THERE are just a few monarchs nationwide who command respect and attract dignity to the hallowed traditional institution with all the majestic panache that should go with royalty. One of such distinguished aristocrats is the Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba Sikuru Kayode Adetona.
Hopefully, one of these days, I would have the privilege of interacting with this foremost institutional icon and exclusively getting first-hand information on Generals Olusegun Obasanjo and Ibrahim Babangida. Dr. Mike Adenuga Jnr., GCON, will also feature prominently, of course. For those who may not know, Oba Adetona is not one of those poverty-stricken royal fathers that are easily compromised because of their penurious circumstances aggravated by ravaging hunger. With such existential impoverishment that border on stomach infrastructural challenges, it has become conventional for the military (when in power usurpation) and politicians to mortgage the willing accomplices.
Let me declare from the outset, as a folklorist, prince and graduate historian, among other academic and professional certifications, that no credible paramount leader lies or indulges in untruths. To this category of humanity, even talking from both sides of the mouth is an anathema that could elicit the inflammable wrath of the gods and forebears. However, this is not implying that they enjoy the totality of sainthood. This assertion debunks Chief Obasanjo’s impolitic claim that Kabiyesi lied against him in his book. Rumour-mongering and falsehood belong to the military-cum-political class.
It is apposite to divulge here that there are three Nigerians Dr. Adenuga holds in the highest esteem. The first is Oba Adetona. The other two eminent citizens I will not disclose for strategic reasons except on the authority of The Bull.
Lest the issues are comically muddled up, Gen. Babangida, president-in-the-making Atiku Abubakar, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu, and copious other Nigerians—including this writer—are close friends of Dr. Adenuga, at different levels. Coincidentally, there is no love lost between Chief Obasanjo and these men of distinction. This is critical as we continue with this dispassionate elucidation on the festering relationships between and among the billionaire personalities under reference, with emphasis on Chief Obasanjo versus Dr. Adenuga.
It is equally not a secret that Dr. Adenuga did not support the third-term fiasco of Chief Obasanjo. As a journalist and corporate affairs manager in the defunct Equitorial Trust Bank owned, principally, by Dr. Adenuga before the abrupt and unjustifiable rupture by the Sanusi Lamido Sanusi volcanic eruption of yore, I have deep knowledge of the transpirations under reference! Dr. Adenuga almost had to pay dearly for not backing his kinsman’s lust for interminable power! As Oba Adetona unequivocally stated in the book entitled “Awujale: The autobiography of Alayeluwa, Oba S. K. Adetona, Ogbagba 11”, it was very clinically obvious and irrefutable that Obasanjo unleashed the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on the principal promoter of Globacom for not supporting his ambitious power quest.
The details of the embarrassment, harassment and needless intimidation meted out to Dr. Adenuga over his disinterestedness in the implosive third-term project are not for public consumption via this medium for now. At the opportune time, we shall revel in such issues of yesteryear. For now, believe Oba Adetona that the EFCC was led by the nose to Globacom’s head office in Mike Adenuga Towers on Adeola Odeku and the Victoria Island residence of Dr. Adenuga. Shortly before the vindictive invasion of his official and private apartments, Dr. Adenuga had left for Paris on a routine business trip, which salacious gossips called “self-exile”. Whatever it was, dead men do not fight—it is best to be alive first and any other thing could follow.
Ultimately, it took the risky and fatherly intervention of Oba Adetona to extricate Dr. Adenuga from the contrived EFCC web. So, it is surprising that Chief Obasanjo would be futilely exonerating himself from that EFCC irrefutable witch-hunt at his instance! Are we so amnesic in this country that epochal events of yesterday can be shamelessly misrepresented today to foreclose public opprobrium, perhaps? Until the EFCC bovine manhunt for Dr. Adenuga, I never knew that the EFCC under Alhaji Nuhu Ribadu could be used to cut down political opponents or mega-entrepreneurs who did not throw their weight behind Obasanjo’s power insatiability hallmarked by the third-term abortion!
Dr. Adenuga’s case was complicated and compounded by the fact that he was seen as being too friendly and supportive of Atiku at a time when the former vice-president was at daggers-drawn with Obasanjo over sundry issues, particularly the third-term misadventure! Issuing from the above circumstantial manifestation that was merely coincidental, Dr. Adenuga survived the undeserved onslaught by the grace of God who used Oba Adetona as the instrumentality for conflict resolution.
Most Nigerians did not know the magnitude of the EFCC assault. Those of us who managed integrated corporate communication and public information in ETB, Globacom and Conoil at the time know the octane transpirations and upscale mediations that took place then. But for Oba Adetona, this matter would have assumed unimaginable dimensions whose ripples may have been inerasable, if not entrepreneurially fatalistic with Globacom as the target!
Unknown to Obasanjo, his blackmailing anti-graft agency which doubled as a weapon of vendetta and a channel for witch-hunt headed by Ribadu, confidential/classified information leaked for good measure. This made some of its victims to be ahead of it in its jaundiced inquisitions and arrests. EFCC was just a sledge-hammer deployed by Obasanjo to brutalize, criminalize, dehumanize, demonize and cudgel “non-conformists” to juvenile or cowardly submission. The EFCC initially functioned creditably and was seen by most people as the institution that would clean our Augean stables. But, along the line, it derailed and got hijacked by the same Executive that created it with good intentions amid profuse and profound public acclaim.
Oba Adetona’s cousinship with Dr. Adenuga has no interconnectedness with the fact that the EFCC was clearly mandated to “deal” with the telecoms promoter. The mischievous allusion to filial relationships by Chief Obasanjo in addressing critical issues raised by the quintessential Oba in a section of his book that concerns our subject today amounts to begging the question.
If Chief Obasanjo celebrates the fact that he facilitated the licence for Globacom which turned Dr. Adenuga to a billionaire as the country’s president and cannot understand the latest “hate propaganda” by Oba Adetona with regard to his (Chief Obasanjo’s) relationship with Dr. Adenuga, it would equally be interesting to let us into how Dr. Adenuga showed “appreciation” in multifarious ways!
It is germane to mention here that Dr. Adenuga had become a billionaire with Conoil and other onshore and offshore investments long before the revolutionary emergence of Globacom. In any case, one bad action (the EFCC intrusion) could monumentally spoil all the good deeds of one man to another.
On the EFCC-Adenuga episode, I strongly and unreservedly believe Oba Adetona. Any other concocted version or remedial yarn is too late and beyond redemption. I am sure that one of these days, we shall hear from the horse’s mouth.