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My response to those commentators on General Obasanjo’s disrespect of traditional rulers at a Public Forum in Oyo State.
This reply is for Benson Olusegun and Adejubu Isaac and many of the commentators who want to know the truth of what transpired between my Uncle Deji Ademuagun Adesida II (1957-1973) and Pa Obafemi Awolowo of blessed memory.
It is true that the Deji had refused to stand up when Premier Obafemi Awolowo had entered the Hall in Ibadan, and he boldly defended what he did as a very brilliant lawyer himself.
He did not walk out on Awo or remove his crown as now being reported and Awolowo very wisely did not get into an open confrontation with Kabiyesi nor asked who he was right on the spot.
He knew who the Kabiyesi was and he later confronted Kabiyesi who courageously defended himself.
It was not Ogbuefi Nnamdi Azikiwe who brokered the peace accord to settle the confrontation.
Pa Obafemi Awolowo had contacted Papa Ajao, a very influential member and financier of the Action Group and a good friend of Pa Awolowo.
Pa Ajao was the father-in-law of Kabiyesi and he was the one who appealed to Pa Awo to forgive his In-law and Pa Awo did forgive the young Barrister and amazingly handsome and charismatic Kabiyesi who was so much loved by his people and that was the end of it.
Mr. Benson, for your information, the Olori who used to live at Umuagun on Stadium Road Akure, you have mentioned in your comment was the mother of the 44th Deji Oba Adebobajo Adesida the former Commissioner of Police who had reigned from (1991-1999)
The mother of Kabiyesi Ademuagun, Olori Eye Olamiseji from Ibule near Akure used to live at Kabiyesi’s House at Isinkan Akure.
I knew all of this information because I was close to my Uncle and I heard directly from him about what had transpired at Ibadan House of Chiefs in Agodi, GRA, Ibadan.
I later served as the Secretary to the only Asodeboyede Ruling House of Akure before it was broken into two to create Osupa/Odundun line on June 12, 1991 by Military Governor Navy Captain Sunday Olukoya by a Decree signed into Law.
This is precisely why Oral History passed on from mouth to mouth is very unreliable and can over time contain a lot of distortions by people who don’t know what they are talking about or who just make up stories to satisfy their ego.
Most of what I document all come from an eye witness account. I research my information before disseminating it because I love and cherish History.
You are hearing this from the horse’s mouth.
Deji Ademuagun a good London-trained lawyer who also earned a Master’s Degree in Public Management was as bold as a Julius Caesar or Ogedengbe Agbogungboro, Ijesha Omo Aponoda.
The Kabiyesi had so much cherished the Institution and was willing to defend it to the last drop of his blood.
Royal fathers like him are now endangered species in the Yoruba Southwest and in Nigeria as a whole.
Late Omo N’Oba N’Edo Uku Akpolokpolo Solomon Akenzua, my former Permanent Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Health was a royal father of that caliber.
Late Alaafin of Oyo Iku Baba Yeye Oba Lamidi Adeyemi III, was another.
So is Kabiyesi, the Awujale Oba Sikiru Kayode Adetona Ogbagba II or the Emir of Kano the unflappable Lamido Sanusi.
All of them would have refused to stand up for Governor Seyi Makinde and they would all have resented the insult by Obasanjo just like my Uncle had done to Chief Obafemi Awolowo as first Premier of the old Western Region.
It is that simple
Gone were the days when Royal fathers like Alaafin Adeyemi the Second had taught young politician Chief Bode Thomas of Oyo a lesson on how not to disrespect a royal father of substance like the Alaafin.
The truth of the matter is that the proliferation of royal fathers had lowered the respect, the dignity, the prestige and the aura of power of royal fathers all over Nigeria. If that were not so, the great Sardauna of Sokoto, a most likely successor to become the Sultan would never have turned down the chance to be elected the first Prime Minister of Nigeria instead of his loyal Deputy Alhaji Tafawa Balewa of Bauchi.
The last point I would make is that the American Presidential System we have plagiarized and embraced in Nigeria does not have room for the multiplicity of royal fathers we currently have in Nigeria today, sad to say.
Our Constitution only have provision for Mayors the moral equivalency of Chairmen of the 776 Local Governments in Nigeria.
So in a way, former President Olusegun Obasanjo was right when he argued that he had done what he did because he had a duty to defend the Constitution but he could easily have done it behind closed doors without pulling punches and not willfully assume the role of a crude Drill Sergeant by turning all those royal fathers into his errand boys just because he can.
It was a terrible sight to watch on television and the episode would for ever remain a permanent dent or blot on the legacy of a man who had narrowly missed becoming the Secretary General of the United Nations and the prima facie Emperor of the whole World based on my own recollections from serving briefly at the Nigerian Mission to the United Nations under Ambassador and Permanent Representative the one and only General Joseph Garba of blessed memory.
That is the plain truth.
I rest my case.
Dr. Prince Wumi Akintide of Akure now resident in New York.
