Former governor Adebayo Alao-Akala has revealed how his father’s untimely death almost ruined his life.
Alao-Akala, who spoke at Trenchard Hall of the University of Ibadan, venue of the launch of his book, Amazing Grace, his grandmother, Iya Alaro who he knew as his mother while growing up, “was the divine grace in action, my guiding angel, who manifested as an old woman. She piloted me through those hopeless years after my father’s unfortunate demise. As I said in the book, Mama Alaro single handedly reconstructed my fractured childhood.”
According to the Ogbomoso-born retired policeman, “the tragic death of my father in a road accident in 1952 single-handedly threatened to swamp my dream of getting to the cusp of my life aspirations but how providence miraculously found for me a path to the top.“
BEING TEXT OF A SPEECH DELIVERED BY HIS EXCELLENCY, FORMER GOVERNOR OF OYO STATE, OTUNBA CHRISTOPHER ADEBAYO ALAO-AKALA AT THE FORMAL PRESENTATION AND LAUNCH OF HIS AUTOBIOGRAPHY, ‘AMAZING GRACE’
It is a great delight to have you all gathered here today to witness the launch of my autobiography entitled Amazing Grace.
It is even a greater delight to see the creme-de-la-creme of our great country abandon their very tight schedules, just to be part of today’s history making event.
2. I call this history making, not strictly for any other reason but for it’s fulfilment of my long anticipated desire to codify, so to speak, the remarkable events of my 70 years on earth in a single, accessible copy. It fulfils my desire to bookmark the landmark narratives of my life, how the tragic death of my father in a road accident in 1952 single-handedly threatened to swamp my dream of getting to the cusp of my life aspirations but how Providence miraculously found for me a path to the top.
3. My grandmother, Iya Alaro who I knew as my mother growing up, was the divine grace in action, my guiding angel, who manifested as an old woman. She piloted me through those hopeless years after my father’s unfortunate demise. As I said in the book, Mama Alaro single handedly reconstructed my fractured childhood.
4. Without prejudice to the erudition of the book reviewer who is saddled with the task of dissecting it into pieces , the title of the book, Amazing Grace, is not a happenstance. It is the audacity of Providence to bring me out of the dungeon of a hopeless tomorrow into the fulfilment of a life that I today celebrate at seventy years on earth. My very meaningful and impactful sojourn in the Nigerian Police Force is also amply documented in the book, to tell the story of how grace pushed me to the top. There were blinding storms that threatened to capsize my boats which I volunteered to the reader.
5. In Amazing Grace, the reader would pick historical nuggets of police’s recent history and my personal interface with that history. It perhaps would redraw whatever unpleasant impression Nigerians have of their friends in the police and situate the force in the right perspective.
6. In Amazing Grace, I did not shy away, in the tradition bequeathed to me by Iya Alaro, from acknowledging and documenting the strides of the angels that Providence used to push me to the heights I occupy today. I amply recounted all these angels from Late Retired IGP, Chief Sunday Adedayo Adewusi, Late Chief Lamidi Ariyibi Adedibu to President Olusegun Obasanjo; and many more that the space may not permit.
7. Narratives of what I call my very tumultuous years of being the Governor of Oyo state are also documented. They serve as a reminder to those who may be prone to being quickly swept off by the amnesia of history that God used me and my team of dependable colleagues at that period in time to change the lives of the people in the state. Our adminstration concentrated on the welfare of the people and affixed the need for development to any governmental step we took.
8. In writing the book, I was faced with the challenge of narrating some of the events in innuendoes, window dressing critical occurrences therein or bluntly recounting them as they occured. I chose the latter. This book sets wonky records straight. It properly constructs or even reconstructs some of the tissues of lies spurned about me, especially within the period of my being at the driver’s seat of Oyo state’s administration. It situated occurrences, without malice and with an acute presence off mind , in their proper perspectives, carefully appending names of the dramtis personae of events to this critical junctures of history.
9. In the course of doing that, I might have injured or stepped on the toes of some people, I take full responsibility for the injuries they might have suffered. In some instances, some characters, whose roles at some points if my life might not be too Noble, and which I amply documented without hiding back any of the narratives, are not alive to rebut them. While I wrote the book at the full blossom of some of such persons, believing that today, they would be alive to witness the launch of the book, God did not give them the grace to see this manifest. I attest to the absolute truth of the narratives contained in Amazing Grace, believing strongly that someday when it would be time for Providence to abridge my earthly sojourn, I would continue to dialogue with them.
10. I am a product of grace. I was the pencil in the hands of the creator who drew the picture of who I am today. God brought me from junctures where many who had great and greater hope of tomorrow fell. He lifted me, without an iota of hope, to my feet and brought me to this juncture.
11. What however gladdens me is that Amazing Grace would be an addition to narratives of the lives of those who mutated from the proverbial grass to the place of grace. I dare say that it will lift up the spirits of anyone who may find themselves in the unfortunate life’s intersection that I found myself in 1952. Amazing grace will tell them that to navigate to the top is a grace away.
12. Once again, I want to immensely thank all those who inconvenienced themselves to be here. I am not unmindful of your great sacrifice of presence. I want to thank my Baba, the “Ebora Owu” and the chairman of this occasion, who had to forfeit many prime events and schedules to be here. To the people so numerous to acknowledge your labour of sacrifice, I am highly grateful to you all.
14. Thank you for listening.
