Liz Grose, the white principal of the school sent for her. As she proceeded to the principal’s office, she was trying to find what infraction she had committed in this rather strict school founded on the Protestant ethnic.
“I assumed that it was because the helm of my uniform had slightly came undone. Ithought somebody had noticed during the assembly in the morning and had informed her. I thought that was why (she sent for me),” explained the then 15 – year old school girl who later became a medical doctor. “But when I got to her office, I noticed that she had black hearings in her ears and she was wearing a black dress. She looked really sad and she said I have to take you home. I didn’t understand why, but I knew something had happened”.
Tokunbo’s sister, Ayo, had graduated from St. Anne’s to study for the HSC at Ibadan Grammar School; so, she was the only one in the school.
However, Ms. Grose didn’t drive Tokunbo home. St. Annes was a short distance from the Awolowos’ home in Oke-Ado. She drove to the adjoining area of Government Reservation Area (GRA) in Iyaganju.
“She didn’t take me directly home. She took me to Justice Shomolu’s house in GRA Iyaganku. When we got there Justice Shomolu was not in. I don’t know where he had gone, but we saw (his wife) Chief (Mrs.) Shomolu. She was also in black and she was looking very sad. And then Mrs. Shomolu got into the car with us, then we drove to our house in Oke-Bola. By this time, the road in front of the house was completely jam-packed with people… It was a struggle to get into the compound and people were wailing”.
When she managed to find her way upstairs in the main building where her parents lived, Tokunbo fell on the couch in the living room. The volume of the wails went up in the house….
At Adeoyo Hospital, the doctors tried in vain to save Segun’s life. By the time some of Segun’s friends arrived at the hospital they found his body being wheeled to the morgue. They had to make arrangements for his burial immediately, they concluded. This was a colossal tragedy and the body must be interred as soon as possible.
Bayo Akinnola, who later became the High Chief (Lisa) of Ondo, was older than Segun by five years. But they were friends. He joined Kayode Oyediran at Adeoyo and was beside himself with rage when he learnt that Segun was dead. How could this happen, he asked in utter disgust at fate?
While Akinnola was fuming at whatever higher order allowed the tragedy to happen, arrangements went on briskly to bury the dead.
In Broad Street Prisons, Samuel TaiwoOredein and Josiah OladiranLawanson who were also standing trial alongside ObafemiAwolowo, were listening to the radio in the morning of July 10, 1963, when they heard the news that the first son of their leader, Segun, was involved in a road accident.
They went to the visitor’s lodge which had been designated for Chief Awolowo to receive his guests. There, he was sharing a joke with Abraham Adesanya, a lawyer and AG member, who had brought some documents from Chief Anthony Enahoro’s lawyer to Awolowo for urgent comments. Oredein whispered the news to Awolowo’s ear, but he was loud enough for Adesanya to hear him. He added that the driver had died on the spot, but Segun had been rushed to the hospital.Awolowo thought over the news and responded: “The boy has died!”
Thereafter, Awolowo went to the prison warder to seek permission to use the telephone so he could call his daughter, Tola in Ibadan, or some other people who could help in securing the best medical attention for Segun. He also wanted to know his son’s condition. The warder turned him down. He told Adesanya to leave immediately and contact a certain doctor friend.
By the time news came over the radio later in the afternoon that Segun was dead, Awolowo, though devastated, exemplified rare resilience. As his fellow convicts broke into tears, he asked them not to cry. His main concern was his wife. How would she react? He sought to get across to her; to get across to people who could console her and watch over her….
Meanwhile, in Ibadan, before H.I.D arrived, his prospective son-in-law, KayodeOyediran, and others, including some of her closest friends, Chief (Mrs.) Alice Longe and her husband, Chief J.O. Longe, a senior civil servant, who was also close to Chief Awolowo, had arranged to have some medical doctors on standby to sedate her. There was palpable fear that the bereaved mother might suffer shock and pass out, if not give up the ghost herself, when she hears the news of her son’s passing.
Three medical doctors, T.O. Ogunlesi, Afolabi Ogunlusi and Muyiwa Adebonojo, were on hand. She tried to stop them from sedating her. She wanted to know what had happened first. Some assured her that Segun was alive, he was only under keen observation at the hospital. She didn’t believe them. Why was everyone gathered if her son was alright.
The whole town was wearing the look of mourning. Her compound was full of sympathizers. Her children were gathered.
Then a close family friend stepped forward to reassure her. He told her he saw Segun himself in the hospital.Segun would be fine. It was only the shock of the accident that brought everyone here. The doctors only wanted to calm her down given the general stress she had been experiencing.
Are you sure, Hannah sought further reassurance?
The man turned to Wole, who had since arrived from Ikenne too.
Wole nodded in affirmation.
Then Hannah allowed herself to be sedated. As she went into deep slumber, Wole and others moved into the living room.
“Mama looked totally bewildered”, Tokunbo recalls. “I will never forget the look of bewilderment on her face. In addition to all that had been happening, that was the last thing to expect… It was the most awful thing. At that point, she could have wondered where was God”.
After her mother had slept off, Wole accompanied the man who had reassured her to the balcony of the house.
“How is my brother doing in the hospital?”
The man was flustered. He had assumed that Wole too knew that his brother was dead, but only corroborated his assurance so as to encourage his mother to allow herself to be sedated. Unknown to him, despite the increasing crowd of sympathizers, no one had said categorically to Segun’s only brother that his sibling had passed…….
As the oldest surviving sibling, and with their mother under sedation, Tola took charge of affairs. Helped by her fiancée, Kayode, and her brother, Wole, they bought all that was to dress up her brother’s corpse and prepare him for burial that evening in Ikenne. Even though everyone was ready to help, incidentally, Segun had left enough money with her sister the previous night to pay for whatever they needed for his burial.
Awolowo’s political associates who were spared from the treasonable felony trial and his admirers headed from Ikenne to pay the last honour to the leader’s son. As thousands of people gathered in Ikenne, Segun’s body was brought into the town accompaniedby a long convey of vehicles.
At St Saviour’s Anglican Church where his parents solemnized their marriage about twenty six years earlier, the first product of that union had been brought back to be committed to mother earth. Endless tears rolled down the eyes of everyone. At the service were Segun’s four siblings, Tola, Wole, Ayo and Tokunbo.
In a very brief sermon, Reverend N. Saloko, the chairman of the Ibadan Methodist District, appealed to Segun’s family and relatives to “take heart”. He prayed that God in His infinite mercy would console them.
TO BE CONTINUED
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