Lifestyle
Meet Wande Abimbola, A Renowned Ifa Priest Who Was Hated For Refusing To ‘Steal’ Public Funds
Prof Wande Abimbola served as Vice-Chancellor of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) in Ile-Ife, Osun State.
This is the same man who represented his electorate in 1992, when General Ibrahim Babangida’s regime had a diarchical government structure.
But he returned with no private vehicle, no siren, no gun-toting soldiers and police, no modern-day funfair, and no expensive clothes and shoes, and he was punished by his constituents for being a bad Senator.
In one of the few interviews published by The Punch a few years ago, Prof Wande Abimbola was asked to equate his life as a Senator to what we have today, where each Nigerian Senator earns more than N10 million per month.
He said:
“I served as Senate leader from November 1992 to November 1993, when we were deposed by Sanni Abacha. However, the Senate that I chaired received no compensation.
“To visit our constituency, we were just charged N5,000 once a month. We were all given free lodging and meals at the Hilton Hotel.
“We haven’t been charged a penny, as I’ve repeatedly said. It is the people, not the leaders, who are at problem. We’re voting for them to steal and bring the loot home with them. When Abacha drove us out of our home in Oyo, I arrived.
“That is my sole residence in Nigeria. Since I didn’t have a cab, I took the bus home at 2 a.m. Before I gave them up, I owned two Mercedes Benz cars that had been in my garage for 15 years.
“To get out, I used to take cabs. As a senator, I visited Lagos twice (commercial bus). On one occasion, I was in the driver’s seat. We got to Lagos at 5.30 a.m. On the bus, people were debating me. They said I traveled to Abuja and that every time I left the building, I encountered a poor man taking taxis. One of them said they couldn’t vote for someone who couldn’t cheat, such as myself.
When the bus came to a halt, I returned their greeting. I introduced myself to them, and they were shocked.”
On why Nigeria and politicians have lost their core value and ideal of politics, the renowned Ifa priest who is also the Awise of Babalawo Worldwide said,
“The people make the politicians thieves.Material objects irritate me. After returning from World War I in 1918, my father built the home I now live in. To be happy, I simply added to the complex’s housing stock. That’s all I’ve got at the moment.”
In July 2003, during the presidency of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, the former OAU VC accomplished something never done before in Nigeria.
At the site where Obasanjo was swearing in Special Advisors with the Holy Bible and Holy Qur’an, Awise Wande Abimbola pulled out a horn, a traditional sign of swearing.
He was named Special Advisor on Culture and Traditional Matters, where he took his oath with a horn, pledging to uphold the basic goal of state policy, EKO HOT BLOG gathered.
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