I Visited Obafemi Awolowo’s Grave
By: Deji Yesufu
I had a traumatic experience at the market recently. The Seyi Makinde government has been carrying out a number of building projects all around the Bodija market here in Ibadan, which has reduced parking spaces throughout the market. I drove into a space where I was hoping to leave my car to do my business in the market. When I parked, no one told me that it was also my duty to patronize the women in that square. When I returned, one of the women selling accosted me. Her point was that I parked my car in their space, and went elsewhere in the market to buy the same things they were selling – I ought to have patronized them. The argument was logical, and at first glance, I would normally have apologized and let the matter be. But there was something in the way she spoke: it was the attitude that I owed her and others something; that I did not have the liberty to go anywhere I wished in a market where I pay money to have my car parked. Immediately, I rebelled against that spirit and made it clear to her that I did not have to patronize her. The matter degenerated into a shouting match, where she began threatening to raise a mob against me, and even said I must never park my car in that square again. I was a bit shaken by that incident because there appears to be this anger in Nigerians that they are seeking to pour on people around them. That simple altercation could have turned out to be something worse.
Every time I visit the market, or anywhere I see Yoruba people, especially women and children congregate, I think of Obafemi Awolowo. Oyo State is called the Pacesetter State. She is “pacesetter” because when Obafemi Awolowo and others led government in Ibadan between 1952 and 1959, they came up with so many firsts in the annals of governments in Nigeria. They established the first television station in Africa – ahead of many countries in Eastern Europe, including France and Spain. They also built the first football stadium, now called the Obafemi Awolowo Stadium. They built the first skyscraper in West Africa – the Cocoa House. The first modern housing estate in Nigeria – the Bodija Housing Estate. First free universal primary education policy in Africa. First free medical service scheme in Nigeria. First regionally implemented minimum wage scheme in the civil service in Nigeria. And many other “firsts” like those. When you read Obafemi Awolowo’s essays, you do not hear him write about “projects” or “firsts”. I read all the written works of Obafemi Awolowo, and there was nowhere he mentioned “Cocoa House” or “Liberty Stadium”. The man concentrated on principles of government, and quite naturally, the outworking of those principles brings all the “firsts” we see. It is sad that immediately after his time in government, there were the locust years of the Akintola administration and the coming of the military. So, when I see these women in the market, and I see load carriers (alabaru), and all these menial workers doing things beneath them, I mourn. Obafemi Awolowo never planned this sort of thing for the Yoruba people, nor did he think that Nigeria would be in the sorry state that it is in right now. Towards the end of his life, Awo saw that he needed to document his ideas so that people in the future could find them and help realize them. It was by reading those ideas that I became an avowed espouser of “Awoism,” and it is the reason why I visited his grave site on the 5th of November, 2025, at Ikenne.
Fourth instalment on TexandPublishing Awolowo Series on YouTube
5th November is the birthdate of Yeye Oduduwa – late Mama HID Awolowo, Obafemi Awolowo’s beloved wife in his lifetime. Ambassador Olatokunbo Awolowo Dosunmu leads two foundations in her parents’ name – the Obafemi Awolowo Foundation and the HID Awolowo Foundation. The first foundation focuses on realizing the visions and principles of Obafemi Awolowo, which he espoused in his lifetime and then documented in his books. The foundation in his wife’s name is concerned mostly with helping the girl child realize her God-given potentials, and also helping women to rise above the male stereotypes that many women have been caged in within the Nigerian space, and to help them fulfill their God-given potentials. The program was themed “Breaking Barriers on Standing Still? Nigerian Women in Politics 30 Years After Beijing”. It was held within the Obafemi Awolowo family compound in Ikenne, at the Efunyela Hall – a hall that the sage built to host political gatherings at his home. The Chairman of the occasion was Senator Daisy Danjuma, with the Deputy Governor of Ogun State, Engr. Noimot Salako-Oyedele, appearing as a guest of honor. Speakers at the event were Dr. Chantal Fanny (from the Ivory Coast), Prof. Olabisis Aina, Senator Uche Ekwunife, Barrister Hanatu Musawa, and Moremi Ojudu. Honorable Abike Dabiri and Prof. Adedoyin Aguoru were the moderators for the event. The discussions centered essentially on encouraging women to realize their potential as future nation builders and to help them evade the usual pitfalls that women fall into when they enter politics. Dr. Awolowo Dosunmu, the host of the event, made the point that her mother, whom the foundation is named after, actually ran for political office in 1965. She stood in for her husband, who was in prison at the time, and campaigned to be elected the Premier of Nigeria. Save for the rigging and the commotion of those days, she could easily have won.
While I soaked in the talks and events of the day, my mind was actually on Obafemi Awolowo. I drank in all the ambience of the Ikenne township. Ikenne is a very small town, and whatever development it enjoys today is owing largely to the person of Obafemi Awolowo. I stayed at the Soname Hotel. It is a guest facility that shares space with the Remo Stars’ stadium and training ground. From my room, I could actually see the players training. When I asked a woman by the road how I could get to Awolowo’s house, she said “… just take a bike, and they will get you there…” The house is an address on its own – “Awolowo House”. I felt rebuked. Why would anyone not know Awolowo’s house in the whole of Ikenne? The man’s face is literally on one of Nigeria’s currencies – our one-hundred-naira note!
Awo’s photo hung within Efunyela Hall
The Awolowo compound is a modest space. The main house where the sage lived was built sometimes in the mid-1970s – that is, a good five years after he had left the Gowon administration. It is a one-storey building that has a winding staircase situated in the living room that leads up to rooms upstairs. Awolowo also built the Efunyela Hall inside that compound – A building named after his mother, and there is a library in the compound, the Sopolu Library, which is named after his father. I believe after his death, the Mausoleum that houses his remains was built, and the museum, where many of the sage’s personal items are housed, is also in the compound. The Mercedes car he used is carefully preserved there too. I also noticed that Awolowo may have had a detestation for living in GRAs. His Ikenne and Ibadan homes are situated right in the middle of where ordinary people live. All the houses that were neighbors to the Ikenne house had no fencing around them. In fact, quite a number of them had shops right in front of them where petty trading was being carried out. Awolowo grew up in very humble beginnings, and he never lost touch with his roots. He always knew that God raised him up to do these things in his lifetime, and he ensured that his connection to his roots remained. I will not hesitate to visit Ikenne again, and I do implore anyone reading this who has not visited the sage’s home to find time to do so. It is an experience worth having. Finally, I gathered some courage, and I visited Papa’s burial site. Let me summarize that visit by saying that it was a spiritual encounter.
The Obafemi Awolowo Foundation has a leadership prize that it gives to worthy Nigerians every two years. There have been some years when the committee involved in selecting those nominated for it has ended up not choosing any winner. Here are the past winners: Wole Soyinka (2013), Thabo Mbeki (2015), Afe Babalola (2018), and Akinwumi Adesina (2023). There was no winner for 2016. It is also interesting to note that since the inception of this award in 2013, no Nigerian Governor or President has won it. This speaks volumes to the kind of political leadership we have in this country today.
Yeye Oodua – HID Awolowo
The anger I encountered at the Bodija market, where that woman accosted me for not patronizing her despite parking my car in front of her shop, is a symptom of the bottled-up frustration that many Nigerians have with this country. There is no need to enumerate these things; they are obvious for everyone to see. The point that I hope my visit to Obafemi Awolowo’s grave would wish to emphasize is this: once upon a time, Nigeria had visionary, quality, purposeful, altruistic, selfless, hardworking, and result-oriented leadership. Today, all that is history. The country appears to be on autopilot. Our best minds are fleeing the country and going to help develop other people’s lands. Obafemi Awolowo would never have japa even if things were as bad as they are today in his time (And things were bad at some point too. In 1962, there was ample opportunity for Awo to flee Nigeria and evade political persecution, but he did not). He would have remained behind and helped to fix things. We totally underestimate what it took to drive the British out of our land. I am convinced that the same spirit, focus, and vision that led the nationalists to show the British that Nigerians can govern themselves is still with us today. Bad, incompetent, and “anyhow” government can be replaced with sound leadership in our country. Obafemi Awolowo documented those ideas in his books. And a visit to his home and grave could give inspiration towards those ends.
Deji Yesufu is the pastor of Providence Reformed Baptist Church Ibadan. He is the author of HUMANITY. He can be reached at [email protected]
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