By Ayoade Kolapo
THE Mapo Hall and Cocoa House are two tourists’ sights that make a visit to the sprawling Ibadan city complete and exhilarating. The two edifices have profound historical significance for the Yoruba people of south western Nigeria.

They remain not only landmark achievements of the great sage and “the best president Nigeria never had” Chief Obafemi Awolowo_may his soul rest in peace ,but give practical vent to the wise saying that if we mind the kobo, the naira can mind itself.

From the proceeds from cocoa, Awo built the universities of Ibadan and Ife, the Premier Hotels atop the virgin and undiluted hill of Ibadan, the Cocoa House, the Mapo Hall and many more physical infrastructure.

Awo’s visionary attribute and focused performance based approach to tackling leadership challenges of his time did not go unnoticed and unrewarded. While alive, the zone gave his political parties_ Action Group and Unity Party of Nigeria block votes and in death, he remains a cult figure whose name politicians, especially of the progressive hue chant in their battle for the people’s hearts and votes. To those who understand that governance, nay leadership is more than providing physical infrastructure, their nostalgic feeling for Awo is deeply emotive and profound.

Awo’ s greatest legacy is invincible, intangible and this is in the area of human capital development. True, investments in education to a large measure are invincible like the Adam Smith’s “invincible hand” mantra that oils and propels the distribution of resources in capitalist economies. There are so many things here you cannot touch or even feel, yet if you must build the men and women that  build amazing and solid cities, we must allocate huge resources to education.

Two, if we want a society that is easy to govern and difficult to ruin, you cannot but hold Awo in awe for making it possible for boys and girls from modest backgrounds to acquire sound education at the expense of the state. Today, those boys and girls are the men and women who are the anvils upon which our progress or lack of it depends. Chief Awolowo will forever be remembered, celebrated and held in very high esteem for the foregoing. Here,  Awo and Adebayo Alao Akala though  operating at different times and under different circumstances  have something in common. We will soon come to that.

Unfortunately the so called progressives who use Awo’s name to hoodwink the people for votes have done little to keep alive his legacies when they had the opportunities. It took the intervention of Alao-Aka to once again make the Mapo Hall –the town hall where important meetings and decisions that defined and shaped Yoruba history took place and were made the pride of Oyo state and the entire Yoruba people.

The rehabilitation of Mapo Hall  and many other massive physical developments that today dot every community in Oyo; and the many that are ongoing have won many admires for the governor’s tireless efforts and his huge sense of fairness and equity in ensuring that hitherto neglected communities are no longer left on their own.

He knows that there are many more to be done and as he goes back to the people to solicit votes for second term, he will be banking on solid records of transforming and breathing more life into the key cities of the state and making accessible social amenities to long neglected villages. Otunba Christopher Adebayo Alao-Akala will be banking more on his intangible legacy. But first let me digress to give this assertion a good handle.

In 1983, this writer was serving the nation in Ibadan and followed with great interest the political drama of the era. The late Cicero, Chief Ajibola Ige , I vividly recall, was seeking re_election for a second term and all over Ibadan, the slogan in the air was “omo wa ni e je o se –e” which means competence does not matter, let our son be there. This son of the soil idea was lost on my young mind as I did not then understand the usual intrigues that made people refer to politics as a dirty game especially in regard to campaigns of calumny with the sole aim of wrestling power.

I got to know that the incumbent though hugely competent and with an Ibadan root by marriage was from Esa Oke then in Osun division. The anointed son of the soil in the said message was the mathematics scholar turned politician Sir Dr Omololu Olunloyo of the defunct National Party of Nigeria –NPN.

In the end, Dr Olunloyo emerged victorious and the aftermath of that victory as we know is history. But it impacted tremendously on the colour and character of Oyo state politics where the only credential for aspiring to the highest office was having the good luck of coming from a particular zone or belonging to a social class. From Ishola to Ladoja, history repeated itself.

The coming of Akala first as deputy to Ladoja and later as substantive governor marked a shift in paradigm and this is significant. Notwithstanding the ups and downs, he like a king in the jungle watched the dramatic scenario of the manors and stealthily grabbed the reins.

Now, Alao-Akala’s intangible legacy is giving hope to the young people of Oyo state to aspire to occupy the number one position in the state irrespective of the circumstances of their birth. He has, in the words of the late political juggernaut –K O Mbadiwe given them “psychological glorification from psychological defeatism “by breaking the myth of “Omo wa ni e je o se –e” and encouraged a level playing  ground that will continue to spring up leaders from various parts of the state.

For this and more, he has drawn the ire of those who have been benefitting from the old order and who, when they had the opportunity to make a difference failed very woefully.

He is not one to join issues with them because he believes that real success in politics is not just winning elections but doing what brings succour and happiness to the majority no matter the sacrifice and challenges. And like most effective people, instead of spraying verbal bullets and attacks on these detractors, he is responding in a way that is not only respectful but very short, simple, clear and laced with native wisdom and common sense.

Definitively history and historians will give him huge credit at the right time but while waiting for the verdict of history, there is doubt that masses in Oyo state will file behind him “when the come comes to become”.