Between the Moment of Decision and Fulfillment: Obafemi Awolowo's Recipe That Stands the Test of Time

Abstract

Awolowo writes, in his letter of resignation from General Gowon's government, as Vice President:

I would ... like to notify you that, with effect from July 1, 1971, I am no longer willing to continue in the offices of federal commissioner for Finance and vice-president of the Federal Executive Council ... I would like to state that though, by this resignation, I am leaving your government ... it does not mean that I am completely relinquishing all public services to our country and people. On the contrary, it is my resolve to continue, in all circumstances and until my life's end, to see the best interests of our fatherland, and promote the welfare and happiness of our people, in every way possible (Awolowo, 2018).

This study examines the ramifications of Awolowo's pledge to continually, continuingly and continuously be involved in "all public services to our country and people” as well as work for her best interests. Although my longitudinal study on Awolowo, from 1951-1983, actually, works on his rhetorical behaviour, as he has promised, "until my life's end”, this particular study is limited to his activities, between the moment of decision to leave Awolowo's government and the time of fulfilment, by General Obasanjo, to usher in a democratic government. Thus, the study is all about Awolowo's rhetorical behaviour as a commentator on General Yakubu Gowon and Murtala Mohammed/Olusegun Obasanjo's military governments. It was the primary purpose of the study to subject Awolowo's political speeches, during this time, to analysis with a view to determining how, relatively prominently, he spoke on the issues of the economy, politics, socio-cultural milieu, international relations and education. This purpose was achieved by content-analysing the proportionally stratified sampled speeches within this period, using a logical scale of 25 themes. In this regard, the One-Way ANOVA and Newman Keuls' statistical tools were used to test the hypothesis regarding Awolowo's treatment of the issues of the economy, politics, socio-cultural milieu, international relations, education and the prominence attached to them. The research results are presented in 4 tables, showing Awolowo's placement of a greater emphasis on politics than the issues of international relations and education during this period and equal prominence on politics, the economy and socio-cultural milieu. Beyond this, the study's findings were found to bear some similarities with empirical findings on the rhetorical behaviour of political leaders and statesmen, in similar circumstances.