Awujales Account on a meeting held at the instance of IBB to resolve the June 12 crisis. Then, Babangida attempted one more throw of the dice. In a somewhat emotional tone, he told the meeting how close he and Abiola were. His government, he added, had paid Abiola hefty debts owed him by previous regimes. The sum Babangida said, was about $600million. The scent of money scrambled a particular royal head–the Ooni’s. When he heard this piece of information, the Ooni became angry and said something to the effect that if Babangida paid him (Ooni) that much, he would be living on the Island of Capri in Italy. Oba Sijuade then got up to go to the toilet. Adetona followed him, spewing criticisms at his fellow oba for going against what the Yoruba traditional rulers had agreed on. After the meeting, watched by Uche Chukwumerije, Information Secretary in the Interim National Government, the Ooni told journalists that he was in support of Babangida’s position that a fresh election should be held and that the obas should return to their domains and tell their people to prepare for the election. Adetona thought he had not heard Ooni right. “To assure myself that what I heard was true, I invited one of the reporters, who was there when the Ooni was speaking to my room. This was a reporter from The Nigerian Tribune. Fortunately, the Alaafin was with me when the reporter played the tape for us. We were stunned.” From his hotel room, the Ooni called Adetona on the intercom and announced gleefully that he had told the world (through the media) of the Yoruba position. Adetona replied that he was not sure that Sijuwade’s claim was correct. Adetona, accompanied by the Alaafin and the reporter, went over to Sijuade’s room. The Ooni repeated his claim that he presented the Yoruba position to the press. He was instantly put to shame, when the reporter was asked to play his tape, which contained the opposite of Ooni’s claim. Adetona and the Alaafin then pressured Ooni into granting another interview, restating the position of the Yoruba. He did and the reporter was asked to take the interview to media houses for publication the next day. The interview was published by newspapers the next day, but Chukwumerije had caused the first interview to be used on the network news of the Nigerian Television Authority, NTA. In the book, the Awujale was unsparing in his attack on former Nigerian leader, Olusegun Obasanjo. He described him as a Judas, “who would betray his people,” who lacks credibility and squandered “the enormous goodwill,” which he carried into office “with a performance that left him with a second term short of tangible achievements.” Oba Adetona recalled an event on 24 July 2002, the late Abraham Adesanya’s 80th birthday in Ijebu-Igbo, Ogun State, when in a ride with Obasanjo to a makeshift helipad he told Obasanjo how disappointed he had become over Obasanjo’s Kitty-Cat footing on the issue of federalism. “This was the dividing line for me in our relationship,” Awujale recalled
Posted on: Sun, 01 Jun 2014 11:59:10 +0000
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