The late high chief Lamidi Ariyibi Akanji Adedibu was popularly known as the strongman of Ibadan Politics and ‘amala politics’.
However, over the past few decade before his death Chief Lamidi Adedibu , his Molete, Ibadan home wasa mecca of sort as many politicians vying for elective posts both at the national level and in Oyo State swam around his house as flies around honey.
Till he breathed his last in June 2010, one didn’t need to ask for description to Baba Adedibu’s house, all that was required was to follow the crowd from the junction. His influence, political and otherwise was simply overpowering. He belonged to the most exclusive club of Ibadan politicians, coming after the likes of the legendary Adegoke Adelabu Penkelemeesi, Chief Augustus Meredith Adisa Akinloye and the awe-inspiring Alhaji Busari Eruobodo Adelakun.
Adedibu was instrumental to the emergence of three Governors in Oyo State and the “removal” of one.
But five years after his death, his home and family have been neglected.
An Ibadan based newspaper, Parrot Xtra recently spoke to his beloved wife, Bose Adedibu who shed light on the kind of man Adedibu was, how he died and how difficult it had been for his family to survive after his demise. Excerpts…
The public conception is that many of Baba’s followers have deserted the family. Do you feel disappointed?
I feel disappointed but why I will not say I feel disappointed is one with God is majority. For those who know that Baba Adedibu has helped them, they phone me but they are very few. Maybe 90% no longer come here; neither do they contact the family. Even the closest of them who Baba described with the words eyi ni ayanfe omo mi eni ti inu mi dun si gidigidi (this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased), he no longer asks after anybody.
If I continue to think about that, I will feel offended by so many people and I don’t want to feel offended because Baba Adedibu came to this world, lived a very good life, he conquered, even his enemies would pray to die the way he did. And look at his name now;I am sure you journalists must have really felt his absence.
In Baba’s lifetime, it was not as if they really loved him, but because they wanted to take something from him. I usually say this during interviews like this, look at our mama, Mama (HID) Awolowo, people are still going there, I am as young as mama’s grandchildren. I said it during an interview with Nigerian Tribune, I have children that have Masters Degrees and they couldn’t find jobs for them. As I am talking to you now, in this house, we are using generator. Our lights have been disconnected for the past one year and one month now because of unpaid bills. I could remember the day NEPA officials went to disconnect light in Papa Awolowo’s house, they called my husband and immediately, he went to NEPA office where he told them that as from that day, they should not attempt to do that again. They said they were owing about N3 million, my husband paid part of it, Late Aare Arisekola Alao too paid part of it and I am very sure it has not happened again and this is the seventh year Baba Adedibu passed on and what I am telling you happened before then.
How much do you owe now?
It was over a million but I have paid part of it. There was one Ilorin man; I think they have transferred him now. The day they disconnected it, I went there and the man gave an instruction that they should not go and disconnect Baba Adedibu’s house again. So I started paying the money. But presently we still owe about N 600, 000.
One of Baba’s aides, he is from Ilorin, may God keep him for me, spare his life and may God reward him abundantly. He is the one that gives me diesel and petrol up till now. He is a very big Alfa.
Maybe people feel you have money because the belief is that when Baba died, he left everything in your care, including landed properties and all.
That is a very wrong assumption. Baba Adedibu did not have money. If you ask from people that were close to him, they will tell you he could not even keep money in a bank. He didn’t have money, he didn’t have properties. Okay, we have this house, the one we left at the main road.
He doesn’t have a house in London?
London bawo? (laughs). How can you say Baba Adedibu had a house in London? He sold it before he died. He would tell you ‘what am I leaving it for? If I don’t have money and I have something to sell?’ So many of his properties had been sold because he wanted to sponsor people and those are the people that don’t ask after us or the children.
Where were you the day Baba died and how did you receive the news?
(Sighs), well, Alhamdulillah, apart from his age, you know he was going to be 81 that year and he was hale and hearty. I was the one that forced him that he should go to the hospital for checkup because I travelled with the children just for two weeks and while there in Dubai, we used to talk at least 4 or 5 times in a day. So one of my sisters called me and said ‘Alhaja nibo lo wa? (where are you?) I have come to the house, I didn’t see you’. So I called her back and told her that ‘ah ah, Baba and I have spoken this morning now’.
When I came I discovered that within the two weeks I left, he lost weight. I said ‘Alhaji, I left home for just two weeks and I have made arrangements for everything you would eat while I was away.’ He said agba ni, that maybe it is old age. So I said ‘you have to go for medical checkup’. He said ‘ko si ntin se mi’(there is nothing wrong with me). There were rumours that he had diabetes and all that. You won’t believe it that he did not have an ailment. I can bring out the comprehensive report from Reddington Hospital. Stress of the heart was what they diagnosed. He had overworked his heart, you know with his age and the stress of campaigning all around. He lived very well, he ate whatever he liked.
So that day, it was about a week to his annual leave which he always spent in London, I didn’t know his passport had expired, so I called Azeem Gbolarumi, one of his very closest aides, I said “Alhaji Azeem, Alhaji will kill me. His passport has expired, how do we go about it?” because he could get annoyed and say he wasn’t going on vacation again if he got to know that his passport had expired. Thank God he said he was going to the hospital. Before he left the house, he told me he didn’t want to eat because the Doctor might not want him to eat before running some tests. But I said ‘ah, from here to Lagos? You have to eat o’. So he asked me to prepare Quaker Oats for him, which I did. You know normally he would not eat alone but this time, he said I shouldn’t make much that I should just make for him. I prepared the oat and by the time I finished, he was having his bath, I waited a while and when he didn’t come out, I went to meet him in the room. I saw him lying down on the bed. I said ‘Daddy ki lo de?’, he said he just had his bath and was just resting so I told him food was ready. He said okay.
Alhaji Marafa and everybody that wanted to follow him to Lagos were all around. I just saw that he didn’t come out from the room and he had this cloth that is used in Mecca around his body and one other thing I noticed was that normally he used to barb his hair every Sunday but I observed that he barbed on Sunday and barbed on that Wednesday that he died. I asked why he did that he said I shouldn’t worry that he just wanted it to be clean. I wouldn’t have thought he was going to die. I just saw that he came out and slammed the bedroom door “gbam!” and he didn’t wait again. He used his cap to cover part of his face. We all rushed to him and asked Alhaji ki lo de, ki lo de? (What’s the matter?). I called Marafa and asked ‘who offended this man again?’ I was angry but I went to ask him if they should bring his food he said he was no longer interested. I even thought maybe because the food was not ready in time, he just said he was no longer interested.
That was how he, and his aides went to Lagos. Moments after they left, I called Alhaji Ado, one of his aides to ask if everything was okay. He said they stopped by at the Toll Gate to buy akara. I said ‘that is what he wants to eat then’. So I told Ado, “please call me when you get to Lagos so I can talk to the Doctor by myself” because I wanted to follow him up. When they got to the Doctor, Ado called that the Doctor was there so he took the phone. I said ‘Dr. Lawan, can you see how my husband went down drastically?’ He said he was surprised. I said you know what, screen him for HIV, screen him for this (laughs) that was how the Doctor started laughing on the phone. I said why are you laughing? He said when I said he should screen an 81-year-old Baba for HIV. He said Alhaja don’t worry, we are just coming from MRI and that Baba was very sound. He said he even told him a story shortly before I spoke with him. He said Baba was sound for his age. Baba took the phone and said ‘ki lo nbaa so? Mo so fun o pe nkan kan o se mi o san ni won o maa ye mi wo, won ti fa gbogbo eje ara mi tan o jare (what are you discussing with him? I told you nothing is wrong with me yet you insist they should keep testing me, they have drawn all my blood). I said Daddy don’t worry.
Before he left, he sent someone to tell me that we would eat akara that day and that I should bring out a bag of beans from the store. I said ehn, one bag? He said that was what he wanted. So I called my cooks, because I always had four of them on standby, and told them that they should prepare half bag because if they decide to fry a whole bag, they won’t finish frying that day. We didn’t know that the akara would serve another purpose.
I had earlier told Azeem that on their way back, they should drop by and sort out the renewal of the passport. That was after I had appealed to my husband that “Daddy please your passport has expired”. I said they have told us that you should just come and do the photo capturing. I even thought he would flare up but he didn’t. The people with him called me from the Toll Gate and later they called that they were in Ibadan. So I rushed to have my bath and ensure that food would be ready for him on arrival.
Some people came and said they wanted to fumigate the house, I said no because I knew he would be displeased at being unable to enter after his trip. When I spoke with Baba over the phone, I was joking that I would prepare dry fish, and make different dishes, he was just saying “ehn, ehen” as if he didn’t want to talk to me. Maybe about 30 minutes later, I was in the kitchen and I heard Super Man talking over the phone saying ‘ehen ah ah, how is he doing?’ I said who? He said Baba that they told him they were already at the Immigration office. I felt maybe he didn’t want to come home before going to renew his passport. But I heard Super Man still saying ‘ehen’ so I said “Super, ki lo sele?” (Super, what happened?) He said “emi o mo bi oga se nse” (I don’t know how oga is feeling). As at that time, he couldn’t talk anymore so I picked the phone and asked “Alhaji Azeem, ki lo nsele” (Alhaji Azeem, what is happening?) he said he doesn’t know how Baba is feeling o. I said okay take him to UCH.
I called his Doctor and while I was calling him, Alhaji Azeem too was calling him, so he kept telling me Alhaja I am there. I stopped all the cooking I was doing; I took the keys to a Peugeot 206 and took off. I didn’t even understand how I drove and people were just wondering that what was wrong with Alhaja. And you journalists, being who you are, news that had not even broken in Nigeria had already been heard by people in America. I got to the Emergency section in UCH, they said ‘ah Alhaja, oya go to ICU’. I took the car again and drove round, ran up the stairs and when I got to ICU, the Doctors said ‘Alhaja, we have been waiting for you’ I said ah. I looked round and saw Marafa and others who followed him to Lagos, they had all been crying, I saw Azeem, he put his hands on his head, I asked him what happened, he didn’t answer. So the Doctors took me to where he was, I saw him on the bed, I said ‘Daddy I am here. I touched him and asked what happened. He wanted to talk but he couldn’t. I said ‘Daddy, e ma se erekere o (Daddy, don’t make an expensive joke o). The Doctors asked me to move back so they put a machine on him, the female Doctor there said they tried it before I came that they wanted to try again, so when they put it on, he opened his eyes. The Doctor asked if they should leave him like that, I said Baba himself won’t like it. The Doctor said “I don’t think we can win anymore”.
When they removed the machine, he passed on so I closed his eyes. That was when I knew that God is truly great. I didn’t know what I was doing but I controlled myself. I wanted to go out, I saw Azeem in one corner hitting his head against the wall continuously. I said ‘Azeem, what happened, what did Baba eat?’. So he explained that when they got to the Immigration office, they saw the Comptroller, he said they were showing Ibrahim Babangida’s interview on the television and that they brought water and juice and that Daddy took the water. He said Daddy just said “look at this man; he doesn’t want to accept his fault. Let’s go and do what we came here to do”. He said that was how Baba got up and they went to where they wanted to capture his picture. He said they had taken his picture and he noticed that when Baba wanted to sign, it was as if he wanted to fall and the people there said ‘ah ah’. Azeem said he asked “Daddy ki lo de?” (What is the matter?) And Baba asked in return, “what happened?” He said he now pointed out to him that he didn’t sign the way he used to sign, so Baba said okay, “let me sign again”. He said as Baba signed and put the last dot on the signature, he was collapsing so they quickly lifted him.
Only God knows how many times I recited the Ayat ul Qurisiyu that God should just strengthen me. Meanwhile people had gathered and I didn’t know what could happen if I went out in tears so the Doctors said I should please help them. As I was stepping out, I saw that two Doctors and one other person were behind me. Ado ran to where I was, I said ‘ah, Baba is alright. He has opened his eyes’. He asked where I was going so I told him Baba said I should bring his clothes from home.
One of our drivers, Sharafa had arrived at that time, I just told him to go back home and get Baba’s clothes, so I entered the car with the Doctors and my younger sister that came with me, and nobody said anything. When we got home, my sister said we should pick the clothes; I just went in and changed my clothes. I called one of the people around to go and buy a big notebook, I told another to bring a table cloth. She said “ah aunty, why are you doing this?” by that time, the person that went to buy notebook had arrived. I said oya put the book, she just fainted.
The children started calling from the US one after the other. I switched off the phone but I later thought that if I switched off the phone, their minds wouldn’t be at rest. They were all asking where is Daddy?. I said Daddy is fine. Senator Folarin came; he asked ‘where is Baba?’ Not long after, Honourable Taofik Arapaja came with sirens blaring, he too asked “where is Baba”, I said “Baba is fine”. It was just God that strengthened me. Within the twinkle of an eye, you need to see the crowd that gathered here.
Thank God he ended well. Till today, people still make reference to him. People would say “ah, if Adedibu were to be alive”. Thank God he died well. God sometimes takes the righteous before evil occurs. Alhamdulillah.
One other thing Baba Adedibu will be remembered for is the June 12 issue. Chief Abiola came to this house; Baba supported him and all that. What did Baba tell you about the annulment and what were his opinion about the annulment?
Adedibu and MKO Abiola are both dead now, may God forgive them and grant them al jannah. All I know is that my husband used to say you cannot tie someone’s hand and feet and expect him to fight. Remember Abiola was arrested and detained for a long time, weariness set in. My husband used to say it is God that installs governments. He believes in G and g, God and government. So whoever is in power, Daddy would say ‘don’t joke with the person, don’t under rate him’ because God put him there. So he had tremendous respect for government.
After the annulment of the election, Abiola came here, in fact he and Yar’ Adua met here. Daddy told him that the way things were going, he should use his international connections, go one exile and fight from there. Daddy told him that he should not allow them to arrest him. My husband gave him the example of when he was with Papa Awolowo, he told him that Awolowo took them for training in a certain place and that when Awolowo was arrested, all his followers, including him (Adedibu) fled.
Unfortunately, some people were pushing him. In fact when Baba died on the 11th and we buried him on the 12th, it was symbolic and definitely, there was something God wanted to bring out. Baba really struggled to ensure that Abiola was granted bail. One of his late wives said never, her husband must not come without the mandate. I asked Daddy why he wanted bail for Abiola. He brought out a letter Abiola wrote to him one of the days of the hearing. Abiola wrote “Baba, whatever you can do to get me out of this place, I will appreciate it”. It was that letter Baba acted on. He got Aare Arisekola and they went to meet Abacha. That was when Alhaji prostrated for Abacha and Abacha told him “no, no, no, Baba stand up. You know I know Abiola very well. Abiola is not my friend, he is Babangida’s friend. He won’t take the bail”. So Alhaji showed Abacha the letter. General Oladipo Diya was there and being a Yoruba man, he was uncomfortable that Abiola was in detention but he could not confront his boss. So Diya was in touch with Alhaji that he should go and beg his boss. Abacha kept telling him “Baba, I know Moshood very well, I am not the one that annulled his election and I am sure he won’t take the bail.” He said “but because of you Baba, okay call Dipo (Diya)”.
By the time they called Diya, he had arranged a judge that would sit on the bail. It was a weekend; they said the judge was not around, that he had travelled to his hometown. They got two aircrafts and went in search of the judge. He was eventually seen in Benin from where he was taken by air to sit and grant Abiola bail that day. But those behind Abiola said no, Baba Adedibu had gone to collect money and that was why he was bent on getting Abiola out on bail.
Baba was almost lynched in court that day. Thank God for (Reuben) Famuyibo and Olanipekun, who had to reverse the vehicle and ferry Alhaji out of the court premises that day. People stoned him and started shouting “bail saga”. They said why should he ask Abiola to accept conditional bail? Chief GOK Ajayi was the first person Alhaji called when the issue of bail came up. GOK said he was yet to consult the client. Alhaji said this is not a consultation matter. He said “even bail itself is a condition and this man has been in detention for long, how many of you have been there to stay there with him?” They rejected the bail, see how the matter ended.
He really tried on that June 12 issue and to now show the whole world that June 12 really mattered to him, he died on June 11 and was buried on the 12th.
What is your opinion about the new government? The Buhari administration.
I wish him all the best and he should remember Adedibu’s family!
But Baba Adedibu was not close to him
Even if they were not close, he is a Muslim brother. He knew Adedibu very well, as a Muslim brother and when there was a coup, we were all detained. My husband and I were locked up. So we know each other. Even if he doesn’t know us, he must have heard the name and he is a politician too. And Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu was close to Alhaji. I have not gone to him though, but I am sure if I go to Asiwaju, he won’t say he doesn’t know Adedibu and won’t say I am not welcome. He is a very nice person.
Credit: Parrot Xtra