Wale Adebanwi on Mama HID (38)

 A Diamond Head: The Jewel and the Lion
ON  January 14, 1966, Alhaja Awofeso, who was living with her sister-in-law in Oke-Ade advised her that they should leave the house and stay somewhere else.  HID had heard some rumour that some NNDP thugs were planning to burn down the house in retaliation for uprising in the region against their party in power. HID refused. She said their home was a sanctuary and no one dared to burn it down.

Later in the night and the early morning of January 15, HID heard sounds of gunshots that seemed to go for a sustained period. She was puzzled. Could this be a prelude to the attack on the house that her sister-in-law was talking about?

She went into her sister-in-law’s room and found her wide awake. She had heard the disturbing sound too. They felt there was something dark and dangerous afoot, but couldn’t leave the house that early in the morning. Around 5a.m, Awolowo’s faithful personal secretary came to the house to tell them what he had heard. The Army had mutinied. Akintola had been assassinated. He feared that the soldiers might be planning to come to the house to kill her too, therefore, she needed to leave the house immediately.

HID and Alhaja Awofeso jumped into the car and headed for the Oyedirans’ at UCH…..

Kayode Oyediran, the young medical doctor at the UCH, was not feeling very well the morning of Saturday, January 15, 1966. He went to the staff clinic, and was advised to take the day off. He decided to check the ward to see some of his patients before going to the quarters to rest. He was climbing the stairs when he heard Dr. Vincent Aimakhu, the gynecologist and obstetrician, calling him.”Kayode, Kayode, where is Tola? I hope she hasn’t gone to work. Please, don’t let her go out”.

He responded that she had.

Most people went to work on Saturdays in the 1960s Nigeria.

“Why?

“There is trouble in town. Some people have been killed. It is not clear what is going on. Please, go and get her from her office.

Oyediran’s first instinct was to phone his mother-in-law, HID. If there was trouble in town, it was most likely political and it would most likely affect her, directly or indirectly.

“Mama, what is going on? I hear there are disturbances in the city”.

“Beeni o. Koye awa na o. Se Tola ti lo s’ibi ise? (“True. We don’t understand what is going on too. Has Tola gone to work?”)

She urged him to go to the University of Ibadan to take her home. She was working then as the secretary to the famous historian, Professor J.F Ade-Ajayi.

HID also asked Kayode Oyediran to stop by at the bank to collect some cash because she wasn’t sure what might happen in the next few days.

“But if you are unable to get to U.I, please call Tola to stay within the campus with our friends like the Solankes and others until the situation becomes clearer”.

The doctor jumped into his car and raced to the campus. He made it there. They were driving back to the UCH when they saw at friend the Secretariat who told them she had been inside the Regional Secretariat and had been told that Premier Akintola had been killed. She added that nobody seemed to know the whereabouts of the Deputy Premier, Fani-Kayode. She added that there are pieces of information that some important people had been killed in Lagos as well.

They hurried back to the UCH.

When they got to their apartment, they found HID and her sister-in-law, already waiting in the house.

They later heard that not only the premier of the Western Region had lost his life, the Premier of the Northern Region, Ahmadu Bello, the Prime Minister, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, and the Minister of Finance, Festus Okotie-Eboh, were all assassinated as well.

“Which one is this? A coup d’etat? I don’t like what the politicians have been doing, but I understand that. What is this about the military taking over power?” Oyediran remembers HID asking after they listened to the radio and heard the announcement of a coup overthrowing the civilian government…….

WITH THE TRIUMPHANT RETURN OF her husband from jail, HID was looking forward to a peaceful life. She had endured four years of endless torment in which two of the most priceless people in her life had been victims. One, her first son, had died, while the other, her husband, had been subjected to degrading prosecution and incarceration. Her four other children too had suffered in different ways through the period. She was grateful to God that the storm had passed. It was now time to have a good life, away from the tempest of public life.

“The life of Mama HID Awolowo is so twined with the story of Chief Obafemi Awolowo so much (so) that chronicling the history, life and times of Mama would be exceedingly difficult without the other (Chief Awolowo)”. The Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijiwade, says only a few weeks before he passed on about the woman he conferred with the honour of the Yeye O’Odua. “Together, they fought (for) the cause of justice and for the release of the minds of their fellowmen from ignorance (and)…..freedom from disease(s)”.

The Ooni added that HID, whom he described as “A Diamond Head”, must be celebrated for “her devotion to her husband through thick and thin” and “the fulfillment of her marital vows as she stood unfalteringly by (Awolowo) in his political vicissitudes, especially when the going was truly rough and tough…. Mama is someone who was born into nobility and grew with nobility”.

At the end of Obafemi Awolowo’s tribulations, it was evident to all that HID had acquitted herself well on all fronts during the crisis. She had managed the home front well and represented him with distinction in the field of politics. With her super-rare memory and people-skill, combined with her verve and nerve, HID had written her name in gold in the years between 1962 and 1966. She will become in history an exemplar of outstanding womanhood, political discernment and fortitude. Thus, if she started to crystalize in her husband’s mind as a jewel for her sacrifices and prudence during the period of his study in the UK, that is, in the second half of the 1940s, in the period of his political tribulations and personal tragedies in the first decade after Nigeria’s Independence, she had become the embodiment of every blessing that composed Obafemi Awolowo’s life; the quintessential radiance of his very existence.

Therefore, when he was again called into public service by the new Head of State, Lt. Col. Yakubu Gowon – who appointed him the Finance Minister and Vice Chairman of the Federal Executive Council – Hannah Idowu Dideolu Awolowo decided to support him again. The quiet life she had planned for both of them between Ibadan and Lagos had to be put on hold.

As he assumed office as the Federal Finance Minister, Awolowo was “cheered into Lagos” on June 29, 1967. Hannah knew that a new life in the public glare had commenced for them. She had to move back to Lagos where their tribulations started. But now she was confident that they had achieved their final victory. The rest would be history…….

TO BE CONTINUED

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