I took banana and tea for 33 days in Abacha’s gulag —Opadokun

Ayo Opadokun, lawyer, pro-democracy activist and former secretary of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), is the convener of Coalition of Democrats for Electoral Reforms (CODER). He told TUNDE ADELEKE his life story.

HOW were your growing up years?

They were normal like those of my age who were born in the mid 40s. My father, though born a Muslim, was one of the first to convert to Christianity after the revival of Prophet Ayo Babalola of the Christ Apostolic Church in Offa, but he eventually became a member of the Baptist. My mother also happened to have been of the same mould. So, I was born into a Christian family. There were two otherb children before me: Joseph Sunday Opadokun, who retired as acting Director-General of Nigerian Stored Products Research Institute (NISPRI).

My late sister was Elizabeth Faderera Elegbede, who died as a Community Nursing Officer of Kwara State. I was the last born of my mother. So, most things about me were built around the church, even though my grandfather was a traditionalist and our family is of the Ojomu chieftaincy family of Offa. By tradition, the Ojomu is the custodian of the traditional masquerade in Offa and almost a month in a year was devoted to egungun festival.

I took part as a young child in the festivals: the daily festivities of bean cake, seeing the masquerade descend from heaven, doing their traditional things. The Baptist church has a tradition of training people from youth to adulthood, starting from the boys growing to what they call the royal ambassadors. From royal ambassadors, they graduate to what they call youth. Categories of the age schedule are never static. The Baptist Convention does the adjustment as it becomes suitable to them, so I grew up in the Baptist tradition.

What memories of your father and mother are still with you?

By the traditional outlay of my family, the Ojomu chieftaincy title is that of the war commander that protects the entire community. That is why the chieftaincy controls more than 50 per cent of the land mass of Offa. Growing up, I knew that I must be interested in taking care of my community, protect it as much as I can. I think that had some influence on my attitude to life as an adult. My father trained and got contracts as a carpenter. He built a number of houses and churches in Offa, in Odo-Otin Local Government Area of Osun State, Igbaye, Ikosin, Faji, Okuwa and Inisa.

My mother was a petty trader. She sold pepper, buying it during the harvest time to sell at a later time. Sometimes, she was the caterer for my primary school — First Baptist Day School, Offa. My father relocated to Igbaye for almost 40 years. It was from there that he came to take over as Ojomu of Offa in 1975 until 2000 when he died. He was the only Christian among the four principal traditional chiefs of Offa. With that, I did some schooling in Offa and Igbaye. Then, I followed my elder sister to Zaria and ended my schooling at Baptist Primary School, Zaria, and relocated to Kano where I grew up in the home of the traditional prime minister, Alhaji Sanni Gaizawa. For no just cause, I delayed my entry into secondary school until I attended Niger Boys College, Minna, Niger State in the 60s.

EFCC arrests two suspected internet fraudsters wanted by FBI

I went through teacher education; three years, then, the University of Lagos. I developed my interest in church music mostly because music was compulsory for all students from Form 1 to Form 3. I was among the three who eventually tried to be organists. I became music director during my college days in Form 3. I intensified my interest in music and became an organist in 1971, but I became the church organist in 1972. So, I have been organist from First Baptist Church, Minna, the biggest church in Nigeria then, after which I came to Offa, my own church, and became the organist there.

What was your dream then?

To study journalism and even aimed for the highest point in advanced level. If you didn’t have eight points, there was no way you could study journalism. Law was three points then. So, my first attempt at GCE, I had six points, but because of my insistence on studying Mass Communication, I had to repeat Government, the subject I taught I needed to make up. I was given subsidiary (we were doing Cambridge examination then, not WASC), which was above ordinary level, but not up to advanced level. I had to resit for that paper and when I did, I didn’t make it again and I didn’t know what happened because I couldn’t see what I did not know in the paper.

When I repeated it yet again, I got a ‘C’ (three points); added to the six points that I already got, I had nine and they usually gave additional one point once you made all your papers at A’ Level, so I had 10 points. About a month after, Cambridge sent the results to all the universities; the university I applied to was University of Lagos, I got the telegram of my admission (there was no JAMB then). But I was determined that after Mass Communication, I was going to study Law; that was why I went for Law thereafter. That is to say I qualified as a media professional and as a lawyer.

You said that you were under the tutelage of the traditional prime minister of Kano? What was the connection?

I had a friend who was one of his sons. As soon as I got to Kano, he took me as his own and took me home. He requested that we should live together. I grew up like the average Hausa-Fulani boy and spoke the language. I didn’t have to learn to speak the real Hausa language like most Hausa people from the North because it is the Kano Hausa that is written, that of Kano, Bauchi, Jigawa part. These are the real Hausa-speaking people. All others are not the ones that were written. The Hausa spoken by Sokoto people is not the written Hausa.

There is a world of difference between them. It came in handy in my activism days because when I was elected as the general secretary of NADECO, and equally appointed as the main spokesman, it was at the meeting of the steering committee that the decision was taken that all leaders, including elders who might be invited or consulted by the media to respond on matters connected to NADECO, should all refer the media personnel to me.

That was why there was no day that NADECO corrected, or I made any correction or complain about the reportage of NADECO activities, that I was misquoted in the media or that they said something I did not say as the general secretary of the organisation till I was detained by Abacha for 24 months. When he rearrested and detained me in June 1998, I never quarreled with media reportage. In fact, I continued to commend the Nigerian media. We operated under a very brutal military dictatorship which was ready to do anything. For the military, it’s either you’re a friend or a foe.

How rough were those seasons?

A section of the popular media was proscribed by Abacha. At one time or the other, Punch was proscribed, Vanguard, Guardian also, but for the fact that the ones that remained were very steadfast. I doff my hat for the Nigerian media. It is cheap now for any character to establish either a print or broadcast media house without paying any price. Concord itself was put out of circulation, while the magazines bore lots of brunt, also Tell and The News magazines.

That was the first time guerilla journalism came to the fore. Our men were so dedicated that they did everything they could to campaign for restoration of democracy in spite of all odds. They abandoned their homes and their families were subjected to terrific violation, humiliation and intimidation of various forms. The Nigerian media has come to stay. Unfortunately, because of the laissez faire economy that we run, the liberal economy that Babangida introduced, it enabled characters who really ought not to have anything to do with the media to be media owners; those who have no reason other than to float media houses for political and economic interests.

How did you survive your incarceration and how was your family able to sustasin itself?

On the fifth day of my detention, I was kept at the Awolowo Road annex of the State Security Service (SSS) then. The late Dr Akinyemi, a counsel in the chambers of the late Senator Abraham Adesanya, found a way to reach me. He had a friend among the junior SSS officers who allowed him in usually after  midnight. Those junior officers were very supportive, usually at the risk of their jobs. They opened the doors at midnight to, at least, take a shower. It was about the fifth day Akinyemi brought a paper I used to write to Rear Admiral Ndubuisi  Kanu.  Ndubuisi was a former governor of Lagos and Imo states and he was chairman of general purposes committee of NADECO. We worked together. In fact, for some time, NADECO was virtually run by the two of us. When security operatives were unleashed on us, looking for us, we occasionally relocated to Kogi where both of us slept on the same bed. Occasionally, NADECO leaders would invite the wives of those of us in detention and give them some assistance. That was how it was until I returned. When I was taken to Kano, the morning we were to go, they just came around 5.00 am. I was the only one in the cell. It was when they asked me to sign for my personal effects and we came to open court on Awolowo Road, Ikoyi, that I saw Baba Omojola who had been there before I got there. They put me in one of the cars and the officers surrounded me, Baba and others. After about 20 minutes, we were ushered into a presidential jet and heard the captain report that they were taking ‘political activists’ to Abuja. I took mental notice of, and remembered vividly the registration number of the aircraft. Incidentally, it was that aircraft Abacha’s son, his friends and girlfriends used that crashed.

What happened in Kano?

We were taken to Kano. We saw that Peugeot cars were waiting for us. They took me in with so many armed SSS guys and they took us to their headquarters annex. They took Baba Omojola and Kodjo to one office where they were locked up. I was the only one they took to a cell, bare floor, no window. There was an opening that mosquitoes flew from to feast on me. I decided not to eat any food. The officers asked whatever I thought I needed and that they would buy for me. Some of them who appeared to be friendly, I asked them to buy me banana and Lipton tea. That was what I took once a day for 33 days. One early morning, I just heard “come out!” I saw Baba and Kodjo.

There were two vehicles and we were separated. I never knew where I was being taken to until we had done about 10 kilometres that I asked the officers ‘Where are you taking me to?’ They grudgingly told me they were taking me to Kano. I suspected that Abacha never knew that I grew up in Kano. Perhaps he wouldn’t have sent me to Kano.

I had the best opportunity before I was arrested to run out of the country through the route NADECO designed. In fact, the then American ambassador gave me his private telephone number in case it became urgent for me to travel so I could reach him. But I thought it was not right for the general secretary and spokesman of NADECO to abandon the organisation. So, I was ready to face whatever happened. God granted me the grace to be resilient.

I was not disturbed at all. I was again taken out of Kano and they said they were going to release me, but that the government wanted to talk to me. I was brought to Abuja only to be taken to Kuje Prison. That was how I survived my incarceration. Out of the money brought to me, I requested that as a political prisoner, they should buy fresh foodstuffs, which they did. They assigned a warder and a prisoner to me. I had a wonderful friend and confidant in an engineer, Mr Olu Shaba. He did a yeoman’s job, he risked his life.

How did you fare, both as a journalist and a lawyer?

From my youth days, I was interested in reading news about current affairs. I would read Iwe Irohin Yoruba which my father regularly bought. It didn’t take long before I started buying Daily Times. It was less than a penny. That was how I became interested in journalism. I was in Kano when the first military coup occurred in 1966. I was in a barber’s shop when the news first came. I was interested and was excited about knowing what was going on in town.

That was how I decided to study journalism. So, I came to the University of Lagos. In those days, Nsukka was the first to start Mass Communication followed by UNILAG. But as a result of the civil war, UNESCO transferred its location to UNILAG and it became the real ‘kitchen’ where journalist cake was baked. The head of department was Professor Alfred Opubor (now late); the late Professor Frank Obi Ogbuaja, an authority in Public Relations, advertising and marketing; Professor Ndidi Nwoneli, now a traditional ruler in Anambra State.

I met him again when I went to deliver a lecture at the 6th Zikists lecture at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka. Then we had the likes of Professor Olatunji Dare and Professor Idowu Shobowale, an authority in precision journalism. The first holiday I had, the Herald was just growing then, I had my three-month stay there. I took interest in Professor Shobowale’s field – precision journalism. Among all our class members, it appeared I was the only one interested in that field and so, I became an icon in that. That was why, before I wrote my final examination in Mass Communication, I had been given employment by the Punch newspaper. We had only one major computer in UNILAG. It was bigger than a standard room and the language was SPS Fortran.

And politics?

I was also an opinion writer. I was invited to the national secretariat of the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN). I was already insistent that no matter what happened in 1983, I had already registered for the Law programme. I was already in the University of Lagos when Buhari struck. That was how I became very close to Chief Obafemi Awolowo, who was my sponsor in my application to the Law School.

You are very close to your community and very much involved in community and church service.

As for community service, you need to go to Offa to find out who Ayo Opadokun is. I know if you get to Offa from the entry, ask anybody; ask ‘Okada’ for a guide and say you’re going to Ayo Opadokun’s house; they will take you there. The plaques of awards are there in their myriads in my chambers; you’ll see shields, different ones given by various organizations, communities, churches, civil society organisations and the likes.

Because I have been brought up in the church, that has enabled one to be strong in the maintenance of minimum standard of conduct below which I’m not prepared to fall, no matter what.  So, we thank God for His grace. My watchword is that godliness and contentment is a great gain or great reward. I am contented with the little I have.

I have never been a money man, I have never been a contractor, I have never been a businessman. My role in activism is to protect the ordinary man. Successive governments have seen me as an enemy; even, they would never patronise me. Government institutions, agencies and even private companies dare not venture to offer me their briefs because most of them will need to seek approval from government and would not like government to know that their solicitor is Ayo Opadokun. So, multiple-jeopardy is the price I have to pay until I go to the grave.

What is your goal in life?

My service to God and service to humanity, that’s my goal in life. My needs are very little, very few. I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, I don’t run around with women. Many at times, I can be in my house for a whole week and I don’t even come downstairs, not to talk of going out. All the societies here in Lagos have invited me, but I decided not to join any of them because if you decide to do what you are doing, criticising the state and you are a club or night crawler, it will be cheaper for the state to eliminate you because you go to club at late hours. So, when you’re returning , they can watch out for you. So, it’s a sacrifice. That’s what has characterised my life. And again, my political mentor principally, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, in him I saw and learnt two critical lessons of life: It’s not the amount of money that you have that makes you anything. I have seen that there are two broad categories of people called big men in the society.

Those who made money enjoy their money with their families and in five years, they are gone and you don’t remember their stories again. But those who make contributions to their societies have lasting memories. In the number of years I have been on the terrestrial side of the divide, I have seen that we remain unrelenting and unperturbed. Chief Awolowo died in 1987; today, anybody who is identified to be against what he stood for certainly will lose election, not only in his community, even in his ward. What is important is your service.

I learnt that from him. He gave a maxim that remains eternal with me: Whenever a choice has to be made between protecting community interest and personal interest, it’s in your best interest not to make personal interest your best interest, that if you protect the community interest, your own personal interest is likely to be protected. If you protect your personal interest over and above the community interest, you are most likely to regret it.