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The situation is the horrible way it is because Almighty God is still angry with Nigerian leaders. Those who were reading this column then will remember that three years ago I wrote about this and that when I pleaded with the Lord that He promised to send someone to the Sultan of Sokoto on his raising 21 Muslim clerics to carry out spiritual exercises that would make Him end our problems.
But up till now the Ancient of Days is yet to send my Muslim – colleague to the Sultan, hence the gory situation has not only continued but is worsening and the way to get the Most High to stop this by 2023 – 27 is why I am writing this.
For different reasons three of our former Heads of State, an erstwhile Vice -President and incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari are responsible for the terrible position we have found ourselves. Those concerned are Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, General Ibrahim Babangida and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.
As I had revealed in a series I did in 2017 on hereafter advice for Obasanjo he caused the problem with the rituals he got some Muslim clerics to carry out for him in Abuja and all the 36 states of the federation to win the February 1999 presidential election. It started with one Ogbomoso – born Alhaji Adebayo Salaudeen approaching him in November 1998 that he could only win the 1999 poll against His Royal Highness Olu Falae if he and his team carried out the rituals for him. He had been the ruler of Ilu Abo, a town near the Akure Airport since 1982 when he succeeded his father.
Obasanjo agreed with the suggestion of Salaudeen but with the proviso that the cleric would buy the 76 cows required and get paid if he was victorious in the election. Because he was sure of himself, Salaudeen said he went to borrow N1.5million from a bank to execute the project.
The whole thing became public knowledge with the front page lead story in the Sunday Tribune of April 18, 1999 with the title: “We sacrificed 76 cows to install Obasanjo – Spiritualist. In the publication, Salaudeen disclosed that he and seven of his aides buried the 76 cows alive in Abuja and the capitals of the 36 states, but with four used in Ogun State because it was Obasanjo’s state of origin. Two hours after internment the cows were exhumed and they had burnt out and it was their ashes that were used for the rituals.
Problem arose when after Obasanjo won the election he refused to refund the N1.5million Alhaji Salaudeen used to purchase the cows, let alone give him and his men thanksgiving offerings. The clerics therefore placed a curse that disasters will be happening in Abuja and all the 36 states’ capitals. The Alhaji said he took the story to the Sunday Tribune in the belief that if it was published Obasanjo would do the needful, but he didn’t.
A week before the Sunday Tribune published the story on Obasanjo and Alhaji Salaudeen, Almighty God had sent me to General Abdulsalami Abubakar, who was then the Head of State. The message was to inform him that the country had been polluted and that he should get the Chief Imams in Abuja and the capitals of the 36 states to raise 21 Muslim clerics to fast and pray for seven days to avert tragedies happening all over the country after he would have handed over to Obasanjo the following month, on Saturday, May 29.
General Abubakar was to provide two cows for the clerics in each of Abuja and the 36 states’ capitals for the exercise. One was to be slaughtered in the morning of the first day and the other one on the last day. Thereafter, Abubakar was to give the seven hundred and seventy – seven clerics to be involved in the exercise in Abuja and the states’ capitals any amount of money of his choice for their efforts.
As directed by the Lord, I told General Abubakar that if he failed to act, that disaster will be the order of the day all over the country for many years. I had thought that the publication in the Sunday Tribune would make him act, since the rituals for Obasanjo were carried out in the Federal Capital Territory and the 36 states’ capitals and two cows were also used in each place.
But General Abubakar ignored the message and it is the reason why tragedies have been happening in Abuja and different parts of the 36 states since 1999, twenty years now and will continue until God stops it. I conveyed the message to Abubakar through his Chief Press Secretary, Haruna Mohammed, a fellow journalist and former Editor like me and I had written about the matter about four times in the last ten years but he has not come out to deny my story.
Next week: The Lord’s message I delivered to General Ibrahim Babangida in 2001
Oba Gbadebo, an exemplary, top – flight & innovative modern monarch (2)
I am a veteran visitor who has been to Abeokuta up to 20 times in the last 66 years and to the Alake’s palace about eight times during period, four of which took place in the last ten years. I was privileged to have been at the Alake’s palace once during the reign of Oba Samuel Ladapo Ademola II (Saturday, July 10, 1920 – Thursday, December 27, 1962) and once in the time of Oba Samuel Adesina Gbadebo II (Monday, August 12, 1963 – Tuesday, October 26, 1971).
I was there twice during the reign of Oba Samuel Oyebade Lipede (Thursday, August 10, 1972 – Thursday, February 3, 2005). So, I am someone who knew what Abeokuta and the Alake’s palace were before Oba Michael Adedotun Gbadebo ascended the throne on Tuesday, August 2, 2005 and the changes that have taken place in the 15 years of the reign of the only Alake who unlike his three immediate predecessors does not have Samuel as his baptismal name. My first visit to Abeokuta and the Alake’s palace was in April 1954 when my father, High Chief Josiah Orisabinu Adedipe (December 5, 1904 – February 23, 1972), took me along when he went to greet Oba Ademola, who was born in 1872 and his older friend and father – in – law. They met in 1948 when the monarch came on exile to Osogbo following the revolt of Egba women led by Mrs. Funmilayo Ransome – Kuti, the mother of music star of global recognition, Fela Anikulapo – Kuti, against the imposition of the payment of tax on the female gender.
After eating in a ‘buka’ (local restaurant) at the Osogbo motor park Oba Ademola who was dressed like an ordinary person, identified himself, to the woman who owned the eatery and narrated his problem and requested her to let him know any wealthy man in the town who could be of help to him.
My father was then the Manager of G.B. Ollivant, Osogbo which he operated on franchise arrangement with the British owners and his shop was near the motor park. So, the woman took him to my dad who provided accommodation in a one – storey building for the monarch in the Sabo area of the town and was responsible for his feeding and that of his family in the first three months of his two – year stay in Osogbo.
My old man was also the one who went to Abeokuta on a number of occasions to meet Mrs. Kuti and her team and Egba chiefs and facilitated the return of Oba Ademola to the throne in December 1950. In appreciation of his efforts the traditional ruler gave him one of his daughters, Princess Winifred Dademu Ademola (1933 – 2018) as wife in 1953 or 54 and an Austin car with registration number: PH 888 which I understand is a lucky number from His Royal Highness Olu Falae who has a car with an Akure 888 registration.
My dad met and became friends with Oba Gbadebo II, when he used to come to Osogbo to visit Oba Ademola. He also took me along in 1963 when he went to greet him, a few weeks after his enthronement on August 12 that year.
I was at the Alake’s palace twice during the reign of Oba Lipede. The first was in 1988 when I was the Editor of the Sunday Concord and accompanied Chief Moshood Abiola, the publisher of Concord newspapers and African Concord magazine. I was also with him in 1993 when he visited the monarch at the palace during his campaign for that year’s June 12 presidential election. I was then the Executive Director of Concord Press of Nigeria in charge of States’ Operations.
To be continued next Wednesday
