Let me give you another story that illustrates Akintola's unbeatable sense of humor before I wind up this article. Akintola had gone out to Owo town to campaign. once upon a time As soon as he climbed the podium, Akintola had thrown up his arms as if to acknowledge the peoples' standing ovation. As soon as the ovation had died down, Akintola had told the crowd in flawless Yoruba language. "Myself the son of Akintola, I am praying to God today to let my children be the ones to survive me, after I am dead and gone." "Emi Ladoke omo Akintola, l'gbara Olorun, omo ni o sin mi" to which each person in the crowd had also replied to him in unison that "We too share in your prayer that God would let our children be the one to survive us after our transition to the "Great Beyond" " "Omo na ni o sin gbogbo wa, lagbara Olorun." Akintola did not let them finish their sentence when he cut in and told the crowd. "No, you people cannot say that, isn't your name "Ajasin" meaning (the one that is buried by a dog) "Rara o, omo ko ni o si yin, me bi, eyin le nje Ajasin." All Akintola was doing, was making a humor out of the name of the most prominent Action Group politician at Owo who we all know to be Adekunle "Ajasin" who was later to become the first Executive Governor of Ondo State. The whole crowd of supporters rather than getting angry, could only burst into laughter because that play upon words by Akintola, was a classic that would be hard to beat any where in Yoruba Land. Akintola was easily the best in his game, and would for ever live in the adulation of our people around the world as a real genius in the Yoruba Language..

Point of divergence with Awolowo


He argued that he had therefore rejected the Awolowo's hypothesis that the Yorubas must never work with an Hausa dominated Party like the defunct NPC (Northern Peoples Congress} He had argued that it was foolhardy for the Yorubas to continue to dismiss the Northerners as unfit to lead any Government in which the Yoruba people would participate in. He had berated such a notion as an Awolowo frame of mind which he argued, should be rejected by the rank and file of the Yorubas, because democracy is a game of numbers, and it did not make sense at all for the Yorubas to allow the Igbos to continue to dominate Nigeria. The Hausas may be stark illiterates, according to Akintola, but they appeared to hold the trump card to the governance of Nigeria. Therefore the Yorubas must find some ways to reach out to them, and to join them if they could not beat them. That was Akintola's logic or reasoning at the time. If we critically examine where Nigeria is today, more than forty years later, you can still see a lot of sense in Akintola's position. Today for the first time in our history a Northern-led Party has taken over the entire Awolowo country, and a Yoruba man is right at the top of the pyramid leading the same Party and the whole nation. We all have to concede that Ladoke Akintola surely had a point from the "get go", if the truth must be told.

Akintola on the Igbo


Hear yet another humor improvised by Akintola to pull a fast one on the Igbos of Nigeria. Akintola had never failed to see something uniquely funny in Ndigbo names. Once upon a time Akintola had blasted the Igbos as being too greedy because the Igbos never like to share the largesse of Government with any of the other predominant tribes of Nigeria. according to Akintola, the Igbos only think of themselves and no one else. The name he had chosen to drive home his point on that occasion was "Ikejiani" which means in Yoruba the second person must take his share. But then Akintola went ahead to add "Iketaani" and "Ikerinani. If one, two, three and four Igbos must take their share before a Yoruba man could take his own share, what is going to be left for the Yorubas and the Hausas to then take home? Akintola had simply used that allegory to prove his point that the Yorubas by refusing to work with the NPC are the ones giving Ndigbo a chance to totally dominate Nigeria.

SLA was a great Yoruba son. In spite of his unfortunate fallout with Awo, his love for and devotion to the promotion and protection of Yoruba interests within the Nigerian context was never in doubt. RIP

His Death....

There was celebration and rejoicing in most parts of the Western Region on January 15th 1966 when the coup plotters had bombarded the Iyaganku Residence of the late Premier, killing him in cold blood in a blizzard of bullets. As the news went, we were told Akintola the great Are Onakankanfo of Yoruba Land, did not go quietly. He had given the coup plotters a fight of their life, killing as many of his assailants as he could lay his hands upon, before he was overpowered, and mercilessly executed.

Those who had visited the Premier's lodge immediately after the coup would never forget what they saw. Akintola fought them till the last drop of his blood, proving to them the Are Onakankanfo of Yoruba land was not just an empty title. His battered corpse brought to the University college Hospital, Ibadan, for sight seeing by detractors who hated him so much, never gave up the ghost until certain amulets had to be removed from his mutilated body. Before then Akintola was only famous for his oratorical wizardry and uncanny ability to play upon words in Yoruba Language in much the same way, if not better than Winston Churchill used to do with the English Language. Samuel Ladoke Akintola was one of a kind, a leader among leaders, and one of the best politicians our country would ever know. But compared to Awo, he was a terribly misunderstood leader probably because his personality was drastically different from that of Awo, even though his commitment to the Yoruba cause was clearly not in doubt, all things considered.

SmartChoices:
But compared to Awo, he was a terribly misunderstood leader probably because his personality was drastically different from that of Awo, even though his commitment to the Yoruba cause was clearly not in doubt, all things considered.

Indeed he was terribly misunderstood. However, I think it's fair to say, at this juncture, that Tinubu's recent political ascendency in the SW region somewhat exonerates SLA's political pragmatism during his time as Premier, with respect to his (SLA's) alliance with the Ahmadu Bello led NPC -- an alliance borne out of his desire to take the Yoruba into the political mainstream on their own terms -- a position/alliance Awo was largely unwilling to consider and that consequently cost him his lifelong political ambition of ruling Nigeria.

I didn't bother reading what you wrote. But from several readings, SLA is a very misunderstood politician and a great leader that had great plans for Western Nigeria.
So many of the projects being called Awolowo's projects were his.

Give source.

http://nigeriaworld.com/feature/publication/akintide/052303.html


Source