IN the last five decades, politics for Alhaji Lamidi Ariyibi Adedibu is not a past time, but a passion he indulges in with Romantic fervour. How he has been playing the game that has cast him in the mould of a survivalist is a moot issue. Indeed, for Adedibu, his intense passion for politics transcends a true love for it, rather it is a means of sustenance.
Over the years, a combination of native intelligence, sharp political mindedness and opportunistic deft moves have been his veritable staying power. Because of what politics is to the Lion of Molete, Adedibu is not known to associate with political failures.
He pitched his tent on the most fertile political turf. A political actor that he is, Adedibu is a phenomenon that earned himself the sobriquet, “strongman of Ibadan Politics” because of his political conquests in the old and present Oyo State. Though a time life occurrence, Adedibu like a fictive character that imitates live in a work of art is better judged by what he does, what he professes and the people’s perception of his actions and words.
A master of amala (badan staple food) politics he may be, but at crucial moments, when an assembly of men craved a wise counsel, the man had stood up to be counted. Such was a gathering of Yoruba elders on August 31, 1993 at the Green Spring Hotel along old Ife/Ibadan Road.
The meeting was a roll call of prominent Yoruba leaders. Those in attendance included late Chief Michael Ajasin (who presided over the meeting), Chief Anthony Enahoro, (a non-Yoruba), Chief Bola Ige, Lt-Gen. Alani Akinrinade, (rtd), Maj-Gen Adeyinka Adebayo (rtd), Maj-Gen David Jemibewon (rtd), Maj-Gen. Oluwole Rotimi (rtd), Alhaji Lateef Jakande and Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu among many others.
The gathering’s agenda was a formal reaction of the Yoruba elite to the Chief Ernest Shonekan-led Interim National Government (ING) which was barely six days old in office. Various speakers had taken turn to castigate the Gen. Ibrahim Babangida’s contrived ING as illegal, illegitimate and undemocratic regime that should be treated as an orphan. Nonetheless, the meeting made a demand from the Shonekan-led regime which they had roundly condemned.
The demand was the release of Chief Gani Fawehinmi, Dr. Beko Ransome Kuti and Mr. Femi Falana and others. It took a quick insight of the man often derided as barely educated to point out the double standard that the demand was. His logic was infallible in the concourse of the elite. He pointed out the illogically of making a demand from an administration that had been dubbed illegal and illegitimate.
For displaying such a sound political judgement at a critical moment, Adedibu was roundly hailed and the derisive clause that described the ING were expunged from the communique. That was the man at one of his finest political moments. In Ibadan, so strong was and still is, his political influence that it became a street saying that even if Adedibu presented a goat for Oyo State governorship, it would win.
Thus, for political power seekers in the state, his Molete residence was the shrine of Ibadan political oracle where all must come to worship and pay obeisance.
Adedibu did not just assume prominence in Ibadan politics. He learnt the robes from the masters and with many years of smooth and rough experiences in his kitty, he perfected the act of political brinkmanship and opportunism. His antecedent dates back to the pre-first republic political period. He was part of history when the defunct Action Group (AG) was launched in Owo in 1951.
He witnessed the epoch event in the company of the man that brought him into politics, Chief Owoola Lanlehin. He was the one that assisted Lanlehin to submit his article for publication in Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe’s Southern Nigeria Defender in Ibadan.
He was further forged in the political furnance of Chief Adisa Akinloye when the latter founded Ibadan Peoples Party. It was that party that truncated Igbo dominance in the West via carpet-crossing. The National Council of Nigerian Citizens (NCNC) had announced the formation of the government in the East, the North had also announced the formation of their own government which comprised only the Northern People Congress (NPC).
So, the Alafin of Oyo had to come and appeal to us not to allow Ibo people to rule our people, that they should go with Action Group,.” Adedibu once said in an interview. At that time, the NCNC was in the majority in the Western House of Assembly. With that role, Adedibu counts amongst the class of politicians that brought ethnicity to Nigerian politics.
Perhaps, an experience he had on May 26, 1956 thought him a life time lesson that he would be better off as a political kingmaker rather than seeking elective office. That year, he had contested an election into the Western House of Assembly and was roundly trounced by a wide gap of 4,386 votes to NCNC’s Emmanuel Fakayode’s 12,713 votes.
That defeat brought a message of unpopularity home to him. But twenty years later, he turned around to win a councillorship slot in Ibadan Municipal Council in 1976. Till date, that remains the only elective position he contested after the 1956 disastrous outing. Between then and now, Adedibu has been a success both as a political godfather and jobber.
At the dawn of the Second Republic politics, Adedibu the Action Group man of the First Republic changed his garb to that of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN). He went with his political mentor, Chief Akinloye who later emerged as the NPN national chairman. Curiously, when Akinloye left AG, Adedibu chose to remain because, according to him, “certainly, the masses were with the AG.” Such was the politics of survival of the man who later saw a goldmine in NPN and dumped the masses for money. But how Adedibu became the champion of Ibadan politics still remains unfathomable to some. Before him were Akinloye and the dreaded Busari Adelakun, a prominent Ibadan political stalwart.
An opprotunity came for Adedibu when Akinloye fled the country following the military putch of December 31, 1983, and Adelakun who was clamped in detention later died. From then on, Adedibu established his political empire in Ibadan.
He proved his mettle when he joined the Maj-Gen Shehu Musa Yar’Adua’s political camp and delivered Oyo State to Yar’Adua on a platter of gold. This, he did to the chagrin of fellow Ibadan son like Chief Layi Balogun.
When the presidential primaries were cancelled in 1992 and the aspirants banned, he quickly switched his loyalty to Chief M.K.O. Abiola who emerged from the South West. When the June 12 1993 presidential election was annuled, Adedibu fought feebly in its defence, but at the opportuned time, he changed loyalty once again and pledged it to the military usurper of Abiola’s mandate. Late Gen. Sani Abacha.
Adedibu has an explanation for his action. He said the agreement of the Yoruba leaders was to stay away from the military regime and allow them to do their thing. But he was surprised to see some of the parties to the agreement emerge as Abacha ministers.
For what he termed a betrayal of agreement, he had no scruple joining one of Abacha’s political parties, the Democratic Party of Nigeria (DPN). The party under Adedibu’s leadership held sway in Ibadan by defeating its rival United Nigeria Congress Party (UNCP) in the local government elections in the state. This was in spite of the political heavyweights that congregated in UNCP. Figures like Layi Balogun, Alhaji Rashidi Ladoja, Alhaji Yekini Adeojo, Chief Kolapo Ishola were members of the UNCP.
It was this same forces including Dr. Omololu Olunloyo that defeated Adedibu’s candidates in the 1994 constitutional conference election under the aegis of Ibadan/IbarapaWelfare Movement. Dr. Olunloyo still savouring the victory of his group in the Confab election has said of Adedibu: “Our people are knowledgeable people. We don’t want the kind of image that will not speak well of this town.
There are a lot of people in this town who want enlightened leadership We don’t want illiterate leadership”. But Adedibu was to bounce back and reclaim his political supremacy.
At the opportuned time, he joined the train of those campaigning for Abacha’s presidency after his party, DPN had adopted Abacha as its presidential candidate. An opponent had described Adedibu as “a political contractor and middleman who has taken politics as big business and only means of livelihood.”
After Abacha’s death, a penitence Adediobu accepted his past political gaffs and expressed his readiness to apologise. He had cause to be apologetic as he knew he had offended many. The height of his political indiscretion was in 1998 when he escaped the wrath of an angry mob while campaigning for Abacha. But for the timely arrival of AIT crew vehicle which he scurried into to safety, he would have become history as the mob was out to skin him alive.
After all these experiences, he receded into oblivion until 2003 when he resurfaced and delivered Oyo State to the incumbent Governor, Alhaji Rasidi Ladoja, his political godson who has now become his arch rival.
At 77, most of Adedibu’s contemporaries have retired from active politics, leaving the scene for the younger ones.
Some of those who left did so when the ovation was loudest, some were booed out of the stage, while others were simply shoved off. When eventually, the curtain falls, how does Adedibu want to be remembered? As a man of peace who played his part and quietly left the stage or as one who thrived in political violence in the twilight of his life? The choice is definitely his.
But with the latest reaction of the PDP national executive, rejecting his expulsion from the party, it appears Adedibu is indispensable in the Oyo State political power equation
