The story is often told of how the radical lawyer, Alao Aka-Bashorun, was once the butt of Bashorun Moshood Abiola’s wisecracks. As the president of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) in the late 1980s Aka-Bashorun was a formidable opponent of the military regime of President Ibrahim Babangida. What with his sharp criticisms of the government’s policies , which were deemed to be limiting to the frontiers of freedom. Abiola, a mutual friend of both Babangida and Aka-Bashorun, reportedly once remarked about the lawyer : “If you are still a radical at 60, what would you expect your children to be...?” This perception that a person should tilt rightward with age was also probably what made the late British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, to say in his inimitable wits as follows : “Any man who is under 30, and is not a liberal, has not heart; and any man who is over 30, and is not a conservative, has no brains.” Yet, it is not always the case that a radical disposition is tempered with age.

For instance, both Abiola and Churchill would probably review their ideological appreciation of radicalism if they were guests on Sunday evening at the 15th Anniversary celebrations and Awards Hallmarks of Labour Foundation. The occasion was a fitting reward of the labour of the Foundation with the well- revered emeritus professor of medicine, Umaru Shehu, as chairman and the energetic Patricia Otuendon-Arawore as executive secretary.

It was a remarkable evening replete with celebration of indisputable greatness, conversation among Nigerians and, perhaps not by design, an interrogation of our present and recent past. The roll of honour made this inevitable. As Akinkugbe, who chaired the occasion put it in a speech spiced with anecdotes, all the awardees deserve to be called great in consonance with the theme of the celebration, “The Great Nigerian”. For diverse reasons, the awardees are Professor Wole Soyinka (“most outstanding international icon”); Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (“ the introduction of fiscal discipline into the nation’s finances”); Governor Babatunde Fashola (“leadership and good governance”); Professor Ben Nwabueze (“ exemplary service to advance the legal system” as an academic); Justice Kayode Esho (“ courageous service to advance the legal system” through adjudication); Professor Adebayo Adedeji (“most outstanding economic icon”); Professor Attahiru Jega (“most consistent advocate of change within the university system”) and Mr. Femi (“most consistent advocate of for human rights and civil liberties”).

The conversation that ensued as recipients of awards made some remarks turned out to be the climax of the occasion. A lot of story about the making and unmaking of Nigeria were retold. The conversation was further animated by the fact that the list of the awardees in itself was an ideological mixed bag. Adedeji, who was minister of economic planning and reconstruction in the regime of General Yakubu Gowon in the 1970s, played pioneering roles in the establishment of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). As a United Nations’ under secretary-general at the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), Adedeji was central to the efforts at putting together 1980 Lagos Plan of Action as a strategy for development ever before the impoverishing Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) was imposed on African nations. Despite all the brilliant development ideas proffered by the Adedejis of this world, mass poverty is still the lot of Africa. It was, therefore, a sobering moment when the octogenarian looked back at his career as a development scholar and said with palpable frustration in his face that he had lost hope and warned that sub-Saharan Africa risked the downward movement of the Arab Spring sweeping through North Africa. According to him, you never know who could be victims of a revolution. Nwabueze, a renowned constitutional lawyer, wondered while his contemporary, Adedeji, was a bit shy of calling for the type of revolutions that have been witnessed in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya etc. For him, the Nigerian condition is deserving of a revolution. As it happened in France in 1789, nothing short of a revolution would clear the rot in the system, according to the man who has written over 30 books mainly on constitutionalism. As he spoke his voice became increasingly more combative. He denounced the relegation of ideas and the worship of money. He reiterated his call for a constitution ultimately emerging from a popular referendum as the cornerstone of political reform. Matters got more exciting when Esho got the microphone and spoke in a similar tone while being critical of Nwabueze himself at the same time. For Esho, unless Okonjo-Iweala applies “her magic wand” on the economy quickly, the revolution that Nwabueze is advocating would become inevitable. He lamented the recent reports which have called the integrity of the judiciary into question and expressed hope that with the committee of eminent jurists set up by Chief Justice Dahiru Musdapher the judiciary would eventually redeem itself. The vigour of the remarks belied the fact that most of the awardees and others who spoke are in their late 70s and 80s.

When Old Men Talk Revolution.