Chief Olubamise Bakare, frontline politician, community leader, businessman, and philanthropist has seen it all. After a meritorious career in the police force, the Ijebu-Ode- born prince joined active politics from the backstreets of Agege, a suburb of Lagos, from where his influence transcended not just local politics but shot him to national prominence in the almost five decades of his political voyage thus far. In this no-holds bared interview with Ibrahim Apekhade Yusuf, the septuagenarian who clocks 76 years on February 26 reminisces about his days in the defunct Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) where he led a revolution codenamed ‘PRIMROSE’, that whittled down the influence of former Lagos State Governor, Alhaji Lateef Jakande, the formation of People’s Democratic Movement (PDM) a powerful political bloc founded by the late Major General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, the many intrigues of the gladiators behind the June 12 debacle, his association with many prominent politicians like Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Chief Dapo Sarumi, prospects and challenges of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the controversy over Operation Amotekun, among others. Excerpts:
When did you join active politics?
I came into active politics in 1978 shortly after I left police service in 1977. I started with Agege politics. I was in the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), where I played a major role at the time. I was presiding over the constituency in Agege. The people that I associated with from the onset were progressives. Some of the people around that time were Chief Osinjinrin. He was the person that came up when the then Oba of Agege died. He was just like a regent. In Agege, I worked with the likes of Chief Safari Adaranijo (Srn.), Chief Dapo Sarumi, to mention just a few. That time, we were under Alhaji Lateef Jakande. But due to Jakande’s dictatorial tendencies, we decided to leave his camp. He was the governor of Lagos State at the time. At that time he listed the names of party chairmen across the states. That was a when we were transiting to Social Democratic Party (SDP). But we worked out of the meeting at Bishop Court, where Alh. Jakande lives now. Then, I got out with some members, most of who belonged to The Progressive club, that were supporting Jakande him at the time. I told them, look, we cannot fight establishment like that. The man was a sitting governor. Members of The Progressive, including Chief HSB Kusoro, who was a Chief Community Officer in Lagos, who was the President, while me as the Vice President, Alhaji Jimoh Kareem Orelope, the father of the onetime deputy governor of Lagos State, Adejoke Orelope-Adefuilire was the Treasurer, Alhaji Salau, now of blessed memory, were all there. When we discovered that we cannot toe the line of Alhaji Jakande in respect of the choice of party chairmanship position, which he gave to us, Chief Osinjinrin, a transport magnate didn’t sit well with us; we decided to work out of the meeting. I knew we were going to have problem because as I said, we were trying to wrestle with the establishment. However, the only thing that gave us assurance that time was the fact that we were the ones mobilizing votes to push the party forward in Agege. So, in a sense I wasn’t moved. But I told my men that we need to work our fingers to the bones if we really want to get victory and the people agreed. So we all sat down to plan our strategy. The first thing we did when we returned to our base in Agege was that we decided to form a group that is called PRIMROSE, which is People Resolve Irrevocably to Maximise Resources of the State for Excellence. The symbol was just a yellow flower.
So how many of you formed the PRIMROSE?
Chief Dapo Sarumi was leading the group that time. We had Prince Tajudeen Olusi, Otunba Alebiosu Bush. After the formation of PRIMROSE, Chief Dapo Sarumi brought Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu to us in Agege. He said he had been helping the group financially and that he was interested in vying for the House of Reps member in Lagos State. But that time, Alhaji Aro Lambo, had been given the ticket so we brought Tinubu to Agege. At that time, King and Dr. Kolajo, a medical practitioner who came from Germany, volunteered his house at No. 16 Cooker for Tinubu, who at the time was living at No. 16 Balarabe Musa Crescent, Victoria Island, Lagos. So when you now match that with the house he was to be staying in Agege, which was the same No.16 as his house address, it was as if everything was planned. Dr. Kolajo at the time was a living in Ogba. But he just newly built the place at Cooker, Agege, a three-storey building. I occupied one of the floors, the late Oba of Agege, Alhaji Lati Adams also occupied the middle floor, while Tinubu moved into the other floor after it was furnished. Tinubu was Treasurer in Mobil. I recalled that by the time he joined active politics, he got assurance from his superiors that should he fail, he could still come back to his position at Mobil. I was among the people that screened him. We got two candidates from each local government area. That time, Lagos West had seven local government areas. It was a 14-man panel that made up the screening committee. It was myself and Rahman Owo oniran, who later became Commissioner for Housing that took Asiwaju round Agege at the time just to canvass support for him and we succeeded. At the end of the day he polled the highest votes across the country.
Later, PRIMROSE became big. You know when people are revolting against the system; naturally people like to join them because they believe we are trying to fight for them. Chief Dapo Sarumi then was referred to as the Chief PRIMROSE, CP for short. In Lagos Island, we had Alhaji Aro Lambo, Prince Tajudeen Olusi, Otunba Busura Alebiosu Bush, Alhaji Olatunji Hamzat (who later became an Oba) the father of the current deputy governor of Lagos State, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat, was the caretaker controlling Mushin, but his house was in Ifako Ijaiye, at Yaya Abatan Road. PRIMROSE had its office at No 1. Akilo, formerly used as office of Datamatics, owned by Chief Sarumi.
With the benefit of insight, how exactly would you measure the influence of PRIMROSE as far as Lagos politics at the time is concerned? Don’t you think its influence could have been overrated?
No not at all. At the risk of sounding immodest, I can tell you without any fear of contradiction that the PRIMROSE group grew to become a very formidable group in Lagos and even beyond because it also played a major part in the national politics. Today, if you go to any part of Lagos State and ask for PRIMROSE members, you will find then even if it’s a small village. That time, PRIMROSE was a big revolution and we did succeed to a very large extent. The first thing that made us to succeed was from Agege. As I mentioned earlier, we field Alhaji Sarafa Adaranijo as the Chairman, against the choice of Alhaji Jakande, who imposed Chief Osinjinrin, the regent of Agege as Chairman of the party in Agege. That was the first clash. That time, we discovered that the only thing we can do as the foot soldiers of the party was to redouble our efforts at mobilising the electorates. Of course, we knew how to go about it because we knew all the nooks and crannies of the neighbourhood. We used to hold our meetings at Oyewole Road, which was Chief Dapo Sarumi’s house. I was there over nine years. I operated from there for over nine years, tutoring and mobilising people. Every Monday, anybody who was anybody in Agege converged there. It was like going to Jumat service. Every 4pm, the whole of Agege literally emptied there. It was through us, Alhaji Jakande got his first defeat in politics.
You mentioned earlier that the PRIMROSE was also involved in national politics…
Yes, at that time we teamed up with the late Major Gen. Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, who wanted to be president. He promised us that the Southwest was going to be his vice for eight years. The PRIMROSE was the group that made Yar’adua to win election in the whole of the Southwestern states for the first time. As at that time, no northerner had ever won any election in Southwest. Yar’Adua at that time was leading the People’s Democratic Movement (PDM) a powerful political bloc with stronghold in the north.
Unfortunately, Yar’Adua was disqualified by General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida. But quite unexpectedly, Yar’Adua said since he had been disqualified, and bearing in mind that the Southwest was to be his vice, he nonetheless said we should go ahead and produce the president. So that was how MKO Abiola came into the picture.
Personally, MKO Abiola and Yar’Adua were business associates. They both owned the then Habib Bank and the African Oceanline. They had two big ships, namely: Atinuke Abiola and Binta Yar’Adua. Chief Raymond Dokpesi was at that time the General Manger at the African Ocean Line. Also at that time too, I was moving goods for the company as a haulage contractor. One year after I left the service, I also pulled my wife, who was also in the police service out to go into haulage business. However, Yar’Adua and MKO Abiola had a clash along the line so both had gone their separate ways. They sold their two ships. I recall at the time that in Apapa Wharf, the best equipment you could think of were owned by African Ocean Line even better equipped than the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) at the time. But at this time when politics was in the front burner and following MKO’s choice, we had to call them both for a meeting. We called the meeting at the instance of the man who owned the Peninsula Hotel; I can’t remember his name now. But the owner of the hotel who had a farm settlement at Epe that was where they both met and settled their differences. There they embraced and they both shed tears because they had lost a lot of things material wise. There and then, we handed over MKO Abiola to Shehu Musa’Adua, informing him that the former was the person we want as president from the Southwest.
How did the People’s Democratic Movement (PDM) came about?
I can tell you for a fact that different interest groups formed the PDM. But the late Major Gen. Shehu Musa Yar’Adua was the leader of the PDM structure. As I was saying, when Abiola was accepted, we decided to go for party primary. We must give it to Shehu Musa Yar’Adua. He was a strategist. I remember then when he is holding meeting with us at Akilo, he used to say that the only person he respects is Olusegun Obasanjo. Of course, we never knew what would happen at the end. So when the time came for the party primary, Yar’Adua said all delegates from the whole country should come to Kaduna. It was there he hosted us all. You know because of the problem between Alhaji Jakande and Yar’Adua then because nobody had ever beaten Jakande in election in Lagos, he challenged Yar’Adua that if he was confident that he truly won the election, he should come and walk on the streets of Marina, in Lagos with him on foot, so that they can both test their popularity. But Yar’Adua replied and said, “I did not defeat you. Go and ask Chief Dapo Sarumi and PRIMROSE how they defeated you.” That was how that situation was settled…
So when you arrived for the primaries…
Yes, when we arrived in Kaduna, Yar’Adua hosted us all the delegates at a hotel in town. While we were there, he called some people to the high table including Chief S. M. Afolabi, Dapo Sarumi. In fact, all the leaders that helped him to win the election in Southwest were singled out for recognition. He held the microphone and told the rest of the delegates, majority of who were from the northern part of the country, and told them that no northerner had ever won election in the Southwest. But these are the people (he gestured towards us on the high table) that made me to win. Quoting Yar’Adua, he said, “They say they have chosen MKO Abiola as the president from the Southwest. So I want you to go out there and announce that Tafida has endorsed MKO Abiola for president.”
Almost immediately, he ordered that they should mount public address system on some brand new J5 Station wagons and go round Kaduna to announce that decision. Thereafter, he told the delegates that in Jos, we will be given three ballot papers. The first ballot is going to be for MKO Abiola, the second ballot for Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and he handed him over to Abiola and said, “Atiku will be your vice.” Then he said the third ballot would be anybody of our choice as president from our state of origin. At that time, it was Option A4, which required that you must have a presidential candidate from your state. Barrister Akeem Giwa from Lagos Island was the candidate we fielded. I remember at the time that the likes of Prince Ademola Adeniji-Adele, Alhaji Nuhu Saka, the former chairman of Apapa Local Government Area, all in PRIMROSE were also present there. Saka’s vice at the time is the present State Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Alhaji Tunde Balogun, they were both elected under the Congress for National Consensus one of the five state-sanctioned political parties allowed by the government of General Sani Abacha at the time.
Of course, before we left Kaduna, we knew the number of votes we were going to deliver for Abiola. The plan was so superb. Yar’Adua arranged for air-conditioned J5 buses to move delegates from Kaduna to Jos stadium the venue of the primaries. I remember at the time that every candidate had his own coordinator and agents. I remember it was one Prof. Ojo that was the coordinator for Abiola. Meanwhile, I forgot to say that before we left Lagos, we had crisis. Our group split into two. Alhaji Hamzat was heading one group with the likes of Adele and co, were all supporting Ambassador Babagana Kingibe, who at that time was the National Chairman of the SDP. The Chief PRIMROSE was leading another group supporting MKO. Already at that time the SDP had 14 state governors. When we got to Jos, those of us in Sarumi’s camp were all accommodated at a building, which served as a branch office of Datamatics also owned by Sarumi. Sarumi bought tickets for his own sets of delegates while those in Kingibe group had their flights facilitated by Lukman Ajose, who was working at one of the old generation bank at the time. The delegate used his complimentary card to board Okada Air to Jos. So we all met at Jos. Of course, we already had our plan from Kaduna, which the Kingibe group was not privy to. When we got to Jos stadium, the first ballot started and we finished that one around 1.am. But it was an upset. The upset was that we were expecting MKO to be No.1, Atiku to be No.2. But Kingibe was No.2 while Atiku was No.3. Naturally, we were jittery because we knew something was wrong. We were soon to find out that some governors in Southwest unknown to us were secretly working for Kingibe, hence the upset with the initial vote cast. We were to start the second ballot by 3.00am and Sarumi was sitting on my immediate left while Adeniji-Adele was also within earshot. At that point I whispered to Sarumi’s ears that Kingibe was going to give us problem. I reminded him that Yar’Adua had said that MKO must emerge from Jos today. Afterwards, Sarumi put a call through to Yar’Adua in Kaduna that we have an upset. Quite unexpectedly, Yar’Adua left Kaduna that wee hour of the night to Jos at 3.00am and summoned the gladiators, including MKO and Atiku to his hotel. That night he again reiterated the fact that he had since given his word to the Yorubas that they are to produce the president. There and then, he asked Atiku to go back and announce that he was stepping down. It was a rude shock to Atiku but then he submitted to the wish and command of Yar’Adua, who was his political benefactor. When Sarumi came back to the stadium venue, he said I shouldn’t worry that everything had been sorted out. But I told him, the way I’m seeing Kingibe moving around the stadium making frantic effort to sway the delegate things might not augur well. The whole place looked tense. But Sarumi said I shouldn’t bother. It was then he said Yar’Adua had settled everything. He didn’t say more than that. I knew Sarumi had invested a lot in the whole affair also it bothered me. But all he was just doing at the time was counting his Tasbih (the Muslim rosary). Before the second ballot was to start, all the candidates were called to the podium to speak for three minutes.
MKO was the first to speak. When he picked up the microphone, he said he was only interested in building the country that he wasn’t coming to steal as he was already contented with what he had. The whole stadium erupted with shouts of “MKO! MKO! MKO!!!” It was then Kingibe’s turn. You know he is an orator. He delivered a speech less than three minutes that moved the whole stadium. He said, “We all have our membership cards. That’s all we need. We were able to win 14 governors seats without any support of any moneybag. So this rich man just came to hijack the party and under one month he wants to be the president and you people are just sitting down there watching.”
That was a most inciting statement. The whole place became silent that if you dropped a pin, people will hear the sound. Then I said, “Problem dey o.”(laughs). Then Atiku came in to give his speech. Atiku said: “All party members, we came in here in peace, in happiness, we will go back to our various destinations in peace.” He said, he doesn’t want any problem with anybody, so he is stepping down. He was the only one who had a standing ovation, that’s Atiku Abubakar. The whole place erupted with joyous ecstasy. Almost immediately, Kingibe took the microphone, shouting, “My own brother stabbed me at the back. My own brother stabbed me at the back!” he kept on ranting but of course, he knew the game was up. After the commotion died down, Abiola had already gone to embrace Atiku. Soon the second ballot began and at the end of the day, MKO beat Kingible by massive votes and was declared the winner.
But then one shocking thing happened. After MKO was declared the winner, people urged him to raise Atiku’s hand as his Vice, but he refused. People were like Atiku is the man who gave you the ticket. A lot of us felt this was a serous form of betrayal. He said, “No, wait, when we get back we are going to sit down and resolve this.” That was the beginning of the crisis.
But what must have led to this turn of event?
I’ll tell you. Things began to manifest one after the other. First I must say it was the handiwork of sycophants. Just two weeks after we were to go to Abuja for the national convention, some people went to tell MKO to appoint his own national exco, insisting that he must be the one to so choose the national executive, who all must be his choice candidates. MKO designed a list without consulting widely. At the end of the day we had two lists of executives when we got to Abuja. But they had forgotten one thing that Yar’Adua commanded the love and admiration of a lot of party faithful. Of course, we had already given our word that we were going to return Yar’Adua as the national chairman of the party by all means. And true to our plan, it was the same number of votes we used to beat all the candidates fielded by MKO Abiola and Babagana Kingibe combined to make Yar’Adua emerge as the national leader of the party. To the glory of God, Yar’Adua floored MKO in all the party positions and was able to firmly take control of the party machinery. We expected him to be bitter but not Yar’Adua. In spite of everything, Yar’Adua who regretted that MKO chose Kingibe instead of Atiku as his Vice in Jos, still asked the party members to support him. That was the real problem that caused the annulment. All other things are just undercurrents. You will recall that even IBB at some point revealed that the June 12 election was annulled by some powerful forces. This is exactly what played out.
Are you saying that it is the people that mattered most in the north that decided that MKO Abiola should not be returned as president after his success at the polls?
I will still come to that point before the end of this discussion.
What happened after the annulment?
After the annulment, the state executive committee, including myself as the State Organising Secretary of the SDP with Prince Tajudeen Olusi who was the chairman and Alhaji Olatunji Hamzat as the Secretary of the party told MKO to find his way out of the country. The state exco suggested to him that if he gets out of the country, he can form his cabinet. Already, at that time there was the Interim National Government and Chief Dapo Sarumi was in the government. Before Sarumi joined the government, we asked Yar’Adua who do we present, and he said Sarumi. In fact, Sarumi was second in command to Chief Ernest Shonekan. I recalled that Chief Shonekan promised us that he was going to try all within his powers to return power to MKO Abiola that we should give him time because he never tampered with the structure of the party. He promised to invite the person that adjudicated in the election to come back and pronounce the winner of the June 12th, 1993 elections. So we had hope that things would work and for good. Abiola was outside already. That was when the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) was formed and many of those who formed it were also part of PRIMROSE. But, suddenly we got word that MKO Abiola was returning to the country on the invitation of Gen. Sani Abacha and we were worried for his safety. MKO asked us to meet him at the airport. When we met him, we asked who invited him and he said Abacha. Of course, Abacha knew that if he is outside, he won’t be able to get him, hence he lured him into the country and deceived him that he was going to hand over power to him. That was the first time I disagreed with Asiwaju. I called all the people that supported me in voting Asiwaju as a Senator representing Lagos West to the Lagos Airport Hotel so that they could help me convince Asiwaju that Abacha was not ready to hand over to Abiola. I told him Abacha had been agitating to rule for a long time so how can he get the opportunity now and just push it away. Bola did not take it easy with me that night. We were there still around 2.00am. All the leaders were there.
Right there, he took up his cellular and placed a call to the US. After speaking with some people, he handed over the phone to me and said talk to my chairman. When I picked the phone the receiver at the other end said “We’re youths in the US and we won’t come until MKO takes his mandate.” Then I said, “Did you vote for Abiola? We were the ones that voted so we know what is going to pay us so don’t tell me that. If you don’t want to come home then stay back stay where you are.”
Then Asiwaju would say “Chairman, why are you saying that kind of thing?” That fateful day, Asiwaju stormed out of that meeting in the presence of leaders like Chief Adaranijo and co. That day, I expected him to pay for all the expenses we incurred but I had to pay for everything from my own pocket. That was when the problem started rearing its head.
I recalled at the time that Abacha’s brother was one of those who assured Asiwaju that MKO would get back power.
Can you remember his name?
No I can’t remember his name. But all I know is that he lived at No.18 Balarabe Musa Crescent, just two houses away from No.16, where Asiwaju lived. You know when Abiola came, he returned in Air France and Abacha gave him red carpet reception. We were watching. When we went to welcome him at the airport, he later asked us to join him at his house in Ikeja, at Oba Ogunji. When we got there, we told Abiola that all along Shonekan had planned to return him as president, but he was angry saying that Shonekan wanted to remain in power. It was then it dawned on us that we had made the wrong choice by picking a businessman. When he arrived the country, it was as if the USA government had put jet bomber, ships and tanks on Marina to defend MKO Abiola. Of course, we were very annoyed with ourselves for bringing on board someone whose mindset and thinking hardly aligned with our ideology. We felt we should have allowed this man to continue his business. Some of our people too went behind to convince him to declare himself as president and that was what led to the Epetedo Declaration. We were very annoyed that all these efforts we have put in was going down the drain.
So you think Abacha had sinister motives for inviting MKO to return to the country?
You know Abacha also was a strategist; he had ordered the soldiers to roll out the tankers to follow MKO from Epe to his house and ordered that nothing must happen to him. Everyone cheered him on saying, “Here comes our president!” But in diplomatic circles, no country can afford to have two sitting presidents. One will have to kick out the other one. You see one of the boys that was in that house when they came to pick MKO was the boys that wanted to be the Chairman of Agege Council. At the time he was in PRIMROSE, he was shot. He wanted to follow Abiola into the vehicle when the policemen came. There were among MKO’s supporters that were ready to die for him, immediately, Of course, they didn’t come as if they came to arrest him, the officers that came said he was being expected at the Force Headquarters, CID, Alagbon, Lagos. When they came they met everyone making merry and Abiola asked them to eat and drink but they declined, saying that he had a message from the Villa. Abiola thought the handing over had come. When MKO came out of his residence he met the Commissioner of Police, I don’t remember his name now, who addressed him as Your Excellency sir. That was the last time Abiola left his house alive. These are the real issues that played at that time. I remember Kola Abiola, MKO’s son made some comment in respect to his late dad, saying how sycophants goaded his father to untimely death. But we were not part of those sycophants.
What then became of Yar’Adua’s vision to make the Southwest produce the president following the death of MKO?
I remember before Yar’Adua died, a few of us met with him, and he reiterated the fact that we must still choose a Southwest person as president. That is why I said the man Yar’Adua was unique in his own right, very selfless human being. So when the preparation to return to civil rule began, we came together as a group, the PDM and began to ask ourselves who to pick as the preferred candidate for president from the Southwest. At that point, we remembered that the late Yar’Adua used to say that one person he respects most, is Olusegun Obasanjo.
How was Obasanjo lured into politics few days after his release from prison?
It was just few days after his return from Yola Prison, where he had been in incarceration for some years following his arrest by Abacha. He looked so haggard and had rashes all over him. When we told him our mission, he was scared himself. He said, no, no they have killed Abiola, Yar’Adua and you want me to stick my neck out again. He even insulted Dr. Kolajo, now late. He said, you with over 30 plus years in medical field, you still want me to come out, can’t you lead yourself? But before we came out of Obasanjo’s house, he had already apologised to Dr. Kolajo. He said, go and meet Chief Olu Falae that he was going to give him support. But when we met Falae himself, he declined, saying he cannot. Few weeks after, we got back to him (Obasanjo). I forgot to add that while we were with Obasanjo, his wife, the late Stella was standing behind him and gesturing to us in hushed tones to come back later. So after we met a brick wall with Falae, we went back to Obasanjo. By the time we got there, he was a bit relaxed. He received us very well this time around. He asked us to sit down. Everywhere looked tattered. He was using lantern. Then he said, ‘OK, I’ll discuss with my pastor in church and pray about it.’ He said he was going to call us back. So we left. Of course, Stella, who was also present at the meeting asked us to come back. But that time, there was a mandate that we should get somebody ready to lead the rebirth for Southwest presidency by the PDM.
Was Obasanjo a member of the PDM then?
No, he wasn’t. It was because of what Shehu Musa Yar’Adua said. So our choice of Obasanjo was influenced by what the late Shehu Musa Yar’Adua used to tell us. He said Obasanjo was the only person he respected. When we saw that he was foot-dragging about the whole thing, the PDM went and meet him at Premier Hotel, Ibadan. That’s a structure I can say that there is no time you call them, even in the middle of the night, they will rally round across the country. The structure was fantastic. So we resolved that since Obasanjo was scared, Chief Dapo Sarumi should go and declare. But some people went to see Obasanjo in the night as they were returning from Ibadan that look here, the opportunity will slip you bye as they have asked Sarumi to go and declare. It was after then Obasanjo called and said, he was ready. Then, we went to give him his member card. This story is known to everybody, it is not hidden. So anytime he is going to address campaign, Sarumi was always sitting close by. Obasanjo would be telling Sarumi, that Shehu has told me that you are very intelligent and you know your onions in politics. So each time we were at a rally and they asked questions, Obasanjo would beckon to Sarumi and say, what answer can I give or say now for so-so and so question they asked and all that.
The late SM Afolabi was convinced to go with us to meet Obasanjo because we have been coming together as PDM but he never wanted to go with us. Afolabi said Obasanjo was his junior in school and that he knows him. That’s why what happened later is something that confirmed our fears. The reason why I’m saying this is because I was among the people sent to Afolabi when he came out of detention in Iree, Ekiti. It was the former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who asked us to pay Afolabi a visit.
- CONCLUDING PART OF THIS INTERVIEW RUNS NEXT SUNDAY
