Childhood: Learning to cope away from home

Sent away

As I was reaching the age of 10, having lived with my parents literally all my life apart from times when I was cared for by nannies when we were in England, they were thinking of where I would go to secondary school.

We lived in the North of Nigeria but they concentrated on trying to get me admitted into a secondary school in South-West Nigeria where my parents were from.

All down South and nowhere else

In fact, I cannot remember any instance where I was entered for any common entrance examinations or admission lists for any of the good secondary schools in Kaduna or Jos where we had lived for about 5 years.

Instead, I was taken out of school in January and put on a plane first to Ibadan where besides taking exams and one hair-raising incident where the driver of the vehicle I was in with 3 distant cousins left the steering wheel to me as we almost teetered over the edge of a ravine, only providence changed that course of history as I came into the most experience of sexual abuse in the week that I was there.

Liberties taken and voice lost

I returned home a bit tongue-tied, I had received many gifts but could not account for how I had given some away to ward off abuse which my parents took as evidence of me being a wastrel currying favour off people by being overly generous – how I should have spoken up but for the fear and loathing of my experiences.

Two weeks later, I was on a plane again to Lagos where I spent over four months out of school shunted between relations, grandparents and my cousins as common entrance examinations were scheduled throughout Lagos and Ogun States revealing stark contrasts between arithmetic that we did up north and mathematics that was the mainstay down south, I never knew the concept of negative numbers until then, it was an aunt studying Electrical Engineering at University of Lagos who helped me there.

Choices made from limited options

I probably attended 10 examinations in all completely away from the routine of school and the comforts of home that I had known all my life, it laid the foundations for what was to come when I had choices, I refused to go to one that shared its grounds with a cemetery, I had been sensitised to terrifying fear, in the ensuing months, something I never had before I went away.

Eventually I had one chosen and preparations for boarding school began – school uniform instructions poorly stated, a metal portmanteau, a machete/cutlass that was useless of the purpose it was intended for – cutting grass, it was heavy, blunt and probably it would have been better in the hands of a lumberjack than a scrawny tall 10-year old – they knew no better.

It was hell, just without the fire

I cannot elicit to any detail what informed my parents about this idea of sending me away apart from wanting to probably toughen me up and give me the opportunity to meet more of my close and distant relations as well as give me the environment to learn Yoruba.

Soon after I arrived at boarding school the process of toughening did toughen me as we found ways to compensate for the sadism and abuse that passed for discipline and corporal punishment sanctioned by the system of hierarchies of seniors and teachers – they all got away with it, our parents none the wiser apart from being assured that their kids were getting a comprehensive education for life ahead.

If I did have my own children, it is unlikely I would have acquiesced to this barbaric regime of treating children like stubborn mules that needed to be forced to respond and react to coercion imposed by inflicting pain – that is another story to be told.

Nigeria: Angels in road construction

Worldwide wrestling

I dare say that this borders on what I will call the superfluity of spirituality but it is probably par for the course in Nigeria where frustration, exasperation, delay, inertia, bureaucracy and corruption militates against getting things done.

With ease, when things are so muddled up, such man-made and man-caused circumstances can for those in the know be classified under categories that the Bible so clearly enunciates and is known by heart to many a praying Christian.

In Ephesians 6:12 - For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. (KJV)

In 17^th Century English, I might have lost my readers so maybe the Message in contemporary English might enlighten us “This is no afternoon athletic contest that we'll walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours. This is for keeps, a life-or-death fight to the finish against the Devil and all his angels.” Ephesians 6:12 (The Message)

A road in ruin

I do not think I am any the wiser with this attempt but it serves as the lead in to an issue in Nigeria with regards to the first toll road called the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.

It is 105 kilometres long and it opened to traffic in 1978, though I remember people bribing military officers who stood guard at the main toll areas of the road to use it in late 1977.

In any case, it has fallen into abject disrepair from usage and neglect that the federal government adopted a novel way [1] of getting it repaired. In what is a Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) contract that will span 25 years, the concessionaire will repair the road, add two lanes on either side and install gas lighting – gas lighting? Well, Dusk to dawn gas lighting down the length of the expressway with the lien to levy tolls and seek other revenue through advertisements.

The concessionaire is the Bi-Courtney Group and the project will cost upwards of NGN 90 billion ($600 million) which is quite an outlay for a local company that hopes to recoup its cost over 25 years.

An Amen waiting for a prayer

The Chairman of Bi-Courtney Highways Services Limited paid a courtesy call [2] on the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God whose Redemption City religious meeting place and residential area is sited along the road where it became evident that the concessionaire might have bitten off more than it can chew because banking services in Nigeria do not as a matter of course provide loan terms of that kind of duration and this is hampering the necessary activity of the repairs of the road.

The widening of the road has created a whole series of legal challenges from those affected who might find their properties subject to compulsory purchase orders (Eminent Domain - US), all this from the foolishness of the concessionaire, through their hope of getting financing and the legal minefields of compulsory purchase will constitute the categories listed above as the weight of immovability might well be unearthly and beyond the work horse requirements of construction equipment put at full throttle.

It is in that context that one is left to holler the loudest Amen to the prayer of the General Overseer as the news headline indicates, “God will subdue forces against completion,” and I believe he means the completion of the project.

An unfathomable situation

Now, at face value, the Chairman, Dr Wale Babalakin (SAN) [3] is no doubt a smart lawyer having obtained both his LLM and PhD from the University of Cambridge and he has a commendable legal record, however, this project smacks of a level of Nigerian braggadocio that leaves you breathless; none of the well-heeled banks for all the legal sophistry he can muster in Nigeria seem to be ready to form a consortium to bankroll this project.

How the Bi-Courtney Group could not have had serious backers for this job before securing the concession is just beyond belief, then the 55 legal cases which all can drag on at snail’s pace in Nigeria’s sometimes soporific judicial system you begin to realise that you need the hand of God and angels in their thousands of thousands all with trumpets and heavenly strains of praise that would make the earth tremble and melt to get things done.

Impossible human doers

The Redemption City can host over 1 million adherents at monthly religious events which somewhat makes one wonder how they have endured the decrepit state of the road with equanimity, docility and possibly resignation except for their resort to the mountain moving power of prayer.

On a human level, with the resources we have on earth to observe, to agitate, to persuade, to protest, to require and to obtain; one would have expected a pressure group of the 1 million adherents and the other plaintiffs at risk of losing their land to set forth a court action to remove the concessionaire and have the concession renegotiated to necessitate the easier financing of this project on different terms and probably by another contractor.

A miracle like no other

I for one expect a miracle, one that definitely defies every human explanation that Redemption City had better be ready to host the billion, a road all paved in gold like we were told in Sunday School of heavenly paradise, this gold being so durable and perfect, it cannot be chipped or removed, yet will survive all weather and traffic putting the autobahns of Germany in the shade.

People may use the road, it will be safe no matter how careless the driver is and those who cannot ply the road for the gleaming sensation of the gold can just look at the road with every consumption of greed and frustration until they are exhausted at the foretaste of heaven that they move on there anyhow.

Since the road is a gift of God and the answer to the prayers of the faithful, the Redemption City could charge a nominal fee for its usage whilst extolling the greatness of their mission to earth.

Judgement so sweet

As for the concessionaire; an earthquake awaits any of its representatives that dare claim anything for that road, the earth will open up like a trapdoor and swallow them in Mosaic dread.

All forces subdued, prayers answer, congregation multiplied, souls saved and God praised – there can be no better place in the world than Nigeria where even for our tourist brochures we can safely say our streets are paved with gold.

Sources

[1] At Last, Work Begins On Lagos-Ibadan Expressway | P.M. NEWS Nigeria

[2] The Nation - Lagos-Ibadan Expressway: God will subdue forces against completion, says Adeboye

[3] Babalakin & Co. Legal Practitioners - People - Bolanle Olawale Babalakin SAN

Nigeria: A place called Gege

Working the government we have

It started off as a seemingly innocuous but general posting on Twitter. “If you cannot have the government you want, use the one you have. They are there to work for you.”

It was a variation on Luther Vandross’ song which had the line, “If you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with.”

The nature of Nigerian politics is such that the winner takes it all and those in power have the ability to influence and change things for the better of the people.

Somehow, they are not naturally disposed to attending to their responsibilities and the duties we voted then into office for, it appears they need to be persuaded, goaded, coerced, forced, shamed, challenged by whatever means to be sensitive to the needs of the people and become engaged in the work of good governance.

The role of government

In my view, it is the government that creates the legal framework within which socio-economic development can thrive – civil society needs to know that they can explore, innovate, research, inform and develop enterprise and resource in the setting conducive to advancing their communities and ensuring progress.

However, if civil society hugs the side-lines and just engages in criticism and antagonism they will never engage the government enough to help them realise their aspirations and goals for progress in their communities and the country at large.

Constructive analysis matters

The involvement of the general voting populace the elections was a force to be reckoned with and it must not be allowed to fizzle out, that whole momentum needs to be channelled into demanding accountable and responsive government for everyday day until the next elections.

It was interesting to read the analysis of the first few days in office of the new governor of Imo State by Joachim MacEbong titled Is Rochas for Real? [1] It represents the kind of objective and genuine assessment and analysis we require of the so-called informed and one is hopeful that it will become the trend – it was this that inspired my original Twitter posting.

This lead to a Twitter discussion on the indifference of government to the plight of its citizens and this was exemplified in the comments of Adebiyi Adewale, a Mass Communications major who had seen problems in a suburban ghetto of the city of Ibadan in Nigeria.

A place called Gege

Gege – It was the first I had heard of Gege and there was not much information on Google about the place. As I had been informed, it has serious socio-economic problems of poverty, poor schools, high truancy rates, teenage pregnancy, drug-abuse and probably many other inner-city evils we get regaled with in the news or on television.

Gege calls for a radical intervention but it appears to be invisible to those who matter or the problems seem too intractable that the system will rather work against any agitation for progress than make to change and develop the place.

It might well initially fall on the shoulders of Adebiyi Adewale to give Gege a global profile, a location on Google Maps for starters, the publication of the pictures he has taken of the place, an objective and incisive analysis of the issues and the problems affecting the community and then growing the necessary critical mass to make government react.

It is hard work but possible

Fela Durotoye started something similar for Mushin in Lagos called the Mushin Makeover [2], there is the fear that the initiative has run out of steam, it is no doubt hard work to first drum up support, garner momentum and then keep the interest for lasting goals [3] to be achieved – it is not a task for the faint of heart, celebrity is not enough as engagement has to be enduring and persistent.

Gege is probably symptomatic of many other places in Nigeria and probably typical of the communities show-cased in the Welcome to Lagos series shown by the BBC last year.

What I have learnt so far is there is a place called Gege and there is a Mass Communications expert who will bring his skills and expertise to bear and hopefully bring lasting change to that community, as for the details about the place, I am interested enough to read more about Gege and if you know something about Gege or communities like Gege in Nigeria, it is time to put them on the map and within the sights of those who have the responsibility to facilitate the change those communities need.

Sources

[1] JMac’s Blog – Is Rochas for Real?

[2] Fela Durotoye – Mushin Makeover: History is Made

[3] GemStone Nigeria – Mushin Makeover

Adedibu: Benevolence, Wills and Legacy

The man of the people

It is hardly 12 days since the strongman of Ibadan, Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu kicked the bucket and entered into history as a man who once lived and held sway in his community.

For all the opprobrium that could be mustered in the name of Alhaji Adedibu with his notoriety and menace, there was another element of his political base that did not find much commentary from persons like me.

Alhaji Adedibu was a community leader with his finger on the pulse in the heart of what affected people and a willingness to allocate resources to helping his community and constituency.

A benevolent benefactor

He was known as the father of Amala Politics; amala being a staple food of the Yorubas in Western Nigeria.

He made provision for the hungry, needy and destitute; be it the immediacy of food or money to meet other needs for life, health or education, his compound at Molete, in Ibadan, was always thronged with crowds who expected and received much of their benevolent benefactor.

Consequently, the man had the crowd at his beck and call, they responded to his desires in appreciation and gratitude such that they were willing volunteers to any cause he espoused – unfortunately, those causes when he called on his followers were not for the good of the community.

The scramble for the inheritance

With his death, it appears this benevolence has dried up; apparently, none of the children of the great man have decided to carry on his legacy and maintain this open house.

We can all assume they are in a squabble as to how to claim and share the inheritance and as one of the children said – the people should go and “find their level”, in other words, the gates are closed and the hungry might well go and die, they are no more our problem.

Is there another leader in town?

The people have now moved en-masse [Source – PunchNG.com] to the residence of another supposed, leader in the community, the Aare Musulumi of Yorubaland – Alhaji Azeez Arisekola-Alao, a wealthy businessman whose title suggests he is the leader of all Muslims in Yorubaland.

Leader, he sure is, but benefactor, he is not – his gates have been firmly shut against the yearning of the destitute and needy that found succour in the compound of Alhaji Adedibu in the same city of Ibadan.

I do not blame the man, not everyone has the generosity of spirit, means and ways to be benevolent to strangers or to their community even if the people do earnestly consider the person their leader - at least someone conferred this title on the man with some expectation.

Preparing for the hereafter

However, the saddest part of this story is the clearly a fault of Alhaji Adedibu and many of us who refuse to prepare for our passing by not making a will and creating a legally binding testament of what should continue after we are gone.

I doubt if Alhaji Adedibu intended for his compound to be emptied of the people who thronged him for help, it is unlikely that he would have wanted for the people he fed everyday to suddenly lose that benefit so soon after his death.

If only

If he had made a will that clearly stated his intentions to continue to be a pillar of the community through his benevolence after his death, we would not be hearing such indifferent talk from any of his children.

If he had bequeathed a sum to ensure that his people were catered for after his death, or arranged with his well-heeled supporters to continue his good work in this area, his mob of admirers who are unflatteringly called “hangers-on” would still be around to keep his memory alive and compound lively.

The absence of a clear indication of intentions after death means that there are few ready to take on the mantle of leadership that Alhaji Adedibu had in terms of ministering to the needy.

That is the sad lesson that reads as part of the life that Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu lived – it is interesting to see that the hired and crocodile-tear mourners who sang his praises at death have not backed up their deluge of encomiums with banding together to continue the work of the great man.

Such is the lip-service of those who gather to mourn but disperse when the responsibilities fall to their shoulders – for that simple reason Alhaji Lamidi Akanbi Ariyibi Adedibu would be sorely missed.

Adedibu, Half of Ibadanland, the man is no more

Is it really dead?

Ten years ago, when I was informed that the despot General Sani Abacha had died, I was walking off Tottenham Court Road into Goodge Street, the street itself looking for a place to sit down because the story was unbelievable.

I also asked for the meat left behind to be slapped with the best side of a shovel just to be sure that he had really departed.

Earlier in this evening, I caught a whiff of news that Alhaji Lamidi Akanbi Ariyibi Adedibu, half of Ibadanland that the uninitiated erroneously describes as one person had kicked the bucket but I was not sure the cat had exhausted its nine lives and did not have a joker life to spare – well, it would appear he had used them all up.

The legacy of works reviled

Probably all that can be written about Alhaji Adedibu has been written that speak no good of a man so bad that the mourning of his demise unleashed thugs on the streets of Ibadan – the evil men do does live after them.

But like a beach whale, the evil he unleashed in Ibadanland shall slowly have live ebb out of it till he becomes part of the unpalatable history of Yorubaland.

Once again, there may be many who would not speak evil of the dead, they should not at the same time speak lies of this man, there was no reason to revere him apart from the perversity of the patriarchy of old age, but that is Nigeria..

He was an unconscionable menace, an executive hoodlum with the basest intents and a thorn in the sides of everything that tried to rise as progress in Yoruba politics.

Gone and well gone

At the death of Chief A. M. A. Akinloye last year, a man whose legacy includes nurturing people of Adedibu’s ilk it would appear the only notoriety they had not gained was that of immortality.

The man shall be committed to earth tomorrow, as a Muslim, on the 15^th anniversary of the June 12^th nullification of democratic results debacle; we might well begin to rid ourselves of those whose presence has haunted Nigerian for decades, who in death shall have gone forever.

However, I write this to bury Alhaji Adedibu not to praise him, but he would only be so well eulogised in lyrics of the musician (Alhaji Odolaiye Aremu) who praised him years ago – he summed up the man in words I cannot better.

The tribute

Adedibu, half of Ibadanland that the uninitiated erroneously describes as one person

Death that taunts before it strikes

Wicked man per excellence

The son of a witch who buys on credit and still demands a bargain

The man who deliberately harms and yet commiserates with his victim

The man who owes you and you dare not ask to be repaid

The heir rejects his inheritance, Adedibu appropriates it

Akanbi who demands two pence from a man with only two and a half pence

Adedibu went to the Ibadan city centre and came back with several chickens

He did not buy them (the chickens),

He did not steal them (the chickens),

And nobody gave them (the chickens) to him as gifts,

The chickens just ran into a monumental calamity!

Nigeria: Senate safety from blame not guns

That Teflon girl

The Nigerian propensity for a junket and partying knows no limits as we hear the Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello has been let off by the Nigerian Senate.

Her Senate Committee on Health took 10 million Naira of funds off the Ministry of Health for a retreat in Ghana when that along with another 290 million Naira should have been returned to the Treasury on the orders of the President.

This is what led to the resignation of chief officers of the Ministry of Health and the unfortunately scalping of that most respected academic and healthcare professional, Professor Adenike Grange.

Rules and dues

Apparently, Senator Obasanjo-Bello broke no Senate rules which we are told tally with rules in United States and United Kingdom constitutions and because the money has already gone towards their retreat, it cannot be returned to the Nigerian purse.

The rules might tally, but in those countries, they have democratic accountability, judicial oversight and anyone who besmirches the name of the parliament or Congress by mere association would with dignity step down from a position of authority.

As all things in Nigeria, it might just end there because the culture of impunity and collegiate of banditry that props up fellow miscreants allows for all to play the same rotten game and get away with it.

We can only hope that she not yet out of the crosshairs of the EFCC because this lady has form in very many shady matters.

Gun of a chief

Meanwhile, the Senate President, Senator David Mark who might well have to go back to the electorate soon to re-contest his seat has been celebrating his 60^th birthday, troops of titled and lettered chiefs, bloated politicians and power brokers would be in tow.

The Olubadan of Ibadan had another chieftaincy title to dole out for favours yet unknown which saw the Senate President conferred with the title of Aare Onibon of Ibadan.

Aare would be the equivalent of an English peerage some sort of arch-chief, commander-in-chief or generalissimo and the Onibon part, I would suspect means he is the custodian of the guns of the city.

Anytime I hear someone has an Aare kind of title, I am always suspicious of something about to happen.

A requisite sacrifice

A mobile policeman, Sergeant Akinola Tajudeen happened to be at the ceremony to help keep order and he blows of his head accidentally at the investiture of the custodian of the guns – in Nigeria, there is more to it than meets the eye, this one almost makes one believe that one should never consign to conspiracy what can be attributed to incompetence.

There seems to be four versions of the event in the same news story, not that it matters; an unfortunate human sacrifice is as much a successful chieftaincy initiation, no questions about why a mobile policeman in a civil setting should have a gun without the safety catch on.

Alhaji Lamidi Akanbi Ariyibi Adedibu

Celebrating long life

A tradition would only be too evident in Nigeria at the ceremonies that would culminate in the burial of Chief A. M. A. Akinloye who died at 91 in Nigeria last week.

People would be dressed in blue rather than black because this was a life to be celebrated having been full of years, I once attended a wake-keeping in Nigeria of a very prominent man where I observed both this and his children being heartily congratulated for surviving their father rather than being condoled sadly for his death.

However, as soon as the news of the man’s death was announced people flocked to his family residence and had opportunity to write in the book of condolences opened for the event.

The book of condolences (judgments)

One of the entries made must not escape scrutiny and analysis because it corroborates the issue I raised in my blog yesterday about the death of Chief Akinloye and his legacy.

The visitor wrote and I quote – “My father, my mentor, my political architect who by the will of God made it possible for me to have recognition in the political history of the country. You promoted me, you lifted me up and gave me what I can never forever forget in my life, you prayed for me and the prayer had shown in me. Surely, you Adisa Olayiwola Akinloye will rest in the side of Almighty God because you have done very well to people with fear of God, God will not leave you.”

Introducing Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu

The writer was Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu, of whom no person of worth has praise or commendation. Of the many articles that have been written about this man, one talks of hoodlums who pledge allegiance to him wreaking havoc in Oyo State where he believes he reigns as potentate regardless of the traditional ruler.

The Chairman of the EFCC – Malam Nuhu Ribadu lamented that fact that many are not angry that the likes of Adedibu are in positions of leadership and these expressions are some of the more polite references to a man who has at one time been called a thug, a criminal and worse – without prejudice.

However, no better illustration can be made of the man than the one that damns him with praise – praise-singing a Yoruba tradition where mere mortals are eulogised to almost deity can well be a two-edged sword of commendation and outright rebuke at the same time.

Praise-singing a deeper truth

One writer recalls one minstrel now departed, Alhaji Odolaiye Aremu who begins with this as translated by the writer thus.

Adedibu, half of Ibadanland that the uninitiated erroneously describe as one person – that says it all, the man has become a law unto himself and an impediment to progress in Yorubaland, like his mentors and sponsors of old.

If in reality, Chief Akinloye did really elevate Alhaji Adedibu to this level of self-aggrandisement and political thuggery, I will speak no ill of the dead, but I would not lie to be nice, rather, silence is golden, but much has already been said.

That song

As for the song and write-up , this is the whole thing as translated with a few notes:

Adedibu, half of Ibadanland that the uninitiated erroneously describes as one person

Death that taunts before it strikes

Wicked man per excellence

Son of a witch who buys on credit and still demands extra

The man who deliberately injures and yet commiserates with his victim

The man who owes you and you dare not ask to be repaid

The owner rejects his inheritance, Adedibu accepts it

Akanbi who demands two pence from a man with only two and a half pence

Adedibu went to the Ibadan city centre and came back with several chickens

He did not buy them (the chickens),

He did not steal them (the chickens),

And nobody gave them (the chickens) to him as gifts,

The chickens just ran into a monumental calamity!

Beware the man

This is the man who thinks he now has recognition in the political history of Nigeria, what woe has befallen us that this man should find honour amongst the dishonourable. The legacy of Chief A. M. A. is personified in Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu.

Other references

Nigeria: Adedibu - 'Etteh is Yorubas' Only Hope' – Where he asks the president to halt a probe into what seems to be an misappropriation of funds in the House or Representatives.

Understanding the political machine called Lamidi Adedibu

When Thugs and Political Godfathers Call The Shots

The spirit of Akinloye lives on

Events shouting down the news

The noise of megalomania coming from the House of Representatives drowned out news that seems to link up with the events taking place in that chamber.

When the Buhari/Idiagbon putsch swept out the corrupt and rotten politicians in December 1983, one thing depicted the conceit, excess, wanton debauchery, arrogance, shameless hedonism and appropriation of wealth for personal gain – unopened bottles of champagne.

Whether it was the truth or not, the military regime displayed bottles of champagne named for and labelled Augustus Meredith Adisa Akinloye A.M.A., the then chairman of the ruling cabal called the National Party of Nigeria.

They are still about

The parallels between the $5 million renovation of the Speakers’ residences and this seminal event would eventually be a subject of history.

The shame of it all is that as one of the many who allegedly squandered the resources of Nigeria and left it in a deplorable state of corruption and chaos, he was never indicted or arraigned for his supposed part in this matter just as many like him got away with what essentials were crimes.

As the military government tightened their grip on power and corralled the political miscreants into prison, he escaped into exile for 10 years and then returned to glorious welcome masterminded by the current chief thug of Oyo State Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu.

The brood of vipers are still spawning their deathly and poisonous influence in Nigerian politics today and many of their followers cannot with honesty see through the façade to challenge their questionable conduct and hubris.

That one could say he did his best for Nigeria in general beggars belief at the way people would believe a blatant inexactitude to conform to a false but accepted impression.

Another signpost

So, the death of the Seriki of Ibadanland at 91 last week is not necessarily the end of an era of corrupt impunity and excess, it was just another signpost in the history of Nigerians who got away with it; the many, who were once thieves that became respectable through the peddling of questionable influence.

Now, nothing was proved about Akinloye’s culpability or guilt having not been arraigned before a court of law, but he would have been in the crosshairs of an agency like the EFCC and even if he was innocent he symbolised everything that was atrocious, ignoble, dishonourable and bad about the government of the day, more so an educated Nigerian.

I would have loved that these traits got buried with the high chief, but unlike Mark Anthony, I come not to bury Chief Akinloye and definitely not to praise him for a biography few honourable men would deign to accept as their story.

Reference

Akinloye: Sunset for grandfather of politics

Nigeria: UCH - Akinloye Died of Chronic Liver Problem