How We Freed Awolowo From Prison To Join Gowon’s Govt., By Gen. Adebayo

Major-General Adeyinka Adebayo (rtd), 85, is a former military
governor of the defunct Western Region in whose time Chief Obafemi
Awolowo was released from prison and made to join the General Yakubu
Gowon government as Federal Commissioner for Finance and Vice Chairman
of the Federal Executive Council.
[image]Adebayo, a civil war general and President, Yoruba Council of
Elders(YCE), spoke, in this interview at his Ikeja GRA, Lagos home, on
how the release of the former premier of Western Region happened, the
state-of-the-nation, the security challenges facing Nigeria,
corruption and the South- West integration programme. Excerpts: By
Bashir Adefaka
You were in charge of what has today become six-states of the
South-West as military governor of Western Region and so should have
an idea of how to achieve the integration in the former Western Region
without necessarily breaching the unity of Nigeria against the
insinuation of some people. What is your take?
Well, you have said it all. It is true that Iwas governor of Western
Region, which is now split into six states. At that time when we were
asking for states, other regions were asking for states as well. We
thought that creating more states was a good thing because it would
help the states economically, spread the economy of the region and
bring development quicker, and then, it would enable the people to
work harder for their states. And I think this is what we should still
do.
What we should do now is to develop the economy because, if we do, it
will give employment to our youths coming out of school and make
peoplework harder than before. Continuing todo exactly what you have
said has informed the move by governors of the states of the South
-West to integrate to be able to achieving a programme which grows the
economyof the region thereby providing jobs for the youth. But some
people are looking at it from ethnic angle which they say is not good
for one and unitedNigeria.
How do you link the two? People should think more of the developmentof
the region/states via the overall development of our nation than
thinking about ethnicity. We have gone far ahead of ethnicity in this
country and that should be taken awayfrom our minds whenever we are
talking about things that will help us grow as components of the
national entity. We must think about development of our individual
regional areas but we must also keep ourselves together as a nation.
Major General Adeyinka Adebayo... Major General Adeyinka Adebayo… You
have been much aware of the cries of marginalisation by leaders of
South-West where you are President of the Yoruba Council of Elders
(YCE).
Some have blamed the reason for the marginalisation on you the leaders
of the race. I think the people crying marginalisation are only Yoruba
people now. What I would say is that they should forget about whether
or not we are marginalised and face how we can develop ourselves as a
component of the national entity. We must develop the country and the
way to develop the country is to get the states to work. The first
step to developing a nation is to develop oneself, when you do that
and some ofyour products get to other areas, you then must ask for
your entitlements from the centre as a result of your contribution to
the collective building of the nation.
We are in a federal system and we have states within the federation.
Therefore, whatever is due to each state must be given to it. I think
it would be unfair to the Yoruba people to be subjected to
marginalisation to the point that we shout that Federal Government has
not given us our entitlements whereas we are supposed to be part and
parcel of the government. The Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi,
recently accused former President Olusegun Obasanjo of taking the
Yoruba to where they are.
He said he had the opportunity to do more than for his people while in
office but that was not done. I am not prepared to comment on what
Alaafin of Oyo said. Obasanjo was President of the country. And as
President, he was in charge of development of the entirecountry.
Obasanjo was not doing it all alone. He had a team working with himand
for the development of each area within the federation and so, one
should not be blaming Obasanjo now!
Why did you people not shout then when he was there, that he was not
doing the right thing for the Yoruba race?
I am not saying that Yoruba people have been given all their
entitlementsbut one must not put the blame on thehead of Obasanjo
because he was a Yoruba man. At the same time, being a Yoruba leader
and President of the country almost concurrently, he shouldnot be
working on his own tribe alone at the expense of others. That would
have made it worse now that the people are talking about it because he
would have breached the leadership trust that was put in him.
As a retired general… (cuts in)
But not tired (laughs).Yes, retired (but not tired). You have other
generals around you that ordinarily should complement your efforts in
moving the Yoruba race forward: Generals Oladipo Diya, Tajudeen
Olanrewaju and others. Yoruba were said to be indifferent to their
plight while they were awaiting pardon as victims of the General Sani
Abacha's phantom coup. Now that they have been pardoned but the
gazette to clear them finally is being delayed, what is your word to
President Jonathan?
First and foremost, let me start by saying I am still a Major General,
there is no gainsaying that I am still respected in the society and so
I can speak my views to the top. President Jonathan has started well
by pardoning these generals and I can only advise him to complete it
by ensuring that the gazette regarding their pardon is published on
time so that the grey areas due to conflicting media reports as to who
and who havebenefited will be cleared and the fine generals will be
restored finally to their normal lives with full enjoyment of their
entitlements.
These are generals that have contributed their quotas to the building
of the nation. I mean, Diya lives near me here. He is a good man;
agood Yoruba man both inside and outside the military. The same thing
is General Tajudeen Olanrewaju, the late General Adisa and others. In
the first place, there was nothing they did that was bad so as to
warrant that sentence. But we thank God now that the President has
done what is necessary and pardon has been issued.
But I am also aware that the Army authority has not been able to
effect the release of their entitlements because of either the delay
in the release of the gazette or that the presidency has not
officially informed them. This makes it necessary that President
Jonathan should see this as amajor component of the laudable effort he
is making in ensuring that things get better in this country and he
should cause all those involved in the release of the gazette to do so
without delay. Most Nigerians are not comfortable with the security
challenges facing us as a nation.
If it is not Boko Haram, it is militants kidnapping people in the
Niger Delta or cultists killing police officers and, donot forget,
that Jos crisis has also not really subsided. As far as security in
Nigeria is concerned, it is the responsibility of the Federal
Government to ensure the security of lives and property and the states
to report whatever security challenges facing their respective domains
to the Federal Government as a way of putting a superb security
measure in place. By this I mean security is a participatory duty
that, even though it is the responsibility of the Federal Government
to ensure, every good Nigerian has a role to play.The Federal
Government will not be everywhere; they will not be at the grassroots.
What are those other people doing? How are they taking proper care of
their domains to ensure that behaviours that are alien to their
various communities are checked? That takes us to the issue of
corruption. This, apparently, has eaten deep into the fabrics of our
national life. Is it that government has not doneenough to tackle the
scourge or the scourge has turned into a monster? The fight against
corruption is the responsibility of one, the government of the
federation; two, the governments of the states and the individuals.
Corruption is a disease that must be vigorously tackled by everybody.
The issue of power in 2015 is already heating up the polity: the Igbo
are clamouring, the Niger Delta megaphones won't let go, yet the
Northern Elders Forum (NEF) has made clear its position that it must
be North come 2015. What do you think? We do not know ourselves much
yet and therefore we must continue to work together. We should
continue to bring everybody to work together to get theright
leadership. It does not matter where the leadership comes from, but it
must not come from one place all the time.
At any rate, leadership should go to the adequately qualified,
efficient, honest person. At the same time, we must not forget other
areas. Your government of Western Region faciliated the release of
Chief Obafemi Awolowo from prison after being convicted for treason.
How did you arrive at that decision? We arrived at that decision
because we discovered that there was no need to put him in prison in
the first instance.
The old man did a lot of good works forthe country, for the Western
Region and, when the military took over from the civilian regime that
put him in prison, it was the duty of the military regime in power to
release him. That was what we did. I worked on the military on the
need to release him and we agreed. Yes, we brought him into the
military government and he did a lot of good jobs for us there.So it
was based on your recommendation that he became Federal Commissioner
for Finance? Well, based on the recommendation ofthe government
(laughs), he became the Federal Commissioner for Finance and he did
very well in that position and improved the economy of the country. I
just want to be sure of the role you played in how Chief Awolowo moved
from prison to the office of the Federal Commissioner for Finance. I
recommended his release and he was released. And when we wanted to
bring some civilians into the military government, we felt he would be
very useful in the regime, and it turned out that he stood out of the
pack. He never disappointed us and we thank God he did not.
You just clocked 85 but still looking radiantly vibrant. What is your
birthdaymessage for the younger generation? One, you should be
contented with what you have, with what you are and you must put your
mind on what you want to be in future. Then, if you do not overwork
yourself on what you do not need, on what you do not have, then you
would not have any problem.You love the way I look at 85 because I
have always lived my life as a contented person. I am happy, simple
and I look after my children and my children look after me… (cuts in)
Including the former Ekiti State governor-son of the retired general.
(laughter)? (Laughs) Yes.