Why Odutola rejected Awo’s loan request of £1,400

Why Odutola rejected Awo's loan request of £1,400
By 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 Adeola Odutola (the Ogbeni Oja of Ijebu Ode), has been making the rounds on social media. However, what has not is 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 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:
Why Odutola rejected Awo's loan request of £1,400
thenewsnigeria.com.ng
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