"I suspect deliberate plans to scuttle the 2023 election"

An activist for over six decades, 89-year-old Pa Babs Hussain (alias Aragbaye) is the current president of the Africa-North Korea Friendship Association. In this interview with GODWIN DUNIA, Aragbaye, who looked back on his days of activism, spoke about the need to arm Amotekun, the 2023 elections and unrest for the Yoruba nation.

Nigeria just turned 62, at 89 what is your opinion on the state of the nation? It's been 62 years of stagnation so far and if for some reason you mean there's been progress so far, it's well below expectations. I mean, waiting for what we fought for. Currently, the country is drifting and cascading from one bad administration to another and becoming more and more harmful to the people.

What pervades the atmosphere today is uncertainty and despair and I feel bad about this development and very worried. I don't know if the government is ready to do anything to save the situation, otherwise the crisis is very imminent; which would swallow up the whole country. It can start like Operation Wetie which happened in 1965.

Do you feel that your years of activism and those of other comrades seem wasted? That's not what I meant, because in that time of our activism, we had a lot of success, including the Independence we celebrate today. During those years, we had our shortcomings, which until now we had not realized the realities are emerging for us as a country.

For example, while in the struggle both for independence from colonial rule and against other internal conflicts, whatever method we adopted, certain fundamental principles were missing and with that, it There were limited results achieved, and in some cases we recorded outright failure. This is what applied to current activists and I think this area should be corrected.

Most activists often announced individual people rather than issues. They have moved beyond the issues both in the media and in the public sphere and this shortcoming has invariably helped opponents to identify areas that have been exploited against us. But that doesn't mean we weren't committed and stubborn. Some of my post independence comrades include Aka Bashorun, Omojola, Ola Oni, Edwin Madunagu, Olu Awotesu and so on. Most of us in this group hardly appear in the media, but we operate unrecognized.

You referenced Operation Wetie in the South West earlier, what really led up to this, what happened next? We reacted against the election results, which were against Chief Obafemi Awolowo and in favor of Chief Samuel Akintola. The elections were rigged and things got out of hand. I was among the leaders of these wetie actions, including Olu Awotesu, Soji Odunjo, Ayo Ojewumi (then editor of Tribune) and Dapo Fatokun. The operation took place in October 1965, but the crisis began in 1961, when I was a scholarship student at the University of International Friendship, in the Soviet Union. The University was in honor of Patrice Lumumba. Before leaving for the Soviet Union, I was a member of the Action Group (AG).

In 1961, the then Minister of Agriculture and Development in the Western Region, Chief Akin Deko, visited the UNFAO conference held in Rome, to advocate for an increase in the world price of the cocoa product. During the conference, the regional prime minister, Chief Ladoke Akintola, denounced Deko's presence and his proposal to increase the price of cocoa at the conference and immediately, he was then expelled from the conference. This affected the price of the product as it was reduced instead and it had a consequent effect on Nigeria as the top producer at the time. The GA therefore called for Akintola's removal; that's what started operation wetie.

You often write and refer to Chief Obafemi Awolowo, what is your perception of him as a socio-economist? Before leaving the country in 1957, I had met and interacted with Awolowo on several occasions; he was simple, very disciplined and tolerant of ideas. For example, he was so tolerant of Akintola. Despite his limited knowledge and incompetence, he appointed him Chairman of Western Region Financial Societies when AG came to power in 1951 and most of the members, such as Remi Fani-Kayode, criticized his appointment. But Awolowo thought there should be room for everyone to learn and improve.

On his socio-economic expertise, Awolowo understood the philosophy of money more than any politician dead or alive and he was a great steward of resources. In 1979, he warned former civilian president Shehu Shagari not to devalue the naira, as some forces lurking around him for sinister motives were pressuring him to devalue the naira. Awolowo was part of the team that interviewed one of the top Central Bank (CBN) governors, Clement Isong. There is no doubt that his knowledge and economic advice contributed immensely to the development of the South West region during its...