Not until recently, when my daughter sent an assignment I was supposed to do as a parent, I thought I was done with undergraduate work. The question went something to this effect: If you could live in any time period in history (no more recent than 2000), what period would you choose? What chronological age would you want to be in that period? Why that period and why that age? She was expected to write hers separately and submit both for her class assignment.
My head was swirling around what choice to make. Should it be some time in American history? Or some time in the history of the world? I have always fantasised being a fly on the wall when certain decisions were made that affected the course of history. How about being there when someone mooted the idea of bringing in slaves from Africa to the United States in the seventeenth century? Or being there during the debate to ratify the constitution of the United States in the eighteenth century? How about being in the kitchen cabinet of President Lincoln in the nineteenth century, during the movement for the abolition of slavery? Or not too far in history: being in the bus when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man in 1955. Those would fit in well in an assignment given to a student in America. What if the setting were in Nigeria? Then, it would be a totally different ball game altogether.
So, where does one begin? Among others things, I would want to be a part of how the first Oba of my town came to be. To be a part of the crowd that first set its eyes on the white missionaries. To be in the classroom of the first set of pupils receiving western education and learning the art or science of writing in their way then. I would want be a part of the first set of people writing the numerals, A B C and forming words and sentences with them.
My curiosity was not be limited to those periods. How about being in the same classroom with Pa Imoudu, Zik of Africa, Pa Awolowo or Sir Ahmadu Bello or one of my favourite nationalists, Mallam Aminu Kano? Or such firebrands like Anthony Enahoro and Sa’adu Zungur. The other set I would have loved to share a class with are those philosopher-writers like D. O. Fagunwa and J. F. Odunjo. What would I have been if not for those two?! Those books of imagination from them read over forty years ago still find resonance with me and easy recall from my memory.
While it would be a good thing to be in the same class with the above named individuals, such could not be said of some other people in the political scene in Nigeria – past and present.
I would have loved to be a fly on the wall when the plan was being hatched to rope Awolowo into a coup plan. And, when the first coup d’etat was being hatched. Or maybe being in the room where the counter-coup was being planned. Or being there when Ojukwu decided that his people had had enough and were seceding as the Republic of Biafra. What about being a fly on the wall when Murtala said that Gowon must go? Or with Dimka when he started nursing the idea of a coup? How about being able to get into Obasanjo’s mind to read how he truly felt about handing over to a civilian administration in 1979? Forget what they write or what we read in books: they only tell us the aspect of the story that they want us to know. I would not want to miss having being in the state house when Shagari was toppled. And on and on and on.
Those I would have not wished to be in the same time wrap with or known how their minds worked were those who mortgaged the future of the masses and milked their motherland dry for selfish reasons. And, those who being in positions of authority stole state resources, and became richer than the states they governed or represented. I would never wish to occupy the same time frame with some of the notorious oppressors who used their privileged positions to amass wealth at the expense of the masses. No, I would not want to be associated with those whose names provoke hisses, because to many of them, material goods and wealth are more desirable than keeping good names.
Jide Omotinugbon (jideo18@yahoo.com) writes from Louisville, KY, USA.
