Remembering the politics and times of Kolawole Balogun 1922 – 2002 (2)

EVENT TYPE: 

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, the writer, to mention a few randomly, once held courts in the organization at different times. Kola Balogun was also a valued member of the Nigerian Union of Great Britain and Ireland, an organization 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, of which the writer is a past president and vice-president respectively, 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. It would be recalled that Luke Emejulu was sponsored by the Nigerian Railway Workers Union to study law in the U.K., but he later abandoned trade unionism on his return to Nigeria for legal practice.

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, galvanizing public opinion in support of nationalist efforts at home, for the miners. A protest manifestation was planned to 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 wil-o-wisp visit to Prague. Thanks to the pressure of Kola Balogun and his colleagues in the U.K. the visit was abandoned. In parenthesis 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 was 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 Secretaryship of the NCNC. Zik appointed Kola 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 organizing Committee. The Trade Union Movement that had collaborated closely with the nationalists after the lightening 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. 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. The writer was a frequent visitor to Kola Balogun at the NCNC Secretariat, Yaba at that time. 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 and politics, and the rank and file of the NCNC. One can still recall the resonance of his shrill voice at campaigns proclaiming, “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 organization was formed amid dissention 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. According to Kola Balogun, the procedure was fraught with corruption. The ‘god of money’ was already looming dangerously 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 inquiry was published.

(c) High handedness and undemocratic methods in the running of the NCNC making for incessant dissention, sectarianism and possible Relapse into the ‘doldrums’ once more, als 1950-51 era in the party

(d) Attempt by Zik to renege on NCNC policy decision to provide for the posts of prime minister and deputy prime minister in the pre independence Constitution.

There were other miscellaneous matters like the inadvisability of Zik to travel abroad in late 1958 when the 1958 election was round the corner, the inadvisability of starting the University of Nigeria UNN, at a time of alleged tottering of the Universal Primary Education in the East. Uncompromisingly and determinedly, bitter letters of discontents/complaints and somewhat arrogant in tone were written to Zik by the “rebels” without positive response.

At last in 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, poohed poohed the idea of Mbadiwe and other Ibo “rebels” swearing on ngbandu 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 reproachment 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 1957the 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 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 with 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 loosing 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 victimization 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 NCNC’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. group led the United Peoples Party allying with the Western NCNC parliamentary party led by Fani-Kayode, a.k.a. Fani-Power a confessed blackist. 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 Awo while UPP transformed into 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 hanged 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 months 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 were 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 States 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! Even more, both their sons, Stephen Kola- Balogun and Muyiwa Ige were appointed as Commissioners in the Aregbesola led administration of the State of Osun on the same day.

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 dingy the London matriculation and intermediate Bachelor of Laws, examinations. Instead of his scheming and groveling 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. 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 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. The writer was very chastened by his modesty or unpretentiousness when he served on an NPN committee of which the writer was the chairman. Here was a man with such obvious intimidating revolutionary, political and academic credentials gladly and candidly serving on the committee as a member. Even the plea that the meeting be held in his Lagos residence met with a stonewall resistance. I was to remind Kola Balogun just in case he had forgotten that the writer was one of the teenagers who used to mill around him at the NCNC Secretariat in 1952. The 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 What therefore was new? Needless to say that one learnt an unforgettable lesson from that particular incident and added phenomenally to the political esteem, I held for Kola Balogun over a period of close to six decades that I knew him and followed his career. Here was a Nationalist fighter of the deepest dye. Where are such men and women in contemporary public life of this country? 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 nay Otan-Aiyegbaju. 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 neighborhood. 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 then domain of the Yoruba ancestrally revered Orangun of Ila. It must be emphasized 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 organization 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 to 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 ‘no where’ 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 marvelous 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 viable and stable corporate Nigerian being.

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 much 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 five years 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 indicate 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, Rajih 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 some of those alive 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.

Uncontestably, given Kola Balogun’s contributions, he would merit being included in the National Pantheon of Heros, 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

Chief Tayo Akpata

(The Ogiesoba of Benin)

LINK ARTICLE TO: 

websesame
Design and Development by websesame.