Gboyega Bello
By the time this writeup gets to the public domain, the final burial rites of Dr. Victor Omololu Olunloyo, former governor of the old Oyo State, would have begun in earnest. I took an interest in the news or the aftermath of the news of the death of the former Governor for three reasons. One, the fact that he was governor of my state even though for such a very short time, three months precisely (October 1 – December 31, 1983). Regrettably, the state rarely felt his impact because even the three months he spent at Agodi Government House, Ibadan, were focused on consolidating his position through court processes, his election having been challenged by an enraged former Governor Bola Ige. He was thus lucky, as he remained untested in the highest political position of his attainment. In this respect, he was in the league of Generals Murtala Mohammed, Muhammadu Buhari as military heads of state and former President Umaru Musa Yar’adua, all of whom had their tenures truncated as a result of death or coup and were thus able to escape proper public scrutiny with regards to their competence.
My main remembrance of Dr Olunloyo’s tenancy in the Oyo State Government House is that his election ruined not only the tranquility of the State under the able control of the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), but it also put a pause to the laudable deliverables the state indigenes enjoyed under the ruling party. Free education, Free health services, among others. The sick, during the four-year rule of the UPN in Oyo State received treatments in government hospitals free. Students did not only receive free books during those years, but schooling was also tuition free. Before the UPN government debuted in 1979, as much as N32 or N40 per session, I guess, was charged as tuition fees in secondary schools. Many parents couldn’t afford that. They rather got their children to attend secondary modern schools where tuitions cost much less. Aping the UPN, the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) government of Governor Olunloyo promised free, qualitative education, whatever that meant, but it was unable to execute any before it was crushed by General Muhammadu Buhari on the New Year Eve of 1984!
The apocalyptic overrun of the state by the NPN led to violence and carnage in many parts of Oyo state, if my memories serve me well. In Ile Ife for instance, the dislocation was huge and sowed the seeds of the communal strife between Ife and Modakeke that had hitherto largely cohabited. The communal disturbances raged for over a decade. Mr Sunday Adewusi, who was Inspector General of Police then, in obeisance to his paymasters, the Shehu Shagari government, gave a shoot-at-sight order which equally added to the death of many people, especially on the Ife axis. Scars of the ruination were palpable in Ife in 1983 and beyond. Frazzled buildings of erstwhile homes, offices and shops littered parts of Ife township.
In a report of a media meet with Dr Olunloyo by Richard Elesho, I read the former governor sanctimoniously comment’s on his propriety. He had stated: “Those who steal should know why they steal. One was almost an English man. Awa b’owo n’le ni (I was born into wealth). Look at this house, for instance. My father built it in 1947. I really have never had reason to steal. To be appointed or elected should be seen as an opportunity to serve and not to steal.”
Fie! Who would tell former Governor Olunloyo that it isn’t appropriating government resources alone that constitutes theft or impropriety. Being part of a fraudulent electoral process or making oneself available as a receptacle for or as a beneficiary of such an ignoble act is also one, and perhaps, is of the highest order if you ask me. It bequeaths such an officeholder unlimited access to government coffers with the state at a high risk of financial misappropriation should he have an itching palm.
The election that brough in former Governor Olunloyo in 1983 raked in about 400,000 votes from Modakeke, a bucolic town, which going by the totality of its inhabitants at that time or even now might be difficult to justify. When a bright mind offered himself to be used to emerge as the victor in a fraudulent election process, he has no moral right to pontificate, for he has come to equity with soiled hands.
But we may forgive Dr Olunloyo because the nearly forceful takeover of the government of Oyo State in 1983 by the NPN occurred when he was in the prime of his young adult life, driven most probably by ambition, vaulting or otherwise. However, the blood of those who lost their lives in the process of the fraudulent election would for ever bay for vengeance. Karma would certainly lurk in a corner to lunge at the perpetrators of such an atrocity, no matter how long it takes. Which leads to the second reason for my taking an interest in the aftermath of the news of the death of our former governor. The callout on Dr Olunloyo by his daughter, Kemi Olunloyo in some serial video documentaries.
In our part of the world, it is unacceptable, if not an abomination, to talk ill of the dead. Kemi Olunloyo turned this precept on its head. She rode roughshod over the poor old man in death, as was also during his lifetime. She once took advantage of the occasion of his 80th birthday to mudsling him. At the risk of repeating the unprintable things she spewed, she claimed that her dad was occultic, although she never failed to allegedly attribute this to the influence of his stepmother, Aderonke Olunloyo, on him, while she also disclosed that even her mum joined in the occultic practices in a rat race with his dad and stepmother. Even in the closet of a home, under no circumstance is it acceptable for a child to speak ill of his/her parent, worse as the parent’s body awaits repose.
In an interview on an African Independent Television (AIT) programme in the night of August 2, 1997 when Fela Anikulapo Kuti died, young Seun Kuti blew into his saxophone, and delighted his audience honouring his dad and was then asked by the station’s anchor to name his father’s flaws which he would not want to emulate. As all knew, Fela had a legion. Seun was literally a lad then. He beamed an infectious smile, shook his head and disclosed before millions of viewers across the country that a child does not wash the dirty linen of his father in the public. That is how it should be. The contrary is the case with Kemi.
Nevertheless, we need to understand Kemi’s unique baggage and circumstance. From Kemi Olunloyo’s narrations it could be gleaned that she had a traumatic experience growing up. Even as an adult some of her experiences aren’t edifying. At 13 she relayed that she suffered rape. At adulthood, she lost her lovely brother in the UK. When she became a mother, her man refused paternity of her child. Worse, his child morphed into an autistic patient. Further, she allegedly disclosed that her parents’ once peaceful, elite home got shattered when her dad took in a new wife. And that her dad was high-handed in applying disciplinary measures on his children and relatives under his watch. All these and more are enough to break the heart of even a lion. She was, and obviously still is, thus afflicted with a psychological wound which in turn, I guess, has made her to have mental health issues.
Even before now, it is not unusual to see her unleash a barrage of verbal attacks on individuals and institutions that crossed her path. Kemi has other siblings whose behaviours conform with societal norms, notwithstanding that they likely passed through the same experiences with their disciplinarian Dr Olunloyo. The truth, however, is that people react to specific situations differently. Some could control their emotions after encountering certain challenges, other may turn to be wrecks eternally and irretrievably. The bottom line is that Kemi Olunloyo needs help, though he may not admit it. She would do well to seek an urgent care from a therapist. Regrettably, she is probably ossified, mentally, physically and psychologically; she may not ever be pliant again.
Come to think of it, Dr Olunloyo has committed no sin by marrying a second wife, whatever might be the circumstances that made him do so. I guessed he probably did not handle it professionally, so to speak. Young people these days keep each wife in a different home, the wives having little contacts with each other. I doubt he applied this strategy. In this circumstance, the wives largely conform and behave insofar as the man has the cash to oil the wheels of polygyny.
Kemi needs to find out from her mum why his dad opted for his campaign staff. “… [A]nimals don’t escape to somewhere, but from something. Something within their territory has frightened them – the intrusion of an enemy, the assault of a dominant animal, a startling noise – and set off a flight reaction”, (see “Life of Pi” by Yann Martel). As is in animals, so is it in humans.
Now to the last reason I have an interest in matters concerning the aftermath of the news of the demise of Dr Olunloyo. I am of the firm belief that Dr Olunloyo had the liberty to be superstitious, worse, occultic insofar as he’d practised it within the bounds of the law. Who among the big-time politicians isn’t superstitious and/or occultic? Who among them would allow a search into the dark corners of their home to confirm that a small gourd, an effigy, some black soap, local sponge aren’t stored somewhere for periodic uses? Even pastors and mallams, men of God they are called these days, are occultic! It is just that they probably don’t have a Kemi as a daughter to announce their escapades to the world. Or they don’t have a boss like the big man in Otta who would spare no word to describe his vice’s inclination to superstition and his predilection to the dictates of augurers.
Many years after the turbulent election of 1983, former Governor Olunloyo’s counterpart in Ondo State, Chief Akin Omoboriowo, who had challenged his principal, Chief Adekunle Ajasin, announced that he’d become born again. In the aftermath of his metamorphosis, in an interview, he stated that he threw away charms he no longer had use for. Most big-time Nigerian politicians are all in it. It’s a pity former Governor Olunloyo had an unguarded, loquacious Kemi who opened his dirty linen in the marketplace, who has demonised him a great deal.
High-stake politics in Oyo state has a history of juju and occultic practices. Colonel Ahmed Usman, who was former military governor of the state from August 1994 to August 1996 had a dose of the untold, it was reported. The poor fellow, of blessed memory, found that he kept on prevaricating on decisions regarding the fate of some of his commissioners, meetings after meetings he had scheduled for that purpose. It was said that when he disclosed the matter to his lieutenants, he was made to realize that many of his commissioners usually came to meetings with charms festooned around their body. He was said to have ordered some of them to unfurl their clothes in one of such meetings, only to discover charms and live tortoises on some of them.
In that same state, two successors to the offices of a fiery politician, Alhaji Bushari Adelakun, died mysteriously in the 1980s during former Governor Bola Ige’s tenure. The deceased took over from him from Ministry of Land and Chieftaincy Affairs, and Ministry of Health. Adelakun was said to possess occultic power which was alleged to have been responsible for cutting short the lives of his successors. Adelakun’s politics, in a way, had much resemblance to Lamidi Adedibu’s, a much familiar maverick to many these days. That was the state that Kemi expected her dad to walk into to rule unprepared spiritually. Dey play!
A lot was written in various tributes to Dr Olunloyo following his death. Even past interviews he had with the media also threw lights on the quality of his person. His brilliance, deep knowledge of mathematics, science, music and literature and many more and how free and friendly he was with younger people. To those who had the rare privilege to interact with such an individual who had drunk deep from the Pierian Spring, it was fun and a lofty experience which without doubt could be mutually illuminating. The regret is that he left a frazzled, vacuous library. He refused to write his memoir which could have immortalized him. I wouldn’t know if he wrote textbooks. Without such documentations, in a century from now only a few might know he ever existed despite his gifts. It is a fact that some of his type who were credited with his kind of knowledge and intelligence prefer anonymity. The William James Sidis of this world. That is the way of some sages.
May the Infinite Essence bless Dr Olunloyo’s soul as he shed his form and “plunged into the Infinite Current”
*Gboyega Bello is a writer and public affairs analyst