Freedom for all, Life more abundant...Liberal minded leader

Freedom for all, Life more abundant

By Tunde Fagbenle
I am doing the unusual today. I am bringing my readers an abridged version of the first address of Chief Obafemi Awolowo as President of the Action Group to the party’s Conference at Owo on April 28, 1951.
It tells so much of the minds of our heroes past and, seeing how much the country continues to totter, with the issue of restructuring reverberating anew, serves us lessons and ideals to borrow from, not just in the West but in Nigeria as a whole. (All emphasis throughout mine)
Titled, Freedom For All, it goes thus:
“Gentlemen,
The pleasant duty of introducing the Action Group has been entrusted to me.
On the 21st March of this year, the Action Group was introduced to the public through the Press, and its aims and objectives were clearly set out.
Since then the Action Group has been unfolding itself and fulfilling its aims and objectives more by action than by words.
There are, however, two items in the aims and objectives which I should like to emphasise, since they are the very basis of the Action Group. I refer to items (1) and (3). The two are complementary and they read as follows:
(i) To bring and organise within its fold nationalists in the Western Region, so that they may work together as a united group, and submit themselves to party loyalty and discipline;
(ii) To prepare and present to the public programmes for all Departments of Government, and to strive faithfully to ensure the effectuation of such programmes through those of its members that are elected into the Western House of Assembly and the Federal Legislature.
If any group of people fail to agree as to basic principles and as to the methods to be adopted in applying those principles, it is impossible for them to work within the same fold, and to submit themselves to party loyalty and discipline.
The basic principles which have brought the members of the Action Group together are summarised in the following motto: Life more abundant; Freedom for all.
It is our belief that the people of Western Nigeria in particular, and of Nigeria in general, would have life more abundant when they enjoy:
(i) Freedom from British Rule
(ii) Freedom from ignorance
(iii) Freedom from disease and
(iv) Freedom from want.
In our view, the rule of one nation by another is unnatural and unjust. It is maintained either by might or by complete subordination, through crafty means, of the will and self-respect of the people to the political self-aggrandisement of the tutelary power. There can be no satisfactory substitute for self-rule.
An ignorant and poverty-stricken people are the easiest preys to political enslavement and economic exploitation. Diseases of all kinds follow in the wake of ignorance and want.
The basic principles which, therefore, have brought us together within the fold of the Action Group may be stated in the following words:
1) The immediate termination of British Rule in every phase of our political life.
2) The education of all children of school-going age, and the general enlightenment of all illiterate adults and all illiterate children above the school-going age.
3) The provision of health and general welfare for all our people.
4) The total abolition of want in our society by means of any economic policy which is both expedient and effective.
Having agreed on these basic principles, it becomes necessary to take the next step, namely: to agree as to common methods in the application of those principles. This is a very important step: because, even though people may agree as to principles, if they don’t agree as to methods of application it would not be possible for them to work together.
All that we would need in addition would be persistence and consistency in the pursuit of our principles, and resolution and discipline in the execution of our common methods of application.
Only we must make sure about two things, namely: that our principles are just, and that our methods are practical; for nothing defeats their own ends so easily as unjust principles and impractical methods of approach.
In the first release of the Action Group, it has been made abundantly clear both in item (5) of the aims and objectives and in the body of the release that it is not the intention of the Action Group to embark on Regional politics exclusively. It is sheer necessity that has compelled us to decide to get together to put our own house in order.
As an earnest of our good faith, the subjects on which policy papers have been prepared are not confined to Regional subjects but cover Central subjects as well.
We have promised, and we mean to abide by our word, that if a countrywide organisation acceptable to all is established, we would not hesitate to become the Western Regional Working Committee of such an organisation.
It must, therefore, be our hope and our endeavour that as soon as we have duly consolidated and strengthened our position throughout the Western Region, we should, in cooperation with nationalists in other Regions, influence the formation of a countrywide organisation on the same realistic and scientific lines as the Action Group.
We are a party — in fact, the only party in Nigeria with definite ideas and practical programmes for the advancement of Nigeria towards early freedom and prosperity.
Our enemies and detractors are already at work… It is not an easy matter to resist the temptation of being dragged down the drains of bitter recriminations and press war. But if we are to attain our objectives, we must resolve to pursue our cause unflinchingly without paying the slightest heed to ‘the envious, and the asses that bray.’
What our people want to know, above all things else, is not the defect or incapacity of this or that organisation, but the plans and programmes which we have for improving their lot and the relative merits of such plans and programmes.
Our line of action is therefore clear. Whilst our enemies and detractors busy themselves with abusing and decrying us, we should direct all the machinery of our publicity towards the propagation of the excellence and the relative superiority of our programmes and the suitability of the men who we put forward to execute them.
In this way, we would succeed in commending ourselves to the public by our sheer merits and our merits only. This, in my view, is a nobler attitude; and if we remain true to it, we are bound to succeed where our detractors fail.”
Taken from “Voice of Reason: Selected Speeches of Chief Obafemi Awolowo” Vol. 1, Fagbamigbe Publishers (1981) Pages 195-200.