Sani Abacha, Olubadan Asanike and a humorous encounter, by Oladeinde Olawoyin

I passed through Idi-Aro this morning and I remember Olubadan Yesufu Oloyede Asanike of Asan’ke Dynasty in Idi-Aro, easily the most flamboyant Olubadan of the last four decades. Oba Asanike was a famous cocoa produce merchant at Akanran, Ibadan, who assumed the position of Mogaji of the Asanike dynasty in 1947.

Oba Asanke ruled for ten years, and within those years, there were too many beer parlour tales and stories, many of them apocryphal, about his humourous ways and idiosyncrasies.

But Ibadan enjoyed them, all the same.

There was the one tale involving the late General Sani Abacha, a man of brief stature.

Abacha reportedly visited the palace and Asanike was expecting a huge, menacing, tall, scary, and fierce looking man. And then entered the man, Sani Abacha, his height punctuated somewhere around Oba Asanke’s shoulders.

Ever the humour merchant, Oba Asanike threw Abacha a grenade, wrapped in thick Ibadan accent: “Saaaani, a s’o ti e ju bayi lo…?”

Yoruba, especially the Ibadan-accented flavour, loses its potency when translated but I’d try:
“Here you are Saani (Abacha), so you aren’t even more than this?”

A never-smiling Abacha, who had served as GOC in Ibadan, reportedly burst into laughter.

There was another popular story of a cocktail party, organised by the then military governor of Oyo State, which had Olubadan Asanike in attendance, in the company of his deputy, Emmanuel Adeyemo, Otun Olubadan. At the party, scotch egg was reportedly served and as Baba Adeyemo, a well-traveled elite, picked some scotch eggs, Oba Asanke reportedly remarked:

“Deyemo, o mo mu Akara yi je tan, won mo ngbe eko bo?”

Translation: “Adeyemo, do not finish the Akara, they will soon bring the accompanying corn pap (eko).”

Sheer hilarity.

Oba Asanke ascended the throne on the 4th of February, 1983, and died on the 24th of December, 1993.

What does Oba Asanke have to do with Olubadan Ladoja?

Well, Oba Ladoja became Jagun Olubadan under him in 1993, and began climbing the stairs patiently, a long tortuous journey culminating in today’s ultimate glory.

Kaabiyesi o!