The unfinished life of Omololu Olunloyo, by Dare Babarinsa

Politics is a complicated game. Nigerian politics is even more complicated. Yoruba politics is the most complicated, with its nuances, its shadow wars and unintended consequences. It was this game that Dr Victor Omololu Olunloyo played to the hilt with serious impact for himself, his family and his people. He was occupied with politics most part of his almost 90 years on earth, but from all indications, he was not really cut out for the rambunctious politics of Ibadan often dominated by such colourful characters likes the late Chief Lamidi Adedibu and the extraordinary Alhaji Adegoke Adelabu.

Now he is gone and that leaves one with a lingering feeling that Olunloyo could have led a different life.
Olunloyo would be buried tomorrow Friday, June 27, in Ibadan, the city of his birth. When Olunloyo was elected in 1983 as the second democratically chosen governor of old Oyo State, it was for him the height of a lifetime of service. He was the candidate of the lumbering National Party Nigeria, NPN, of President Shehu Shagari, chosen to confront the iconic Chief Bola Ige, who was elected in 1979 on the platform of the Unity Party of Nigeria, UPN. Shagari’s powerful Minister of Transport, Alhaji Umaru Dikko, had boasted that by 1983, the NPN would win by a landslide because there would be a bandwagon effect after the first election. When the NPN bandwagon finally came to town, Olunloyo was in command. He won a controversial victory and embarked on a programme of clearing the public space of all perceived Bola Ige’s influence.

There was an apocryphal story about Olunloyo when, as governor, he was filling all the important posts. A leader of the NPN from one of the local governments had met the governor to complain about some appointments, claiming that his local government was not fairly treated.
“Afterall, we voted for you massively!” the leader said . Olunloyo looked inside his drawer and pronounced: “You did not vote for us according to the authentic results! We voted for ourselves!” On December 31, 1983, Shagari, Olunloyo and all other elected officials were sacked during the coup that brought General Muhammadu Buhari to power. His three months in power was the shortest in Oyo State history. He was arrested after the coup, detained briefly and then released.

I met him shortly after his return from detention in his Molete, Ibadan residence, which I was told was actually built by his father, a wealthy personage of old Ibadan. He took me into his study. On the wall were the framed pictures of Chief Ladoke Akintola, Alhaji Ahmadu Bello, Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa-Balewa and I think that of Dr Adekoyejo Majekodunmi, the Administrator of the Western Region during the emergency of the First Republic. These were prominent figures in the politics of the First Republic. Akintola was the second Premier of the defunct Western Region. Bello was the Premier of the defunct Northern Region, whose party formed an alliance with Akintola’s Nigerian National Democratic Party, NNDP, called the Nigerian National Alliance, NNA, which tried to wrestle control of the West from Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s Action Group. For the 1964 Federal election, the AG had forged alliance with the National Council of the Nigerian Citizens, NCNC, which was called United Progressive Grand Alliance, UPGA. The two political groupings met on the battle-field and the climax came during the regional election of 1965 which Akintola claimed to have won. It was after the regional election that the West exploded into Wet-e which was a sorry prelude to the coup of January 15, 1966.

Even at that time in 1965, where he was barely 30, Olunloyo was already a well-known political figure. In 1962, when he was 26, Dr Majekodunmi, the Administrator of the Western Region during the Emergency Period, had made him a commissioner. That taste of politics diverted Olunloyo life trajectory and may have dictated the pattern of his latter career. His earlier attainment and unusual academic brilliance had attracted national and international attention and he was lionised as the new face of African’s intellectual ability.

Olunloyo was born in Ibadan in 1936, a descendant of Owu parents who migrated into the rapidly growing city in the 19th Century. At the beginning of the 19th Century, Owu was the third most important Yoruba kingdoms and its ruler, the Olowu, considered himself the primus among the princes of the House of Oduduwa. It was said that the Olowu was the first among the seven grandchildren of Odududwa, to be gifted with a crown by his grandfather. Regarded as mercurial and stubborn, the Olowu and his people, attracted a lot of opposition to themselves. By the middle of the 19th Century, the Owu Kingdom had been defeated in a bitter Civil War, its capital, put under interdiction and the people poured into exile in different directions. The Owu War was one of the most important wars among the Yoruba people in the 19th Century and it signalled the end of the old order in the country.

It is not clear whether the Olunloyos came to Ibadan as part of the city foundation which turned into the first megalopolis in Yorubaland or they came as exiles. They soon found favour as the first set of Christians in the new town. Under the old rule in the Yoruba country, a family can decide to settle permanently in another town or kingdom and they would be provided with land for their sustenance. Therefore, every Yoruba town, especially, Lagos, Ilorin, Abeokuta, Osogbo and Ibadan, received many refugees from other towns during and after the wars. Thus, every Yoruba town is an amalgam of different migrant groups and you will know this mainly from their traditional praise poem, called oriki. The Olunloyo were to prove their worth. When Omololu Olunloyo entered Government College, Ibadan, he emerged as a lodestar in a class of stars. Among his classmates were the likes of Akin Mabogunje, Ladipo Akinkugbe and other giants. He attracted scholarship from several quarters and when he was admitted into the University of Saint Andrew in the United Kingdom, it was to provide another opportunity for him to show his unusual brilliance. He collected all the academic prizes available and at 24, bagged a doctorate degree in mathematics. His star was a shining brightly.

With his brilliant performance, he now believed he was cut out for academic pursuit, but the drum in Ibadan was that he must come into politics. When Majekodunmi offered him the post of commissioner, he jumped at it. It was his first foray into politics. He was later to serve as a commissioner in the military government of Colonel Adeyinka Adebayo. His controversial 1983 triumph was brief, but he remained influential in politics even after that. His sharp mind and penetrating insight did not allow him to fit too well into the prism of national politics.
Some years ago, we met in the home of Aare Azeez Arisekola-Alao. This time around, it was apparent that he had become disillusioned by the complicated politics of Nigeria. Though they still seek his opinion, but new lords have emerged in Ibadan politics, especially the inimitable duo of Arisekola and Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu. Though they tapped his brain and benefitted from his knowledge and experience, nonetheless, he did not have the muscle nor the money to match them. His dilemma reminds one of Somerset Maugham wry remark: “A general without an army is a tamed hero of a market town.”

Olunloyo involvement in politics robbed humanity of his service as a scientist and mathematical genius. If he had remained in academic pursuit, perhaps now, we would be celebrating the passing of a Nobel laureate in mathematics. His intelligence and integrity forbade him to engage in profitable tomfoolery.
But then, he chooses his own road and lived with the consequences. There is a lingering feeling that Dr Omololu Olunloyo did not actually lived the life he would have preferred. Now he is gone, but his life remained unfinished. May his valiant soul rest in peace.