Giving is precious as wisdom. The more giving a man becomes, so is his life tranquil, and the greater is his success, his influence, his power for good – Islamic Counsel
Senator Isiaka Adetunji Adeleke learned empathy and behaviour from his father, the late Senator Raji Ayoola Adeleke, a devout Muslim and major politician of his time. Senator Raji Adeleke collaborated with Baba Awolowo and other mighty men of ancient triumphant Yoruba politics of poise and compassion that fastened uncontaminated conscience with courage and justice as the revolutionary ethos of Yoruba Omoluabi ideology of reasoning that strictly moulded men into the finest character of distinctive virtue of integrity and the highest merit of probity. So highly rated is the Omoluabi status in the Yoruba psyche that in real value, whomever is considered an Omoluabi person, truly equates deity.
Isiaka would learn the practice of piety from his marvellous mother, Madam Esther Adeleke, a strong Igbo Christian prayer warrior from Abia State who, in a marriage of over 50 years, learned and fluently spoke Yoruba with sweetly seasoned proverbs, lived in Ede town with her husband until his demise, and she happily remained in the town after he was gone away until she too died in Ede town where her grave was, with sensible fanfare, installed beside her beloved husband.
It is worthy of commentary applause to state that in those dark days of yore, the Adeleke marriage was a foolhardy, hugely perilous and patently dangerous adventure as much as it would later be proof of a unique love story that frightened tribal prejudices, cracked the bones of bigotry, mocked to no end the mischief of cruel human impulses, and then cried out loudly that love has its own reward in the pleasure of love for its own sake and in love’s main intrinsic powers that gestate the truest joy from the pillars of mystic support that parody the powers of oracular self-belief which propel all the essential niceties of real life to its pristine and harmonious accord.
As reward, the eccentric Adeleke marriage sired quality children who, by nature of their variegated birth or perhaps unerring destinies were from the foetus stage, toughened and battle-ready for life’s stressful struggles, its hardships and whatever myriad challenges that may wish to tackle their persons or obstruct their paths.
It thus evidently seem like God, the great giver of all things, endowed the Adeleke brood with the graces of gallant valour of a conquering disposition that genuine love that had actually defeated tyranny, gently and copiously passed to each child fabulous favours of special graces that gifted everlasting joy to a very brave, unique and wondrous couple.
I personally believe further that it is precisely these mixture of cultures and faiths that Isiaka endured in his early life that marinated him into a brilliant political sophisticate who very early in life elected to embrace public service as his calling. Isiaka chose well. The fates were kind to him, and God blessed his wishes, and he justly became the first fresh winds that buffeted a fantastic fantasy of a resurgent Nigeria that military intervention in government have most often decimated and sometimes render prostrate.
It was in 1990 that Nigeria’s unelected President, General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, GCON served notice of another dubious intention to quit power, and return the nation to civilian democratic rule. This time around, IBB, a deft mastermind of seizure of government power apparatus was sprightly in his declaration which encouraged and indeed invited new breed politicians to come partake in his fresh experiment of diarchy that would explore and indeed transfer power to civilian rule. Diarchy? A government operated by two independent authorities? Can there be passion and ecstasy where guns prescribe law and order? It was unclear if IBB had staged another defrauding subterfuge that intended to strengthen and elongate military rule. At any rate, IBB had endowed civilian politicians with moral support. In a larger sense, the fate of the nation rests on the balance of a delicate experiment with IBB still as the unchallenged ruler.
IBB, President as well as the unbowed military adventurer into party politics, had long ago sullied his personal and professional reputation by spinning a vast web of deception that rolled out an unprincipled, unending and unconscionable transition programme that had endured many tiring and frightful years that seemed choreographed to fail, at all times, and thus
evade the capture of real democratic government. IBB was a superbly conniving mind who persistently taunted the nation by simply having an imperilled fun with power, its deceptive fantasies and ruinous impulses. The President was generally viewed as charming, cunning, fast, and elusive as the hare. But his latest idealistic verdict of fate had appeal that actually escalated IBB’s political stature. Hence, the project had an undeniable character of hopeful nicety that was the valuable magnet which pulled the younger generation of the nation’s civilian politicians into a significant cluster that was anxiously desirous of partaking in the latest transition experiment that promised to secure for the nation, a sparkling democratic government.
Isiaka, a fresh returnee from the United States, who had been minted by good education, raised well, coached and toughened by a connoisseur of Renaissance Yoruba politics, his father, determinedly set aside his prosperous business interests, abandoned his GRA, Ikeja home, and relocated to Ede town in the old Oyo State, where he merrily declared his keen interest in the Governorship race.
Lifeless careers abound the most in politics as life’s professional vocation. Always mysterious as a murky cave, politics is never clearly a visible enterprise in that it penetrates the dark depths of the human soul even as it encircles the prodigious capacious ends of human goodness that beckon radiant hope. Danger and traps always lie in wait. And as politics adjusts its mystical mien, it ever stands in darkness, surrounded and is eternally by sublime light. Politics is a game of power and influence with tremendous expenditure of collective effort and great personal determination that attempt to harvest a fairer society that is most benevolent. It is mainly the game of big boys, brilliant nerds, and nasty crooks, knaves and tyrants including a pot-pourri of genuinely compassionate and altruistic individuals who are filled with resilience of charity that aspire to combat lurking misery and obliterate unrestrained poverty that glows with pathetic eagerness in our midst.
The freshness of Isiaka’s flirtation with politics was something to marvel at. He was the son of a notable Yoruba politician who has found his own identity, and would not belong to any of the old powerful groups and acrimonious alliances. He was his own man, who had come to demystify the reigning kings of party politics and bastions of god fatherism in Yoruba politics. This is not done, and never has it been done, especially by a person of his elitist breed and pedigree.
Party politics has always been as tempestuous as ever in Nigeria, and every inch of the slabs of earth that formed the geography of the nation was seized and controlled by the god fathers, who consists of good doers as well as sponsors of mayhem who have appropriated, with remarkable audacity, the apparatus of power and influence of party politics. Some are wealthy, others not, but all can cause confusion with soulless efficiency.
In Oyo, the dominance of god fathers is real and incontestable. So it was and still is, throughout the Federation. At one time in the States of Kogi and Kwara put together, the political fortunes of the states rested in the firm grip of one man, who alone held unbridled powers, and could swing elections at his personal whim and wishes in one direction, and at once, throw electoral fortunes in a different political space. When Kogi State was carved out of Kwara, Dr. Olusola Saraki owned the land, and all the fruits atop the trees that was rooted into the soil. In Kwara, his submissive followers fondly called him Ooloye, Supreme Chief or Leader, all of these combine to mean, emperor of the dominion. Dr. Olusola Saraki seized Kwara State by the throat, and never let go until he passed his talismanic powers to his son, Dr. Bukola Saraki, and then exited the world, leaving his dominion for his son. Now the nation’s Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki has demonstrated an edifying mastery of self-reliance, strength of mind and capacious willpower bequeath him by his father.
In Oyo State, at the time of Isiaka’s daring, Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu always desired large political space, influence and power at any cost, and often obtained whatever he wanted at all costs. He was Dean, College of Amala politics and Vice Chancellor, University of Molete, Ibadan. He believed that the politics of Ibadan and perhaps all of Yorubaland possessed a sense of comprehensive pleasures and ample privilege that was passed to his control by a Yoruba deity whom he had formerly conquered in combat, and had reduced to perennial servitude. It was not for nothing that he was admirably called Strongman of Ibadan politics, since the period of regional demarcation when Ibadan was the epicentre of political activities in the Western Region, and later, Oyo State. Nothing could happen in politics in Oyo State without the evident epitaph of Alhaji Adedibu.
Everything in Oyo State does not take place in accordance with the world’s natural rhythms which suggests that Alhaji Adedibu was something contrary to the order of nature. Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, the never equable emperor of Owu Kingdom in Egbaland, Army General, former Head of State, member, the globally prestigious Eminent Persons Group, and later democratic President of The Republic (all in one lifetime), always reverently hailed Adedibu, Garrison Commander, on account of his frightening powers, magnificent political skills and expert authority on election matters. Alhaji Adedibu was an effective grassroots politician whose extravagant populist fabrications gained resurgent energy as he boldly promulgated Yoruba pride and culture as the symbolic roots of triumph in party politics. Throughout his life, Adedibu never lost any elective post. He always was a happy bystander, king maker and proficient talisman who procures consistent victories for his candidates and his party. The poor and downtrodden praised his accomplishments and politicians praised his contributions for their well-composed victories. Everything connected to Adedibu was mainly the product of the moment, of the passing mood, and of his spontaneous imagination. But his latest world was beset by fast and furious challenges, and alterations of political realities that was bound to re-define personal respect and diminish his social esteem.
Alhaji Adedibu was neither happy nor amused by the resonant voice and credible political stature that Isiaka had garnered in Oyo State. With a nervous disposition and deep sense of curiosity, he keenly was watchful of the whirlwind courtship between Isiaka and his own political family, put together by decades of hard work and languishing experiences that secured for him controlling impact that constructed his permanent position of leadership in Oyo State, and as he levitated, his arsenal of natural wits loudly spoke to him, alerting him that in Isiaka was already a new star born!
- Dr. Adewale Adeeyo is a member of the Governing Council of the Adeleke Univeristy, Ede, Osun State.
