It is exactly 17 years today that one of the earliest presidents of the defunct National Association of Nigerian Students, (NANS), Barrister Chris Abashi died. That was March 15th, 2004. There are no seminars or rallies anywhere but the family is thanking God and all who stood by them through thick and thin.
Abashi was not only president of NANS, he was also the first president of the equally defunct Socialist Congress of Nigeria, (SCON). It could be said of him that he too was not a closet Marxist as he stretched his horizon to traditional politics, becoming the Chairman of Nasarawa Eggon Local Government Council in 1999. He also contested under the defunct All Nigeria People’s Party, (ANPP) as Deputy-Governor of Nasarawa State. That was 2003 but the team did not win. It was the sort of thing he could spend hours defending, citing interesting examples why it is wrong to imagine a China Walls between radical activists and electoral politics.
At heart, he was a Leninist. He actually saw himself doing things on the scale he imagined Lenin doing them, even as a local government chairperson, for instance. It was not wrongheadedness but the assuredness and steely disposition that the intellectual and ideological preparation of members of that generation imbued in them in contrast to what obtains today. The paradox is that it was the local government chairperson position that gave him insights into systemic decay which got him exceedingly worried about the future of Nigeria, Certain behaviour patterns and excesses he came across were troubling for him, some of which he used his knowledge of law to subvert or fight out in the court. How far he would have gone on doing that now rests in speculation.
It is difficult to imagine what he would have been by now, ideologically and in practical politics. He opened doors to politics for many others, including his seniors. He was certainly selfless and highly public spirited, wondering endlessly with almost every visitor about what to do regarding making education qualitative, having been stunned from his encounters with the reality when he toured schools under his local government council.
Surprising, the family has done well, in spite of everything. All his four children are now graduates and his wife, Cecilia Abashi, might be close to knitting a PhD.
Reflecting on his passage brings back the question as to why an association of former presidents or former leaders of NANS is not in place as a layer of actor in the efforts at remaking Nigeria. At a terrible time such as in Nigeria today, such a layer might have something crucial to add to the debate on the way forward!
