WHY BISI AKANDE WROTE MEMOIR

Dear Olusegun Adeniyi,

Let me start by saying that I really enjoyed reading your article, ‘Akande, Tinubu, Buhari and 2023.’ There have been many articles on Bisi Akande’s book over the last week. Few of the writers had bothered to read the book and even fewer of them showed the depth of thinking that you brought to your writing. Thank you.

Let me now respond to the comment in your opening paragraph that the book was written “to warn, albeit in a subtle manner, that President Muhammadu Buhari (who eulogised Akande at the ceremony) has a responsibility not to renege on a certain political agreement that facilitated his ascension to power in 2015”. I am Chief Akande’s nephew, and I was a member of the family committee that helped him with the writing and publication of the book, and I can say confidently that the 2023 elections played no part in the timeline of the release of the book.

As the author said in the preface, this was a project that started in 2012. Indeed, he first mentioned the idea to me in 2008. Our committee was set up in 2014 to help choose an editor to help him structure his thoughts and help with editing of his writing. The delay in getting the book to market was because of the failure of the first editor to complete the project and the need to appoint a new editor – Dare Babarinsa – in 2017. The original brief to Babarinsa was to have the book ready for Chief Akande’s 80th birthday in January 2019, but unfortunately many delays, from all sides, meant the book was launched almost three years later.

My point is that essentially the book was written in its current form by 2015, which is where the story ends. Therefore, it cannot be said to have been written in anticipation of events that would happen six years afterwards.

Oyewole Akande