Some want Western Region Premier's House turned to monument, others lobby for its sale
Plot 6 is not an innocuous address on Simeon Adebeo Avenue, Government Reservation Area (GRA) Iyaganku, Ibadan. Until about two years ago, it served as the premises of the Federal Court of Appeal, Ibadan Division. It sits atop and on the right side of the avenue, which sits on a knoll that slopes from the popular NTC/Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Press Centre end of the avenue ascending towards the next plexus of roads linking the popular Ring Road.
For decades that the court sat there, the complex was a beehive of activities, thronged by busy traffic of judges, lawyers, police, litigants, court workers and other members of the public who had business there either as case witnesses or merely to observe proceedings.
On normal days, the narrow lane named after the late seasoned public administrator and first Head of Service in the defunct Western Region, who also served as Ambassador to the United Nations (UN), were lined with parked vehicles, while the serenity of the environment was sometimes shattered by crowds of supporters of parties to landmark political lawsuits which often came up before their lordships. Till date, taxi drivers plying the Mokola-Iyaganku-Ring Road-Challenge route still use it as drop point to discharge passengers.
However, only few probably knew that this premises, hosting an old, albeit magnificent storey building, had more history and significance in the annals of Nigeria.
It was the official residence of the late Premier of the defunct Western Region in the First Republic, Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola (SLA). It was in the house that Akintola was assassinated by soldiers 50 years ago today, in the first bloody coup d'etat of January 15, 1966.
Although, there was a Government Lodge which was only a few metres drive to his office at the Secretariat in Agodi, the seat of power, Chief Akintola was said to have preferred to live in the Iyaganku official quarters than in Agodi, vacated by his predecessor, Chief Moses Adekoyejo Majekodunmi and Chief Obafemi Awolowo, to whom, he was deputy and with whom he later fell out following intra-party squabbles in their Action Group. The crisis, which was linked with power struggle and attempts by the nationalist leaders controlling the three regions to incur into one another's territory, snowballed into a major national political crisis that set off a chain of public unrest and tension in the West. It eventually provided the pretext for the military to strike, killing the Prime Minister, Sir Tafawa Balewa, Akintola, his Northern Region counterpart and Sardauna of Sokoto, Sir Ahmadu Bello, many federal ministers and senior Army officers.
The Western Region premier was reportedly gunned down in cold blood before his family after resisting and engaging the mutineers, who stormed the house, in a long-drawn gun battle from about 10pm January 14 till the wee hours of the following day.
Although it has been put to use in the last five decades since the tragic incident, the present condition of the property belies its eminent pedigree. A visit there on the eve of the 50th anniversary of the bloody coup presented a picture of desolation. The decrepit main building, with its weather-beaten exterior and peeling faded yellow coating gave it away as a relic of a pristine age, among the modern generation of houses in the neighbourhood sporting modern designs and aluminium roofs.
There were signs that vandals, cashing in on the movement of the court, had also been at work, as some of the office windowpanes were broken while louver glass blades on some were missing. Some disused furniture, including office chairs and upholstery settees apparently removed from the vacated offices, were seen lying scattered at the place that once served as car park for the Appeal Court judges, The grass and flowers in the expansive compound were parched and famished, apparently starvedof regular wetting and care. The neglect did not spare a few citrus trees and banana stems that nudged a thick, dense brush at the back and right side of the fenced compound with an iron gate mounted at the entrance. Blue stones decorated both sides of the entrance, which extended into a block of offices to the immediate left.
The structure and another to the immediate right, as well as another set adjourning the main building at the back, Daily Sun learnt, were not part of the original building design, but were added to accommodate the court staff in the library, accounts, litigation, appeal, typing pool and administrative sections.
A public servant, who claimed to be familiar with the architecture and allocation of the various sections of the house, said one of the judges' chambers upstairs directly facing the main road served as Akintola's bed chamber. It was from here, according to accounts, that he espied and engaged his attackers in the gun fight, before he was eventually killed after a tip-off of the impending invasion by wife of his deputy, Mrs. Fani-Kayode, whose husband was first arrested by the coup plotters.
The main house undoubtedly must have been an architectural masterpiece of its time, proportionately situated in the middle of the vast compound, with a provision for an open garage and a car porch that led directly into the first family's private section consisting of several rooms, and a study on the left. To the right, a flight of stairs led upstairs to a large hall, where the premier hosted visitors, including government officials and political associates. The hall had been partitioned with a section converted into the judges' chambers, while the still remaining expansive space served as the open court.
Remarkably, the former court complex and its sibling housing the Oyo State branch of the National Library directly facing it, stuck out as the only two "colonial buildings" on the road stretch.
Despite this, Daily Sun investigations revealed that it has become a highly prized and coveted asset. The Head of Management, Jide Taiwo and Co, a leading firm of Estate Surveyors and Valuers, Mr. Kazeem Wahab, said with itslocation in a highbrow and exclusive district as Iyaganku, the property would attract not less than N80 million. "An acre in Iyaganku is about N40 million and people are merely buying the land in such GRAs, because of the choice location. The structure will eventually be demolished to build a new one, because the age of the property being as old as the state or even the Western Region, it cannot fit easily with modern building designs and structures, to be found around now," Wahab explained.
Opinion of other property market operators said the estate could even fetch double or triple the stated value, considering its historical significance.
The departure of the Appeal Court, to which the Oyo State Government ceded the property it inherited when the assets of the defunct Western Region were shared among the states that split from it, had triggered intense lobby and scramble among various federal and state government agencies, including the Nigerian Immigration Service and the National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA). The property is estimated to cover more than two acres.
Relations of the slain premier were said to have also made a bid to secure it, over what a source said might not only have been spurred by sentimental attachment, but also economic consideration. An Ibadan-based British-American firm was alleged to have shown interest in leasing the property from the family should it succeed in the bid for ownership.
But the head of the clan and eldest son of the deceased nationalist, Ambassador Yomi Akintola, denied that the family made any such move. "I believe if the family has a plan to acquire the property, it will be done through me," he said curtly in a telephone interview.
Suggestion of sale of the property has been greeted with outrage, with serious objections being raised against it in labour circles. The workers argued that the facility should be given to government agencies with office accommodation shortage. Said a labour union leader in the state: "The building is not anybody's father's property, and being a government property, it cannot just be left lying fallow and grossly underutilized while workers don't have offices to work."
The opposition is coming as a strong case was made for the conversion of the property into a national monument to signpost the first attempted forceful seizure of power, which altered the course of national history, as well as honour the victims, especially Akintola. An elder statesman said it betrayed lack of a sense of history that a personality as Akintola was yet to be immortalized for his contributions to the nationalist struggle and administration and development of the West where he presided.
"We don't honour our past heroes. Of course, you remember that even the statute of Chief Awolowo erected in Agodi was demolished by some parochial political elements, who said it should be taken to the late nationalist's home state of Ogun, forgetting that the late sage served the entire Western Region which extended to here and even beyond," another political watcher remarked.
But differing opinions dismissed the argument, noting that the January 15, 1966event did not engender or bequeath any positive legacy to warrant such gesture. To Chief Ayo Adebanjo, a disciple of the late Awolowo and a member of the Action Group, thesuggestion to immortalize Akintola was not only preposterous and an anathema, but also an invitation to encouraging treachery, disloyalty and perfidy, which he claimed his former colleague represented, among younger generations of Nigeria. Burning with indignation, the veteran politician queried: "Are we going to wish away facts of history on the altar of cheap sentiments and trying to be politically correct? Are we going to close our eyes to the fact of his disloyalty to leadership and the role he played in what brought about the circumstances of his death and that has brought Nigeria to its knees politically, which was why the people of the West didn't like him? I believe we should let bygone be bygone, yes, but you will be embracing and encouraging disloyalty and villainy in young people if you ignore the lesson of history. And that is not how to build a great nation. The youths must have models of excellence in character and otherwise," he said.
Mr. Waheed Olojede, Oyo State Chairman, Nigerian Labour Congress also said: "It's not an issue that should be reduced to a matter of politics. The interest of the government agencies, whose services are to make life better for the public should be paramount. It's of no benefit to leave the building lying fallow. There are several government bodies seriously looking for accommodation."
He cited the case of the Teachers Registration Council, which regulates the teaching profession, saying the body had been a tenant to the Nigerian Union of Teachers in the last 10 years and had been desperately on the neck of the state government for housing.
"Such bodies' interest should be protected. The memory of the coup had gone and gone for good. Politicians should think of some other ways of honouring themselves," he said.
But some other political leaders believed Adebanjo's position as reflecting the notorious image of a villain apparently held against Akintola by Chief Awolowo's political tendencies in the South West has been the major reason why Chief Akintola had not been accorded recognition among the pantheon of national heroes, despite his immense contributions to the struggle for Nigeria's freedom from British colonial rule and the development of the west. A Senior Advocate of Nigeria and former Speaker, Oyo State House of Assembly, Dr. Akin Onigbinde said in this matter, it would be helpful to make objective distinction between facts and differences in political opinions.
"Facts are sacred, it is said, while opinions are free. It cannot be denied that Akintola was an outstanding, first generation lawyer. He was a contemporary of Chief Rotimi Williams and Chief Awolowo. To that extent, he deserved to be accorded recognition that pioneers in the profession got. Aside that, it is a fact of history that he participated actively in all the fights and constitutional conferences challenging the colonial government that eventually culminated in national independence. He was also an active participant in the process of constitution making for the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Western Region, as well as in the formation of the Action Group and other parties he belonged to. He was also an active participant in the administration of the Western Region, rising to be premier.
"In that position, he was at the centre of many iconic achievements of the old Western Region, including the founding of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, the Sketch newspapers, Cocoa House. I tell you, there is an entrance in the place where his name was emblazoned. But people no longer pass through there. Political differences should not obviate the truth. It is true that Akintola fell out with Awolowo in terms of political choices open to the Western Region at that time. He believed that the legitimate Western Region needed the cooperation of other sections of the country in order to have access to and control the central government. That view was not shared by his compatriots. Because of his decision to affiliate with the political establishment in the North, he was labelled a rebel and a traitor.
"But today, we seemed to have returned to the Akintola hypothesis that now forces the Action Congress, which was an offshoot of Awolowo's political establishment, to cooperate with Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), another northern active political centre in order to form the present All Progressives Congress government. Can it be sincerely argued then that leaders of the Action Congress are traitors, villains and rebels merely because they decided to cooperate with Buhari and other northern leaders in order to solve perceived national problems of today? If they are seen as nationalists who needed to cooperate with others, it's only fair to revisit the perception and treatment of Akintola as a villain, rebel and traitor."
Onigbinde said any talk of honouring the late nationalist should transcend a single state and embrace the entire space he governed. "Akintola presided over a larger political and administrative entity. So, it will take the political party that controls governments in this area to cause a major recognition.
Told of the new public thinking, Ambassador Akintola, whose family had borne the public odium, ridicule, prejudice and other forms of deprivation suffered from the age-long stigma, could not hide his excitement on the phone. He agreed that it was high time Nigerians impartially judged and did thatwhich they considered as right. His words: "If, as you said, the people are making the call to immortalize my father, then to God be the glory. Psychologically, we have played our part to get a redress. It is left to you as a people to think of how you can honour our heroes," Akintola said.
Although, the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the late Premier's assassination today offers a good opportunity for the long perceived redress, observers noted that the chance might have been foreclosed, as the Oyo State Government had already resolved the apparent dilemma on the fate of the old Premier's Lodge. Impeccable official sources said Governor Ajimobi paid the place an inspection visit sometime last year and ordered that the complex be renovated and converted into an annex of the state high court.
On this visit to the premises this eve of the anniversary of the January 15, 1966 bloody coup d'etat, the reporter's mind swirled with the twists of irony that had trailed the tale and fate of the property and its former illustrious occupant. From an opulent and comfortable shelter, it became a slaughter slab, where the blood of the late nationalist was shed. The same habitation has become a hallowed Temple of Justice. The sad fact is that in the raging debate, Akintola, a man renowned for his oratorical prowess and a legendary advocacy that never failed to sway public opinion in his time, cannot put in a word to plead justice. `Because corpses do not talk!
From Yinka Oludayisi Fabowale, Ibadan
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