ADELAKUN’S PHILOSPHY WAS TO WIN

Long before Late Chief Lamidi Adedibu, the exponent of Amala Politics, Chief Busari Adelakun, (ERU OBODO) was the king of Ibadan politics. DR. AKINTOYE ADELAKUN, a physician at Prince George's County, Maryland USA is one of Adelakun’s sons. He has been practicing medicine for sixteen years. In this interview, he talks about his late father’s brand of politics and offers intimate details of why his father parted ways with Chief Obafemi Awolowo after 33 years of political partnership.

ND-. What are your views on the political developments back home in Nigeria?
 
 Adelakun: Politicians made promises, but they were never kept them. Nigeria has not truly experienced true democracy. Democracy is more than just voting for people, it is also the ability of those who are voted for to make deliveries about promises made to the people.
Looking at the four democratic governments we have had, we have never really had the deliveries truly deserving the promises made. Each time we have elected a democratic government, things have gotten worse for our people not better, and the far removed we are from the earlier 60’s elections, the more worse-off people are. During military rule, things were also bad.

ND- Let’s take a journey back into Nigeria's political history. Some two decades back, the name Adelakun rang a bell not only in Ibadan but in all of the west. Tell us about your father, Busari Adelakun and his kind of politics.

Adelakun- Chief Busari Adelakun is a simple grass root politician. He was introduced into politics when he was very young, about 14 years old. He was already a member of the Action Group and UPGA. He served Chief Obafemi Awolowo for 33 years. The way Awolowo ran the earlier elections in the Western States, there were captains in charge of a particular area and the captains ensured that the party delivered on its promises at the grassroots.

My father was a captain. He was a captain at Ibadan, Ibarapa, and Lagelu-Akinyele area. He ran for his first election when he was only 21 years old and he lost. He soon won a seat at the Western State House of Assembly and benefitted greatly from the politics of that era.

He would go on to win successive seats at Ibadan, and then Lagelu in 1976, when he became the Councilor. He was also blessed with instinctive political theatrics and “sharp” decision making leadership experience that endeared him to be linked profitably with the kings in old Western States and the Farmers Union.

In 1977, he ran against Chief Richard Akinjide for the Constituent Assembly and he lost that one by seven votes. He was later a member of the committee of friends, which later became the party of Awolowo or the Unity Party of Nigeria, UPN.

ND-Looking back at his 33 years of political stewardship under Chief Awolowo, can you point to  some epochal events or developments your father was part of that you fondly remember.

Adelakun--Ibadan initially was owned by Adegoke Adelabu and controlled by the NCNC. Adelabu, aka 'Penkelemesi" was very much loved. Nobody could really challenge him in Ibadan at his prime.
Performance measure for the Action Group to have any headway in Ibadan was to deliver on promises made to the people. Those were the days when “words” had meaning and leaderships had visions.

Politics, as envisioned by Awolowo, is for public welfare as an important source of political stability and governments can still see it even to this day: free education, free health services. I remember the dispensaries in many places by nurses, so people did not have to always go to the big hospitals like UCH. We had sanitary inspectors but my father was first a farmer. He built wells for people to get water. That was before we had Water Corporation. And when Water Corporation became available, my father through his position in the Action Group made sure that major areas got water. He brought light to Lagelu local government through the rural electrification programme. Whatever position he held, he was a deliverer of services to his people as a source of public good.

ND-What was his driving political philosophy.

Adelakun- His driving philosophy was to win. Pretty much to win. Every party is created to win because the politics, unfortunately, does not accommodate a losing party. It is a winner takes all gamble. In our kind of political situation, where politicians self-finance, then the import of elections is to win. And it is usually very punishing if you lose. So politics can be very personal. Awolowo found that out when he was leading the members of the opposition at the Federal House.

ND-Any major political upsets in his political career? Any bitter loses?

Adelakun - I was still growing up when my father lost the election to Akinjide in the 1977 Constituent Assembly. I know that many people expected my father to win on his own platform. I remember that three days to the election my father was very optimistic that he was going to win. Akinjide was much more nervous. But three days to the election there was a radio advertisement that was very, very strange. I still remember it till today. In that radio advertisement, Akinjide touted “Adelakun as a very good man, a good businessman and a good politician. However, for the Constituent Assembly which election we are going to have: we need a lawyer, not a politician. We know that Adelakun is a good man and he cares for the community, but for the assembly we need a lawyer. This is about making laws.”

My father lost that election by 7 points, because it was a delicate race. Most delegates that my father was counting on found a way not to show up at Liberty Stadium because they said they thought my father was going to win. That was the excuse and they never returned the money they took even to this day. They committed to him before hand that they were going to vote for him. From then on, my father advocated more for himself and the people around him and of course his family. He insisted that education must be very important to his children’s future and provided us with the best education that his money could buy. Think about this, I got my Bachelor degree at age of 19. Just in time before his last call.

ND-How did he take the defeat in the hands of Akinjide.

Adelakun-Oh, he did not take it very well. He lost a lot of money. We all suffered for it. It was an election we all lost. It was a training to us that the business that our father was into is one in which he cannot afford to lose because losing can be very costly. Starkly or wrongly, we were his children who must defend him as he had defended us.

ND -There is the talk about the three crowns of Ibadan politics, as many people would like to call it. Adegoke Adelabu, Busari Adelakun and Lamidi Adedibu.They dominated the politics of their eras and were known well beyond their immediate political territory.

Adelakun -Adegoke Adelabu was known as 'Penkelemesi." My father Busari Adelaku was known as "Eru obodo" and Adedibu was known as 'Amala Politics’. The title of 'Eru obodo" was given to my father by Chief Awolowo himself. It has to do with the way he handled difficult situations. You can count on him if he says “GO,” when it gets rough, and you look behind you, he would be there to champion your cause.

ND-Can you recall any such difficult situations that your father prevailed.

Adelakun- In the early days of politics, people did not do violence to each other, they played political tricks. Then, they could go to the mortuary, pick up a dead body and dump at the doorstep of the opponent and call the police who are on, in the game to make arrest. The worst possible, the opposition is not released until after the rally. They talk tough, but no injuries.

ND - But there is the perception that the three crowns combined political craftiness with some form of thuggery and manipulation. Why do you think the air of political notoriety hung around them.

Adelakun-I can say something for my father: He will not use his hands to strike another person. If somebody accuses my father of calling someone's mother a “whore” at a political meeting. Yes, he can do that. He is very well learned in the Yoruba language and he used it very well. He went to a Catholic school, so he knows the bible and he is a Muslim and he knows the Quoran.

ND-Can you recall some of his acidic songs he used to dislodge his political opponents.

Adelakun- For instance, if they plan to go for a political campaign and someone says they should not go to an area like Ibarapa, my father will still lead the delegation to Ibarapa even though he is from Oyo and they will start with the song "Ni Ibadan ni won bi wasi, baba wa pelu awon lo nile, Ni Ibadan ni won bi wasi."  They go with the song of equality on the ground. When my father leads such campaigns there is always an aura of respect.
At least until 1982, I don’t think anyone will try to come directly to strike my father. Usually, people know that when you see him, he is always at his best as a man.
Period. My father is usually well prepared: for war, death, for good and bad. The term 'Eru Obodo" simply means the sea has no reason to fear, but it is he who decides to enter the sea whose stomach should warn. Many believe that he fears nothing. If you are going to attack him, you will need to think twice.

ND-.It is believed that your father had some political disagreements and eventual falling apart with Chief Awolowo and Bola Ige? What was responsible?

Adelakun- As a politician, you know that Oyo state and Ibadan in particular has always been a very violent city. In fact, there has not been any coup in Nigeria that Ibadan did not play a significant part in. It is the second largest city in Africa. The way politics is run in Ibadan dictates that people, who have power there, like my father, pay homage and respect to the traditional leaders of Ibadan.

However, my father did not intentionally fall out of favor with Awolowo.This is a man that my father served for 33 years. And when my father said that "Enikan nlo okoya, enikan ti oko iya bo, ta lo mo ma bi oko iya she ri.” There is nothing that Awolowo has asked my father to do that he has refused to do with the exception of one: the one thing was after my father got permission from Awolowo that Bola Ige needs to be replaced through the ballot as the governor because Ige had been accused of two problems. The first was that Ibadan people were not happy that an Esa Oke man was their governor. Two, my father went against an Ibadan person to select Ige. He went against chief Alayande, an Ibadan Chief and a man renowned, who was already promised by the brass the position.

For my father to have moved away from Alayande to support a young person like Ige meant a lot. It meant that “Busari Adelakun” must become the real power behind the government of Ige. And the reason he chose Ige was because he was looking for someone who thinks like he does. When Ige wanted the new Gbagi market, he wanted it open to every body which would have disenfranchised the Ibadan people.
The Olubadan (Oba Akinyemi) and the Ibadan people wanted 1/3 reserved for Ibadan people. Ige did not want that. And then when they went to a meeting, instead of Ige prostrating as usual for the Olubadan, a traditional ruler, Ige instead gave the ruler his hands before the ruler spoke. Usually, our culture is to look at the ground as if we were going to prostrate; and wait for a waiver from the adult with a handshake. The ruler took Ige’s hands though to him it was rudeness. But my father will have none of that.
 He confronted Ige. He asked him that when he goes to Esa Oke what does he do? Does he prostrate or not for his traditional ruler?

The other problem was that Ige and Afolabi met with Shehu Shagari in secret without telling my father or telling Chief Awolowo that if Awolowo does not succeed, they will take positions in Shagari's government. So, when my father knew about this, he went to Chief Awolowo and Chief Awolowo said if this is true, then remove him. Get other people to run against Ige. What then happened was that when they went to Yola, Chief Awolowo asked Ige about what my father had told him and chief Ige refused to use the Bible to swear that my father was lying. It was true. My father left the Yola meeting thinking they had Awolowo's full confidence that Ige was no longer going to be a governor. Ige tried to fire my father from his many roles in the party with no effect, including threats to divide Lagelu.
So when they got to Ibadan, they started doing their own thing. Chief Ige went to Awolowo. The three governors from Oyo, Ogun and Ondo met Chief Awolowo and came away with a different message. I remember my father driving at night to Ikenne to see chief Awolowo because of the contradictory message. Instead of chief Awolowo explaining things, he told my father "My son, you have to stop thuggery. We can have more thuggery here. You are no longer a young person. You must listen to me." My father at this time was no longer a person you could insist must do what you say. He had outgrown Awolowo’s frawns. He now had a Constituency he could call his own. And he decided to show Awolowo that he had his own constituency and that's when he decamped. He decamped to the NPN, National Party of Nigeria, in 1983. Words were exchanged between Awolowo and my father about what will happen to each of them now that they have parted ways bitterly. Both of them eventually died a year apart from each other.
I know Bola Ige benefitted greatly from Adelakun, as God does not always give some people long life that is needed for the full scope of the person’s wisdom. Adelakun, Awolowo, Adelabu, Adedibu and Bola Ige for ever linked have all joined the Lord and the story is just for our own edification. May God Bless them and their children.
 END.