When on the 23rd of December 2002 (exactly 20 years ago today) the late Chief Kolawole Balogun (The Chief Jagun of Otan Ayegbaju) died, Nigeria lost a frontline politician of the old mould who was once in the thick of its independence and nationalist struggles of the past.
Kola Balogun, as he was popularly called, led a life totally dedicated and committed to politics and although he rose to top of the political ladder over a rather short period of time, his notable political successes have largely been understated. At the time of his passing, for example, he had only been bestowed with the national honour of Officer of the Order of the Niger (OON ) despite being a pre – independence Federal Minister, General Secretary of a Nationalist Party and pioneer Nigerian diplomat.
To date, he is not even acknowledged by Wikipedia. Why is this the case and why does it even matter? Why isn’t he as celebrated as some of his peers? The answer lies in the fact that political callings in those days tended to be goal oriented. It involved, in the main, self-deprivation and sacrifices, materially, physically and emotionally.
Those who embarked on politics virtually took it as a vocation with the utmost revolutionary commitment and were ready to pay any price for it as undoubtedly some of them eventually did. It was never about what you could gain from politics but more about giving something back in the ultimate quest to build a better, fairer and more enduring society. Kola Balogun made this his dogma and creed throughout his lifetime and in a country such as ours where material gain counts for just about everything, Kola Balogun fell short in this regard as did his acknowledgments. It is equally important to note that as a perspective, reflecting on this point matters because the likes of Kola Balogun are an embodiment of what we now crave and hope to one day obtain from our current crop of politicians.
In the days of old, the colonial authorities never spared frontline politicians from victimisation, imprisonment, banning and detention. Trade unionism was scarcely any
different from political activism. Both pursuits as well as journalism in many respects overlapped in objectives and personnel. Hence, trade unionists and radical nationalists were treated alike by the colonialists. Kola Balogun began as both a radical nationalist and a journalist.
Aside from the “constructive agitation” of the sedate and conventional politicians, it is arguable that the activities of the likes of Kola Balogun forced the British to quicken the pace of constitutional advancement to nationhood.
The National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons, NCNC (later to become the National Council of Nigerian Citizens) was his preferred political platform. The NCNC had in his opinion fitted the bill as a countrywide party but if the truth must be told, there were no parallel political independence movements like the Indian National Congress or Convention People’s Party of Ghana that emerged in Nigeria.
In the case of Ghana, the Committee of Youth prior to her independence was the radical wing of the CPP. They were the storm ropers who mobilised grassroots support for the party and thereby contributed immensely to the evolution of a dynamic, nationalistic and united Ghana at the attainment of nationhood in 1957.
Similarly, the Kola Baloguns on the platform of the Zikist Movement of Nigeria were single-mindedly determined to play the same role as the radical Committee of Youth in Ghana but with Zik and the NCNC as their mentor. It was through this medium that a young aspiring Kola Balogun first shot to prominence in the late 1940s.
In 1945, there was the General strike in Nigeria. The Zik group of newspapers namely the West African Pilot, Comet and Spokesman, were militant in their espousal of the cause of the workers; Michael Imoudu was detained in Auchi, Edo State, all to no avail. Vitriolic polemics and altercation ensued between the Governor, Sir Arthur Richard supported by Harold Cooper, an intellectual journalist and editor of the government-owned Nigeria Review on the one side and Zik, his newspaper and the emergent radicals on the other side. Later on, Zik, by implication disowned these radicals of the Zikist Movement, the Baloguns, Ajuluchukwu, Abiodun Alobas, Nduka Ezes, Fashanus, Osita Agwunas, Akwugo Okoyes, and Rajih Abdullaha. Zik appeared unwilling to play the Ghandi valiant and fearless leadership role, which rescued India from the grip of rapacious domination.
The revolutionary trajectory being plotted by the youths imbued with Zik’s ideas had become too dangerous and uncomfortable to bear. Meanwhile, through the interception of some telegraph messages, one Coker, a.k.a. secret document Coker, had alleged a colonialist plot to assassinate Zik. This gave rise to the famous “Zik assassination story” which the dye in the wool colonial Governor Sir Arthur Richard dubbed derisively as “assassination deluxe”. It was in reaction to this testy happening that Kola Balogun, M.C.K. Ajuluchukwu and Abiodun Aloba; enthusiastic followers of Zik formed the Zikist Movement in 1946. This, as it was, became the militant auxiliary of the NCNC. The trio were at the time associate editors of the Nigerian Advocate, a newspaper owned by a Lebanese businessman.
Kola Balogun through the secret reading of the Pilot had caught the bug of Zik’s brand of nationalism at Government College, Ibadan between 1940 and 1943. He was highly regarded in the school where he was a sportsman and a keen debater. He wrote poems and led a cultural group. Against the intimidating advice of the Principal, the famous educationist and Olympic gold medalist, V.B.V. Powell left the College after four years to sit for the London matriculation examination. To the admiration of his classmates who were still engaged in full-time studies and were yet to take similar examinations, Kola Balogun was successful in his examination.
While on full-time employment, first as a U.A.C. Trainee manager, then as a journalist with the West African Pilot in Lagos, Kola Balogun, was transferred in 1948 to relieve Mr. Olujide Solomon (as he then was) as the Editor of the Spokesman in Onitsha.
Meanwhile, in the midst of intense politicking and journalism, this determined, focused, smart, precocious “Village Boy “ had again passed the intermediate Bachelor of Laws, LL.B degree of the London University. Unfortunately, he was unable to assume his position in Onitsha. He had to leave for further studies in the United Kingdom. Arriving in London as a part-time student, Kola Balogun had, between 1948 and 1951 obtained his LL.B degree at London University and was subsequently called to the English Bar. His part-time student status did not in any way militate against his political activism as he joined the West African Students Union, WASU. This organisation played a considerable role in the political awakening of West African students in the U.K. particularly up to the sixties before West African Countries attained their respective independence.
WASU was a huge, vigorous and energising sound of African nationalism. It was a clearing house of ideas, ideologically focused and a training school for impressionable students who were pillars of intellectual and political support for Africans in the Diaspora and at home.
In the fifties, WASU was a veritable nightmare for officialdom. The contribution of this body formed by a Nigerian from Abeokuta, Chief Oladipo Solanke, MA, BCL, to the socio-cultural and political awareness of African Nationalism-cum Pan Africanism is unquantifiably enormous. Kwame Nkrumah, Udo Udoma, Rotimi Williams, Bankole Akpata, Ayotunde Rosiji, Adenekan Ademola, Joe Appiah, Sobo Sowemimo, Willie Bosma Ademola Thomas, Femi Okunnu, Alao Bashorun, Jomo Kenyatta, Kojo Bostio, Tayo Akpata but to mention a few randomly, once held court in the organisation at different times.
Kola Balogun was also a valued member of the Nigerian Union of Great Britain and Ireland, an organisation which embraced all Nigerian nationals in the UK, particularly students. It was non-partisan but unabashedly partial and partisan to the territorial oneness and the unity of Nigeria. On account of the broad and nationalistic outlook imbibed in both the Nigerian Union and WASU, Balogun was at first diffident and reluctant when he was prodded by Luke Emejulu to form the London branch of the NCNC. In the end he succumbed to the middling.
Not long after the formation of the London Branch of the NCNC, the Police fatally shot twenty-one miners and injured some fifty others at Udi colliery, Enugu, as a result of a labour dispute. Hardly any event, even the Ivor Cummings Bristol Hotel incident was comparable in the bitter and widespread reaction of Nigerians to the cold-blooded murder of their fellow nationals.
According to Nduka Eze, a broad spectrum of Nigerians “The radicals and the moderates, the revolutionaries and the stooges, the bourgeoisie and the workers closed ranks to form the National Emergency Committee, NEC which rallied financial and legal support for the workers. The bitterness amongst the nationalists disappeared as they jointly adopted self-government now, SGN, as their battle cry. Historians may conclude that the slaying of the coal miners by police at Enugu was the first subjective reality of a Nigerian nation.
Whilst these ferments of emotive nationalist sentiments and activities prevailed, Zik was away in London and had also visited Caux, Switzerland. Akinola Maja, Mbonu Ojike, Rotimi Williams, Ozumba Mbadiwe, Akanni Doherty, Bode Thomas, Hezekiah Oladipo Davies, (H.O.D.) Mokwugo Okoye, were in the thick of events. In the U.K, Kola Balogun as Secretary of the NCNC was busy in collaboration with WASU and Nigeria Union of Great Britain and Ireland, members of the British Parliament, galvanising public opinion in support of nationalist efforts at home, for the miners. A protest was planned at the Colonial office. It took a stiff letter from Kola Balogun to Zik to bestir the latter from the seeming coolness to the Enugu protests at home and in the U.K. Zik had first distanced himself from the planned protest to the Colonial office.
Indeed, in spite of the dynamic turn of political alignment and activities in Nigeria, while reaction to the Enugu shooting incident was still on the boil, Zik, President of the NCNC and Zaad Zungur, NCNC Federal Secretary, were planning a will-o-wisp visit to Prague. Thanks to the pressure of Kola Balogun and his colleagues in the U.K. the visit was abandoned. In parentheses this was the period when Zik was more or less abandoning the speedboat of radical nationalism. However, Kola Balogun’s formation of the London branch of the NCNC, his role in the Iva Valley shooting agitation in London and the letter of complaint to Zik in London was vintage, Kola Balogun, a committed and thorough bred nationalist through and through, an activist, principled and outspoken, (although with reverence) no matter whose ox is gored.
On Kola Balogun’s return to Nigeria as a full-fledged barrister in 1951, Kola threw his body and soul into active politics again. The NCNC as he remarked, was “in the doldrums’ ‘. Ill health and disillusionment had more or less forced Zaad Zungur, a highly political mallam and “effulgent poet” to relinquish the General Secretary position of the NCNC. Zik appointed Kola Balogun into the NCNC cabinet and at the Kano Convention of the party, in 1952, he was elected Secretary. At this time the National Emergency Committee had receded yielding place to the National rebirth Committee of which H.U. Kaine, the educationist and lawyer-turned politician and Kola Balogun became the Chairman and Secretary respectively of the organising committee.
The Trade Union Movement that had collaborated closely with the nationalists after the lightning and highly successful United African Company Workers strike led by Nduka Eze, founder of the left wing Nigeria Labour Congress went their own way.
The NYC wing of the NEC, particularly the provincial members, became unenthusiastic about the formation of the National Rebirth Committee. Not long after in 1950, the Area Councils as a distinct political interest group opposed to the Nigeria National Democratic Party,( NNDP) and the Labour Market Women, Alliance came into being as another cluster of interest groups, emerged to contest the Lagos Town Council elections which the latter group won hands down.
It should be noted that this was the first election in Nigeria to be conducted on the basis of universal adult suffrage. With the introduction of the MacPherson Constitution and the ensuing elections into Regional and Central Houses, the national front was again factionalized. Thus, confirming the hypothesis that constitutional developments in colonial countries tend to weaken nationalism.
Kola Balogun remained undaunted in his nationalist zeal. After the debacle of the National Rebirth committee that had advocated self Government for Nigeria in 1956 with the objective of a “socialist commonwealth’, Kola Balogun almost became a task deliverer of the NCNC. Kola Balogun was genial, charming, unassuming, absolutely loyal and committed to the cause of Nigerian emancipation, Pan Africanism and of course the NCNC. He seemed to have enjoyed the confidence of the great Zik, whom he referred to as his political father, on whose laps he learnt journalism , politics, and understanding the rank and file of the NCNC. One of his favourite slogans at campaigns was
“The NCNC is the party of the common man”. He had an abiding faith in the pivotal role of the youth in the emancipation project.
As Secretary of the NCNC, he spearheaded an attempt to reincarnate the Zikist Movement as an NCNC Youth Association, in Lagos in 1952. The Trade Unionist cum politician, Mbazulike Amaechi and Nduka Eze were very much in evidence. Although the organisation was formed amid dissension it was but a ghost of the Zikist Movement of old.
Kola Balogun’s commitment to Pan Africanism was evident when on the break out of the Mau Mau nationalist struggle in Kenya leading to the trial of Jomo Kenyatta in Nairobi in 1952, Kola Balogun donned on his wig and gown and made for Kenya to join in the defence of Jomo Kenyatta. The British turned back the ‘obstreperous’ young African Lawyer barely 30 years of age at the time. However, H.O.D. was personally invited by Jomo Kenyatta as his defence attorney at the show trial and H.O.D. gladly obliged Jomo. H.O.D. and Jomo were contemporaries in the U.K. in the late thirties of the last century.
Under the newly promulgated Macpherson Constitution, Kola Balogun contested election through the Electoral College to the Western House of Assembly but according to Kola Balogun, the procedure was fraught with corruption. The ‘god of money’ was already looking dangerous in Nigerian politics. If ever there was corruption at elections at that time, by contemporary standards, it must have been by angels! Needless to say that Kola Balogun was dis-favoured at the election in Osun. His unhappy electoral experience was soon to be over. In 1953, he successfully won elections to the Lagos Town Council, Western House of Assembly (as a Lagos member) and finally to the House of Representatives, resulting in his appointment initially as Minister without portfolio and subsequently as Federal Minister of Information and Research in 1955 at the tender age of 33 years thus also making him the first person to hold a substantive portfolio from Osun. Even more, perhaps, the youngest Minister ever elected at that time under a democratic dispensation. Thus it would appear that Kolawole Balogun was the first Minister of Information in this country, a position, the inimitable Late Chief T.O.S. Benson (alias Seditious Benson of the forties) was to adorn some five years later).
Before Kola Balogun’s ministerial stint, in 1953, the Macpherson Constitution had irretrievably broken down following the 1956 self-government motion moved by Anthony Enahoro on behalf of the banned Action Group, A.G. This epochal event threw the NCNC and the (A.G)into each other’s arms. An alliance and re-alignment of political programmes resulted in their joint front at the London constitutional conference to review the ill-fated Macpherson Constitution. Even though Zik was to exclaim after the conference that “Federalism was imperative” as opposed to his long held centrist views hitherto, the NCNC and A.G. only fell out on the question of the separation of Lagos from the Western Region. Under the Macpherson Constitution Lagos was merged with the West against the majority recommendation of the Ibadan constitutional conference of 1950. At this remarkable London Conference, which enthroned the Lyttleton Constitution, Kola Balogun was present as the General Secretary of the NCNC. He was one of the articulate and insistently fanatical delegates. Perhaps most significantly he was the one that spearheaded the quest to separate Lagos from the Western Region as against the wishes of the Action Group. He was successful in emancipating Lagos even though today no street in Lagos is named after him in appreciation of his efforts.
By June 1958 an NCNC Executive meeting took place at the Lagos City College, Lagos to discuss the “discontents of our time”. Openly the meeting could not agree. It broke into two factions. The ‘rebels’ formed the Reform Committee led by K. O. Mbadiwe as Chairman, H.O.D. who Zik once described as “one of the brightest jewels on the brow of Mother Africa ‘’ as Vice Chairman with the ubiquitous and indomitable Kola Balogun as Secretary. It is noteworthy that every attempt to ethnicize the disagreement was rebuffed. Both Kola Balogun and K. O. Mbadiwe, the latter an Aro Igbo, pooh poohed the idea of Mbadiwe and other Ibo “rebels’ ‘ swearing on ngbendu to ensure their loyalty to Zik and thereby earn a reprieve subsequently. However promptly, the NCNC recommended to the Prime Minister the resignations of K. O. Mbadiwe, Kola Balogun and their Parliamentary Secretaries from the Federal Cabinet. Having been cut down to size, they were to learn the bitter lesson of how not to take Zik on! Zik’s supporters called them names and emotively denounced them. It was a God-sent opportunity for Zik’s loyalists and sycophants alike to advertise their wares.
Eventually like the prodigal son, Kola Balogun, although unbowed, found his way back into Zik’s fold. Mohammadu Ribadu the NPC, Minister of Defence at the time was very crucial in Kola Balogun’s rapprochement with Zik. Zik was gallant and quick to forgive whatever were Kola Balogun’s faults. This was celebrated by Zik as usual, a man without vendetta, ill feelings or life-long enemies. Zik thought that given Kola Balogun’s closeness to him, Kola Balogun’s reservations ought to have been conveyed to him, Zik , for his own “eyes only” Kola was himself very humbled and impressed by Zik’s re-acceptance of him and re-absorption into the NCNC’s fold.
Soon Kola Balogun was riding high again in his political career. By 1957 the Gold Coast had assumed the name Ghana, a once thriving historic West African Negroid country bestriding the former Gold Coast and other pre-colonial polities: Kwame Nkrumah, an unrepentant Marxian socialist and veteran Pan Africanist who had become the President of the new Republic was making waves both in Africa and internationally. Ghana became the ‘Mecca’ of freedom fighters, socialist radicals and all hues of progressives. Ghana was non-aligned in international power politics. Comrade Kwame had proclaimed that he considered the independence of Ghana incomplete until colonialism was totally humiliated and expelled from Africa. It was in this historical context in 1958, that Kola Balogun was appointed Commissioner and later at our independence High Commissioner to Ghana. It was thought by the Prime Minister, Sir Tafawa, that given Kola Balogun’s impeccable radical Pan African credentials, he more than fitted the bill to represent Nigeria in Ghana. At that time except for the NCNC, the three ethno-geographically based establishment parties, in their foreign policy advocated “indissoluble alliance with the west” and displayed rile cynicism on radical Pan African ideals. With Kola Balogun’s background, he was therefore very much at home in progressive Ghana. He did much to project the less objectionable face of Nigerian conservative politics and acted in a way as the conscience of the subdued progressivism back home in Nigeria. In his personal letters to Zik, he was upbeat about breath-taking and unfolding Ghana’s socio-political scene. Still he had his reservations about what he called Comrade Kwame’s ‘faulty methods’ and the divergence in his theory and practice. This Kola Balogun illustrated the failure of Kwame to attend Nigeria’s Independence celebration in 1960, whereas the Nigerian Prime Minister in 1957, was in Accra at the birth of Ghana. Although Zik was receptive to Kola Balogun’s favourable accounts of his “Mission to Ghana” he Zik, foresaw the emerging dictatorial tendencies amongst African leaders and advised that civil liberties and due processes should be allowed to thrive in African Countries if the fruits of independent nationhood were to be garnered.
Kola Balogun, being essentially a political activist, after some years in Accra, became uneasy in his ambassadorial “Coventry ‘’. At home, the NCNC was losing support in the Western Region. They were mauled by the A.G. under S.L.A. ‘s leadership in the Regional election of 1960. Their supporters and leaders alleged victimisation through excessive taxation, the activities of sanitary inspectors etc. By 1962, Kola Balogun politely threw in the towel. He resigned his appointment to Ghana and jumped into the rough and tumble of Western Nigerian politics. The NCNC seemed to have regretted its choice of leadership of the party in Remi Fani-Kayode before then. Hence almost immediately after Kola Balogun’s return he became the Chairman of the NCNC Western Working Committee and leader of the party. He lost no time in rallying other NCNC leaders in the West in the fight for CNC’s body and soul. Kola Balogun was his own political self again. Under his leadership, the NCNC in spite of its numerical inferiority in the Western Legislature began giving a good account of itself region wide. Schism within the A.G. in 1962 resulted in an A.G. breakaway group the S.L.A. The group led the United Peoples Party allying with the Western NCNC parliamentary party led by Fani-Kayode, a.k.a. Fani-Power a confessed blacklist. The two groups allied to form the government of Western Nigeria. Thus confirming the trite political quip that in polities, there are neither permanent friends nor enemies but permanent interests. Albeit, the alliance soon broke down and recrimination ensued. NCNC formed the United Progressive Grand Alliance, (UPGA) with the A.G. wing loyal to Awolowo while UPP transformed into the Nigeria National Democratic Party (NNDP) that allied with the NPC. Thus the ideological profile of Nigerian Politics was now somewhat defined, nevertheless a delicate pot-puree. UPGA, that is the faction of A.G. and NCNC were in opposition in the West whilst at the Federal level, NPC, NCNC and NNDP formed a coalition Government with A.G. in opposition. Still, both sides of the political divide contained radicals, socialists, centrists, conservatives and non-ideological fire breathing patriots! Whilst the excitement and anxieties of the disturbing events in Western Nigeria evolved with an unstoppable momentum stretching to the time of the military take-over of the Nigerian Government in January 1966, a new feather was added to Kola Balogun’s cap. He was appointed successively as Director, Deputy Chairman and finally Chairman of the defunct Nigerian Shipping Line, in July 1962 in succession to Sir Louis Ojukwu. Kola Balogun believed that he owed this appointment to Zana Bukar Dipcharima, the NPC Minister of Transport at the time. Dipcharima was on the NCNC delegation to London in 1947. It is perhaps inferable that the build bridging between the ministers fielded by the NPC and NCNC into the Federal Cabinet in 1955 to 1964 before the Federal election boycott fiasco yielded some dividends of mutual confidence and trust amongst those ministers who served together in the period at one time or the other. With the military’s forcible intervention in government in 1966, Kola Balogun, a consummate politician who had seen days in and out of public office was again a political orphan. He returned to his picturesque and calm native home of Otan Aiyegbaju in Osun wondering what next to expect from the “men in khaki” Will they or will they not put their predecessors in office “the men in Agbada’’ in permanent coolers!
Not long after, by July 1966, Nigeria was on the boil again. There was another military putsch. The euphoria amongst Nigerians of the first coup was over. The pattern of killings in the January coup was put into question. A bout of further killings amongst the military ensued which appeared revengist. The whole future and stability of corporate Nigeria hung on a thread. The former Eastern Nigeria that is, the present day Rivers, Bayelsa, Cross-River, Akwa-Ibom, Anambra, Ebonyi, Abia, Enugu, and Imo States, led by its Military Governor Lt. Colonel Emeka Ojukwu declared the secession of its territory from Nigeria. This provoked a thirty month civil war, which was heroically and successfully led by General Gowon. As one of the several measures to ‘keep Nigeria one’ the twelve States structure emerged in 1967 and was headed by military Governors with predominantly civilian cabinet, an arrangement that characterized each military administration till 1999.
It was in this scenario that Kola Balogun bounced back into public reckoning again. He was appointed into the Western Nigerian Cabinet under the governorship of Colonel Adeyinka Adebayo, as he then was. Oyo, Osun, Ogun, Ondo and Ekiti constituted Western Nigeria at that time. Kola Balogun was first appointed Commissioner for Economic Planning. He moved on successively to adorn Health and Education portfolios. The cabinets at the federal and state levels at that time, were mixed bags of old and tested politicians, accomplished professionals and first time comers to public life. They were individuals of contrasting political persuasions and backgrounds. In this ambiance, it would appear that irreconcilable differences between Kola Balogun and the equally hard lining and charismatic politician, Bola Ige, led to both of them quitting the Western State cabinet at the same time. What an irony of fate! Both distinguished and well-regarded gentlemen were to share the same date 23rd December in receiving their immortal home calls!
However, after Kola Balogun’s stint in the Western State Government, he turned his attention to his other compelling ‘loves’. As federal Minister, he promoted the formation of the Nigerian Council of Arts and Culture and ultimately became its president. He had developed a passion for cultural matters since his days at the Government College, Ibadan. In the years out of office Kola Balogun’s cultural activities particularly in present day Southwestern Nigeria were well known. Here was a young and impatient Kola Balogun who abandoned the prestige, aura and material advantages attached to Government Colleges of the days past, to study and pass successfully from a Lagos dinghy the London matriculation and intermediate Bachelor of Laws examinations. Instead of his scheming and grovelling after leaving office, as some lesser mortals would do, he proceeded full blast in the pursuit of academic laurels by obtaining a Ph.D. degree in Political Science from the University of Ibadan 1971-1974. Earlier on he had obtained a Masters of Public Administration (MPA) degree at the University of Ife now Obafemi Awolowo University while serving as a Commissioner between 1968-1970. Not done, he became a part time lecturer at the University of Ife.
On the return to Civilian rule in 1979 Kola Balogun despite the huge political respect he enjoyed from his former colleagues and the admiration and debt of gratitude he owed to Zik, he did not join the Nigerian People’s Party (NPP) of which Zik was the leader. This was because the party split and Kola Balogun found himself in the faction of the party that later became known as the Great Nigeria Peoples Party (GNPP). Kola Balogun was of the view that Zik was father of the nation and could no longer be seen to participate in politics. It was a question of principle for him. He became the National Vice Chairman of the GNPP. By the early 1980s he became disillusioned with the GNPP and went on to quietly throw his lot with the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) which was a coalition of various political interest groups aimed at the unity and stability of the country.
Quite appropriately, the vibrant patriotic slogan of “One Nation” of the NPN seemed an abbreviated form of the old NCNC slogan “One Country”, “One Constitution, One God”! In the NPN, Kola Balogun did not occupy a high profile office, although a member of the National Executive Committee Here was a man with such obviously intimidating revolutionary, political and academic credentials gladly and candidly serving on the committee as an ordinary member. Even the plea that the meeting be held in his Lagos residence met with a stonewall resistance. Honourable (Chief) Dr. Kolawole Balogun remained adamant. Was it because he had seen it all? At different times he was a Journalist, law student, founder of a revolutionary nationalist movement, lawyer,minister all at a very young age. He was a nationalist and revolutionary fighter of the deepest dye. Where are such men and women in contemporary public life in this country today ? If there are, what are their ideals, credos, ethos, goals, beliefs etc? What do they stand for? It should be noted that in Kola Balogun’s life-long preoccupation with nationalist pursuits, he never forgot his beloved Osun nor Otan-Ayegbaju. This was not in the fashion of the present-day divisive ethno-nationalist irredentists, but as a patriot and a good citizen who cared for his neighbourhood. He was without jingoistic or hegemonic complexes. Thus he was in the forefront of the creation of Osun State and his immediate Local Government Area, Boluwaduro Local Government excised from the then domain of the Yoruba ancestrally revered Orangun of Ila. It must be emphasised that the Osun State movement was established and launched in 1975. The first meeting of pioneers was held at his residence Maye Lodge, Osogbo and he was appointed Chairman. He piloted the organisation for 16 years and Osun State was eventually created in 1991. Kola Balogun was immensely proud of this achievement and grateful for God’s guidance and support in making it possible. He regarded the creation of Osun State as his greatest political contribution to his people. Over the years, a cluster of chieftaincy, professional and church titles were deservedly bestowed on him particularly in present day Oyo and Osun States.
What made this nationalist, statesman and academic tick? What lessons does the life and times of this prodigy hold for the rest of the country? Kola Balogun’s political life was one of dedication to practical goals for the public good rather than their goods. No immediate returns, if any, were expected. In the pursuit of the goals he was diligent, selfless, hardworking and achievement-oriented. He trained for his vocation. He was not catapulted from ‘nowhere’ to high offices. He served apprenticeship all the way. He was loyal to leadership without being a stooge or a sycophant. Thus, he was outspoken and firm in his views without being dogmatic. After the ghost of the agitation of the “Zik must go” episode of 1958 was laid to rest, the warmth between him and Zik was infectious. The reproachment was a roaring tribute to Zik whose forgiving and democratic spirit was legendary. Kola Balogun never forgot to acknowledge the political personalities who were critically helpful to him in his political career. In spite of his marvellous achievements in all his endeavours, he remained humble and valiantly committed to Pan Nigerian ideals. At no time did he expediently play the ethno-political card at the merest provocation, as is common with most Nigerian elites. Sadly, the Nigerian terrain today is replete with professional, political, academic, business elites and other turn coats who now worship on various sectional shrines to the detriment of a viable and stable corporate Nigerian State.
The life and times of Kola Balogun contrast with the neo-military politics of our time whose landscape is clustered by recidivists, fixers, jackboots and all sorts of power and influence peddlers committed to no sterling ideals of integrative nation building. Parties expected to be the powerhouses of participatory democracy are cesspools of intrigues and homicidal rivalries. Never in the history of this country have parties and public figures been atrophied of so many viable, structurally functional and populace oriented ideas aimed at the rapid socio-economic integration of the motherland. We continue to present dross and jaded metals as gold, all in the unhallowed name of our brand of “ceremonial democracy”.
It is in these abnormal times that serving public office holders award themselves high national honours. Some of the beneficiaries are even decorated or promoted annually. Civil servants with less than a five year stint are not left out as recipients of these surprising awards. These neo military public servants now compete with corporate parasites in advertising their ‘well earned’ laurels in the media. What has become of the self-effacement or anonymity code of conduct of civil servants? Is there no pecking order in the award of national honours to serving and retired public servants? Yet a towering veteran nationalist, statesman, journalist, diplomat, academic, cultural guru, author and teacher like Kola Balogun was derisively awarded the National Honour of OON in 2001. There was no greater insult to the person of Kola Balogun, and vicariously to others who like Kola Balogun heroically contributed to the struggle for independent Nigerian Nationhood. Perhaps, all this partly indicates a defect in our study of political history in Nigeria. How many of those strutting the corridors of power today know about Herbert Macaulay, Dr. J. C. Vaughan, Earnest Okoli, Mbonu Ojike, Mallam Aminu Kano, R. B. Diko, Zaad Zungur, Osita Agwuna, Mokwugo Okoye, Smart Kirby, F. O. Coker, alias Secret Document Coker, Raja Abdulah, Gogo Chu Nzeribe , Nduka Eze etc. and their significance in our history? These were some of the patriots who rendered selfless and dedicated service to Nigeria. Some of them who are now dead like Aminu Kano have been honoured. Yet many others remain unsung. Let us hope that memorials would be devised in different parts of the country in their honour. Furthermore, since we are a nation of public holiday addicts, a Hero’s day should be set aside in honour of all the gallant fighters for independent and united Nigeria.
Incontestably, given Kola Balogun’s contributions, he would merit being included in the National Pantheon of Heroes, if one is established. Outside the contemporary vulgarism of our time such heroes, if painfully and carefully selected on merit, would provide historical role models for the present generation and those ‘yet unborn’. Skilful use of symbols as argued by Nwabueze and Carl Fredrick are potent “psychological instruments of fostering identity and allegiance to the Nation-State’’; hence a Heroes Day and dedicated memorials are appropriately called for in the forward looking and virile Nigeria of our solicitude.
We shall forever remember you Comrade Kola Balogun.
Culled from Tayo Akpata “ Remembering the Politics and Times Kola Balogun 1922-2002”
