A former governor of Oyo State and Otun Olubadan of Ibadanland, Senator Rashidi Adewolu Ladoja, is 80 years yesterday Wednesday September 25. In this interview with some newsmen, he reflects on his journey to the Octogenarian Club. KUNLE ODEREMI brings some excerpts:
TODAY you turn 80, how does it feel like to be 80 years?
It doesn’t feel anything other than the fact that the energy I had when I was 70, I don’t have it again. Then, I remember what I was doing when I was 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, and now 80. One may be getting wiser, but certain things one was fighting for in those days, one might allow them to go by. But by and large, it’s just that you are counting your days. Some of us believe that we are already at the departure lounge. We have collected our boarding passes and we are waiting at the departure call. But the gate is not ready. We don’t even know the gate. When you think like that, you’ll know that your life is not your own.
*Do you have any regret in the past?*
There are certain things that I think I would have done differently. But by and large, I don’t see myself having much regret. There is nobody who would not have the mind of ‘Oh, if I knew, I would have done it differently.’ But the only thing is that I have got to learn that my life is planned by somebody. You can call him God, call him Allah, and call him Olodumare. The fact remains that your life is planned by somebody, and it is being planned by him. At least, I know that for myself that God plans my life.
Before I even got to where I am, he has had the ground prepared for me. So, that is one of the things we have learnt as we grow older. At times, you will be thinking you are smart. No, it is a lie. It is God.
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*What was your growing up like?*
I grew up like a normal child. My mother told me that I was born in Gambari, near Ogbomoso on the way to Ilorin. I did not have a choice. I was comfortable in her tummy. When it was time for me to come out, they were in Gambari village.
She had gone to the village with her mother-in-law, who was my father’s mother. In those days, the young girls were normally chaperoned by their husbands’ mothers. She had taken her on her trading expedition to Gambari.
My mother told me that she enjoyed the place and that being the first child, after the late one because we Yoruba believe that there is stillbirth. One Rashidi was born on 23rd of September 1943 and died the day after his naming ceremony. Maybe that was why she wanted me to be born outside Ibadan, I don’t know. But when I was born, my mother told me that my grandmother was very popular in that area. My grandmother was known in the area as ‘Iya Ibadan.’ So, the people in Gambari were saying ‘omo Iya Ibadan bi’mo’ because she was ‘omo Iya Ibadan.’ She told me that the house they were living was not enough to contain the tubers of yam that people brought. She said for my naming ceremony, the Fulani gave her a fat cow with short horns. My mother remembered that one, at least. She said everybody from villages around came for the naming ceremony with their own mortals and pestles to make the pounded yam they would eat. My mother told me it was about a three-day ceremony. They brought a musician from Ilorin.
Where was your father then?
My father was in Ibadan.
*Was he at the naming ceremony too?*
No.
What happened?
I was named in Gambari. The ceremony was held at Gambari and it was also held in Ibadan, though I was not in Ibadan. The ceremony in Ibadan was not a virtual one because Islamic clerics sat down and also decided that the child would be called Rashidi. My christening was done in two locations at the same time.
My mother told me that in Gambari, the Islamic clerics there then were mostly of northern origin. My mother didn’t know much difference between Fulani and Hausa. And that I was taken as the child of the village. She said everybody contributed what they had for me. There was only one mosque in the village then. And part of what the mosque would do then was to take the child and put him in herbs. They recited some Quranic verses, and gave me back to my mother, and that continued for 41 days.
How did you come about the name Adewolu?
As a little child, I had so many names. Adewolu was one. Aderemi was one. Ademola was also one. Okunlola was another one. But I decided to choose Adewolu.
Why?
As I was growing up, it was during the reign of Oba Adesoji Aderemi, the Ooni of Ife. It was also during the reign of Oba Ademola, the Alake of Egbaland. I said why should I be bearing the same name with these big people? I said I should be bearing Adewolu. If I had chosen Aderemi, people would think I am bearing the name because of Ooni and Ademola because of Alake. So, I stuck to my Adewolu. So, it was just the fact that I wanted to be Adewolu because it’s not a common name that time.
Can you recall some of the childhood pranks that you played?
I did not grow up too much in Gambari. After about three months, I was brought to Ibadan. So, my grandmother, my mother and my family lived together. I did not know my grandmother too much because she died in 1947. My grandfather died in 1945. I can’t say how she looked. What does a three-year old child know?
I just knew that when I was growing up, I found reason they had so many ‘abikus’ (stillbirths). It was not because there was a witch in their families. It was just because if you survived at that time, God wanted you to live. In the house, the window was tiny. They would still be cooking with firewood in the same room. So, you can imagine the amount of carbon monoxide that was coming in and carbon dioxide going out? If a child had fever at that time and his body was hot, they would cover him up with more blankets. So, you can understand that if you didn’t die because of those things, God had a purpose for you. I felt that people were talking about abiku as a spiritual issue. I think it was ignorance of our people at the time.
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Nowadays, if you have fever, they would start massaging your body with napkin soaked in cold water. They would put on the fan so as to bring down the temperature. If they have air conditioner, they would put it on for you. But at that time, it was the opposite. There was no opportunity. Those are the things that I noticed. When we came to Ibadan, I was told that I lived with my grandmother. It was in the same house with my parents. After my grandmother passed away, I was living with a step grandmother. In fact, my mother didn’t really have much choice because that was the setting at that time. It was everybody bringing up a child. Most of the things we learnt at that time, it was passed on to us by our parents, uncles and aunties because of the communal living. And it was good. You would eat anywhere. My parents would be looking for me; they would be told that Rashidi had slept off in about two houses away. My parents would say it was good, and that God had provided dinner for me in that house. So you would wake up in the morning, and you stand up and go to your house. The experience then was enlightening.
You once said that if God should give you a sheet of paper to write your wishes, you would not be able to write half of what God has given you. What brought about that statement?
All of us wanted to be successful. We wanted to become somebody in life. At that time, the struggle was that when you saw a doctor that treated you, you would want to be a doctor. If you saw a bicycle repairer that repaired your father’s bicycle, you would want to be like him. During our time, professionals were more recognised. It was either you wanted to be a doctor, a teacher, an engineer, a lawyer, an accountant, a journalist and so on. So, it was just by God’s design that I became what I became.
After my primary school, which was in our area, one of the things was being given to pupils on the head. But it was just I remembered was when the government started vaccination. My mother ran to school to stop me from getting the vaccinated because she was told that the vaccination injection a vaccination that was given to us on our arm. So, everyone took their child away from the school because of wrong narratives that pupils were being given injections on the head.
Like many children of that period, I was prone to smallpox at that time anyway. At times, I would feign sickness because after all said and done, my parents would organise a special appeasement feast for me. They would cook rice. At that time, rice was not a common food. They would also prepare chicken. I would also get sizeable portions of rice and chicken. I would get one of the drumsticks because the feast was for me.
Of all these, why then did you decide to celebrate your 80th birthday in low key?
I know that God has been very kind to me. I had scholarships. My parents gave me secondary school education. At that time, I went for entrance exams of Ibadan Boys High School. When I got home, I went to my father and told him that I would not be admitted because many of the parents that brought their children to school in cars went to visit the principal. My father said I should not worry myself because there would always be room for excellence. I still hold it till date that there would always be room for excellence, however competitive it is.
So, I was admitted. To prove to me that there is always room for excellence, when I got admitted to Olivet Heights in Oyo for HSC, one of my seniors that was there, Tunde Falohun, wrote to us that I was the best candidate in the entrance exams, and that I would be admitted. He was my senior at Olivet Heights, though he was my classmate at Ibadan Boys High School. I dropped out in Form Four.
Why?
I dropped out because my parents could not pay my school fees. It was because all students must be boarders when you were in Forms Four and Five. The first term, I managed to go because most of the time, my mother was responsible for it. My father was good enough, but I don’t think he was very serious with our education. My mother would use her clothes for barter and money exchange with the ‘alarobos.’ So, she was not in position to take care of my school fees because the fees were in the range of 19 pounds and 10 shillings for boarders. It was nine pounds and five shillings for day students. So, I dropped out. The following year, my father had been able to secure an employment as a clerk.
He made an agreement with the school that he would be sending five Pounds postal order every month. In those days, there were poster orders. So, that was how he was able to pay the school fees for Forms Four and Five. So, when I got admission to Olivet Heights, I was late at paying the deposit. Finally, when I got the deposit, I went to the school. May God bless the principal. I saw him and he said I was late. Still, he asked me why I was late. I told him that I did not get the money in time. Again, I said I wanted to wait till I finished my secondary school education. I knew that I passed; otherwise, I would not come with this deposit. He asked if I had got the results of the school certificate, I said no; but I knew that I passed. He asked if I was sure. I said yes. Then, he asked ‘By the way, what is your name?’ I said Rashidi Ladoja. He then said just go and sit down and wait for the vice principal to come. The vice principal came and went to see the principal. They spoke. Then, they said Rashidi Ladoja come in. The principal said he would be pained if he denied the student that came first in the entrance exams a space in the school.
Does that not tell you there is room for excellence?
The principal said the school used to have 25 pupils in the higher school. But the school would make another desk so that in my own class, there would be 26 students.
When you look at what was happening at that time and today, you will find out the focus was on merit and the person in those days, not whatever any other thing. This is a Baptist school. I profess Islam. I am not a child of a Deacon. In fact, I can say I was unrelated to the school. Yet, because of the fact that Rashidi Ladoja came first in their entrance exams, they bent the rule to accommodate me. I got to the school and the principal was a member of the Scholarship Board of Western Region. So, I took the form for Western Region Scholarship and I filled it in. I put the principal of the Olivet Heights there as my referee. I submitted the form. Then, somebody advised me to change the referee, which I did. He convinced me that I just knew the principal for just two to three months. He prevailed on me to use the principal that knew me for six years. So, I took another form, filled it in and put the name of my principal at Ibadan Boys High School. I also submitted the form.
I did not even know at that time that the principal of Olivet Heights was a member of the Scholarship Board of Western Region. If I knew, I would not have changed it.
It was my principal of Olivet Heights that came to relate that with me. He said when they got to the board to award the scholarship, the minister mentioned my name that I filled in two forms. The then minister is what we call commissioners today.
He told me that one of the board members said the boy is an excellent student. The other one said the boy was above an average student. Then, who should be believed? So, everybody was debating. Finally, they agreed that they were saying the same thing in different way.
They concluded that if you are an excellent student, it means you are above average. If you are poor, you are below average. They mentioned my name that the boy is Rashidi Ladoja. They asked my principal, who said the boy is good and he is excellent because he came first in the entrance exams to the school. You can see that there is room for excellence. Then, he asked me why I filled two forms I explained that someone told me not to use you as my referee because you just knew me about two to three months ago and that I should use the principal that knew me for six years. So, I was awarded the scholarship, which made me a scholarship scholar in higher school.
Also, in the foreign scholarship at that time, it was Nigerians they were giving the scholarship to, not Ladoja. Nigeria would just nominate people. So, I filled in the scholarship form, which we normally fill when you were in school and your results were not yet out.
At that time, you were not yet done with your exams. You would only have awaiting results. So, I just filled in the form. When I finished, I went to see the principal of Ibadan Boys High School, that I have made you my referee. When I finished, he said I should not go and that I should come and assist him. He asked me to come and teach in the school. I said no. He asked me why? And I said I have been given a job at Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria (CRIN). They were going to give me Assistant Technical Officer. He then said it meant that I did not want to help in the school.
Then, he said ‘You have to apply’. He asked the clerk to give me a sheet of paper. I got it and I applied for a teaching position in the school. He asked me to wait for reply. The reply was: ‘You are hereby appointed as a class teacher.” I think it was 16 pounds. When you pass your HSC and you have HSC certificate, your salary would become 19 pounds. he told me. I asked when I should start. He told me to start immediately.
He said the school would have entrance examination next weekend and I would be the one to set the questions for it.
I got home and I told my father that I got a job at Ibadan Boys High School and I was expecting a other job at CRIN. I said the one of CRIN was 39 pounds and the teaching job was 19 pounds when I passed my HSC. My father said I should stay in the school environment….When I was on the teaching job, I went to Olivet Heights to pick my results. On my way back, I remembered that I had a friend in the Ministry of Lands at the Secretariat in Ibadan. I took a cab and when we got to the front of Ministry of Education, the driver got five passengers that were going to Dugbe. Normally, it was four passengers. But he got five passengers. He asked me to get down and also go with my money. He gave me back my six pence because we have not reached my destination.
I got down and I said this is Ministry of Education, let me go and show them my results of HSC because I had the four papers at the principal level. I saw the scholarship office, and I went in to show them my results. I told them my mission. I said I wanted to obtain the scholarship form and fill in my results.
We were still arguing when the permanent secretary came in. I said I came to show them my results so that I could fill my scholarship form.He checked my results and said I passed four papers at principal level, and I even had general paper also. He asked me to go and wait for him in his office. I got there and I sat down. He came back and said let me see the results again. Then, he called one of his subordinates and requested if the list for United States had gone and the subordinate said it had gone a week earlier…
He said the Canadian scholarship that I chose was not available for undergraduate level and that United Kingdom only awarded scholarship for postgraduate studies.
But he said there was a good news that if I did not get Federal Government scholarship. I would get Western Region Scholarship. He said he received a communication from the Federal Ministry of Education on undergraduate scholarship to Belgium. He asked me if I was interested and I said yes. I chose Chemical Engineering because I wanted to travel and the course was not in Nigeria then. I also got admission to Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. In those days, you would apply directly to the university you wanted to go. So, Ahmadu Bello University admitted me for Mechanical Engineering, University of Lagos also gave me admission for Electrical Engineering. When the opportunity of Belgium came, I went there to study Chemical Engineering. All along, you would see that there is room of excellence.
With all these, you still want to celebrate your 80th birthday in low key. Why?
This is a child that completed primary and secondary education, as well as HSC, and university based on excellence. Where is that excellence today? Nigeria is no more what it used to be. So, this is not Nigeria of my own dream. Therefore, what am I celebrating? I got employed into Total Oil, even before I completed my university education. I got employment with Total in April when I was going to complete my university in August.
How did we find ourselves here?
That is the question I am also asking. How did we find ourselves here? Could it be the military intervention? Now, it seems there is no excellence again. It is a question of what you can buy. You buy nearly everything. I feel also a part of the failure.
How?
If we could not create what we enjoyed, then we are failures. When I was campaigning in 2003 for the office of governor of Oyo State, I did what would make us go back to where we were; which was 30 pupils per class; that was for education. We said we would create opportunities for everybody to be educated. We would strive to create jobs. I am not sure that is what we are still seeing today. When we got there, we did it. But there is no excellence again. It is how much you can pay.
I believe in democracy. I believe in bringing back what I knew, whereby there was orderliness, and there was room for excellence.
What was your NADECO experience like?
I went into exile because I did not believe that Sani Abacha was sincere with his transition programme. I was nominated into the Constituent Assembly, which for us in Ibadan, was not a question of going to the Constituent Assembly. I was a good member of NADECO. We already said we were not going to the Abacha’s Confab So, I did my part to support worthy causes.
As a chemical engineer, how would you react to the unending energy crisis in Nigeria?
It is not only that I am a chemical engineer, I have bias for petroleum. I joined the oil industry at a very critical period of the oil industry in Nigeria. I joined in 1992. I was in Total. At that time, there was only one refinery and it was owned by Shell BP. And it was a processing refinery; they don’t sell. You would take you crude to the refinery, process it there and refine it. You would evacuate your products and pay them. It was doing well. It was only one refinery and it was virtually meeting all our requests. But later on, it was not meeting our demand again. Then, Warri Refinery was planned. The oil companies said they wanted the refinery in Lagos, not in Warri. They said they wanted it in Lagos because the consumption of the South-West was more than 70 percent of the refined products.
But it was the Federal Government that wanted to build the refinery and they chose Warri. We could not convince them otherwise. They built Warri Refinery. At that time, there was a meeting of all the operations managers of all marketing companies.The Warri Refinery, instead of being processing refinery, as in Port Harcourt, it was supposed to be a selling refinery.
NNPC owned the product. NNPC owned refinery and they would sell it. So, they now nationalise the Shell BP. I can tell you that what we have today is definitely not what we had at the time. There should have been no problem with Dangote Refinery because between the time the Warri Refinery was coming up, there were shortages and marketers were importing products.
At that time, there was no government hand in it at all. The only thing the government was doing was to collect their excise duties and also to collect the import duties.
We were there when they said they were going to have uniform pricing. So, I knew that part of the story very well as far as supply of products in Nigeria was concerned.
A lot of people wanted to build refineries before. But when you look at it, NNPC was controlling the price of the products. Later on, they said they were going to forgo the import duties. I don’t know why the military should want to be popular because all these issues started under the military. Why did they want to be popular? They should have allowed the market to evolve the way it was going. But instead, the military said no; it has to be uniform pricing all over Nigeria. Therefore, they created what they called Price Equalisation Fund, which they later turned to something else. They turned it to chop-chop something. It was being managed by marketers. But NNPC took it over and felt that it is their bread and butter. That is what led us to where we are today.
What is the way out?
We should go back to where we were. As long as it is NNPC that is going to be having hold on the petroleum industry, we are going to be having a lot of interference.
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Do you believe there was fuel subsidy at any time in this country?
When you talk of subsidy, government was playing on words. I told you that before now, the only thing the government was doing was to take their excise duties.
In fact, we used to have customs officers, which used to be customs and excise, inside our depots to see what was coming in an what was going out, so that they would be able to calculate the excise duty or import duties we were going to pay.. It was being done every 10 days. Gradually, the government said because they did not want to give room to hardship to people, it removed the excise duties and import duties.
So, as the prices were going up, the people were getting bad. But the major problem that we have is the unreasonable devaluation of naira from the time of Ibrahim Babangida.
Babangida started by saying people should be debating if we should take IMF loan or not. Asking somebody like my mother to comment, what does my mother know about IMF? Nigerians do you want this and that? That was where it started. As long as naira is not stable, there will always be that crisis. The currency of petroleum is dollar. Even in Europe, it is dollar. As long as your currency is not stable with the dollar, you would continue having the problem. But it should not have been issue of Nigeria. When people talk about fuel subsidy, I will say that in most cases in Nigeria, we have to talk of opportunity lost. When the NNPC took over, they didn’t take over with a view of buying or importing the product from Europe or anywhere. They took it that they were going to begin offshore processing. You will take my crude out, you will bring my product back, and I will like you to sell whatever I cannot take. So, does that cost us as much as spending dollars of today to bring out our product? No. I think it is opportunity lost that we are trying to turn into subsidy.
If our refineries are working, it would not cost us what it is costing us. I saw today that they said Dangote Refinery would sell petrol at N766, which means that maybe NNPC had already worked their margin and everything into it. We will see that we are going back to where we were. In those days, it’s uniform price; buy in Lagos, Maiduguri or Kaduna. But now, buy in Lagos and Ibadan, it is not the same price. But we are going back to where we were; but painfully.
Nigeria is also a place where things don’t turn out the way you wanted it. Other places have been using pipelines for ages, and they are still using them. We started using pipeline in Nigeria; we have destroyed it, either by vandals, or by neglect.
When you look at it, I think it is a problem of policy. If they sell it at the time naira was bigger than dollar, 70 dollars today would have been N50. So, we would not be selling at N770, if it is dollar-dominated. How many dollars is N770 when they say N70,000 is 42 dollars? So, you can work it out if naira has not been bastardised.
I started my work at Total at 125 pounds per month, which was N250 then. And I was more comfortable than when I started earning N2,500 before a left Total. So, something must have been wrong with us.
Do you support calls for the national refineries to be sold?
Of course, I do. I do because if it turns impossible for you to manage them, why do you want to hold them? Do you think anybody would want to put his money there and make it work? So, there are so many theories that could have been responsible for the inability to make the refineries work. Maybe the NNPC management themselves don’t want them to work. How many billions of naira have they spent on turnaround maintenance? NNPC is not sacking the workers there. Workers are still working there and earning their salaries for doing nothing. If it is impossible for the refineries to work under the government, then let the government sell them. If they sell them and they get one kobo, it is still better than holding them and still be spending money on them.
I think the money they are wasting on them now can be used to do something else. And whoever that puts his one kobo there would want it to work. Then, there will be competition. You can understand the fear or NNPC, they cannot supply 650 barrels of crude to Dangote because that is apparently part of the production that comes to Nigeria. Do you want to put all your eggs in one person’s hand?
What is your take on the call for the review of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria?
It is not the constitution that is wrong; it is our mental state.
Is it because we don’t have strong institutions?
Will the change in the constitution bring in strong institutions? I don’t think the constitution is the problem. I think it is the mindset of the people. I think we are so undisciplined that we don’t believe in any law again. We believe we can always buy our way. Was the constitution wrong when Ladoja was impeached wrongly as governor of Oyo State? Was it not clearly written that you need two-thirds of the House of Assembly members to be able to impeach a governor? Was it respected? When you have people who don’t believe that there is any law they have to obey, then you cannot get anything done. It is case of one law for one person; another law for another person.
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As long as politics is a question of ‘I must have it at all cost’, then put any constitution there, who is going to apply it? Are the law enforcement agencies who want to keep their job going to do that? After the presidency, it is the National Assembly that should be strong. But are they?
Credit: TRIBUNE ONLINE
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