How Nigeria was de-structured – Dr. Omololu Olunloyo ex-gov, old Oyo State

I never booked any appointment with him and it was deliberate. I suspected the request could be easily turned down on phone. So? I fell back on the “crude” method I employed in 2009, the last time I interviewed him. I learnt the trick over the years of my interaction with him. And it has worked wonders.
So, that Wednesday afternoon, I just drove straight to Dr. Victor Omololu Olunloyo’s sprawling Molete, Ibadan, Oyo State residence unannounced. It nearly paid off. Even at 81, he did not complain of being barged on. He is forever reporter-friendly. He was going through the dailies without a pair of reading glasses. My mission had to be aborted because of his state of health. Six days later, I repeated the visit. Still, he told me he was not in a good frame of mind for a long talk. I suggested a conversation if interview would not work. He agreed and a convenient balance was struck. These random jottings are the results.
Olunloyo is a man of many parts. A mathematician, physicist, engineer, educationist, administrator, elder statesman, etc,
As commissioner for economic development, Western Region in 1962 at 27, he was the youngest in the cabinet of Dr. Majekodunmi’s seven-month administration. He was governor of the old Oyo State between October 1 and December 31, 1983. Any encounter with Olunloyo is usually uunsual and full of wits. So also this “informal” chat that lasted four hours. Olunloyo spoke his mind. He talked forth and back. He would jump from one issue to another and he would go back to it in the middle of a new topic. It was really a random talk because he chose what he talked about. In the process, he revealed how Chief Obafemi Awolowo, first premier of Western Region and his predecessor, Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola, played “primitive politics” in the crisis of 1962 that led to the “Wild, Wild, West.”
He equally insisted that the Igbo were not yet fully integrated into Nigeria after the 30-month civil war. That was between August 1967 and January 1970. He also touched on the vexed issue of restructuring, the controversial 1962 census, held while he was a commissioner in Western Region, the 1983 coup and many more. Enjoy the chat.

The 1962 controversial census
Chief Samuel Olatunbosun Shonibare was the only Action Group (AG) member who asked me about the 1962 census I ran as a commissioner in the Western Region. There were fewer people in the North than in the South, so, they cancelled it. The most thickly populated areas in the South were Ekiti and Owerri.
I do not know what motivated former military president, General Ibrahim Babangida. He is a very brilliant man, he is a friend of mine. He is my greatest philanthropist. Babangida asked every government that did census to send me a copy of the full report. I suspect he knew I knew a lot about census and how they were replaced with fake figures. The real 1962 census figures were never released.  Former Cross River State governor, Lyel Imoke’s father and I were the ministers for census for Eastern and Western regions respectively. The federal minister of census was Alhaji Waziri Ibrahim, who was later the leader of the Great Nigerian Peoples Party (GNPP) in the Second Republic. It was a tug of war, East/West versus the North and contrived to be cancelled. Even though I was on Akintola’s side, eventually, I gave the figures to Chief Obafemi Awolowo, first premier of the old Western Region.
Restructuring of Nigeria
The questions to be asked are: What is the need for restructuring? Why is it necessary, particularly now?
There were three regions, Western, Eastern and Northern.  Mid-west had not been created but there was Lagos Colony. Each region had its own constitution, logo, emblem and motto.  There was a more flexible fiscal federalism. Each region also had its own ambassadors called agents-general.
The government had been de-structured. By the time the January 15, 1966 coup happened, there were four regions, West, East, Mid-west and North. Kashim Ibrahim was governor of the North; Sir Ibiam, East; Oba Adesoiji Aderemi, West and Osadebey, Mid-west.  Lagos was a colony. Lagos then did not include Badagry, Ikeja, Epe, Mushin, Ajegunle, Agege and Somolu, which were then part of the Western Region. An Igbo, Ebubedike represented Ajegunle at the Western House of Parliament in Ibadan.
The trouble arose after the coup. The regions went from four to 12 states. That was the re-structuring got wrong. They also introduced through F.C Nwokede, a unitary government. On July 29, 1966, there was a counter coup led by Murtala Muhammed and T.Y. Danjuma. They kidnapped Maj-Gen Johnson Thomas Aguyi-Ironsi, the Head of State and Col. Adekunle Fajuyi, Governor of Western Region.
From 12 states they went to 19, which led to that 12 2/3 debacle during the 1979 presidential eletion between Alhaji Shehu Shagari and Chief Obafemi Awolowo.
From 19 states to 21 states. Osun State was carved out of the old Oyo State to separate Ooni and Alaafin who were fighting for supremacy.  Some of those states were created for selfish interest.  From 21 to 30 and then to 36 states.
The old Western Region now has eight states, Eastern Region has nine states. When Awolowo was premier of Western Region, there was no deputy, no first lady. There was no entourage of jeeps, when he moved around. He was riding just one vehicle.

Abacha organized the best national conference
The best ever conference was the one organized by General Sani Abacha. But because it was Abacha, it was cancelled. Babangida had earlier organized his own, it was also cancelled. All the questions being asked now were solved by the Abacha confab including re-structuring.
Politics is about development of the country.  It is also about the sharing of national cake. We have to examine ourselves, where did we go wrong? All the conferences held were never made use of.
There was a problem I solved. The problem is, when a president dies, there should be an acting president. There was nothing like that in the constitution.
(Dr. Goodluck) Jonathan became acting president because of me. He phoned and thanked me. I worked that formula that made him acting president.  Obasanjo ran to me and said he thinks I am the only one who can solve the problem.  Obasanjo and Lady Kofo Ademola said I was the most brilliant young man in Nigeria.  He said Prof. Jibril Aminu is the next man to me.
When there is a confab, it is not the final report that is important. The more important documents are the debates. The question being raised, somebody raised it 37 years earlier. The question is, should there be a provision for an acting president?
Chief Rotimi Williams raised that question 37 years ago, and he drafted what should be there.  Williams was the chairman of the 49 wise men raised by Obasanjo to draft the 1979 Constitution.  Awolowo rejected his membership of the committee. The Federal Government has excess money at its disposal.  At independence, the Western Region got 57 million pounds, the Northern Region 11 million pounds and Eastern Region seven million pounds.  Awolowo deployed his own in education, agriculture (farm settlements)
The responsibility must conform to the amount of money.  There is too much waste in government. We have to go back to regionalism and park all these cars used by governors and government officials.  All these first lady offices, security votes, huge salaries for political office holders should be cancelled.  Some of us have benefited from it. The country should be divided into six zones.
Igbo not fully integrated
There are some bottlenecks in the country. The country is divided among some rich Nigerians.  There must be the forcing down of tribalism. I do not personally believe that the Igbo have been fully integrated.  It took a long time before any of them could be made head of any of the Nigerian Armed Forces, and that was Alison Maduekwe for the Navy.

Bakassi Peninsula
I was a foundation member of the Institute of Policy and Strategic studies, Kuru, Jos.  The first paper we took was about Bakassi.  That place belongs to Nigeria.  The Queen is aware of this, only that we cannot call her as a witness.
What is called Nigeria or Togo or Ghana, or any of these colonies? They were all determined during the scramble for Africa in the 19th century. There are documents on Bakassi. We know where the documents are and we told those who were handling the case. That Bakassi case was not properly handled. That was why we lost out. It was poorly handled.
There are two copies of a very vital document.  One is with the Queen and the other is somewhere else. Nigeria and Cameroon were delineated. The problem is that those who are in government are only committed to their terms, a maximum, of eight-year view.  They do not see a long-term view of the country.  If they see a long-term view, they will not be selfish and self-centered in their actions.
The most valuable land in this country is in Lokoja, followed by Banana Island, Victoria Island, Abuja, etc. The most costly land is where Lugard first administered Nigeria, on the hill in Lokoja.
The Western Region crisis: How Awolowo, Akintola played primitive politics.
I was very much attached to Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola, premier of the old Western Region after Awolowo. People have been very unfair to Akintola.
Awolowo and Akintola played primitive politics.  During that crisis that tore them apart, each had a register in his house. They did not want to go to the House of Parliament to take a vote of no confidence.
As members of the legislature came to declare their loyalty by registering their names, each was given certain amount for doing so. The two of them did it. Once you signed in support, you would be given money. The cause of the crisis was Awolowo’s miscalculation by leaving Western Region as premier for being Leader of Opposition at the federal level. He had some platonic notions. He felt there must be a strong opposition at the federal level.  Maybe, it was a government of consensus we needed at that time, not opposition.
Sir Ahmadu Bello, premier of the Northern Region and Sardauna of Sokoto, who was the most powerful politician at that time in terms of numbers, did not leave the North. He left his second-in command, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, to be Prime Minister in Lagos. Was he a fool?
You knew you were going into opposition, he wanted to pick Rotimi Williams who had no constituency or Anthony Enahoro, his favourite to be Premier of Western Region. But Akintola and some other party members kicked.
You won election in your own territory, and you were running a government, which by common consent was regarded as the best government.  Even we his (Awo) followers, we benefited from it. When that trouble arose, the registers they kept in their houses were useless. There were some people who signed in both places and collected money in both places. I was there when Akintola was enacting a mischief, very amazing.
He sent one Ogundiran to Awolowo’s house to spy on how far the number of those who had signed, to know what next to do.  Each one did not know how far the other had gone.  He told him: “What you collect from there, we will have to share it.”
He went there and signed against Akintola. When he came back, he delivered. He told Akintola that they had reached 37 in number: We are only 29, we need to do something urgently to increase the number.”  They were doing this with the intention of having a motion of no confidence in the Parliament.
This is what the British did that annoyed me.  Section 30, 4a, stated that, “if it appears to the Governor that the Premier no longer enjoys a majority, then a vote of confidence will be taken in the Parliament.”  This was grossly faulty, how is it going to appear to him?  It is not like that in England. The British did it deliberately to cause chaos. There are only two things. You either go to the House, you move a vote of no confidence in the premier and you debate it. He has the opportunity to counter the motion, and take a motion of confidence straight. Ooni Aderemi (the governor) was persuaded and he refused to sign that the House should meet.  They did not allow Akintola to test his confidence and that was undemocratic.
The alternative was that if they did not allow him, they should dissolve the House and go for a fresh election.  These are the two ingredients.  They denied Akintola both, and I became an Akintola advocate. – The Sun.