The tour of the PDP Southwest Governors - elect took off in Ibadan where they paid courtesy visit to Yoruba elders including Pa Alayande, Baba Adedibu and others. Addressing them, the renowned educationist said he was 94 years old and that all the Governors - elect would spend 4 years if they did well and 8 years in total and become ordinary citizens. "Please serve the people well and leave good and enduring legacies as Papa Awolowo did" he pleaded.
Ikenne, Ogun State was the next port of call on the second day of the tour where the five Governors - elect visited the country home of Chief Obafemi Awolowo to pay obeisance to the sage's aged wife, Madam Hannah Dideolu Awolowo. The meeting with Mama Awolowo featured a short devotion of hymns, exhortation and prayers. Former Director General of the News Agency of Nigeria NAN, Mr Akin Oshuntokun was on the entourage of one of the Governors - elect on this occasion.
A visit to the country home of the first Premier of the defunct Western Region of Nigeria is like visiting a museum of political memorabilia. Apart from the mausoleum of the great man where a device is installed to lift the body up in his glass casket, there is a Mercedes Benz car with the inscription that Chief Awolowo used the car to tour the length and breadth of Nigeria to campaign in his bid to rule the country and there are countless framed photographs of memorable regional, national and international political events and ceremonies.
The Governors - elect concluded their consultation to who's who in the Southwest and returned to their different states.
Back in Ado Ekiti, I began to report for duty at Spotless Hotel at the GRA which served as the operational base of Governor - elect Fayose before his inauguration on May 29, 1999 when he moved into Government House.
I found Governor Fayose to be a man in the mode of former Ekiti State Military Administrator, Navy Captain Atanda Yusuf because he too is an action man. He's not a Chief Executive who sits in the office treating files. Fayose was always on the move on Okada, Akoto or mini bus exploring new roads to open up and tar and new projects to execute. Such escapades produced Ado Ekiti - Afao Road. Ifaki Ekiti - Esúrẹ Ekiti - Eyio - Ekiti to Awọ - Ekiti road. And in Ado Ekiti metropolis, he constructed Adebayo-Nova-Basiri road and several other roads in the state capital and across the 16 Local Government Areas where tarred road never existed.
The mother of all the road projects Fayose constructed is the Ado Ekiti axial road which he dualised. The history of the dualisation of the main street of the state capital actually began with the first elected Executive Governor of the state, Otunba Niyi Adebayo whose administration had sought a 4 billion naira bond from the capital market to execute the project. The money did not drop on time, Adebayo did not get a second term and by the time the bond money dropped, Mr Ayo Fayose was in the saddle. The money had been tied to the dualisation project and for it, the new Sheriff on the block expended it.
Reporting from the Government House also gave me the first opportunity to cover court proceedings. Governor Fayose set up a judicial panel to probe the administration of his predecessor in office and I was directed to include in my schedule, the coverage of the panel that sat in a courtroom at the headquarters of the judiciary of the state at Fajuyi.
Several serving and past senior public officials including career officers and elected politicians were summoned to answer audit queries before the panel.
When proceeding opened one fateful day, the presiding judge, Justice Babalola asked whether the reporter of the BSES was present in court and I responded in the affirmative standing up. He ordered me to enter the dock because there's a complaint about my report in the news of the previous day's sitting.
While the judge was speaking, I was preparing myself for the ritual in the dock. I imagined how a Court Clerk would hand over a Bible to me after confirming my religion and go on to ask me to repeat after him, " I, Akin Ogunmola do hereby swear that the testimony I will give, shall be the whole truth and nothing but the truth. So help me God" and the clerk will bark at me to kiss the Bible.
But before I made any move to enter the dock, the lawyer representing the government at the panel, Chief Yusuf Ali SAN stepped forward and approached the bench saying, "My Lord, before this young man will enter the dock, I humbly request that the complainant tell this open court the offence of the reporter". Justice Babalola upheld the submission and the senior civil servant who went to meet the judge surreptitiously at home, name withheld, stoop up and Yusuf Ali asked him to enter the dock and address the court.
After the ritual of testifying from the dock as I described above, the senior civil servant, a Director in the Deputy Governor's Office, narrated how he heard in the news on BSES that he didn't satisfy the panel when he was asked about an audit query involving his office. According to him, the report in the news portrayed him as being incompetent. The lawyer cut in and turned to the bench again and reminded the judge how all questions put to the director the other day, his reply had been I don't know and because he could not satisfy the panel, the former Deputy Governor, Chief Paul Alabi was summoned to appear personally to clarify the audit query on his medical trip overseas.
Case closed.
The intervention of the Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Yusuf Ali denied me the opportunity to now boast that I had entered the dock in a courtroom and came out acquited.