Every day, at a house in Molete, Ibadan, a cow was killed.
The food was cooked and handed out to whoever came. The most popular meal was amala and gbegiri. Poor people came in their hundreds, some for the plate, many for something else.
A little money. A job. A word from the man inside.
His name was Lamidi Ariyibi Akanji Adedibu.
He was born on October 24, 1927, at Oja-Oba in Ibadan, into the Olupoyi chieftaincy ruling house. He died on June 11, 2008, at the University College Hospital in Ibadan. He was 80.
Between those two dates, he became one of the most powerful men Ibadan has ever produced.
He never held the biggest offices. He did not need to.
People called him the strongman of Ibadan politics. A former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, called him the father of the PDP.
So how does a man build that kind of power?
Adedibu started early.
He entered politics in the 1950s. His first party was the Ibadan People's Party. From there he joined the Action Group under Chief Obafemi Awolowo.
He moved with the times. In the Second Republic he was in the National Party of Nigeria. Later, under General Ibrahim Babangida, he backed Shehu Musa Yar'Adua in the Social Democratic Party.
He did not win everything at first. In 1954 he lost a local election. Two years later, with help from friends, he won a seat.
That is where he learned the thing that made him famous. Politics is not only about winning. It is about who owes you.
His base was his home at Molete.
It was never a quiet house. There was always a crowd. Some came to eat. Some came to complain. Some came to beg for a position they had no other way of getting.
For many poor people in Ibadan, that compound was the first place that ever helped them. That earned him love, and it earned him the name the political god of Molete.
It also earned him power.
People said nobody could hold a political post in Oyo State without his approval. That is where the name strongman came from.
He was a kingmaker, and he proved it. He helped Rashidi Ladoja become governor of Oyo State in 2003.
Then the friendship broke.
Adedibu turned against Ladoja, and the fight led to attempts to remove the governor.
Many of the biggest names in Oyo politics passed through that compound.
Two former governors, Rashidi Ladoja and Adebayo Alao-Akala, came from that circle. So did a former deputy governor.
Not everyone praised him.
Critics said his politics mixed helping people with force. They said loyalty to him could be rewarded, and refusal could be punished.
Both things were said about him while he lived. Both are still said now.
He also held a traditional title. He was the Ekarun of Ibadan, from the Olupoyi ruling house.
His son, Kamorudeen Adekunle Adedibu, later became a senator for Oyo South.
Adedibu was not the only Nigerian who built power this way. But few did it so openly.
He understood one simple thing. Where many people have little, the person who feeds you, finds you work and speaks for you can matter more than any office on paper.
That is why his name still opens doors in Ibadan, and why any story about power in the South West still has to pass through him.
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