Picking one’s tasks and taking one’s bearings, one must at least be a bit of a historian to be consciously and conscientiously active citizen – V. O. Kliuchevsky
Writing on the topic: Idiots, tribesmen and citizens: Between ancient Greeks and modern day Nigerians, Victor Anazonwu described citizens as those who have “mindsets and skill sets to live public lives. They were inclusive, selfless and imbued with a sense of the common good. They understood that there was a connection between individual and collective interests; that unbridled seeking of individual or small group interests was ultimately harmful to self and society. So they were willing to make sacrifices in exchange for a bigger and better world for all. They knew that rights came with responsibilities and embraced both. They were the ideal members of society, according to the Greeks.”
If not for a handful of fearless men like Pa Ayo Adebanjo – the quintessential leader of the Yoruba Socio-cultural group – Afenifere, any conversation on the political dynamics of the present day Nigeria would, without mention of any statesmen, have been a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
The late Pa Ayo Adebanjo spent the last decades of his life preaching, practising and struggling for an enduring and pragmatic socio-political unification of Nigeria on the basis of fairness, equity and justice. Like a voice in the wilderness, the nonagenarian selflessly traversed the length and breadth of Nigeria proclaiming that though tribe and tongue may differ, in brotherhood we stand. To Pa Adebanjo, Nigeria cannot occupy a place
