At 96, Pa Ayo Adebanjo, fully orbited the troposphere of life. Scholarship. Public service. Activism, Politics. He crested them all. Sometimes bruised, sometimes harassed. In detention, out of detention, he stuck to his belief. A hybrid politician. Zikist. Awoist. He kept his focus on justice, fairness and equity.
A believer in regional politics. An incurable protagonist of national values. Such rare show of mixed creeds. But Pa Adebanjo masterfully achieved a balance. He showed you can be regional yet nationalistic. True federalism. Restructuring of Nigeria. Free and fair elections. Building institutions as the basis for sustainable democracy. These were the bricks he deployed in his labour to build a better Nigeria. But he did not labour in vain. The over 25 years of unbroken democracy which some latter-day pseudo-democrats are trampling on is one of his trophies. As a member of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), he bore his scar with dignity. As an Awoist, once accused of treasonable felony, he wore his badge with honour.
He preached love. His voice was consistent, in season, out of season. Pa Adebanjo, famed for his leadership of pan-Yoruba group, Afenifere, embodied love for all and goodwill to all men. He spoke to the north, south east, south west. He spared none in his rebuke of the locusts feasting voraciously on the national farm. Truly, he was an emblem of love. And he was genuinely loved across all divides. Any wonder, he died on February 14, the fabled lovers’ day.
I have met Pa Adebanjo. He dealt straight with you. He held a certain charisma that made you not want to leave his presence. Nothing to do with his smile, nor his slightly husky voice. Just a certain aura that kept you glued as he spoke with unbound courage on any subject, any person, just any topic. Insightful and brilliant, he was also an encyclopedia of a special genre. He could tell a story with date and time. An engaging conversationalist who often broke the conversation with his trademark boisterous laughter.
And damn, he was full of wise cracks. A sage fit for this age. He even joked about his death. In a trending video, he was captured sharing real affection and laughter with his daughter. In the video, he predicted how the media would cast the headline upon his death. “Chief Adebanjo, leader of Afenifere, the controversial man, is gone (chuckles). He died at the age of ninety something. He spoke last to his daughter” (more laughter). You could still see the spark in his eyes and verve in his voice. Pure wit and wag. And he died, as he predicted, at ninety-something. A full circle of 96 years. Meaning he transited all the leadership stages of Nigeria. Colonialism, civilian, military, diarchy and civilian again. Nigeria experimented with all and Pa Adebanjo witnessed all as a front-row actor.
This tribute is more to salute his integrity quotient above his politics. In all his nine plus decades as a Nigerian, and one exposed to public life and all the dainties that go with it, he towers above all in his generation as one man who never got his finger soiled in the tempting jar of public money. His name is not on any EFCC or ICPC list of suspected looters. He did not participate in the contract bazaar that defined the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) or any other such heist in any agency where so-called statesmen got contracts, pocketed the money but never executed the job.
When former President Muhammadu Buhari ordered a forensic audit of the NDDC spend in nearly two decades, not many Nigerians expected the odious stench of graft that the audit uncovered at the NDDC, though they always knew the commission was a helluva hub of corruption. Some so-called statesmen were indicted in the audit report. These are persons who always voiced their anger at the rot in the system and were all over the media blasting politicians for embodying corruption and corrupt practices. Till date, that forensic audit report on the NDDC has been locked somewhere in Abuja. No action, no arrest, no prosecution of suspects despite their indictment.
Pa Adebanjo kept a distance from the national jar, though he had all the connections and network to avail himself. He kept his garment unsoiled. He could have feasted with the gang of grafters and horde of heisters that daily pillage the national till. He was ramrod straight in his dealings with the political class, preferring to rather stand alone than join the mob of masters of sleight of hand that milk, illicitly, the national cow.
Despite his long history of speaking truth to power and rebuking bad manners among leaders, no Nigerian leadership of any era has had cause to accuse him of corruption, a common disease that afflicts those within the corridor of power and their cronies without. Enticed. Baited. Tempted. He kept his distance, withheld his hand just so his voice could not be gagged. He simply refused to join them at the dinner table just so he could freely express himself, since as they say in Nigeria, it’s bad manners to talk while eating.
He fought hard to live. He lived for many, especially the underclass. He was their voice, their beacon of hope. And in death, it showed. Pa Adebanjo actually sacrificed his personal comfort for the comfort of others. He sacrificed his time, emotion and intellect. He stood for something, something bigger than himself, his family. Something as big as the country; the expectation of over 200 million people. He stood for a better, prosperous and more equitable Nigeria where fiscal prudence will take the place of wanton waste.
In death, he deserves all the plaudits. He is being festooned in the finest of words from all over the world, from all tribes and tongues. Yet, he was never a governor, minister, senator or president. But senators, governors and presidents are queueing up to acknowledge his undeniable values of integrity, justice and fairness. We mourn him not. We celebrate him. We salute his audacity to live for others and to stand for something of immeasurable value: a legacy of integrity! This shall be his epitaph.