OBITUARY: Olaniwun Ajayi, critic of northern elite and staunch Awoist who tackled Achebe

“We don’t have proper federal system. We have been suffering for 56 years and we are like a small child of 3 or 5 years who cannot walk if you compare us with Brazil, India and Malaysia. Where are we?” Olaniwun Ajayi asked in an interview published in National Mirror in February 2016.

Ajayi, 91, who died in the early hours of Friday in a Lagos hospital, was a consistent advocate of a balanced Nigeria, where power should be equally shared and resources evenly distributed.

Apart from being a chieftain of Afenifere, a pan-Yoruba socio-cultural group, Ajayi was a lawyer par excellence, a philosopher with a great deal of sartorial acumen.

A devout methodist, he belonged to the Reuben Fasoranti faction of Afenifere.

When he turned 91 in April 2016, he donated a building to the Methodist Church Training school in Sagamu, Ogun. Until his death, he was deeply concerned about the moral decline and degradation in the Nigerian Church.

GRUDGE WITH ACHEBE

When Chinua Achebe released ‘There Was A Country’, his last book pre-death, Ajayi, an indigene of Isara in Ogun state, was incensed over what was written about Obafemi Awolowo, pan-Yoruba leader, in respect to the Biafran war.

“It is a great error, he never said anything about what Awolowo did to prevent the civil war,” he had declared.

Ajayi had insisted that Awolowo did a lot to prevent the war by leading a delegation from the south-west to prevail on Chukwuemeka Ojukwu, but the late warlord, he said, eventually reneged on his promise to Awolowo to avert the war.

According to Ajayi, when the Igbo fled the south-west during the war and abandoned their property, Awolowo contracted estate managers to manage the properties left behind.

He noted that the owners of the abandoned properties were paid rent when they returned while the properties were returned to them after the war.

Ajayi lamented the fact that Achebe chose not to highlight the efforts of Awolowo, describing his outburst as “most unfortunate, outrageous and very bad”.

NIGERIA: AFRICA’S FAILED ASSET and POWER IMBALANCE

Ajayi authored two important books that generated widespread discourse; one was about the shortcomings of the Nigerian state many years after gaining independence while the other highlighted the imbalance of power and the dominance of the north.

Nigeria: Africa’s Failed Asset was a “revealing account of the behind-the-scenes moves that led to the creation of black Africa’s most populous nation. The shaky foundation on which the nation is planted in reckless disregard of the settled principles of federalism leading inevitably to the quagmire in which Nigeria finds itself is thoroughly discussed”.

The book didn’t only talk about the problems of Nigeria, but also proffered a permanent solution to them.

“There was no due observance of or reference to the principles of federalism as it affected a country like Nigeria with diversity of race, religion, language, culture, tradition and attitude to western education.

“The other aspect of the flaw which bedevilled the Nigerian Constitution was the lack of proper and due regard to the peculiar nature of the country and its multifarious people. Nigeria is a classic example of the concept of heterogeneity,” Ajayi said, while commenting on the book.

His other effort, Power Imbalance, was about the north’s stronghold on Nigeria’s major assets and the uneven distribution of power.

In the book, he stated that the sultan of Sokoto on May 19, 1993 sent a message to IBB not to allow MKO to contest the 1993 presidential election

“Whatever I wrote in my books is as a result of thorough research particularly, the last book ‘Power Imbalance’, very well researched. Most of what I put there, I got from the record of the British which they classified and turned into books and it is from these books that I got what I put there,” he once said, in response to criticisms of ‘Power Imbalance’.

STERLING LAW CAREER

Olaniwun Ajayi’s law firm was founded as a sole practitionership on November 2, 1962.

The firm has grown from a sole practitionership to one of the largest and open partnerships in Sub-Saharan Africa.

In the five decades of its existence, Olaniwun Ajayi Law Practice has held briefs for corporate organisations, commercial establishments, and has done litigation in banking, finance and capital markets sectors.

It has also advised government at both federal and state levels.

Olaniwun Ajayi’s successes over the years has made it one of the most sought after full-service legal practices in Africa.

The firm has done litigation in sectors such as aviation, education, insurance, maritime, oil and gas, telecommunications, healthcare, amongst others.

Olaniwun Ajayi’s firm recently helped resolve the legal dispute between Nigerian singer, Runtown, and Okwudili Umenyiora of EricMany record label.

The singer was involved in a legal tussle with EricMany earlier this year over contract breaches, emotional abuse and disrespect.

After weeks of a media back and forth, the case was settled out of court with the help of the Olaniwun Ajayi law firm.

Olaniwun Ajayi Law Practice has also gotten rave reviews and sterling recommendations from The Times of London, Legal 500 and The Lawyer.

TINUBU CONNECTION

Ajayi was recently in the news when it was reported that Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), reached out to him and other Yoruba leaders to consolidate power and reposition the South-West after failing to have his way in recent primary elections.

“Yes, we had a meeting with him in the recent past. Yes, the meeting was about the Yoruba coming together for the benefit of the Yoruba nation. We have for long been on our separate ways, which is not good for the Yoruba nation. We went to him and the governor of Lagos state (Akinwunmi Ambode); we met the two of them together. We decided to see (meet with) the former governors and the current governors,” Ajayi had told Punch.

Ajayi, in that interview, noted that he had nothing against Tinubu because “he has not offended me, if you are referring to me as a person”.