Bombshell on Bola Tinubu: Portrait Of The Tiger Ambode Road by Yinka Odumakin

Bombshell on Bola Tinubu: Portrait Of The Tiger Ambode Road by Yinka Odumakin

LOUIS XIV was King of France for 72 years and 110 days and became the most powerful French monarch who consolidated a system of absolute monarchical rule that endured until the French Revolution. At the peak of his maniac, he said: “L’Etat c’est moi”(I am the state). Ambode I am not aware Asiwaju Bola Tinubu is given to so much reading to have come across Louis’ declaration but I once heard him making the same declaration as he got up from his seat and said “Eko fe lo sun”(Lagos wants to sleep). The embodiment of the current pathetic Lagos by the man who rode to power in 1999 largely on account of his association with NADECO abroad is an interesting study for some of us who are eyewitnesses to recent history. It’s all coming back to me now from 1998 in a rush.

Dr. Bunmi Omoseyindemi and I had led a group from the National Conscience Party, NCP, to join the Afenifere after the radical party we belonged to had taken a decision to boycott the 1999 transition programme without subjecting it to thorough debate. We were received at a rally in Oworonsoki area of Lagos by Leaders of the group such as Chief Ayo Adebanjo and late Alhaji Ganiyu Dawodu. Chief Ayo Adebanjo had asked Omoseyindemi and I to go purchase nomination forms for the House of Representatives election but we told him we did not want to appear as position seekers and would want to build the party first. He commended our spirit and asked us to meet Alhaji Dawodu to assist him in organisational efforts. That was how we became regulars at his Western House office where we worked round the clock with Mr. Aro Lambo. Alhaji Dawodu’s office became a place of voyage for the leading governorship aspirants under the banner of Alliance for Democracy, AD. After interface with them all,we concluded we should support Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu on account of his role in NADECO abroad. On our first meeting with him at his residence on Sunday Adigun, he introduced us to Rauf Aregbesola who was like the DG of the campaign. I recall how I put together the first jingle Tinubu had on TV which I composed from one of the popular songs the struggle field which I had to work with Pat Nebo to record with Tinubu doing some voice over message as : “This na the governor we don dey wait o (2ce) This na the governor we don dey wait Heeeeee Bola Tinubu(3ce) This na the governor we don dey wait”. I do not know if Alhaji Dawodu knew we were Tinubu-leaning as he donated us to the National leadership when panels were being put together to supervise gubernatorial primaries being conducted in December 1998 and we were posted to lead the team to Ondo state. When we returned from Ondo, Lagos state was already scattered over dispute between the camps of Bola Tinubu and Funsho Williams.

The AD Chairman in Lagos, Alhaji Dawodu already submitted the name of Funso Williams to INEC as he won the contest if results of all 20 LGAs were added. But there was a lacuna. The guidelines used for the primaries stipulated that the electoral panel should cancel results anywhere violence takes place. And there were incidents of violence in four LGAs that were strongholds of Funso Williams and if they were cancelled Bola Tinubu was the winner. Unfortunately for Williams, Dawodu submitted his name to INEC and disappeared. The Tinubu camp intensified protests and the Leaders of Afenifere looked into the matter. Their decision was that in accordance with the rules they made,Tinubu won the primary if the votes from the troubled areas were removed and directed the Acting Chairman of AD, Chief Ayo Adebanjo to write to INEC and withdraw Funso Williams’ name. It was this adherence to the rule that those who are not aware of what happened then use often to accuse Afenifere of imposing Tinubu on Lagos in 1999. It took six years after before I stumbled on the fact that the crises in those LGAs were contrived to deny Williams victory. Tinubu won the elections but with a plan from day one to weaken Afenifere so he can replace the collegiate leadership Yoruba are used to with a caliph order in Yoruba politics. His first deft move immediately he became candidate was to be the arrowhead of the group that stopped Chief Bola Ige from picking the AD Presidential flag for the 1999 elections at D’Rovans Hotel. But the moment elections were over, he moved to Ige’s corner when he started his rebellion against Afenifere.

His strategy was to start filling the void once the schism in the group became unmanageable. Even when Ige was assassinated,he ensured that the empty coffin that was paraded all over Lagos as his remains was not allowed to stop at the Afenifere Secretariat,a group he was Deputy Leader of till he died. I should not forget to mention the fact that the open split in AD was as result of the Dawodu-Tinubu feud in Lagos as it was the parallel congresses held by the two factions in Lagos that led to the AD holding parallel conventions in Abuja in 2000. It was that crisis patch Chief Adesanya was managing in the group till the 2003 elections.The group was able to put some temporary truce in place in all other five states for the elections except in Lagos. It was at the last minute that a deal was offered for Tinubu to return for second term and keep 60% of the remaining elective posts and allow the Dawodu faction fill the remaining 40%. A three – man committee made up of Chief R.Fasoranti, Gen. Alani Akinrinade and my humble self were sent to Lagos to implement the decision.I went to Tinubu before our sitting to persuade him not to disgrace Papa Adesanya around whom there were already loud whispers of indulging Tinubu as he truly loved him even when he disliked some of his ways. Tinubu told me he did not understand Arithmetic and that the proposal was undemocratic. When we eventually met the two factions at the Airport Hotel for a whole day, he came and bluntly refused to implement the decision. I remember this incident a few days back when he called the meeting of the so-called Governor Advisory Council to order a Governor it should be advising to withdraw from the gubernatorial primary of APC in Lagos because Akinwumi Ambode is a captive and not a free Governor like he was when Afeifere handed him the ticket in 1999.

I have met Ambode only on three occasions and all in the presence of Tinubu and the indignities he went through all made me pray to God not to be that type of governor in my life. I will narrate them next week. Talking of the love Papa Adesanya had for Tinubu, I would just give one instance. Months into Tinubu’s tenure. a scandal broke out around him that he did not attended any of the schools he listed in his resume: from St John’s Primary School, Aroloya in Lagos through Government College, Ibadan and University of Chicago. The scandal broke out shortly after then Speaker of House of Representatives, Salisu Buhari had perjured by submitting a fake certificate from University of Toronto in Canada and was forced to step down. The media was celebrating the scandal and just a sentence from Afenifere against Tinubu then would have done him in. I recall vividly being in the office of Senator Adesanya with the late Rev. Tunji Adebiyi when an old man with all grey hair and beards dressed in immaculate white dress with white shoes walked into his office and we had to excuse them. When he left, we went back to meet the Leader and he was in a pensive mood. He told us what the old man told him: “Abraham,you have to disown this boy (Tinubu) now” and that he said to the oldie that “a person who builds a wall does not pull it down.” He said the man got up to leave and said: “You will regret not doing so”. The scene played in my mind in the last inactive days of Senator Adesanya as the last major outing he had before he went down was over Tinubu. Afenifere had decided to meet all former AD governors who lost in the 2003 elections and Tinubu who survived the Tsunami largely on account of his close relationship with Atiku. We held meetings with his five former colleagues but Tinubu refused the invitation until January 2, 2004 when Senator Adesanya called me that Senator Ayo Fasanmi had persuaded Tinubu to come for the meeting on the 4th at his Apapa residence. I informed all that were supposed to be at the meeting. On the appointed day, only Senators Adesanya, Fasanmi, Tinubu and I were in Apapa.

Tinubu came and Pa Adesanya told him all the grievances against him. He responded to the effect that he accepted Adesanya as his father and Leader but he would not have anything to do with his colleagues again. Papa told him that saying he would not relate with his colleagues amounted to repudiating his leadership. As we rounded off the meeting Sir Olaniwun Ajayi called Pa Adesanya that they were waiting for him at the Afenifere Secretariat for the meeting scheduled with Tinubu. He asked if I did not tell them that the meeting would hold in his house to which he responded that all his colleagues were received at the secretariat. As Papa could not get his driver, he asked me to drive him to Jibowu to meet his colleagues. When we arrived there, it was the late Chief Wumi Adegbonmire who fired the first salvo that they were sorely disappointed that Papa would indulge Tinubu once again by moving his own meeting to his house and meeting him in their absence. Sir Olaniwun Ajayi asked me to excuse the meeting at a point with Senator Adesanya telling me to wait for him.I said I knew he had no way of getting home without me. When they were through with the meeting, I joined him in his office and I saw tears dropped off his eyes as he said to me: “Wo bi Tinubu se so mi di alaimose bayi “(see how Tinubu has turned me to somebody who does not know his left from his right). I drove him back from Jibowu to Apapa and we did not utter a word. He suffered stroke a few days later from which he did not recover till he died. Whenever I reflect on his last days, I always remember the admonition of the Wise Old One:”Disown this boy now or you will regret it”. ….To be continued .

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IN 1999, the entire South West was under the control of the Alliance for Democracy, AD. When we were approaching the 2003 elections, I told my boss, former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, to give me the authority to take over the South West from the AD for the party. He gave me the approval. My effort during that election resulted in our party taking over the states except Lagos State. And the reason was that Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and I came a long way from the Social Democratic Party, SDP, and the PDM. I felt I should leave Lagos for him. In fact, I could easily have taken over Lagos, but I did not. I have since regretted my decision; please, my sisters and brothers in the party, I want you to forgive me for taking Lagos out of that arrangement.“-Alahaji Atiku Abubakar in Lagos on 3rd September 2018. Until Atiku detonated the above bomb in Lagos recently, the lie Tinubu spinners had put out was that he became the “last man standing” in 2003 in the South-West because of some sagacity and that he broke ranks with Afenifere over the alliance with Obasanjo. But those of us who are aware of what happened know that the monkey has no special skill beyond the fact that the trees are close to each other.

Ambode The sacred truth is that the deal to have electoral pact with the PDP in 2003 was brokered by Tinubu who had planned to run as VP to Atiku in 2007 under the then ruling party. The discussion started during the convocation ceremony of the University of Lagos in 2002 where Tinubu kept the company of President Olusegun Obasanjo. It was during the event that he agreed to arrange a meeting with his colleagues-governors. The meeting held at Dodan Barracks in Lagos and the governors agreed to work on a pact to give the President the support he needed in the South West just as they advised him not to allow Local Government, LG, elections nationwide so it would not hurt his delegates at the PDP convention as his party would not win in the Southwest. The governors who had taken control of the AD as of this time merely came to inform Afenifere of their decision. They reported all their discussions with the President and the fact that they advised him not to conduct elections. Papa Adesanya like a General whose troops had moved in a direction decided not to follow another route. He decided to follow up on the briefing by negotiating terms for the pact which included free and fair election and restructuring of the polity. While the deal was in the making, Tinubu gathered through Atiku that the deal would cost the governors their seats and quickly bailed out but this bird did not tell the other birds that a stone was coming. That was how he remained the only surviving AD governor.

The former governor of Oyo State, Alhaji Lam Adesina was not a happy man with Tinubu in the last days of his life over this and other issues. I recall when he came to meet the elders of Afenifere in Lagos late in 2003 and asked to leave early enough to be able to get back to Ibadan on time. Chief Ayo Adebanjo had told him to either be Tinubu’s guest for the night and that would he say he did not have a house in Lagos. Alhaji Adesina responded with a tinge of anger “God will not let me sleep in Tinubu’s house. I don’t have a land in Lagos not to talk of a house. Tinubu promised to give me a land but he kept asking me for passport photographs until I told him I was not going to the photographer again. This is somebody on whose behalf I asked the Principal of Government College Ibadan to keep all crucial files of the school in my office for three years. I have returned the files on the eve of my departure .”

Immediately after indirectly sending his colleagues to political Siberia and weaning himself off the influence of Afenifere, Tinubu commenced his empire building project by sending protégés to the other South West states and Kwara for the 2007 governorship elections. Nearly all posted out were either his aides or recruits under his Action Congress, AC. His ambition had become very clear at this stage that it was a negation of collegiate leadership the Yoruba are known for that he was trying to replace with an Emperor reign. Realising what his project meant for the Yoruba on the long run, a group of Yoruba Patriots and Nationalists approached Chief Bisi Akande in 2010 that we needed an audience with Tinubu.

A little about Chief Akande After the 2003 elections, we had erroneously thought that Chief Akande was placed to provide leadership in Yorubaland at some point given his performance in office and ideological clarity with a tinge of intellectual underpinning. He authored a book on restructuring with an understanding of our issues. I drove to his home in Ibadan regularly and we travelled abroad together on a few occasions to meetings with Yorubas in diaspora. When we approached him to complain about the strangeness of Tinubu Leadership Academy to Yoruba values, he agreed to seek an appointment with him. He soon got the appointment and we agreed to meet in his house before proceeding to Bourdilon. We articulated all the issues and we moved. On our delegation were Hon.Wale Oshun, Mr. Jimi Agbaje, Mr. Tola Mobolurin, Prince Oye Oyewumi, Mr. Demola Oyinlola, Mr. Adedeji Zacch among others. On getting to Tinubu, we met Professors Segun Gbadegesin and Ropo Sekoni with him. It became a chatting session as we sat down. It was when Tinubu was planning the Ambode treatment for then Lagos Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fasola whom he railed and railed against. He said he was not going to allow him a second term as he blocked all the drainages he made for himself before leaving office with droplets now coming to him while Fashola’s own channels were flowing in torrents. He added that he had now seen the thief who can steal better than THE thief. I cut in at that stage to remind him that he told me in 2006 when he was going to foist Fasola on the party that he managed all his assets while he was in exile without a penny missing and he replied, “I was just marketing him then”. Prof. Sekoni pleaded with him to sheathe his sword and allow Fasola to run for a second term. He added that Tinubu should know that he is the elder in the dispute with the greatest responsibility to bring amicable resolution. Tinubu looked at Prof. and said he reminded him of the case of a widow who lost her husband and people were coming to commiserate with her over the tragic loss.

The first group to come were elderly and that after all the commiseration they ended by asking the lady to try and eat something as starving herself would not raise her dead husband. They took their leave after sometime. Then came her peers who also went through all the rituals of comfort. They prayed for the repose of the soul of her husband and ended on a note of plea that she should eat something in order not to injure her health. Tinubu threw the audience into laughter when he ended the story by saying that the widow asked her peers “What did you bring for me to set when you were coming ? ” After about two hours of chatting, I went to Chief Akande to remind him we had yet to get to what brought us to Tinubu and he asked me “What is that ?” I was shocked and he lost me forever that day. I got up and announced to Tinubu that we had a reason for coming and reeled out our articulated points. Mr. Mobolurin adumbrated the points. He cut in and flared up “I am not holding any meeting again. I cannot be spending my money for rebuilding Southwest and people will come here and insult me. All my mates have high rising buildings all over the place but this is the only house I have in Lagos because we are spending all the money for politics .” We left Tinubu that day and it was clear that what we were trying to build had crashed. I also knew that the Tinubu machinery had triumphed and would be there for a while. But I was also convinced it would not last forever as the foundation was not in sync with our ancient landmarks.

Eventually, Tinubu who had vowed that Fashola would not do a second term allowed him when he realised he was going to be demystified if he moved openly against him then because he did not prepare the full Ambode package for him. Fashola had been left to build influence within the party and in town though the political structure was still essentially Tinubu’s. Tinubu and Fasola played cat and mouse relationship in the latter’s second term but the cracks were papered over. It was when Fashola’s successor was to come that the daggers were drawn again. Fashola had planned to have a successor which would have meant setting Tinubu’s “factory ” on fire. But the Emperor moved with all his might and checkmated him by handing Akinwumi Ambode the ticket. Tinubu had learnt from his mistakes with Fashola and vowed that whoever he must make Governor in Lagos must not develop his own character and he must manipulate him well so that taking him out would not be a problem. That was why Ambode who had a frosty relationship with Fasola and a civil servant came handy as a cashier, not necessarily a Governor. I stated last week that Ambode did not appear a governor on the three occasions I met him in Tinubu’s company.That waits till the concluding part. Feedback Re:Portrait of the tiger Ambode rode YINKA this is a wonderful piece. You showed great presence of mind as a participant observer in the unfolding events in the turn of democracy in the late 90s and the beginning of this millennium. Your fecundity in chronicling the events that foist Tinubu on Lagosians for good or for bad is highly commendable. Papa Adesanya died an unhappy man. He will be turning in his grave now with great angst because of the happenings in the progressives camp in Lagos represented by the present APC. Poor Ambode!

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Portrait Of The Tiger Ambode Rode (Part 3)

MY first encounter with Akinwumi Ambode was at the Ikeja home of late General Adeyinka Adebayo the day after his transition.I was exchanging pleasantries with Otunba Niyi Adebayo when he walked in .As the governor offered his hand to greet me, a convoy screeched to a halt outside. Ambode To my consternation the governor dropped my hand and “pick am for race” muttering “Asiwaju is here ” and ran out like a kid whose father just arrived after a long absence from home .

The second meeting with him was at the Bourdillon home of the tiger the day I joined Chief Reuben Fasoranti,the Leader of Afenifere, late Sir Olaniwun Ajayi, Chief Ayo Adebanjo to visit Tinubu. Unknown to many of us then , Sir Olaniwun Ajayi was already in the departure lounge and was trying to fix the fixable before boarding and suggested at an Afenifere meeting that there should be a meeting with Tinubu to bring some harmony to Yoruba political establishment.The proposal was accepted. I reached out to Mr. Dele Alake who fixed the appointment .In fairness to Tinubu, he sent word back that he would come and visit the elders but Sir Ajayi insisted they should go and see him. Tinubu had Ambode, Alake and Prof. Bayo Williams on his side for the meeting making eight of us in the room. As the meeting proceeded Tinubu, looked in Ambode”s direction and said “Iwo,lo ba mi so fun Kabiyesi ki won mu suru”(You, go and tell Kabiyesi to exercise patience). Ambode got up and went to meet Olubadan in the sitting room like a schoolboy dispatched on an errand by his teacher. I couldn’t hide my disgust at such situation and a frown descended on my face. Tinubu must have noticed my look , he said: “If Kabiyesi saw that I sent a governor, the message will look serious” by way of an explanation.

The third encounter with the Governor was at the Church service for the late Dr. Alex Ekwueme in Anambra State. Ambode sat next to Tinubu in the church as the latter was being interviewed by a TV reporter. As I passed by where they sat ,he beckoned to greet and said “thank you” to me and looking over his shoulders as if Tinubu would give him a knock on the head if he saw him greeting me. He was appreciating me because I made a public statement around the time commending him for taking Lagos State into Oodua Investment and promising to invest in Agriculture in other South West States. From 1999 till when Ambode took that decision, Tinubu had always maintained that “gedegbe ni Eko wa”(Lagos stands alone). A godfather should look for no more an ideal captive than the character in the above narratives but not Tinubu who doesn’t take 99 but 100%. So,there was nothing Ambode could have done to survive as he had made up his mind no General Manager he put in office as Lagos Governor after Fashola will do a second term.

The day he appointed the current Governor was the very moment he started plotting his exit and Ambode made it very easy for him with his own aloofness which made him to carry on as a UAC Manager and not a politician . One major complaint by the feeders on power and mostly Tinubu hangers-on in Lagos misnamed political leaders is that Ambode does not pick their calls. When they go to Tinubu to complain that Ambode doesn’t pick their calls he would respond “He doesn’t pick my own too ,I call the ADC when I am frustrated.” Alas, it was the godfather who told the godson to concentrate on his job and shun phone calls from everybody and that if he needs him he would call the ADC. Like a goat being led to the slab, Ambode carried on with the instruction that would lead to his political death . By the time Tinubu pulled the rug from under his feet, all the political dealers of Lagos came out with their own knives playing the role Tinubu designed for them from the beginning .He did not have the challenge of when he intended to stop Fashola in 2010 when critical voices spoke up for him. Among independent people who approached Tinubu in Fashola’s moment of trial were Gen. Alani Akinrinade and Dr.Amos Akingba. After a stormy session with Tinubu back then , he resorted to his crass material card by telling them he would need a house he donated to a Yoruba cause they were pursuing them in the Opebi area of Lagos They told him he could take possession the following day.Tinubu realised he was stuck .

The only contact Ambode could possibly have with many of those who stood up for Fashola may just be reading about them in the newspapers! I have heard stories of Ambode saying nasty stuff about Tinubu behind him in spite of his dovish disposition before him. His moles around the governor were said to have even played such tapes to him.This brings home the truism of the Yoruba saying that the man whose vocation is severing heads from others’ necks dreads the cutlass dancing kilometres around his own neck. Pray, what did Tinubu not say about Senator Abraham Adesanya and his colleagues who were no taskmasters over him the way he constituted himself over Ambode ? I recall how Senator Adesanya called Tinubu , the late Alhaja Habibat Mogaji(Tinubu’s foster mum) and Chief Kafaru Tinubu shortly before the 2003 elections to his home in Apapa when his ears were full. Senator Adesanya looked straight into Tinubu’s eyes and started “Bola, God will not cover your shame if you lie to cover my shame today.” He asked Tinubu if it was true that he was on Level 16 in Alausa and he answered no. He also asked him to name the address of the house he bought for him in London and Tinubu said he didn’t buy any house for him. Papa Adeasnya said the only house he had in London was bought before Tinubu was born and wondered why he was spreading slander about him all over the place.Tinubu denied spreading evil reports about him adding “may be it is Dele Alake and co just looking for tales to spin.” Bisi Akande calls for restructuring Back to Ambode. He has enjoyed a momentary ride on the back of the tiger before ending in its belly. I have heard a lot of uniformed commentaries that he could have continued the ride if he had handled things differently. I dare say that those who hold such views do not understand the tiger he rode.

Towards the end of his first term as governor, he impeached his first deputy, Senator Kofoworola Bucknor-Akerele. An Afenifere panel of Chief C.O Adebayo, Mr. Jimi Agbaje and my humble self were asked to look into the feud between them. After talking to both of them, our verdict was that they could no longer work together. It should have really been no deputy with a mind of his own can work with Tinubu. He replaced her with Chief Femi Pedro. You would think Pedro dropped from the sky the day he introduced him to me in Bourdillon before he nominated him. He impeached him also before the end of his second tenure and replaced him with Chief Abiodun Ogunleye who stayed for a very brief period to suffer impeachment. Let the Tiger makes Oluremi Tinubu governor, they will fall out! The last time I saw Sola Lawal standing behind Alhaji Adeoti, the Governorship candidate of ADP in Osun election was a sad reminder of how Tinubu’s exclusive, overbearing, high-handed politics scattered an assembly of the best and brightest Yoruba young men and women who converged at Adesanya’s feet in 1998 in different directions so the basest, vilest and strange children can take centre stage in Yoruba affairs. The resort to using the Speaker of Lagos House of Assembly to start issuing executive orders signals the imminent impeachment of Ambode as governor. Whichever way it goes, the no Ambode said that made Tinubu resort to his political wayward ways at the crudest has collided with the law of unintended consequences as something tells me loudly that Tinubu may need to dig two graves as he plans Ambode burial.The tiger has eaten what will not digest. I pause!

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The Bombshell From Yinka Odumakin To Tinubu (A Must Read)!

Dear Chief Tinubu,

The backpage of your The Nation of Tuesday 12 March where one of your Rottweilers under the FORGED name “Segun Ibirogba” wrote “Odumakin’s anxiety over vanishing feeding-bottles” has un-paused the button on this serial.

I have always wondered why these intellectual almajiris around you always attack me under fake names.It is either they are afraid of me or they don’t believe in you to risk their names doing the dirty job for you .Well,we know many of them hold worst views about you than us but for the free money they have been accustomed to from a Robbin Hood.

The piece referenced was a rehash of same old silly lies and freshly minted ones.In keeping faith with my resolve that for every dart of lie you guys throw in my direction ,I will return 10 bombs of truth I make this response.And for every line I write,I can say like Fela Anikulapo-Kuti “Na true I wan talk again o,if I dey lie o,make Edumare punish me o”.

Since you guys made a failed attempt to impugn my integrity ,I have chosen to use this edition to place your life side-by-side mine on the scale of integrity so we can know if your hen can point at the boil in a hawk’s eye.I intend to show that were it not that Nigeria has become Ceaser’s palace where the leper holds the veil,nobody in your circle should move near that subject.

I am Yinka Odumakin and nobody can say he had known me under any identity in my life .I have led a straight life unlike you that people know under different identities depending on where they met you in your about 80 years on earth .Yes,80!

Those of us who are knowledgeable about you cant buy your 66 claim for so many reasons .The current governor of Osun is the son of your immediate senior sister from Iragbiji and he is 63 while you are claiming 66. Your first wife died in Lagos recently unannounced at 74 .

When the son he had for you died many moths earlier his age had to be doctored to fit into the lie that you live. And there is a photograph of yours at the palace of Soun Ogbomoso in 1974 when the current monarch was installed with a bottle of beer and packet of cigarette in your front. You mean you were 20 when you were drinking and smoking in a palace ?

There is no school I have attended in my life that my classmates would not come out in droves to say “yeah, we were there together!”. From St Augustine Primary School, Ondo to CAC Grammar School, Edunabon and Oduduwa College Ile -Ife down to Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile -Ife and University of Ghana.

At your end St John Primary School Aroloya you claimed may be created by your new governor in Lagos. The old boys of Government College Ibadan were planning a reception for you when someone asked which set you belonged to .There has been no answer to that till date and the reception was cancelled. The tales by moonlight on Chigago State University and University of Chiicago are all over the place.

My parents are alive in Osun and by God’s grace I will give them a befitting burial. I will not have to send emissaries to bury them since I have not abandoned “moomi” (that’s how we Oyo people in Osun call mummy) to be calling another woman “maami” in Lagos to fit a life of lie and greed. No Mama HID Awolowo would have told me that she knew all the children of “maami ” and that I was not one of them.

My parents are not rich but I am proud of them because it is from their black pot that my white palp has come out. I say proudly among my University mates today that they could not afford more than N60 per month for me throughout my University days .The story of grass to grace is a proud thing among the Yoruba. MKO Abiola was proud of the story that he ate egg for the first time in his life in the home of Simbiat Abiola’s parents.

With the modest means of my parents, they instilled so much values in me that there is no crime attached to my name in all my years on earth. Forging traveling passports had never appealed to me. Neither has my name been linked to a narcotic ring leading to inquiry and forfeiture of assets. All my life, my hands have provided for me. And they have provided for you too.

I recall when you returned from exile in 1998 and running for governor. You were not “Ezeego” then. You had only the Sunday Adigun house and all the four cars you used then belonged to Mr Ganiyu Solomon. There were a lot of printings being done for you by your friends at The News. I saw the price you were being offered and I told you my press could do it at 40%. I delivered and saved you 60%. I recall Mr Babafemi Ojodu complained openly that they could not do the price I offered you !

That should tell you and your attack dogs that I have always separated the cause I believe in from what I would eat unlike you who always mix the two. You pose as a June 12 hero today but Kola Abiola is alive to tell the story of what happened to MKO’s money as Bashorun is no longer alive. In 20 years, there is hardly any boundary between Lagos treasury and your private pockets. Your “O to ge” moment is coming some day and all the dirty deals will be out.

Like a rapist, you can tell your victims to shout “O to pe” for as long as stolen funds and drug money rule Lagos politics.

I have noticed that because you and your followers have no abiding principle and you are driven by only lust for money, you assume it is so for everybody. Your being glued to the lowest of all spirits (money) makes it difficult for you to make the right judgement about people thinking they are all about money. Was it that you didn’t have money when I told you in December 2006 that it was over between us politically? Have I ever looked in your direction ever? There are men who may not be able to give N10,000 to a cause but if they say they want to see me at 8AM I would be there at 7. Can you summon me with all your bullion vans?

I recall how you said to me in 2006 about Senator Tokunbo Afikuyomi and I quote you “Adiye ni Tokunbo, yin agbado fun a pada” (Tokunbo is a fowl, throw corns and it is U-turn). Has he not turned his back at you today? You don’t have “corns ” again? This was the man who was your fall guy when you made all the forgeries in 1999. He was among the team that went to bury your biological mother in Iragbiji when you could not show your face, has his exit not shown you there are men who place value on principle than money?

I have lived my political life on the basis of the fact that an adversary today can be an ally tomorrow and vice versa. I am not beholden to any person outside the core beliefs we share. One of the men I had an open disagreement with was President Obasanjo and when we reconciled it was an open thing. That differentiates me from you who walk both sides of the streets simultaneously. You were with NADECO and also in bed with Abacha through whom you forged friendship with the Chagourys who are your business partners till date.

The political buffoons around you would hold you out as an anti-third term person today but you know what happened between us on May 2, 2006. We had a meeting at Airport Hotel in Lagos where you were dictating the communique against third term unknown to participants you were at a meeting till wee hours of that morning to work third term in another way.

I was reading the communique to the press when you called me. I gave the phone to the late Rev Tunji Adebiyi but you told him you wanted to speak with me. We didn’t get to talk till late in the night. I had with me in the car as you spoke with me from VGC to Ikeja then President of Egbe Omo Yoruba in North America, Mr Odusanya. Let me quote you verbatim :

“I hope you have not released that communique. We need to manage this third term carefully. Obasanjo is a blind cat. If he causes problem now and they kill one Yoruba graduate in Kano and we kill 200 people selling onions in mile 12 it is not equal. I am therefore proposing that we have a win-win situation. Instead of outright third term we can have the confab recommendation of one six-year tenure starting with the incumbent having 2 extra years and so with we the governors. We can use the two years to empower people like you and handover to one of you. I have asked General Alani Akinrinade to come and I am going to meet Prof Soyinka to discuss it. I want you to think about it”

I told you as a matter of fact that the proposition was unreasonable and there was nothing for me to think about as I would prefer outright third term where we would have elections to automatic two years extension. But my eyes were opened to how unreliable you are that night. Here was a man dictating communique against third term in the morning having this conversation with me at night.

I made up my mind on you that night. The conversation I had with you minutes after Funso Williams was killed and the way you handled your your succession made me to severe political links with you within six months .

Yinka Odumakin