Saturday, May 9, 1987 started like every normal day for Chief Obafemi Awolowo, one of Nigeria’s foremost leaders. But by evening that day, the news was everywhere. He had passed away. One thing is sure, nobody knows the particular time that he left the world that morning.
Now, here is what happened:
Weeks before his demise, he had celebrated his birthday and had been talking about life after this world. He even visited President Ibrahim Babangida weeks before this day and they had a closed-door meeting.
On Wednesday 6th May and the next day, Thursday, 7th, Chief Awolowo had a good time with his children who visited from Lagos. On Friday, 8th May, he had an eye appointment. The doctor, Prof. Olurin, came home to check his eyes and even complained to him that Baba was doing too much work.
Do you know how Chief Awolowo responded? He turned and told the doctor that he would continue to work until his last day on earth. They must have laughed and joked about his statement, but the hours were counting.
As he was done with the eye appointment, he came downstairs to meet his barber, who was already waiting for a haircut.
Just before the haircut commenced, his daughter, Tokunbo Awolowo-Dosunmu, who visited from Lagos decided to leave. But her father wanted her to stay the night in Ikenne. Mrs. Tokunbo insisted she was going back to Lagos. At this point, Awolowo didn’t look too excited anymore, but he didn’t prevail on her. He simply prayed for her saying: “Omo a ke yin o (your children will take care of you).”
That Saturday, morning, Papa Awo woke up. A whole later, he went to the bathroom to bathe. That was where it ended. After some minutes and he was not out, his wife, Dideolu, went there, knocked gently, but no response. She knocked again, this time louder. Still no response. Then she called out for the driver and by the time they opened the bathroom door, he was gone.
There was nothing actually extraordinary about his demise. He left simply. There were hitherto no signs of any a!lment.
There have been different myths about his demise. For example, there have been claims of birds flying out of his room the day he left the world. There have also been other tales.
However, the first set of people to discover him were his wife and their driver, who was in his 50s at the time. Then, one or two house helps also knew. A few hours later, his children came around and that was when the information went out.
Photo: Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s lying in State. Can you see Chief Bola Ige, Nigeria’s former Attorney-General, by the left?
Credit: Ethnic African Stories
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