THE DEATH OF AN ITENERANT REVOLUTIONARY
By: Denja Yaqub
It was a sad moment for progressive activists not just in Nigeria;
and not limited to the African continent, when news broke out that one of the
most revered leaders of the movement had died soon after making a presentation
to the National Dialogue Committee in Akure, South West Nigeria.
Born July 13 1938 in Ipetu Ijesha, Osun State, Babarinde
Adewole Omojola Ajibola, popularly known as Baba Omojola, a renowned
development economist; first class graduate of the famous London School of
Economics (1958 Class); a Marxist socialist; consummate revolutionary; selfless
and trusted mobilizer of people and resources; a great thinker with extra
ordinary precision; an uncommon but quiet warrior; a human archive of our
collective past; a humanist par excellent; a hero of our struggles ; a great
intellect of exceptional values, died late morning of Saturday 19 October 2013.
Baba was well known not just in Nigeria, his home country,
but across the African continent, and indeed at various global forums, all for
the same reasons, same purpose and same values. A tireless fighter and defender
of the interests of the subjugated; of all those whose sweat has been and still
being massively exploited to create wealth for a tiny few that has continued to
deny the majority a decent life; of all those who have been thrown into abject
poverty by heartless human maggots who have been feeding fat on our collective
wealth with great impunity; of the millions of youths abandoned on our decrepit
streets having been denied access to education, jobs, shelter and decent life;
of all those who have been left to rot in death centers called hospitals while
the rich and their lackeys take the next flight to Europe and North America for
treatment of ailments that could have been treated back home if we have had a system
that abhor failures.
These were the concerns of this selfless gentleman, the son
of a revered ecclesiastic. This class of people formed Baba’s constituency
across the globe.
Oppressions everywhere were contemptuously abhorred by Baba
and other comrades of his generation. Knowing that oppression in all its forms
and characteristics is rooted in capitalism with all its global fangs, Baba had
no illusion about localizing the struggle against oppression and exploitation,
as these are inherent parts of global capitalism.
Baba, an internationalist, was not just a link between
revolutionary movements in Africa and South America, he was indeed very close to
key revolutionaries across the globe giving undisputed accounts of the
conditions of the peoples of various colonies in Africa from French colonies to
Portuguese and British Colonies; connecting our struggles with the struggles of
the Cuban people led by Fidel Castro, Ernesto Che Guevera etc. He was a
reliable linkman between these great leaders and their organizations with
leaders of the African anti colonial and revolutionary movements such as
Osagyefo Kwameh Nkrumah, Algeria’s Ben Bella, South Africa’s Oliver Tambo,
Thabo Mbeki, Winnie Mandela, Steve Biko, Sam Nujoma of Namibia, Robert Mugabe
of Zimbabwe, Keneth Kaunda of Zambia, Leopold Senghor of Senegal, General
Kasongo of former Zaire, as well as the Nigerian flank of the movement. It
takes an extremely trusted and courageous comrade of Baba’s caliber to be
involved in such dangerous clandestine shuttles.
In Nigeria, Baba was involved in nearly all radical
organizations. Indeed, Baba Omojola was part of virtually all progressive and
left organizations from 1960 until he had his last breathe. He was deeply
involved in the All Nigeria Socialist Alliance; Movement for Popular Democracy;
the Socialist Revolutionary Vanguard; People’s Redemption Party; National
Consultative Forum; Committee for the Defence of Human Rights; Campaign for
Democracy; National Democratic Coalition, NADECO; the Pro National Conference Organizations,
PRONACO; the Joint Action Committee of Nigeria, JACON; the Socialist Party of
Nigeria; June 12 Movement etc. He was actively involved in mobilizing for and
organizing Nigerian socialist conferences and meetings between 1960 until his
death.
Indeed, Baba never had a personal life as he was always
involved in the activities of the movement with little or no consideration for
his health and safety, driving across the country. It was during one of such
travels that he had a fatal accident that took the life of his first wife, a
British woman. He too was taken to the mortuary presumed dead for days until he
was discovered still breathing.
He had his residence searched for arms several times in the
70s and also arrested and detained by the Nigerian secret police for mobilizing
people against state oppression. He was among the famous Kuje Five comprising him,
comrades Femi Falana, Olsegun Maiyegun, Dr. Beko Ransome – Kuti, and Chief Gani
Fawehinmi who were detained at the Kuje prisons on the outskirts of Abuja for
several months for leading protests against the Babangida military dictatorship
in 1992.
Despite his revolutionary background, Baba maintained his
relationship with all his friends, many of them his old classmates without
class, ethnic or religious considerations. Perhaps many of them didn’t know the
depth of his involvement in the movement. Despite his closeness to these
friends, he never compromised the movement. Rather, some of them became useful
to some of the popular programmes of the movement in many ways.
He had a wide contact. Several of them became very useful
during the preparatory periods for the botched National Conference which had
been scheduled for September 6th to 9th 1990 at the
National Theater, Iganmu, Lagos. The conference was organized by the National
Consultative Forum. It was in the process of organizing this conference that Baba
once again proved to be extremely honest, decent, committed, resourceful and
reliable. Though the Babangida government used its full might to scuttle that
attempt, Baba never gave up on the project and till death he kept mobilizing
along with other comrades across the country for a Sovereign National
Conference, which explains his involvement in PRONACO as well as his conviction
that the current dialogue could be explored despite its predictable flaws.
Baba, who was until his unfortunate death, the Chair of West
African Economic Consultants, otherwise known as Econsultants (Overseas Ltd), a
consortium of seasoned academics and professionals of various backgrounds in integrated
economics, industrial engineering and environmental consultants, was also a
prolific writer and author of several books, particularly biographies,
economics and revolutionary politics. He was the author of the most reliable
and globally acceptable biography of Nigeria’s Labour Leader Number One, late
Pa Michael Atokhiamen Imoudu, titled “The Imoudu Biography – A political History
of Nigeria 1939 – 1950”, being the first part of a book he had
travelled far and wide; visiting colonial libraries in London, Paris etc to put
reliable records together for the epoch book on the late icon of Nigeria’s anti
colonial struggles and a colossus of the Nigerian trade union movement. Given
the time and energy expended on the first part of the book, Baba must have been
working on the second part before he was cut down by death.
While we are pained by his death, even at the age of 75, we
do have cause to celebrate this exceptional icon of our struggle; for he had lived
a life well spent in the service of our people and left indelible marks such
that his name and works shall outlive his physical exit.
Denja Yaqub who worked with late Baba Omojola as a Research
Officer at Econsultants (Overseas Limited) between 1988 and 1989 is currently an
Assistant Secretary at the headquarter of Nigeria Labour Congress, Abuja
