosperity of the constituent parts that make  up  the whole. It is therefore inconsistent with the  interest of the North  or the South  for the current pseudo-federal structure to persist. If the elders of the North are true elders in this generation, I charge them with the words of the wisest king who ever lived:

“Do not remove the ancient  landmark which  your fathers have set”.  –To be concluded..

*Pastor Tunde Bakare presented this speech at the Adekunle Fajuyi Golden Remembrance in Ibadan on July 29, 2016.

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Re “As it was in 1953..& Col. F. Fajuyi: They want us to forget” 

Good morning, our very dear Mr Odumakin. I do hope you and your family are fine. I am indeed amazed and thoroughly impressed with your wealth of knowledge/intellectual prowess that is effectively backed up with very balanced and fair sense of judgement.

Indeed, after going through the two pieces above, I couldn’t agree less with Uncle Dele Sobowale that History and Economics are two basic most important subjects any President worth the name must be well equipped with. It is indeed a very serious DISASTER that we don’t have up to 1% of the likes of Col. Fajuyi in today’s Nigerian Military.

His military discipline/ethics was ‘unAfrican’. And I have always reminded some of the short-memoried Easterners who sometimes refer to the Yorubas as sell-outs just because of Pa Awolowo/Ojukwu ‘failed accord’, of that exemplary valour displayed by the blessed late Col. Fajuyi. Col Fajuyi was indeed and truly a soldier’s Soldier.

Somehow, Gen. Muritala had to pay dearly too for most of the unwarranted murders he undertook in his lifetime all in the name of revenge. And for Generals Gowon and Danjuma..?

Their kinsmen have NEVER slept with their two eyes closed since after the Dimka’s failed coup due to the Jihadist Fulani’s herdsmen…who probably, in a way, must’ve been empowered too to equally revenge that “Middle Belt” coup. Nigeria, indeed a country perceived and built on FALSEHOOD by Britain can hardly know genuine peace.

Bro Odumakin, no one escapes that great law called Karma. May the LORD continue to protect/bless you and your family.. IJN.

Great Ife!!!

Goddy Ikperite- Lagos.