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Friday, 23 October, 2015
I
CODE OF PERSONAL DISCIPLINE WILL, more than ever before, subject myself to severe self-discipline. Only “men who are masters of themselves become easily masters of others”. Therefore, my thoughts, my tongue, and my actions shall be brought under strict control always. The truest and most loyal friend I have in human flesh is my wife. She has borne our common tribulations with exemplary fortitude. Her love for me is ineffable. In return, it is my resolve to show her such love as is rare among mankind. Furthermore, before I take any major decision, or embark on any enterprise, I will consult her fully, and be guided by her wise advice and suggestions. My home is among the happiest in the world. After my release, I will make it a veritable paradise on earth for my wife, my children, grandchildren, sisters, relatives, household servants, and all others who work with or under me, regardless of their station in life. I will eschew anger, irritability, resentment and fault-finding. In any case, “I will not permit myself to speak while angry” or irritated. I will refrain from making any adverse remarks about any of my colleagues behind his back. “I will look on the bright side of the circumstances of my daily life, and I will carry a cheerful face and speak hopefully to all whom I meet. I will speak and act truthfully, living with sincerity towards all men”. At all times, wherever I may be, I will remember that God Almighty is ever present with me, that He abides with me and resides in every cell of my body. In this connection, the following prayer of Leslie D. Weatherhead should also be my Dear Lord,, may I take thee with me today in my heart, do nothing that would grieve Thee, say nothing that I should be ashamed to say in Thy physical presence, think nothing that is unworthy, and go nowhere, where I should be ashamed to be found by Thee. Let the Thought of Thy real presence with me dominate my life today, Amen. God will not alter His Laws, or the widely divergent and often violently conflicting natures of human beings to oblige anyone. I must take the world as I find it with its sprinkling of saints and its multitude of evil-doers; with its grudging appreciation of love and its profusion of hatred; with its grudging appreciation and its ever-ready condemnation; with its limited friendship and its immeasurable enmity; with its ounce of happiness and its tons of sorrow. The list can be increased ad infinitum. “As it was in the beginning so is now and ever shall be ….”. My duty, therefore, is, having taken the world as I find it with its awful and ineffable contrasts, to view anything that may happen to me in this world with Christ-like calm and equanimity, and to do all in my power to promote the progress and advancement of mankind towards those immortal ideals which are enshrined and sufficiently elaborated in the scriptures of every Great religion. In all that I say or do, in private and in public, I will reflect courage, faith, hope, peace, harmony, humility, and love. Above all, the problems of Nigeria, in all their multi-faceted magnitude and complexity, were always vivid in my mind, and I laboured assiduously, in my loneliness, to think hard of solutions for them. Greater tribute to my efforts was that, when the “49 wise men”, specially chosen by the Federal Military Government under Murtala Mohammed to draft a new constitution for Nigeria, completed their assignment, their conclusions and recommendations were identical with the proposals which I had made in Thoughts on Nigerian Constitution which I had written, within the space of five months, nine years earlier, in cell D up 2 at Calabar prison. As we have seen, the book was published in There is nothing cheering about prison life. Buildings are dull; the cells are semi-dark; and the vast majority of the inmates are rough in body and mind. At Ikoyi, our block of cells was close to another block which housed the ace recidivists in the prison. They were a law unto themselves. They constituted a kind of State within the prison, with their own President, Prime Minister, Inspector-General of Police, Director of Prisons, Chief Justice, High Court Judges, Magistrates, and other State functionaries. They held court sessions every night. At Calabar, the abode of the recidivists as such was not close to my cell. Instead, my cell was bounded in front by lunatics, on the right by mild old-timers, on the left by the exercise yard of condemned criminals, and the fallows. There were a number of hangings when I was at Calabar. The prison authorities always made sure that the day set aside for hanging was very somber. Prisoners remained in their cells; they were ordered to be quiet; and the whole atmosphere was made Cell D up 2 being close to the gallows, I was able to hear the engine of death when it was switched into action, and to hear the last cry of anguish of such of them as lost heart as they were led to their fateful and inexorable end. The one that moved me most was a cry which I perceived to be that of a young man. He cried in forlorn agony, “Abasi mbo, Abasi mbo, Abasi mbo”, and so on, until his voice was heard no more, and the gallows went into action with its loud creaking noise to silence the victim for ever. (Abasi mbo means “God help me”). When I heard the noise of the gallows, I said
With
Ebenezer Babatope
0805-500-1735 (SMS ONLY PLEASE)
Behind the bars by Papa Awo (10)
•Chief Obafemi Awolowo
to myself in a low voice in my cell, “But for the Grace of God, there hangs Obafemi Awolowo”. The original plan of my sworn enemies in the N.P.C/ N.C..N.C. coalition was to charge me with treason which carries the death penalty, instead of treasonable felony, which carries a maximum of life imprisonment. The plan was abandoned, after what was aptly described as my “triumphant entry” into Lagos on 22 July 1962. As a result of the gargantuan reception which was given to me by the entire populace of Lagos that day, it was clear to the Federal Government that it would not be possible to empanel a jury of twelve men and/ or women in Lagos who would return a verdict of “guilty” for treason against me. Before then, the Federal Government, because of the Action Group’s defeat in the election to the Lagos Municipal Council and to the House of Representatives in 1959, was confident that I had very poor following in Lagos. Hence, my solemn soliloquy when the young man was hanged. Whilst, by itself, prison life was dull and cheerless, there were gems of humanity among prison officers and warders. They contributed in no small measure to enliven my time in prison. I have, earlier on in this Chapter, mentioned some names. I now want to praise nine men in addition. They are M.A. Ifijeh, Superintendent of Prison; Ewohunmi, Assistant Superintendent of Prison; Gabriel Ohwo, Superintendent of Prison; F.O. Okotie, Cadet Officer; Steven Odigie, Cadet Officer; J.I. Jolaoso, Cadet Officer; G.C. Enuife, Prison Librarian; E. Onyemachie, Assistant Chief Warder; and the Yard Superintendent at the time whose name I cannot recall. They were exceedingly kind to me, and, at all times, they treated me as friend, father, and philosopher. I am profoundly grateful to all the prison officers whose names I have mentioned in this Chapter, and to many others, both officers and warders, whose names I no longer remember. May the Lord reward them for their good deeds to me. Space and the risk of boring my readers will not permit me to mention all the scores of friends and well-wishers who visited me while in prison as P.A.T. and C.P. Besides, it is usually invidious to mention a few where hundreds are deserving. But I feel under moral obligation to mention a few. There was Rev. Harold Burns of the Methodist Church. He paid a visit every last Sunday in the month to hold a Service of Holy Communion with me. He was always accompanied by two prominent men from the famous Henshaw family of Calabar. In this connection, it is worth mentioning that the arrangement was made on the initiative of Rev. (now the Rev.) J.O.E. Soremekun, then President of the Methodist Church in Nigeria, during his visit to me in Calabar. He introduced to me Rev. Harold Burns whom I had never met, and who was then teaching at Hope Waddel Institute. Rev. Harold Burns is an American. There was Bishop Moynagh, a Roman Catholic Priest of Irish extraction. He visited me regularly, and gave me inter-
esting secular books to read and return. I can never forget Rev. Mother Gertrude of the Roman Catholic Mission, and a Nigerian of Ibo extraction. Every Christmas, she used to make Christmas cake for me. I spent two Christmases in Calabar – 1964 and 1965. I don’t eat cake as a rule. In this case, I tasted a little in 1964, sent some to my grandchildren at home, and gave the rest to the Superintendent to share it with whomsoever he pleased. I reserved the 1965 cake til my wife’s visit in January 1966. I had known in December that she was coming together with her friends Mesdames Olayide Adefule, Adelarin Aina, and Alice Longe; Messrs Kayode Oyediran and A.O. Dairo, and three of my grandchildren – Olusegun Awolowo, Kemi Oyediran and Yewande Oyediran. With the permission of Superintendent Ohwo, I entertained them with the cake. My grandchildren had never met me before. Two of them stood aloof. So, I tried to entice them with the cake; they took my cake, but refused to play with me. They always came near enough to snatch the cake with a smile. That done, they resumed their distance immediately. Only Yewande was friendly and all smiles. Mrs. Okon, M.B.E., deserves mention. She was a distinguished Efik voluntary social worker. She visited me several times to wish me well and to pray for me. Mr Olu Adeyemi is a native of Iperu. But he lived at Aba at the material time. Apart from hosting those who passed through Aba to spend the night, in order to arrive in Calabar early next morning, he also donated a modern table-tennis table, complete with all the accessories, to Calabar prison for my sake. A draught board made of mahogany was also donated to the prison by Kadri of Isonyin, when I told him of my interest in the game. One of the conditions for my agreeing to go to Calabar voluntarily was that arrangements should be made for my personal physician to see me once a month in Calabar at Government expense. It was conceded. At first it was Dr. Dele Odulate, the ophthalmologist; after him it was Dr. Remi Adebonojo. They both played their parts admirably. Dr. Ikpeme’s name must be mentioned. He was the prison Doctor at the time. Both our relationship was not perfunctory: it was friendly. He took good care of me I must record the role of Chief L.N. Obioha, a produce merchant of Arondizuogu. A fine gentleman, he visited me several times in Calabar. He did the same to my family in Ibadan taking gifts to them each time he went…….. Today marks the end of the serialisation of BEHIND THE BARS, “One of the most brilliant parts of Papa Obafemi Awolowo’s book “MY MARCH THROUGH PRISON”. My “MARCH THROUGH PRISON” is one of the three books – “MY ADVENTURES IN POWER” written by this great political leader of the African Continent. Two of the books were released by AWO when he was alive. They are (1) THE TRAVAILS OF DEMOCRACY AND THE RULE OF LAW and (2) MY MARCH THROUGH PRISON. The third one – FOR THE GOOD OF THE PEOPLE, has never been published. The book was unfinished and it remained with Mama H.I.D. Awolowo until her death recently. One day, it will be out. We will continuously publish excerpts from Papa Awolowo’s books with the aim of keeping his great memory alive. Emphasis now shifts on Awo’s Precious Jewel of Inestimable Value, Mama H.I.D. Awolowo who died recently. Mama will be buried on 25 November, 2015. Since the serialisation of Papa Obafemi Awolowo’s “BEHIND THE BARS”, many political events have occurred in Nigeria. They include the deaths of dear ones to me like my classmate and mentor Isaac Ariyo in London, the 70th birthday ceremony of my friend Femi Orebe, the 90th birthday of revolutionary activist Senator Ayo Fasanmi etc. We will talk about these events on this page from next week. And now, Mama H.I.D Awolowo the matriarch of the Obafemi Awolowo dynasty has died at near 100 years. She was a gallant woman who played her part well as the wife of one of the founders of the Nigerian nation. Watch out for Political Panorama series on Mama H.I.D on this page before her burial The series will start on Friday, 13th November. God bless you all! •EBINO TOPSY – 0805-500-1735 (SMS ONLY PLEASE) NEXT WEEK: SENATOR AYO FASANMI AT 90