One of the finest persons I have ever met and worked with was Sir Michael Agbolade Otedola. The General Ibrahim Babangida administration had foisted a two-party system on Nigerians in 1989 following the president’s inclination to end his military junta and embrace the civil form of government seen around the world.
Nigerians had no other option apart from the established National Republican Convention (NRC) and the Social Democratic Party (SDP). The General Ibrahim Babangida’s transition idea led to a high definition jostling and tent pitching either with the NRC or the SDP among politicians and Nigerians.
I was a budding woman at the time with an inchoate idea for a pan-Nigerian social order. The politics of the region which Sir Michael and I came from has a clear political idiosyncratic peculiarity. The choice of many elders of thought among the Yoruba people was the SDP. The SDP became the dominant party among the Yoruba people. The likelihood of the NRC winning any state of the Yoruba people was going to be a herculean task. Sir Michael knew this but chose to stride along this unpopular path for the NRC and for his persuasion.
Both parties were preparing for their various State Elections, Congresses and National Conventions. I was a delegate for NRC, representing the Lagos Mainland Constituency. My euphoria of this political accomplishment as a youthful woman was reaching the skies. I was hopeful with clearness and I was prepared to give the best of my talent for this political process. As I watched the contestants lobbying for our votes, I saw Sir Michael in his glittering white apparel from afar as he exchanged greetings with people and listened as they talked and responded with a few words and signs of assurances. Some of the contestants have spoken and lobbied for support and vote. I kept my mind opened until I heard the last of them. My choice must come from my conviction.
Sir Michael was plain. You would find no sensationalism or sentimentalism with him. His plainness was piercing and penetrating. If you cared for pragmatism, you would choose him over the voluble charismatics who mesmerized listeners with fancy words.
Having listened to almost the contestants at all levels, I saw a number of delegates around with positive energy throwing the support for Sir Michael. At this point, I was already on board in support of Sir Michael. I knew it would be the beginning of a greater political relationship with the sage.
The hour came and it was like streaks of light breaking through the forest glades — Sir Michael was walking slowly towards a few of us from Lagos Mainland Constituency. He was accompanied by Late Otunba Anthony Olusegun Odugbesan and two other persons. He stopped and greeted us pleasantly and said, “Look at my people, I know we have the same dream to make Lagos State the centre of excellence. Please join me and let us get it done.” The whole of my mental configuration changed when I heard him say these words. Little did I know that time would present him with the opportunity to coin an official sobriquet for Lagos. He presented “Lagos: Centre of Excellence”. This slogan has come to stay. Every governor after him struggled to make Lagos the Centre of Excellence. No one has set a better challenge to succeeding governors than Sir Michael Agbolade Otedola.
He spoke of his plan about how to make Lagos a Centre of Excellent. We were so amused at his vivid, artless, and realistic plan for infrastructure, education and entrepreneurship. His goal was a people oriented vision. He wanted to raise a population of youths from dependence to entrepreneurial capacity and humane capitalism. He believed that reducing poverty among Lagos residents would be a way to growing a giant economy for Lagos. He told us that having a plentiful wealthy population would ease the government from the burden of avoidable liability because a wealthy population’s contribution would cut across investment and employment of labour, infrastructure surplus, education improvement, healthy culture and physical planning.
After Sir Michael addressed us, I was chosen amongst the three delegates to respond, and I asked why he chose NRC as his platform given that the majority of Yoruba elders chose SDP, a factor that made the party to have a greater hold on Lagos and other Yoruba region states. I wanted to know his drive for taking a path with a slim or infinitesimal chance of winning the gubernatorial seat of Lagos. He looked at me as if he was trying to find a connection with me for choosing the NRC. He said, “Maybe you and I are here for the same reason. I don’t need to conform to the popular leaning to win this election. I don’t need to win through a crowded system. We are at a time people knew what they want. I have to defeat that crowded system because I know what my people want. The path to glory is usually narrow, visible and lucid for a nonconformist but it is difficult for a conformist to see with clarity while on the broad way.”
The manner he presented his response was like there was no strong challenge against him. I could see in him a dawn reality. He was so sure that he was steps ahead those on the otherside of the divide. His courage was spilling over me and I quipped, “Baba, I agree with you and I am going with you all the way to win with you. I am ready for any task.”
“Thank you for your choice”, he responded. He added, “Here in Lagos, the NRC is the narrow path and that is why I am with them. The narrow way screens you more than the broad way. You have to work and recreate things with attention and focus but in the broad way you will be faced with distractions, wrangling, many lackeys brouhaha, shortchanges, distrust, and even patching up with irreconcilable differences. Governance is not a party of lackeys but a process of building sustainable bridges between the government and the electorate. We will win and make Lagos the Centre of Excellence. Can we do it together,?” he asked with self-effacement.
Before I made my answer, he took me by the hand and we sauntered softly towards the exit door of the arena. “Nike, we have a lot more to talk about. I’m inclined to giving you some tasks to do.”
“Sure Sir, I’ll do them”, I said unassumingly. He handed me his private telephone number and requested me to call him after the meeting for further conversation. It wasn’t a feeling of excitement moving in my sinews as we parted but I wondered how magical it was that I made a wish earlier and in a moment it became realistic. That wonderment hovered over me until the end of the meeting. I was super excited when he was declared the winner and announced as the NRC gubernatorial candidate for Lagos. As a man without rancor, he was accepted by all concerns within the NRC as the arrowhead for us all. A lot of us moved into the campaigns with the satisfaction and assurance that we have a credible and ingenuous candidate to face the sprawling political juggernauts.
A night after the congress for gubernatorial election, I called his telephone line. He was as full of life as he spoke. He said to me, “Nike, there is no time for delays. We have to meet this afternoon. I want to know what you can do before I start assigning responsibilities for the general election. Can you come to my Impact Press office at 2.30pm?”
When I got to his office area, his personal assistant led me in. Late Otunba Anthony Olusegun Odugbesan was in the office with him. He was a man of undeniable discretion. Sir Michael asked as he looked at me with a beam on his face, “Nike, may I know you more”? “Sir, I am a Lagosian. I acquainted him with my origins— both paternal and maternal lineages. He was persuaded of what I stood for as a rising woman that I would be useful and resourceful to him.
Live forever, Sir Michael!
To be continued tomorrow.
Jones wrote from Lagos.
