By Emmanuel Oladesu
11 years ago, Alhaja Abibatu Ashabi Mogaji, Iyaloja-General of Lagos and Nigeria, and mother of President Bola Tinubu, died. A stage play written renowned playwright, Prof. Ahmed Yerima, and produced by award-winning journalist Ola Awakan, will be premiered today at the State House Conference Hall, Presidential Villa, Abuja. The Nation’s Deputy Editor EMMANUEL OLADESU writes on the life and times of the Amazon, and her involvement in the Southwest and national politics, and legacies as foremost women leader.
In the fifties, women participation in politics was limited to attending rallies, campaigns and voting. Only few women-Mrs. Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti and Mrs. Magret Ekpo-were fielded as candidates for elections. The late Mrs. Wuraola Esan, Iyalode of Ibadan, was also appointed as a member of the ceremonial Senate.
The slots conceded to women were few. The few concessions did not justify their level of involvement and commitment.
Among prominent women leaders who mobilised for political action, from pre-independence era, was the late Alhaja Abibatu Ashabi Mogaji. Although she passed on 11 years ago in Lagos at 96, her legacies are evergreen.
Mogaji was a relentless market activist, woman of substance, philanthropist, and promoter of Islam. She knew her onions; very enterprising, discliplined, courageous, hardworking, diligent and highly principled.
But the deceased President of Market Men and Women Association of Nigeria also made her marks in politics. She was in the class of women politician like the late Mrs. Olayinka Rosiji, the leader of the Action Group (AG) Women Association and illustrious mother of Chief Ayo Rosiji, celebrated secretary of the defunct party, and the late Mrs. Jolubu Kolade, a leader of the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) women’s wing in Ondo State. The market matriarch was also a close associate of Mrs. Hannah Dideolu Awolowo, the widow of the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo. They remained as friends till the end.
Alhaja Mogaji was a consummate politician. Yet, she played her politics without expecting any exceptional personal reward. Her expectation was a new lease of life for the masses, particularly members of her trading constituency, market women.
She paid her financial dues to the coffers of the AG and UPN, unlike nowadays when payment of party dues by party members is old-fashioned. She also organised market women into “political cells” across the old local councils, thereby making it easy for the parties to mobilise them under her indisputable leadership. For over 60 years, Mogaji was the voice of women in Lagos. She used her platform, the market association, for interest articulation and aggregation. Even, when she had an opportunity to contribute to the old council management, she stuck to her passion, which was advancing the cause of market men and women.
Three years before she passed on, the Yeyeoba of Lagos, Ikirun and Kweme, was appointed as the Chairman of Lagos State Market Development Board. The appointment by former Governor Babatunde Fashola (SAN) crowned her involvement and service to the members of the strategic community who accounted for her pre-eminence in the metropolis. On her wheel chair, she spoke as the market ambassador and endowed the office with visibility and honour. Throughout her life, she acted as an effective bridge builder between the government and the masses.
“All market men and women are important and government should carry them along,” she said during her inauguration by the former Head of Service, Alhaji Yakubu Balogun, who presented her with the certificate of appointment, amid applause by other board members.
Throughout her market career, Mogaji’s leadership was never disputed by traders who held her in high esteem. Not only has she articulated the views and interests of traders, her name has been synonymous with Lagos market, its pride, beauty and varieties, its challenges and pains, its prospects and pitfalls. It was a no mean feat that she led the organisation without betraying the group’s objectives and without abusing her exalted office. She never personalised the power of the market, but promoted inclusion and fostered a team spirit among market leaders across the local governments.
During the colonial period, Alhaja Mogaji had shown that promise of leadership as a kid trader and an apprentice learning at the feet of the legendary Madam Pelewura, a successful and influential trader in the metropolis. She was not afraid of the rain and scourging sun, the devastating threat to hawking, and the discomfort associated with buying and selling in the city. She was faithful to her boss to the end, making her to earn her trust and receive her blessing.
Immediately, she built on that time-tested trading reputation. When she started her own business, she became a household name in Lagos, mentoring young leaders and organising them into associations and societies for interest articulation. In her informal school of commerce, she taught the principles of profitable trading, diversification of commercial ventures and traditional debt recovery. She also exposed many traders to variety trading, the value of hard-work, customers relations and confidence building, lending and borrowing with dignity, and keeping of promise.
Alhaja Mogaji achieved fame by dint of hardwork, self-sacrifice and commitment to the goals of life. She was a focused trader and employer of labour in the informal setting. Many who came to her as trading apprentices later became so close to her and she treated them like blood relations. She was also a strict disciplinarian. As a parent, she groomed people without sparing the rod to spoil the child.
But, early in life too, her human face, human heart and milk of human kindness came to the fore. She became a philanthropist, channeling resources to the poor and needy. Her house became the rallying point and refuge for widows, homeless and other artisans and peasants who needed succour. Many youths became graduates on her unsung scholarship. Numerous others were aided to be up and doing in their businesses. Although an advocate of religious harmony, the devoted Muslim was a frontline defender of the faith who sponsored many religious activities in the media.
However, she was not a religious bigot. The Iyaloja sponsored faithful on pilgrimage to Mecca and Jerusalem.
Unknown to many, Alhaja Mogaji was also a politician. The Amazon was active in the hey days of party supremacy and hierarchical discipline when party followers paid dues as financial members, when political consensus received majority endorsement, when leaders were credible, and when government was responsible and accountable.
She had joined the AG in the fifties, mobilising support for the leader, Awolowo, during campaigns. She was an active member of the AG Women Association, led by the late Mrs Rosiji, until the split in the party at the Jos Conference in 1962. She printed banners and posters for AG leaders for free and steered women to endorse Awo and other candidates at the polls.
Paradoxically, Lagos, her main base, was firmly under the control of the defunct National Council of Nigerian Citizens (NCNC), led by the late Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, who had become a parliamentarian in Ibadan. But, when the AG seized the storm, Alhaja Mogaji played a prominent role in securing the bloc vote of women for AG in Lagos. Her mobilisation prowess, despite her lack of formal education, puzzled the NCNCers like Otunba Theophilus Benson, Chief Adeniran Ogunsanya, Alhaji S. A. Adewale (the boy is good) , Dr Ibiyinka Olorunnimbe, Chief Adeleke Adedoyin, and Prince Adeyinka Oyekan, who later became the Oba of Lagos. Through her political activities, she became very close to Mrs. HID Awolowo.
When the late Alhaji Ganiyu Dawodu wanted to replace Bashorun J. K. Randle as a councilor in the Lagos City council, Mogaji was one of the eminent Lagosians who campaigned for him, despite the stiff opposition by the equally powerful Lagosians in the NCNC, who objected to the ambition of the “political lad.” Dawodu later became the chairman of the council in the First Republic. He succeeded the popular lawyer, Adeyemi Lawson.
During the military rule, Alhaja Mogaji was a force to reckon with. When the prices of food jumped up in Lagos, the first military Head of State, Gen. Thomas Aguiyi-Ironsi, pleaded with her to appeal to the traders. But, she also demanded for social amenities for the people from the government. Reflecting on the incident, Ironsi’s secretary, Ambassador Hamzat Ahmadu, who paid a condolence visit to the family, said: “The former Head of State sent me to her to appeal to her to reduce the price of foodstuff, which she did. She did not leave it at that. She called me and said, my son, I have done my part. What about the General? I said he will do his part.”
Her lack of education may have robbed her of cabinet appointments in Lagos State during the long period of military rule and during the Second Republic. Alhaja Mogaji was among top women leaders who rallied women behind Alhaji Lateef Jakande, when he ran for governor of Lagos in 1979. Jakande, son of Oluwo of Lagos, defeated Prince Ladega Adele, son of Oba Musendiku Adeniji-Adele of Lagos, and in1983, he defeated Hakeem Habeeb.
Alhaja Mogaji’s services to the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), even at the centre, was legendary. An Awoist, she played a prominent role in the crisis resolution agenda of the AG and UPN under Awolowo. She accompanied Mrs. Awolowo to Offa, Kwara State, on a historic peace mission mooted by the leaders of the UPN to reconcile the late Chief Josiah Sunday Olawoyin and Senator Cornelius Adebayo, following the crisis that broke out after the 1982 governorship primary. Then, Awo and Jakande supported the governorship ambition of Olawoyin, the Asiwaju of Offa, while former Governor Bola Ige of old Oyo State and Senator Abraham Adesanya backed Adebayo. It was not easy for Olawoyin to let go, especially when there were indications that UPN would ride on the back of the protracted crisis between Senator Olusola Saraki and Governor Adamu Attah to power. Olawoyin felt that he should be the candidate, in view of his past contributions to the progressive fold, his sacrifices and humiliation in the hands of Northern Peoples Congress (NPC) leaders when he was the Leader of Opposition in the old Northern Region. Twice was the shadow election held, and Adebayo won on all counts.
To prevent the escalation of the intra-party crisis in the Kwara State UPN, the duo of Mrs. Awolowo and Mogaji left Lagos for Offa to pacify Olawoyin. As the Mrs Awolowo, Yeyeoba of Ife, later recalled, “We, women, recorded success where men had failed.”
Alhaja Mogaji was not lettered, but when the elite deserted Awo in the days of political tribulation in the First Republic, she rejected overtures from Chief Ladoke Akintola, leader of ‘Demo Party’ and controversial Premier of Western Region, to defect from the AG. Throughout the period that Awo was in jail, she was always present at Ikenne home of the leader for the yearly birthday celebrations. She was a pillar of support for Mama Awo and other oppressed progressive leaders under the banner of the United Progressive Grand Alliance (UPGA).
Three years before she passed on, she reviewed her political life during her birthday at her Alausa, Ikeja residence. She said: “I have seen it all. I have interacted with Zik, Balewa, Sardauna, Ironsi and Gowon. I have played my role and served my people. All I have been saying is that market women and the masses should be catered for.” The remarks were reminiscent of her farewell address to former military President Ibrahim Babangida, during the commissioning of the Third Mainland Bridge, Lagos. Mogaji said: “Ibrahim and Moriamo (Maryam), as you are going to Abuja, you should not forget Lagos. You should not forget us because you have been part of us”.
Mogaji was also a “June 12” crusader. An apostle of justice, she had decried the criminal annulment of the historic election won by the late Chief Moshood Abiola on the platform of the defunctSocialDemocraticParty(SDP). In fact, she went to appeal to Babangida in Abuja to rescind his decision on the cancellation of the results. She was accompanied by her son, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Third Republic senator and pro-democracy crusader who played a key role in the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO).
Tinubu is now president, a decade after her demise. Whenever he stormed Sunday Adigun Street, Alausa, Ikeja to cast his votes, he is always seized by emotion and nostalgia. On those occasions, Tinubu used to wheel Alhaja Mogaji to and fro the polling booth.
Mama Awo and her compatriot, Mama Mogaji, were weighed down by the burden of old age at the twilight of life. They could only dictate the tune on wheel chairs, although their powers of ideas and mental recall remained intact. Reflecting on that inevitable limitation imposed by old age, Mrs. Awolowo, who is ever fond of her friend, said that their early tolls and deep political involvement actually sapped their energy.
Also, at private level, Alhaja Mogaji bore the vicissitudes of life, including the demise of her promising daughter, Mrs. Kasumu, with philosophical calmness.
Under the Tinubu Administration, there were allegations that some traders had converted their market shops to residence by sleeping overnight there. Government threatened to deal with the culprits. Drastic measures were proposed to curb their desecration of the markets. It was Mogaji who brokered peace between the government and aggrieved market women.
In 2011, the women leader also endorsed Fashola for a second term, ahead of the party’s endorsement. During her birthday, which was attended by Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) leaders-Chief Bisi Akande, the late Alhaji Olatunji Hamzat, Prince Tajudeen Olusi, and Prince Abiodun Ogunleye, she raised up the hand of the governor. Turning to former Governor Bola Tinubu, Mogaji, she said in Yoruba: “I was here in this house when you said that you have discovered the best man to take over from you. You have spent eight years. Fashola will also spend eight years.”
A staunch believer in welfarist programmes, Mogaji was instrumental to the Lagos State government policy of paying the WAEC and NECO of secondary students as a way of sustaining the access of indigent students to quality education.
Many people used to seek help from her over school fees and WAEC/NECO fees. When she could not cope, she usually sent the long list to Tinubu in the Round House, Alausa seat of government. The former governor now realised that many poor people may not be able pay examination fees. Tinubu administration therefore, took over the payment. Other states started emulating Lagos.
In appreciation of her contributions to the socio-economic and political development of the country, Mogaji was bestowed with the national honour of “Member of the Order of Federal Republic” (MFR) and Officer of the Order of the Niger (OON) by the Federal Government. In addition, Lagos State University (LASU), Ojo, and Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, gave her a honorary doctorate degrees.
