How I made Lagos to produce first female Chief Judge in Nigeria and almost got sacked for it —Oyinlola

Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, a retired Brigadier General, was the Millitary Administrator of Lagos State from December 1993 to August 1996. He, during the week, spoke with a select number of journalists giving rare insights into issues and events that defined his tenure which coincided with the turbulence of the June 12 period in Lagos.

You were in Lagos between December 1993 and August 1996, how did you get that appointment and what was the experience like?

It was a military posting that came just immediately after I returned from an operational assignment as the commander of the Nigerian contingent to the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Somalia from 1992 to the later part of 1993. When I got appointed, it came as a surprise and the bigger surprise was that I got it without any godfather. I was simply posted to Lagos State. How I was informed was even dramatic. My course mate, Colonel Emmanuel Soda, was Military Assistant to General Oladipo Diya. He got to know about [General Sani] Abacha’s decision to make me military administrator of Lagos State but Diya also told him that he (Diya) didn’t know me much. So, Soda was trying frantically to locate me, but I was busy playing golf at Ikoyi Club. Finally he got through to my brother, Toye, who told him I would be at the golf club. But I had left the golf club and was on my way elsewhere. As I was driving along I became aware of a vehicle pursuing me at a great speed and, having had an encounter with armed robbers a few days earlier, I thought: ‘here we go again!’ At that speed I cocked my rifle. Finally on the fly-over, I slowed down for whoever was pursuing me, and primed myself for action, only to discover it was Toye’s car. We both parked, got down and I was told that Emma (Col. Soda) had been looking for me ‘since morning’. He added that Soda told him that Diya was in fact the one who wanted to see me. I thought that was serious, and we turned back and went straight to Soda. Soda and I went together to meet Diya, who then told me of the appointment. I, there and then, pledged my loyalty.

I proceeded to set up my cabinet after swearing in formalities. As there was the idea of having civilian deputy administrators in states, I had hoped Senator Bola Tinubu would be my deputy, so it was the two of us who started putting my cabinet together. He personally brought in Tajudeen Olusi and a few others.

Pacifying the Yoruba people of Lagos who were still feeling very aggrieved over the annulment of the June 12 1993 presidential election was my first and most urgent task as Military Administrator of Lagos State. I met total anarchy. Workers were on strike; markets were closed. No one was working. The agitation for the actualisation of that election was at its peak. There was total breakdown of law and order and outright civil disobedience. Each time I drove out of Government House, or the Governor’s Office, I could feel hostility along the way as if I was the one who personally annulled the election. But this didn’t worry me unduly, and I could understand the depth of hatred for the armed forces.

After some time, I decided that we could not just be sitting down in the office at Alausa. There was the urgent need to meet with the people. So, I decided that I must take a tour of all the local governments. Having served in Lagos before, I knew the peculiarities of each area which was what informed my decision to commence my tour from Mushin Local Government which I believed constituted the bedrock of the anti-government sentiments then. I must mention that when I drew the programme and announced that I would start from Mushin, my commissioners were not at ease at all. As a matter of fact, some whispered behind my back that this man who just came back from the war front was planning to get everyone killed. So, when the words filtered into my ears, I told them that no commissioner was under any compulsion to accompany me to Mushin. The only commissioner that accompanied me, if I am not mistaken, was Dr Ogundimu. Principally, he must have followed me because that was his area. I was received by the local government chairman, Bayo Oshiyemi. I was not surprised at the reception I got in Mushin. I was welcomed with a rain of stones. My boys wanted to react by firing back but I had to caution them. I told them that my life was not in danger and even if it  was, I knew what to do. Of course as a Yoruba man, I knew if anyone was killed under my watch my family would never get out of it. So, I warned the boys not to do anything; I could take care of myself.  I then appealed to the people. I told them to at least listen to me first, even if they would kill me later. I assured them that I would convey their grievances to higher authorities if they could discuss with me.

The people were taken aback by the way I spoke with them. A soldier appealing for understanding! They didn’t expect such words from a military officer who had only recently returned from a war. They expected me to react to their provocation but when I did the unexpected, they dropped their stones and we went into the hall to discuss.

I shared my experience in Somalia with them and the fact that though that country is a nation with one religion, Islam, nobody, throughout the time I stayed there, had the time to pray even once because it was gunshots, gunshots every minute. They had no government and anarchy reigned supreme. I made them understand that if we did not deal with our grievances the right way, our condition could  degenerate into what I saw in Somalia.

I affirmed that the annulment was bad and unacceptable and asked them if they wanted to fight the rest of the country or go into meaningful dialogue. I also assured them that they would have my backing whatever decision they made but if it was war, I must see the weapons we had.

By the time I was leaving Mushin, I was carried shoulder high and that became a propaganda point for the government. The event was broadcast by the Nigerian Television Authority and I was inundated with phone calls.

Following up on the success of that visit, I took the tour to Lagos Island. In that place, as expected, most of my cars were damaged. A retired officer, Captain Carew,  was the chairman of Lagos Island at that time. I met with the elders and the same story I told in Mushin, I told them. I recall that at Lagos Island, there was this Chief Onilegbale, he must be over 80-years-old and he told a proverb… “taa ba ni ka lu keke, egbaafa; taa ba ni ka lu ya, egbaafa. Ki wa lo de t’aa kuku lu ya.” (If we beat the drum gently, the price is N1,200; ife we beat it hard, it is the same N1,200. So why not beat it hard). He meant that whichever way we approached the issue of June 12, the result would be the same, so why not go to war? Again, I explained to the people that they had two alternatives, either to fight or to dialogue. They eventually agreed with me and chose dialogue. They sent me off with drumming.

I believed that the next most turbulent would be Yaba. So I took the tour there. Ironically, there was no record of violence against me in Yaba and there was no rowdy reception either. That was how I moved round the state and broke the ice. I was able to at least stabilise the polity and commenced the process of bringing peace to Lagos State. My joy is that I administered Lagos at the most turbulent period in the history of that state without firing a shot.

Apart from bringing peace to Lagos, what specific projects and programmes of your administration gave you joy, particularly roads? 

Traffic problem in Lagos has always been there. I met it. I was lucky I had a very competent commissioner for works in Engineer Funsho Williams, now of blessed memory. We looked at ways to decongest traffic on major roads. Canals are a major feature of Lagos landscape that used to inhibit movements creating real chaos at all peak periods. That situation was not acceptable to us and we were determined to do something to solve the problem permanently. We then came up with the idea of having link bridges to connect vital areas across the canals. For instance, there was this canal that runs from Apapa and separates part of Ikeja mainland from the Alausa/ Oregun side. It was discovered that if there was a link bridge at Opebi, anyone going to Oregun area would not necessarily have to travel to the end of Police College area before returning towards Alausa. My government constructed the Opebi Link bridge and other connecting roads. It was real chaos before the Opebi link bridge. The link bridge made life easier and better for Lagosians. We did roads everywhere across the state. There was no local government that was not touched.

Interesting, but there was this notion that you at a point said you could not rehabilitate roads because there was no bitumen…

The issue of bitumen is one interesting story. You know I got to Lagos in December 1993 and, as I said, government was maintaining roads and constructing new ones and bridges where necessary until sometime in late 1995 when we had issues with construction materials. That time, government projects were as a matter of policy majorly executed through direct labour. The Kaduna refinery, which was the only refinery producing bitumen in the country, was sabotaged in the political crises of that period.  The only option we had was to import. I asked for permission and for forex to import bitumen which was the main component for building roads but the Federal Government said no, I should go and source for forex from the black market. The exchange rate was N84/dollar at the black market known then as the autonomous market, while the official rate was N22/dollar. At the official rate, I would have been able to construct, as of that time, a kilometer for N4 million but if I had gone to the autonomous market, that would be four or five times the price. How would I do that and people won’t  accuse me of embezzling Lagos State funds?

But the Federal Government  gave other states forex at the official rate to do same…

Yes. But Lagos was not given. I don’t know what the offence was. But I was in office to solve problems. So, I appealed to the people of the state, if they knew any source through which we could get bitumen locally they should assist us. Nobody responded except Chief Lawal Solarin of Eternal Oil. Unfortunately, what he gave was insignificant considering the large scope of work we had to do. However, I will continue to appreciate his good gesture because in that time of trouble, he was there for me.

The only solution was to contract out the roads. So, I contracted the Victoria Island roads to HFP Construction Company; Lagos Island, was contracted to Julius Berger; Western Avenue was given to Strabarg and Mushin-Abeokuta road was contracted to NW Ltd. That was how I gave the major roads out to these grade one construction companies and they were carrying out the work satisfactorily until I left in August 1996. The completion and commissioning were done by my successor. However, because of politics, nobody was able to say those were the steps I took. All they were saying was that I complained there was no bitumen. I also made a mistake of not engaging the media enough. I thought I was on a military assignment and needed no deliberate telling of my stories.

That was about roads, how about security, there were serious cases of armed robbery when you came to Lagos…

Yes. Anywhere there are political crises, violent crimes would reign there too. Men of the underworld took advantage of the sociopolitical turbulence that came with the agitation against June 12 election annulment. So, security of lives and property became a serious problem. My administration came up with the idea of floating an effective, well kitted, mobile security outfit code-named Operation Sweep. That was in 1995. Operation Sweep was a Joint Task Force of all the armed forces and the police. It was an entirely new crime-fighting idea.  The operatives were out on patrol 24 hours. I was out too on patrol every night.  With that, criminals were effectively swept out of Lagos as it became a danger zone for them to operate. A measure of the outfit’s effectiveness and success informed virtually other states in the country following in our footstep by setting up  similar outfits. My successor, then Colonel Buba Marwa, sustained the outfit and passed it on to Bola Tinubu in 1999. I am happy that although the name may have changed today in Lagos and in other states, the concept is still alive. I give God the glory.

How about the Lagos House in Abuja?

The Lagos House in Abuja was started before I got there. I met it under construction but I finished and commissioned it.  We also did housing in all the five divisions of Lagos State. This was carried out majorly by the Lagos State Development Corporation. Also, most local governments did their own low cost housing under the administration.

We also learnt of the politics that dogged your decision to appoint the first female Chief Judge in Nigeria, can you tell us the story?

When Justice Ligali Ayorinde, who was the Chief Judge, became terminally ill, I visited him on his sickbed at St. Nicholas hospital and told him that of the government’s plan to evacuate him abroad for better medical care. I also wanted him to suggest his successor in case he could not make it back. Justice Ayorinde wrote down the names of Justice Roselyn Omotosho and Justice Thomas and said either of them would do. After that visit, Ayorinde passed on while on medical evacuation to the United Kingdom. I wanted justice to prevail in filling the vacancy between the two justices. I wanted to be able to defend my selection at the end of the day so the digging began. It was discovered that both candidates were called to the Bar same day but there had to be a separating factor. It was later discovered that the woman got to the Bench first. So, the papers of Roselyn Omotosho were processed to become the next Chief Judge. I had no idea I was making history with Omotosho. But some people were against the fact that a woman was to be made a CJ in Nigeria. Before her, no woman anywhere in the country had reached that height.  I didn’t know that, I just believed that I was doing justice. Then, my enemies, because of that decision, cooked up bad stories that were taken into the ears of General Abacha and he decided to remove me as administrator. However, I was lucky that as of that time his kitchen cabinet was still intact and he was consulting and listening to them. He informed members of the kitchen cabinet, the likes of Generals Ishaya Bamaiyi, Patrick Aziza, Bashir Magashi, Admiral Mike Akhigbe, and some others that he was removing the boy in Lagos. They asked what my offence was. He told them the boy had been misbehaving, usurping his (Abacha’s) powers. They all vouched for me and  persuaded General Abacha to give me the chance to explain myself and they prevailed. They even put their positions on the line telling him that if he found me wanting, they should be relieved of their posts too. He was surprised at the support base I had among very senior officers. So, right from that meeting Abacha summoned me to appear before him the next day which was a Sunday. Since I had been hinted that the major issue was the appointment of Roselyn Omotosho as Chief Judge,  I duplicated the relevant file and took the two files on the subject to the Villa. I was scheduled to see him by 3.30 p.m. but I got to the Villa at 3 o’clock. Now, you would be lucky if you had an appointment with General Abacha for 10 in the morning and you see him by 10 in the evening. You may stay days and not be able to see him. But when I got there this Sunday afternoon, I was told that he was waiting for me. I said no, that was impossible, I insisted I was there to see the Head of State and not Al-Mustapha. The BG (Body Guard ) laughed and told me to proceed, that the Commander-in-Chief was indeed, waiting for me. Then it dawned on me that I was in big trouble.

I entered his office, saluted him and the first thing he asked me was, ‘why are you in uniform on a Sunday’? Then I responded, calmly that, ‘Sir, I wouldn’t know which other assignment the Commander-in-Chief may have for me, that is why I came prepared to go anywhere.’ I think my answer too got him so he said, sit down and then snapped at me: ‘What am I hearing about this CJ or no CJ?” The allegation was that I had usurped his powers.

I said ‘thank you sir’ and gave him one of the prepared files, taking him through it page by page. I said: ‘this is how I started the process sir — when I made the  recommendation, I wrote your office sir and this is your reply approving the step I had taken and the recommendation I made. I followed the process of picking the senior between the two –  who was called to the Bar first and then the Bench.’ When Abacha saw everything with his own approval, he looked deeply at me and said: ‘Ola, go back and continue the good work.’

Meanwhile, the news had been broadcast unofficially that I had been removed and would not be returning as governor from Abuja. As a matter of fact, somebody had been tipped to replace me and the person was already in Lagos. So, when I came back, the usual airport reception was not there because everyone was waiting for the news at 4 0’clock that would say, the military administrator of Lagos had been sacked. But nothing of such came.  When I got to work on Monday, one of my commissioners came to ask, ‘Sir, are we still working or work has finished?’ Then I told her that when I came to Lagos, both print and electronic media screamed that Oyinlola had been appointed MILAD and would scream the same way if I am removed. So I asked them to wait till such happened. That was how I continued my work. That was one of the intrigues that I was able to survive.

Kudirat Abiola was killed when you were in charge of Lagos State. Perhaps there is something we do not know yet which you may tell us now.

The killing of Kudirat Abiola was an unfortunate incident I had to grapple with. I was opening the reconstructed Sura market, in Lagos Island — that was on June 4, 1996 — when I got a call from the current Oba of Lagos, Oba Rilwan Akiolu —he was a Commissioner of Police somewhere in the country then. He called me and said, ‘Excellency, have you heard that  Kudirat Abiola has been shot.’ I quickly rounded off the market event and headed for Ikeja. I called Ogundimu, the commissioner for health and he confirmed it. He said he was there at the hospital battling to see if they could save her life. It was Ogundimu who later gave me the news of her death. Then mischief-makers took over. The next thing  they said was that she was coming from my office in Ikeja and that after she left, I sent assassins after her. But I thank God, when eventually the person who shot her — Sergeant Rogers — was arrested and in the course of the trial he told the story of how he did it, Oyinlola’s name did not feature once. Providence also made President Olusegun Obasanjo institute the Oputa panel and at the panel, nobody mentioned my name. You can imagine that kind of thing. How could I, who has never slapped my wife, have instigated people to take guns and pursue a woman?  Those were the kinds of intrigues I faced in Lagos.  It was something else.
What kind of relationship did you have with your predecessors while there?

Very cordial relationship. And I must say that they all assisted me one way or another to weather the various storms I met in Lagos. For instance, when the state was preparing to hold the junior World Cup in 1995, the anti-government coalition groups were making frantic efforts to ensure that the government lost the hosting right and their form of operation came in different forms. Because people did not work for over eight weeks due to the June 12 strike, refuse started piling up all over the city. It  was totally embarrassing. So, I appealed to some notable stakeholders in the state, primarily Alhaji Lateef Jakande, to help appeal to the people that though indiscriminate dumping of refuse was meant to embarrass the government, the collateral damage, through health hazards, would know no bounds and the people would be at the receiving end. I was told that Jakande had faced something similar to that when he was governor and this old man came out, rolled out his team and they were there assisting me everywhere day and night. I am eternally grateful to him and to Alhaji Rafiu Jafojo, his deputy. The anti-government coalition keyed in into the situation. The moment we cleared refuse from one place, their agents, using Tippers at night, would go and dump refuse in the middle of the road somewhere else. When I realised that these people were deliberately doing these as acts of sabotage, I started going  out on night patrol and I was able to confiscate some Tippers dumping refuse on the main road. By the time I seized five of such vehicles and painted them in Lagos State colour, nobody was prepared to lose their Tippers again. We were using the confiscated Tippers to pack whatever the saboteurs dumped. Then that aspect of their operation stopped. It was a tough one.  I had to do the unusual to make sure the unusual menace stopped. That was another challenge.

Can we talk about education and health?

Well, the government continued with all the programmes on education as we met it on ground but one notable thing was the appointment of Professor Peter Okebukola as the Vice Chancellor of the Lagos State University (LASU). I inherited a LASU that needed total overhauling if it was to achieve the lofty goals of its founding fathers. So, when I had to appoint the vice chancellor, I had a clear idea of the kind of person who could reform the place. I picked Okebukola and what he did there, I believe, is what every other successive administration in that university has been building upon. So, if LASU is the pride of Lagos State today, we assisted in engineering the structure that grew it to be what it is.

You also built some markets, can we talk about them?

Two notable markets, the Sura market was one; but the one that gave me headache was the Balogun market. The plan had been on before I came on board to rebuild the market. The building materials were already there. The existing stalls were built with planks so government thought they should be modernised. However, the greatest fear of the traders was that the moment it became a model market, they would lose their stalls to civil servants and other privileged people. So, I met with them and asked them to draw a list of the occupants and submit with the assurance that once the market was rebuilt, they would be the first to get allocations. I also informed them that there would be more than enough stalls than they had at the moment. The plan was to build storey buildings. I gave them my word before but they did not believe me. So, they engaged the late Chief Gani Fawehinmi as their lawyer and the journey began… if the government won in court today, by tomorrow, another application was filed and an injunction was gotten. It was frustrating so  I cried to someone who could help. The person said if I was ready to build the market, he was too. He hinted me what I should do. So, on a Friday, the injunction was lifted – and the people were smart, they were very mobile, their goods were on wheels, ready to move. But nothing happened on Saturday. Meanwhile, I had assembled all the machines I needed at Bonny Camp; and on Sunday morning, as early as 5.00 a.m., we moved into action. It was a two-hour operation and by 7.00 a.m., not a single machine was on ground there again. They had finished the operation and moved back to base. Astonished people going to church on Sunday were wondering if there was an earthquake there. However, the traders had phoned Chief Gani Fawehinmi on Friday and told him that the injunction had been lifted. He had assured them he would file another one on Monday on his way from Ondo where he had gone for the weekend. By the time he got to the court on Monday, he was greeted with the news of the demolition. He then said Oyinlola was a crook but he knew I flouted no law.

The government went on to rebuild the Balogun market and I made sure, in collaboration with the Iyaloja of Lagos, Alhaja Abibatu Mogaji, that every tenant that was on the list was allotted a stall. When that happened, they believed me and asked me to come and demolish and rebuild other markets in Lagos.

Now, a funny thing happened while we were about turning the sod of the project. The Director General in charge of environment or was he of the Lagos State Development Corporation, I cannot recall, collapsed and fainted at the site. So they said it was a message from the traders. He was taken away. I was to go and turn the sod but people were saying I should not touch the hand trowel. I ignored them and picked it up. So after I washed my hands, one of the traders just removed her wrapper and offered it to me to dry my hands with. My commissioners were murmuring in disapproval but I took it. Nothing happened. Later, the DG was revived. We finished that project to the glory of God.