OLAWEPO-HASHIM AND THE BURDEN OF LEADERSHIP

OLUWASEGUN ABIFARIN contends that Olawepo-Hashim is tested and fit to lead Nigeria

May 28, 1989: The cloud had gathered over the firmament of the University of Lagos, Akoka. The drumbeat of the anti-SAP uprising had sounded in Port Harcourt, Benin, Zaria, Ibadan, etc. And the “drummers” were in Akoka already. The stakes were high, while the odds were equally high against the protest on campus on that night.

The President of the University of Lagos Students Union, (ULSU) then was a proschool and a pro-government leader who was opposed to the protest, despite the pressure mounted on him by the various departmental presidents, faculty presidents and the halls of residence chairmen.

Twenty hours earlier, the Faculty of Arts Students Association, (FASA) had invited Femi Falana to speak at the FASAWeek lecture on the implication of SAP on Education and Development in the Third World. Falana seized the opportunity with both hands and lectured the students on the implication of SAP on Education, Economy, Social Development and even Religion and Faith.

The charged atmosphere became intense for all to see that only a miracle could stop the protest, despite the efforts by the school and government to forestall it.

Lagos was strategic to the military government as the seat of power was then

Dodan Barracks in Obalende, Lagos.

By the evening of 28th May, officials of the National Association of Nigerian students (NANS) became increasingly noticeable of campus. By about 7p.m, Ogaga Ifowodo from University of Benin, Gbenga Komolafe of the University of Ibadan and the Senate President of NANS; and Gbenga OlawepoHashim of UNILAG Mass Communication Department and the PRO of NANS moved to the Quadrangle of Mariere Hall and spoke to the students who had gathered there on the need to join the protest.

I still recall the opening words of Olawepo quoting Frantz Fanon that “every generation out of relative obscurity discovers its mission fulfil or betray it.” The students became charged as the train moved to the nearby Jaja Hall, and later to Moremi, Fagunwa, Eni Njoku and Tinubu Halls. By then the crowd had become huge as we moved to the main gate toward El-kanemi and Queen Amina Halls.

The Police and other security agencies, by this time had also upped their game. Police had barricaded the Akoka main gate in large numbers with tanks and other weapons.

The peculiarity of Unilag is that the main gate is the only sure way to town. The other exits lead to the lagoon and dangerous swamps.

The only choice opened was to confront the Police and their tanks at the main gate. From about 9p.m till 5a.m when the battle with the police raged, the voice of Olawepo kept ringing that SAP was evil and that we HLWKHU EHWUD\ RU IXOÀOO RXU PLVVLRQ WR rescue our country. His words moved the students to action and to confront the armed police because the students believed in him and trust his leadership.

Before 6a.m., the police were tired and students poured out to the streets toward Akoka-Bariga and IwayaIkorodu road. In matter of hours, Lagos was on fire of protest, even though Olawepo and his colleagues paid dearly for it later.

It is incredible that student leaders of that era, like Olawepo had such influence that they could shut the country down for weeks and leave the military leaders with the only option of pleading for dialogue after series of repressive actions to crush protests would have failed to deter the activists.

When he was detained Under Decree Two, stories had it that representatives of the military made him offers including a pathway to a foreign service career in exchange for support after his release which he declined.

The big lesson for me in that era was that leadership can charge and change the environment, chart a path of action and mobilise for positive action.

He and other progressive forces also contributed hugely to snatch democracy from the jaw of the military. For instance, on the night of June 8, 1998, when the late General Sani Abacha dropped dead suddenly, the atmosphere was very tensed as various factions in the military began a fierce struggle to take charge of the situation.

That night, Olawepo and few courageous pro-democracy colleagues quickly drafted a memo on a way out of the void created by the death of Abacha and at high risk to their lives, drove to Fort Ibrahim Babangida to hand over the memo to General Bamaiyi.

“It was in the memo that we drafted the name, Independent Electoral Commission. We proposed a composition of an Independent Electoral Commission, and a whole lot of other recommendations.

“That memo was signed by Pascal Bafyau, who is late now and my very self. We took that memo to Fort Ibrahim Babangida, and that was the night people were still struggling about who was going to be head of state. I remember the Chief of Army Staff then, who surrounded himself with many armoured tanks with flashing of lights in the middle of the night. And as we were going, I heard a loud noise: “Stop, the Chief is coming.

“Our vehicle swerved into the bush; there was Ishaya Bamaiyi surrounded with armoured tanks. Eventually, we settled down with Bamaiyi. He took the memo and said we could go. He didn’t say a word, and thankfully, 80 percent of what constituted that transition came from that memo,” Olawepo said recently.

As one of the earlier political leaders after the military departed in 1999, he was Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the ruling party and Chairman of the party’s Group of 54 NEC members which he formed. He resigned from the PDP in 2006 after a lot of disagreements over matters of party’s internal democracy.

Today, the twin issue of leadership and environment which played out in the University of Lagos more than three and half decades ago have come up strongly in national politics with Olawepo-Hashim driving the point again.

On Tuesday, May 3, 2022, as he stepped out to declare his intention to fly the flag of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2023 presidential election, he asserted that “there is nothing Nigerians cannot achieve with the right environment and support. I am out to give the leadership to create that environment.”

According to him, “mine is not an ambition but a historic burden. It is a burden imposed on me right from my late teens when as an undergraduate youth activist, my generation committed ourselves to the struggle for social and economic development of Nigeria, as well as to the struggle for democratic rule.” He added: “I carry an historic burden to lead the process that will make a democratic Nigeria deliver the promise of a greater Nigeria that will provide for all her citizens and those who reside in it without discrimination…