The immediate past governor of
Oyo State, Chief Adebayo Alao-Akala, in an interview with Punch clears
the air on some contentious issues.
Read the questions and answers after the cut as culled from the Punch. Don't miss any part of it, read it all.
How did you get enlisted
into the Nigerian Police?
It wasn’t accidental that I
became a policeman. It was a dream I nursed as a young lad. I had wanted
to be enlisted in a profession where I would wear uniform. I would have loved
to be in the military but
unfortunately, the day I was to
write a test for the police force was the very day the enlistment into the Army
was done. I remember enlistment into the Army was fixed for The Polytechnic,
Ibadan. I don’t know why those in charge did that. My number was WS44 in 1973.
In the police, I would spend one year and become an officer. In the army short
service, I would spend six months and I would become an officer. In the Army
short service, there was a limit to where I could get to move but for full
course, I would spend three years. I then decided to go for the police.
Why did you want to be a
policeman?
I was a barrack boy. My uncle
was in the West Africa Frontier; later he joined Ghanaian Army. He was caught
up in Ghana Independence in 1957 while he was with the Frontier. They then
asked them that anyone that was interested in joining the Ghanaian Army should
indicate interest and he opted to stay in Ghana and he automatically became a
member of the Ghanaian Army. I went to 3 Battalion Training School and I
finished my Form 4 there. I knew how to take care of the khaki and I thus
decided I wanted to join the force. So it wasn’t a mistake or accidental that I
joined the police. When I joined the police, I discovered that I love the
profession and I enjoyed it while it lasted.
To the man on the street,
the police force is synonymous with corruption; was this so in your time?
It is unfortunate; what you are
seeing in the police is a reflection of the society. It is what we have in the
society that we are seeing in the police. So what is happening in the police is
not peculiar to the police alone; it is in all spheres. If you say police force
is corrupt, other forces are also corrupt because the people are recruited from
the society. So, whatever you see now is the reflection of the society.
People are of the belief
that no retired police officer can claim that he did not collect bribe while in
service; did you collect bribe?
I am telling you now that I did
not collect bribe. Do you know why I could not collect bribe? Firstly, I had
the opportunity of working in the Administrative Department of the police for
about 16 years. As a matter of fact, while I was at the headquarters for 16
years, I was being posted from one department to the other. I did not want to
leave, I was pushed to the field and when I got to the field, I asked myself
why should I be taking bribe? Let me tell you an experience; there was a
relation of mine who had problems with the police and he didn’t want to tell
me. The police asked him to go and bring N1, 000. He did not have N1, 000; he
then went and sold some of his goods to be able to raise the money. While the
fellow was looking for ways of raising the money, I was aware that he was
raining curses on the police along the line which means that he might have even
cursed the money he wanted to give as bribe. So the policemen unknowingly too
would be mixing bad money with good money and spiritually, that has a long way
to go in the life of a human being. As an officer, I would just do what I could
for you. So, I just told myself that as God has placed me above you, why should
I ask for anything from you? If I could help, I would and for God’s sake, an
average Nigerian knows how to say thank you. If along the line, you say thank
you and you give me something which I didn’t solicit, that is from you. But if
you start negotiating bribe as I saw a cop (on the television) that was sacked
recently, that is sad. An average Nigerian knows how to say thank you and if
you help him, he would say thank you; why do you have to negotiate bribe where
you can help? Where would you even discuss a bribe with me? As a matter
of fact, if I knew that you had a bad case, I would deal with you. That is
where I could be ruthless. And for God’s sake, I worked under somebody like
(Inspector General) Sunday Adewusi for many years and I was with him until he
retired. So, the way we were brought up, you couldn’t take bribe because we
were arresting bribe takers. I was working with Chief Adewusi (at Alagbon) and
in those days, the fear of Alagbon Close was the beginning of wisdom.
When you hear of Alagbon Close, you will shiver. Then, we were not thinking of
how to take bribe. And again when I got into the field, having dealt with a lot
of people, I felt that people might want to deal with me too, so I had to be
careful. Bribe was not that pronounced during my time.
Was that why you had to
quit or you quit when you felt you had achieved satisfaction?
No, I did not quit. There was a
time in the police, even among all the uniform forces, people were being
branded NADECO. I was branded a NADECO officer and in any of the forces then,
they could tell you to go anytime. So, some of us were being branded NADECO and
that was the time a lot of people could not pretend not to be aware of the
wrong being committed especially during the June 12, 1993 election. During the
time, it was easy for your fellow officer to implicate you by branding
you as a NADECO agent and that was how many of us were dealt with and were
asked to retire.
Were you a NADECO member?
I was not but as a Yoruba
person, I had my sympathy for MKO Abiola when his election was annulled.
But some people said you
were dismissed from the police.
Dismissed? I was not dismissed
from the police. Nothing like dismissal has ever come my way and I don’t know
what they mean by that. You see, don’t rely on politicians and their political
allegations; politicians would tell you things like that. If you go to the
Pension Office now, they will tell you how much I am taking as pension. Again,
nobody would be dismissed and still receive pension; the police would have
cried out that I am a dismissed officer. Again, you don’t have to blame your
misfortune on anybody. If you are retired as a uniform person, you are retired.
After all, I was not dismissed; I was given my emolument. What is today’s date?
At the end of the month, I will receive an alert from my bank signifying that
my pension has been paid. I always cherish it when I receive the alert for my
monthly pension. It is not up to my driver’s salary, but at least, I am very
happy to receive it.
At what age did you leave
the police?
I was about 45 years. I served
for 23 years before I left.
What did you go into,
personal business?
I floated a private
investigative company where I had staff working for me. Let me just put it this
way, I went into private business. I retired in 1995 and I went into business
immediately and in 1996 when politics started I joined politics.
What brought about your
popularity as an Ogbomoso homeboy?
I have always been a homeboy. I
started schooling from primary one to primary six in Ogbomoso and when you
schooled in that kind of environment, you would naturally come across many
indigenes of the town as schoolmates. When you went to school at your home
base, you would have a lot of friends. I had a lot of them and, also, the love
for my town was also there. Since I came back from Ghana in 1970 up to the time
I am speaking to you now, I have never spent a Christmas outside Ogbomoso. The
only time I spent Christmas night out of Ogbomoso was in 1980 December when I
had to rush to Kano during the Maitasine riots – on an official assignment. I
actually celebrated Christmas in Ogbomoso but I had to leave later in the
evening when I had to report in Kano same day for the Maitasine riots. I have
always been spending my Christmas in Ogbomoso. Since 1974, when I could afford
it, I have always been throwing a party in my house and people have always been
looking forward to the party every year. I belonged to a group called Soun
Social Club. It was a club of my age group then based in Kano but they allowed
interested people to join. Every 26 December for about 15 years or so, the late
Ayinde Barrister always played for us and I was one of those championing the
cause. So, everybody got to know me very well. At that time, my (official)
house in Lagos literally became Ogbomoso ‘hostel’. If you were looking for job
or anything in Lagos as an Ogbomoso indigene, you would be told to go to Akala house.
The only place you could not occupy was my bed; every other space, you were
free. God later blessed me with a personal house in Lagos and I was having an
official quarters; my personal house became a very ‘big hostel’ for Ogbomoso
indigenes. In fact, I was going there everyday to meet people and I called the
place Ile Iya Alaro. I named it Ile Iya Alaro after my
grandmother. So Ile Iya Alaro was very popular among Ogbomoso people in
Lagos. These were the things that brought me into limelight in the town and
when I retired, they were the ones that called me to come and become the local
government chairman. And that is why I did not work for it. While everybody was
struggling to contest on the platforms of Alliance for Democracy and Peoples
Democratic Party, I used the All Progressive Party platform to win election in
Ogbomoso. APP was not a popular party in Ogbomoso but the people voted for
Akala, not APP. When I started politics, Baba Lamidi Adedibu of blessed memory
noticed my political activities and my popularity back home. When the PDP
needed Ogbomoso votes in bulk, he drafted me to come and be deputy governor.
Now that you mentioned
Chief Adedibu, was he instrumental to your emergence as governor?
Yes, he was greatly
instrumental.
What of the impeachment
saga?
I don’t know anything about the
impeachment saga but Baba Adedibu used the impeachment to weaken my boss, the
governor (Alhaji Rashidi Ladoja). I don’t know anything about the impeachment
and that is the truth.
It is believed that you
betrayed your boss (Ladoja).
I was loyal to my boss to the
last. If it was not because of constitutional requirement that I had to be
governor, I wouldn’t have been governor. As a matter of fact, those who did the
impeachment did not have me in mind (to be governor). They thought they could
even impeach me and put someone else there. That was why it was not difficult
for me when the court said that I should revert to the position of deputy
governor, after all, I was deputy governor to him, not to someone else. That is
why I always pride myself that I was once a deputy governor, a governor, a
deputy governor and a governor. I was not part of the impeachment; those who
orchestrated it did not want me. They had their plans; they wouldn’t have put
me in the position but for the constitution. As a matter of fact, did you know
what happened? I ran away (after the impeachment) and they were looking for me.
They couldn’t do the swearing-in because they couldn’t find me. I ran away to
Osun and it was a friend of mine, now Senator (Ayo) Adeseun, that came to
(Osun) to fetch me. I didn’t want to follow him but they knew they could always
send somebody like him to look for me.
You thought they were not
sincere enough?
Not that I thought they were not
sincere enough, they were not sincere at all; they had their own plans but the
constitution did not allow them to carry out their plans.
In the tussle between Osun
and Oyo over Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso people believe
that you wanted the university to be the property of Oyo simply because you are
an Ogbomoso indigene.
Why can’t it be the property of
Oyo State?
But what was in the public
domain was that LAUTECH was a patrimony of the two states as established by the
founding fathers.
That is a lie. LAUTECH belonged
to the then Oyo State before Osun was carved out of it. After Osun was created,
we still believed that we could still have it together, so we then allowed
joint ownership of the university. But there is no law that allows that joint
ownership. You know that Oyo cannot enact law for Osun and vice versa. So how
can there be a joint ownership law? Unfortunately for Osun, the university is
situated on Oyo soil, so how can you enact law for something that is not on
your soil? But gentlemen agreement, administrative agreement, yes, we had that.
We said the two states would co-fund it, six months apiece. While they acquire
the school of health science in Osun, they could enact law for that but in my
own wisdom, when Osun created Osun State University which is solely owned
by Osun and they are running it like a private university. They have campuses
in all their major cities. Oyo did not have anything; LAUTECH conferred half
ownership on us in Oyo, so in essence, we have half university; there is no
university we can call our own. I then decided that since Osun has got its own
university, we too should have our own. But before we have our own, I said we
should prepare the ground. The ground that I wanted to prepare was that there
must be a teaching hospital and there must be a college of health sciences in
Ogbomoso. And I can say it without fear of any contradiction that as at today
in Nigeria, LAUTECH has the best college of health sciences in Ogbomoso; go and
look at the building and the contents, the lecture theatres and everything.
After building the teaching hospital in Ogbomoso, I said let us share the
assets of the university, the movables and the immovable. Years back before I
came in, they had stopped capital projects and any capital project that was
done in Ogbomoso was done by Oyo State and anyone done in Osogbo was done by
Osun State. So, I then said let us share the assets and go our separate ways.
University of Ado Ekiti used to belong to the old Ondo State and when Ekiti
State was created, they shared the assets peacefully. Ondo State believed that
the university was not its own and when it was time, they shared the assets. So
if they could do that, why should ours be different? I said you Osun, you have
your own university, so let us go in peace. I then proposed that even though it
could not be 50-50 between us again, I promised them their admission quota for
the next five years, they disagreed. I then decided to fight it out. But
initially, Oyinlola agreed when the National Universities Commission intervened
that we could go but there was a change of government in Osun and the new
governor disagreed. But he was lucky I did not win election.
What would have happened?
I would have made it a reality.
But if Osun could have its
own state university, what stopped Oyo from owning its own?
This is our own landed property.
LAUTECH belongs to Oyo State; it’s on our land. I prepared the ground before I
started fighting and when I brought the accreditation team, they opened their
mouth and could not close it. What I wanted to do that time was to change
LAUTECH to multi campus with campuses at Isheyin and Igboho. It was just
a pure convenience for my people because Osun could not have one and a half
universities while we would have half. But they were lucky I didn’t win
election.
Your successor, Chief
Abiola Ajimobi has faulted the quality of roads your administration
constructed.
He is entitled to his own
opinion; let him do his own that is of quality. Look at me, I am a quality man
myself, with due respect. Look at my house, I used quality materials. So, why
would I do something that is not of quality; something that I want to leave as
legacy for unborn generations? With due respect, I go with quality and if
you are not of quality, you can’t flow with me. Everything about me is about
quality. He is entitled to say what he wants to say and if I were him, I would
just keep quiet. Let him do his own that is of quality.
It was alleged that you
demanded for N1bn from the civil service for your re-election but in the process,
the civil servants too helped themselves to several millions of naira.
I don’t know anything about
that. You see, when you don’t know how government operates, you don’t talk like
that. Anybody talking like this is very senseless; he doesn’t have any sense.
Am I a signatory to the service account? I did not ask anything from anybody.
You talked about quality,
is it in terms of dressing too?
In terms of everything, Akala is
a man of quality. Look at me, I am a man of quality, with due respect. I use
quality materials.
Is the use of jewellery
part of it too?
Yes, I have been using jewellery
as a young man. Do you know what they called Ghana before, Gold Coast. I lived
in Ghana and that was where I got used to it early in my life. We make
statement with our looks in Ghana. In those days when we were in Ghana, your
wife bathed you and took care of you. I am from Ghana, so I have been using
jewellery (he sends for an album). I want to show you some pictures. Pictures
that I took some 40 years back, you would see chains on my neck. Look at my
hand chains and rings in this picture. That is how I was brought up. Even
when I was in (police) uniform, I wore my chain with my uniform.
Is it not was illegal for
you to wear necklace with your uniform?
It was not legal but my uniform
would cover it.
Is it part of your own
fashion to bleach?
Bleach? That is stupidity; you
are asking a very stupid question, how can I bleach? You are very stupid to ask
that question. What do you mean by that? What gave you that impression?
(He pulled up his clothe and
singlet to show his fair complexion.)
Is this bleaching? Have you seen
the cream that I use that makes me bleach or did you know me when I was black?
So if you want to write that, put it there that I said you are very stupid to
ask me that kind of question. Don’t ask that kind of question again. What you
don’t know; you ask. You don’t even know my parents. Is my wife complaining or
my children? I don’t know what gave anybody the impression that I bleach. You
don’t know me; do you know what it takes to bleach?
Does your wife still bathe
you?
She can’t carry me anymore; we
are old. Don’t forget that the First Lady is not my first wife. My first wife
is an old woman like me and she is still with me. She was also brought up in
Ghana and that’s why I was able to marry her. Most of the people in Nigeria
cannot keep up with my lifestyle of cleanliness.
What lesson of life did
you take away from Ghana?
A lot. It is what has been
helping me till now. I took forthrightness away from Ghana. In Ghana, you don’t
steal or cheat. If you hear of any stealing there, it is those who came to
reside there. We were very straightforward with our fellow human beings. You
don’t make your neighbour unhappy. Even till date, there is no serious armed
robbery in Ghana. In Ghana, when you know how to do anything, you know how to
do it very well. Even when they came here (to Nigeria), they always mastered
what they chose to do.
Hmmm mmm! You have something to say or ask Chief Alao-Akala? Okay, drop you comment below.
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