GOVERNMENT HOUSE, AGODI IBADAN A MIND-BOGGLING OVERHAUL. By Femi Kehinde

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Ibadan being the epicenter of several firsts in Nigeria, blazed the trail in several
strides and endeavors in Nigeria’s early growth and development.
It was in Ibadan in 1950 that the first Pan Nigeria conference on evolution of
federalism and regionalism emerged. Hitherto there were no regions, until the
emergence of the Mcpherson Constitution of 1951, that true governance to political
elites as against the hitherto traditional institutions. Three regions emerged; Western
Region, Eastern Region and the Northern Region, and the Westminster
Parliamentary System of government also emerged. There was a regional election in
December 1951 to the Western Region House of Assembly, and the Action Group
(AG) of Obafemi Awolowo emerged as the party with majority members in the
newly inaugurated parliament of January 1952. Obafemi Awolowo became the
leader of the Action Group (AG) in the parliament, leader of government business,
and Minister of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs until 1954 when his
status was further recognized and enhance as premier of the Western Region until
December 15, 1959 when he left the position of premier to become a federal
legislator and leader of the opposition in the Federal Parliament. The Deputy Leader
of the party and federal legislator – Hon. Samuel Ladoke Akintola succeeded him.
Olola Sir. John Rankine from 1952 became the Governor of the Western Region, and
the first occupier of a newly built Government House, Agodi Ibadan in 1954. The
Government house, Agodi Ibadan is a three-bedroom apartment with three rooms on
the first floor whilst the ground floor has the sitting area, the dining and the kitchen.
A modest British house by all standards. He was in this exalted position until 1960
when he was succeeded by the great Yoruba potentate and highly revered and exalted
monarch, Oba Sir. Titus Martins Adesoji Tadeniawo Aderemi – The Ooni of Ife.
During his stint as Governor of the Western Region, Oba Adesoji Aderemi also lived
in the Government House, Agodi Ibadan until the eruption of the Western region
crisis in 1962. At the heat of the Western Region turmoil, the Chief Justice of Nigeria
placed a call from Lagos to the Ooni of Ife and Governor of the Western Region –
Oba Adesoji Aderemi, and politely advised him to move out of the Government House, Agodi Ibadan to forestall embarrassment as a foremost Yoruba traditional
monarch. Oba Adesoji Aderemi actually heeded the advise and moved his bags and
baggages from the government house, Agodi Ibadan back to his palace in Ile-Ife, and
also his guest house at the Jericho Government Reservation Area (GRA), Ibadan.
There was a declaration of a state of emergency in the Western Region from May
29, 1962 to December 31, 1962. The administrator of the Western Region during this
emergency period was Dr. Moses Adekoyejo Majekodumi who also lived in the
Government House, Agodi Ibadan during his stint as administrator of the Western
Region. He was succeeded by Sir. Odeleye Fadahunsi (NCNC), an Ilesa High Chief
as Governor of the Western Region who also lived at the Government House, Agodi
Ibadan.
The Government House, Agodi Ibadan is a place of History. The military took over
the government of the Federation of Nigeria on the 15th of January 1966, through a
military coup and thus signaled the end of the First Republic. Major General Johnson
Thomas Aguiyi-Ironsi became the military Head of State of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria, and Col. Francis Adekunle Fajuyi became the Military Governor of the
Western Region. On the 29th of July 1966, Major General Aguiyi-Ironsi visited
Ibadan in the evening to attend an organized meeting with the traditional rulers and
some leaders of thoughts in the Western Region to explain the essence and purports
of his Unification Decree No. 34 of 1966. He was received in Ibadan by his host, the
military Governor of the Western Region – Col. Adekunle Fajuyi, who also hosted
him at the Government House, Agodi Ibadan where he was scheduled to stay before
leaving for Lagos the following morning. Around mid-night of that day, some
military officers from the Alamala Military Barracks, Abeokuta forcibly invaded the
Government House, Agodi Ibadan and arrested the visiting Head of State – Gen.
Aguiyi Ironsi. The host military Governor – Col. Adekunle Fajuyi insisted that he
must be arrested alongside the visiting Head of State. The Governor and the Head of
State were arrested, whisked out of the Government House, Agodi Ibadan, and
driven to a point around Lalupon on Iwo Road, Ibadan where they were brutally
murdered and buried in shallow graves. Adekunle Fajuyi through this exemplary
conduct displayed the omoluabi nature of a thorough bred Yoruba man. The
assassination of the Head of State to a counter coup of July 29, 1966 heralded a new
military government of Gen. Yakubu Gowon as Head of State of Nigeria, and Col. Robert Adeyinka Adebayo as the new Military Governor of the Western Region, who

later became the next occupier of the Government House, Agodi Ibadan.

Agodi Ibadan holds a primal place in the centrality of Ibadan’s early growth, essence,

development, modernity and government architecture. Agodi-Ibadan belongs to the

popular Agodi family of Ibadan – a great land-owning family, and had given a

substantial portion of its vast land to the government at various times. Amongst its

bequeathals were the Agodi prisons, Agodi-Gate Market, Government House –

Agodi Ibadan, the government GRAs – Agodi Ibadan, the entire government

secretariat – Agodi Ibadan that houses all the ministries of government, the Western

Region House of Assemblies, Western Region House of Chiefs, the Premier’s office

(later Governor’s office) and many other departments and agencies of government.

On the fringe is the Agodi zoological garden, the Agodi fisheries department and its

expansive lake, and also the great University College Hospital (UCH) that was

declared opened in 1956 by Queen Elizabeth II (Queen of England) during her

maiden visit to Nigeria. The first television station in Africa – WNTV/WNBS –

Agodi Ibadan established and declared opened on the 30th of October 1959 by the

Awolowo government is part of the Agodi family endowments to humanity and

modality. As a matter of fact, the Agodi family compound is not too far from the

WNTV/WNBS station. WNTV is now NTA – Agodi Ibadan.

Chief Alli Oloko, father of the late. Justice Atinuke Ige, a great Ibadan patriot, early

educationist and first president of the Ibadan Progressive Union was a shining star

and early pathfinder as a foremost and distinguished member of the Agodi family.

It is now mind boggling and amazing that the Oyo State Government in its executive

council decisions has approved the sum of “N63,479,858,000 for the overhauling of

the Government House structures” which is an equivalent USD41,346, 875.53 at the

current exchange rate of N1,535.

According to High Chief Lekan Alabi, the Maye Olubadan of Ibadanland – a

seasoned veteran journalist, archivist, preservationist and cultural enthusiast who

had served as Chief Press Secretary to four successive Governors of Oyo State. First

as Chief Press Secretary to the late. Chief Bola Ige, and was equally taken over by

the succeeding military government of Col. Oladayo Popoola, Col. Tunji Olurin, and

Col. Sasa Eniyan Adedeji Oresanya. He has a fond and affectionate memory of what

the Government House, Agodi Ibadan and its precinct looks like, and in a recent piece had this to say – “That the colonial British-government built Oyo State

Government House at Agodi GRA, Ibadan is under the hammer (not the notorious

hammer of mortgaging companies, thank heavens) is already public. As if you

haven’t heard the OYS Governor and other officials say “the GH, Ibadan is to be

upgraded”. But, before the pulldown/buildup, I wish to lend my voice as a

progressive conservationist, that the originality/records of the official residence of

His Excellency, the state governor and his family be kept and preserved for

generations unborn. I am not a loner in this preservation stand. The current King of

England, His Imperial Majesty Charles III, long before ascending the throne of the

House of Windsor, has been a strong campaigner that vintage structures be preserved

in their natural/original forms, without prejudice to modernization. He suggested

further that new/modern edifices, if need be, could be built, if possible, on water or

in the air. I sĥared, and still share the views of King Charles III.”

The government house as the name implies is a symbol of government, its apparatus,

powers and allures to dreamers and men of ambition. The government house in all

climes remains a symbol of inspiration. Harold Wilson at the age of ten dreamt of

the office of the Prime Minister of Great Britain. At the same age, he posed for a

photograph with his father at the entrance of No. 10 Downing Street, the official

residence of the Prime Minister of Great Britain, and prophetically told his father

that he would one day live in the residence as the Prime Minister of Great Britain.

That was a wish, a mission, a goal and a vision. He prepared for it and accomplished

it. He fought the general election for the seat of Orminsk; he won and he became the

Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Works at the age of 29 years while he

eventually became the Prime Minister of Great Britain at the age of 48 years. Harold

Wilson prepared for this office and ended up one of the best Prime Ministers of Great

Britain.

No. 10 Downing Street has been the residence of British Prime Ministers since 1735.

It is an incredible two (2) bedroom apartment. Whilst the No. 8 Downing Street, the

official residence of the Chancellor of the Exchequer is also a three (3) bedroom

apartment, and modernity has found it difficult to displace these structures, and has

remained vintage. Some of the most famous political figures of modern history have

lived and worked in Number 10 Downing Street, including Robert Walpole, Pitt the

Younger, Benjamin Disraeli, William Gladstone, David Lloyd George, Winston

Churchill, Margaret Thatcher, John Major and Tony Blair. It is also now incredible that a whooping sum of N63,479,858,000 has now been

budgeted by the Oyo State Government to overhaul the Government House, Agodi

Ibadan, when its budget on health is N59,411,385,714.68, and N18,760,243,348.45

has been budgeted for Agriculture, and hitherto the mainstay of the Western Region

economy. In the Western Region olden days of yore, there had been fiscal and ethical

financial discipline, with a strict adherence to the Western Region economic

development plan of 1955 to 1960.

In 1958, the Western Region government of Obafemi Awolowo conceptualize the

construction of a twenty-six storey building skyscraper in Ibadan, and the first of its

kind in West Africa, known as Cocoa House. Its cost of construction was not mind

boggling. The Cocoa House building was awarded to a firm of contractors – Messrs,

Cappa and D’Alberto. The firm of Cappa and D’Alberto, a leading building and civil

engineering firm established in 1932. Cocoa House like several others were prime

ingenuities, political sagacity, economic wizardry of the early pathfinders of our

regional growth ably led by Chief Obafemi Awolowo. The Twenty-Six Storey

building was proposed by Chief Obafemi Awolowo with proceeds from cocoa

exportation. Cocoa House was completed in 1965 at a height of 105 meters. The

initial name given to the Twenty-Six Storey building was “Ile Awon Agbe” translated

from Yoruba to English to mean “House of Farmers”. The name was later changed

to Cocoa House because it was built from the proceeds of cocoa exportation and also

it was bult in front of a cocoa tree just in front of a water fountain. It was once the

tallest building in Nigeria and the first skyscraper in West Africa.

Similarly, the Western Region government of Obafemi Awolowo in 1958,

conceptualize and developed the building and construction of Liberty Stadium – a

Thirty-Five thousand seater capacity stadium that was patterned after the popular

Wembley Stadium in London to mark Nigeria’s independence in 1960, at a cost that

was not prohibitive or exorbitant. According to Chief Obafemi Awolowo; leaders

must maintain high fiscal and ethical standards and financial discipline, and must

refrain from enjoying in office what they would not be able to enjoy whilst outside

the government. Throughout his tenure as leader of government from 1952-1954 and

premier of the Western Region (1954 – 1959), Awolowo lived in his Oke Bola

residence, and shares a fence with the popular Ibadan Boys High School, Oke Bola,

Ibadan founded by Ibadan’s foremost educationist – Pa. T.L. Oyesina. Awolowo displayed his fiscal discipline and strict management of the Western

Region economy and finance when in 1957 some leaders of the Western Region

government attended the London constitutional conference. Alfred Rewane was a

member of the AG delegation to the 1957 Constitutional Conference in London. At

the conference, Alfred became indisposed; he had no choice but to visit a hospital.

The Western Region Agent General in London, Chief M.E.R. Okorodudu took

Alfred to the Royal Free Hospital in London, where he was admitted and treated for

Vestibular Neurosis billed at 160 pounds sterling. Chief Okorodudu sent the bill to

Chief Awolowo’s hotel for approval for payment from the delegation’s vote; Chief

Awolowo declined vehemently to authorize the payment. He said; “Afredo, among

all the delegates to this conference, you are the closest to me. Your indisposition is

not as a result of your attendance at this conference.” He added in jest; “If I authorize

the payment of the bill, it will create a dangerous precedent. How am I sure that

some of our colleagues who may be suffering from chronic gonorrhea would not ask

me to approve payment of the bills for their treatment?”. At that point, Chief

Awolowo gave Rewane 50 pounds from his personal purse to pay part of the bill

with further support from Chief S.O. Sonibare and Chief Arthur Prest. Alfred made

up the money.

This is now a clarion call for the Governor of Oyo State, Gov. Oluseyi Abiodun

Makinde to have a second look at this huge budget proposal of N63,479,858,000 to

overhaul the government house, Agodi Ibadan with the possibility of scaling it down

drastically and very considerably. In any of government actions, Governors should

always ask themselves the latin question – Qui Bono (In whose interest)? That

question now stares us in the face. Otherwise, the society may end up like the

Bourbon Rulers of France who had learnt nothing, and forgotten nothing, or we may

all echo the words of Prof. Ola Rotimi in his epic play – Our Husband Has Gone

Mad Again!

Hon. (Barr.) Femi Kehinde  Principal Partner, Femi Kehinde & Co (Solicitors) and Former Member, House of Representatives National Assembly, Abuja, representing Ayedire/Iwo/Ola-Oluwa  Federal Constituency of Osun State, (1999-2003).