Recently, a photograph purported to be that of the bedroom of a political icon in Ibadan, Chief Busari Oloyede Adelakun, popularly known as Eruobodo, went viral on the social media. His son, who is also the Jagunmolu Agbekoya of Yorubaland, Chief Kunle Adelakun, in this interview by SAM NWAOKO, speaks on the photograph and issues around his late father. Excerpts:
There was this photograph making the rounds on the internet, said to be the bedroom of your late father, Chief Busari Adelakun. Did you see the photo and, how do you react to it?
I saw the photograph when someone in the United States called my attention to it and sent it to me. When I saw it, I was really shocked, baffled; and I was really distressed and highly disappointed. I just couldn’t believe that someone would do a thing like that.
How did that photo go out and who do you think could have done that?
I was mad at the journalist that contacted me first about the photograph. I thought he was the one that posted it on the internet. He said he was not the one and that he only saw it on the platform of a group to which he belonged. I tried to trace the origin. When I did some work on it on Google and found that it had some inscriptions and had a link to a British tabloid. From our findings, we discovered that it is a photo of an abandoned hotel in Japan. They just superimposed the caption of Chief Busari Adelakun on it.
What you are saying is that the photo on the internet with ‘bedroom of Busari Adelakun’ is not real… that that was not the bedroom of your late father?
No, it is not real; it is not the photograph of my late father’s bedroom. Look at it this way: How could anyone have the impudence to enter the room of a personality like that to take photos of the room? What is the aim? Is that even possible?
Isn’t it gratifying that the photo is not real and that the memory of your valiant father is preserved?
It is, and I am grateful to God.
Talking about memories, where were you when you learnt that he had passed on?
I was around when he died. It is so sad that a thing that the issue of this photograph is trying to bring back a sad memory. I believe in God and I trust God and that is why I know that the person that did that has placed a curse on himself and his family. You shouldn’t do things just to hurt people and their feelings or to discredit them. It is wrong and it is sad.
I was the closest person to my father when he was alive. He had four rooms in his estate at Ejioku. He spent his weekends at Ejioku. Whenever he was leaving Onipasan in Ibadan for Ejioku, he would always take me with him because he didn’t want me to be the only one in the house at Onipasan. He made sure I was around him as he sent me on errands. If he would stay beyond the weekend at Ejioku, the driver would bring me to school at Loyola College. My father employed a cook who catered to us. When he was returning to Onipasan in the city, we would also move like that. So, I was a witness to the kind of life he lived and knew him, and nobody will tell me this is who your father was. I knew him.
You must know him so well as to know the truth about the story that he died because he could not get access to his charms and use them…
Some years back, I came from Europe and someone, who was very close to my dad, invited me to see him. When I went there, all he told me was that he was misled about my father. It might be that I am alive to dispel such rumours about my father. I had an elder brother, he was a doctor based in the United States, Dr Taofeek Akintoye Adelakun, but he died two years ago. I don’t know why I am alive, I am a covenant child and the devil has no power on me. I will continue to call on God. That is what our father taught us. If you have charms but you don’t know God, you have nothing.
So, all the talk that he died because he couldn’t reach his charms is bunkum?
You see, when people want to smear your personality they would come up with all sorts of stories about you. Even those who have such powers too would tell you that they rely on God Almighty. So, how could anybody be claiming powers. What powers?
That is interesting. And how would you describe the relationship between your father and Chief Lamidi Adedibu?
You know the answer to this question you are asking me. You know it as much as I do.
But you were much closer to Baba Adelakun than any one of us might claim. So as an insider, what can you tell us?
I was close to him because he was my father. Chief Adedibu was also like a father to me. Baba Adedibu told me some things too and one of the things he told me was that ‘Your father was my Oga’.
It is also said that without the exit of Chief Adelakun, Chief Adedibu might not have been declared as ‘strongman of Ibadan politics’. Do you agree with this opinion?
This is not about my opinion on this, because my own opinion might be different. There’s is one thing: when you are in the people’s court, they are watching and are observant. Members of the public are the ones who would say their position about that. But one thing I know about my father is that he was very close to Baba Awolowo. He was one of his trusted supporters. Politics and some things happened that affected the relationship between them. Adelakun never betrayed Chief Awolowo.
I had a meeting with Professor Banji Akintoye and he told me some things. That is why, now, we want our own nation. We can’t continue to be slaves in our own land. It’s not possible. We must find a way to deal with the Judases among us. We must try to create a future for the Yoruba nation and the Yoruba people. Money is not everything. In Yoruba culture and tradition, money is the last consideration. Your pedigree and virtue are important. The politicians must be very careful; love your people. That is also in both the Bible and the Quran. We have to be reasonable and we must find a way to ensure that we build a better society for our people.
On the relationship between my father and Chief Adedibu, I know that you the people can judge. Baba Adedibu told me that my father was his Oga, and that he loved his people and his town. He told me that he would be listed among the top three Ibadan indigenes.
Your father’s name, apart from the Busari Adelakun everyone knows, was ‘Eruobodo’. How did he come about that popular alias?
That name came partly because he was a comrade. He was a comrade and people don’t really know about that. He hated cheating and would stick out his neck for any victim of cheating. He would never tolerate cheating. Professor Akintoye told me that ‘one thing about your father is that he hates corruption. He hates lies. He would call a spade a spade.’ He was a grassroots man, he was a teacher also. He was the chairman of Cocoa Farmers Association as well. An issue happened in Lagelu when he was representing Ibadan East Council of those days as a Councillor. When the issue was to be addressed, people had gathered and were bragging that Adelakun would not even show up, some said if he did they would mob him; that they would kill him. But when he arrived at the meeting, those who had been boasting went very quiet. They chickened out while his supporters were hailing him as ‘Eruobodo’. When he addressed the gathering, there was pin-drop silence. So, it was his supporters that called him that name and it stuck. He came and did what he had to do and left. He was never a coward. I am proud of him. So also am I proud of Chief Bola Ige, an intelligent man who told the truth. He was a bold, real man. Politics caused a lot of division among hitherto friends, but that is life. I am in possession of my father’s memo and it contains a lot of things. In 1996, Chief Bola Ige told me that without your father, I wouldn’t have been the governor of Oyo State. There were many dignitaries there when he stated that.
You are the Jagunmolu Agbekoya of Yorubaland. What does this mean to you?
It is a challenge. I never said I want to join Agbekoya, but when the story was told I found that my father also was Agbekoya. My father was Chief Awolowo’s agent in Agbekoya that time. People didn’t know. When I paid a visit to the Iku Baba Yeye, the Alaafin of Oyo, he said ‘this title was given to your father. But you are a different person.” I said I know, that I never said I wanted to accept that. It was the people that said ‘Ifa picked you’ and so on. However, one sure thing is that I will never be part of any corrupt set up. People now are so dubious and fraudulent. I wouldn’t want to be part of anything or platform that would cheat or dupe people. As an Agbekoya, one must be upright and for me, I don’t have any choice because I have a background.
Could it possibly be that you were given that title because the belief was that you might have inherited some of the qualities and powers of your father?
I wouldn’t know how to answer that because it wasn’t my own judgement. It was their judgement; it was their decision. But what I was told is that it was done through the traditional way. Ifa was involved and so on. If they were telling lies, I wouldn’t know. Some elderly, respected members of Agbekoya like Baba Agbo Meji and Baba Olalere Ayalu, the only surviving founding member of Agbekoya, were involved. Such men would not be found in the midst of liars and cheats. I complained to another senior member of the group, Baba Onibode Igbo, that I might not fit into the role expected of an Agbekoya chief, he said ‘we have decided and you are the choice. You have to take up the challenge’. Those men have integrity and, like my father would always say, ‘if you cannot add value to a cause, don’t detract from it’. He would always say he was not a rich man, but even before he joined politics, he was already a rich man. His enemies, those who didn’t like him made deliberate efforts to smear his name and image: Adelakun did this; Adelakun did that. I don’t know what they want to gain from that. For those doing that, I wonder what kind of legacy they want to leave behind. We should not only be conscious of monetary things alone, we must try to create a better and a happy society for ourselves.
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