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30 years from now, someone will rise and write rubbish like this about your generation, because as George Santayana said, “those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” Let’s educate you. https://twitter.com/ebubeisaac/status/1343873108923584512
National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) was formed in 1994 by 49 people at a meeting in General Adeyinka Adebayo’s house in GRA (Source: Battlelines: Adventures in Journalism and Politics by Olusegun Osoba). Most don’t know BAT wasn’t even one of the founders/signatories.
Among the members were people like Profs Anya O. Anya and Bolaji Akinyemi, Beko Ransome-Kuti, Col Yohana Madaki, Mr. Alao Aka-Basorun, Vice-Admiral Akin Aduwo, Chief Ade Ojo, Rev. Tunji Adebiyi, and Commodore Dan Suleiman. Not can be described as a power grabber.
Did NADECO include politicians? Yes. But it’s sad to see the memories of people like Alfred Rewane and Babatunde Elegbede, who gave their lives so we can tweet freely be reduced to personal power grab motives. It’s also the failure to read available records.
Did the generation of people focus on grabbing power? My answer is no, and I can argue that not enough of them actively participated in politics post 1999, a mistake that shouldn’t be repeated by today’s generation.
From NADECO, CD, Young Professionals, CDHR etc. many simply retired post-1999 or returned to their professions/businesses. Outside the S/W, many of those who participated in the struggle didn’t even have a say in the emergence of those who ended up occupying office.
Nation building is a never ending exercise, every generation will have to play a role. They have done theirs, and left us with a flawed but better country than the one I grew up in the ‘90s. Ours is to improve on that, drawing lessons from their successes and errors.
Some of their agitations remain unmet, especially the calls “to form a more perfect union” as the Americans say. Nigeria still has a toilet paper constitution, one not fit for a nation as diverse as ours; that for me is the biggest failure of that generation.
