How Awolowo lured Omoboriowo to fight Ajasin – Mafo

Political Editor and Gbenga Oke

…says Bola Ige successfully blackmailed Awolowo for 2nd term ticket
PRINCE Olu Mafo is a chip of the old block. As Secretary of the Unity Party of Nigeria, UPN Parliamentary
Caucus in the old Ondo State of House of Assembly between 1979 and 1982, secretary of the State UPN
Caucus and subsequently as State Secretary of the National Party of Nigeria, NPN, he was privy to the intrigues that threw up the crisis that bestirred the State in 1983.

A lawyer, Mafo was a member of the House of Representatives between 1999 and 2003 and following that, Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly. Presently a member of the Presidential Monitoring Committee on Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC projects, he in his words was one of the closest associates of the deceased erstwhile deputy governor of the old Ondo State, Chief Akin Omoboriowo.

Following Chief Omoboriowo’s death, Vanguard sought Mafo’s opinion on the personae of the controversial deputy governor. Excerpts:

AS a member of the Ondo State House of Assembly in 1983; can you recollect the events of June, July and August 1983?

I was the parliamentary secretary of the House of Assembly, arranging all the affairs and proceedings of the House. You will recall that the same year, we were heading for the presidential election and Chief Awolowo wanted to be the flag-bearer of the UPN and to succeed, he must get the support of the governors, the LOOBO state governors as we called them. So, there was some horse trading. He promised Omoboriowo, he promised the deputy governor in Oyo State, Bola Ige, Ambrose Alli and Jakande. He promised them that all of them would return with him.

What exactly did he promise the deputy governors?
He promised them they will be returned as governors to replace the incumbent governors. He promised all the deputy governors and this was unknown to anybody until this issue came and I asked Omoboriowo, ‘people are accusing you of being too over ambitious what is the background?’ then he told me the story and I believed him.

It was that promise that almost ruined UPN because Bola Ige told the old man, ‘if you are not supporting us to come back as governors and you are supporting my deputy, I am not going to pay my own ten million naira’ because that was the amount each governor was to pay to assist the presidential campaign. So, at a very late point, the old man for once somersaulted and he decided to allow the governors run for second term and that was the beginning of the UPN crises in Oyo, in Ondo and practically everywhere in the South-West.

It seems as if only you and Omoboriowo were privy to it. How can we substantiate this?
You know there is so much about Chief Awolowo that some of us know that the public may never know. The 1983 election for example, when he called some of us to Park Lane for a cocktail and there I told the old man that the 1983 election was over.

Based on what?
Based on what I knew from my friend, Uba Ahmed (General Secretary of the National Party of Nigeria, NPN). The point is that because of the crisis in the UPN, the governor was fighting us for removing the speaker in Ondo State and he enlisted the support of Chief Awolowo and of course Chief Awolowo called us to Ikenne and I told him ‘baba I am sorry, the House will not accept the speaker back.’ We did our homework, made our enquiries, investigated the man and found him liable of so many stupid offences which compromised the House. And that is a problem when you have a Speaker that is wining and dining with the Governor at your expense.

We wanted ours to be a vibrant and focused assembly. If you look at the development which we achieved with our determination to put the commissioners on their toes and stop them from plundering resources of the state, it was still the best. Ajasin’s government gave the best to Ondo State. From factories, to roads and water and whatever is existing today, Ajasin created it and we made it possible because we didn’t allow the commissioners to steal. The four we discovered, we told him to remove them and they started begging.

This was our internal UPN secret. Instead of allowing the begging to go through the system, they just announced their redeployment from their ministries; and of course, the House took him up and we just called him all manner of names. Professor Aluko was on our side because he (Aluko) investigated these commissioners and found that they had stolen money. So how can you redeploy them? That is what I told him. You have not removed them instead you decided to redeploy them to other ministries where they will perfect their stealing and you will never discover it.

The picture you are painting about Chief Omoboriowo is different because a lot of people saw him as over ambitious and a bad person. How do you react to that?

No! I would say I was the first among equals in the history of those four years in Ondo State. I know a lot that the governor did not know, I know a lot that Omoboriowo did not know. The secret of the state were with me and the speaker, Richard Jelowo. What I am trying to say is that, Omoboriowo and his Oyo State counterpart, Chief Afolabi were assured that they would be governors in their respective states by Chief Awolowo. If you say it now, Babatope (Chief Ebenezer Babatope, then National Organising Secretary of UPN) will say Mafo has come again, he has invented something. God is my witness that is the truth.

Was it all the deputy governors that were promised?
Yes, it was all the deputy governors.

Including Akorere in Bendel State?
Yes!

What was the basis of that assurance by Chief Awolowo?
Generally, you know Chief Awolowo, he was not satisfied with the performance of the incumbent governors then and he believed the deputy governors would do better.

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