Tai Solarin, Education and the Nigerian Reinvention. Lessons for today’s social activists -By Adekunle Theophilius

Few humanists, philosophers and social activists in Africa loomed as large as Tai Solarin who left behind a rich legacy and antecedents of advocacy, service and education for transforming Nigeria.

Tai Solarin lived for the emancipation of Nigeria and the installation of an egalitarian nation that will give people regardless of their religion, ethnicity and background the freedom ,equal access and opportunity to build their social lives, strengthen their moral fabrics, pursue their economic goals and espouse their political beliefs. He often noted that citizenship imposed an obligation on all Nigerians to be their brother’s keeper, refrain from acts that are inimical to communal progress and contribute immensely to overall national socio-political and economic development. As a core moralist, moral equality to him, demanded that Nigerians should not only treat each other fairly and well, but should also be treated fairly and equally by the Nigerian State. He regularly affirmed that people possess innate goodness, inherent dignity, value and the diverse endowments, circumstances and capacities, but it was left for society and the state to develop and utilize same for collective good.

Tai Solarin canvassed for both equality of opportunities and treatment for all Nigerians. He was a totally detribalized Nigerian, who never cared about religion, politics, ethnicity and class.  He was a humanist per excellence who regarded and treated everybody alike, aristocrats and commoners, Christian and Muslim, young and old. The common thread was his humanity which was laced with a sincere inspiration to give the best to society and deepen social solidarity among people. For the great Tai, “there was neither Hausa nor Efik, there was neither rich nor poor, there was neither male nor female; but only Nigerians.” He consistently fingered fatalism, religiosity, ethnicity and nepotism as the greatest obstacles to national progress that only education could surmount

He was an unrepentant believer in the ability of youths to change the fortunes of Nigeria. To him if Nigeria and even Africa is to make the required progress, the youths who constitute large swaths of the population must be involved and be at the forefront of national discourse and initiatives…He averred that Nigerian youths have enormous leadership potentials and innovative assets which can be channeled to foster shared social advancement and self-reliant economic productivity. He opined that youths are not only the leaders of tomorrow, but that Nigeria can only be as strong, active and versatile as its youths. During his illustrious lifetime, he constantly striving to maximize the proclivity of youths for progress and innovation for national development

Tai Solarin was an arduous advocate of adherence to the rule of law and its instrumentality as a panacea to removing barriers to individual success and national progress. He cherished meritocracy and felt that public office or elective positions should be open to all qualified Nigerians. Additionally, he was at the forefront of the quest that appointments and promotion in the public service should be based on merit, neither ethnicity nor cronyism and posited that government officials at all levels must be transparent, accountable, service oriented and frugal. He regarded military rule as an aberration and antithetical to Nigeria’s progress, hence his constant collisions and clashes with all military regimes in Nigeria from Gowon, Muritala, Obasanjo, Buhari, Babangida to Abacha.

Tai Solarin assumed that every active Nigerian must sincerely and wholeheartedly contribute their quota towards the development of their respective social environment and this was the basis of his socio-economic and political activism and altruistic world view. He also expressed reservation that power should not be the specific preserve of political parties or state or select group of individuals or families, but should also be inherent in individuals, societies, groups etc .Related to this was his unambiguous opposition to any form of hegemony which was at variance with individual and national progress

Augustus Taiwo “Tai” Solarin (20 August 1922 – 27 July 1994) was a Nigerian humanist, educator and activist. He established the famous Mayflower School, Ikenne.

Aman of lofty ideas, ideals and ideologies, he tried his very best to upend the existing pernicious system, decadent customs and stale practices that he felt were formidable impediments on the path to national progress by waging relentless wars for common sense, speaking against corruption and military rule and educating Nigerians about the state of the society. their context and roles in its renewal. Solarin’s political thinking, practical strategizing and prolific writing evinced his versatility in a vast range of topics and great depth of knowledge about Nigeria which led him to affirm that the enthronement of individual rights, social justice, freedoms and liberties was the only prelude to Nigeria’s prosperity and flourishing. Uncle Tai was a major proponent of moral virtue, rectitude, ethics and integrity as cornerstones for Nigeria’s development. He detested arbitrary restrictions on expressing views, assemblage, choice of vocation, association and residence.

He was of the view that the machineries of the state must be deployed to advance human welfare and development and that human and societal progress is hinged on protecting personal liberties, rights and equality of rights and treatment. Little wonder, his life goals which were driven by the honest desire to make Nigeria better placed enormous value on education as the catalyst for social change, sacrificial nature and selflessness of leadership, serving common good, preserving societal ethics, espousing public benefit and working with others to champion social justice. In this respect, Tai Solarin consistently argued that the Nigerian society can only become a better place for all Nigerians through focused education, determination, good governance, unity of purpose, ethical revolution, national reinvention, pragmatic action and right application of knowledge.

Amid all this acclaim, the pertinent question is that what currency does Tai Solarin’s ideology have in today’s Nigeria? The truth is that looking around its obvious his ideals and ideas have been totally forgotten. It is tragic that social activism today is a total anomaly from the stoic, adroit, candour, sincerity, rigor, and deftness of the Tai Solarin era. We sadly live at a time when the Nigerian activist marketplace is bereft of altruism, transparency, common good, selflessness, empathy and propriety that were the defining features of Tai Solarin infused into the system. I can recollect those days when Tai Solarin would quietly and systematically evacuate abandoned corpses from streets in the south west at his cost without the press, without cutting tapes, without cameras and glitterati?

We are faced with modern day activists who lack basic understanding of the dynamics of social and economic justice and the varied social, political and economic configurations, nuances and interplays that shape societal contexts. These are people who can neither discern nor decipher global and national undercurrents, trends ,  issues and best practices and are clearly not immersed in the art of organizing, educating and mobilizing people and building coalitions for result oriented social actions. What we witness these days are just ulterior motivated rantings, posturing and effusions that are totally devoid of substance, rationality,  character, ideology, philosophical convictions, class consciousness and  historicity of modes of thinking

The showmanship, utter artlessness and sheer lack of  ideology of some people currently masquerading as activists in Nigeria is profoundly disconcerting. Social activism as almost pioneered and popularized by Tai Solarin doesn’t connote and is not synonymous with abusing, and slandering people, exhibiting lawlessness, making libellous, uncouth and vulgar statements, attracting odium to yourself and denigrating your country. The social media approach to social activism in Nigeria has been marked with the elevation of mainly attention seeking wannabes to stratospheric levels beyond their capacities with a deafening silence from the mainstream media.

Tai Solarin was an organic intellectual with a tenacious commitment to communal wellbeing, wellness and welfare who played a vital role in translating ideas about creating a better Nigeria into real-life practice. We can vividly recollect that Tai Solarin founded one of the first privately owned schools in Nigeria were he deployed education as a tool to teach the virtues of diligence, self-reliance, honesty, resilience, independence and planning. He spread the ideology of hope in Nigeria through his teachings, writings, campaigns, beliefs, mass actions and life choices which remain unmatched, unparalleled and peerless even thirty years after his death.  In the midst of one of the most pervasive and intense hardships in the history of Nigeria, we remember Tai Solarin and his struggles for the socio-economic and political development of Nigeria and freedom, liberty and rights of Nigerians and aver that recreating the Nigerian civic space to the era when his ideals were pervasive would be the real panacea to and starting point to kick-start genuine national renewal, revival and reawakening.