On September 21, 2012, members of his political family, friends and acquaintances were stunned when news filtered through that he was seriously ill and had been rushed to the University College Hospital [UCH], Ibadan. Frantic efforts made by his family and political associates in the Action Congress of Nigeria [ACN] to douse the tension became heightened when he was moved to the Lagos hospital. Thus, news about his demise at 9 am on Sunday, elicited spontaneous grief and sadness from many within and outside the ranks of his political family, who had, for some weeks, wished him a quick recovery so that he could soonest come into their warm embrace.
Born on January 30, 1930, Adesina lived a Spartan life style, adjusting slightly upward later in life to complement his rising status in the political circles. What he seemed to lack in finesse, he made up for in political sagacity. Whereas some saw him as a courageous politician, who would speak his mind on any issue no matter whose ox was gored, others perceived him differently; he was more frequently an issue in the polity than most of his contemporaries.
At a stage in his life, Lam teamed up with other chieftains of the pan-Yoruba group, Afenifere and the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) to spearhead the crusade for democratic rule and justice. They became a thorn in the flesh of military dictators in the country. He refused to run away in the face of tyranny and persecution for insisting on justice and accountability. Consequently, he and 31 other uncompromising politicians, pro-democracy and human rights activists were rounded up, hounded into jail and dubbed prisoners of war. Their offence: publicly denouncing injustice, demanding the sanctity of human life, rights and dignity and sovereignty of the citizenry.
The efforts of Adesina and others eventually paid off when the military bowed out of political power through one of the shortest transition programmes the country ever had. He and other like minds formed the Alliance for Democracy [AD] where his sacrifices during the bitter political struggle were rewarded with the governorship ticket of the party. His resounding victory was not unexpected as there was an overwhelming public sympathy for AD because of the unarguable role its leaders played in championing the return to civil rule in the country.
A grass-roots politician with a knack for organisation, Adesina rose gradually to the pinnacle of his career by an admixture of factors and under varying political climates. But suffice to say that the man widely referred to as Lam, was able to crown his political sojourn by leading ACN to the seat of power in Oyo State, Government House, Agodi.
Adesina, one of the tested hands in neo-Awoist politics, attended the Loyola College in Ibadan and, for his university education, the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (1961-1963) and the premier university, University of Ibadan in 1971.
Arguably an ideologue of the Action Group (AG) and Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) sophistication, he came into the Agodi Government House in Oyo State with the rich background of an educator, human rights activist and unionist. He was a key member of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) that fought the then military dictatorship of General Sani Abacha to a standstill, and was harassed and detained for his views, along with 31 others.
The bespectacled leader was politics-personified; he spared no fools and was constantly at war with his political opponents. Throughout his time as governor, the leader in Oyo State maintained a consistent advocacy for a Sovereign National Conference as a panacea for the country’s socio-economic and political problems, clashing with former President Olusegun Obasanjo who argued that the SNC was an abnormality since there was already a National Assembly in place. “When you say sovereign national conference, I don’t know what your sovereign national conference means,’’ Obasanjo said during a state visit, at the then Liberty Stadium.
1. The late Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu (left), endorsing Alhaji Lam Adesina at the launch and fund-raising of Egbe Agbe L' Oba, at the Mapo Hall, in 1991. 2. Alhaji Lam Adesina (left), discussing with Aare Musulumi of Yorubaland, Alhaji Azzez Arisekola, during Eid-el-Kabir celebrations, at Agodi Prayer ground, in 2002. 3. Alhaji Lam Adesina, during his tenure as Oyo State governor, cuttig his 61st birthday cake, with his wife. 4. Alhaji Lam Adesina, during a courtesy visit to Chief (Mrs) H.I.D. Awolowo, at the Ikenne residence of the Awolowos. 5. Alhaji Lam Adesina (left), with the late Chief Bola Ige, at the launch of Mesi Ogo, held at the Premier Hotel, Ibadan, in 2001.Lam was always opposed to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and all it stands for, while celebrating his brand of Awoism. “A vote for any other party other than AD is a vote for poverty, intimidation, perpetual dominion and outright pillage of the treasury, ‘’ he told the people of Igangan, while campaigning for a second term of office in 2003. Lam, like his then colleagues (Adebayo Adefarati, Segun Osoba, Niyi Adebayo and Bisi Akande), was caught in the whirlwind of the Obasanjo presidential re-election project ahead of the 2003 presidential election in an effort to give the former president home base support and did not survive the electoral tsunami engineered by the General. The deal of sealing a second term for him (Lam) and his colleagues while ensuring a second term for Obasanjo sealed the electoral misfortune of the AD in the 2003 elections, but the former governor, who was succeeded by Senator Rasidi Ladoja, a fellow Ibadan indigene, insisted that he “lost to federal might.’’
An alien in Oyo politics since leaving office in 2003, Lam, however, bounced back to reckoning with the election of Senator Abiola Ajimobi during the 2011 gubernatorial election in the state, an opportunity that he used to continue his onslaught on the PDP. Indeed, he told an Osun State based daily, Osun Defender, that the PDP and Obasanjo murdered the late Chief Bola Ige, former Attorney General and Minister of Justice, who was murdered at his Ibadan residence in December, 2001.
In March 2011, Lam virtually ‘bombed’ his successor in office,Ladoja: “He should be ashamed that despite the fact that he destroyed academic legacy in the state, he could still raise his voice to the people of Oyo State. He ranks today as the most woeful administrator in the history of the state and this is evident. He killed the Trans International Bank (TIB) by withdrawing both the government money and share deposits and consequently, leaving the bank with less assets and threw a lot into joblessness.’’
He also recently took on Obasanjo, saying that his regime failed in its anti-corruption drive. OBJ however fired back at Lam, saying that he had become senile: “Adesina’s attribution of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway contract to the Obasanjo administration shows how puerile or perhaps how senile the former governor has become.The contract in question was not awarded by the Obasanjo administration. It was in fact awarded after Chief Obasanjo had left office.’’
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