repair job, to stop the West from descending into chaos. This, he urged us to appreciate, was a delicate task of healingâfor which, presumably, his medical training especially fitted him. He expected the academic community to cooperate with him in the achievement of his mission. I assured my interlocutors that I was indeed engaged on an important contribution to his objectives as I proceeded to prepare a series of political satires, the first of which would appear on stage as
Before the Blackout.
It included a dramatized version of the adaptation from
The Vicar of Bray.
AND THEN, AS I F the political scene were not sufficiently heated or complicated for such a young democracy, the nation was riveted by news of a far grimmer dimension than a mere rough-and-tumble among lawmakersâa conspiracy had been unearthed that sought to execute what would have amounted to a civilian coup dâétat. The nest of conspirators was located in the Action Group. There was talk of proscribing the party altogether. Its leading figures were rounded up; some were placed under house arrest, others taken straight to prison. It all left the nation, especially the Western Region, in shock. Gradually the net contracted, closing in on the real target. No one was especially surprised when the party leader himself, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, was arrested.
The trials followed lengthy, drawn-out investigations, during which the name of a white South African police officer, Ceulman, pioneered the conflation, in Nigerian modern history, of an individual name with torture. When the trials began, a number of the accused protested that their statements had been made under duress, their confessions extracted under torture. The statements were nonetheless admitted as evidence. Not surprisingly, virtually all the accused, including Obafemi Awolowo, were found âguilty as chargedâ and sentenced to long terms of imprisonment. The judge then committed the astonishing indiscretion of proceeding to recuperate from his marathon hearing as a vacation guest of the head of the ruling (and âpersecutingâ) party, directly after convicting and sentencing the accused. Never was a well-known Yoruba saying more eagerly seized upon: âThe witch cried one night, and the child died the morning after; who still disputes that it was the witch that consumed the child?â It contributed in no small measure to the interpretative twist given to the judgeâs words when, before delivering judgment, he declared, âMy hands are tied.â Even while considering his verdict deeply flawed, I still believe that his words were completely innocuous, being no more than the standard observation by any judge that, no matter his personal inclinations or public expectations, he was duty bound by the law. To the majority of government adversaries, however, the judge had admitted that he was carrying out orders!
With those trials, the Nigerian political atmosphere was drastically transformed. The hunt continued for the fugitives, including Tony Enahoro. Nearly all of them had taken refuge in Ghana, then enjoying the reputation of a radical nation under the leadership of Kwame Nkrumah.
I remained one of the skeptics. I believed there was never any weighty matter to the treason attempt, and hold till today that Awolowo, in particular, was a victim of political intrigue, largely fomented by the NPC but with the full collaboration of elements from within the breakaway party, the NNDP. This, perhaps, was because I was aware that, in pursuit of its increasingly socialist objectives, the Action Group leadership had decided to send some cadres to be trained at the Winneba Ideological Institute in Ghana. A number of young African revolutionaries in the anticolonial struggle also attended the course; some of them returned home to take up armed struggle against colonial domination in Angola, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique. Additionally, however, clobbered by the strong-arm
Before the Blackout.
It included a dramatized version of the adaptation from
The Vicar of Bray.
AND THEN, AS I F the political scene were not sufficiently heated or complicated for such a young democracy, the nation was riveted by news of a far grimmer dimension than a mere rough-and-tumble among lawmakersâa conspiracy had been unearthed that sought to execute what would have amounted to a civilian coup dâétat. The nest of conspirators was located in the Action Group. There was talk of proscribing the party altogether. Its leading figures were rounded up; some were placed under house arrest, others taken straight to prison. It all left the nation, especially the Western Region, in shock. Gradually the net contracted, closing in on the real target. No one was especially surprised when the party leader himself, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, was arrested.
The trials followed lengthy, drawn-out investigations, during which the name of a white South African police officer, Ceulman, pioneered the conflation, in Nigerian modern history, of an individual name with torture. When the trials began, a number of the accused protested that their statements had been made under duress, their confessions extracted under torture. The statements were nonetheless admitted as evidence. Not surprisingly, virtually all the accused, including Obafemi Awolowo, were found âguilty as chargedâ and sentenced to long terms of imprisonment. The judge then committed the astonishing indiscretion of proceeding to recuperate from his marathon hearing as a vacation guest of the head of the ruling (and âpersecutingâ) party, directly after convicting and sentencing the accused. Never was a well-known Yoruba saying more eagerly seized upon: âThe witch cried one night, and the child died the morning after; who still disputes that it was the witch that consumed the child?â It contributed in no small measure to the interpretative twist given to the judgeâs words when, before delivering judgment, he declared, âMy hands are tied.â Even while considering his verdict deeply flawed, I still believe that his words were completely innocuous, being no more than the standard observation by any judge that, no matter his personal inclinations or public expectations, he was duty bound by the law. To the majority of government adversaries, however, the judge had admitted that he was carrying out orders!
With those trials, the Nigerian political atmosphere was drastically transformed. The hunt continued for the fugitives, including Tony Enahoro. Nearly all of them had taken refuge in Ghana, then enjoying the reputation of a radical nation under the leadership of Kwame Nkrumah.
I remained one of the skeptics. I believed there was never any weighty matter to the treason attempt, and hold till today that Awolowo, in particular, was a victim of political intrigue, largely fomented by the NPC but with the full collaboration of elements from within the breakaway party, the NNDP. This, perhaps, was because I was aware that, in pursuit of its increasingly socialist objectives, the Action Group leadership had decided to send some cadres to be trained at the Winneba Ideological Institute in Ghana. A number of young African revolutionaries in the anticolonial struggle also attended the course; some of them returned home to take up armed struggle against colonial domination in Angola, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique. Additionally, however, clobbered by the strong-arm
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