ABUJA (Sundiata Post) The history of South-Western region is not complete without mentioning its unarguably most chaotic era, often called “Operation Wetie” – a period marked by unprecedented violence and wanton destruction of lives and properties as a result of a skewed electoral process; or succinctly put, the used of federal might to subvert the will of the people in a scheduled election.
The genesis of the crisis began when the Deputy Premier of the Western Region, Chief.Ladoke Akintola craved for the political alliance between the Action Group(AG) and Tafawa Belewa-led federal government of the Northern People’s Congress (NPC), an idea
his boss, Chief. Obafemi Awolowo and other leaders of thought in the region vehemently opposed to, asking him: “To what basis would this alliance be ? What is the program of NPC that is akin to our own and can make us work together ? Do they believe in free education, health and social investment policy ?” The duo’s
Ideological disagreement sparked regional sentiments up to a point where Akintola was pressured to relinquish power for holding a leftist view. More so, a vote of no confidence was passed by the House of Assembly, though before it could materialized into an impeachment as planned, the security operatives ordered by the federal government had already barricaded the Parliament, and the rest is history.
It was at this juncture that the people of the region vowed to use their votes against the NPC government at all levels for promoting an anti-west policies. As election drew closer, the NPC came up with a slogan chanting: “Whether you vote for us or don’t vote for us, we have won.” Truly speaking, when the result was declared, they won and the people revolted wildly.
In less than 7 months after this ugly incident, the first military coup d’etat took place in Nigeria.
I recall that the arrowhead of the coup, Major Chukwuma Nzeogwu in his confessional statement attributed the massacre of the “Operation Wetie” as the primary reason that elicited the coup d’etat.
As the agents of APC-led federal government scramble to claim Osun State by all means in tomorrow’s supplementary elections, they should not fail to have a memory of “Operation Wetie” or be prepared for a repeat.
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