As it turned out, unwittingly, we had handed Obasanjo (Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, then President of Nigeria) a tool with which he later dealt with us too. After “stooping to conquer” the National Assembly, and surviving the impeachment plot, he later “stooped to conquer” the AD governors and Afenifere.
After he survived the impeachment plot, he never showed any sense of remorse. We could not believe his new bellicose approach when in a national broadcast he described the impeachment plot as “joke carried too far”.
The attempt to impeach him eventually won him some sympathy in Yorubaland. It was after this experience that Obasanjo began a frontal attempt to woo the AD governors. He came to Lagos to attend the Convocation at the University of Lagos and then invited all the AD governors to a meeting later in the night same day. Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu of Lagos was the contact between us and Obasanjo over the arrangements for the meeting. We met him in the old office of the Head of State at Dodan Barracks. The only person who accompanied him to the meeting was the Director of the State Security Services (SSS), Col. Kayode Are. At the meeting, he directly requested support from all the six AD governors. He said he wanted an understanding between us and himself because he faced some serious challenges that were likely to create some upheaval in the political terrain and in the country at large. Therefore, he wanted an understanding and a working relationship with us.
We analysed the situation in the country and told him a few home truths. Firstly, we told him that even though we were Head of Governments, we had leaders and elders in the party that he must discuss with, if he needed any kind of understanding with us. Secondly, we wondered what the basis of our understanding with him would be when his term was coming to an end with no prospect of his securing his party’s ticket for a second term. We made it clear that a working relationship between the two groups was beyond us. A decision of that magnitude would have to be reported to Afenifere leaders who had the authority to take a final position on it. We immediately reported the proceedings to Chief Abraham Adesanya who convened a meeting where it was debated with serious reservations amongst the leadership about fraternising with Obasanjo.
The Afenifere and AD leadership were not going to give their heart and soul to support Obasanjo’s second term ambition without extracting some major political commitment from him. A meeting was held in Lagos where the conditions for negotiating with Obasanjo were agreed upon. After the meeting at his home, Adesanya, he led a team with Afenifere charter of demand to Ota to discuss with Obasanjo.
The delegation to Ota included Chief Ayo Adebanjo, Senator Femi Okunrounmu and Cornelius Adebayo. Okunrounmu and Adebayo were mandated to speak on behalf of AD and Afenifere. Adesanya called and asked me to join them at Obasanjo’s Ota Farm, from my station in Abeokuta.
The conditions presented to Obasanjo amongst others were: the restructuring of the Nigerian federation, devolution of power, including moving some items from the exclusive to the concurrent list and ensuring fiscal federalism. Obasanjo was to organize a credible and transparent national census. Merit must be followed alongside federal character and quota system in the recruitment to federal positions across the country.
Obasanjo assured us that he identified with them. He explained that he had even started implementing the issue of merit in federal appointments indirectly through the privatization of many public enterprises which were run for many years without respect for merit. With the privatization and the enthronement of a culture of merit, he expected many Nigerian professionals abroad would return home to run the privatised enterprises. He affirmed that privatization was a part of enthroning meritocracy.
Obasanjo said arrangements had been completed to ensure a genuine, transparent and acceptable headcount. He told us the satellite mapping of all Nigeria cities, towns and villages was in the making. Even without a headcount, he explained that with satellite mapping, it was possible to count the number of houses everywhere in the land and with that get a rough idea of how many people live in the house and in the country. He said he would lay the issue of census to rest in the second term, through GOOGLE, the days of census inflation were over.
On fiscal federalism, he said the federal government would respect and obey the decision of the court in the case instituted by Lagos and the other states against the federal government. On the whole, Obasanjo sounded so eloquent and convincing. At the end of the meeting, we drove to the Gateway Hotel, Ota where I had arranged dinner for the leaders. It was also the lace to debrief ourselves of what we gained from meeting with Obasanjo. Chief Adebanjo was the major speaker.
“I sincerely cannot believe that Obasanjo has become such a changed man,” he said. “I am surprised but happy that he is ready to take fundamental actions to restructure Nigeria in his second term in office.”
That was the impression most of us took away from the meeting. Consequently, we agreed to support him for the 2003 presidential election. We decided not to present a presidential candidate for the AD, in spite of resistance from some Afenifere leaders. It was later that we realized that we had been fooled. Obasanjo merely played along with us and ended up deceiving us by telling our leaders what he knew they wanted to hear but which didn’t come from his heart.
Apart from reaching out directly to the AD governors, Obasanjo also reached out to other sources close to the governors to reinforce his professed desire for cooperation. From Ogun state, he enlisted all manner of groups- religious, traditional, professional, communal and familial, to pile pressure on me, his fellow Ogun indigene.
Obasanjo pressured me through Royal Fathers, Friends and Groups. The then Ooni of Ife, Oba Sijuwade, Olubuse II, was the first to discuss Obasanjo’s reelection plans with me. He was superlative in his presentation.
“The Yoruba nation has an assignment for you,” he said. “Yorubas don’t want disintegration; they want continuity and a smooth change of baton from one civilian government to another.” Then the real message: “We want your cooperation and assistance.”
I responded that his message and idea were laudable, but I was only a member of a large team with which I needed to discuss the subject.
Alake of Egbaland, late Oba Oyebade Lipede was next. At a meeting in his bedroom one night, he told me, waxing sentimental: “Akinrogun, this is where I will breathe my last to join my ancestors. Before I answer the call to transition, I want you to join the Egbas in helping our Jagunmolu of Egbas (General Obasanjo) to execute a successful movement from one civilian to another.”
Oba Of Lagos, Oba Adeyinka Oyekan, a distant cousin and the grand-patron of our family, Osoba-George, also waded in. So did the then Ataoja of Osogbo, Oba Iyiola Matanmi with whom I grew up in Osogbo. He threw his weight in to plead Obasanjo’s cause.
The most compelling of all was from the paramount ruler of Ijebuland, Oba (Dr.) Sikiru Adetona, a respected royal father in Yorubaland. Having been on the throne since 1960, Awujale is deep and experienced. He can be firm and uncompromising in any noble cause he supports. Awujale had been an immense source of inspiration to me both in and out of office as governor. He also provided succour when I was underground during Abacha’s reign. His daily telephone calls with prayers made my travails in hiding bearable and fortified my resolve to bear it through. A fair-minded leader who hates injustice in any form, he could be radical in search of justice. The Awujale too did not wholly trust Obasanjo, having had a testy relationship with him. I remember one incident in Ijebu-igbo after the church service for the 80th birthday ceremony of Chief Abraham Adesanya in July 2002. The Awujale and I were riding in the same vehicle with Obasanjo and Chief Bode George when the Awujale told Obasanjo frontally: “In the past, I could swear by you but in recent times, I no longer trust you nor can I put a bet on any promise you make.” Rather than get offended, Obasanjo simply laughed and said; “Kabiyesi, Kabiyesi that is not true.” In his autobiography the Awujale would call Obasanjo a “Judas”.
A royal father who knows Obasanjo that much would, therefore not throw his goodwill in Obasanjo’s favour frivolously. Sometime in 2002 the Awujale invited me to his place for a heart to heart discussion.
“My Aremo,” he started, “we all know Obasanjo’s terrible weaknesses, but we have to overlook those as to ensure a smooth civilian to civilian transition bereft of bloodshed and the subsequent collapse of the republic as it happened in 1966 and 1983. In light of this, it is better for us to support Obasanjo and let him finish his second term and go. I want to broker relative peace between you and Obasanjo.”
We debated his suggestion at length after which Awujale volunteered to arrange a private flight from Ibadan to Abuja, for a meeting with President Obasanjo. We set out early on Saturday morning for the presidential villa where he had breakfast with the president, followed by a meeting in his inner study at the Villa.
The Awujale started the meeting by joking that as an Ijebu king, he should not be interceding between two Egba men. He then turned to me.
“Mr. Governor, do you have any presidential ambition now?”
“No,” I replied.
He then turned to Obasanjo for his own royal quiz.
“Mr. President, are you interested in contesting to be governor of Ogun state?”
“God forbid!” Obasanjo replied, in what looked to him like an abomination. “How can I descend from being president to become a state governor?”
Like King Solomon attempting to settle a dispute between two people, the Awujale asked two of us; “So what do the both of you have against each other?”
Without waiting for a reply, he continued making light of a serious matter with his jocular approach;
