A lecturer in English at the University of Lagos, TOKUNBO PEARSE, is a scion of the old Lagos colony. The family originated from the classic returnee. His great grandfather was a clergyman who returned to Nigeria from Sierra Leone in the 1850s to work in the service of the Church Missionary Society (CMS). KANMI ADEMILUYI deciphers a public intellectual…
Tokunbo Pearse
The ambience of Lagos, not surprisingly, has been key to his thought process as well as his outlook. The Pearse family is a household name in the Olowogbowo section of Lagos where most of the re-captives from Sierra Leone settled on their return from Sierra Leone.
Adetokunbo Pearse was born in 1948 at Mercy Hospital on Lagos Island and had that key formative experience right through a Lagos environment. Ereko Methodist School was followed by St. Gregory’s College. The school remains central to him. There, he was a member of the soccer team, the soft ball team, and the cricket team.
The early leadership trait manifested in a diverse manner. Pearse was leader of a school band as well as the student librarian. In his final year, he was elected class captain. This did not deter him from also captaining the school’s athletics team to a famous victory.
Having studied English at Bayero University, Kano (BUK); University of Sheffield, England; University of Wisconsin, Madison in the United States of America and armed with a doctorate in contemporary African Literature, he teaches English at the University of Lagos (UNILAG).
Pearse is not just a reticent university tutor; he is a participant/observer in the contemporary political scene. He is of the opinion that not too many intellectuals get involved in politics, and that when they do, they do not approach it from an intellectual perspective. In his opinion, an intellectual perspective requires a philosophical approach.
“The mere fact that one is an academic does not make the person an intellectual,” he would say.
This distinction is defining as far as Pearse is concerned. Indeed, it is the demarcation line. He cites a recent interview granted by a former Vice Chancellor of the Sokoto State University. This he considered absurd. In the interview, the erstwhile VC had been categorical that there was nothing good in the Jonathan administration.
That answer given, Pearse emphasised, cannot be interpreted as representing the thought process of an intellectual. This is because “intellectuals should not approach politics from a bigoted perspective”. He finds it difficult to comprehend how any government can be so bad that it does not have any redeeming feature.
Politically, Pearse is a centrist in the ideological spectrum. He, however, does not hide his leaning towards the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). In view of recent events, he obviously believes that the unexpected PDP breakthrough in the recent Ekiti State governorship election harbingers the future. Based on this, he anticipates a PDP sweep of the South West in next year’s general election. Ogun, Oyo and Lagos, he foresees, will fall domino style.
In his analysis, the root is unambiguous. This is that the All Progressives Congress (APC) will be sunk by its own internal contradictions.
“The APC claims to be Awoist and welfarist. But its style of governance is exclusive, elitist and anti-people. In Ekiti State, the labour used for the execution of contracts was imported from Lagos State. Fayemi had a running battle with the civil servants and teachers. The test which he wanted to give to the teachers was a tool of dismissal. There should have been a retraining scheme on the ground for those that failed rather than an outright dismissal.”
For the Lagosian, a central proposition centres around the issue of internal party democracy. Here, in his opinion, the APC clearly fails. For example, he believes that “the former interim national chairman…is a sidekick of its national leader, Bola Tinubu, who was quoted to have said that it is selection and not election that counts there.”
This issue of, in his perception, lack of internal democracy is why the APC is “a contraption waiting to implode”. In contradistinction, he is firmly of the opinion that the PDP’s more liberal democratic orientation will carry the day.
The thoroughbred Lagosian is passionate about the development of Lagos. This is where his heart is. Unashamedly, he wears Lagos on his sleeves. Next year’s election in Lagos State will be pivotal. Pearse foresees a sea-change, helped by the fact that the APC does not, this time, have an incumbent.
He is firmly of the opinion that the ruling APC in the state has alienated itself from the electorate. He cites a number of examples.
He said: “There is the incidence of multiple taxation. The transport workers are unhappy because of the arbitrary increases in dues. The Tejuosho Market was shut down and re-opened with the shops unaffordable to the common man. School fees were increased in the Lagos State University (LASU) in an astronomical manner. The deportation of the Anambra destitute was wicked.”
Pearse is clearly agitated. Philosophically, he is a welfarist and has a deep belief in social justice. His involvement, he maintains, is because he believes that those who have had better opportunities should not stand arms akimbo and allow jobbers and opportunists to take over the political space.
Lagos, next year, will be an electoral battleground. Expect the scion of the Lagos professional class who believes that “the key thing is improving the quality of life of the people”, to be right in the thick of things.
