Chairman, Selection Committee, Obafemi Awolowo Prize for Leadership, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, said were Chief Awolowo and other Nigeria’s founding fathers to be alive today, they would be full of lamentation and disappointment for the state the country had found itself, having no viable federating unit as it was at Independence.
“I have often wondered how Nigeria’s founding fathers — Nnamdi Azikiwe, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Ahmadu Bello — would feel today if they were to rise up to see Nigeria as it is today,” Anyaoku said, adding that he had no doubt that lamentation and deep disappointment would feel their minds, especially Chief Awolowo, who championed the cause of true federalism and as premier, brought about very effective rule in the old Western Region.
According to him, Chief Awolowo would be disappointed that, instead of having a few viable federating units in which effective human and economic development could thrive under a peaceful atmosphere, the country now had non-viable federating units with an all-powerful centre.
He said such a situation had allowed, among other things, a do-or-die politics, which, in turn, had exacerbated the ethnic and religious divisions in the country.
On why there was no awardee for this year’s programme, Anyaoku, a former Secretary- General of the Commonwealth, said regrettably, his committee could not find any candidate who measured up to the qualities Awolowo represented among the names forwarded by the technical committee.
According to him, none of the names forwarded met the attributes for which Chief Awolowo stood for and none also met the characteristics.
“It will be recalled here that the two recipients of the award so far, Professor Wole Soyinka and former South African president, Thabo Mbeki, were widely acknowledged as having demonstrated in their careers, the attributes that characterised Chief Awolowo’s political career, namely great integrity, impeccable patriotism, impressive capacity, consistency and pro-people attitude in personal capacity and public service at personal cost to his life,” he said.