By Ademola Adegbamigbe


It was 15 October 1965, the year when election
held in the old Western Region. In Chief Ladoke
Akintola, the Premier’s view, he was coasting home
to victory, a development that he expected would
render the jaws of his political opponents hanging
slack. In fact, he had sent the tape of his victory
broadcast to the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation
(NBC), Ibadan. He sat to listen, his excitement
heightened by the crackles and howling of the state
house radio’s atmospherics. What came out of the
contraption jolted the daylight out of him. Instead of
a victory speech, what he heard was: “Akintola go!
Drop your stolen mandate, leave town and take your
reprobates with you.” Pandemonium! Akintola
started working his phone, calling everyone who
was someone in government to find out what
happened.


A few minutes before Akintola experienced that big
shock, a piece of drama was being enacted on the
premises of NBC, Ibadan. It was not some acting
that was striving for verisimilitude; it was reality,
political reality with real characters in time and
space. A man, alleged to be then 31-year old Wole
Soyinka, now a Professor and Nobel Laureate,
made his way into the heavily guarded NBC
premises and caused a stir. That day, Chief
Ladoke Akintola was scheduled to give a broadcast
at 7:14pm.


In order to meet up with the Premier’s regionwide
speech schedule, Akinwande Oshin, the continuity
announcer, breezed into the studio at 6.45 pm with
a Yoruba and an English tape containing Akintola’s
speech. It was at the point when Oshin wanted to
slot in the tape into the console that a man
suspected to be 31-year old Soyinka came in
stealthily like a phantom.


The intruder was described this way : “The man was
tall, a little over six feet, light complexioned. His
hair was luxuriant, his sideburns and moustache
shaved but he had a beard that shot out
aggressively from his chin. He wore a pair of blue
jeans and a smock of traditional Igbira cloth. He
produced a Bereta pistol and held it to the
technician’s head. “Give me those tapes. GIVE ME
THOSE TAPES OR ELSE……!” His voice was neutral,
educated but not foreign, clear but not menacing.”

A debate, perhaps, ensued in Oshin’s delicate brain
matter. Should he obey the intruder or call his
bluff? Then, the cold snout of the gun reminded
him that if he had the strength of Sango and Ogun
put together, that instrument the stranger pointed at
his palpitating temple could despatch him straight
to the other side of eternity to meet his ancestors.
He played ball in a jiffy. He handed over the tape
to the gun bearing man who gave him another tape
as substitute. Oshin slotted in the new tape and a
new broadcast went live. Mission accomplished,
the intruder slithered out like a serpent into the
night!

https://pmnewsnigeria.com/2019/07/15/soyinka-at-85-flashback-on-how-he-invaded-ibadan-radio-station/

Scream:
Then, he was worse than the young people he was accusing of all sorts.

obyrich:
I honestly don't see any difference between FFK and Soyinka. Both are academically bright but lack morality.

Raskimonojendor:
Of course. After the operation wettie. (Akintola vs Awolowo)

He also went to jail for trying to help ibos.

MasterJayJay:
There have been claims that Wole Soyinka invaded a radio station in 1965 with gun to stop the announcement of Akintola as winner of an election.

obyrich:
I honestly don't see any difference between FFK and Soyinka. Both are academically bright but lack morality.