The second reason I gave Colonels Okuromade and David for declining to serve as a commissioner in Governor George’s cabinet in Ondo State In 1987, had to do with the change that would have come in my relationship with him and his wife, Feyi (nee Soluade). As at the time his invitation came, I had known him for 22 years and his spouse for 20 years and we called ourselves by our first or birth names of Bode, Feyi and Sina.
If I became a commissioner serving under him, protocol, that is official formality and etiquette, demanded that I could not call him Bode or BG (Bode George) again and I would have to answer Yes Sir or Your Excellency whenever he called me. And this is a friend I am one year, two months and twenty-one days (14 months) older than.
Worse would be my relationship with his wife who is my junior in age by three to five or more years. I met Feyi in October 1967 through the former Chief Judge of Lagos State Justice (Mrs.) Ayo Philips (then Miss Williams) at a party in Kuti Hall, University Of Ibadan, where I resided in my undergraduate years. They were then doing their Higher School Certificate (HSC) course at Ibadan Grammar School, Molete, three years after I finished mine at the same Institution.
As with her husband, there was no way Feyi would continue to call me Siria and I would be answering Yes Ma or Your Excellency to her. All because I wanted to enhance my status in the society and make money or become wealthy after leaving office. If I had been a military man it would have been inevitable for me to accept the offer and worked under him. but as a civilian, no way.
I only agreed to go to Akure with Colonels Okuromade and David the next day to see Governor George because of the former’s hint that General Babagida told him to appoint me as a Commissioner in his Cabinet. And my mission was to enable him have my voice on tape to play-back to his boss that he made the offer and that I was the one who declined it.
We arrived in Akure about 5pm but could not meet the Governor until midnight because he was to read the 1988 budget the following day and he was busy working on it with his officials. But within minutes of our arrival we had been checked into a chalet within the Government House, a stone throw from the Governor’s lodge and had eaten our supper.
According to Governor George the President and Commander-in-Chief enjoyed reading my column. The Heart of the Matter in the Sunday Concord and liked me so much. He said after he and the other military officers appointed as Governor were sworn in, he granted each of them 30 minutes audience. And that the last 10 minutes of his was spent by Babagida talking about me.
Of course, I only told the Governor about my professional reason for declining his offer. I did not talk about our relationship. But what he said about General Babagida so much touched my heart, that I told him because of it I would agree to accept an appointment as the Chairman of the Board 0f Directors of an Ondo State Government- owned company or parastatal. Since it was not an office I had to serve under him on a daily basis and did not have to answer Yes Sir to him when we meet. In that position I could refer to or call him as Your Excellency or My Governor.
Governor George said since I lived in Lagos he would choose me to be the Chairman of the Lagos Airport Hotel, Ikeja, which belonged to Oodua Investment Company owned at the time by the governments of Ogun, Old Oyo State and Old Ondo State. He said it would be the turn of Ondo State to provide the Chairman of the hotel by December 1988, which was about eleven months ahead.
That day at my request, Governor George gave me his two direct telephone numbers as I told him I would only accept the offer if I had such access to him. And not go through his Aide-de-Camp (ADC), Personal Assistant or Chief Press Secretary. The appointment for the normal two-year tenure was made in January 1989.
To be continued next Wednesday,
Happy New Year to everyone! Indeed, 2018 will be one of joy for the patients of prostate cancer and diabetes as I have good news for them from 92 year-old Pa. Aliyu Giwa of Kogi State and from Alhaji Lati Okunade of Lagos who heals breast cancer. Their fees are very cheap.
Dr Okeke’s ridiculous reaction (5)
Dr. Okeke surprised me and embarrassed himself in the last two of his five text messages. In the fourth one, he showed he was a numskull orthodox medical practitioner, who did not know the difference between a doctor curing patients of a disease or diseases and someone claiming to have produced a drug that can heal sick people.
The article he reacted to was one on the stories of those who said was Folarin’s herbal medical had cured their prostate cancer or enlargement. But see the shocking text message Dr. Okeke sent to me: Medical research and findings are published in medical journal (sic) not on the pages of newspaper (sic). Remember, Dr. Abalaka and his HIV claims. This iis (sic) food for taught (sic). What he said in effect is that the cure carried out by Mrs. Folarin can only be published in a medical journal to be accepted as authentic.
How can this be when she inherited the medicine she uses in treating and curing prostate enlargement and cancer from her grandfather? In other words, it has been in use for a century or more. So why does she need to send it to medical researchers for approval. And is it in the country’s law that the Nigerian Medical Council or the Federal Ministry of Health must approve herbal medicine before an alternative doctor can use it?
In his fifth and last text message, as he had done in the first two messages, Dr. Okeke again showed he uses words without knowing their meaning and that he read my article in a state of stupor or drowsiness. From the title of this series, it is clear that Colonel Clark was the person who asked for my curriculum vitae. Given this, how could Dr. Okeke have sent this trash: I can now understand why the learned professor asked for your c.v. I am joining him to ask for your résumé. The word means summary. Does it make sense after I had given the details of my educational qualifications for Dr. Okeke to be asking me to give him a summary of what I had written? He committed the blunder because he does not know the meaning of résumé. He just uses words that come to his head or that he read or saw in newspapers or heard from the radio or television, but without checking the dictionary for their meaning.
Is it possible that a professor can be an unlearned person? But Dr Okeke wrote learned professor because he does not know that learned is used by lawyers in referring to a colleague or colleagues of theirs. In other words, instead of my lawyer colleague they say my learned friend.
More to come next week