Advertising Guru, Dr. BIODUN SHOBANJO Speaks About Gen. DIYA
They don’t come any better, any finer, than Dr. Biodun Shobanjo. With a career that has spanned possibly over five decades, he is still widely regarded as one of the most brilliant marketing communication experts in the land today. Having started off with Grant Advertising before leaving to co-found Insight Communications, Dr. Biodun Shobanjo today sits proudly as the CEO of Troyka Holdings Limited. He is by far one of the most accomplished Advertising Practitioners from this side of the globe and a true Icon of the industry here in Nigeria.
Those who know this very prim and proper, decent gentleman very closely will tell you he keeps a very small but exclusive circle of friends. He does not keep too many friends. One of his very close friends was the late distinguished soldier and one time military governor of Ogun State, Lt. Gen. Oladipo Diya who died March, 26, 2023. They were childhood friends. They started off their friendship from way back when they were both in the secondary school. It was a friendship that would go on to last for 65 years. Understandably, outside of the family members of the fallen soldier, one of the few persons that were also badly hit by the news of the passing of Gen. Diya was his childhood friend, Dr. Biodun Shobanjo. So close has he become to the family that the children regard him as a father because he was a constant figure in their lives. He was practically there when they were all born and raised. As you would expect, he was one of the very first few persons the children put a call through to moments after their dad breathed his last.
Dr. Biodun Shobanjo was present at the Service of Songs and Night of Tributes held in honour of late Lt. Gen. Oladipo Diya along with several other dignitaries including the governor of Lagos state, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu. Before he left the event, he spared a few minutes to speak with City People Senior Editor, WALE LAWAL (08037209290) and spoke about his unique friendship with the late General. He also spokew about those very harrowing trial months when Diya was arrested, tried and sentenced to death by the Gen. Sanni Abacha regime on allegations of planning to overthrow the government. Enjoy excerpts of the interview.
Share with us, sir, how did you receive the shocking news of the passing of your very dear friend, Lt. General Oladipo Diya?
It was a difficult situation to come to terms with. Really sad. He’s been ill. And we were hoping he would pull through. At some point, he appeared to be getting better then he fell ill again. His illness was very sudden to be honest. But this particular time, he fell ill suddenly, he was taken to the hospital and then he passed on. Of course, I was one of the first people to be contacted by the children. You know, there was that sense of sadness. Suddenly, you lose a friend of 65 years. You will obviously be very shocked. I was shocked. We had to accept it. Everyone will die anyway. Gradually, the reality of the situation began to sink in. In fact, it was a Sunday. It was very early Sunday morning and I was actually on my way from church when the news was broken to me. Very sad, but we must thank God for his life. He was a great man.
It’s not every time, sir, that you see friends who stay together all through 60, 65 years, what held both of you together? What kept your relationship going for so long?
I think that, in a lot of sense, there were values that we shared. I believe some of these values were from our individual homes and also from school. Things about honesty, integrity, hardwork, being straight forward, we shared that. We chose our friends. Even as young kids growing up, we didn’t have a coterie of friends. We just tended to have a few number of friends that were reliable and we shared same values. That kept us together, to be honest. He was building his career in the military, I was building mine in Advertising. In a sense, we were both moving up at about the same time. We were happy for each other. Like I said earlier, there was nothing I did that he wasn’t there. There was no landmark of mine where he wasn’t there. Even when he became Chief of General Staff, to the extent that at the time we lived in the same neighbourhood, while he lived and died in GRA, I lived in GRA as well before I moved to where I am presently. There were so many similarities in a lot of things. He was a very prudent man. Things of life didn’t matter to him. He was a very humble man. Irrespective of his station in life, he was a very humble man.
He was a military man all throuigh his life,and clearly, you went into the corporate world. Was there a side of him that you both disagreed slightly, either in ideology or philosophy?
Interesting question. He didn’t, in our relationship that is, there was nothing to show that he was a military man, except that he was very disciplined. He was courteous in his relationships. On things that I didn’t agree with, I would tell him when he was in government. I would say, why are you guys doing this, and he would try to explain. You know, it was a collective responsibilty, so I wasn’t inclined to pushing anything and I also recognised the fact that he also had a boss anyway. So, there was really not much that he could do. So, there wasn’t so much dichotomy as such. Like I said moments ago, we dealt on first name basis. There was nothing I couldn’t tell him and there was nothing he couldn’t talk to me about aside what was happening in the military, that was none of my business. I knew where to draw the line.
For somebody who was so very close to him, how traumatic was it for you watching your friend go through those gruelling moments during those very dark days of his trial?
It was very traumatic for all of us. It was particularly traumatic for me for example. When the thing happened, I was outside the country. My wife and I had gone to attend a son’s friend’s wedding in Lebanon and we were to cross over to the UK to spend Christmas because some of our children were still in school at the time in the UK. So, we got to UK, it was this friend that we went for the child’s wedding in Lebanon, that called me and said, ‘are you aware of what’s happening? He said your friend has been arrested for coup planning.At first, it didn’t sink in. He now mentioned his name, I said, no, its not possible. He couldn’t do it. That was how sure I was of him. Now, talking about how traumatic it was for me, I could not come back to Nigeria until almost after six months because almost everybody just said to me, don’t come back, that they are lookimng for Diya’s friends and that if I returned back to Nigeria there was no way I wouldn’t be picked up. Because they knew I was his friend, and that whatever he knew, I was likely to know too. So, I was marooned in the UK. I had some of my family in Nigeria. I had my work in Nigeria. I couldn’t come back for almost six months. We had to be calling home to find out, are they looking for me? Eventually, we returned to Nigeria, you can imagine the trauma for me. When he was tried and found guilty, life virtually came to an end. Sleep was difficult. Eating was difficult. Everything just came to a halt. We coud not even access members of his family because they literally had cordoned them off. So, everybody was just left hanging in the dark. And then, when reprieve came eventually, you can imagine the joy that we felt. It was a difficult time.
What are your fondest memories of him?
Well, sadly, we saw regularly, but when the end came I wasn’t there. I would’ve loved to be there. But I think, for me, the best memories are childhood memories. We really had fun. And of course, as we were building our careers, the kind of relationship we had, they were beautiful. Wonderful memories that we had raising our kids.
One final word to descibe your departed friend, sir.
Fine gentleman. Very misunderstood by many. He was a honourable man. But he didn’t bother that he was misunderstood. Ladi was a man who enjoyed his own company with his family. His family came first. He was big on family, his nuclear family, and he loved the company of his friends. I will personally miss him greatly.
