Akin Omoboriowo
Akinwole Michael Omoboriowo (12 January 1932 – 10 April 2012[1]) was a Nigerian lawyer and politician
who was Deputy Governor of Ondo State, later
switching parties and contested for the governorship election of 1983 in Ondo
State during the Nigerian
Second Republic. He was initially declared the winner but was disputed and later reversed
by a court of appeal before he could take office.[2]
Omoboriowo was elected deputy governor on the Unity
Party of Nigeria (UPN) platform, running with Michael
Adekunle Ajasin, who became governor.[2] He claimed that he should have been
UPN candidate for governor, since he had won more votes that Ajasin in the
primaries, but that the UPN leaders had rigged the results.[3] During his period as deputy governor,
he fell out with Governor Ajasin, who refused to swear him into power as acting
governor when Ajasin was away from the state.[4]
Omoboriowo switched to the National
Party of Nigeria (NPN) and ran against his old boss in the 1983 elections. This came on the
heels of the latter's refusal to step aside from the gubernatorial race as
previously allegedly agreed between Omoboriowo and Ajasin. Omoboriowo and
certain other stalwarts of the party including Chief S.A. Akerele against
popular sentiment, left for the ruling NPN under which he ran for the guber
seat. When the federal Electoral Commission declared Omoboriowo the winner on
16 August 1983, the announcement sparked deadly riots. The riots were
reportedly the most violent in the history of post-independence Yoruba-land
second only to the "Wet è" riots. The riots, particularly aimed at
NPN stalwarts and sympathisers claimed lives and properties of prominent
individuals. Chiefs Omoboriowo and Akerele were spared though Akerele's house
was razed to the ground by irate rioters (Akerele had at the time fled with his
family to Kwara state). In the same riots, Chief Olaiya Fagbamigbe of
Fagbemigbe publishers was killed as well as Hon. Kunle Agunbiade. An unverified
version of events states that Agunbiade was beheaded and his head was taken on
a plate to certain UPN leaders.
In the midst of the political saga, Omoboriowo had the
support of the Ondo state house of assembly. Upon his resignation as deputy
governor, Chief Ajasin twice presented the name of Dr. N.F. Aina to the House
for ratification as Omoboriowo's replacement- a request that was repeatedly
turned down by the house in apparent solidarity to Omoboriowo
His election was disputed, and was reversed by an
electoral court of appeal before he was inaugurated, with Ajasin being
reinstated in office.[5] After the coup on 31 December 1983
that brought General Muhammadu Buhari to power, he
was jailed, as were almost all the former governors and their deputies, but was
then released without charge in less than 30 days.[2] He would later state that Buhari was
right to have jailed him and the others at the time.
Omoboriowo was an Awoist. He authored and published a
book on themes on Awoism for which he came under severe criticism from other
Awoists who saw the work as a crude attempt by an under-achiever to suck-up to
Baba Awo. Still, Baba Awo (as Obafemi Awolowo was called) was fond of him and
kept checking up on him. Indeed, Omoboriowo claimed in an interview with the
Sun that Awolowo had said that of all the candidates in the '79 elections, he
(Omoboriowo) was the only one who wasn't spurred by monetary desires.
Expectedly though, his relationship with Awolowo (at least, politically) soured
upon his decamp from the UPN.
In the NPN, Omoboriowo met and bonded with other Nigerian
political icons one of whom was Dim Chukwuemeka Odimegwu-Ojukwu with whom he
was friends until the latter's death in late 2011.
Chief Omoboriowo retired from partisan politics soon
after the second republic but continued to contribute to the Nigerian political
terrain. He was a member of the 1996 constitutional conference and member of
the 1997/98 National Reconciliation Committee
Later he became Pro-chancellor and Chairman of the
governing council of the University
of Ado Ekiti.[6] Most recently, he was Chairman of an
Electrical Company, Genesis Electricity situated in Abuja where he was based
for a stretch of time before he died.
In the twilight of his life Omoboriowo found solace in
religion and became an unashamed, professing born-again Christian. He
punctuated almost every sentence with a reference to God and lived under the
radar in service to God till he died. In an interview, he said "I am a
rigorous Christian, worshipping at Christ Praise Assembly in Abuja. I belong to
the end time church."
In early 2012, Akin Omoboriowo and his wife moved back to
his home state Ekiti. In April 2012, he took ill and was taken to a Lagos
hospital for medical care. It was there that he died on 10 April 2012 though
information of his death did not make the news until the following afternoon.
Certain sources say that he died from internal bleeding as a complication
caused of the prostate cancer he had been fighting. His family did not however
confirm that information. He is survived by a wife, five children and a host of
grandchildren
Upon his death, so many encomiums poured in from all
quarters. Ovation Magazine publisher, Dele Momodu tweeted
"the elephant has fallen" while the Nigerian President, Goodluck
Jonathan referred to him as a "politician who was not afraid to stand for
his political beliefs"
References
· Omololu Ogunmade and Toba Suleiman (12
April 2012). "Omoboriowo
Bows out". ThisDay. Retrieved 5 May 2012.[permanent dead link]
·
Gbenga Sodeine (29 January 2009). "No Regret for My Past Roles in Politics –
Omoboriowo".
Daily Independent. Retrieved 1 May 2010.
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