By Ademola Adegbamigbe


It was 15 October 1965, the year when election
held in the old Western Region. In Chief Ladoke
Akintola, the Premier’s view, he was coasting home
to victory, a development that he expected would
render the jaws of his political opponents hanging
slack. In fact, he had sent the tape of his victory
broadcast to the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation
(NBC), Ibadan. He sat to listen, his excitement
heightened by the crackles and howling of the state
house radio’s atmospherics. What came out of the
contraption jolted the daylight out of him. Instead of
a victory speech, what he heard was: “Akintola go!
Drop your stolen mandate, leave town and take your
reprobates with you.” Pandemonium! Akintola
started working his phone, calling everyone who
was someone in government to find out what
happened.


A few minutes before Akintola experienced that big
shock, a piece of drama was being enacted on the
premises of NBC, Ibadan. It was not some acting
that was striving for verisimilitude; it was reality,
political reality with real characters in time and
space. A man, alleged to be then 31-year old Wole
Soyinka, now a Professor and Nobel Laureate,
made his way into the heavily guarded NBC
premises and caused a stir. That day, Chief
Ladoke Akintola was scheduled to give a broadcast
at 7:14pm.


In order to meet up with the Premier’s regionwide
speech schedule, Akinwande Oshin, the continuity
announcer, breezed into the studio at 6.45 pm with
a Yoruba and an English tape containing Akintola’s
speech. It was at the point when Oshin wanted to
slot in the tape into the console that a man
suspected to be 31-year old Soyinka came in
stealthily like a phantom.


The intruder was described this way : “The man was
tall, a little over six feet, light complexioned. His
hair was luxuriant, his sideburns and moustache
shaved but he had a beard that shot out
aggressively from his chin. He wore a pair of blue
jeans and a smock of traditional Igbira cloth. He
produced a Bereta pistol and held it to the
technician’s head. “Give me those tapes. GIVE ME
THOSE TAPES OR ELSE……!” His voice was neutral,
educated but not foreign, clear but not menacing.”

A debate, perhaps, ensued in Oshin’s delicate brain
matter. Should he obey the intruder or call his
bluff? Then, the cold snout of the gun reminded
him that if he had the strength of Sango and Ogun
put together, that instrument the stranger pointed at
his palpitating temple could despatch him straight
to the other side of eternity to meet his ancestors.
He played ball in a jiffy. He handed over the tape
to the gun bearing man who gave him another tape
as substitute. Oshin slotted in the new tape and a
new broadcast went live. Mission accomplished,
the intruder slithered out like a serpent into the
night!

https://pmnewsnigeria.com/2019/07/15/soyinka-at-85-flashback-on-how-he-invaded-ibadan-radio-station/

TemplarLandry:
Wole Soyinka is a true hero cultist.

accordadoga29:
Who is stopping you igbos from invading the court with guns?

jmoore:


Read what you wrote again. And you will see your brain was installed in your anus.

jmoore:
No Labour party member/supporter have invaded any media house to announce Peter Obi as the president.

But this dude Soyinka invaded a radio station with a gun. What happened to challenging the election in the court?

Someone that is calling others fascists is same person that used gun to threaten journalists.

TemplarLandry:
Professor Wole Soyinka is a true hero.

Skankamola:

Is that why igbo soldiers assassinated leaders of other regions except their own?

jmoore:

Another person with his brain installed in the anus.

TemplarLandry:
Professor Wole Soyinka is a true hero.

TemplarLandry:
Professor Wole Soyinka is a true hero.

happney65:
Man has agbado in his pocket he is just hiding.

Dude invaded a radio station with a gun because Akintola was about to be made prime minister. Yet he had the effrontery to call Obidents Fascists.

Dude supported Buhari even after his supporters killed about 800 people in the 2011 election and Buhari still went to court up to the supreme court.

Yet No Obi supporter has gone on the street not killed because of the turn out of the election.

But the issue is that, they can't take 1/3 of what they give out. As in they can't.

I don't blame them. It is the PDP that should play the role of opposition that went to sleep made them to have a pass. But when Obidents came,they became angry and bitter that someone can have the termerity to be be giving them back to back

And therefore,they get angry and continue throwing tantrums every now and then.

TemplarLandry:
Professor Wole Soyinka is a true hero.