My contributions to Awo’s ideal —Olunloyo

Dr Victor Omololu Olunloyo, a veteran politician and intellectual, in this interview with LAOLU AFOLABI, goes into a historical  excursion into the life of Chief Obafemi Awolowo. 

 

How would you describe Chief Obafemi Awolowo?

Chief Obafemi Awolowo was a good man for whom I have much liking. He was a friend to my dad, Horatio Vincent Sowemimo Olunloyo, alongside Chief M. S. Sowole of Ipara Remo, Victor Owolabi Esan, my baptismal father and husband of Iyalode Wuraola Esan, who incidentally is the only one who had a silver Raleigh bicycle among all the friends at that time. Awolowo was a forthright man, very disciplined and focused. He knew what he wanted and would stop at nothing to get it. His own father died when he was 11 plus, at a time he should enter a secondary school. Without formal secondary education, he bagged B.Comm in London and also in London, a degree in Law. He travelled out of the country in a boat with Teslim Elias and Abdulazeez Attah, the permanent secretary in Finance ministry when Awo was finance commissioner and later became the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, perhaps the best ever. Awo took the LLB in two years, got a Second Upper at the London Law School and returned to Nigeria in 1947. He founded his law chamber in partnership with Abiodun Akerele.

Earlier, in his determination to succeed, he was firstly a houseboy with Aderupoko Coker, later a typist at Wesley College and a man without clothes, house or a car eventually bought a printing machine as his first property, which became the starting point of the Nigerian Tribune at 98 Shittu, Agbadagbudu in Ibadan here. Awolowo was also once the secretary of the National Union of Road Transport workers (NURTW)!

I used to carry Law books from Mapo, my father’s official residence to Awolowo’s Oke Bola bungalow which actually belonged to Megida, the first born of Olubadan Abass Aleshinloye, who was his very good friend. He rented the Oke Bola house from Megida who then willingly transferred the ownership of the house to Awolowo, gratis, 23 years after. Another friend of Awolowo was the Chief Imam of Ibadan, the famous Muili of Ode-Okoro who was Chief Imam for 41 years.

Aside being my father’s friend, Awo was also his lawyer. He prepared the Will of my father, though he did not sign that Will before he died. After the preparation, Awolowo was to bring it for his ratification at a sick ward in Adeoyo Hospital, but he was delayed at Ikenne, caught up in several troubles in the town. Awolowo stayed back for three extra days and before his arrival in Ibadan on that Wednesday, December 29th, 1948, my father had passed on by 5.00 a.m. the age of 42. I was in Form 1 in Government College, Ibadan. His first immemoriam was the first to be published by the Nigerian Tribune in December 1949.

 

Your personal relationship with him

I had always studied closely the man Awolowo, especially whenever he came to my dad in Lagos. I always noticed his frank and serious face. Also, I noticed that as soon as he settled down, he would start smiling. I wanted to find out what was doing the magic. I knew he liked to drink Dimple whisky at that time with his life-long friend, Chief M.S. Sowole. My inquisitive nature wanted to know what usually made Awolowo coming sad and serious only to smile after taking the Dimple. So while they were critically evaluating the editorials of major newspapers of the time, Pilot, Daily Times, Akede Eko, et al, I quietly set for the table where the Dimple was. I thought it was sweet and so I had nearly a third of the glass. Not long after, blue smoke was oozing out of my nose. My father called his friends, including Awolowo. They revived me. There were other people there. Esan and Horatio liked Gordon gin, ‘The heart of the good cocktail’. Samuel Ladoke Akintola was also usually present alongside Dauda Adegbenro. Their own drink was brandy, F&J Marcell. Akintola particularly liked to take his brandy with Ovaltine!

Years later, I asked Awolowo if he was still taking the Dimple and he told me he had since stopped it and was not taking alcohol again. Sowole, his friend, said what he feared most about Awolowo was that once he made up his mind about anything, he would not go back on it again. Sowole told me that on many occasions he had tried to confirm whether Awolowo was hiding the Dimple in his bedroom and was taking it secretly, but he found out that he had stopped it for good, ever and ever.

Another thing about Awo is his straightforwardness. One day at his house, people were being entertained with all types of drinks, including soft beers, hot drinks, etc. I then asked, ‘Chief, since you no longer take your old favourite, why do you allow people to take them in your house?’ He said ‘Omololu, that will be undemocratic. The fact that I no longer drink alcohol should not make me to force others to do so.’ That same day  in his house, I counted 64 types of drinks sold by his wife, his jewel of inestimable value. After I saw that his argument was correct to me, my mathematical friend and I took two odekus (the large Guinness). That friend was Professor Joshua Leslie of Chicago and Princeton. He was on his way to one of his neighbour’s marriage ceremony, namely Chief T. L. Oyesina, founder of Ibadan Boys High School ‘Pro Bono Publico.’ There was another event where Awo was said to have told his followers that his house is open to husbands and wives and not husbands and girlfriends, especially when they were senior party members.

There was another time when I had become commissioner for education and he federal commissioner for finance, I went to him, complaining that all the schools built for primary education in some villages such as Akingbile, near Moniya, were collapsing. I was taking him up for building mud schools, instead of building with bricks. I told him I needed money to rehabilitate them. Of course, he liked sharp argument and he liked to engage me a lot. After my complaints, he kept quiet. He then asked me a knock-out question: ‘In the villages, what was used to build their palaces and halls?’ I lost the argument outright. He said if the villagers used mud to build their halls and palaces, why would he build schools with brick, terrazzo or marble? He said if he did so, one school would be 10 miles to the next. Then I knew he was right.

When he was under house arrest in Lagos, I found out some of his best friends and lieutenants could not go to his house in public glare. Some preferred to hide inside booths of cars or disguised sort of to gain entry into the house. Some even shifted their visits to evening time, when no one, especially police, journalists and the Nigerian Security Organisation (NSO) operatives (SSS of today), would see them. I decided to do otherwise. Awo persuaded me to rather come in the night. I told him it was abominable and I would never do so. My visit to him had nothing to do with politics, I was not even in any political party at the time. As far as I was concerned then, he had reached enviable height of fame and any sane Nigerian should consider himself lucky to enter his house and even take photographs. I, however, went in the public glare in daylight. I was then marked down for removal as Chief Scientific Officer of the Federation, which Awo had warned me about, a reason he preferred I come in the night.

In 1969, when he was celebrating his 60th birthday in Ikenne, Awo invited us. I was ashamed of the Yoruba that day, Only Action Group members honoured the invitation. Those in the opposition feared they might be poisoned or attacked on their way, so they shunned the event. I, however, went to Ikenne for the celebration. Surprisingly, all the Awoists at the event deserted where I was seated. When he returned from the church service and had changed his dress, Awo sat with me for more than 30 minutes out of the one hour I spent at the event. His was a good spirit and conviviality.

 

Foray into politics

Awolowo participated in the first election where he came second after M. S. Sowole of Ipara Remo, defeated him with one vote. Sowole had 82 votes while Awolowo had 81 votes. Both of them were the elected members from the Remo Electoral College. Awolowo took over government on February 6, 1952. When he was to form the Action Group, the first attempt, I think they were more than 60 in number. At the second attempt, the membership had reduced to 28 and by the time the Action Group took off, the membership had reduced to about six or seven. So, Awolowo started the Action Group with the number. They took the decision to launch the group at Owo, the last three alphabet of Awolowo’s name. After launching the group, they visited the Deji of Akure on their return journey to Ibadan. The Deji then was said to have told them the group would last only 10 years! Action Group was founded in 1952 and by 1962, it ceased to exist!

I had a critical liking for Obafemi Awolowo. I was astonished when he once summoned all the students and lecturers at the University College, Ibadan (UCI), to his Oke-Bola residence to tell us about his disdain for the Federal Government. This was very strange to me, because he did not check on the political inclination of the invitees. For example, at the time, Bola Ige was an SU and SCM ambassador who had travelled to over 30 SCM conferences all over the world, indeed the seven continents. He was not interested at that time in politics, alcohol or girls. Oduyoye, the famous author, is a witness. H. K Oluwasanmi of Ife, an Agric Economist, was an NCNC man.

The hero of our undergraduate days was the man who formed the UCI Action Group Students Union consisting of about 31 students of the 441 in the entire university. The hero was Ambrose Folorunso Alli who later qualified as a medical practitioner and governor of Bendel State. Professor Olumuyiwa Awe of GCI and Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge was his deputy. This is the photograph of the group then. I was also a member. I had a happy relationship with Awolowo all the time, before and after the Action Group crisis. As far as I am concerned and till today, I have nothing to regret.

Personally, I have always shown my original personal liking for Awolowo whatever his circumstances and wherever he resided, whether at Oke Bola, Ikenne or Park Lane, Apapa, Lagos, but I always felt sad that he did not have the Yoruba politics and intrigues of universal politics ingrained in him. ‘Sunny’ Jim Callaghan, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, said Awolowo would have made a good Prime Minister of England, where laws and conventions are fairly settled. His experiences at Lekki, Broad Street and Calabar prisons were on the long run a tragedy for the country.

I am always enthused when I see (Kayode) Fayemi, (Segun) Oni and a few others wearing the trade-mark Awo cap. Do you realise the history of the cap and where they operate today? I am sure they would understand better what we understood quickly when they were much younger. Akintola also wore the cap before they were separated. That cap stands for Awoism, the Awo’s ideal. There is also something very important one must know and that is the fact that Awo understood the strength and weaknesses of the Yoruba. In his book, Awo described Yorubas “as highly progressive but badly disunited group. They paid lip-service to a spiritual union and affinity in a common ancestor – Oduduwa. But in all their long history, they had waged wars against one another.”

I told Awolowo at a time that ‘Sir, you know why you are not a politician? You cannot tell lies.’ He said ‘Omololu, so I should tell lies to win people’s heart or win elections?’ I said you are an administrator than you are a politician. I told him that his deputy, Samuel Ladoke Akintola, was a crafty politician who knew the nitty-gritty of politics. I also reminded him the nickname of one of his best loyalists and governor of Ogun State then, Bisi Onabanjo, who was popularly being referred to as “Ayekooto.” There was an instant in a town around Badagry, called Ale. Ale means concubine in Yoruba. The people had insisted that they are sons of Ale and not residents. Akintola, who would not want to offend them by calling them ‘bastard’ (omo Ale) as they had demanded, cunningly called the people ‘omo ilu Ale.’

 

Awo’s impact on me

I am a special beneficiary of Awolowo’s excellent administration. I applied for overseas scholarship, on Engineering, the other Mathematics. I came first in both interviews with A+. Lady Kofo Ademola, who headed the Students and Scholarship Section, asked me surprisingly one day that which of the two would I like to use. I told her “both.” She was very fond of me and was a kind of tranquiliser on me whenever I was in her presence. With three A’s and a needless C in Chemistry, she got a place for me where her husband, Chief Justice Adetokunbo Ademola, graduated in Selwyn College, Cambridge, which insisted on 3A’s in the HSC. We were being prepared to enter BSc the equivalent of HSC. I crossed the HSC barrier in 3 months. I chose to use the two scholarships which was a rare honour and Mrs Kofo Ademola agreed that in my case, it would be permitted. I could not wait a year before taking my place in Selwyn College, Cambridge, I then opted for the oldest university in Scotland, St Andrews. I am happy that Awolowo’s administration allowed me this indulgence and, praise be to God, I did not let them down. I came first in all my Mathematics exams and in one, I got 132%, another 105/108 etc, ending with five out of a six Gold Medals and the crowning glory of getting an all-University medal, called British Association (1939) Prize, which is inter-university and I brought back the prize to the 600-year-old university. The Queen invited me to Buckingham Palace through a letter signed by Officer J. J. Mullaky. (My discussion will be for my memoirs)

I was always grateful to Awolowo. He was a good man. The country was, however not ready for his type. I met him at his Oke Bola, Ikenne and Park Lane residences where others trembled. More important was that he wrote to me, asking me to visit him in his house at Park Lane. I have that letter till date.

One day I met Professor Oyediran, former VC, University of Ibadan, seeking for a grant in my office. He came along with his wife, Reverend Tola, who is more like Awolowo’s mother. I saw him from the top floor of my office at 38, Hawley Street, Lagos, next to the Cabinet Office and asked for what he wanted and why he did not come to my ‘powerful’ office, since, at that time, I was in charge of all the 22 Research Institutes all over the country, from Oceanography, FIIRO, Lake Chad, etc. I then told him that his in-law, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, prepared and made me the Chief Scientific Officer of the Federation. Believe me, Oyediran got the grant approved that day and he collected the cheque the next day! That was to honour and pay back what Awolowo had done for me.