Close to six years after late former governor Lamidi Adesina’s demise, Governor Abiola Ajimobi may have finally decided to honour him, in death. Ajimobi will, this week, announce the naming of two projects after ‘Great Lam’, a top government source told OYO INSIGHT.
This is coming almost four years after many individuals, including the national leader of the All Progressives Congress, APC, have mooted the idea of immortalizing the late politician.
Less than 48 hours to the senatorial election which he later lost to Dr Kola Balogun of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, Ajimobi, in a chat with journalists had said said he would immortalize Lam who he calls leader when he deems fit.
It was learnt that the decision to immortalize Lam was taken at the last Excos meeting presided over by the outgoing governor.
If it is approved tomorrow, Monday 29th April, 2019, another source confided in OYO INSIGHT, the Oyo State College of Agriculture and Technology, OYSCATECH, Igbo-Ora, which was established by the Adebayo Alao-Akala administration in 2006 and the Challenge-Orita road, which leads to Ikija, the village of the late former governor in Oluyole local government, are to be named after him.
Lam had died on 11, November 2012, 18 months after guiding Ajimobi, who was the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, governorship candidate to victory in 2011.
Apart from being his political leader, Lam taught Ajimobi taught Ajimobi at Lagelu Grammar School, Agugu, Ibadan.
In the build-up to the 2003 national assembly election, Lam, who was seeking re-election had ensured Ajimobi, who had just left National Oil, got the senatorial ticket of the Alliance for Democracy, AD, for Oyo South ahead of incumbent Peter Adeyemo. Lam was also instrumental to his emergence as the candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, in the 2011 governorship election which he won.
Only last year, OYO INSIGHT recalls, loyalists of the late politician, grouping under the umbrella of Lamists, stood up against the alleged marginalization in the scheme of things in the APC. They had accused Ajimobi of favouring his loyalists, SENACO members, ahead of Lam’s loyalists, in the appointment of political office holders.
The crisis was so much that the party was factionalized along SENACO, Unity Forum lines.
Notable politicians, especially serving lawmakers, would later dump the party for the the opposition.
Lam’s son, Adedapo, who currently represents Ibadan North East/South East federal constituency, later wrote a letter to Tinubu, detailing why he can no longer be in the same party with Ajimobi.
In the letter, a copy of which was made available to OYO INSIGHT, the young lawmaker, among many other things, said he was leaving the ruling APC in order to preserve the legacy of his late father.
Adesina also alleged that the governor, six years after his father’s demise has not deem it fit to name an edifice after him (his father) despite the fact that the governor has named edifices after other personalities in the state.
He explained in the letter that Ajimobi was working to destroy the legacy left behind in the state by his late father whom he said contributed greatly to the emergence of the governor (Ajimobi), in 2011.
“Your Excellency, it will interest you to know that seven years after Governor Ajimobi took over power in Oyo State and six years since the demise of my father and the leader of the Progressives in Oyo State, Alhaji Lam Adesina, not one edifice or project has been named after my father. Whereas, the Governor has named several projects after other individuals in the state, no effort has been made to immortalize my father.
“I can pointedly tell you that Governor Ajimobi has been working tirelessly to pull down all structures put in place by my father, who in his old age, fought and worked exhaustively towards making Oyo State a stronghold of the Progressives. Baba Lam even with his ill health led others to the length and breadth of state to campaign for His Excellency ahead of the 2011 elections.
“Sir, I have harboured these painful actions of the Governor towards me for years, hoping that he would change and in the interest of the party and the continued success of the Progressives fold in Oyo State and the South-West, a project that I know you hold dearly to your heart given your love for the people of the region. But seven years down the line, and with the ever so determined efforts of the Governor to erase the political footprints of my father by destroying his political structure, I believe it would only be a bastard that will continue to stay where his father is continually spited even in death.
“I remember your comment about “Self Preservation” during my last visit to you in Abuja with Hon Sunday Adepoju, Wale Raji, Ayo Omidiran and others. Can I be preserved where my father’s legacy is being destroyed daily and where I have suffered this much? NO, Baba Mi.
“These and many more were heavy burdens I had wanted to share with you when I had the opportunity to meet you, but extant realities would not permit me to do so, hence this letter. I appreciate the fatherly role you have always played in my life and I assure you of my continued and unwavering loyalty wherever I find myself in the not too distant future politically. But sir, knowing all I have expressed in this letter, I am convinced that you will agree with me that remaining in the Governor’s camp would be tantamount to me dancing on my late father’s grave. Like every rational man, it is my prayer that after I am gone, my children will continue to honour me and so, remaining with someone determined to dishonor my father and hell-bent on dismantling all the structures put in place by my late father cannot be an option.
“Baba, may your children be greater than you, honour and uphold all the principles you believe in.”
