All Mourn the High Chief

Now that Lamidi Adedibu is dead, are we witnessing the end of mythology in Nigerian political landscape? For the life of this man was nothing but a self-invented myth of grand proportion that tragically, however, loomed darkly on our consciousness. Ibadan, the capital of Oyo state used to be a rallying point for real politicians who warred with the weight of ideas. The gravitas that Adegoke Adelabu brought to national politics has become stuff for recurring fables, so has the intellectualization of public policies of Awolowo. A lot of people could not easily forget the oratorical ebullience of Ladoke Akintola, a consummate orator who laced political speeches with extended metaphors .Whatever leads to the collapse of old western region was far from political banditry, the mould of which Adedibu instituted in the nation's body politic. The Frankenstein has sin ce birthed scions in the like of the gangling Uba of Anambra. He should come to the funeral and pay homage.

Imagine a rhetorical question by the way of a headline in a national daily the morning after Adedibu's death: Adedibu's Death- End of Amala Politics in Nigeria? The truth of the matter is that we are not witnessing the end of any Amala politics unless maybe in Ibadan.It a big maybe because I hear that Gbolarumi, former deputy governor who also was Adedibu's PA has continued the tradition even before the Chief's demise. And what term will one employ to describe Sola Saraki's stronghold in Kwara. People go in droves for daily handouts in his house as much as they thronged to Adedibu's house. Yea, Saraki doesn't do the banditry thing, he uses the insight of a careful researcher to capture people's imagination and consciousness, he can gauge public mood and knows what they need. But people don’t need handouts, they need better life.

Adedibu was the bull in our glass house, the bully who was a high chief. ‘Adedibully’ even got a national ‘honour’ of commander of garrison by the president! He made the state law makers impeach Ladoja,the governor of Oyo state;He sent thugs to attack the state Broadcasting Corporation; ordered the public flogging of a speaker of the state’s House of Assembly; he defied the law enforcement agencies at will and dined with the most powerful in the country. This man held a whole state ransom, and a former attorney general called him leader. So much honour for a man who used to be a butcher and errand boy in Action Group in the 60s.

He had a philosophy of accountability: I will give you political power and in turn you surrender the state treasury and your will to me. Had he been reading political strategists? No, the nearest he got to any political strategy was a tutelage under the great Awo. He had little education but a lot of ambition. The story was told that he woke up one morning from 16- bottles- of -stout induced stupor and decided to conquer his world. He followed Awolowo, but he didn’t understand the abstractions of his politics. He must have thought that Awolowo should not have racked his brain for theories of political power. It was easy, he convinced himself, feed the hungry youth, inebriate their heads with intoxicants; they in turn will persuade the populace who the real baba is in politics, of course with different weapons of coercion. Violence was his political language, Adedibu, he didn’t know any better, but he knew like Machiavelli that a covenant without sword is just words.

But he was a great man of sorts. He took a deliberate, dangerous road to sit atop the game of power. He must have weathered a lot of storms, a lot of scorns too giving his lack of formal education. He got to the height of glory and power and could scornfully call a PhD- holder director of a national parastatal stupid on national TV. Was he a local hero? Well he fed multitude. Was he a rogue? Well he sure wielded a dagger. But most importantly, he was one of us. He reflected the ambivalent relationship between economy and politics in Nigeria. How cheaply the economy of survival can manipulate the politics of integrity. I have seen a group of almost 80 years old women, leaving a political rally late in the night, 200 naira in hand each, hike a ride home in the boot of a taxi! That is a common picture from Ibadan to Kwara. The people are hungry when they are fed they will kill for you in gratitude. I don’t think that reflects the power of the giver of the food, rather it reflects the surrender of will of the receiver at the altar of survival.

Adedibully had lived the good life he desired, or what can one say for some one who could single-handedly remove a state governor despite the power of the latter’s office. He was mourned: disheveled men and women cried incessantly at the funeral. The whole of Molete came to a standstill, and only a few funerals of famous people in our recent memory can boast of such huge crowd as laid Adedibu to rest. He might not be widely loved, but he sure was well respected.