General Christopher Oluwole Rotimi (Rtd.) was a former Governor of Western State of Nigeria. He was born on February 20, 1935, in Abeokuta. He attended Kings College Lagos, after which he earned a BA at the University College Ibadan. He joined the Nigerian Army in 1960 and served as part of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He rose to become the first African Deputy Quartermaster General and the third non-white Quartermaster General of the Nigerian Army in 1966. During the Nigerian Civil War, Oluwole Rotimi provided logistics support for the Federal Government’s war efforts. He became the commander of the Ibadan Garrison between 1969 and 1970. He served as the Governor of Western State from 1971 to 1975 and became the Nigerian Ambassador to the United States in 2007. In 1999, Oluwole Rotimi was appointed by former President Olusegun Obasanjo as the Head of a Commission of Inquiry for the Investigation of Federal Government Landed Property. Oluwole Rotimi was honored with a National Award of Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON) in 2003. In 2005, Oluwole Rotimi was appointed a member of the National Constitutional Review Conference representing his home state, Ogun State. In this interview, the 90-year-old retired soldier takes a comprehensive appraisal of a wide range of political and economic issues in the country. Excerpts:
Do you agree with a former governor of Osun State, Chief Bisi Akande, on the suspected killers of the late Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Chief Bola Ige? What are your comments on his recent submissions in an interview?
My first reaction was one of anger about that statement made by Chief Bisi Akande.
How did Bola Ige even get into that cabinet of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo? How did he do it? I have never heard whether the press was interested in how he got there because I left or I will use the word kicked out of the military in 1975. I had lived part of my life in Ibadan.
Chief Ige was fairly well-known to me like many other politicians. When Chief Obasanjo wanted to change his cabinet, he had a conversation with me. He said his plan was to do this, to do that. He asked me, ‘Can you speak to Chief Bola Ige not to contemplate on what I learned he wanted to do, in other words, to get out of my government?’
There was a lot of pressure on Chief Bola Ige, including people like Professor Wole Soyinka. I now advised Chief Bola Ige, ‘Please, don’t do it. Obasanjo did not make a mistake in appointing you as a minister in his government. He appreciated your usefulness to his own government. That was why he asked me to speak to you.’ I said ‘don’t walk out on him (Obasanjo).’ I did not say that if he left, something would happen to him. How do I know what will happen to him? I was not in government.
From that point of view, I was a bit angry that it was a sort of misrepresentation.
Even though everybody has a right to speak, let us try as much as possible to get the salient facts of any situation that we want to comment on.
That I advised Chief Bola Ige not to walk out of Obasanjo’s government is a fact. But I didn’t tell him that there would be consequences should he do it. That is what I want to first and foremost clarify.
As a former military governor of the defunct Western State and statesman, to what extent are you concerned that the assailants of Ige are yet to be brought to book many years after?
What we know and you know is that this statesman, Bola Ige was assassinated. On that fateful day, he had gone somewhere and later retired to his house. His security, which was composed of a number of people, took permission to go and have dinner.
How all of them left at the same time, I don’t know, but that action exposed Chief Bola Ige to danger. The security personnel were not around but his enemies that we don’t know were around. If that is so, what the government did after his assassination, I believe, was not good enough. Later, we learnt that one of the principal witnesses at the court had withdrawn his statement. Having done that, nobody was not better off.
The government withdrew the murder charge on that particular person. I believe that if you want to make a thorough investigation, particularly on a politician, who has become very controversial, you should go beyond the people who were his security. I believe that step was not taken. The government went to court just with the mind that everybody will be given the right of fair hearing. However, when you are in court and somebody came with a disjointed story, what do you want the judge to do?
Sir, what is your comment on the response of a former governor of Oyo State, Chief Rasidi Ladoja to Akande on the issues trailing the alleged withdrawal of the case from court?
I am not a politician. In fact, apart from the little time that I spent as a coordinator in Ibadan, when Ladoja was still the governor of Oyo State and the usual problem within the party, I have no information beyond what the government was saying. It doesn’t mean that I was convinced that that was the way they should go. But, that was the way they went. However, as much as I will feel sorry for both Chief Ige, who was assassinated and Nigerians who looked up to this man as their leader, there was nothing personally I could do.
I was not in authority but I was speaking to those who were in authority then. That was the limit of my interaction. I was in no position to interfere with what had happened on the death of Ige.
It is left for the government to dig deep into what had happened. If you limit your investigation from the beginning and are not bothered about other facts that were hanging around that nobody talked about, then there is a problem .That is the way I feel. That is the way I think.
I have learnt over the years to shut my mouth. It is because if I said something which I could not defend publicly, I will look like a silly, stupid man and I don’t want anybody to see me that way; that is why I have learnt to keep my mouth shut.
What is the level of your involvement in the politics in Ibadan, especially the issues that surrounded the nomination of Ladoja for second term in Office
I have a problem in Ibadan and with your knowledge of Ibadan and Yoruba land, the politics of the state (Oyo) is not something to toy with.
As a coordinator, former President Olusegun Obasanjo mandated me to wade into the crisis emanating from the re-nomination of Governor Rasidi Ladoja as the candidate of the People’s Democratic Party for the second term in office and his deputy, the late Chief Adebayo Alao-Akala.
As a way forward, I put a call through to the then strongman of Ibadan politics, the late Chief Lamidi Adedibu. Rather than allowing me to come to his house at Molete, he decided to come to my residence. I opened discussion on the re-nomination of Ladoja as the governorship candidate of the party. But he said I should give him time to think over it.
He later came back with a letter the state government wrote to me on the termination of his application for exploitation of the forest along Ibadan-Ijebu-Ode road in Oluyole Local Government Area of the state. But Ladoja denied having knowledge of the said letter. He, however, gave the assurance that it would be withdrawn.
This is not enough to pacify Adedibu and his teeming supporters that Alao-Akala is their candidate for the PDP governorship ticket. Adedibu commanded a lot of respect from his followers. Whatever he says is what they will do. That is why he is being referred to as the strongman of Ibadan politics. He was an alternative government. That was my encounter with Adedibu.
I reverted to Obasanjo, who gave me the assignment to wade into the crisis rocking the party in Oyo State, most especially on the issue of governorship ticket. Obasanjo said to me: ‘Wole, you have done your own part, leave the rest to us.’
Are you satisfied with the political situation in the country?
I am not satisfied, but the moment you are out of the main political grouping, what else can you do? I was powerless even as I am now except for the respect that people have for me. Many don’t even recognise me when I go out. As soon as I finished that interaction after the election, I didn’t involve myself in party politics anymore. After the election of the late President Umaru Yar’Adua as successor to Obasanjo, I said to myself, ‘Wole, with all this you’re running around, what benefit have you derived?’ I was asked what exactly, ‘what do I want from the then administration of Yar”Adua? I said I would still make my service available to Nigeria if I was made an ambassador to the United States of America, United Kingdom or the United Nations. Eventually, I was made the ambassador to the U.S. I was made an ambassador not through the party system but through the individual effort of Chief Obasanjo, who was the outgoing President.
A lot of people have serious reservations on politics in Nigeria? Do you see any improvement?
I am not. The kind of politics that we are playing in this country is too much for me.
There is no integrity in what is going on in Nigeria either politically or otherwise.
Everybody is looking out for what they can get for themselves and in doing so, they get themselves involved in all kinds of funny practices. I have kept away from party politics. It is because I don’t want to lose the respect that I have kept away from party politics, not that I am happy. It is still my county. If anybody asks what I feel about the country, I will feel free to offer my advice, not because I want political office anymore.
Nigeria has been battling serious insecurity over the years. What is your view on the reported cases of insurgency in some parts of the country?
I have said many times at different fora that in Nigeria today, we lack integrity. There is nothing we do except we can get something out of it. The idea of serving the nation is no longer operational. But I have not lost hope in Nigeria. People often ask me and I ask myself, ‘what do I suggest for the future?’
Having lost hope like every other person, bearing in mind that we have tried all kinds of things and they are not working, I still believe that we should start a system to influence our young ones.
I believe we should start from the secondary school level. Let’s begin to teach our children what integrity is all about. Let us make them realise that they should not act because of what they can get out of a particular system or situation. They should not act because others are doing the same thing. If you have pride in yourself, you will realise that money is not everything.
There is misgovernance in the country, no doubt about that. But how do we change the narratives? Let us start to teach our children civic education. What is civic education? You have a duty to yourself, fellow human beings and the country.
In other words, what I am saying is that we should raise a new generation of young people, who will think more about their nation than themselves. The cancellation of the teaching of history as a subject in our schools is a mistake. But I think it has been corrected. We must know about our ancestors. What kind of men were the likes of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, and the rest?
I am not talking of soldiers but civilians. Military rule is an aberration. The more the military stays in power, the more problems we are going to have in the country because they are Nigerians too. The blood in them is Nigerian blood. It is a thing of shame to see what some military men are doing nowadays.
What did you make of the panel set up by the late Head of State, General Murtala Mohammed to investigate the assets of the administrators of the defunct regions which absolved you of any wrong doing?
When you are in office, all sorts of things will be said about you. But the right thing is to be true to your own conscience. The moment I was not concentrating on what I gain out of this, out of that.
As a Quarter Master General of the Nigerian Army, if I had wanted to be a millionaire, which I am not, I had the opportunity when General Yakubu Gowon gave me licence to run logistics for the civil war.
When the coup of 1975 came, some of my friends, who are civilians, asked what could be done to help me because the government instituted an investigation panel to probe my activities as QMG. I said there is nothing you can do for me; let the report speak for itself. I wasn’t bothered. I went through the investigation.
In fact, on a lighter note, one of the members of the panel, Chief Michael Ani, the former chairman of the defunct Federal Electoral Commission, (FEDECO) during my last appearance before the committee said; ‘General Rotimi, we have heard so much about you; your wealth not only in Nigeria but also overseas, at least give some parts to the government. My reply was that, if you find anything that I have done whether at home or abroad, take it. But whatever money you find, just give me 10 percent to take care of my living. We all burst into laughter.
