NOW HEAR THIS – Chief Obafemi Awolowo One-on-one with Mr Tony Oyatedor. ” Rendezvous with Destiny.”

Another friend of mine who did not know when and whom to fight and how to cut his loss and run was the late Obafemi Awolowo, in the 1979 campaign elections, he was asked what he would do about the corrupt situation of the military, Chief Awolowo bluntly revealed (without any diplomacy) that he will probe the military. When top military brass heard these statements, of course, they ensured that the Presidency was not handed over to Chief Awolowo. Another case-in-point was during 1983 campaign/elections, at the Unity Party of Nigeria (U.P.N) convention at the National Arts Theatre in Iganmu Lagos, The Northerners and the Igbos in the South were expecting that Chief Awolowo would step down as the U.P.N national flag bearer and nominate the more liberal, pragmatic, centrist — Alhaji Lateef Jakande, instead there was no form of democracy at the convention because Chief Awolow due to his own self interest announced that all the sitting U.P.N governors were not to be challenged by their deputies or from any other quarters and that Chief Awolowo was still going to be the flag bearer of the U.P.N, you the reader should have been there to see the turmoil that ensured after his (Chief Awolowo’s) speech, be that as it may, this is how people started leaving the U.P.N and this gave the National Party of Nigeria (N.P.N) a better ground to fish for one of Chief Awolowo’s utmost loyalists, Chief Akin Omoboriowo (better known as Owoboriomo) who joined the N.P.N with all the known secrets of Chief Awolowo and especially his campaign and electioneering style and stick it right in the ears of the N.P.N chieftains who used this and counter all of Chief Awolowo’s plans, that was why the N.P.N could claim such a big landslide victory at the 1983 elections as opposed to the 1979 elections but the 1983 elections according to the opponents of the N.P.N was declared to be fraudulent and of mass rigging. This brings to me one of my favorite quotes of mine from Chief Obafemi Awolowo to me. In 1982, when Nigeria celebrated her first independence anniversary in Abuja the new Capital and federal capital territory, President Shehu Shagari invited leaders of the opposing parties to celebrate the annual independence anniversary with him in order to assess progress being made in Abuja and to solicit advice from these leaders. At an airport departure ceremony I cornered Chief Obafemi Awolowo and asked him how does he feel about the ceremony and the progress being made in Abuja, he said to me “Tony, my brother, and friend, you get to a stage in life you know so much you say so little”

from the best selling book Leadership by Mr Tony Oyatedor Page 23. ” Today, Mr Tony Oyatedor knows so much about Nigeria but says very little. It’s not everything that is for public consumption. “