High Chief Lamidi Ariyibi Akanji Adedibu was popularly known as the strongman of Ibadan Politics and ‘amala politics’.

In his live time, his Molete, Ibadan home wasa mecca of sort as many politicians vying for elective posts both at the national level and in Oyo State swam around his house as flies around honey.

Till he breathed his last in June 2010, one didn’t need to ask for description to Baba Adedibu’s house, all that was required was to follow the crowd from the junction. His influence, political and otherwise was simply overpowering. He belonged to the most exclusive club of Ibadan politicians, coming after the likes of the legendary Adegoke Adelabu Penkelemeesi, Chief Augustus Meredith Adisa Akinloye and the awe-inspiring Alhaji Busari Eruobodo Adelakun.

Adedibu was instrumental to the emergence of three Governors in Oyo State and the “removal” of one.

But five years after his death, his home and family have been neglected.

An Ibadan based newspaper, Parrot Xtra recently spoke to his beloved wife, Bose Adedibu who shed light on the kind of man Adedibu was, how he died and how difficult it had been for his family to survive after his demise. Excerpts…

The public conception is that many of Baba’s followers have deserted the family. Do you feel disappointed?

I feel disappointed but why I will not say I feel disappointed is one with God is majority. For those who know that Baba Adedibu has helped them, they phone me but they are very few. Maybe 90% no longer come here; neither do they contact the family. Even the closest of them who Baba described with the words eyi ni ayanfe omo mi eni ti inu mi dun si gidigidi (this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased), he no longer asks after anybody.
If I continue to think about that, I will feel offended by so many people and I don’t want to feel offended because Baba Adedibu came to this world, lived a very good life, he conquered, even his enemies would pray to die the way he did. And look at his name now;I am sure you journalists must have really felt his absence.

In Baba’s lifetime, it was not as if they really loved him, but because they wanted to take something from him. I usually say this during interviews like this, look at our mama, Mama (HID) Awolowo, people are still going there, I am as young as mama’s grandchildren. I said it during an interview with Nigerian Tribune, I have children that have Masters Degrees and they couldn’t find jobs for them. As I am talking to you now, in this house, we are using generator. Our lights have been disconnected for the past one year and one month now because of unpaid bills. I could remember the day NEPA officials went to disconnect light in Papa Awolowo’s house, they called my husband and immediately, he went to NEPA office where he told them that as from that day, they should not attempt to do that again. They said they were owing about N3 million, my husband paid part of it, Late Aare Arisekola Alao too paid part of it and I am very sure it has not happened again and this is the seventh year Baba Adedibu passed on and what I am telling you happened before then.

Epic Revelation on How Late Adedibu Die : Late Oyo-State Political Godfather Adedibu's Family is Financially Broke & Neglected

How much do you owe now?

It was over a million but I have paid part of it. There was one Ilorin man; I think they have transferred him now. The day they disconnected it, I went there and the man gave an instruction that they should not go and disconnect Baba Adedibu’s house again. So I started paying the money. But presently we still owe about N 600, 000.
One of Baba’s aides, he is from Ilorin, may God keep him for me, spare his life and may God reward him abundantly. He is the one that gives me diesel and petrol up till now. He is a very big Alfa.

Maybe people feel you have money because the belief is that when Baba died, he left everything in your care, including landed properties and all.
That is a very wrong assumption. Baba Adedibu did not have money. If you ask from people that were close to him, they will tell you he could not even keep money in a bank. He didn’t have money, he didn’t have properties. Okay, we have this house, the one we left at the main road.

He doesn’t have a house in London?

London bawo? (laughs). How can you say Baba Adedibu had a house in London? He sold it before he died. He would tell you ‘what am I leaving it for? If I don’t have money and I have something to sell?’ So many of his properties had been sold because he wanted to sponsor people and those are the people that don’t ask after us or the children.

Where were you the day Baba died and how did you receive the news?

(Sighs), well, Alhamdulillah, apart from his age, you know he was going to be 81 that year and he was hale and hearty. I was the one that forced him that he should go to the hospital for checkup because I travelled with the children just for two weeks and while there in Dubai, we used to talk at least 4 or 5 times in a day. So one of my sisters called me and said ‘Alhaja nibo lo wa? (where are you?) I have come to the house, I didn’t see you’. So I called her back and told her that ‘ah ah, Baba and I have spoken this morning now’.
When I came I discovered that within the two weeks I left, he lost weight. I said ‘Alhaji, I left home for just two weeks and I have made arrangements for everything you would eat while I was away.’ He said agba ni, that maybe it is old age. So I said ‘you have to go for medical checkup’. He said ‘ko si ntin se mi’(there is nothing wrong with me). There were rumours that he had diabetes and all that. You won’t believe it that he did not have an ailment. I can bring out the comprehensive report from Reddington Hospital. Stress of the heart was what they diagnosed. He had overworked his heart, you know with his age and the stress of campaigning all around. He lived very well, he ate whatever he liked.


So that day, it was about a week to his annual leave which he always spent in London, I didn’t know his passport had expired, so I called Azeem Gbolarumi, one of his very closest aides, I said “Alhaji Azeem, Alhaji will kill me. His passport has expired, how do we go about it?” because he could get annoyed and say he wasn’t going on vacation again if he got to know that his passport had expired. Thank God he said he was going to the hospital. Before he left the house, he told me he didn’t want to eat because the Doctor might not want him to eat before running some tests. But I said ‘ah, from here to Lagos? You have to eat o’. So he asked me to prepare Quaker Oats for him, which I did. You know normally he would not eat alone but this time, he said I shouldn’t make much that I should just make for him. I prepared the oat and by the time I finished, he was having his bath, I waited a while and when he didn’t come out, I went to meet him in the room. I saw him lying down on the bed. I said ‘Daddy ki lo de?’, he said he just had his bath and was just resting so I told him food was ready. He said okay.

Alhaji Marafa and everybody that wanted to follow him to Lagos were all around. I just saw that he didn’t come out from the room and he had this cloth that is used in Mecca around his body and one other thing I noticed was that normally he used to barb his hair every Sunday but I observed that he barbed on Sunday and barbed on that Wednesday that he died. I asked why he did that he said I shouldn’t worry that he just wanted it to be clean. I wouldn’t have thought he was going to die. I just saw that he came out and slammed the bedroom door “gbam!” and he didn’t wait again. He used his cap to cover part of his face. We all rushed to him and asked Alhaji ki lo de, ki lo de? (What’s the matter?). I called Marafa and asked ‘who offended this man again?’ I was angry but I went to ask him if they should bring his food he said he was no longer interested. I even thought maybe because the food was not ready in time, he just said he was no longer interested.

That was how he, and his aides went to Lagos. Moments after they left, I called Alhaji Ado, one of his aides to ask if everything was okay. He said they stopped by at the Toll Gate to buy akara. I said ‘that is what he wants to eat then’. So I told Ado, “please call me when you get to Lagos so I can talk to the Doctor by myself” because I wanted to follow him up. When they got to the Doctor, Ado called that the Doctor was there so he took the phone. I said ‘Dr. Lawan, can you see how my husband went down drastically?’ He said he was surprised. I said you know what, screen him for HIV, screen him for this (laughs) that was how the Doctor started laughing on the phone. I said why are you laughing? He said when I said he should screen an 81-year-old Baba for HIV. He said Alhaja don’t worry, we are just coming from MRI and that Baba was very sound. He said he even told him a story shortly before I spoke with him. He said Baba was sound for his age. Baba took the phone and said ‘ki lo nbaa so? Mo so fun o pe nkan kan o se mi o san ni won o maa ye mi wo, won ti fa gbogbo eje ara mi tan o jare (what are you discussing with him? I told you nothing is wrong with me yet you insist they should keep testing me, they have drawn all my blood). I said Daddy don’t worry.

Before he left, he sent someone to tell me that we would eat akara that day and that I should bring out a bag of beans from the store. I said ehn, one bag? He said that was what he wanted. So I called my cooks, because I always had four of them on standby, and told them that they should prepare half bag because if they decide to fry a whole bag, they won’t finish frying that day. We didn’t know that the akara would serve another purpose.

I had earlier told Azeem that on their way back, they should drop by and sort out the renewal of the passport. That was after I had appealed to my husband that “Daddy please your passport has expired”. I said they have told us that you should just come and do the photo capturing. I even thought he would flare up but he didn’t. The people with him called me from the Toll Gate and later they called that they were in Ibadan. So I rushed to have my bath and ensure that food would be ready for him on arrival.

Some people came and said they wanted to fumigate the house, I said no because I knew he would be displeased at being unable to enter after his trip. When I spoke with Baba over the phone, I was joking that I would prepare dry fish, and make different dishes, he was just saying “ehn, ehen” as if he didn’t want to talk to me. Maybe about 30 minutes later, I was in the kitchen and I heard Super Man talking over the phone saying ‘ehen ah ah, how is he doing?’ I said who? He said Baba that they told him they were already at the Immigration office. I felt maybe he didn’t want to come home before going to renew his passport. But I heard Super Man still saying ‘ehen’ so I said “Super, ki lo sele?” (Super, what happened?) He said “emi o mo bi oga se nse” (I don’t know how oga is feeling). As at that time, he couldn’t talk anymore so I picked the phone and asked “Alhaji Azeem, ki lo nsele” (Alhaji Azeem, what is happening?) he said he doesn’t know how Baba is feeling o. I said okay take him to UCH.

I called his Doctor and while I was calling him, Alhaji Azeem too was calling him, so he kept telling me Alhaja I am there. I stopped all the cooking I was doing; I took the keys to a Peugeot 206 and took off. I didn’t even understand how I drove and people were just wondering that what was wrong with Alhaja. And you journalists, being who you are, news that had not even broken in Nigeria had already been heard by people in America. I got to the Emergency section in UCH, they said ‘ah Alhaja, oya go to ICU’. I took the car again and drove round, ran up the stairs and when I got to ICU, the Doctors said ‘Alhaja, we have been waiting for you’ I said ah. I looked round and saw Marafa and others who followed him to Lagos, they had all been crying, I saw Azeem, he put his hands on his head, I asked him what happened, he didn’t answer. So the Doctors took me to where he was, I saw him on the bed, I said ‘Daddy I am here. I touched him and asked what happened. He wanted to talk but he couldn’t. I said ‘Daddy, e ma se erekere o (Daddy, don’t make an expensive joke o). The Doctors asked me to move back so they put a machine on him, the female Doctor there said they tried it before I came that they wanted to try again, so when they put it on, he opened his eyes. The Doctor asked if they should leave him like that, I said Baba himself won’t like it. The Doctor said “I don’t think we can win anymore”.

You can continue with the interview below

Epic Revelation on How Late Adedibu Die : Late Oyo-State Political Godfather Adedibu's Family is Financially Broke & Neglected

cc lalasticlala

It's okay

Paying for the sins of that Maan

dem just start...

Hmmmmmmm

Money is a spirit, it goes very fast. Especially when it does not have a solid foundation plus there are many wives and kids

Lobatan

It kinda funny how different people have different views of an individual.(family,friends,business associates n neighbours).Dat is why it is the best to live ur life the way it suit u n ur creator. Inalilahi wa ina lilaehi rajiun

Enjoyin money n movin to poverty.

In adversity, we know our friends, in prosperity, our friends know us!

RIP to him.

Adedibu kan Oyo Kan