Alao-Akala: The policeman who rose to become governor

 

All people are indeed living histories, but they are only consciously read when they eventually check out of the world. The final cock of Chief Christopher Adebayo Alao Akala crew at dawn today, after the 71-year-old had reportedly battled illness for some while.

The father of seven reportedly died in his hometown in Ogbomosho, Oyo state.

Until his death, he held firmly the political fabric of Ogbomosho. This is with due credit to his grassroot influence and development contributions to the town when he was governor. Ogbomosho is the only town outside Ibadan which has produced a governor for Oyo state since 1999.

Ripples Nigeria brings to you, a highlight of his life and trajectory through enduring childhood hardship, police cadetship, and eventually to being a governor in Oyo state.

Chief Alao-Akala was born on June 3, 1950, but two years after his birth, he became fatherless. In 1952, he lost his father in a ghastly motor accident at Iroko via Ibadan on his way to Ogbomoso from the then Gold Coast now Ghana.

His mother remarried, and Adebayo was taken up by his grandmother, Iya Subuola Otunla. Although he was enrolled in primary school, his childhood was rough, and his future had been a fuzzy one if not for what he later termed “amazing grace from God.”

“For a toddler who lost his father at age two, and whose widowed mother’s anguish knew no bound—more so being a young woman—the future did not hold any promise for me,” he recounted in his 530-page autobiography, titled Amazing Grace.

He had his elementary school at Osupa Baptist Day School, Ogbomoso before proceeding to Kamina Barracks Middle School, 5th Battalion of Infantry in Tamale, Ghana.

“Career as Officer of the Law”

Those were the words with which he described his stint in the Nigeria Police Force. He rose through the ranks from a cadet to Assistant Commissioner of Police.