A chieftain of the pan-Yoruba socio-cultural organisation and elder statesman, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, speaks on life at 90, his growing up days, political activism and yet-to-be fulfilled aspiration in this interview with TUNDE AJAJA
What would you say is your greatest testimony as you are about to clock 90?
Oh! I thank God for giving me such a long life and good health. That is the most significant thing I can’t get from any other person but from Him. It is the good health that he has given me that has enabled me to be of service as much as I could to God and humanity. If I had no good health, there is nothing I can do. So, I’m very grateful for that.
At about 90, you are still very active in political activism, is it something you would do till your last breath?
When I’m in the grave, I would still be talking. Somebody asked Chief Obafemi Awolowo this question when he was alive, and truly, has he stopped talking politics? He’s still talking. Each time you say if Awolowo were alive he wouldn’t do this or that, he’s speaking, because he stood consistently for the right things and principles till he died. So, when I’m in the grave, even my enemies would say, that Adebanjo even though he was a bad man, he would always make his stand known. That is what I want to leave behind.
You were the only child of your mother, what kind of upbringing did you have?
I was born in a small village near Ijebu Ode in Ogun State. Yes, I was the only child of my mother and she had me at a very advanced age. It was when her mates were beginning to have grandchildren that she gave birth to me.
As the only child that came and one she had at a very old age, did she pamper you excessively?
I was pampered, but not excessively, particularly by my mother. She often told me that the fact that I was the only child would amount to nothing if the child was not prosperous, so she said I couldn’t enjoy to the extent of being useless to myself. She scolded me at every appropriate time because she was very conscious of the fact that I must behave well and be a good citizen. She was an illiterate, but that notwithstanding, she was exposed. Interestingly, my dad too was an illiterate but he was a smart guy because he was younger than my mother. Those days, they regarded it as daring for my father to ever chase my mother, but my father was a star in his profession as a goldsmith.
Even though you were born in Ogun State, you had your education in Lagos. What made you to leave the village?
My parents relocated to Lagos, so I had to follow them, even though I had started my preparatory education in the village. We were all living in a room on Bishop Street in Lagos.
After your secondary education, you worked at the Ministry of Health but your appointment was terminated abruptly. Why?
(Cuts in…) Yes, that was the first place I worked after leaving school in 1950. In those days, in your final year in school, people from the labour department would come and interview you for where you wanted to work, not that you would be looking for job like we have now. So, I was posted to the department for the registration of birth and death. One morning, a white man just came into the office and asked for the data office and I said ‘is that how you say good morning in your country?’ He was furious. So he went upstairs. In those days, a white man was the permanent secretary. The administrative secretary in the ministry called the chief clerk to summon me. He asked me what happened and I relayed it to him, and the man screamed and said ‘you don’t talk to a white man like that’. I said it was because the white man didn’t have good training. He didn’t put me there; how could he just enter the office and ask me ‘where is the data office?’ He didn’t employ me. I told them he should have the courtesy to say good morning before I would ask him what I could do for him. Then, they gave me a query and they asked me to write a letter of apology and I told them I had no reason to apologise. Was it right for him to rudely ask me something without the courtesy of saying good morning? So, they terminated my appointment. At the time, I was already active in political activities; I was at the time the Assistant Secretary of Egbe Omo Oduduwa in Lagos and I was already following those who were at the forefront of political activities in Nigeria, like Alhaji Gbadamosi. I was one of the young elements following them in the then youth movement. So, when I reported to Dr. Amadi that I had been sacked, he informed Alhaji Gbadamosi. He said they should find me a job, so Alhaji Gbadamosi employed me as a clerk in his factory, Ikorodu Trading Company. It was from there that I switched to journalism and I started with the Daily Service and it was from the press that I was drafted to the Action Group as the General Secretary. I enjoyed being a journalist, because I interviewed personalities and that exposes you to a lot of things, you learn many things and you gain access to many places that you ordinarily wouldn’t have access to.
You later worked with Chief Awolowo and you remain his ardent supporter till date. How did you meet him?
It was through my activities in the party, Action Group. At that time, I had become the secretary of the Action Group Youth Association and I worked with the late Remi Fani-Kayode, the father of Femi Fani-Kayode. At that time, anytime we were to have rally in Lagos, as the secretary of the local branch, I was responsible for organising the rally. I didn’t know that Chief Awolowo was taking note of my activities. So, the party decided to have a full time organising secretary and when they were interviewing people for organising secretary in each division of the western region, he requested for me to be posted to his own division. That was how it started. Interestingly, before then, I was a Zik’s fan and my political activism was developed through reading the articles of Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe. You would be surprised that as a primary five pupil in 1942, I was buying newspaper; The West African Pilot at that time. We all admired Dr. Azikiwe. He had a column in The Pilot, named ‘Inside Stuff by Zik.’ When I read his piece, I would commit it to my memory. In The Pilot then, there were so many articles coming out, including articles of people like late Magnus Williams. He had a column too in the Pilot known as ‘Between Ourselves’. Those were the columns we looked out for then.
You later travelled to the United Kingdom to study Law, how did you raise the money?
While I was working for the party, I felt I could not be a leader in the party with my O’level, and without being educated, I would continue to be a small person in the party, given the people I was working with. So, I decided to go and study. I started to save money and when federalism was established in the country and the Action Group government in the Western region established an embassy in London and MAR Okorodudu was made the Agent-General. I then requested that Chief Awolowo should make me a personal assistant to the Agent-General so I could travel out but he didn’t allow me. He said I should continue my work. So, I continued to save. After the 1956 general election, I left for London to study Law. I was also assisted by the leaders of the party, and Chief Awolowo then organised support fund for me. People like Rotimi Williams, Chief Akintola, the ministers then were all part of it. Of course, I was very familiar with many of them, so they contributed money for me, coupled with what I saved. I travelled and I bought a property there to sustain myself. When I was working for Chief Awolowo, I was more or less part and parcel of the family such that whenever he and mama came to London, they would also visit me, and when mama was sending food items to her son, the late Segun, in Cambridge University, she would also pack my own. When my wife was delivered of our daughter, mama was her godmother.
Does it mean you met your wife in the UK?
Yes, that was where we met. I met her through a friend, the late Olaniwun Ajayi. We were together in Sagamu and that was where we built our friendship. He was a supervisor of schools then and through my activities then, I got him registered and we became friends. By the time I was going to London, he had gone to London before me. He was the one who hosted me before I bought my own property near his own in London.
After your education, and considering that you and your wife were already there, did you consider staying back rather than returning to be a party executive?
Stay back? All through the time in London, I was the secretary of the London branch of the Action Group. There were political activities for independence. In fact, I was sent for by Chief Awolowo that I should come back home for the activities for independence. After independence, the crisis in the Action Group had started then, so we were merely rejuvenating activities while (Chief Samuel) Akintola was trying to split the party. But, through my own activities at the London branch, Chief Awolowo said I should come back to reinforce the party’s strength at home. When I came back, I was employed in his chambers in Ibadan.
But after you came back, you ran to Ghana on exile, could you shed more light on that episode?
I was still in his chamber when we were accused of treasonable felony, because we went to Ghana to study the activities of the CPP organisation. So, after the allegation of treasonable felony, I went on exile to Ghana. They were detaining the leaders of the party. Chief Awolowo said myself, Enahoro and others must not allow everybody to be encamped here in detention. He said he would not leave the country; he would stay, but that there must be some people abroad to be propagating the activities for progressive politics and that if we were all here, nobody would be able to do that. That was the essence of us leaving the country. By the time they were looking for us, we were already in Ghana because we had a relationship with (Kwame) Nkrumah.
There are people who still believe that it was Chief Akintola that made the allegation that Chief Awolowo was planning a coup. Is that true?
He gave that information to the government then because he was in alliance with the North. He wanted us to join an alliance with the North and Chief Awolowo said if he wanted us to have an alliance, what was the common ground. He said there was nothing wrong with asking us to have an alliance with the north, but we must agree on what conditions to form the alliance. Awolowo wouldn’t yield until there were conditions, but he (Akintola) was pro-North, so he started to split the party, which led to the disengagement of the parliament because he had the support of the Federal Government.
When you were on exile from 1963 to 1966, what were you doing?
Nkrumah gave me an employment in Radio Ghana. I was employed there as a script writer and Ikoku was employed in the Bureau of African Affairs. He was publishing the newspaper called ‘Spark’. So, we were all fully employed, except Aluko.
What about your family?
My family was alone. When I went to Ghana, my wife was still in London. So, when she was returning, I left the estate where Nkrumah housed us opposite the Ministry of Defence to meet her at Accra. It was in the boat she heard that there had been crisis in Nigeria and that leaders of the Action Group had been arrested. By the time she got to the port here, she was searched thoroughly; they thought I was sending ammunition through her, so they searched her very well. We really went through some things in this country and I only hope it would be better. That is why when one looks back at the struggles and where the country is at this time, it’s sad.
With all those activism that took you away from home and even made you to go on exile, how did your wife take it; did she try to caution you to take it easy?
She was a pillar of strength. She was fantastic, up till the Abacha period and thereafter. It was in later years that she became really weary of such activities. Even when I was in London as the secretary of the London branch of the Action Group, and we had an annual meeting where I had to give a report, after writing my report, my wife would say what a horrible writing and she would ask if I would be able to read it when I got to the meeting. So, she would take my draft and rewrite with her beautiful writing for me to read. She’s a qualified nurse, working with Island Maternity, and with her meagre salary, she was taking care of the children.
With your activism and the many times you were held in detention, were you around when your parents died?
I lost my mother when I was in Ghana, so I wasn’t able to attend the burial, even though they were looking for me. There is one man in Ijebu Ode today who rallied supporters in Ijebu to bury my mother. Also, I had a very dependable friend whom I can never forget; Alhaji Moshood Owodunni, a lawyer. And my wife also rallied round her friends too to give a befitting burial to my mother. Meanwhile, the security people sent people to Ijebu to see if I would come but I was nowhere to be found but of course, I missed being there. Don’t forget that I was the only child. My mother was a Muslim, else they might not have buried her, but they had to. In fact, before I heard the news in Ghana, I learnt she had been buried about a month or thereabout earlier. As for my wife, she’s to me what Mama HID was to Chief Awolowo. When they were looking for me for the alleged treasonable felony, they were cruel to my mum while my father was detained for almost a year. They said he should go and look for his son. He died just about eight years ago at the age of 105. He died when my wife was 70. The children came back from London to celebrate my wife’s 70th birthday in Lagos. After the celebration, they went to visit my father. It was Easter Sunday. He had told us before that by the time he would die, all my children and everybody would be around and nobody would need to send for anybody. My wife’s birthday was on the following Monday. I’m April 10, while my wife is April 11. So, they went to see him, but the boy looking after him said he had not been eating for few days. It was as if he was waiting for everybody to come home. He died, and I never wanted him to die during rainy season because people would not be able to come and celebrate.
You were once in Kirikiri with Prof. Wole Soyinka, what was it like then?
When I was in Ghana, there was a coup there that toppled Nkrumah. So they sent all of us on exile back to Aguiyi Ironsi in Nigeria. He was the one in power then. When they were bringing us back to Nigeria, they sent us to Kirikiri prison and that was where we met Wole Soyinka. The day they were leading him out, because normally we came together every morning to chat, I told them ‘don’t go and kill him and say he was trying to escape’. I was shouting on them. If you read his book, ‘The man died’ he said it in the book. Wole Soyinka likes to take brandy; they would put it in a small bottle and call it medicine anytime they wanted to supply him. They usually allowed a doctor access to treat him and give him the ‘medicine’.
What was your most memorable moment with Chief Awolowo?
Awolowo was a super, wonderful human being. I can’t say any moment with him was not memorable, either in giving you moral instruction or telling you why government must be fair to everybody. He did not believe in anybody saying politics is a dirty game. He would say it is people who play politics that are dirty. If you were with Chief Awolowo and you were discussing a political enemy, he would ask you ‘are you sure?’ He would tell you not to lie against anyone because if you did and we pray for God to deal with that person, he . The proprietor of your paper (Chief Olu Aboderin) was a member of the London branch of the Action Group where I was the secretary. He stood firm till his death. That is why I always give kudos to your paper. When Abacha banned three papers and others were trying to submit, it was only your paper that stood firm until another government came and lifted the ban. On that basis, kudos to (Chief Ajibola) Ogunshola, who was in charge at that time. He kept to the tradition of what the proprietor stood for. Olu Aboderin was a die-hard nationalist and Yoruba irredentist.
When you were in prison, was there any unpalatable experience you wouldn’t forget?
When Abacha detained us, we were kept somewhere where mosquitoes bite me and even after leaving detention, we were still nursing it. They locked me up with criminals in Apapa. You young men must learn to stand firm, but it wasn’t palatable at all.
With all the agitations here and there, you never aspired to any office and you never took any appointment. Was it that they have never consulted you?
Who will consult me? These days, people have no respect for themselves and they would do anything to get an appointment. During the third civilian regime in 1999, even when we were campaigning for (Chief Olu) Falae, Falae won’t be bold enough, if he won that election, to say he was going to make me a minister. People have no self respect these days.
Would holding public office not have given you the platform to bring to practice the kind of change you wanted to see?
Our own principle was that once our party was there, we were fine because our party had an ideology. But now, the ambition is that it must be them and after them it must be members of their family.
At almost 90, is there anything you wish you had achieved?
The regret I have is that Nigeria is not as democratic as we fought for. All the placards I carried in London and all the activities I did in Nigeria for independence and after independence have come to nothing, and that is why I’m still in politics. I should not be talking about politics now, if the younger ones have been doing what is right. After this life and when I face Chief Awolowo, I can face him and say I continued the fight where he left it. At about 90, I’m not a happy man when I see Nigeria and when I can imagine what Nigeria could be if we had followed the footsteps laid down by Chief Awolowo. It makes me very sad.
You have always been a lawyer, what is happening at your chambers, or do you still go to court?
I have not been to court for the past 25 years. Chief Awolowo told us that politics is a very jealous game, and that law is also a very jealous game. He said you can’t do both together. Some of the ardent followers of Awolowo that do not like what is going on in government wouldn’t like to openly identify with us because they have fat brief from those in power. They won’t like to confess to you. The government of the day would feel they can’t empower you to be opposing them, so they like to appear neutral. Those are the sacrifices we are making. Once you are in opposition to the government, particularly in Nigeria, which is bad, your rights are denied you. In Britain, you would hear of Labour, Conservatives when there is an election, but the moment an election is won, it’s Great Britain. But here, if you are an opposition, anything that pertains to government in your business, they won’t treat you well. These are the things that people like me feel bad about. We are in political parties to show that we can run the government better than those in position, by legitimately criticising the government on what should be done instead of what the government is doing. My office is still there, because I still have a place to keep my books. Also, I’m known with that address and I still go there occasionally to warm the chair and table there (laughs).
But with your influence, some people would believe you also have houses in several places. Is that true?
This property we are in and the one I have in my village are the only properties that I have. I don’t have any house in Victoria Island, Magodo, GRA or Ibadan. I sold the one in Surulere, I sold my mother’s property in Mushin; I sold the landed property Chief Awolowo gave me in Dideolu Estate and in addition, I borrowed money from the bank to complete this one. People who are involved in corruption don’t go into those details. That is one of the reasons why I’m endowing my church coupled with scholarship for indigent students in tertiary institutions with all the proceeds from the book I’m launching. All the proceeds would go to the church, because after my death, we are not many in my village to maintain that church and I have no property to will to them that they could collect rent from.
When you met your wife, what was the attraction?
All my life had been a life of struggle. Before I could marry, her guardian, a late prelate of the Methodist Church, initially refused my proposal to marry her because I’m a divorcee. I had to convince him that I had the intention to marry her. He asked me who was the guilty party in the former one and I told him it was immaterial. I told him I had more stake in the marriage than his daughter. If anything should happen, people would say it was typical of me, so I had to be careful and make sure it didn’t happen again. I told him I was taking a risk with his daughter. The man was just looking at me. Later, he told my wife’s sister that I was a tough man and that I had yet to become a lawyer and I was tackling him that way. I was still a law student then. I told him that by record, I could appear like a wrong choice, but does it mean all those who marry bachelors have successful marriages. We got married in 1960. You would be surprised that when the crisis came, I was in Ghana then, he came to visit me in exile. That tells you something.
These days, how do you keep yourself busy?
Even at this age, I’m never less busy. Besides political activities, to educate people that things are not right takes time. The only thing is that I haven’t got money to spend. That is why people say Afenifere is gone, but we are still around. Those of us keeping the banner don’t have money, so those who have the money overwhelm us. But we won’t stop talking. I don’t grant any interview that is off the record. What I can’t tell you at Tafawa Balewa Square, I won’t tell you here. That is why my book is titled, ‘Telling it as it is’. What you would read there is the truth. If anybody disagrees, it’s just the other side of the story, because the story there is eyewitness story and not what I read. Every issue there is based on primary, direct evidence.
Do you have a number of years you like to live for?
I’m prepared to die tomorrow but that does not mean I would die tomorrow. I have a role model and I still wish to pass my role model; my father was 105. There is no reason why I shouldn’t live longer because I live a better standard of life than him. It’s only the grace of God. Everyone would die when it’s time.
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