BEGINS HIS REIGN AS PREMIER
As a result of the failure of the Action Group to form Government at the centre in 1959, Alhaji Tafawa Abubakar Balewa formed the government of Nigeria in 1959 and Chief S.L. Akintola having now become a Member of the House of Assembly, as a result of the withdrawal of a House of Assembly member, representing Ogbomosho East, who had withdrawn for him, was officially called by the Governor of the Western Region, Olola, Sir John Rankine, to form government by 15 December, 1959 and thus the relocation of Samuel Ladoke Akintola, after staying in Lagos for 29 years, to Ibadan.
Akintola had no private home in Ibadan and had not lived in Ibadan before except as a visitor. Chief Obafemi Awolowo all through his period as Premier of Western Region, did not live in Government house, but lived in his house at Oke-Bola Ibadan. There was then the need to look for accommodation that would serve as Premier’s Lodge, for Samuel Ladoke Akintola.
By March, 1960, a disused and dingy house, formerly used by one of the Colonial masters, was discovered and refurbished in the Iyaganku Government Residential Area, which then became the Premier’s Lodge. He lived in this house as Premier between March 1960 and January 1966, when the volley of bullets hurled at him by the Military Turks, led by Captain Nwobosa of Military Barracks, Abeokuta, cut short his life.
It is an irony of history, that the Premier’s Lodge where Akintola’s life was cut short, later became the Court of Appeal, Ibadan Division, until recently, when it relocated to the new Court of Appeal Complex, Adeoyo, Ibadan.
At his first appearance in the House of Assembly, the Leader of the House- Hon. J.O. Odebiyi described him as “a man of varied career who has been a teacher, journalist and a lawyer, before his exalted position as Head of Government and that the new Premier is known for sincerity, loyalty to a cause and assiduity and furthermore, that he was an interesting debater, whose humor and diction in English and Yoruba command great respect”.
The Opposition Leader- Hon. Dennis Osadebe in seconding Hon. Odebiyi’s introductory speech, also added that “when the history of the present generation comes to be written, the new Premier will be remembered for the part he played in Nigeria’s Independence”. S.L. Akintola while responding, in his characteristic humour and dignified candour, likened himself to “a bride who should be seen and not heard”.
FADERERA AKINTOLA AND HID AWOLOWO
Faderera and HID Awolowo were women with strong views and influence on their husbands. There was a mutual antagonism and recrimination, between them. They were of varied background and idiosyncrasies. Initially, they tried to tolerate this relationship and were sufficiently close. Shortly after becoming Premier, Samuel Ladoke Akintola sent his daughter, Abimbola to the United Kingdom to study medicine.
As evidence of initial amity, the young lady was seen off at the Ikeja Airport by both Faderera and HID, who generously gave the girl E50 Pounds Sterling and also arranged that she should be met jointly by Yomi, Akintola’s son and Segun, Awolowo’s son at Liverpool. However, as a result of the political travails that started in 1960 and traverses 1966, the centre could no longer hold between the Awolowo and Akintola families. Hitherto, the Awolowo and Akintola children had been exchanging holiday visits.
The period between 1960-1966, were periods of the greatest political dispersals, intrigues, power play, subterfuge, innuendos and deep hatred in the Western Region. To Obafemi Awolowo, it was a period of “fierce and howling storm and a four year journey through the dark and dreary tunnel”. This family feud and acrimony between Chief Mrs. HID Awolowo and Chief Mrs. Faderera Akintola also aggravated the crisis. Faderera had insisted and refrained her husband from attending meetings at the Leader (Awolowo’s) house at Oke-Bola, and that henceforth, political/party meetings, should hold at the Premier’s Lodge. This, Chief Awolowo found very amusing, insulting and embarrassing.
Chief Obafemi Awolowo after the London Conference of 1953 described S.L. Akintola as “an able lawyer. He is a brazen and affable character who cannot be ruffled easily, if at all. His peculiar gift consists in his capacity to argue and defend two opposing points of view with equal competence and plausibility. This quality backed by a sense of humor and his capacity for nuances made him a puzzle to opponents”
ORIGIN OF FEUD AND THE COCACOLA WARFARE
Chief Mrs. Awolowo, as wife of Premier was a major distributor of certain commodities, but when Chief Awolowo went to Lagos as Opposition Leader, Faderera insisted on taking distributorship of these products, because of the belief that it was her right as the wife of new Premier, but Mrs. Awolowo would not let go of her distributorship. This Coca-Cola warfare and acrimony spilled to the party, where Awolowo saw Akintola as rebel and betrayer, whilst the Akintola Group saw Awolowo as being too dictatorial. Alfred Rewane, Awolowo’s confidant and chairman WNDC, had earlier brought Pepsi Factory to Western Region.
Unfortunately, these intrigues and brutal manipulations, that had seen the exit of Oba Adesoji Tadeniawo Aderemi as Governor of Western Region, did not spare the children of the major actors of the politics of the Western Region.
TIES THROUGH MARRIAGE
Whilst this intense political warfare was going on in the Western Region, the culture of political marriage, within the political class, was unaware of political crisis. Omodele Akintola had earlier whilst studying Law in the United Kingdom, married Alawiye J.F. Odunjo’s son- Soji Odunjo. A young charming Prince Aderoju Aderemi, married the daughter of Hon. Dauda Soroye Adegbenro in 1960, whilst studying in the United Kingdom. The marriage produced Adedamola and Adeyemi. Adedamola Aderemi was the popular choice of the Oshinkola Ruling House, to succeed the throne of Ooni when Ooni Okunade Sijuwade joined his ancestors in July, 2015.
As an interesting corollary, in 1986 Dec, the young Prince Adedamola Aderemi, grandson of Ooni Adesoji Aderemi, married Kemi Oyediran- daughter of Awolowo’s first daughter- Omotola Oyediran. Oba Adesoji Aderemi lost his first child, Magistrate Adedapo Aderemi on 16th October, 1963. Chief Obafemi Awolowo also lost his first child, Segun Awolowo in a car crash, along Ode-Remo on the 10th July, 1963. Segun Awolowo had gone to Cambridge and was called to the Inner Temple Bar, like his father. His life was full of promise; he walked right into the Western Region crisis.
He was very intelligent, sociable, charismatic and a brilliant advocate. He died at the age of 25 in a car crash coming from Ibadan to see his father in Broad Street Prison, Lagos. Omodele Odunjo Nee Akintola, first child of Samuel Ladoke Akintola also died on the 26th of October, 1965 after an alleged overdose of sleeping pills.
THE 1962 JOS CONFERENCE
As a result of the intrigues, the cracks within the Action Group were widened into a chism, as a result of the rift between Akintola and Awolowo. The Jos Conference of February 1962, which was the 8th Annual Congress of the Action Group which held at the African Sports Club Jos, according to Chief Awolowo “acknowledged the existence of real and dangerous contradictions within the party”. At the conference, the young turks- S.G. Ikoku, Prof. H.E. Ajose, Dr. Onabamiro, Prof. Victor Oyenga, Prof. Akin Mabogunje, Bola Ige etc, were very prominent.
At this Conference, due to the subterfuge, Chief S.G. Ikoku was made the Federal Secretary of the party as against Chief Ayo Rosiji, while Chief Bola Ige became the Publicity Secretary. Earlier in 1956, Chief S.G. Ikoku, had contested election to the Eastern Region House of Assembly, against his biological father, Dr. Alvan Ikoku of NCNC, whom he defeated by 59 votes. Alvan, was later an accused, during the treasonable felony trial of Chief Awolowo.
AKINTOLA TAKU
Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola and his supporters left Jos for Ibadan on the 1st February, 1962 to receive the Premier of the Northern Region-Sir Ahmadu Bello who was being honoured at the University of Ibadan, by the naming of a Male Hostel after him -Ahmadu Bello Hall. He hurried back to Jos on 3rd February, where he met a completely different Action Group. He was asked to resign as Deputy Leader of the Party and also as Premier of the Western Region. It was intrigues galore. Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola and Ayo Rosiji and several others, left the Conference by Train to Ibadan on the 5th of February, 1962 without waiting for the communiqué.
In the heat of this political fractitudal warfare, Canon Alayande, a strong member of the Action Group, had on the 19th February 1962, written a letter to Chief Awolowo and advised him to be prepared to “make extreme self sacrifice and self abnegation…You will need to be less inflexible and more condescending”. Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola, a man known to be volatile with his tongue and dangerous with his pen, could not change the tide of events at the Jos Conference.
On the 27th of May 1962, 66 Members of the House of Assembly, out of 112 Members had passed a vote of no confidence on the Premier which was to be concretized by a meeting of the House to debate the vote of no confidence. The session at the House was disrupted. The Speaker of the House- Hon. Adeleke Adedoyin, after summoning the House to an emergency session, had barely, after the introduction of the motion, by Chief Odebiyi, Hon. S.A. Tinubu from Iresi, in present day Osun State, grabbed a hand bell, ringing to cause commotion.
Hon Emmanuel Ebubedike, an Igbo man from Ozubulu, in present day Anambra State, representing Ajeromi- Badagry-Ifelodun Constituency, who had been displeased with the unaccomplished ambition of Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe to become the first Premier of the Western Region, seized the opportunity to grind an axe, grabbed the mace and broke it into pieces, whilst Chief Adeyi took a chair and hit Hon. Kensington Momoh on the head, which also narrowly missed the Speaker- Hon. Adeleke’s head. As this was going on, Hon E.O. Oke from Ogbomosho South West Constituency, started shouting, fire on the mountain! Fire on the mountain! There was mayhem and pandemonium- Two Premiers had emerged. Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola and Alhaji Dauda Soroye Adegbenro.
Akintola had earlier been removed by the Governor of Western Region, Governor Adesoji Aderemi on the ground that he could no longer command the support of Majority Members of the House of Assembly, following the interpretations of Section 33(10) of the Western Region of Nigeria Constitution, Which states that “the Governor can remove the Premier, when it appears to him that the Premier no longer commands the respect of Majority Members of the House of Assembly”.
Akintola physically fought his removal. On the orders of the Governor, the office of the Premier was locked amidst tight Police security. Chief Lekan Salami, personally in the full glare of the public and the press, broke down the door of the office of the Premier, to allow him access to the office. This incidence was popularly referred to as “Akintola taku– meaning- “Akintola refuses to go” which was also named after a stubborn lemon grass- Chromolaena Odorata (botanical name).
Leave a Reply