Fanfare of drums, wooden bells; iron
chapter;
And our dividing airs are gathered home.
This day belongs to a miracle of
thunder;
Iron has carried the forum
With token gestures. Thunder has spoken.
Left no signatures: broken
Barbicans alone tell one tale the winds
scatter.
- Christopher Okigbo, Path of Thunder:
Poems Prophesying War (1968)
Peter Enahoro's father, Asuelimen
Okotako Enahoro had written in a letter
to him at Government College , Ughelli:
"I do not want a mediocre in my family.
Even if you choose to become a thief
steal something big so people may say of
you, he's a thief, but what a rogue!"
(p.105) The younger Enahoro's life would
seem to have been guided all through by
this admonition, evidenced by a
determination to do everything in a big
and dramatic manner, backed by immense
talent and a great capacity for
distinction and survival. His collection
of satirical pieces, How To be a
Nigerian (1972) is considered a Nigerian
classic, but his latest book, the
743-page Then Spoke The Thunder
(presented in Lagos on December 1, and
in Abuja on December 7), the publication
of which is supported by GT Bank, is an
amazing tour de force, a classic in its
own right. In it, Peter Pan tells the
story of his life and times in the past
70 plus years, its twists and turns,
from his princely beginnings as the
descendant on both parental sides of
illustrious men of royal valour and two
diligent parents who brought up their
ten children with strong instruction in
values, tradition and Christian piety,
to a life-time career as a journalist
that is no less distinguished and
eventful.
This is Peter Pan in his most expansive
flight as a recorder of events. It is
not difficult to see why more than five
decades later, he is still highly
regarded for his terrific pen: a pen
that has taken him round the world, into
exile, to some of the exotic haunts
across continents; a pen that has
brought him both friends and enemies in
high and low places alike, and which has
brought him close to danger, despair and
tragedy. Peter Pan says this is not an
autobiography but that is precisely what
the book is. It is his view of the coin
of African, Nigerian and world history;
his life as he has lived it, the fact
that it is an ongoing life
notwithstanding. With this publication,
Peter Pan should have immense cause for
self-congratulation; if he had not
written it, we probably would not have
missed it, but now that he has written
the book, given its scope and flavour
and extraordinary literary value, it
would have been a sad loss if it was not
written. Enahoro's narrative is
sustained by the staying power of his
sturdy and lyrical prose, his sharp
memory, attention to detail, and his
deft deployment of the raconteur's
multiple devices.
It is most appropriate that this book
has been published in the run up to the
50th anniversary of Nigeria 's
independence, and more than 50 years
after many African states made the
transition from colonial rule to
independence. From the royal roots of
the Enahoro lineage, the encounter of
his ancestors with British colonial
rule, Lord Lugard's imposition of an
artificial country up to the golden
moments when Nigeria was a decent
society, Enahoro sketches the Nigeria of
old with its proud citizens, and decent
schools and communities, all the way to
the moments of gradual failure and
eventual collapse. His riveting
description of the "Gathering Clouds" in
the 60s conveys a descent into anomie,
the failure of the professional
political class, and Nigeria's
intelligentsia, the destruction of
esprit de corps in the military, the
rise of ethnic and sectional sentiments,
rank corruption and how a country which
was once held up as the pride of Africa,
became like the other failing states
across the continent in the 80s and 90s.
The tragedy of Nigerian nationhood looms
large in this narrative, but in spite of
that tragedy and the various occasions
in which Peter Pan, and members of his
family, the Igbos, democratic rule and
Nigeria itself show up as victims of
that tragedy, the author remains bound
to the land of his birth by the force of
destiny. But this is not just about a
struggle with the native land, and
conversations with it, Peter Pan's
canvass covers the African continent and
beyond: his many travels particularly in
Africa . He offers interesting profiles
of African leaders and insights into the
roots of underdevelopment in
post-colonial Africa in Ghana , Uganda ,
Ethiopia , Tanzania , Liberia , Libya ,
Sierra Leone , Gambia , Congo , and so
on. But Peter Pan is not always fair. He
is a man whose prejudices are as strong
as his convictions and he does a poor
job of displaying his prejudices. He
should be prepared for many of the
targets of his cynical conclusions or
their descendants insisting on their
right of reply. He is kind to those he
considers his friends, notably members
of his family, particularly his parents
and his brother, Tony whose stardom is a
recurrent refrain, Wole Soyinka, Sam
Amuka Pemu, J. P. Clark, Christopher
Okigbo, Don Abili, Fred Egbe, Henshaw
Olawale Danmole but he is brutally
unkind to those who may have offended
him or those he considers pretenders in
the corridors of history.
His version of Bini and Yoruba history
and the connections between both, his
commentaries on Emmanuel Ifeajuna's
character and his role in the January
1966 coup, Walter Ofonagoro, Chief Ike
Mokelu, General Olusegun Obasanjo and
the Daily Times, his put-down of Julius
Nyerere (he dismisses the famous Nwalimu
as "a hypocrite"), his account of his
relationship with Raph Uwechue, and his
justification of his opposition to Chief
MKO Abiola and support for the annulment
of the June 12 Presidential election
could stir more than the hornet's nest,
even as he suggests that he is "setting
the records straight" (p.412). Whose
records? But taken together, Peter Pan's
assessment of the leadership crisis that
Africa has had to endure since the exit
of the colonial authorities rings true.
This is the account of an
observer-participant, an outsider with
more than a close inside-connection. It
is in many ways Peter Pan's own way of
getting back; there is much
self-accounting, a review of previously
held positions and honest admission of
his own inconsistencies, and "a degree
of naivety" (p. 244), and a little
settling of scores, subtle and not so
subtle, as well as a re-interpretation
of received truths and official history,
both colonial and post-colonial.
Regret however: Peter Pan directed that
Emmanuel Ifeajuna's handwritten account
of the Jan 15, 1966 coup in his
possession be burnt and he is unable to
fully recall its contents. The adopted
style of telling it as he sees it, and
the courage to be brutally frank was the
hallmark of the Peter Pan column, but it
was also what led to his problems with
the military authorities who came to
power in July 1966, and the beginning of
his many years of exile. When the
thunder struck, Peter Enahoro found
himself in its path, and long before the
NADECO route became famous he opted for
it. He conveys in graphic detail, the
madness that seized Nigeria in 1966,
culminating soon enough in the civil war
and his role physical and intellectual
in it all, and how military
intervention, corruption, and loss of
innocence prepared the grounds for the
floundering of Nigeria all through the
years.
Peter Pan describes himself as eclectic
in his philosophy, you can add radical,
progressive and non-communist, and
although his world oscillates between
Roman Catholicism, spirituality and
ancestral worship and traditions, there
is no mistaking the ironies of his own
life, the twists and turns that have
turned him into a perpetual wanderer. He
sounds in his Peter Pan column as having
supported military intervention in the
General Aguiyi-Ironsi months, but he
soon fled when the Northerners took over
in July 1966, then as an exile he showed
sympathies for the Biafran cause, but he
would in the future return to serve the
military and accept positions under a
military government; he would in one
breath express support for democracy and
federalism, but under other
circumstances he defends the annulment
of an election that was universally
adjudged free and fair. But placing his
cards face up, Enahoro does not spare
himself either.
This is also as well, a journalist's
story well told. "Success as a newspaper
columnist has its show-business glamour
but journalism has its cruelty"(p. 227).
Quite apt, and the author's journalism
career, which defines his life fully,
and at every turn, illustrates this in
great detail. We are reminded reading
him of the role of both the media and
the intellectual in society. His
quotations from the Peter Pan column and
the combination of fame and anguish that
it brought him indicate just how
delicate and risky the business of
public affairs analysis could be. Peter
Pan was the candid and prophetic
columnist, the oracle of his time, and
one of the most original promoters of
the power of the pen.
Both man and persona became intricately
fused, and whereas Peter Enahoro went on
to become an international author and
journalist: Deutshe Welle, African, New
African and founder of Africa Now, he is
highly regarded for his power of
analysis. His great talent is an open
tribute to the education system of old,
in a country where the school system has
virtually failed, and his likes are now
in short supply. Peter Pan tells the
stories of the Daily Times, of
publishing an African magazine from
abroad, and the intrigues of journalism
practice, in a manner that they have not
been previously told. It is again ironic
that he was part of the Daily Times at
the height of its glory, and also Sole
Administrator in the winter season of
the once great institution. There is no
mistaken the manner in which the story
of the Daily Times parodies the story of
Nigeria itself; the failure of the
latter so painfully reflected in the
collapse of the former. Daily Times was
a victim of the lack of enlightenment of
the military elite and its own internal
contradictions.
There is however one point with regard
to Peter Pan's journalism; he describes
himself as being non-partisan but there
is no doubt that he enjoyed an unusual
closeness to authority figures and
actually revelled in it; this rather
than his brother, Tony's politics
probably accounted for the attitude him
towards in certain official circles. How
much distance should a journalist keep
between himself and the subjects of his
reporting and analysis? So much display
is made of dinner at Presidential
palaces, officially arranged trips to
parts of the world, a flight being
delayed on one occasion to await the
arrival of the great Peter Pan,
receiving "one half of a slaughtered ram
and a large hand-woven Fulani cloth ..."
from the Sardauna of Sokoto, being a
Guest of the Premier, phone calls to
Babangida, private meetings with
Aguiyi-Ironsi, Abacha and other world
leaders.. In other circumstances, this
could raise questions about objectivity
and professional ethics: to wit - how
much intimacy should exist between the
Fourth Estate and the Establishment.
Nonetheless, Peter Pan comes across as a
defender of press freedom; but the more
important value are the unmistakable
lessons that younger journalists can
learn from the details of his career as
international correspondent, editor,
columnist, author and media
entrepreneur, and the vagaries of
journalism practice.
Peter Pan has played a significant role
in the development of journalism as role
model and mentor and as reference point
in the history of Nigerian journalism,
but his account of exile is of a
different flavour from similar accounts,
even if he pays attention to racism and
the complex nature of human beings.
Sustained as he was in exile by his
talent and cosmopolitan outlook; his is
not the exile of beggarly dreams but a
consciously sustained choice. He writes
about the journey of his own becoming,
linking the past to the present, and the
private to the public in various
dimensions, and through memorable
characters that crossed his path and
humorous circumstances, his own joie de
vivre and many travels and interviews,
he reawakens interest in those pertinent
questions: Quo vadis Nigeria ? Quo vadis
Africa?, never ever losing sight of that
question forever posed by his mother:
"Don't you know who you are?" The author
of Then Spoke the Thunder leaves us in
no doubt that he surely knows who he is,
and in reading him, we discover a sense
of humanism, of family values, and
strands of the stories of our own lives.
Reading the book may require some effort
considering its length, but the reader
will not be disappointed, every page
along the way.
Yar'Adua and the prayer warriors-By
Reuben Abati
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