Posted by SAM EYOBOKA on
TODAY in Lagos, the autobiography of ace architect and former permanent secretary in the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing, 72-year old Chief Isaac Fola Alade, will be presented to the public.
TODAY in Lagos, the autobiography of ace architect and former permanent secretary in the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing, 72-year old Chief Isaac Fola Alade, will be presented to the public. In this pre-launch interview, the Asiwaju of Aramoko, Ekiti State, reputed to have designed many of the monuments that are today in a state of decay because of the absence of a maintenance culture, reminiscences on his life and times in the civil service. Some of the structures he designed include the Federal Secretariat, Ikoyi and many of the state secretariats, the Tafawa Balewa Square, Navy Town and Satellite Town, as well as the National Theatre.
ASKED how he managed to look young and strong at 72, he said: 'I don't know about being strong. Looks can be deceptive. I look quite well because I hardly receive doctor's medication except when there are too much fumes in the air which often disturb my breathing or my throat which has been operated upon twice earlier. That is why I have quite a happy disposition and frame of mind and I have tried to live a life of peace since I am no longer a public man. I left civil service 26 years ago in 1979."
Incidentally, his retirement was one of the last assignments of then head of state, General Olusegun Obasanjo, before handling over to the civilian government of Alhaji Shehu Shagari and yet the Asiwaju harbours not bitterness. His only regret may well be that while countries like Ghana, Togo and other West African nations have managed to maintain their infrastructure, most of Nigeria's monument are today dilapidated and in a state of disrepair.
'I did a bit on the Tafawa Balewa Square, by turning a strictly military parade ground to a shopping complex. In Yakubu Gowon's time, the place was strictly a parade ground but when the government was shopping for a befitting place to receive the Queen of England and where leading African musicians could perform during the FESTAC 77, we redesigned the place to be what it is today," he said, adding: 'But looking at the place, today, it is a ghost place - totally abandoned and vandalised. Whenever I walk around the place or drive past there, I am almost in tears. It is a sheer neglect of a Remembrance Arcade. It doesn't speak well of a nation that is serious. It makes me feel unfulfilled because what does it take to keep a small opening for people to recreate and take a retrospective look at their country."
You were talking about your relationship with Gen. Murtala Mohammed...
Gen. Murtala Mohammed was somebody who took life so casual. If you recall, when Ikorodu-Airport road was being done, the place was so bad. Murtala was always driving his car by himself even to the airport and coming back without any problem.
And that was after the coup and nine years later, Gowon was pushed up to the seat. When Murtala came in, he didn't move into Dodan Barracks where Gowon lived for nine years. The point I'm making is that, the man, Murtala Mohammed, was living in a place with old colonels. There was no fence either in the front or at the back. You will walk through his compound and that compound opens directly to the back of the secretariat where I was engaged. My office was there. So, the man came one evening. Because of the contracts. Normally, I worked up till about 8.00 p.m. after all my staff would have gone, I would try to design what we will do next day. He even went to the office of the British contractor to tell them that they should stop on Block 2.
He was the one telling me the story when he came
to my office. Those white people told me they didn't know him, and coul not take orders from him, that they take orders only from the resident architect. He didn't go there to identify himself as head of state. When he came into my office, he asked me whether I always worked in this place, I said yes. So, we talked about the design. After talking, he took me to a bar and ordered for drinks and I said no. He said he wanted me to follow him to his house so that I could know what he was complaining about. By the time we got there, those white people had gone. When I was leaving, he gave me some whiskey to take home. From that day, he made an impression on me. He was like a super human being.
How did you feel when he was assassinated?
That is a different story. The man used to drive his car. According to the story, near that petrol station was where it happened. That car was the long wheeled Mercedes, FGN 1. They slaughtered him there. We didn't know until the labourers alerted us. All the white people ran away. When I came out of the office, that was about 7.45 p.m. a few soldiers from the barracks got to the place. I had to walk there because traffic was so bad. I went to raise an alarm in our ministry of works. It was a scene that was impossible for my mental image to contain. Someone who got himself so close to me got murdered right at the gate of his office. His car with bloodstains were left there for about three days. Some of us could not enter the site for about two days.
Do you recall any relationship with Gen. Obasanjo when he was a military leader?
I knew him five or six months before he began to live in Dodan Barracks as the head of the state. I met him first when he came to the secretariat on official visit. Interaction with him in the military was normally by protocol. So, we were not quite intimate in the ministry. It was after he became head of state. Since that Mohammed experience, the military was not ready to make any joke with security. Obasanjo wasn't allowed to just go anywhere at anytime. He was a different man, when Mohammed was in the Second Avenue, he was on Luggard Avenue.
Mass retirements
My next interaction with him, that was before becoming head of state, was around July 1995 during the mass retirement of public servants. I got a letter of promotion as director of public buildings and I wanted some one who could take me to Obasanjo, I didn't know where he lived. I wanted to go and beg Obasanjo to say I didn't want to be director of public buildings. We went there, met Bisi Onabanjo there. I knew him from afar, and Dr. Adebayo Banjo, elder brother to Prof. Ayo Banjo of U.I and Obasanjo almost half naked because there were no air-conditioners in the palace. He had one in his bedroom and one other. That's the official allocation which I knew. We came in with two women and I greeted Banjo. It became difficult for me now to say what I wanted to talk about. He asked me what the problem was and I told him. He said it was an order.
I told Bayo Banjo to help me beg Obasanjo. Myself and my wife were crying. It was that same day that a call came from Ibadan about soldiers blowing sirens all over the place. He asked the governor to report in his office the following morning. The following morning, Akin Aduwo was removed as governor. With that kind of note of finality the result of which we had in the morning, everyone was crying.