AYO ADEBANJO
Activist, Lawyer, Politician
Chief Samuel Ayodele Adebanjo is a lawyer, politician of the Awolowo School of Thought, activist, elder stateman, and the leader of Afenifere (the pan Yoruba socio-political group first established in the 1950s).
Born on Tuesday, April 10, 1928, in the compound of the Adebanjos of Itun Oluwo, Okelamuren-Ogbo, Ijebu-Ode.
Okelamuren-Ogbo is in the present Odogbolu Local Government Area of Ogun State. Chief Ayo Adebanjo is a product of the admirable Yoruba religious amity of a Christian Father, Joel Adebanjo Adedairo, and a Muslim Mother, Salamatu Odubanke, from the Anomo family of Agunshebi in Ijebu-Ode.
Ayo Adebanjo’s father, Pa Joel, was a goldsmith who plied his trade in Ijebu-Ode (then one of the provinces of the Western Region), while his mother, Salamatu Odubanke, was a trader selling fabrics (textiles) in Ijebu-Ode high society in the 1920s.
His mother, Salamatu Odubanke, belonged to the Oba b’Eko Age Group (1893-1896), while his father was one of the pillars of the Obalolaiye Age Group (1897-1900). There was a social distinction between them. Chief Ayo Adebanjo is the only child of his mother.
He attended various schools, including Christ School and Okelamuren, and then moved with his parents (Salamotu and Joel) to Lagos. While in Lagos, he attended St. Saviour’s School (founded by Chief J.O. Osibogun, who also later established Otubu Memorial School, Ijebu-Ode) in 1935. He left St. Saviour School the following year for Holy Trinity School, Ebute-Ero (1937–1941).
Between 1942 and 1943, he attended Christ Church Cathedral School for Standard 5 and 6 classes. In January 1944, Chief Ayo Adebanjo was enrolled as a day student at the popular missionary institution, CMS Grammar School. He was already 15 years old when he enrolled at CMS Grammar School. He was in CMS Grammar School between 1944 and 1949. While in CMS Grammer School in 1949, he was already a member of Egbe Omo Oduduwa (a sociocultural group meant to unite all Yoruba).
The Christian schools Samuel Ayodele Adebanjo attended had a lot of influence on his character because, in those days, character and religious training were part of the curriculum. The morals and all the religious injunctions that never prevented him from condemning infringements, fighting for justice, standing for rights, and protecting anyone oppressed had always been a part of him.
Chief Ayo Adebanjo started his working career as a third-class clerk after his secondary education in early 1950 at the Medical Headquarters, Broad Street, Lagos. In the course of his service, he was posted to a section known as Registration of Births and Deaths between 1950 and 1952. Subsequently, he served as a clerk at Ikorodu Trading Company (ITC), which then manufactured singlets, owned by Alhaji Gbadamosi (who was then the National Treasurer of Egbe Omo Oduduwa and later Treasurer of Action Group), as well as a correspondent for the Daily Service Limited with its office at the Apongbon area of Lagos (which later became Daily Express under a new company known as Amalgamated Press, which was in partnership with a foreign company, the Ray Thompson Group of Newspapers). At Daily Service, he started by covering crime, visiting the court to get stories, and filling out reports. Before long, he became the commercial editor of Daily Service. At the time, Chief Ayo Adebanjo joined Daily Service, Alhaji Lateef Jakande was the editor. Chief Bisi Onabanjo, who was the editor of the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation’s bulletin, joined the publication and later became the editor after Alhaji Lateef Jakande moved to Ibadan as editor of the Tribune after the formation of Amalgamated Press.
At this time, he was already in the hub of high society, mixing with the crème de la crème of politics, law, and business.
Chief Ayo Adebanjo was recruited in 1954 by the Action Group as an organising secretary of the party. As a young man who had been in politics since his days in CMS Grammer School, he was a regular visitor to Chief Hezekiah Oladipo Davies’ house in Idumagbon, Isale Eko. During this period, he became acquainted with S.L. Akintola and H.O.D. Davies, a lawyer and politician. He was familiar with the Nigerian Youth Movement. Whenever there was a strong political disagreement between S.L. Akintola and H.O.D. Davies, he always went to them to talk about it. Davies was an idealist advocating one Nigeria.
By the time the Action Group came into existence in 1951, most members of the Egbe Omo Oduduwa became leaders of the Action Group. Chief Obafemi Awolowo became the leader of the Action Group, which was strongly supported by the Egbe Omo Oduduwa.
The formation of Egbe Omo Oduduwa in Ile-Ife in 1948 was quite distinct from the political organisation known as the Action Group, which was formed in 1951. Egbe Omo Oduduwa was purely socio-cultural, while the Action Group was political, although the latter had the former as its catchment area.
After the general election into the Western House of Assembly in 1952, the Action Group decided to employ full-time Organising Secretaries in each of the 24 divisions, with two in Osun (being a very large division). Advertisements were placed in the newspaper to recruit candidates for the various divisions.
Chief Ladoke Akintola, who was one of the party’s leaders in Lagos, secretly advised Chief Awolowo that the party leadership should talk to Chief Ayo Adebanjo privately before the interview, as he was aware that Ayo would not like to do the party’s job as a paid official. Then, Chief Ayo Adebanjo was just elected as secretary of the party at the Youth Congress, and Chief Remi Fani-Kayode emerged as the chairman. So, Chief Ayo Adebanjo was invited for a private discussion (at the party headquarters in Ibadan), which had in attendance Chief Awolowo, Chief Akintola, and Chief S.T. Oredein. Their mission was to convince him to accept the appointment, as they wanted a trusted person to take charge of the Leader’s Constituency (Remo Division).
The practice was to appoint a “son of the soil” as organising secretary for every division. But in the case of Ayo Adebanjo, he is from the Ijebu division, which included some parts of Ijebu, namely Odogbolu, Aiyepe and Okun-Owa. The headquarters of the Remo Division was Sagamu. At that time, the Action Group was the most organised and highly disciplined political party in Nigeria.
The major roles of Chief Ayo Adebanjo as the party organising secretary of the Remo Division were to recruit more members for the party, campaign for its candidates, and settle disputes among members.
The duties of organising secretaries were also to visit every part of their operational area to explain the party’s manifesto, present its achievements, and what the government was doing and intended to do for people of the area. In other words, their main roles were to galvanise support for the party and present it as a better alternative to the opposition party, the NCNC.
It was during the tenure of Chief Ayo Adebanjo as the organising secretary, Action Group, Remo Division, that he embarked on a trip to Isara in 1954 and enrolled Sir Olaniwun Ajayi into the party. Chief Olaniwun Ajayi, who was then a supervising teacher for Methodist schools. This was the beginning of their friendship, which blossomed till the death of Sir Olaniwun on November 4, 2016.
One of the disputes Chief Ayo Adebanjo mediated at Ode-Remo that the then-Akarigbo of Remo (Oba M. S. Awolesi, Erinwole ll) had tried to settle without success was the problem that began during the contest to install the Akarigbo of Remo (after the reign of Oba Adeleke Adedoyin). M.S. Awolesi contested the stool against Adeleke Adedoyin.
The NCNC Northern Councils were supporting Adedoyin, whom they nicknamed Sarkin Tulas (that he would be king by force).
The community was polarised in their support for the two candidates. Chief Ayo Adebanjo, as the organising secretary of the AG, Remo Division, resolved the dispute, and, in order to give honour to the Akarigbo, he brought the disputing parties to the King for a final settlement. The dispute and the role that he played in resolving it were later reported to the leader, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, by the Akarigbo when he visited the area sometime later.
It was in the course of his work as the organising secretary that he was posted to Oyo for a local government election in 1955 when Chief A. O. Adeyi, the pioneer principal of Fiditi Grammar School, was elected as Chairman of Oyo Southern Divisional Council and was later appointed a Minister after the general election of 1956. He was also sent to Ilorin, at another time, to campaign for Alhaji Sule Maito, who later became the leader of the Northern House of Assembly under the platform of the AG/Ilorin Talaka Parapo Alliance. Another place Chief Ayo Adebanjo went to serve in the North was in the Tiv and Idoma areas, where he was involved in some mobilisation for the party.
Ayo Adebanjo’s last posting was to Abak in 1957 (then part of the Eastern Region) to supervise the House of Assembly election. It was during that election that Action Group candidate S.G. Ikoku defeated his father, Alvan Ikoku, who contested under (UNIP). It was a healthy competition.
He was there to monitor the elections. Action Group also won some seats in Rivers. Wenike Briggs became a member of the Federal House (from Rivers).
Chief Ayo Adebanjo served the Action Group as the Party Organising Secretary, Remo Division, for three years, between 1954 and 1957. He never had any ambition to contest elections at the regional level. His ambition was to serve under Chief Obafemi Awolowo as a minister if he got elected at the federal level as Prime Minister.
The time he was working for the Action Group, he had always known that his stay was going to be short-lived. It was meant to be a source of money to fund the desire he had nursed since 1950 to study law overseas.
In support of this ambition, his mother had promised that whenever he was ready to go abroad, she would give him some assistance. She made good on this promise.
With the donation made to him by the party chieftains at his send-off, he was able to travel abroad and even buy a house on mortgage in England.
He left the shores of Nigeria on December 31, 1957, and arrived in the UK on January 13, 1958.
From CMS Grammar School, he had always dreamt of becoming a lawyer.
And when he became a reporter, his fascination grew. He enjoyed the court sessions, the performances of the lawyers.
When he told Chief Awolowo that he wanted to go abroad to study law, he welcomed the move and gave his prayers.
On top of the encomiums at the residence of the Premier of Western Region, where he was eulogised and his efforts in the four years as organising secretary praised to high heavens, Pa Awolowo raised funds for him.
He wrote a letter to some leaders of the party to make financial contributions. The contributions came to about £500. It was a lot of money at that time. Chiefs S. L. Akintola, Rotimi Williams, S.O.
Gbadamosi, Akanni Doherty, Alfred Rewane, Obafemi Awolowo, J.O. Odebiyi, and Dr. Akinola Maja and members.
When Ayo got to England, he was unattached and unmarried.
Very mature, with ample experience under his belt, he was ready for matrimony. He was looking for more than a friend and companion. Olaniwun Ajayi, his host in London, had already found a lady who would turn out to be a perfect match for him.
After all, he knew him well and was aware of what he desired from the ‘bottom’ of his bosom. Olori Stella Yetunde Gbadebo also put in some good words for her. She came highly recommended. Christiana Anoko Magnus-Lawson, whom Chief Ayo Adebanjo described as an inestimable jewel, was on federal government scholarship on the recommendation of Dr. Moses Adekoyejo Majekodunmi, who was then the Chief Gynaecologist at Massey Street Dispensary (now Hospital) and who later founded St. Nicholas Hospital, Lagos. She is a nurse; she was the ward of Prelate Bolaji Idowu of the Methodist Church, Nigeria.
Christiana had come with Olori Gbadebo (whom she was staying with in London) to visit the Ajayis. In the course of their discussion, they agreed that if she was unattached, she would be good for their friend, Ayo. Everything turned out as if it was well scripted and acted; Christiana came well packaged. Her background, a ward of Prelate Idowu, was enough to make any man swoon. On top of it, she was cultured and beautiful beyond imagination. They started on a good note, discussing safe subjects.
They got married on May 14, 1960. Before he finished his exams, there was a crisis at home, and there was pressure from Chief Awolowo that I should come back home in late 1961. He was called to the Bar in June 1961 and came back home in November.
Long before independence, in early 1960, the central government, headed by Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, attempted to silence and completely shame Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the leader of the Action Group. As the head of the opposition in the Federal Parliament, Chief Awolowo headed the Action Group, while Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola served as the Premier of the Western Region.
Meanwhile, after the federal election, there was agitation for the Action Group (AG) to work with the Northern People’s Congress (NPC). This argument pitched the party into two camps. While this was going on, Akintola was organising an insurrection against Awolowo because there were complaints that Akintola was not implementing party policies and administering the Western Region with many unpopular decisions. Disagreements between Awolowo and Akintola on how to run the Western Region Government deepened. There was a pandemonium. The government at the centre was determined to railroad the Action Group off-track. A constitutional crisis led to the declaration of a state of emergency in the West on May 29, 1962, and an administrator, Dr. Moses Adekoyejo Majekodunmi, was installed. This eventually resulted in a widespread breakdown of law and order in the Western Region.
Excluded from the National Government, Chief Obafemi Awolowo and his party, the Action Group, faced an increasingly precarious position. Akintola’s followers, angered at their exclusion from power, formed the Nigerian National Democratic Party (NNDP) under Akintola’s leadership. Having previously suspended the elected Western Region Assembly, the Federal Government then reconstituted the body after manoeuvres that brought Akintola’s NNDP into power without an election.
Shortly afterwards, Awolowo and several disciples were arrested, charged, convicted (of treason), and jailed for conspiring with the Ghanaian authorities under Balewa to overthrow the Federal Government of Nigeria.
Chief Ayo Adebanjo was accused No. 30, while Chief Obafemi Awolowo was accused No. 27 in the case. When the Action Group (AG) leaders were being rounded up and handled in detention, Chief Ayo was away in Ghana on a mission for Chief Awolowo. During the trial, Chief Ayo and some of his colleagues had settled down in Accra, benefiting from the hospitality of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, who gave them asylum as political refugees from 1962 to 1966. Chief Ayo Adebanjo, among others, was forcefully repatriated to Nigeria from exile in Ghana in 1966 after the coup that toppled the government of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. He was later detained and imprisoned for framed charges as a dissident who plotted to maim, kill, and bring the government of the day down.
Following the annulment of the June 12, 1993, presidential elections by Gen. Ibrahim Badamasi Babaginda, there were spontaneous protest demonstrations on the streets of Lagos, involving various civil society groups like the Campaign for Democracy (CD), the Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO), and the Campaign for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR). Others were Afenifere, where Chief Ayo Adebanjo belongs, the Movement for National Reformation (MNR), and the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP). These protests, which were spearheaded by CD, got the support of many ordinary Nigerians who saw it as an opportunity to vent their anger on the government for such insensitive action. As a result, there was general disenchantment with the military over its role in aborting the return of democracy. So, Afenifere desired to restore sanity in the governance system.
In furtherance of the struggle for the return of democracy and the de-annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, which was won by Chief M.K.O. Abiola, the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) was formed on 15th May, 1994. As its name suggests, the body is a coalition of civil society groups that are committed to this cause. Chief Ayo Adebanjo and other nationalists who did not believe in the military came together to get rid of the military. They quickly became the symbol of mass resistance against military rule. Chief Ayo Adebanjo did not join NADECO as an individual but as a member of Afenifere that joined the coalition of pro-democracy agitators. The group fought for democracy and the removal of the military.
On 11 June 1994, using the groundwork laid by NADECO, Chief Abiola declared himself President and went into hiding. He reemerged and was promptly arrested on 23 June 1994.
In July 1997, the government of General Sanni Abacha accused the NADECO of responsibility for a series of bombings of military targets. Chief
Ayo Adebanjo, Pa Abraham Adesanya, and Alhaji Ganiyu Dowodu were arrested on June 17, 1996, by the police over the bizarre allegation that they were suspects in Mrs. Kudirat Abiola’s gruesome murder on June 4, 1996. The arrest of the NADECO chieftains was another twist in the struggle to actualise June 12 and democracy in Nigeria. Prior to the assassination, Afenifere leaders (NADECO frontrunners) and Mrs. Kudirat Abiola had been in the vanguard of the fight for the restoration of Moshood Abiola’s mandate. This allegation against the trio of Pa Abraham Adesanya, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, and Alhaji Ganiyu Dawodu was a mere trumped-up charge and very ridiculous. In spite of this, they were kept in detention for over four months.
NADECO had the name for being on the frontlines in the fight for democracy. There was no discrimination against all the groups, formations, and members that joined the NADECO. Once they all agreed that the military must go, everybody came on board.
The most significant achievement of NADECO was the fact that it ended military rule and enthroned democracy, which birthed the 4th Republic in Nigeria in 1999.
Ayo Adebanjo was a member of the Committee on Devolution of Power and a delegate to the 2014 National Conference, which was formally inaugurated by Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, the president of Nigeria at the time. Chief Ayo Adebanjo opined that the initiative in calling the conference was commendable. The quality of representation was quite high and evenly spread. The recommendations made by the conference were far-reaching and, if implemented, would solve many of Nigeria’s problems as a nation. During the conference, for instance, regionalisation of the police devolution of powers, rationalisation of the local governments in each region, and revenue allocation [Fiscal Federalism] were reduced and passed on to the state, and local government was put under the state government. Central power was drastically reduced.
The Confab also called for the creation of more states and put a provision that states of like minds can join together for common services and systematic restructuring, among several others.
The report of the conference was submitted to President Jonathan, who, before he left office, handed them over to his successor, President Muhammadu Buhari, as being among the major unfinished issues of his administration that he would want the new president to deal with.
Pa Ayo Adebanjo was named as the National Leader of the pan-Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, on March 16th, 2021, by the former National Leader. Pa Reuben Fasoranti relinquished power due to old age.
Leader of the pan-Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, says his legacy is his consistency in politics and contribution to the building of a virile nation.
Chief Samuel Ayodele Adebanjo is a nationalist, foremost federalist, statesman, politician, and Awoist to the core who played a key role in Nigeria’s independence movement.
Chief Ayo Adebanjo has been in public view for over 70 years, significantly trotting only a few steps behind his leader and mentor, Chief Obafemi Awolowo. As he aptly stated, Chief Awolowo’s philosophy encompassed all his beliefs about human life.
In addition to a variety of other chieftaincy titles, Chief Ayo Adebanjo held the title of
- Bajulaiye of Ife
- Geregbedun of Iken-Ogbo
- Baba Ijo of St. Philip’s Anglican Parish Church, Isanya-Ogbo
- Asiwaju of Ibido-Ogbo
- Baba Oba Alamuren of Okelamuren-Ogbo.