Aremo Osoba Finally Breaks Silence In Explosive Interview That Details Mistakes Of The Past, Threats Of The Present & Yoruba Leadership

Aremo Olusegun Osoba has finally spoken.

He came out to correct a wrong impression and in the process produced an insightful view into the past, the present and much touted leadership of the yoruba people

The details are produced as sourced

Former Ogun State Governor and leader of the Social Democratic Party, Chief Olusegun Osoba, tells KAYODE FALADE the genesis of the crisis in Afenifere, HID Awolowo and other matters

You are known to have enjoyed a close relationship with the sage, late Chief Obafemi Awolowo. When and how did you know him?Aremo Segun Osoba
I came to know Chief Awolowo in August 1966 when he was released from prison. I was one of the reporters assigned to cover his arrival from Calabar. And I was the one assigned to cover his tour of the old Western Region during the Agbekoya crisis after his release from the Calabar prisons in 1966. The agbekoya uprising was a fallback of the 1965 general elections. The agbekoya had assumed control of a substantial part of Western Region. It was only Papa Obafemi Awolowo who could talk to the revolting farmers who called themselves agbekoya. Agbekoya were farmers fighting for the liberation of the Yoruba race. It was only Awolowo who could go into the inner enclaves of the revolting farmers. He did not take me along. But he went round to talk to people to lay down their grievances and support the Gowon administration. Since then, I became close to him. He came to like and respect me for my report of his tour.

What of Chief HID Awolowo, his wife?

I did not get close to Mama (HID Awolowo) until the formation of the (now defunct) Unity Party of Nigeria. I became close to her when Papa Awolowo formalised our relationship into having regular meetings and dinners. It was just the late Peter Ajayi, Felix Adenaike and I.

What can you say about their relationship?

Mama was taken by Papa as the head of the house. At all meals, Papa never sat at the head of the table all his life. It was Mama HID Awolowo who presided. The head of the table was reserved for Mama and Papa sat at the right hand side. Papa never took lunch. He ate twice daily. I am one of the very few who had the honour of having breakfast with Papa in his private sitting room upstairs. I can count the number of people who had similar opportunity on the fingers of one hand. The opportunity came on the day I took Papa Awolowo’s international passport that was seized by the military back to him. He had told me to meet him at 7am and thereafter invited me to join him upstairs for breakfast. We were only four: Papa himself, Mama, Papa’s sister; the late Mrs Awofeso and I.

Afenifere is believed to be the baby of Chief Awolowo and you have been accused as being one of those who broke its back. Why did you do this?

I must confess to you that my wife and I had a sleepless night on the Sunday that we read the statement by Papa Olaniwun Ajayi. What caused it was the reference to me as what Yoruba will call omo alaileko, abi i ko, ako igbo, ako igba. The meaning of this is an undisciplined, uncultured, rebellious individual. And particularly the principal party involved was Pa Abraham Adesanya. It was particularly painful to my wife because my in-law, the late Pa Adeyemi, was like an elder brother to Pa Adesanya. They all lived together at Oroyinyin in Lagos with the late Pa Solanke Onasanya. One of the most treasured photographs of Pa Adesanya is the one of him carrying my wife on his laps on the day she was christened over 60 years ago. That was how close my wife was to Pa Adesanya. To me, he was not just a leader of Afenifere he was also a father-in-law.

Are you now saying you had no hand in the breakup of Afenifere?

I did not. Not at all. We governors of the Alliance for Democracy were not the ones who destroyed the Afenifere as was stated. There had always been a dichotomy within Afenifere even before Awolowo died.

How was this so?

When the governors of the Unity Party of Nigeria – the late Chief (Adekunle) Ajasin, the late Bisi Onabanjo, the late Bola Ige, the late Ambrose Alli and Alhaji Lateef Jakande reached out to the governors of (now defunct) Great Nigeria’s Peoples Party and the (now defunct) People’s Redemption Party to forge a relationship of progressive minded governors which led to the formation of Nine Progressive Governors. Some of our elders, who are still alive today, took on the governors at the National Executive Committee of the UPN held at Eko Hotel in which I was present. The governors were accused of committing heresy by daring to reach out to fellow governors. They were virtually accused of wanting to destroy Papa Awolowo through the hands of fellowship they extended to the governors of other parties which was said of being with the mind of decreasing the membership of the Awolowo School of Politics. It was a very terrible meeting. It got to the point where Papa was almost going to be pushed against the governors. I recall that it was Bisi Onabanjo, the governor of Ogun State, who responded by saying that those who were opposed to the idea of progressive governors didn’t even love Papa Awolowo. He added that the party should try to jettison the idea that Awolowo and his supporters were rigid and not reaching out to like-minded people. Onabanjo pleaded that Papa should let them, for once, be unpredictable. And that move then by the progressive governors largely produced (Chief MKO) Abiola years after during the two party system of (General) Ibrahim Babangida which later produced June 12. Therefore the dichotomy within the Awolowo political family had always been there. We didn’t create it. It even led to further issues when Awolowo died.

What further issues did it lead to?

After the death of Awolowo, the issue of a successor now became a top burner in the fold. Papa Ajasin in whose house the Action Group was formally pronounced in Owo who was then still alive was virtually seen as the automatic leader of the group. But some of our elders resisted that and created the impression that such a thing would take the shine off Papa Awolowo’s legacy. This led to another dichotomy which gave birth to the younger elements forming Awoist Group. The Awoist Group then was led by John Ekeroda with the likes of Ebenezer Babatope and co as promoters. While the governors were now holding on to Papa Ajasin as leader, the young Awosits of which I was among were meeting regularly in Ikenne. But Mama now found a way of bringing the two groups together. One Saturday, she called them to a meeting to resolve the issue. Unfortunately, when we got to the meeting the younger elements went on to lambast the former governors of the UPN. Again it was Onabanjo who got up and responded. He explained that the governors were not in any way working towards destroying the legacy of Awolowo or diminishing Ikenne as the source of the Awolowo School of Politics but that Winston Churchill of Britain was not succeeded by any of his children or siblings. Onabanjo said that Papa Ajasin might be the leader of the group, Ikenne remained the Mecca and that he found nothing wrong in holding meetings at Owo. I remember that at a point somebody said, “Charity should start at home.”And Onabanjo, a journalist, responded, “Yes, I agree with you but charity must not end at home.” Again, the matter was not resolved.

The third incident that led to the final dichotomy within the Afenifere was the Electoral College of D’Rovans Hotel, Ibadan in 1998 where the 24 wise men were supposed to pick a presidential candidate for the Alliance for Democracy instead of the leaders sitting down and deciding who to field between Bola Ige and Olu Falae. The fallback from the anti-governors days of the UPN and post-Awolowo’s death, reared its head at D’Rovans Hotel and Bola Ige who believed that he, right from his younger days, was very active in the AG, the UPN and others and that he would be automatically supported to be the candidate, discovered that Falae emerged. And he was very upset. Particularly Kabiyesi Oba Sikiru Adetona had invited them to a series of meetings in his palace to try to find a common ground and acceptability between them and Bola Ige before it got to that point. Although we had been elected governors in AD then, the event happened five months before we were sworn in.

But you governors were part of the 24 wise men?

Yes, all of us were part of the sitting.

If what happened on that day was a collective responsibility, why are you now holding it against the elders?

But they (the elders) set up the 24 wise men; we did not set ourselves up. We did not have any input.

Didn’t you vote?

They asked us to go and vote. They only asked us to vote. I am saying that we were not governors yet. We had not been sworn in and we were only six out of 24. Afenifere was broken into two by virtue of that meeting because Bola Ige refused to join the campaign. It took a lot of efforts to make him come out for the presidential campaign in Ibadan. And that was what led to the birth of the Yoruba Council of Elders.

Who are these elders you keep mentioning?

The elders then were Bola Ige himself, Papa Abraham Adesanya, and Papa Olaniwun Ajayi, Papa Ayo Adebanjo, Papa Solanke Onasanya who were the leading forces of Afenifere. We were just governors-elect. We never created the D’Rovans situation.

There were talks that the AD governors elected to deal with the Awolowo Political Family the way they did because of fear of domination. What is your take?

What domination? I left the nine federal constituencies to produce a commissioner each. I never handpicked any commissioner other than the Attorney-General because no lawyer emerged among the nine that were selected by members of the party from each of the constituency. In the case of Remo, I deferred to Pa Olaniwun Ajayi. He was the one that nominated Runsewe, a former permanent secretary under me during my first coming as governor. There was no question of domination because they were not members of the exco. They did not attend our meetings. I had no fear of domination by anybody. Instead, I implemented all the policies and manifestoes of the party. Now to be tagged as a rude and uncontrollable person who claimed to be the “Supreme Court” is painful to me because there was no basis for that. The incident referred to never happened. It was a phantom incident. Nobody was named. Papa Ajayi is a lawyer – eminent for that matter. Was the story told to him by a third party or was he there when I claimed to be “the Supreme Court”? Again it is against the Yoruba culture to claim one is one in all. I respect people. Most of the best friends I have are people old enough to be my father. The late Papa Simeon Adebo was one of them. I have letters here to show to you. The elderly gentlemen would write to me from anywhere he was when he was alive. When I invited him to ceremonies, he would write personally telling whether he would attend or not even when I had not become governor. Others were late Dr. Koye Majekodunmi, my late uncle, Pa Albert Osoba, the late Alake of Egba and the late Oba Oyemade Lipede. One of the foremost Obas in Yoruba land, Oba Sikiru Adetona is also one person I will count as a father and friend. No matter where I am, we speak everyday. That is the thing I have as a well-brought up Yoruba boy. For me to now be rude to Papa Adesanya, my leader and father-in-law who brought up my wife is unthinkable. I have a letter written to me by him when he was in detention giving me instruction on what to do which I did. Before he died, I can claim to be one of the few people who were always at his house every week. The children are alive to testify. On the day he died, I was the one the children called immediately. The children and I packed the body into the ambulance that took him to the mortuary. The issue of being rude to elders is totally against the training I had. But I don’t believe this is the time for us to start opening wounds, letting the wounds to fester.

When exactly did you AD governors start having differences with Afenifere?

The confrontation between the governors and the Afenifere started with the issue of the convention to have a new chairman of the AD. The governors insisted on following the due process of an organised convention electing officers of the party to avoid a repeat of the Electoral College saga that happened at D’Rovans. I recall that there was a meeting at the executive chambers of the Governor’s Office in Ibadan. There, the governors made it clear that they would rather prefer that the convention elect officers of the party, rather than anointed leadership. That day, I was shocked that a man like Michael Koleosho, who is a man of very few words, openly told Papa Adesanya that he was determined to contest, and that he was not ready to step down for anybody. Papa Adesanya then decided that the convention should hold in Abuja as that was what the majority wanted. But on the eve of the convention in Abuja, I was told by my then deputy, Gbenga Kaka, and the chairman of the Ogun State AD then, my former deputy, Rafiu Ogunleye, that it seemed that the convention had broken into two. And that Falae and Adebanjo with Senator Femi Okunrounmu had decided to have a parallel convention. I drove to Agura Hotel to ask them why they should decide on a parallel convention. They said Adeniyi Adebayo the then governor of Ekiti State, did not give Expression of Interest forms to Adebanjo. I told both Falae and Adebanjo to exercise caution in holding a parallel convention because it would fail and I gave them the reasons why it would fail. They, however, insisted that they would go ahead. I went back to the governors to ask why Adebayo did not release the forms. He (Adebayo) then explained that he had not given out the forms to anybody and that he was just about releasing the forms. There and then I excused myself from the meeting of the governors. I was the only governor that attended the convention. That disagreement was an open disagreement at the executive chambers of the governor of Oyo State. It was not a secret meeting. It was not a conspiracy hatched behind the old men. Even then, they created the final disengagement between us and them.

How did it happen?

After that convention, we were rigged out of office in 2003. Papa Adesanya then tried to mend fences by inviting a reconciliatory meeting to the headquarters of Afenifere in Jibowu, Lagos. When the meeting started, they provoked Niyi Adebayo by saying uncomplimentary things about his father which made him to walk out of the meeting. That was part of what grounded that meeting. The final straw was when we were to elect new leadership for the AD. We were to elect between (Chief Bisi) Akande and Senator (Mojisoluwa) Akinfenwa. Akinfenwa boycotted the convention and went to hold a parallel convention in Agura Hotel in Abuja. There were allegations that they were being sponsored by the Presidency and the Peoples Democratic Party then. The old men now waded in and we accepted that they should find a way of resolving it. A meeting was called by Lam Adesina in collaboration with Papa Olaniwun Ajayi. The reason why we didn’t attend meetings again was because they now adopted and recognised Akinfewa as the national chairman of the AD. That was the point where I personally decided not to engage them again. We asked them to resolve the issue but instead of finding a solution to the issue, they went to recognise Akinfenwa. They compounded the problem.

Is there a way reconciliation can be achieved?

I don’t see any quarrel because this is not the time to start any quarrel. Moreover, it is a time the entire Yoruba race is under serious threat.

Is Yoruba land under threat?

We are under threat. The kidnapping of Falae is the most dangerous incident after the death of (Chief MKO) Abiola that should make Yoruba go back to do serious thinking. The message of Hubert Ogunde’s song, Yoruba Ronu is still there. If herdsmen could arrest Olu Falae, who showed that he is a law-abiding citizen, by reporting them to the police, and the police asked them to pay compensation for his crops that were destroyed and eaten up by their livestock only for them to threaten him that they would deal with him in his own father’s land. Thank God, he didn’t die. The man is 77 years old. If he had died; Nigeria would not be like this now. It is because he is Falae. Any kidnapping is condemnable no matter who is concerned whether high or low, rich or poor. The effrontery of picking a man of Falae’s calibre is what we should be addressing now not opening old wounds again. I am the one that should be bitter about the last election. Our people in Afenifere, to me, went ahead to endorse Jonathan without consulting people like us who were on the field. Nobody informed me or held a meeting with me that they were going to support Jonathan. I was never consulted. We on the field knew what the public opinion was, but they went ahead without consulting us. They never sat down with Jonathan to negotiate or bargain. They just endorsed him. We only read about them in national newspapers where they talked about the National Conference. If they were supporting Jonathan because of National Conference, what action did he take to implement the administrative actions taken at the conference? There were certain actions that did not require the National Assembly’s intervention or change in the constitution to implement. Did he take action? Did they negotiate with him? I didn’t go with them to any meeting, only for me to bear the brunt of some people. I was confronted by some who said we were funded by Jonathan, whom I have never met. Rather than sitting down to negotiate, they just opened themselves to avoidable blackmail because in politics, we play rofo rofo fight and of course the other side played rofo rofo with them labelling them with appellations they never deserved. We knew that in Yoruba land the public opinion was totally against Jonathan and the PDP. It was Papa Olaniwun Ajayi that I listened to which made me finally come on board of the Social Democratic Party. And it was because of the respect I have for him. But because of their actions, the SDP’s reputation was destroyed because many people left the party after that episode especially those in the North. Their endorsement of Jonathan destroyed our chances and affected us all over the country.

What is your relationship with the APC now?

I am 76 years old; I am an elder statesman, like anybody else.

With the current situation in the APC, it is being suggested in some quarters that the party may suffer implosion. Do you agree?

I am not a prophet of doom. Nigeria will survive, our parties will survive.

What do you think is responsible for the crisis in the Senate?

I don’t have all the facts; it will be unfair for me to apportion blames.

Now that Mama Awolowo has gone, who do you think will be the rallying spirit or the Yoruba leader?

We should use the opportunity of Mama’s death to see how we can see to the vision and reengineering of the Yoruba nation. Falae and I spoke a day after he was released and what we discussed was how we should now gather everybody together, irrespective of our personal differences and political opinions to see how we will tackle these unwarranted threats. The main focus is our coming together to fashion out a common ground against the external threats and I believe we will get there because each time there is an external threat; Yorubas have a way of coming together. We came together during the civil war when Papa Awolowo was elected Yoruba leader unanimously on August 12, 1966 in Ibadan. I was there when we decided that Papa Ajasin should lead us as a fall back of the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election. I was also there at Premier Hotel, Ibadan when the common interest of the Yoruba nation was threatened and Omoyele Sowore moved the motion at Premier Hotel after Abiola died in detention, that the late Papa Adesanya be made leader. We are now under double threat. Mama, the final symbol of the Awolowo Political Family, is gone. It calls for very serious sober reflection on the part of those of us who are leaders of Yoruba and I am part of that leadership because at 76, I am a top elder statesman. I have always said it and I keep repeating it that after Papa Olaniwun Ajayi, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, and my professional leader, Alhaji Jakande, there is no other person living that would claim to be closer to Awolowo than me politically. I am not talking of longer relationship with Awolowo. I am talking of the personal closeness of one who drank directly from the wisdom that came directly from the sage.

Some names are being thrown around for Yoruba leadership. Some are saying Obasanjo; some are saying Tinubu ….

I will repeat, Yoruba accept leadership based on many factors. We, Yoruba, submit ourselves voluntarily to a leadership based on our belief on the pedigree of the individual. That is why in Yorubaland, when you ask for the hand of a family in marriage, the first thing to do is to trace your antecedent, your pedigree, and do a thorough investigation, not of the person asking to marry their daughter, but of the family. Therefore, leadership in Yoruba is earned, not just by what office you hold, by your wealth, or any other thing rather than those conventional rules and laws that we have in Yoruba land. Those conventional rules are all embracing. For you to lead us in Yoruba land, you must show exceptional traits in all aspects of life. Those conditions are precedent in the emergence of leadership. At the appropriate time, everybody will come out. Leadership of Yoruba is dependent on all these factors that I have mentioned.

Punch