ICIRN
By Eric TENIOLA
ALTHOUGH his book is currently in circulation generating a lot of controversies, Chief Abdukareem Adebisi Bamidele Akande (82) has narrated the story of his life on November 17, 1977, at the Constituent Assembly in Lagos. It was an emotional story told by an emotional man, long before he held any public office at the age of Thirty-eight. The Chairman of the Assembly then, Mr Justice Udo Udoma could not interrupt Chief Akande’s testimony in spite of the short time allocated to each member to speak. Chief Akande spoke from his heart on that day.
In his own words, he declared on that day “My name is Bisi Akande from Ila/Odo-Otin Constituency, Oyo State. I will start by telling this House that my hope is not in this Draft Constitution which is under debate. My hope is in the standard of representation in this House. The Standard is very impressive. It represents intelligence, experience and patriotism.
Sir, you may want to know that my parents, during their lifetime, belonged to the class of the most hard-working Nigerians. Yet, they died as poor and wretched people, not because the gods were angry with them, but because our system was very bad. It was like the law of the jungle where there are rats and cats, the lions and the cattle have to live together. One was just eating up and swallowing the other. Unless I am allowed to refer to the history of the development of my people, I mean the people of my constituency, within the context of the past Constitutions; I may find it a little difficult to give suggestions on the type of Constitution I would like to be fashioned for the peoples of this country. My own town, a major historical town within my constituency actually within Oyo State and the Yoruba land is known as Ila-Orangun.
Traditionally, our major occupation was the production of palm- wine in commercial quantity. In short, we were palm wine tappers. My own father was a very palm-wine tapper for upwards of about forty years. Daily, he had to climb about eighty palm trees three times all over. In other words, he climbed palm trees about 240 times every day throughout the last forty years of his life. Yet he lived and died as a very poor Nigerian.
Sir, you may appreciate his level of poverty if I tell you that by special arrangement between himself and my mother, he was able to produce the…
