2nd August, 2019
Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the late Premier of Old Western Region, despite his political and other achievements, had his own rough patch with life. In other words, he could also be counted among those who pulled themselves up by their bootstraps.
From the outset, Awolowo knew he would be a great man who would influence his country in the area of politics. To be able to do that, he needed to equip himself intellectually, the reason for which he decided to study Law in London. The only trouble was that, he had no money. Then he approached Chief Adeola Odutola, one of the richest business moguls of his day, with a letter, requesting a loan of £1,400. Unfortunately, Odutola turned Awolowo down cold!
Below is a story we published on the subject (and Odutola’s explanation), on 27 February 2016, entitled:
Why Odutola rejected Awo’s loan request of £1,400
Ademola Adegbamigbe
In the past one week or so, the £1,400 student loan request that the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo wrote to the late industrialist, Chief Odutola (the Ogbeni Oja of Ijebu Ode), has been making the rounds on social media. However, what many do not know was the explanation offered by the late Odutola before his death. However, he spoke exclusively to TheNEWS.
On 25 March 1943, Awolowo made a loan request of £1,400 from Chief Timothy Adeola Odutola and vowed to refund the money by 1955.
However, Odutola did not oblige him as a result of which Awolowo failed to make the trip that year as planned to study Law in England. Not a man to say die, Awolowo worked harder and sought alternatives and travelled on 14 August 1944 to the UK. He was called to the Bar in November 1946 and became Premier of Western Region in 1954.
However, TheNEWS management, in 1994, sent Waziri Adio (now the Executive Secretary of Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative) and Ayo Arowolo to Ijebu Ode to interview the old man.
According to Odutola: “I did not know him (Awolowo) then. I knew him only as a letter writer. He said he was going to study abroad, I should give him money. He did not tell me how much he wanted and how long it would take him to pay it back. If he had told me these, I would have probably acted differently…” Read excerpts of Odutola’s interview after Awolowo’s letter to him, published below:
Dear Mr. Odutola,
I think it will be an exceeding saving of time and more business-like if I avoid all sweet preliminaries and go straight into the object of this letter and say that I am writing to ask you to be good enough to lend me a sum of £1,400 (One thousand and four hundred pounds) free of interest for twelve years.
It is a staggering figure! More staggering indeed does it become, when it is realised that I, who am asking for this loan, have nothing in all the world to give as a security for this money, excepting my good faith and my brains which again are of value only so long as I continue to breathe the breath of life!
Nevertheless, I here proceed to outline in brief why I want this big loan from you. And I hope you will be kind enough to sacrifice some time to go through what I have to say, even though , in the end you might find yourself unable to do me this grand favour.
One great ambition of mine since my boyhood days is to be a lawyer, a politician and a journalist, rolled into one. I cherish politics and journalism as a career. ; and I desire advocacy as a means of livelihood. For you will agree with me that a politician or journalist who has no money with which to support himself and family comfortably ,is like a blade which has no razor.
Click to read the rest here: TheNEWS