By Owei Lakemfa
CHIEF Ayo Adebanjo, 83, is a mobile library of Nigerian politics. A politician, journalist and lawyer, he has been actively involved in politics and electoral contestations for sixty four years. In 1954, he was appointed a full time Organizing Secretary of the Action Group, AG.

When the Treason Trial of the opposition AG held in 1962/63, he was accused of being trained in Nkrumah’s Ghana as an armed combatant in order to overthrow the Nigerian Government. He was Accuse Number 29, sentenced, extradited to Nigeria and incarcerated in the Kaduna Prisons. In the Second Republic, he was a leader of the opposition Unity Party of Nigeria.

By the mid 1990s, Nigeria was in the grip of a military dictatorship that was eliminating opposition, incarcerating them and forcing many into exile. Many choose to make peace with dictatorship, and make some money to the bargain. Adebanjo was one of those who stood gallantly on the side of the Nigerian people. It was at this point I met him.

The leading opposition group, the National Democratic Coalition, NADECO was in disarray with its ranks infiltrated and a number of its leading lights in exile. There was the need to rebuild, strategize and present an alternative Transition Programme to the endless one by the military. A core of the opposition leadership began to meet in the GRA, Ikeja home of Pa Alfred Rewane who was our chairman while Chief Anthony Enahoro was his deputy. Despite the precarious situation we found ourselves and the danger that the goons of the regime could swoop on us, it was educating seeing old war horses like Rewane, Enahoro, Senator Abraham Adesanya and Adebanjo exchange banter. Those of us like Chief Cornelius Adebayo and Dr. Beko Ransome-Kuti who were not of that generation could only look on.

In this rebuilding process, our Chairman, Rewane was assassinated and his deputy, Enahoro, had to go into exile. The leadership fell on men like Adesanya and Adebanjo who never relented until that inglorious regime became history. The immediate post-Abacha period was a precarious one in which the country was in danger of disintegration. It took leaders like Adebanjo   to calm nerves and work with the new regime to transit to civil rule.

Two things I know about Chief Adebanjo, he has disdain for military rule and rulers, and is passionately committed to federalism and the restructuring of the country. These may have swayed him to endorsing the President Goodluck Jonathan candidacy. Whatever the case, he is entitled to his political preferences, I therefore found it repulsive when vicious attacks were unleashed on him. Now that the elections are over, I expect the attacks to stop. But they have not. I see references to him as a Yoruba “dealer” a pun on leader. He is accused of selling his patrimony to President Jonathan. If Adebanjo wanted to sell out, he would have done so decades ago but he stood for principles even when it could have cost him his life.

I think the singsong that those who supported a particular party did so for pecuniary reasons while those who supported some other party , did so for patriotic reasons, is out of sync. Beyond respect for elders and peoples right to political preferences, the fact that people like Adebanjo had made sacrifices for our country and democracy should be acknowledged; their persons deserve respect.

I have also read post-election attacks on perceived opponents, one of them referred to those in the opposing party as “vultures” that must be continually resisted. Such campaigns are dangerous. They are like the pre-genocide campaigns in Rwanda when those in opposition were called cockroaches. What do you do with cockroaches but to eliminate them? The first time I heard people being referred to as vultures was during the 1993-96 political disagreements in Ogoniland and these resulted in quite tragic consequences for the people.

Regardless of our political preferences, we need to be careful and mindful of what we say so as not to threaten the country’s stability. Oba of Lagos, Rilwan Babatunde Osuolale Aremu Akiolu at 72, being a senior lawyer, retired Assistant Inspector General of Police and of Edo ancestry, knew the implications of the threats he issued to Igbos who may not vote for his preferred governorship candidate. He thought he could get away with such impunity only to end up creating an unnecessary political storm in the country.

There are also those who have taken to the social media attacking people in the South East for voting overwhelmingly for the PDP. For such commentators, Igbos need to be punished for the political choice most voters in the region made. First, let me state that while all other regions had political posts their elites hanker for which might have determined the voting pattern in those areas, the South East appears to have voted based on conviction and principles. Secondly, politics should not all be about positions to be shared by elites. Castigating a whole people or profiling them, should be avoided.

Things need to be made easier for in-coming President Muhammadu Buhari; he is going to preside   not just over the 15,424,921 people who voted for him, but also over the 12,853,162 who voted for President Jonathan, and the over millions of voters disenfranchised because INEC could not give them their permanent voters card. Rather than continuing quixotic   battles in the media over the elections, we should think about improving our electoral system that saw a total of 28,278,083 voters casting their ballot where we had 68,833,476 registered voters.

Buhari will be president over 170 million Nigerians ; it is this bigger picture and the future of our country we should focus. It is time to apply the brakes on unhelpful acrimony, insults and threats. There is work to do.