Wale Adebanwi on Mama h.i.d. (30)

As she braced herself in the evening of Segun’s death, Hannah summoned her children and told them that they needed to go and check on their father in jail. She needed to be sure that he was fine after the loss of what then constituted his greatest personal investment in the future.

“She brazed up”, remarks H.I.D’s ; last child, Tokunbo Awolowo Dosumu. “She said that she would avoid all doubts. That she didn’t want (her enemies) to think that they had won…. I think the driving force at that time was that we must not give in”.

With her close friends such as Mrs. Longe, Mrs. Ogunsanya, Mrs. Sogbesan, and Mrs. Bolodeoku, and her sister-in-law, AlhajaAwofeso, by her side, Hannah readied herself for life beyond the tragedy. She still had a husband in jail, who was running the risk of being sent to the slammer for many years. Her four other children were there too. She needed to take care of them. Life, touch and merciless as it can be, had to go on.

The day after the burial, that is, on July 11, she asked a few people to go to Broad Street Prison to console her husband and check if he was fine.

“Oya, e wa lo wo baba yin”, the then young medical doctor who would later become Hannah’s first son-in-law, KayodeOyediran, remembers the charge from H.I.D.

The team included her first daughter, Tola and only surviving son, Wole, Tola’s fiancée, Kayode, and Kayode’s sister, OmotayoOyediran (later Mrs. Morgan), who was also Tola’s friend.

“Added to our sadness and grief were great anxiety”, writes Oyediran in his reminiscences on the tenth anniversary of Awolowo’s passing. “I, for one, did not know what to expect or how to behave”. When they arrived at the prison, they assumed that the warders would be nice to them given the fact that they had just lost their brother and that the man they were visiting had just lost a son.

“They were very harsh”, TolaOyediran’s memory of the day remains fresh. Her fiancee’s attitude was different. “I wasn’t concerned with the warders”.

They were in tears even as they climbed the stairs to what looked liked a reception room where they will see Awolowo.

“The thing that struck me really was that when we went in… we had to go up the stairs to where he was going to receive us, when he saw us, he way saying “Tola tallest’, “Unbreakable’…” Oyediran was shocked as his prospective father-in-law used aliases to salute his two children, Tola and Wole (“unbreakable”).

Awolowo was not done. He knew the Oyediran children too because their father was his friend.

“Ah, Kayode, salaafiani?’ (How are you?). ‘Tayo (OmotayoOyediran), mobinusi e o, o beere mi!’ (“I was unhappy with you, you didn’t ask after me!’)”. I was amazed. To cut a long story short, he was consoling us. I thought, what a fantastic man this is…. I will never forget (that experience),” the professor of medicine relates fifty-two years later.

Oyediran’s wife corroborates this. Even though they were crying, she said “Papa said well “The Lord giveth, the Lord taketh. Blessed be the name of the Lord”.

Wole also writes that the meeting was “an emotion-laden one” for him. He describes it as “a visit that shall remain with me until my departure from this earth”.

“The condition under which I met Papa was not too pleasing to me. I was shocked that (he) could be subjected to such conditions”, writes the late publisher of Nigerian Tribune. But despite the conditions and his bereavement, their father was in high spirits.

“Wole, how are you and how have you been fairing?” his father asked him.

“Papa, I think I should be asking that about you?” he responded.

TolaOyediran reveals that her father consoled them that Segun had had the best within a short span of life. He was also loved by most people.

Little did he realize that a few days later, John Lynn would be back in Oke-Ado for yet another of his endless searches….

The following Sunday after Segun’s death, that is on July 14, Hannah defied her husband’s order that she should not visit him in prison after their bereavement. She desperately needed to see the man with whom she sired the genius that had just been tragically lost. His comfort was greater than any other in the world. She would be strong, though, she promised herself. She went with her sister-in-law, AnotuAwofeso, and her friends, Mrs. Longe and Mrs. Sogbesan (who her children called “Mama Bodija” and “Mama Mushin,” respectively) and a few others.

KayodeOyediran also went with them.

But when Hannah saw her husband in jail, she broke down in tears.

“This was why I asked you not to come”, reacted ObafemiAwolowo.

He then consoled her.

“It is probably better Segun died than live with the effects of such an accident,” Awolowo explained to his wife.

He was a pragmatist who realized that, given the details he was given of the fracture that Segun suffered, he would not have lived a normal life if he survived.

“God knows best and it is for us to accept with equanimity His ruling. Who are we to question His decision or even show anger… for His ruling?”

Writes Oyediran, “when a larger family group including Mama (HID) visited I again watched with amazement how Papa (Awolowo) was in total control, comforting everybody. Thereafter, my admiration and respect for Papa’s courage and Christian fortitude knew no bounds….”

Notwithstanding the loss of his son, on September 11, 1963, Justice Sowemimo delivered his judgment and convicted Awolowo. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Before the judgment was announced, family members and friends had summoned some doctors to come to the house to sedate her again. They were afraid of the impact of her husband’s imprisonment. Drs. T.O. Ogunlesi, MuyiwaAdebonojo and AfolabiOgunlusi were ready to sedate her. But she persuaded them that after surviving the sudden death of Segun two months earlier, she was strong enough to cope with the jailing of her husband.

TO BE CONTINUED

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