TINUBU STRUGGLES THROUGH LIFE
TINUBU: MY STRUGGLES THROUGH LIFE (PART TWO)
Q: Babangida came to address a joint session of the
National Assembly. Was that resolution passed before or
after that?
A: Babangida addressed us during the inauguration, where I
spoke on behalf of the SDP. I frontally told him that he
should not miss the opportunity to leave the legacy of
handing over to a democratically elected government. My
speech resonated with Babangida and after we finished the
inauguration, he walked up to me and gave me a firm
handshake. He said I exhibited courage; we had a chat and
he left. I did not know what he said after that o! After that
incident, I became a persona non grata to the military
administration.
We worked hard for the emergence of Abiola. Though there
were lot of intrigues, we succeeded in seeing that he
emerged as the candidate. I went to 22 states to campaign
and the campaigns were very interesting. The election came
and we were all celebrating because the election was free
and fair. The electoral system was amended and the
chairman of the electoral commission, Humphrey Nwosu,
was very careful and sincere because of the method
employed. The Option A4 was effective. So was the Open
Secret Ballot System. It was well monitored. Voters were
accredited, allowed to vote and votes counted right on the
spot. There was no room for manipulation and the number
of ballot papers could not be greater than the number of
registered voters and vice versa. It could be lower because
some people could get accredited and not vote. Everybody
would vote at the same time. It was the Open Secret ballot
system. The two-party system would have been the
greatest legacy left behind by IBB. We had that election and
Abiola won.
Q: Where were you when it was announced that the election
had been annulled?
I was with Chief MKO Abiola. A few nights before then, we,
including Professor Borisade, were collating the results of
the election across the country. Suddenly the crisis started
and they stopped the collation. We were waiting for result
from Taraba State to make the final run. We had gotten
figures from all states, but they banned the announcement
until they got to Abuja. Suddenly they stopped. Crisis
started. We all did what we were to do. Abiola was using
his connections. Then we started hearing that there might
be a possibility of a cancellation of the election. The
political parties had been divided, with the NRC fearing its
loss in the election and starting to talk from both sides of its
mouth.
Suddenly, General Yar’Adua’s father passed on. I was in
Abuja when MKO called in the dead of the night to say that
he was sending an aircraft to Abuja and that he had made
moves to ensure that the Abuja and Katsina airports
operated at that late hour for the purpose of conveying
people. He directed that I went with Shehu Yar’Adua to
Katsina to represent him and that he would join us the
following morning.
He said he needed to talk to the governors and wanted them
to accompany him to Katsina for the burial. We spent the
night before the burial in Katsina because Shehu wanted to
be with his mother.
We were in Shehu Yar’Adua’s compound when General
Babangida arrived; he was still the president. Immediately
he came, they had to bury the dead. Abiola had not arrived.
He was blocked because the airspace had been closed for
Babangida’s flight to Katsina. All I knew was that Shehu
and Babangida went inside the house for some time. We
thought what was going on inside was the military president
condoling with the family, that all of them were praying for
the mum.
They emerged eventually and IBB immediately left for
Abuja. After he arrived Abuja, the air space was opened and
Abiola could fly in a chartered Okada Airlines aircraft,
alongside other people who came with him to Katsina. We
were full of anxiety. Abiola met us in Katsina and after the
visit to the family, the emirs and other key indigenes of the
place, we all returned to Lagos. Then we heard the
announcement annulling the election.
I was in the panel van of National Concord newspapers
because my car was in Abuja. I did not know I was
returning to Lagos. Some of my vehicles were in Lagos, but
nobody knew that I was in town. We went straight to
Abiola’s house and we were locked out because there was
chaos in front his gate. What followed was the biggest
crisis I have ever been confronted with in my life.
Q: Did IBB explain to you personally, given your closeness
to him?
A: No. In fact, at that time, the military had declared me
persona non grata! Everybody, except me, got up when he
arrived at Yar’Adua’s compound. He touched my head and
said ‘you’! I know Mogaji Abdullai walked after him and
said: ‘Senator Tinubu, will you not see off the President?’ I
did not stand up. I said he was not my president! I did not
know about the annulment then. That was how the crisis
started.
Q: You spoke about the greatest crisis after the annulment…
A: After the annulment, everything became hot. The crisis
began to offer the possibility of an interim administration
coming into place. Prior to that, they started the idea that
should there be a constitutional crisis, it would be Ayu that
would head the interim government. I wasn’t sure if Ayu
would start a debate on that or reject it outright.
But I told him: ‘Don’t ever think it would be you.’
Eventually, he agreed. There was suspicion in the public
space that he and Shehu Yar’Adua had consented to the
annulment. The suspicion pervaded the party. The public
was fed all sorts of information. I knew that I approached
Ayu that there was no way they would have made him the
interim head of government. We knew for sure that
Yar’Adua was angry because Atiku Abubakar was not made
Abiola’s running mate. It became clear to Ayu that there
was deception.
Shonekan was eventually announced as the Head of the
Interim National Government. We also learnt that the
military had promised Shehu Yar’Adua that they would
unban the old politicians and that he would have the
opportunity to run six months after Shonekan. They were
also touting Obasanjo’s name, but suddenly Shonekan’s
name was announced. I remember that I went to Ayu and he
said he had been invited and I said: ‘Didn’t I tell you that
they would not make you the interim head of government?’ I
advised him that the best thing was to challenge them. We
were in his house playing and I told Yar’Adua that there
was no way the military would make him anything. I
advised him that he would have built a great structure to
succeed Abiola after his four-year term, and that he would
only be 54 years then. I pleaded with Yar’Adua not to
abandon the ship. I took my mother, Alhaja Abibat Mogaji,
to Abuja to appeal to IBB and there is a picture where she
removed her head-tie, using her grey hair to plead with IBB
to restore Abiola’s mandate.
It was on the front cover of Newswatch. I mobilised them to
go and appeal to IBB. On the day Shonekan was to be sworn
in, I was in Ayu’s house to pin him down, so as to prevent
him from attending the ceremony. They left the chair
reserved for him for a while, before inviting Joseph Wayas
to sit. They claimed he was Senate President, whether past
or present.
There was a disagreement within our group. They offered
me a ministerial position, which I rejected. They offered
Sarumi a ministerial position and he said he would accept.
We were in the hotel room on the day he said so. He is still
alive to confirm or deny what I have said. I begged him and
told him point-blank that it would be the end of our
relationship because we should not betray the cause we
started. I told him I gave up the senate presidency for
Abiola to contest as president. I told him that was not
acceptable and I begged Yar’Adua, too. I fell out with Shehu
on the matter and I told them that none of us could predict
the end of the game. I pleaded with him to be consistent and
stand firm. He said I had no guns and tanks and that I was
incapable of facing the military.
The floor of the Senate was very hot. There was a sharp
division in the National Assembly. Thereafter, Ayu was
removed as Senate President; I was almost killed. There
was a plan to assassinate me, but luckily, Akintola Benson
and my late driver, Mustapha, walked into a discussion
where the plot was being hatched to terminate my life. That
was unknown to the people planning the assassination. I
was to be taken out of the hotel. The assistant head of
security at the hotel brought a chef uniform to dress me up
as a chef, while he asked a driver to wait for me. I escaped
and headed for Lagos in the chef uniform.
Abiola travelled to the United Kingdom to start the
campaign for the de-annulment of the election and
restoration of his mandate and Kingibe was there as deputy
to continue to coordinate the rest of us at home. I had a
choice to go back to my job, because I was on a leave of
absence. People advised me to abandon the struggle
because of the risk involved. They advised me to go back to
my work.
Q: When were you arrested?
A: I said we would continue to struggle until we had
democracy. We had a group of 30 senators called the G-30.
The G-30 was determined to actualise the mandate on the
floor of the Senate. Suddenly, Abacha came and General
Oladipupo Diya and Babagana Kingibe were also running
around. Diya was one of the most respected and credible
military officers then, and he later approached us that there
might be change in government. Abiola was around.
General Chris Alli met us and said there would be a change
of government, which would be in favour of June 12,
because they were tired of the shenanigans of the ING. That
night, Abacha changed the government. He outsmarted
everybody. They met with me, Dele Alake, Segun Babatope
and Doyin Abiola. We were asked to write the terms and
conditions, which they would broadcast after a change of
government. We wrote it and gave it to Diya. They are all
alive.
On the night the government was to be changed, Abacha
outsmarted everyone and installed himself. These people I
mentioned are all alive to testify to what I have said. I can
say categorically that I was even called to leave my office
because, as they claimed, that night was a dangerous night
for them and that everyone’s life might be in danger. Abiola
was told not sleep at home until the broadcast had been
made. We were all fooled! Big time deception.
When we heard the broadcast the next day, there was no
mention of June 12 and no proclamation of Abiola. I was
mad, but was still determined. I rushed to Diya and he was
still saying that there was no problem and that they were
planning to announce the cabinet containing eminent June
12 people. Abiola said what? I said no, announce Abiola’s
victory.
Diya told me that I didn’t know the military and that things
were not done like that in the military. But I insisted that it
was deception. I said I know the military. I called Okadigbo
to my office in Lagos and I put the plan before him that we
had to confront the military and we had to declare Abacha
himself illegal. I got members of our group together; we
wrote the script declaring Abacha’s government illegal.
Since we could not get to the National Assembly, we opted
to hold our session at the Tafawa Balewa Square. We had
gotten Dele Alake to be the media coordinator. We told him
to get the CNN and other foreign media ready. I put the coat
of arms on a rod! That was the mace. We created our own
mace.
We reconvened the Senate here in Lagos and declared
Abacha illegal before the international media and others.
My colleagues had scattered. After we assembled, and
having drafted the resolution, they still didn’t know where
we would hold the session. I told them to relax, this is
Lagos. After the broadcast, everybody took off, because the
SSS and other security agents were combing everywhere for
us. I went underground, using the 090 mobile phone. I was
still granting press interviews to foreign media. The military
people were mad. I became a thorn in their flesh and they
arrested some of my colleagues, including Abu Ibrahim, the
late Polycarp Nwite, Ameh Ebute and Okoroafor. I was still
underground, holding press conferences. The military
declared me wanted.
Suddenly they granted bail to the arrested senators. I
thought I would be a beneficiary, but I was not. Then, there
was a manhunt for me by the police and the SSS.
Meanwhile, my late uncle, K.O Tinubu and the present Oba
of Lagos, Oba Akiolu, who was then a police officer, were
pressuring me to disclose where I was. My uncle called to
ask where exactly I was. I did not disclose my
whereabouts. I told Akiolu that even though he is my
relative, I would still not tell him where I was since he was a
police officer! He said: ‘Ha!’
My uncle advised that the military would kill me if they
found me underground and no one would be able to locate
my whereabouts. He said it was better I surrendered myself
because he wanted me to be alive. I told him that I would
call him back, that I was to hold a press conference at the
time. And he shouted in amazement: ‘You are holding press
conference when your life is in danger.’ I told him I would
surrender, but would not tell him when.
I disguised perfectly, dressed like a malam, and went to the
police at Alagbon. The officers didn’t even know me when
they saw me. I went in, deposited my phone and my
charger. Senator Abu Ibrahim was with us. The officers were
wondering why I, a Mallam, could not speak Hausa! I
removed my turban, showed up at the front desk and
declared that I had come to surrender. And there was
pandemonium among the officers, as to how I got there.
The AIG then was very nice and they put me in the cell.
They poured water into the cell room and said, ‘sleep
there’. That was the nastiest experience I had within first 48
hours that I was there. It was on a weekend. I told them I
would embark on a hunger strike. The late Anthony Enahoro
was on the stairway and Beko Ransome-Kuti was at
another angle on the stairway. They brought me out
repeatedly for interrogation. They asked me to renounce but
I said no, I would not recognise Abacha. They took me and
my colleagues to court. People who were supposed to meet
their bail conditions were stopped from doing so
immediately they saw me. They cancelled everybody’s bail
because they could not isolate me.
They gave an order that we should be taken out of court,
but kept in the police custody at Alagbon. They kept about
eight of us in a photocopying room, an eight-by-eight room.
We were sleeping across one another. It was a matter of the
first to sleep would maintain the position. If your head was
this way, your leg would be there and so on. It was a nasty
experience.
There were a lot of interrogations, with a lot of carrot and
stick. I can never forget the role and determination and
sincerity of a compatriot at that particular time. They made
an exception to uphold the earlier bail granted to Senator
Abu Ibrahim. He was asked to go. He was the only Hausa-
Fulani man with us. The late Hassan Katsina had
intervened. But Senator Ibrahim said he would rather stay,
except every one of us was granted the same bail
conditions. He said he would not leave his colleagues
behind.
He is a courageous and a detribalised Nigerian, who had a
vision of what Nigeria should be. He refused to accept an
isolated bail. They started sending emissaries to us in
detention, offering us all sorts of appointments and
opportunities to renounce our positions, but we refused. The
judiciary was still very courageous then. We went to the
Court of Appeal. An incident occurred at the lower court.
Market women turned out hugely to support us when we
were brought to the court. The day they refused my bail,
some of the market women appeared naked and so they
stopped taking us to the court. The court sessions were
usually interesting for us because of the scenes. At
Alagbon, we bathed in the open between 4 and 5 a.m.
The condition started improving when they began to bring
officials of the failed banks. Those ones contributed money
to repair the generating set at Alagbon and we started
enjoying electricity a little longer than we used to. It was
during the time that the protest became intense. Nigeria
was playing at the World Cup then. Italy defeated Nigeria
and the security people lied to us that it was otherwise.
Eventually, the Court of Appeal courageously granted us bail
in enforcement of our fundamental human rights. Our
passports were confiscated and deposited with the court.
Later, the High Court ruled that our passports be released to
us. That night, they finally announced our bail and
conditions attached to it. The presiding judge then is today
the Emir of Ilorin, Sulu Gambari. We heard that they put so
much pressure on him (Clement Akpamgbo was the
Attorney-General) not to release us, but he ordered our
release. They were going to re-arrest me and I suddenly
went underground to continue my protest.
They would throw bombs and say it was us. Mobil called
me to come back to my job, but I refused. They bombed my
house, but luckily, my wife and children had been
evacuated. I would not want to reveal how they were
evacuated because there was a diplomatic involvement.
They told me that my life and those of my family were in
clear danger.
Suddenly, they announced that I was wanted again. They
alleged that I was going to bomb the NNPC depot at Ejigbo.
Ah! I was still being tried for treason, which carries a
sentence of life imprisonment, and I was again accused of
trying to bomb an NNPC depot. I couldn’t go back because
my photograph was all over the place that I was wanted. A
diplomatic source advised me that I should leave the
country if I wanted to continue the struggle. Dan Suleiman,
Alani Akinrinade were in danger. We asked Bolaji Akinyemi
to leave the country and promote the struggle at the
international level.
Q: That was the National Democratic Coalition then…
Q: Yes. I was at the forefront of the struggle at that level.
When I went to see my uncle, K.O Tinubu, at home, he shed
tears that night. He said he didn’t want to lose me and that
I was about to be killed. He begged me to leave Nigeria and
affirmed that, being a former police officer, he was sure I
would be killed.
He said that I couldn’t return to my house since they had
bombed it. I went to a friend’s house. Before then, there
was an incident that made them believe that I was at Ore
Falomo’s hospital. They went to the hospital to look for me.
Eventually, I left Nigeria for Benin Republic by NADECO
route.
Q: How did you make it across the border?
Q: I disguised with a huge turban and babanriga and
escaped into Benin Republic on a motorbike. My old Hausa
friend gave the clothes to me. In fact, when I appeared to
Kudirat Abiola, she didn’t know that I was the one! I gave
her some information and some briefing. I left at 1 a.m.
While in Benin Republic, I was still coming to Badagry to
ferry people, organise and coordinate the struggle with
others on ground. We put a group together, ferrying
NADECO people across. It was a very challenging time. I
can’t forget people like Segun Maiyegun and other young
guys in the struggle. I would come from Benin to hold
meetings with them and sneak back. The military created a
whole lot of momentum around me. They took over my
house, guest house and carted away all my vehicles and
property to Alagbon. That is why today, I don’t have old
photographs. They took eight of my cars away.
My wife and my two toddlers were dropped in a bush;
nowhere to go. Beko and the diplomatic missions came to
our aid and ferried my wife and kids to the United States. I
was still in Benin Republic. Besides, I didn’t have a
passport and couldn’t have been able to travel. At a stage,
they discovered our routes, because they had spies all over,
including Benin Republic. Twice I was caught and I
fortuitously escaped. They traced me to one dingy hotel I
was hiding.
The day they came for me at the hotel, I had gone out on an
Okada to buy amala at a market, where Yorubas are
dominant. I was also to meet Akinrinade and the rest of
them. The spies went to the hotel and as I was approaching,
I saw two people wearing tajia (skull caps) at the front desk,
asking questions. The man attending to them at the
reception (I had been very nice to the receptionist) winked
to me and I turned back. I contacted a friend in Benin
Republic, who was an architect, and had very strong
sympathy for us. Professor Wole Soyinka and Alani
Akinrinade, who lodged in a better hotel, were fortunate to
have escaped that night, too. The people on their trail
pursued them to the hotel, but fortunately missed them.
Then the British High Commission got proper information
through the Consular-General that my life was in danger.
He stamped a visa on a sheet of paper and did a letter,
authorising the airline to pick me from Benin Republic to
any port of entry in Britain. I didn’t know how they got to
me. A lady just walked up to me and handed me an
envelope. She said I had been granted an entry into the
United Kingdom. She said I could be killed if I failed to leave
in the next 48 hours. It was Air Afrique that took me from
Benin Republic to London. Meanwhile, my wife was still in
the United States. I landed in Britain and worked my way
back to Benin Republic. I picked up my passport from
somewhere. I went to an African country and through their
connections, they gave me a diplomatic passport as a
cultural ambassador.
Q: What country was that?
A: No, please! The African country that helped us with the
diplomatic passport was showing gratitude for the help
Abiola had done to its president before. So, you can make
your deduction. Then, I was shuffling and coordinating our
activities in the UK, Benin Republic and Cote d’Ivoire. I used
the passport to travel to Cote d’Ivoire to hold meetings at
the Hotel Continental, because we were planning to make
another broadcast that would be aired in Nigeria. By the
time I returned to the hotel, the military assailants had
broken into my hotel room and taken away my briefcase
and diplomatic passport. They dropped a note, saying: ‘You
cannot be twice lucky.’ I was taken over by panic.
Fortunately, in my back pocket, I had the photocopy of the
sheet of paper on which the British had stamped a visa for
me to travel out of Benin previously. I took that to the
British High Commission in Abidjan. They listened to my
story and asked me to come back at night. They did all
their verification and found my story to be true. I returned to
them and they gave me another sheet of paper and wrote the
number of the flight that would take me out of that country.
But I had no money. Somebody suddenly drove in. The
person is a well-known name I don’t want to mention. I met
him and explained my condition. He had a traveller’s
cheque, but the money was not enough. I went back to the
British High Commission and the woman said she could
assist me with her own personal money to bridge the
shortfall in cash.
We founded and coordinated Radio Kudirat and Radio
Freedom and we continued to organise. I didn’t see my
family for two good years. They were in America. Bayo
Onanuga, who also was part of the struggle, joined us there
in December 1997. The law of political asylum stipulates
that your first country of landing and acceptance is the safe
haven, so it’s not transferable. That was how Cornelius
Adebayo was stuck in a United Nations camp. My wife had
to invoke a family clause that exists in America to fight for
her husband to join her before they granted me a special
privilege to leave UK to join my family in the United States.
Q: Where were you on 8 June 1998 when Abacha died?
A: I was shuttling between the United States and UK. We
were working really hard as NADECO. We went to our
NADECO meeting in the UK to finalise the second leg of the
strategy to make a broadcast and enforce certain actions.
Before then I was reading Jubril Aminu’s interview in The
Punch, where he said Nigerians should not worry about
Abacha’s transmutation into a civilian president; but they
should be worried about what followed. We were persuaded
during a brainstorming session that we should get nearer to
Nigeria to do something about it. It was agreed that we
should stop him, even if we would have to start guerrilla
warfare to achieve that.
Tunde Olowu had been with me in my flat for a couple of
weeks and on the night Abacha died, we were just eating
when a phone call came through that Abacha had died. We
could not believe it until we saw on TV his body being
taken out in a van. And that changed the texture of the
struggle. Suddenly, there was this news, announcing
General Abdulsalami Abubakar as the head of state. We
started analysing General Abubakar.
I wish to state that out of all the military generals I met
through Abiola while he was lobbying for the restoration of
his mandate, Abubakar was the most sincere and
straightforward. He pointedly told Abiola that no military
officer would want to help him to realise his mandate,
unless the military general wanted to get himself into
trouble. While other generals we had met lied, Abdusalami
was different. He simply said: ‘Look, I am a professional
soldier and I want to retire a general. I don’t want to be
involved in politics. I cannot help you. I don’t want to be
involved.’
When we heard that he was the head of state, I challenged
the rest of us to interrogate Abubakar’s sincerity. Good
enough, he was straight-forward. When we met him, he told
us that he wasn’t going to spend more than nine months
because he was not interested. He promised he was going
to pardon us and urged us to return to the country. That was
the situation of things before the death of Abiola.
So, we were coordinating with Abraham Adesanya and the
rest of them, who were on ground here. They sought and we
granted them our permission to meet with and size up
Abubakar. So, they honoured his invitation. He sent people
to us and there was a strong debate, which nearly divided
the group, whether or not we should return. The suspicion
around Abubakar arose because of the manner of people
they saw around him, including Major Hamza al-Mustapha.
Some people within our group felt that we should evaluate
the situation carefully and not look at isolated occurrences.
A big debate ensued after his announcement that he had
granted pardon to those of us who had been declared
wanted. There were a lot of intervening incidents that I
cannot publicly discuss.
Q: When you returned from exile, how did the idea of Lagos
governorship arise?
A: Myself, Beko, Fasehun and others met. The death of
Abiola was quite devastating for us and we debated whether
or not to return. We also examined whether or not there was
a conspiracy surrounding Abiola’s death. There were so
many questions being asked at the same time. The previous
elections contested by Abacha’s five political parties got
me seriously worried. After giving it serious thought, we
decided that we were not going to declare war against our
people, but that we should believe Abubukar by returning
home to participate. At a meeting presided over by Enahoro,
I told them that I would want to return to my mother
because I missed her badly. He said no one could stop me
if that was the case. The military, in my absence, broke her
soak-away, believing that I kept guns there; carted away
the generating set and cut our land (telephone) line.
I came home with three pairs of trousers and three jackets.
But because I gave her notice and some other people
noticed that I was arriving, unknown to me, they had
mobilised people to welcome me. I was shocked at the huge
crowd when I got to the airport. I was carried shoulder-
high. That was the day I was totally convinced that
Nigerians could be very honest, if they care about you.
Because as they carried me, my ticket, passport and 2,000
pounds sterling fell from my inner jacket. I didn’t know they
had fallen off because I was carried away by the euphoria of
the crowd. I didn’t know how they got to Sunday Adigun. At
night, they told me someone was looking for me, but
because the people around me didn’t believe that danger
had finally cleared, they prevented the person. But he
insisted that he would not give it to anybody and showed
them my passport. So they allowed him and he handed
everything to me.
Meanwhile, I had no Victoria Island home to return to. It had
been taken over by Abacha. They dispossessed me of the
house, as well as my office on Saka Tinubu Street. My
vehicles and everything else I owned. They claimed they
found bombs in it and dispossessed me of it. I was totally
cleaned out. I had only five shirts, the 2000 pounds and the
jackets. Before then, Akinyelure came to America, looking
for me, with one briefcase. He was detained for four hours
by the immigration because they were wondering how
someone could come to America with one briefcase. They
didn’t let him off until they contacted Mobil and Mobil
confirmed him as an ex-employee. He didn’t get to my
house till about 3 O’clock. He told me I had to come to
Nigeria even if I wouldn’t participate. But he said I should
participate. I got back home and each time I moved out,
people would shout ‘Governor’.
The day I went to our group’s meeting, they were to decide
who to endorse among Wahab Dosunmu, Shitta-Bey and
others. They asked me if I was interested and I asked them
to give me two weeks to go round since I was just returning.
Alhaji Hamzat was there. The chairman at our group’s
meeting on that day said they would grant me the two
weeks. So I started moving round. My late sister got me
some clothes to wear, whether they fitted me or not. I went
to Mushin, Agege and other places and people were hailing
me as ‘Governor’ and urging me to run. On my first tour of
my senatorial district, people were saying governor. Even
people who had gone to another party started coming back
into the Alliance for Democracy, AD, and that was how I
decided I would run. People in Lagos West, East and Central
said: ‘You must run for governorship.’
Q: You spent eight years in government, what will you
consider your best legacy?
A: My best legacy is the financial engineering of Lagos
State, especially to bring financial autonomy to Lagos State
and eliminate wastage and mismanagement. That was just
one aspect of it. My greatest legacy is Governor Babatunde
Fashola. I identified and endorsed him. That was when my
corporate background as a recruiter and talent seeker for
Deloitte came to play. Part of the training when you go on
operational audit is that the first thing you evaluate are the
personnel and the questionnaire given to them and how they
answer it. You look at the ability of individuals to really take
and develop others. There is nothing unique about any
leadership. Everybody can come up with different ideas.
You can take different routes and arrive at the same answer.
No matter how much steel and metal you put together, the
greatest achievement and legacy is the ability to develop
other leaders who can succeed you, otherwise your legacy
will be in shambles. It was a very difficult and challenging
period for me. I thank God I stuck to my guns.
Q: You waged several battles against Obasanjo on issues
like fiscal federalism, seizure of local council funds etc.
Which of these wars did you consider the hottest?
A: If I have to rank them, I think the creation of the local
governments was my favourite because the processes are
clearly stated and well articulated in the constitution. And if
you do all of that and comply with the constitutional
requirements, then you should not be denied. I believe in
true federalism. I believe in local government
administration, which I think is a service centre for the
state. The constitution is clear. It is a misnomer to even
think that there are three tiers of government in a federal
system of government. There are only two – the state and
the federal. It is because the constitution was put together
by a group of military people, who believe in command and
control that we have this kind of anomaly.
They tinkered with it and they tailored it in a way that would
suit a unitary system and I believe that was the problem. We
still don’t have a constitution of ‘we the people’. The battle
was not personally directed at Obasanjo.
Q: Let’s move to matters personal. How did you meet your
wife?
Through a dating agency! On a serious note, it was through
a family connection.
Q: How many hearts did you break?
A: I don’t know, because I don’t look back and I am not a
psychologist or medical expert to test for broken hearts and
emotional instability. You pray for luck. Sincerely, you don’t
know whether my own heart was broken, too. I am a very
lucky person and it was through family connection that I
met my wife. It is true that I had many dates. Until I met her,
I didn’t even want to be married because I loved my
freedom. I had also been disappointed along the line, my
expectations dashed. I was going to be totally free before I
met Remi. She was innocent, homely and very quiet. I was
surprised by her manners and I was hooked.
I was a DJ to my friends. I love music and my house was a
boys’ rendezvous. Remi used to cook for all of us. She is
the best woman I ever met and fully endorsed by all my
friends. They were very close. My friends said: ‘Bola, you
now have a woman and you have to settle down.’
I was a successful corporate person. She is totally urbane
and seriously committed to my professionalism and career.
I met somebody who enhanced the value of my life.
Q: Who was your favourite musician then, and now?
A: I was interested in music. I enjoy music, from the days of
James Brown. I told you I followed Roy Chicago to Ado-
Ekiti, without knowing. I was just lucky. God just made me a
professional because I could have ended up with the late
Dr. Sikiru Ayinde Barrister! We used to follow him about for
were during the Ramadan, to the extent that I would be
locked out. Whenever there was competition around Lagos
Island or anywhere, we were always there. There was
always the possibility of violence because of the
competition.
But when I was an in-house DJ, not commercial DJ. Teddy
Pendergrass was my favourite and I kept myself updated on
the music scene in America. You don’t have music now.
You now have O foka sibe, O gbona feli feli. I love listening
to jazz a lot.
Q: What is your favourite food?
Q: Amala and ewedu. But to be honest with you, I love rice.
Rice first, amala second. I don’t like eba that much. In any
form at all, I can eat rice three times a day.
Q: People say Asiwaju is the richest Yoruba man. How rich
are you?
If you are talking in monetary terms, it is a lie. But I want
them to continue to believe that I am rich. The fact is that I
cannot prepare for my death. I want to live long and I
believe in people and I believe in sharing. So, whatever you
ascribe to me in terms of wealth is your own imagination. I
will not do two cheques – one to the Central Bank of
Heaven and the other one to the Central Bank of Hell –
cashable when I am dead. The money will remain here. I
don’t want to be greedy, but frugal with the little I have and
be contented. There are certain things they can’t dispute
and one of these is that I wasn’t a poor man when I joined
politics. I financed the struggle during the NADECO days.
Before the NADECO days, I financed political goals and
aspirations. I financed political groups and individuals.
No matter how you dream, it is empty without financial
success. If you have no concrete financial progress for a
state or an entity, it will not endure. I have not taken Lagos
to bankruptcy. It was bankrupt before I took over, I turned it
into a success within my two-terms as governor. It had
existed for so long before I became governor.
During my tenure, former President Olusegun Obasanjo
described Lagos as an urban jungle and uninhabitable. But
he chose to celebrate his 75th birthday in Lagos! There was
a dispute on the Bar Beach during my tenure, but if I didn’t
rigidly follow my vision and my belief in Lagos State,
Victoria Island would have been submerged.
Adapted from an interview published in Asiwaju: Untold
Story of The Leader, a special publication of TheNEWS
Q: Babangida came to address a joint session of the
National Assembly. Was that resolution passed before or
after that?
A: Babangida addressed us during the inauguration, where I
spoke on behalf of the SDP. I frontally told him that he
should not miss the opportunity to leave the legacy of
handing over to a democratically elected government. My
speech resonated with Babangida and after we finished the
inauguration, he walked up to me and gave me a firm
handshake. He said I exhibited courage; we had a chat and
he left. I did not know what he said after that o! After that
incident, I became a persona non grata to the military
administration.
We worked hard for the emergence of Abiola. Though there
were lot of intrigues, we succeeded in seeing that he
emerged as the candidate. I went to 22 states to campaign
and the campaigns were very interesting. The election came
and we were all celebrating because the election was free
and fair. The electoral system was amended and the
chairman of the electoral commission, Humphrey Nwosu,
was very careful and sincere because of the method
employed. The Option A4 was effective. So was the Open
Secret Ballot System. It was well monitored. Voters were
accredited, allowed to vote and votes counted right on the
spot. There was no room for manipulation and the number
of ballot papers could not be greater than the number of
registered voters and vice versa. It could be lower because
some people could get accredited and not vote. Everybody
would vote at the same time. It was the Open Secret ballot
system. The two-party system would have been the
greatest legacy left behind by IBB. We had that election and
Abiola won.
Q: Where were you when it was announced that the election
had been annulled?
I was with Chief MKO Abiola. A few nights before then, we,
including Professor Borisade, were collating the results of
the election across the country. Suddenly the crisis started
and they stopped the collation. We were waiting for result
from Taraba State to make the final run. We had gotten
figures from all states, but they banned the announcement
until they got to Abuja. Suddenly they stopped. Crisis
started. We all did what we were to do. Abiola was using
his connections. Then we started hearing that there might
be a possibility of a cancellation of the election. The
political parties had been divided, with the NRC fearing its
loss in the election and starting to talk from both sides of its
mouth.
Suddenly, General Yar’Adua’s father passed on. I was in
Abuja when MKO called in the dead of the night to say that
he was sending an aircraft to Abuja and that he had made
moves to ensure that the Abuja and Katsina airports
operated at that late hour for the purpose of conveying
people. He directed that I went with Shehu Yar’Adua to
Katsina to represent him and that he would join us the
following morning.
He said he needed to talk to the governors and wanted them
to accompany him to Katsina for the burial. We spent the
night before the burial in Katsina because Shehu wanted to
be with his mother.
We were in Shehu Yar’Adua’s compound when General
Babangida arrived; he was still the president. Immediately
he came, they had to bury the dead. Abiola had not arrived.
He was blocked because the airspace had been closed for
Babangida’s flight to Katsina. All I knew was that Shehu
and Babangida went inside the house for some time. We
thought what was going on inside was the military president
condoling with the family, that all of them were praying for
the mum.
They emerged eventually and IBB immediately left for
Abuja. After he arrived Abuja, the air space was opened and
Abiola could fly in a chartered Okada Airlines aircraft,
alongside other people who came with him to Katsina. We
were full of anxiety. Abiola met us in Katsina and after the
visit to the family, the emirs and other key indigenes of the
place, we all returned to Lagos. Then we heard the
announcement annulling the election.
I was in the panel van of National Concord newspapers
because my car was in Abuja. I did not know I was
returning to Lagos. Some of my vehicles were in Lagos, but
nobody knew that I was in town. We went straight to
Abiola’s house and we were locked out because there was
chaos in front his gate. What followed was the biggest
crisis I have ever been confronted with in my life.
Q: Did IBB explain to you personally, given your closeness
to him?
A: No. In fact, at that time, the military had declared me
persona non grata! Everybody, except me, got up when he
arrived at Yar’Adua’s compound. He touched my head and
said ‘you’! I know Mogaji Abdullai walked after him and
said: ‘Senator Tinubu, will you not see off the President?’ I
did not stand up. I said he was not my president! I did not
know about the annulment then. That was how the crisis
started.
Q: You spoke about the greatest crisis after the annulment…
A: After the annulment, everything became hot. The crisis
began to offer the possibility of an interim administration
coming into place. Prior to that, they started the idea that
should there be a constitutional crisis, it would be Ayu that
would head the interim government. I wasn’t sure if Ayu
would start a debate on that or reject it outright.
But I told him: ‘Don’t ever think it would be you.’
Eventually, he agreed. There was suspicion in the public
space that he and Shehu Yar’Adua had consented to the
annulment. The suspicion pervaded the party. The public
was fed all sorts of information. I knew that I approached
Ayu that there was no way they would have made him the
interim head of government. We knew for sure that
Yar’Adua was angry because Atiku Abubakar was not made
Abiola’s running mate. It became clear to Ayu that there
was deception.
Shonekan was eventually announced as the Head of the
Interim National Government. We also learnt that the
military had promised Shehu Yar’Adua that they would
unban the old politicians and that he would have the
opportunity to run six months after Shonekan. They were
also touting Obasanjo’s name, but suddenly Shonekan’s
name was announced. I remember that I went to Ayu and he
said he had been invited and I said: ‘Didn’t I tell you that
they would not make you the interim head of government?’ I
advised him that the best thing was to challenge them. We
were in his house playing and I told Yar’Adua that there
was no way the military would make him anything. I
advised him that he would have built a great structure to
succeed Abiola after his four-year term, and that he would
only be 54 years then. I pleaded with Yar’Adua not to
abandon the ship. I took my mother, Alhaja Abibat Mogaji,
to Abuja to appeal to IBB and there is a picture where she
removed her head-tie, using her grey hair to plead with IBB
to restore Abiola’s mandate.
It was on the front cover of Newswatch. I mobilised them to
go and appeal to IBB. On the day Shonekan was to be sworn
in, I was in Ayu’s house to pin him down, so as to prevent
him from attending the ceremony. They left the chair
reserved for him for a while, before inviting Joseph Wayas
to sit. They claimed he was Senate President, whether past
or present.
There was a disagreement within our group. They offered
me a ministerial position, which I rejected. They offered
Sarumi a ministerial position and he said he would accept.
We were in the hotel room on the day he said so. He is still
alive to confirm or deny what I have said. I begged him and
told him point-blank that it would be the end of our
relationship because we should not betray the cause we
started. I told him I gave up the senate presidency for
Abiola to contest as president. I told him that was not
acceptable and I begged Yar’Adua, too. I fell out with Shehu
on the matter and I told them that none of us could predict
the end of the game. I pleaded with him to be consistent and
stand firm. He said I had no guns and tanks and that I was
incapable of facing the military.
The floor of the Senate was very hot. There was a sharp
division in the National Assembly. Thereafter, Ayu was
removed as Senate President; I was almost killed. There
was a plan to assassinate me, but luckily, Akintola Benson
and my late driver, Mustapha, walked into a discussion
where the plot was being hatched to terminate my life. That
was unknown to the people planning the assassination. I
was to be taken out of the hotel. The assistant head of
security at the hotel brought a chef uniform to dress me up
as a chef, while he asked a driver to wait for me. I escaped
and headed for Lagos in the chef uniform.
Abiola travelled to the United Kingdom to start the
campaign for the de-annulment of the election and
restoration of his mandate and Kingibe was there as deputy
to continue to coordinate the rest of us at home. I had a
choice to go back to my job, because I was on a leave of
absence. People advised me to abandon the struggle
because of the risk involved. They advised me to go back to
my work.
Q: When were you arrested?
A: I said we would continue to struggle until we had
democracy. We had a group of 30 senators called the G-30.
The G-30 was determined to actualise the mandate on the
floor of the Senate. Suddenly, Abacha came and General
Oladipupo Diya and Babagana Kingibe were also running
around. Diya was one of the most respected and credible
military officers then, and he later approached us that there
might be change in government. Abiola was around.
General Chris Alli met us and said there would be a change
of government, which would be in favour of June 12,
because they were tired of the shenanigans of the ING. That
night, Abacha changed the government. He outsmarted
everybody. They met with me, Dele Alake, Segun Babatope
and Doyin Abiola. We were asked to write the terms and
conditions, which they would broadcast after a change of
government. We wrote it and gave it to Diya. They are all
alive.
On the night the government was to be changed, Abacha
outsmarted everyone and installed himself. These people I
mentioned are all alive to testify to what I have said. I can
say categorically that I was even called to leave my office
because, as they claimed, that night was a dangerous night
for them and that everyone’s life might be in danger. Abiola
was told not sleep at home until the broadcast had been
made. We were all fooled! Big time deception.
When we heard the broadcast the next day, there was no
mention of June 12 and no proclamation of Abiola. I was
mad, but was still determined. I rushed to Diya and he was
still saying that there was no problem and that they were
planning to announce the cabinet containing eminent June
12 people. Abiola said what? I said no, announce Abiola’s
victory.
Diya told me that I didn’t know the military and that things
were not done like that in the military. But I insisted that it
was deception. I said I know the military. I called Okadigbo
to my office in Lagos and I put the plan before him that we
had to confront the military and we had to declare Abacha
himself illegal. I got members of our group together; we
wrote the script declaring Abacha’s government illegal.
Since we could not get to the National Assembly, we opted
to hold our session at the Tafawa Balewa Square. We had
gotten Dele Alake to be the media coordinator. We told him
to get the CNN and other foreign media ready. I put the coat
of arms on a rod! That was the mace. We created our own
mace.
We reconvened the Senate here in Lagos and declared
Abacha illegal before the international media and others.
My colleagues had scattered. After we assembled, and
having drafted the resolution, they still didn’t know where
we would hold the session. I told them to relax, this is
Lagos. After the broadcast, everybody took off, because the
SSS and other security agents were combing everywhere for
us. I went underground, using the 090 mobile phone. I was
still granting press interviews to foreign media. The military
people were mad. I became a thorn in their flesh and they
arrested some of my colleagues, including Abu Ibrahim, the
late Polycarp Nwite, Ameh Ebute and Okoroafor. I was still
underground, holding press conferences. The military
declared me wanted.
Suddenly they granted bail to the arrested senators. I
thought I would be a beneficiary, but I was not. Then, there
was a manhunt for me by the police and the SSS.
Meanwhile, my late uncle, K.O Tinubu and the present Oba
of Lagos, Oba Akiolu, who was then a police officer, were
pressuring me to disclose where I was. My uncle called to
ask where exactly I was. I did not disclose my
whereabouts. I told Akiolu that even though he is my
relative, I would still not tell him where I was since he was a
police officer! He said: ‘Ha!’
My uncle advised that the military would kill me if they
found me underground and no one would be able to locate
my whereabouts. He said it was better I surrendered myself
because he wanted me to be alive. I told him that I would
call him back, that I was to hold a press conference at the
time. And he shouted in amazement: ‘You are holding press
conference when your life is in danger.’ I told him I would
surrender, but would not tell him when.
I disguised perfectly, dressed like a malam, and went to the
police at Alagbon. The officers didn’t even know me when
they saw me. I went in, deposited my phone and my
charger. Senator Abu Ibrahim was with us. The officers were
wondering why I, a Mallam, could not speak Hausa! I
removed my turban, showed up at the front desk and
declared that I had come to surrender. And there was
pandemonium among the officers, as to how I got there.
The AIG then was very nice and they put me in the cell.
They poured water into the cell room and said, ‘sleep
there’. That was the nastiest experience I had within first 48
hours that I was there. It was on a weekend. I told them I
would embark on a hunger strike. The late Anthony Enahoro
was on the stairway and Beko Ransome-Kuti was at
another angle on the stairway. They brought me out
repeatedly for interrogation. They asked me to renounce but
I said no, I would not recognise Abacha. They took me and
my colleagues to court. People who were supposed to meet
their bail conditions were stopped from doing so
immediately they saw me. They cancelled everybody’s bail
because they could not isolate me.
They gave an order that we should be taken out of court,
but kept in the police custody at Alagbon. They kept about
eight of us in a photocopying room, an eight-by-eight room.
We were sleeping across one another. It was a matter of the
first to sleep would maintain the position. If your head was
this way, your leg would be there and so on. It was a nasty
experience.
There were a lot of interrogations, with a lot of carrot and
stick. I can never forget the role and determination and
sincerity of a compatriot at that particular time. They made
an exception to uphold the earlier bail granted to Senator
Abu Ibrahim. He was asked to go. He was the only Hausa-
Fulani man with us. The late Hassan Katsina had
intervened. But Senator Ibrahim said he would rather stay,
except every one of us was granted the same bail
conditions. He said he would not leave his colleagues
behind.
He is a courageous and a detribalised Nigerian, who had a
vision of what Nigeria should be. He refused to accept an
isolated bail. They started sending emissaries to us in
detention, offering us all sorts of appointments and
opportunities to renounce our positions, but we refused. The
judiciary was still very courageous then. We went to the
Court of Appeal. An incident occurred at the lower court.
Market women turned out hugely to support us when we
were brought to the court. The day they refused my bail,
some of the market women appeared naked and so they
stopped taking us to the court. The court sessions were
usually interesting for us because of the scenes. At
Alagbon, we bathed in the open between 4 and 5 a.m.
The condition started improving when they began to bring
officials of the failed banks. Those ones contributed money
to repair the generating set at Alagbon and we started
enjoying electricity a little longer than we used to. It was
during the time that the protest became intense. Nigeria
was playing at the World Cup then. Italy defeated Nigeria
and the security people lied to us that it was otherwise.
Eventually, the Court of Appeal courageously granted us bail
in enforcement of our fundamental human rights. Our
passports were confiscated and deposited with the court.
Later, the High Court ruled that our passports be released to
us. That night, they finally announced our bail and
conditions attached to it. The presiding judge then is today
the Emir of Ilorin, Sulu Gambari. We heard that they put so
much pressure on him (Clement Akpamgbo was the
Attorney-General) not to release us, but he ordered our
release. They were going to re-arrest me and I suddenly
went underground to continue my protest.
They would throw bombs and say it was us. Mobil called
me to come back to my job, but I refused. They bombed my
house, but luckily, my wife and children had been
evacuated. I would not want to reveal how they were
evacuated because there was a diplomatic involvement.
They told me that my life and those of my family were in
clear danger.
Suddenly, they announced that I was wanted again. They
alleged that I was going to bomb the NNPC depot at Ejigbo.
Ah! I was still being tried for treason, which carries a
sentence of life imprisonment, and I was again accused of
trying to bomb an NNPC depot. I couldn’t go back because
my photograph was all over the place that I was wanted. A
diplomatic source advised me that I should leave the
country if I wanted to continue the struggle. Dan Suleiman,
Alani Akinrinade were in danger. We asked Bolaji Akinyemi
to leave the country and promote the struggle at the
international level.
Q: That was the National Democratic Coalition then…
Q: Yes. I was at the forefront of the struggle at that level.
When I went to see my uncle, K.O Tinubu, at home, he shed
tears that night. He said he didn’t want to lose me and that
I was about to be killed. He begged me to leave Nigeria and
affirmed that, being a former police officer, he was sure I
would be killed.
He said that I couldn’t return to my house since they had
bombed it. I went to a friend’s house. Before then, there
was an incident that made them believe that I was at Ore
Falomo’s hospital. They went to the hospital to look for me.
Eventually, I left Nigeria for Benin Republic by NADECO
route.
Q: How did you make it across the border?
Q: I disguised with a huge turban and babanriga and
escaped into Benin Republic on a motorbike. My old Hausa
friend gave the clothes to me. In fact, when I appeared to
Kudirat Abiola, she didn’t know that I was the one! I gave
her some information and some briefing. I left at 1 a.m.
While in Benin Republic, I was still coming to Badagry to
ferry people, organise and coordinate the struggle with
others on ground. We put a group together, ferrying
NADECO people across. It was a very challenging time. I
can’t forget people like Segun Maiyegun and other young
guys in the struggle. I would come from Benin to hold
meetings with them and sneak back. The military created a
whole lot of momentum around me. They took over my
house, guest house and carted away all my vehicles and
property to Alagbon. That is why today, I don’t have old
photographs. They took eight of my cars away.
My wife and my two toddlers were dropped in a bush;
nowhere to go. Beko and the diplomatic missions came to
our aid and ferried my wife and kids to the United States. I
was still in Benin Republic. Besides, I didn’t have a
passport and couldn’t have been able to travel. At a stage,
they discovered our routes, because they had spies all over,
including Benin Republic. Twice I was caught and I
fortuitously escaped. They traced me to one dingy hotel I
was hiding.
The day they came for me at the hotel, I had gone out on an
Okada to buy amala at a market, where Yorubas are
dominant. I was also to meet Akinrinade and the rest of
them. The spies went to the hotel and as I was approaching,
I saw two people wearing tajia (skull caps) at the front desk,
asking questions. The man attending to them at the
reception (I had been very nice to the receptionist) winked
to me and I turned back. I contacted a friend in Benin
Republic, who was an architect, and had very strong
sympathy for us. Professor Wole Soyinka and Alani
Akinrinade, who lodged in a better hotel, were fortunate to
have escaped that night, too. The people on their trail
pursued them to the hotel, but fortunately missed them.
Then the British High Commission got proper information
through the Consular-General that my life was in danger.
He stamped a visa on a sheet of paper and did a letter,
authorising the airline to pick me from Benin Republic to
any port of entry in Britain. I didn’t know how they got to
me. A lady just walked up to me and handed me an
envelope. She said I had been granted an entry into the
United Kingdom. She said I could be killed if I failed to leave
in the next 48 hours. It was Air Afrique that took me from
Benin Republic to London. Meanwhile, my wife was still in
the United States. I landed in Britain and worked my way
back to Benin Republic. I picked up my passport from
somewhere. I went to an African country and through their
connections, they gave me a diplomatic passport as a
cultural ambassador.
Q: What country was that?
A: No, please! The African country that helped us with the
diplomatic passport was showing gratitude for the help
Abiola had done to its president before. So, you can make
your deduction. Then, I was shuffling and coordinating our
activities in the UK, Benin Republic and Cote d’Ivoire. I used
the passport to travel to Cote d’Ivoire to hold meetings at
the Hotel Continental, because we were planning to make
another broadcast that would be aired in Nigeria. By the
time I returned to the hotel, the military assailants had
broken into my hotel room and taken away my briefcase
and diplomatic passport. They dropped a note, saying: ‘You
cannot be twice lucky.’ I was taken over by panic.
Fortunately, in my back pocket, I had the photocopy of the
sheet of paper on which the British had stamped a visa for
me to travel out of Benin previously. I took that to the
British High Commission in Abidjan. They listened to my
story and asked me to come back at night. They did all
their verification and found my story to be true. I returned to
them and they gave me another sheet of paper and wrote the
number of the flight that would take me out of that country.
But I had no money. Somebody suddenly drove in. The
person is a well-known name I don’t want to mention. I met
him and explained my condition. He had a traveller’s
cheque, but the money was not enough. I went back to the
British High Commission and the woman said she could
assist me with her own personal money to bridge the
shortfall in cash.
We founded and coordinated Radio Kudirat and Radio
Freedom and we continued to organise. I didn’t see my
family for two good years. They were in America. Bayo
Onanuga, who also was part of the struggle, joined us there
in December 1997. The law of political asylum stipulates
that your first country of landing and acceptance is the safe
haven, so it’s not transferable. That was how Cornelius
Adebayo was stuck in a United Nations camp. My wife had
to invoke a family clause that exists in America to fight for
her husband to join her before they granted me a special
privilege to leave UK to join my family in the United States.
Q: Where were you on 8 June 1998 when Abacha died?
A: I was shuttling between the United States and UK. We
were working really hard as NADECO. We went to our
NADECO meeting in the UK to finalise the second leg of the
strategy to make a broadcast and enforce certain actions.
Before then I was reading Jubril Aminu’s interview in The
Punch, where he said Nigerians should not worry about
Abacha’s transmutation into a civilian president; but they
should be worried about what followed. We were persuaded
during a brainstorming session that we should get nearer to
Nigeria to do something about it. It was agreed that we
should stop him, even if we would have to start guerrilla
warfare to achieve that.
Tunde Olowu had been with me in my flat for a couple of
weeks and on the night Abacha died, we were just eating
when a phone call came through that Abacha had died. We
could not believe it until we saw on TV his body being
taken out in a van. And that changed the texture of the
struggle. Suddenly, there was this news, announcing
General Abdulsalami Abubakar as the head of state. We
started analysing General Abubakar.
I wish to state that out of all the military generals I met
through Abiola while he was lobbying for the restoration of
his mandate, Abubakar was the most sincere and
straightforward. He pointedly told Abiola that no military
officer would want to help him to realise his mandate,
unless the military general wanted to get himself into
trouble. While other generals we had met lied, Abdusalami
was different. He simply said: ‘Look, I am a professional
soldier and I want to retire a general. I don’t want to be
involved in politics. I cannot help you. I don’t want to be
involved.’
When we heard that he was the head of state, I challenged
the rest of us to interrogate Abubakar’s sincerity. Good
enough, he was straight-forward. When we met him, he told
us that he wasn’t going to spend more than nine months
because he was not interested. He promised he was going
to pardon us and urged us to return to the country. That was
the situation of things before the death of Abiola.
So, we were coordinating with Abraham Adesanya and the
rest of them, who were on ground here. They sought and we
granted them our permission to meet with and size up
Abubakar. So, they honoured his invitation. He sent people
to us and there was a strong debate, which nearly divided
the group, whether or not we should return. The suspicion
around Abubakar arose because of the manner of people
they saw around him, including Major Hamza al-Mustapha.
Some people within our group felt that we should evaluate
the situation carefully and not look at isolated occurrences.
A big debate ensued after his announcement that he had
granted pardon to those of us who had been declared
wanted. There were a lot of intervening incidents that I
cannot publicly discuss.
Q: When you returned from exile, how did the idea of Lagos
governorship arise?
A: Myself, Beko, Fasehun and others met. The death of
Abiola was quite devastating for us and we debated whether
or not to return. We also examined whether or not there was
a conspiracy surrounding Abiola’s death. There were so
many questions being asked at the same time. The previous
elections contested by Abacha’s five political parties got
me seriously worried. After giving it serious thought, we
decided that we were not going to declare war against our
people, but that we should believe Abubukar by returning
home to participate. At a meeting presided over by Enahoro,
I told them that I would want to return to my mother
because I missed her badly. He said no one could stop me
if that was the case. The military, in my absence, broke her
soak-away, believing that I kept guns there; carted away
the generating set and cut our land (telephone) line.
I came home with three pairs of trousers and three jackets.
But because I gave her notice and some other people
noticed that I was arriving, unknown to me, they had
mobilised people to welcome me. I was shocked at the huge
crowd when I got to the airport. I was carried shoulder-
high. That was the day I was totally convinced that
Nigerians could be very honest, if they care about you.
Because as they carried me, my ticket, passport and 2,000
pounds sterling fell from my inner jacket. I didn’t know they
had fallen off because I was carried away by the euphoria of
the crowd. I didn’t know how they got to Sunday Adigun. At
night, they told me someone was looking for me, but
because the people around me didn’t believe that danger
had finally cleared, they prevented the person. But he
insisted that he would not give it to anybody and showed
them my passport. So they allowed him and he handed
everything to me.
Meanwhile, I had no Victoria Island home to return to. It had
been taken over by Abacha. They dispossessed me of the
house, as well as my office on Saka Tinubu Street. My
vehicles and everything else I owned. They claimed they
found bombs in it and dispossessed me of it. I was totally
cleaned out. I had only five shirts, the 2000 pounds and the
jackets. Before then, Akinyelure came to America, looking
for me, with one briefcase. He was detained for four hours
by the immigration because they were wondering how
someone could come to America with one briefcase. They
didn’t let him off until they contacted Mobil and Mobil
confirmed him as an ex-employee. He didn’t get to my
house till about 3 O’clock. He told me I had to come to
Nigeria even if I wouldn’t participate. But he said I should
participate. I got back home and each time I moved out,
people would shout ‘Governor’.
The day I went to our group’s meeting, they were to decide
who to endorse among Wahab Dosunmu, Shitta-Bey and
others. They asked me if I was interested and I asked them
to give me two weeks to go round since I was just returning.
Alhaji Hamzat was there. The chairman at our group’s
meeting on that day said they would grant me the two
weeks. So I started moving round. My late sister got me
some clothes to wear, whether they fitted me or not. I went
to Mushin, Agege and other places and people were hailing
me as ‘Governor’ and urging me to run. On my first tour of
my senatorial district, people were saying governor. Even
people who had gone to another party started coming back
into the Alliance for Democracy, AD, and that was how I
decided I would run. People in Lagos West, East and Central
said: ‘You must run for governorship.’
Q: You spent eight years in government, what will you
consider your best legacy?
A: My best legacy is the financial engineering of Lagos
State, especially to bring financial autonomy to Lagos State
and eliminate wastage and mismanagement. That was just
one aspect of it. My greatest legacy is Governor Babatunde
Fashola. I identified and endorsed him. That was when my
corporate background as a recruiter and talent seeker for
Deloitte came to play. Part of the training when you go on
operational audit is that the first thing you evaluate are the
personnel and the questionnaire given to them and how they
answer it. You look at the ability of individuals to really take
and develop others. There is nothing unique about any
leadership. Everybody can come up with different ideas.
You can take different routes and arrive at the same answer.
No matter how much steel and metal you put together, the
greatest achievement and legacy is the ability to develop
other leaders who can succeed you, otherwise your legacy
will be in shambles. It was a very difficult and challenging
period for me. I thank God I stuck to my guns.
Q: You waged several battles against Obasanjo on issues
like fiscal federalism, seizure of local council funds etc.
Which of these wars did you consider the hottest?
A: If I have to rank them, I think the creation of the local
governments was my favourite because the processes are
clearly stated and well articulated in the constitution. And if
you do all of that and comply with the constitutional
requirements, then you should not be denied. I believe in
true federalism. I believe in local government
administration, which I think is a service centre for the
state. The constitution is clear. It is a misnomer to even
think that there are three tiers of government in a federal
system of government. There are only two – the state and
the federal. It is because the constitution was put together
by a group of military people, who believe in command and
control that we have this kind of anomaly.
They tinkered with it and they tailored it in a way that would
suit a unitary system and I believe that was the problem. We
still don’t have a constitution of ‘we the people’. The battle
was not personally directed at Obasanjo.
Q: Let’s move to matters personal. How did you meet your
wife?
Through a dating agency! On a serious note, it was through
a family connection.
Q: How many hearts did you break?
A: I don’t know, because I don’t look back and I am not a
psychologist or medical expert to test for broken hearts and
emotional instability. You pray for luck. Sincerely, you don’t
know whether my own heart was broken, too. I am a very
lucky person and it was through family connection that I
met my wife. It is true that I had many dates. Until I met her,
I didn’t even want to be married because I loved my
freedom. I had also been disappointed along the line, my
expectations dashed. I was going to be totally free before I
met Remi. She was innocent, homely and very quiet. I was
surprised by her manners and I was hooked.
I was a DJ to my friends. I love music and my house was a
boys’ rendezvous. Remi used to cook for all of us. She is
the best woman I ever met and fully endorsed by all my
friends. They were very close. My friends said: ‘Bola, you
now have a woman and you have to settle down.’
I was a successful corporate person. She is totally urbane
and seriously committed to my professionalism and career.
I met somebody who enhanced the value of my life.
Q: Who was your favourite musician then, and now?
A: I was interested in music. I enjoy music, from the days of
James Brown. I told you I followed Roy Chicago to Ado-
Ekiti, without knowing. I was just lucky. God just made me a
professional because I could have ended up with the late
Dr. Sikiru Ayinde Barrister! We used to follow him about for
were during the Ramadan, to the extent that I would be
locked out. Whenever there was competition around Lagos
Island or anywhere, we were always there. There was
always the possibility of violence because of the
competition.
But when I was an in-house DJ, not commercial DJ. Teddy
Pendergrass was my favourite and I kept myself updated on
the music scene in America. You don’t have music now.
You now have O foka sibe, O gbona feli feli. I love listening
to jazz a lot.
Q: What is your favourite food?
Q: Amala and ewedu. But to be honest with you, I love rice.
Rice first, amala second. I don’t like eba that much. In any
form at all, I can eat rice three times a day.
Q: People say Asiwaju is the richest Yoruba man. How rich
are you?
If you are talking in monetary terms, it is a lie. But I want
them to continue to believe that I am rich. The fact is that I
cannot prepare for my death. I want to live long and I
believe in people and I believe in sharing. So, whatever you
ascribe to me in terms of wealth is your own imagination. I
will not do two cheques – one to the Central Bank of
Heaven and the other one to the Central Bank of Hell –
cashable when I am dead. The money will remain here. I
don’t want to be greedy, but frugal with the little I have and
be contented. There are certain things they can’t dispute
and one of these is that I wasn’t a poor man when I joined
politics. I financed the struggle during the NADECO days.
Before the NADECO days, I financed political goals and
aspirations. I financed political groups and individuals.
No matter how you dream, it is empty without financial
success. If you have no concrete financial progress for a
state or an entity, it will not endure. I have not taken Lagos
to bankruptcy. It was bankrupt before I took over, I turned it
into a success within my two-terms as governor. It had
existed for so long before I became governor.
During my tenure, former President Olusegun Obasanjo
described Lagos as an urban jungle and uninhabitable. But
he chose to celebrate his 75th birthday in Lagos! There was
a dispute on the Bar Beach during my tenure, but if I didn’t
rigidly follow my vision and my belief in Lagos State,
Victoria Island would have been submerged.
Adapted from an interview published in Asiwaju: Untold
Story of The Leader, a special publication of TheNEWS
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