Encomium as Alfred Ilenre sets to go home

By Kazeem Ugbodaga

Human rights activists, academics, lawyers and others gathered at Femi Falana’s chamber on Thursday in Ikeja, Lagos, Southwest Nigeria to bid farewell to activist and social crusader, Alfred Ilenre who died last month.

At a Symposium organized by the Alfred Ilenre Burial Committee, arrays of encomium were poured on Ilenre for what he stood in the defence of human right in the country and for standing against tyranny.

At the event were Prof. Kolawole Ogundowole, Amb. Olu Otunla, Poet, Odia Ofeimum; Governor Akinwunmi Ambode who was represented by his Special Adviser on Communities and Communication, Kehinde Bamigbetan; Dr. Amos Akingba, Atinuke Ilenre, wife of the deceased; Femi Falan, SAN; Titi Akosa; Linus Okoroji, Kunle Ajibade, among several others.

Issues discussed at the symposium were redefining the Nigeria concept, rethinking Nigeria, restructuring, breaking the yoke of cultural alienation occasion by invasion by the colonialists, and several others.

Titi Akosa, Executive Director, Centre for 24 Century Issues, said Ilenre fought for ethnic nationalities and the rights of the minority in the country, adding that restructuring Nigeria was a passion for Ilenre. She said during the Pro-National Conference Organisation, PRONACO, conference, Ilenre championed the case for ethnic nationalities.

“Ilenre once disputed that no land in the country belonged to the government, but to ethnic nationalities who are the people. He was of the opinion that Nigeria is negotiable. We need to sit down now and think of restructuring to make Nigeria work,” she said.

According to Amb.Olu Otunla, the PRONACO constitution was key to restructuring the nation, while describing the political class in the nation as bunch of thieves.

Prof. Kolawole Ogundowole, A Professor of Philosophy at the University of Lagos contended that Nigeria has gone beyond being ill and had passed on into comma, saying that to salvage the nation, there was need to diagnose the right ailment.

“The Nigerian elite care only for themselves, the collect billions of naira for constituency projects and never used the money for what it is meant for,” he said. According to him, these politicians would end up buying NAPEP, motorcycles and sank boreholes that would last only after commissioning.

Ogundowole said Nigeria has become a mechanism of alienating individuals from their real selves. He disputed the fact that the nation needed to be restructured to move forward, saying that Nigeria is just an umbrella giving to us by the colonialist, which had made the nation a bunch of confusion.

“Nigeria is a country waging war against itself. I have been discussing Nigeria for the past 40 years. We do not need restructuring, what we need is to destroy what is there and lay a new foundation, we need to construct anew. If we must solve our problem, we have to understand that the problem is with us and that Nigeria needs to be examined and treated.

“Superficiality is being made primary while the reality has been made secondary, it is abnormal. We need to know that the land belongs to the people, who are these people, where are the people and who are the people? If we can know these, we are on the right part to solving our problems. Nigeria is not a nation and we have to recognize that there are many nationalities; we need to know their territory and demarcate them,” he said.

Ogundowole wrote off the PRONACO conference as many unsavoury articles were smuggled into it, adding that the colonialists had put machinery in motion for a long time to erode our indigenous languages.

“Why must we compel ourselves to learn English in order to have access to knowledge? The English men are no longer here,” but they have laid the process for us to be like them. “If we want to move forward, we must revert back to our cultural heritage. To do that, we have to go back to the root. We need to call a conference of sovereign nationalities and not like the PRONACO and Jonathan’s conference,” he stated.

Speaking, activist, Owela Lakenfa poured encomium on Ilenre, describing him as a patriot, saying he stood primarily for change for the people as he was also a Pan-Africanist.

Poet, Odia Ofeimun was of the view that there was the need to rethink Nigeria. He said before the advent of colonialists, there was a form of insecurity everywhere in the form of slavery, but lamented that due to the insecurity in the country, “we are back to where we were before colonialism. Almost every Nigerian village is on the run because of herdsmen. The insecurity they are creating is like the era of slave trade. Any Nigerian who is wise must not allow any piece of Nigeria soil to be taken over.”

He lamented that Britain created a north that had nothing and wanted to lord over others. Ofeimun said the restructuring of the nation must be one no other nationality would Lord over another.

He also argued that from the moment Nigeria started creating states, most of the things under the jurisdiction of the regions previously were pushed to the exclusive list, making the federal government very much powerful to the detriment of the states. Ofeimun argued that there was the need to move some of the core things in the exclusive list to the concurrent list, adding that except this was done, there could never be restructuring. Ofeimun further advocated the transferring of knowledge in English into indigenous languages.

More so, Dr. Amos Akingba said he knew Ilenre during the days of the National Democratic Coalition, NADECO, describing him as an encyclopedia of the June 12 struggle. “He was a good man, a humanist and bare no grudges at all. He was committed to the struggle,” he said.

Speaking, rights lawyer, Femi Falana described Ilenre as a good and humble man who was patriotic and committed to the Nigerian project, saying that his contribution to the growth of ethnic nationalities was unparalleled.

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