Using the court to reverse Godwin Obaseki’s victory? That’s not going to work! That’s not going to work!!That’s not going to work!! Not in this case. Edo would simply replay the old Ondo state’s 1983 gubernatorial election scenario, albeit with new casts – poor students of history.
Chief Adekunle Ajasin of the UPN was the actual winner in Ondo state, but FEDECO announced his unpopular NPN opponent, Chief Omoboriowo as winner.
Hell was let loose. I witnessed people’s revolt for the first time in my life . Fear my mother’s kinsmen o! Across Ondo cities and villages (including present Ekiti state), they came out with guns, matchets, charms, cudgels etc. It was said of one old woman that she set houses of notorious election riggers on fire at the throw of an egg! Oluwa o!
In Akure, they besieged the residence of NPN leaders and slaughtered them like rams: Chiefs Agbayewa, Fagbamigbe (of the famous Fagbamigbe Publishers), Agunbiade etc.
A detachment of the military had to be deployed to rescue the new “governor” from his Ijapo Estate residence across the Ala River from my maternal grandfather’s place on the hill of Oke Ijebu.
We watched billows of smoke across the river. Houses and humans on fire! Jehovah, have mercy!
My curiosity took the better part of me. I sneaked out to the fields of St. David Primary School to witness the movement, live, of the military rescue convoy of Omoboriowo.
The heavily armed convoy had to shoot its way through as it met resistance all the way. The remains of our elderly neighbour hit by army’s bullet, Baba Aliu, were returned home in a wheel barrow, for immediate burial according to Islamic rites. No ambulance to dignify the old man.
Imagine this: the Ondo State Radio Service was giving the revolting masses a blow by blow account of the military convoy’s movement, from Ijapo through Oke Ijebu, Ijomu, then Oyemekun road, for apprehension like a football commentary. It was my first experience of war propaganda.
It was my mother’s elder sister who ran like a mad woman with only a wrapper and brassiers, on barefoot, that located me at St. David, whereupon she knelt down, pleading: “Baba mi, follow me home”! That was almost a taboo. I had to follow her. Many died at that place. I’m eternally grateful to Èye Nike, my aunt.
I then resorted to listening to the radio only and questioning passersby for updates. When the shootings drew nearer home, people started eloping into the forest. My family took refuge at a church where we laid down flat on our bellies under the benches, my mother having a tough time getting my riotous siblings to keep shut! We were in Akure on vacation from our cosy safe haven at Moor Plantation Quarters, Ibadan.
Only my grandfather braved the odds, waving us bye bye as we left home with no forwarding address, committing us to the graces of the good Lord, praying in Akure dialect: “Jesu a samona rin”. Meaning “Jesus will guide and preserve you”. He did! The old man said he preferred to die at home, but he too survived.
Later at night, when the shootings had subsided, we returned home. I switched on the TV. Omoboriowo had arrived Lagos. Ondo state people said he should govern from there.
Peeping through a window, next morning, August 17, 1983, amidst the shootings, my father arrived from Ibadan for our evacuation! My superstitious mother burst into tears as the news was broken to her in her room. She said it must be his ghost we saw. We said no, would his car also have a ghost? He came in his car. We didn’t wait further to open the doors.
How did you make it? He told us there was pandemonium in Ibadan too over the gubernatorial election in Oyo state. It was the same UPN versus NPN and the allegation was Dr. Victor Olunloyo was declared winner against the incumbent believed to have won.
How did you then make it? The handsome six-footer, son of the inimitable Amos Mayungbe, Bashorun of Ilugun Aloro and Baale Ilumerin, simply smiled. We should thank God for his protection. We did.
A veteran of Operation Wetie and fanatical follower of his father’s friend, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, he later opened up to me alone how he prepared himself for the journey, telling me what I saw in Akure was a toddler compared to the adult-size Operation Wetie of the 60s.
The following day, while getting set for our return trip to Ibadan with bated breath at my father’s insistence, vowing we would be safe, the dare-devil Ijebu man was taking a walk around the ambience of his in-law’s residence when he suddenly exclaimed: “Prof. Aluko! Joyce! What’s the matter”?
We all came outside. There we beheld Prof. Sam Aluko, the famous economist, his wife, who my father had worked with while they were all staff of the then University of Ife, and a young man about my age in jeans and vest, clutching a brief case. The great Prof. Aluko and Aunty Joyce were in pyjamas, all barefooted!
They had miraculously escaped lynching at their Ijapo Estate residence across the Ala River which they waded through to our side in Oke Ijebu. They pointed at its direction and in chorus said: “That’s our house on fire”!
My father was devastated. He adored Prof. Aluko and respected his wife. The Alukos were escaping to the Governor’s Lodge. My father offered some assistance, giving advice, directions etc. My mother was too hysterical to let him convey them thither, having refused the offer to stay with us. Thankfully, they made it. We saw them on TV later.
The Shagari government was mortally afraid. When the case got to the Supreme Court, the verdict was unanimously in favour of the incumbent governor, Chief Ajasin. They had no choice. An otherwise verdict would have been an invitation to a civil war. The highest temple of justice chose to be just indeed. Its verdict tallied with the people’s verdict!
I delved into this horrifying historical excursion because I foresee the same scenario unfolding in Edo if the losers resort to courtocracy to steal the people’s mandate.
This is a mandate that not only puts notorious godfathers in their coffins, it sealed them at the rate of 20 six inches nail per coffin. We can’t afford political insecurity as another dimension of the hydra-headed insecurity ravaging Nigeria today. This is also a subtle hint ahead of the imminent Ondo state gubernatorial election.
The mandate, importantly, has refuelled the engine of sustained progress in Edo state with our illustrious Godwin Obaseki on the driver seat.
Olufunmilade is Director, Center for Contemporary Security Affairs, Igbinedion University Okada.
