Awo warned about today’s happening today in Nigeria, says Daughter on Inside Sources

Dr. Tokunbo Awolowo-Dosunmu, former Nigerian Ambassador to the Netherlands and Chief Executive Officer of the Obafemi Awolowo Foundation, has revealed the emotional and philosophical reflections of her father, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, following the controversial 1983 presidential election loss. Speaking on Inside Sources with Laolu Akande aired on Channels Television, Dr. Awolowo-Dosunmu recalled the quiet disappointment […]

Dr. Tokunbo Awolowo-Dosunmu, former Nigerian Ambassador to the Netherlands and Chief Executive Officer of the Obafemi Awolowo Foundation, has revealed the emotional and philosophical reflections of her father, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, following the controversial 1983 presidential election loss.

Speaking on Inside Sources with Laolu Akande aired on Channels Television, Dr. Awolowo-Dosunmu recalled the quiet disappointment of the late statesman in the wake of the elections, his decision to withdraw from partisan politics, and his chilling warning to Nigerians on the future of the country.

Chief Awolowo, who contested under the banner of the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) in the 1983 election, lost in a poll marred by widespread allegations of rigging and manipulation.

However, rather than pursue legal redress, he chose to walk away from active politics.

“His last public letter he wrote when he was invited to join the Constitutional Review Committee in 1986—he ended that letter by saying, first of all, he declined the invitation, saying he didn’t think anything would change unless Nigerians themselves changed,” she said.

Dr. Awolowo-Dosunmu added that her father believed real change in Nigeria would require more than just policy or reform.

“He said Nigerians could only change if there was some divine intervention.”

But it was the closing line of that letter that continues to haunt her decades later.

“He ended the letter with a sentence that still frightens me till this day: ‘Nigerians have the option of permanent social instability and chaos.’ That was how he ended that letter,” she said with emotion.

Stating her recollections of how Awolowo felt after the election, she said, “I actually went to see him taking the results at the Lagos House in Marina,” she recounted. “He asked me to bring my daughter, who was just a few months old, to visit him and cheer him up. He was disappointed obviously. I think at that point, he realized that he had given everything that he could to the process.”

“At the end of that election, if you remember, he didn’t challenge the election in court,” Dr. Awolowo-Dosunmu noted.

“He also said that he was no longer going to contest elections. And that if Nigerians needed him, they knew where he was.”

In her interview, she also reflected on a critical and somewhat prophetic document left behind by the revered nationalist.

According to her, in 1986, when Chief Awolowo was invited to join the Babangida regime’s Constitutional Review Committee, he responded with a powerful letter that encapsulated his deep cynicism about Nigeria’s future.
Chief Obafemi Awolowo, widely regarded as one of Nigeria’s most visionary leaders, died in 1987, but his thoughts on governance, morality, and the nation’s political direction continue to resonate in contemporary discourse.