The relationship between the late Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi, and the Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, was not that cordial until the monarch joined his ancestors on Friday.
This was revealed in the weekly column of a former Editor with the Tribune titles, Festus Adedayo, on Sunday.
According to the revered columnist, Oba Adeyemi knew and revealed before the 2019 elections that produced Makinde that information at his disposal was that the then Peoples Democratic Party candidate was going to emerge victorious.
Adedayo, however, said he did not know who changed the mind of the monarch from backing Makinde for the election.
He wrote: “In 2019 again, it was time to pitch his tent with a gubernatorial candidate in Oyo State.
“Alaafin invited me from Lagos, where I was a student of the Nigerian Law School.
“He then took me to a section of the palace that I had never been to before.
“Donning his pyjamas that morning, he confided in me that he had made his personal investigations and concluded that Seyi Makinde would win the election and he was ready to support him.
“I was shocked to learn thereafter that some persons persuaded him otherwise.
“It affected his relationship with the governor, which he lamented, till his death.”
Adedayo said it had always been the practice of Alaafin to correctly gauge the political mood of the state and support the candidate the people are rooting for.
He explained how his support for a late Governor of the state, Abiola Ajimobi, won the governorship seat for the then candidate of the All Progressives Congress in 2011 and his reelection in 20215: “Alaafin had challenges with Governors Lam Adesina, Rasidi Ladoja and Adebayo Alao-Akala.
“He gave me the most granular information of the roles he performed in the tiffs with these governors.
“By 2015, especially the moment leading to the general elections, Alaafin and Governor Abiola Ajimobi’s relationship had gone sour.
“Goodluck Jonathan had begun to make overtures to traditional rulers.
“Ajimobi had gone to the UK when Alaafin called me, demanding that we had a mutual resolve on where he was heading politically.
“I called Governor Ajimobi to intimate him of Alaafin’s quest, careful to beat the possibility of tale-bearers parroting my ‘clandestine’ visit to the palace to him.
“Ajimobi gave me the go-ahead to meet the monarch.
“At the meeting in the palace, Alaafin articulated his coterie of grouses against Ajimobi to me.
“He told me that, in company with his late friend, Azeez Arisekola-Alao, he launched one of the most penetrating artilleries against Alao-Akala, even selling his house in the UK in the process.
“Ajimobi, he alleged, took all these for granted and never reciprocated the gesture.
“When it was time to address him, I prostrated.
“I told him that my loyalty was to him, as it was to Ajimobi, but I owed him the need to tell the absolute truth.
“I told Alaafin that Ajimobi had the greatest regard for him.
“I proceeded further to tell the king that the governor, at many fora, told me that, but for Alaafin, he wouldn’t probably have emerged governor in 2011.
“Alaafin went beyond the ken of his traditional role in his support for Ajimobi in 2011, so much that if Alao-Akala had won that election, he would have deposed him, so said Ajimobi to me, which he expressed as: ‘Alaafin taa tan ni!’
“I reminded Alaafin that I was privy to conversations between the king and his aides – late Prince Fehintola and Hon Kamil Akinlabi – during the 2011 elections when, at the thick of the announcement of the gubernatorial results and he wasn’t sure where the pendulum was swinging, he asked his aides to tell him the truth, giving them indications that he could commit suicide if Alao-Akala won.
“‘Kabiyesi, you are the king of the Yoruba people, you cannot work against your people, both at the state and national level.’”
“That settled the matter between Alaafin and Ajimobi.
“From that moment on, they became the best of friends.”