By Rotimi Abe
As we still mourn the passing of Segun Awolowo, I recall how dear and close he was to his grandfather, the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo. As Private Secretary to Chief Awolowo, I remember that Papa had instructed me to be sending copies of the Nigerian Tribune and Sunday Tribune to Segun who was then studying for his A/Levels in Switzerland.
Papa had told me that he wanted Segun to be abreast of the goings on in Nigeria while he was outside the country. We had to package every week’s editions to be sent to him.
By the time he returned and during the campaigns, Papa also instructed me to include Segun’s name on my office list for the campaigns. He, thereafter, followed us on some campaigns in Lagos and Oyo States.
When Segun was admitted to study law at Ogun State University (now Olabisi Onabanjo University), Ago Iwoye, he first stayed in the official quarters of the Vice Chancellor, Professor John Olubiyi Sodipo so that the Professor could monitor and guide him. I was also instructed to be checking on him to know how he was faring. Segun was also told to visit home at some weekends, during which Papa would sit down with him to review his law studies.
I recall that on one occasion that I visited him in school, he complained about how uneasy it was going for lectures and he requested that I should put in a word for him to be allowed to take one of the pool cars in the compound (the Datsun) to school. I promised to find a conducive time to do so. Some evenings before dinner when Papa was relaxed, we would discuss some light-hearted matters (the Remo people call it “a njewo”).
One of such evenings, as we discussed, I said – “Papa, the last time I visited Segun in school, I saw how uneasy it was for him to go for lectures and I think he could be allowed to take the Datsun car to school to facilitate his movement”.
Papa’s visage changed immediately, and the response I got shook me. Papa said to me , “Rotimi, I am disappointed in you.” He then went ahead and gave me a lecture that stuck with me. He told me that there were other students in the school who were going for lectures whose parents could not afford to give them cars. He said to me , “Don’t pamper your children such that they will think life is a bed of roses.” He said he deliberately and purposely allowed Segun to study in Ago Iwoye instead of the University of Ibadan, which Prof Oyediran wanted or to study in the United Kingdom. This was one of the very many valuable lessons I learned while working for Papa – a time I tell people was attending the University of Wisdom.
Now, to how Segun changed Awo’s mind.
After the presidential elections of 1983, the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) fixed it’s natonal convention for December 15th in Gateway Hotel, Abeokuta.
As it was usual, Papa was to read a presidential address at the convention. Up to a week before the date, Papa had decided not to prepare a presidential address. I arrived in Ikenne about five days to the convention, and I went to Papa to take the assignments for the day, and I found that he was busy writing. Immediately he saw me, he looked up and said he was writing the presidential address. He explained to me that Segun had come to him early in the morning to convince him to write it. He said Segun had told him that his thoughts could douse the tension in the land and change a lot of things, especially with the fluid state of things after the elections.
The result was that memorable speech in which Awo floated the hypothesis of the synthesis of the thesis and the antithesis, which became a subject of discussion and analysis for a long time.
This was how Segun was so close and dear to his grandfather.
May Segun ‘s soul rest in peace.