In an interview with Sahara TV, the writer, poet & social critique
said late premier of the old Western region, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, was a
greater man than South African anti-apartheid revolutionary, Dr. Nelson
Mandela.
I am too much of an Awolowo man not to
see that the process of moving into independence in South Africa and in
Nigeria followed exactly the same pattern. It was based on a negotiated
settlement. The liberation struggle did not create the end of apartheid.
It was a negotiation and Nigerians negotiated exactly the way Mandela
negotiated.
“You can hype it if you like, but the
pattern was exactly the same. You move from one meeting to the other,
discussing politics and economics, and they successfully convinced
Mandela to buy the pig in a poke of an economy and they also successfully succeeded in convincing Nigerians to buy the pig in a poke of an economy.
“The only man in Nigeria, who stood up
against it, was (Obafemi) Awolowo. He was quickly jailed and all his men
scattered across the prisons in Nigeria. Some driven abroad and the
educational system that he had put in place was smashed.” Ofeimun said
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