Oba Adesoji Aderemi and the incivility that haunts Nigeria -By Festus Adedayo

Yesterday, specifically on July 4, 2020, Oba Sir Titus Martins Adesoji Tadeniawo Aderemi, the 49^th Ooni of Ife, the spiritual head of the Yoruba, being the Oba of a town, Ile-Ife, considered to be the ancestral home of the Yoruba, and Western Nigeria‘s Governor General from 1960 to 1962, marked his 40^th year in the land of the ancestors. He passed on in 1980 at a ripe age of 90, having been born November 15, 1889.

A lot has been written about how Oba Aderemi brought education to the then little-known town of Ile-Ife through championing education during his reign, how he laid the foundation for the founding of the famous and model secondary school, Oduduwa College, in January, 1932 and how his closeness to the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo ensured the location of the then University of Ife in his domain. His modernization philosophy was also said to have been hinged on the truism that the surest route to facilitating and sustaining a modern society was through education.

What I however feel that remembrancers have not adequately memorialized about Sir Aderemi was his role in soldering together the fissiparous tendencies among Yoruba people before 1940s, as well as his contributions, as Governor of the Western Region from 1960 to 1962, to a great Yorubaland, a period I dub the fiercest and the most acrimonious of western region’s national development.

Working in concert with Awolowo and other leading leaders of Yorubaland, Oba Aderemi deployed his renowned and remarkable wealth to bridging the gaps of exploitation and divisional differences that existed among Yoruba people. He rallied round and fervently too, to forge from these splinters a Yorubaland that could speak with a common voice. The Egbe Omo Odudua was founded in London in 1945, from his union of purpose with Awolowo, Sir Adeyemo Alakija and others. He was the first and perhaps the last monarch in Nigeria who would hold the twin positions of king and governor. He played key roles in the 1962 political crises in the Western Region when he effectively used his gubernatorial power to remove Premier Ladoke Akintola, who he perceived to have an obvious loss of majority support in the Western House of Assembly. The constitutional crisis was later resolved at the Privy Council in London. Though the event escalated the political tension and rivalries in the region, posing a constitutional crisis, that same wielding of gubernatorial power by Sir Aderemi led to the end of litigations ending at the British Privy Council.

Remembrancers will also not forget the spat between the Governor-General and a leading Ife son, Victor Babaremilekun Adetokunbo Fani–Kayode, Q.C., SAN, CON (1921–1995) also known as Fani Power, who was Leader of the Opposition and later, Deputy Premier. An event happened in March, 1961 which underscored the reverence for Sir Aderemi and which got scurrilous attacks for Kayode. It was at the tenth session of the Western House of Assembly. On this day, some of the Region’s considered VIPs were slated to be presented to the Governor-General, Oba Adesoji Aderemi. At the approach of the Governor-General, however, Fani-Kayode excused himself for the rest room and all efforts to get him stay on failed.

This particular action became an issue for debate in the whole of the region. It was the lead story of the Tribune under the title, Fani disappears as Gov approaches (March 23, 1961) andvarious commentators expressed their disgusts at this rudeness of Fani Kayode, one of the subjects of the monarch. The Action Group Member for Remo North, Mr. J. Olu Awopeju, in the report, had said that the action of the Leader of Opposition was an assault on, not only the Governor-General but the whole House of Assembly. Chief J. A. O. Odebiyi, Leader of the House and Finance Minister, on his own, said the behaviour of Fani Kayode was a challenge to the constitution as the Governor was a representative of the Queen and “everybody is in honour bound to give him his due respect.” Akintola, the Premier himself lampooned this ‘disrespectfulness’ of the Opposition Leader (a man he was to later work with). Akintola said he was “disturbed to observe at this historic session, the unfortunate insult passed on our Governor.”

This “rudeness” later attracted a front page editorial comment by the Tribune edition of the same day entitled, Political incivility where the newspaper called for a “very strong censure” for this “act of discourtesy” which it said was symptomatic of “an ominous future for parliamentary democracy in the country.” It continued: “In addition, Sir Adesoji is the Queen’s representative in Western Nigeria. Mr. Fani-Kayode is a Queen’s Counsel. And it is hard to believe that Mr. Fani-Kayode did not know the full implications of his behaviour. At least, he should know that any disrespect shown to the Governor is also reflected on the Queen who is the Head of the Commonwealth. Indeed, Sir Adesoji did not deserve to be disrespected. As the traditional head of Ife, Mr. Fani-Kayode, who hails from that ancient city, owes him every respect and obeisance due from a loyal subject. But by his action, the legislator has committed an unpardonable rape on the traditions of the people.”

Six days after, however, the barrage of media hype of his ‘incivility’ to the Governor forced Fani-Kayode to explain his role in the elopement saga. He claimed that the Western Region Government had not “the slightest courtesy” to invite him to the function and the opposition, which he headed, felt slighted by this governmental behaviour. As such, he had to excuse himself from meeting the VIPs and the Governor. The Tribune could not be placated by this explanation and went to town with another editorial comment with the title, Fairy tale, vilifying this reply by the NCNC Opposition Leader, a rationalization which it called a “concocted after-thought” and a “puerile defence of a serious charge,” reasoning that Fani-Kayode “deliberately snubbed the Governor” and as such, deserved “serious strictures.”

Oba Aderemi, the Governor-General, in the early hours of May 29, 1962, was however unceremoniously and humiliatingly forced to evacuate his belongings and vacate his official residence as a result of the State of Emergency Orders by the Northern People’s Congress (NPC) government, in apparent collusion with the Akintola government of the Western Region. Some people reasoned that this incivility of the powers-that-be against the spiritual head of the Yoruba people, forcing him to leave his abode that unceremoniously, was responsible for the calamity that befell Nigeria in January, 1966, a calamity from which Nigeria has since not recovered.