Reminiscences with Chief Ayo Adebanjo
Chief Ayo Adebanjo, 89, is a renowned lawyer and politician. In this interview, he spoke on how he became an ardent supporter of Obafemi Awolowo, why they went on exile to Ghana and how a military coup forced them back to Nigeria. He also spoke on the importance of the 2014 National Conference to the unity and progress of this country, what President Muhammadu Buhari should do to put an end to various agitations across Nigeria, and other important national issues
Let’s talk about your childhood I was born in Ijebu Ogbu Oke in Odogbolu Local Government Area of Ogun State on April 10, 1928. My parents were Chief Joel Adedairo Adebanjo and Salawatu Anomo Adebanjo. I started my education at Saint Saviours Primary School, Elegbaata in Lagos, between 1934 and 1935. From there, I proceeded to Holy Trinity School, Ebute Ero in 1937. I was there till 1941 when I proceeded to Cathedral School in Lagos till 1943.
I worked in the Ministry of Health in Lagos briefly before my appointment was terminated for being rude to an expatriate after a demonstration for self-government.
I had a brief time in an Ikorodu trading company because the political leaders felt they could not find a job for me in government ministries. It was the late Chief S.E Gbadamosi that employed me. From there, I joined the Nigerian Tribune as a journalist under the late Olabisi Onabanjo. It was there that I was recruited into the Action Group as pioneer organising secretary. I held the position from 1947 to 1953 when I proceeded to the United Kingdom to read Law.
I entered the Council of Legal Education and was called to the Bar in Lincocin City in 1961. Back to Nigeria, I joined Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s chambers as a practising lawyer until the crisis of the Action Group in 1966, where leaders of the party were charged for treasonable felony. I was one of the accused.
I was in Ghana on exile from 1966 to 1967. Thereafter, we were released by the General Yakubu Gowon government. I joined Chief Awolowo again to form the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN). After that, I went into full legal practice. I was in the UPN mobilisation group as a professional. I was made to stay in Borno State for a whole year to campaign for the party. My candidate then was Paul Bassey, who is still alive. We were together in the 2014 National Conference because he belongs to minority in the North.
Can you remember the case that brought you to the limelight as a lawyer?
I am a successful lawyer and I thank God for that. It was in a land matter that I made my mark. Is any of your children taking over from you? Yes, two of my children read Law, but they are not in practice. One is in the banking sector. The second did his master’s in Law, practised in one of the best firms in America but now a renewable energy entrepreneur.
Who is in charge of your chambers?
Practically nobody, but the firm is still there for them. They are still saying they want to come back there.
Can you share your journalism experience?
It was blissful. It exposed me to the public. It was there I cut my love for the legal profession. I followed lots of lawyers such as the late Fani-Kayode, Rotimi Williams, etc. The way Fani-Kayode dressed impressed me. I was made to cover the courts with my secondary school certificate. I was employed as a reporter. From there, I was recruited as the pioneer organising secretary for the Action Group.
Did you study abroad on government scholarship?
No. It was through my savings and the support of the leaders of Action Group. People like Chief Awolowo, Gbadamosi, Chief Bode Thomas and Doherty contributed money to support me. They raised 600 pounds for me and I had saved about 700 pounds. With that, I bought a property in London as a student. It was from the rent that I financed myself for the study for two and half years. In addition to this, I usually did holiday job in Unilever, through the help of Chief Awolowo. I got to London in 1959 and left in 1961. I have since sold the property.
You were one of the close allies of Chief Awolowo; how would you describe him?
We were in Ghana in exile when he was tried for treasonable felony, and the news of the death of his son was brought to him.
Before Awolowo came, I was an ardent follower of Chief Nnamdi Azikiwe. Azikiwe was the pioneer politician that led strong fight against the colonialists. As he was fighting them, he was preaching a unitary form of government. It was when Chief Awolowo came that he said the unitary form of government would not work in Nigeria. He explained his position and that was what made me his member. As a Zikist I was buying the West African Pilot when I was in Standard Five. In fact, it was my copy that my teacher would read. We were committed to reading Dr. Azikiwe’s column, as well as that of the late Williams. But when Chief Obafemi Awolowo came and preached federalism, I, like many others, were convinced; that was how I joined the Action group. Before then, we had started the Egbe Omo Oodua in Lagos, and we had won an area council. That was when Oba Adele contested an election as mayor. But instead of making him the chairman of the council, they used Olorunnibe to spite him because he was not in a democratic party.
Politics is a matter of conviction; it’s about ideology. Unfortunately, Chief Azikiwe thought that one united Nigeria would be practicable under a unitary form of government. In the election of 1951, Chief Awolowo won in the West, but Azikiwe won all the seats in Lagos. That is history.
While I was the organising secretary of the Action Congress I was very much attached to Awolowo because I was in charge of his constituency in Remo, to the extent that when I was studying in England, he and his wife, HID Awolowo, used to visit me. He would have dinner with me whenever he came for holidays. Their late son, Olusegun, was also studying in England. Whenever his wife was sending foodstuff to Segun, she would package my own separately.
Politics is a matter of conviction; it’s about ideology. Unfortunately, Chief Azikiwe thought that one united Nigeria would be practicable under a unitary form of government. In the election of 1951, Chief Awolowo won in the West, but Azikiwe won all the seats in Lagos. That is history
What is the origin of the crisis with Akintola?
The crisis came up shortly after my return. There was an allegation that Awolowo was planning to stage a coup against the government. That was Akintola’s allegation against him. That was the crisis that divided the party. However, this was not the truth. Awolowo was a strict person who had zero tolerance for corruption, but they didn’t believe him. He formed a company known as the Nigerian Investment Property Company (NIPC). The company built the Cocoa House, Western House, Bistol Hotel and others.
As a result of the success made by Chief Sonibare in estate development, Awolowo invited him to share from his wealth of experience to develop the party without getting any percentage from anyone. That was what gave birth to the NIPC. Many
people thought Awolowo was interested in Sonibare’s investment, but it was the experience of Sonibare that the party exploited to establish the NIPC, which was the baby of Action Group. Through this means, Akintola knew that the party could continuously finance itself because of the investment the party had made. To get the capital, Awolowo broke the marketing board into different groups because of the derivation it got from the government. Awolowo borrowed money from the Western Nigerian Marketing Board as business enterprise and he asked them to put about seven per cent of the normal loan for the NIPC so as not to look more as commercial enterprise. That was what they used against him when they were doing the Coker enquiry because Akintola told them that the proceeds of the company went to the Action Group. Eventually, nothing was found.
It was alleged that Chief Awolowo was using Sonibare as a front.
That was a cruel rumour. Sonibare had founded his investment company before joining the Action Group. But when we founded Action Group, there was nothing like NIPC. When we joined the party, Sonibare’s business was already flourishing, so Awolowo invited him to do it for the party so that it could have an independent source of income. It was a campaign of calumny to malign the party. The NIPC belonged to the party. Leaders of the party such as Rewane, Gbadamosi and Sonibare were members of the Board of Directors. It was Awolowo’s zero tolerance for corruption that made him set up the NIPC. Instead of collecting 10 per cent from contractors, he asked party members to contribute, and that was what was used.
But government took over the investment company from the party.
Yes; it was as a result of the allegation made by Chief Akintola, that it was the marketing board that owned the NIPC, which the party got loan for. Because of the loan, the government seized all the properties built by the NIPC, such as Western House, Cocoa House, Bristol etc.
If all these properties were owned by the party, what did Awolowo do for the region?
As the premier of the region he provided free education, free medical services, integrated rural development, the first television in Africa, Liberty Stadium. Those were on record. Because he was in government he was able to influence the establishment of the NIPC. That was why the opposition accused him of using government’s money to finance the company. They didn’t regard it as a commercial enterprise owned and financed with borrowed money by the party. That was what happened.
What happened at the parliament in 1962?
Akintola committed an act of disloyalty to the party and the party wanted to remove him as the premier of the Western Region. He resisted, but the followers of Awolowo were more in the parliament than his followers. That is why some of us are insisting that we must have the parliamentary system of government.
The Action Group moved a motion of no confidence on Akintola. I watched it in the parliament. Some of Akintola’s supporters from Ogbomoso just jumped on the table and caused crisis. And because Akintola had the support of the Federal Government, they brought army into the House and started shooting and tear-gassing everywhere to stop the motion from being moved. That was what Tafawa Balewa used to declare a state of emergency in the South-West. When we say we should go back to true federalism, many people do not understand what we are saying. Regional democracy is more democratic than this federal system.
When you were on exile in Ghana, what were you doing?
We had collaboration with Kwame Nkrumah, so he received us as asylum seekers. We were there till the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) meeting in 1962 when Balewa told Nkrumah that he would not attend the meeting as long as we were
Before we came back from exile, there was coup in Nigeria in 1966 and General Aguiyi-Ironsi became the head of state. Shortly after, there was a coup in Ghana and Lt. Gen. Joseph Ankrah came in. It was Ankrah that sent us out, put us on a chartered flight and handed us to the Nigerian government. Upon arrival we were driven to Kirikiri prison
there as refugees. He insisted that we should return to Nigeria. Nkrumah, however, promised Balewa that we would leave the country before he came, and that was what happened. I was in exile from 1963 to 1966.
What impact did you make in Nigeria’s political struggle?
When they moved the motion of no confidence on Akintola and there was crisis, we started holding rallies across the country. When the motion for the state of emergency on the South-West was being moved in the federal parliament, Chief Awolowo, who was in the House, wrote to Balewa, asking for a private meeting. Two of them rose from the session and met. Awolowo told him that what was happening in the South-West region should be stopped, especially regarding the then proposed state of emergency. But the state of emergency was declared and leaders of the party were declared wanted. Some of us escaped through the border. We were loved by the people so they helped us to escape. You will be surprised to hear that it was security agents that showed us the route to escape to Cotonou, and then to Ghana. Regrettably, the then government, which we labelled as corrupt, was more super than what we have now. We regarded Balewa’s government as being very corrupt.
What happened afterwards?
Before we came back from exile, there was coup in Nigeria in 1966 and General AguiyiIronsi became the head of state. Shortly after, there was a coup in Ghana and Lt. Gen. Joseph Ankrah came in. It was Ankrah that sent us out, put us on a chartered flight and handed us to the Nigerian government. Upon arrival we were driven to Kirikiri prison. The military government that took over in Ghana was unfavourable to Nkrumah, so our return home was very easy. In the prison we met Wole Soyinka. It was there that he wrote the book, The Man Dies. We stayed in the prison for about a year. We were released when Yakubu Gowon came into power.
When we came from Ghana, Awolowo was still in Calabar, where he was serving his own prison term. But when the July 1966 coup took place, it was Gowon that released Chief Awolowo. But we were not released until December 1967. At that time, prison wardens were more humane than what was experienced during the General Abacha government. Recall that I was imprisoned during the Abacha government.
But some of you ran away during the Abacha regime.
There was brutalisation in the country. Leaders of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) were arrested because we were accused of killing Chief MKO Abiola’s wife, Kudirat. But we sued the government for unlawful detention. Agbakoba was my lawyer. Till today, the government has not paid me and others the N1 million damages awarded to us. I know that I will get it one day.
How would you describe those periods in your life?
There were very eventful. I had no regret because I believed in the cause we were fighting for. What I learnt from Awolowo became manifest. He practised what he preached. I believe in his philosophy of social democracy and the fact that this country can only be ruled peacefully under a true federal system of government. That has been the reason for the fight all along.
We got it after the 1953 constitution until the military incursion in 1966. It is the military that put us in this mess we are today. All the processes we are complaining about now were not in our constitution at independence as agreed by our founding fathers, who were elected representatives. The military made this constitution we are operating now and imposed it on us, changed our revenue system and took all the powers to the centre to oppress states that were not favourable to them.
It’s under this system that government sent army to the South-East unlawfully. Under the federal system, the army can’t go there without the invitation of the governors. So, until we go back to the 1963 constitution, this country will not settle. Call it hate speech, but that’s the truth.
Anybody who says that Nigeria’s unity is not negotiable is talking nonsense. We are already united as a country. Restructuring is not separation. What we are saying is that for us to be together, it must be on a condition acceptable to us all. This was the condition at independence as agreed to by Ahmadu Bello, Awolowo and Azikiwe. Why is it difficult for the government to go back to the old constitution?
All the noise about South-South, SouthEast etc is not necessary. If the government is interested in keeping the country, it should simply go back to the 1963 constitution. Under that constitution, governance was competitive. That was when Awolowo built the Liberty Stadium, Sardauna built the Ahmadu Bello Stadium. Awolowo built the University Ife, Ahmadu Bello built the Ahmadu Bello University, Azikiwe built the University of Nigeria. Every region worked for itself.
You were part of the 2014 National Conference; do you think the implementation of its recommendations would solve the problem in the country?
Certainly, that conference confirmed the principle of true federalism. There is no magic about it. The conference affirmed that various nationalities agreed to stay together in Nigeria. The non-implementation of the outcome of the conference by the present government shows that it is not sincere in keeping the country together; and if that is the case, the country will be divided. The South-West, South-South and South-East are saying that until you restructure, we don’t believe in this country anymore. Uniting us by force will not work.
What is your expectation from this government?
I have never expected anything from this government. Go and check all my previous interviews. I said the greatest mistake we made was to vote for Muhammadu Buhari. From his past records, Buhari is an imperialist, religious fanatic; and he does not believe in the rule of law. I said all these before the election. The president has not disappointed me so far in this regard. Olusegun Obasanjo, who supported him, is one of the problems of Nigeria. The greatest misfortune Nigeria has got is Obasanjo. He is the greatest beneficiary of what the Yoruba have fought for, but he used his position against them. It was Obasanjo who said Abiola was not a messiah, and it was him who truncated Awolowo’s ambition. Even right now, when other former military heads of state have had a rethink on our structure, Obasanjo is the only one who has said something different.
I have also not seen any difference in Bola Tinubu. The problem we have today was caused by him. For selfish reasons he aligned with Buhari, having been warned of the kind of military head of state he was. He wanted to be more clever than his grandfathers.
Before going into the alliance with Buhari, there must have been some agreement between the two. Are the agreements being fulfill today in reality? And the first appointment by the government in the National Assembly was chaos; that is part of what we are grappling with till now. That’s the root of our problem.
On corruption, I have nothing against Buhari, but when it comes to the issue of governance, he has not shown to be a man of integrity. Many people don’t know that Afenifere supported his presidential ambition in 2007 when he told us that he was going to restructure the country. In 2010 when he made Pastor Tunde Bakare his running mate, there was restructuring in their manifesto, but look at what is happening now.
Shouldn’t the 2014 National Conference have been a forum for this agitation?
Yes, we said this at the conference, but the government said it wasn’t part of it; that is why we are referring to the 1963 constitution. The 2014 conference was one of the documents handed over by the Jonathan government to President Buhari, but the president put the recommendations into the archive. The 2014 conference was a reflection of the 1963 constitutional conference. It established federalism, regionalism and separation of powers. People are just being mischievous about the whole thing. We are not practising federalism in the real sense of it.
What is your take on the agitation by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB)?
The group is equally asking for autonomy, which we all want. But they are not patient. The IPOB is a pressure group on the government. There was true discrimination against them. The South-East is particularly marginalised. Let us not deceive ourselves. We need not pretend. If we want everyone together, we must satisfy them. Power should be devolved to every region of the country as we had it during independence; that’s all. The moment we do that, all the regional pressure groups will vanish. What they are looking for is in the devolution of powers. If the government had taken appropriate steps to restructure the country, the IPOB wouldn’t have raised its head. We are only talking about the IPOB, what about the Avengers. We are also keeping the Oduduwa Republic. As I said earlier, the issue of unity is not in doubt, nobody is ready to break. What is being questioned is the condition of the unity, which has departed from what we had at independence.
What do you think you can be remembered for?
I want to be remembered for my consistency in public life and what I believe in. I am one man who, for over 65 years, has never changed his political party. Win or lose elections, I have always been with Chief Awolowo.
At 89, can we say you have retired from politics?
I am not tired, and I will not retire until I get to the grave. I would have retired if Nigeria had been better from the way it is today. This is not the Nigeria we fought for. Corruption is very wide. People no longer practise politics of ideas but money. Those who call themselves followers of Awolowo have personalised politics. They love being worshiped, they impose candidates.
If you don’t know the king of Bordillon you can never be a counsellor in Lagos. You need to get clearance from Bordillion for you to become politically relevant. That is not democracy. All that was not applicable during the time of Chief Awolowo. That was not what Bola Tinubu inherited from us. If we had done that he wouldn’t be the Lagos State governor in 1999. Through God and me, he became the governor of Lagos State, based on the primary election he won.
For the past 20 years I have not held any public office. I am satisfied with my professional practice. Whatever I have achieved is through my sweat. The house
The moment we do that, all the regional pressure groups will vanish. What they are looking for is in the devolution of powers. If the government had taken appropriate steps to restructure the country, the IPOB wouldn’t have raised its head. We are only talking about the IPOB, what about the Avengers. We are also keeping the Oduduwa Republic If President Buhari is sincere about keeping this country together in peace and not by force, he should implement the recommendations of the 2014 National Conference immediately. I am not saying the outcome of the conference is perfect, but some components of the 1962 constitution are contained in it
am living in is the only house I have in the world, with the one in my village.
What advice do you have for this government, especially considering various agitations across the country?
If President Buhari is sincere about keeping this country together in peace and not by force, he should implement the recommendations of the 2014 National Conference immediately. I am not saying the outcome of the conference is perfect, but some components of the 1962 constitution are contained in it.
But the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) is saying they were not part of the conference.
The party is not sincere about keeping the country together. If they want peace and are serious about keeping the county together, there must be restructuring to a true federal system before any election.
Nigeria celebrated her 57th independence anniversary recently. Do you think anything has changed?
It is unfortunate that we are not where we should be. The military really disrupted the country, and it does not appear that we have gone out of military regime, even after the so-called civilian administrations. We have always been under the spell of militarism. Until we go back to the constitution that is acceptable to all as agreed to by our founding fathers, nothing will change.
But we have had a series of constitutional changes since 1957.
I have summarised it. If the country is not restructured to real federalism, we won’t have peace. Buhari can only keep this country together by force under this constitution.
But the agitation had been on before he came.
But he is the man there now.
Is the National Assembly not part of the problem?
That is one of the problems we want to solve.
How do we solve it?
If Britain, Island, Scotland, after living together for many years on the common market, said they wanted to get out and they got out, why should our own be a problem?
Buhari has enough opportunity to make a change by restructuring the country because he is in control of the armed forces. There is enough evidence for him to obey the voice of the people, but he will not. Under the present constitution there won’t be political stability, and without political stability there will be no peace. And where there is no peace , there will be no progress.