September 16, 2024

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Interview

‘Must-Read’ Orientactualmags.com’s  Interview With Octogenarian Shuaib Oyedokun…Secret He Has Never Told Anyone Apart From His Wife…How SM Afolabi Was Lured Into NPN …What Bola Ige Told Him After 1983 Post-Election Violence

‘Must-Read’ Orientactualmags.com’s  Interview With Octogenarian Shuaib Oyedokun…Secret He Has Never Told Anyone Apart From His Wife…How SM Afolabi Was Lured Into NPN …What Bola Ige Told Him After 1983 Post-Election Violence

Alhaji Shuaib Afolabi Oyedokun , an indigene of Inisha, Odo-Otin local government, Osun state, is a veteran politician, a retired teacher, and a famous fashion designer in Osun Division in the 60s.

Chief  Shuaib Oyedokun at different times served as old Oyo state NPN secretary,  Secretary to the old Oyo state Government under  Dr Omololu Olunloyo , PDP Deputy  National  Chairman (South)   during  Olusegun Obasanjo administration and Chairman of  Michael Imodu National Institute for Labour Studies, (MINILS), Ilorin, during the Goodluck Jonathan administration.

Team@orientactualmags.com sat down with the amiable politician at his Inisha residence during the eid-li-adha celebration for an in-depth conversation and he reminisced about things that happened during the second republic.

We enjoyed the rare interview with Chief Oyedokun, who is in his late 80s, and he spared time detailing how things unfolded between the NPN bigwigs and UPN bigwigs in the old Oyo state during the second republic.

He also told us what he had never told anyone apart from his wife and children.

It is a must-read for anyone interested in what happened in the old Oyo state and other states in the south west  between October 1, 1979 and December 31,1983 . You will definitely read and reread this interview.

Read On:

You were the SSG in the old Oyo state, how many official cars were  made  available to you ?

 Thank you very much. I had only one with a driver. Sometimes I have my Personal Assistant  by my side, on my left side. I sit at the owner’s corner. That was all I had. No police escort, nothing. 

What about the governors? They had a convoy of cars right?

As far as I can remember and what I actually know, I served under Dr Omololu  Olunloyo, who I would describe as a very meticulous individual. Very strict, very prudent. He had his official car; he had a pilot and an escort. That was all. Three. Then, the one that made the fourth one carries the security people. That was all.

 You were actively involved in politics during the second republic and you’re still very active now. What was the motive for going into politics years ago and do you think this is still sustained?

 Taking a   decision to  join politics was actually through invitation by my immediate community that believed that they needed somebody that they could  put forward to serve the community’s interest. So it was communal- based. That was how I was  also made  the principal  of a secondary school in my town, I was asked  to resign and come and serve. So the motive was service to the community and recruitment was by understanding, sponsorship, well -groomed sponsorship and entry  behaviour into politics was that you must have a very good background, educationally. You must have the support of your people. You must be loyal to your party and adhere to the rules and regulations of your party. You must be disciplined. You must get some mentorship because there was hierarchy, there was order, there was strict code of conduct, there was consistency, and we breathed the spirit and practice of collective responsibility. Anything that affected one, adversely, affected the whole group. That was the way thing were. But all these have vanished because the whole situation is now very fluid. You don’t know who’s loyal to whom and you can’t be loyal to an unjust leadership. So the interplay between loyalty and justice is an issue that should be seriously looked into. If you want people to be loyal to your party, you want people to obey the rules and regulations and the constitution of your party, then there must be justice. There must also be  a good reward system. If people perform well, reward them positively. If they misbehave, activate the rules. Discipline them, justly. But the whole thing now seems that it appears nothing is working well. The system has collapsed.

You said the system has collapsed but we had instances during the 2nd republic where people defected from one party to another. And we still have cases of party switching now. You see someone in APC today, tomorrow he’s in the PDP, next tomorrow he’s in  the Labour Party. We even had people who wanted to participate in the presidential primary of a particular political party but later left  to get presidential nomination somewhere else. During the 2nd republic in the old Oyo state, we also had  Dr. Olunloyo ,  your humble self  and others having reasons to leave UPN for the NPN?

Let me first make a clarification , Olunloyo was never in any political party. He was a freelancer. He was a social critic. He could lash on any political party or any incumbent in government  in those days and I was never in  the UPN too. I started my politics directly from the NPN. I was  a public servant, I left and joined the NPN  directly. Having said that, the issue of carpet-crossing is not unknown, actually, it exists  almost everywhere in the world  when it comes to  politics especially where democracy is in vogue. The difference is seen in the dimensions and the nature. Yes, there was a time people like Akinloye and some other political bigwigs defected from their party and joined another. But carpet-crossing then was with some decorum. This was apparently based on ideology. This is what this party A wants to do. Party B disagrees, we are not going there, to form alliance and win election. It was neat and it was very formal. Carpet-crossing would be from opposition to the ruling party or from the ruling party to the opposition, as long as it serves the communal interest. But the difference now is that it is individualistic. It is materialistic. It is without any rule, even where there are rules that a political party must have been in disarray before any member could jump from one party to another .

They just take it as an excuse. So it is very loose and uncontrolled. The issue is made worse by the fact that the receiving party as long as it is in government or in control of the parliament will break the law, will circumvent the law and accept the migrants. That’s what makes it different instead of declaring their seats vacant. They overlook this and protect them. They don’t take it with any atom of seriousness. It’s like it’s just a joke and money would also be involved.  It wasn’t  like that  in the past. It was purely organized, purely principle- based, it was based on ideology, group convictions. It was not individualistic.

 Based on the clarification you’ve made, who were the people that left the UPN for NPN?  

It was  Chief S.M Afolabi, Odetoyinbo, and others who left the UPN to join our party. And even that time, I don’t think their decision to  leave was all that voluntary. It was induced. We in the  NPN wanted to win the gubernatorial election. We wanted to  take over the state from the ruling UPN under a very strong governor. That was Bola Ige. So we were used to organizing party primaries. The UPN was not used to organizing party primaries. We organized our own party primaries and selected our candidates. They wanted to do it the way they do things,  because their own is that  they have  a succession pattern. So we walked into them to break that succession pattern. We walked into them through the likes of Lekan Salami, Lamidi Adedibu, Baba Adebiyi, Baba Lana ,who later became Olubadan, and many others like that. We walked into them to  woo Chief S.M Afolabi. We wanted to ensure that if they organize their guber  primary election, if one of them wins it means Chief Bola Ige will continue.  And this will imply that he has broken the agreement that he would hand over to another person. Both of them were from Osun division then. Afolabi was to succeed him but that agreement was broken. So if….

(Our reporter interrupts) Was Chief Bola Ige meant to spend one term?

 Well, I don’t know what arrangements they had but we expected that  Afolabi would succeed him. So if Afolabi had  won that primary election, Bola Ige will never come and join NPN. So we worked to support Bola Ige to win the primary election. It was like a mystery. It was well- calculated. I was involved as  state NPN  secretary then. So I know the story. So, the calculation was  that if Afolabi loses, he was more likely  to join NPN than Bola Ige. And we did that through Late Odetoyinbo, and some other younger elements. That was why after  their primary  and Bola Ige had  won, Afolabi  left UPN for NPN   with more than 50%  of the local government chairmen.

The leader of the local government chairmen then is the present Oba of Irun-Ekiti and some members of the House of Assembly. I was chosen as the secretary of the team that  handled things with them and I was working with them seriously. The party secretariat organized them for the election. Afolabi did that in old Oyo. Omoboriowo did that in the old Ondo and so on and so forth. Those who belonged to JAC ,the Joint Action Committee in UPN.  That was how every one of them that broke away from the UPN came up as NPN gubernatorial candidate. Afolabi said no, all he wanted was not the governorship  seat but to defeat  the person who has cheated him. And, therefore, he would work with NPN to win the election and accept whatever they can give him thereafter. We won the election and he was offered the ministerial slot. That ministerial slot was actually meant for either Late Dr. Ahmed Kosamotu or myself, from this zone. But once Afolabi came, we all ceded it to him that this man has helped us to win election and he was made the  Minister of Education. 

This has shown that people ensured that they keep their word in those days?

Yes,  we did. 

 But I think it is ….?

 No. No. No. They just use you and dump you nowadays. Well, for certain reasons, some are also at fault , you offer to  help someone win an election. You take money from them before the election. After the election is won, you still want to have an appointment, No. ‘A kii je meji laba Alade’ .

That is one of the reasons some promises are broken. 

But in those days, there was nothing like money changing hands?

 No, not all. 

 Was it  only  about you  working for the party and  they say ‘we will  give you this position and that?

 Let me tell you one thing. In 1982, there was a meeting of the leaders of all the political parties. I was privileged to be there when Awolowo, Shagari, Waziri, Aminu Kano and others held that meeting, that we should look into the issue of  cross-carpeting and control it. If people have to leave the party, we have to be good enough, we have to be magnanimous enough, we have to be cooperative enough to clear that person, to let that person take a clearance letter from the party he’s exiting. 

 They actually did that?

 Yes, they did that. 

 Where was the meeting held?

 It was in Lagos.  We in  the NPN later included it in our constitution. Although it wasn’t published. But  I will find a way of looking for it. Have you been to my library? Waziri was actually in support of the steps taken to control party switching. You know  that when his party  won election  the old Gongola state, they made  an Ogun state  indigene, Madam Oyetola,  a commissioner in that state. That was  the spirit obtainable then. But  now the whole thing is in a mess. All these things I’m saying will be very strange to newcomers who never knew about it. People are just behaving somehow in politics. There had been a system  in place for  a real democracy,  If the military did not intervene, our democracy would have been more democratic.

Alhaji Shuaib Oyedokun  pictured at his library

But  there were allegations that the NPN leaders were misusing public funds and were flamboyant ?

 You see what they call flamboyant lifestyle  then was ‘live and let’s live’. ‘Live and let others live’. It is now ‘live, don’t allow others to live’. That’s the difference. Very cooperative, understanding and  very helpful. We were our brother’s keeper. 

Only a few people  were involved in politics in those days but nowadays  almost everybody is a politician. Is this a worrisome development?

 One of the pains of Nigerian politics now is what we call polluted entry. We had a system. Like I said, we had hierarchy. We had order, we had a succession pattern and this was working. Somebody now comes from America, he brings plenty of money, because of poverty, he shares the money and he becomes a hero. They forget somebody who has been digging the ground, watering the political party. That one will be thrown aside and they’ll adopt a newcomer, the young man who has no pedigree. Not that because he’s young but somebody who has no pedigree, somebody who has no idea of what he’s going to do in politics. So entry behavior is important. In those days, you find retired teachers, you find lawyers, you find retired public servant or businessmen. Now, basically, we find people who take politics as their first employment. Let me give you an example,  as the NPN  secretary  in old Oyo state before I became the secretary to the state  government, I was purely facing  party matters.

 Yes, contractors were known. None of us in administration would take any contract. I never, as secretary, had a single contract. The party arranged for my remuneration. I never lobbied for any contract. But now the secretary is the person who will even sit down and handle all the contracts, or exploit the contractors. We used to have commission from contractors. But the whole system has changed. That is why we don’t fit into the system now. We are not used to it. This is my house. It has 15 rooms. How many would I occupy? Do I need any other one? People say why don’t you go and build a house on a piece of land in the outskirts. It’s not necessary. I have one  in Abuja and that is all in the whole world. But I just see people, jumping about, acquiring everything.

How will people not suffer? What I’m saying in essence is that poverty has done a lot and who are the architects of this poverty  that we are talking about? Hmm,, it is the politicians. Let us be frank with ourselves.  The number of cars that will follow a governor. The siren, and they will  force a poor man  to leave the road. Look at how much they are being paid as allowances. How much is the teacher who taught them taking as salary, the common labourer. So, they are susceptible to surrendering their liberty to the highest bidders. We have made people to surrender their liberty to the highest bidders. Having said that, however, we also have the young ones to blame.

Many are very indolent. They don’t want to work. They just want to cut corners and have cheap money and that doesn’t work well. Let me give an example. I was preparing to go to my farm in this town one day; some young men came in very early in the morning when I was putting on my canvas. They came to ask for money. I said ‘O, very good. My sons, I’m going to the farm now, let us go together. By the time we come back, you’ll have more than enough to take home’.

 Then they started giving excuses. One of them followed me. I didn’t allow him to do any work on that farm. We were just moving round to inspect things.  When we got back home, I gave him N10,000 for the mere fact that he could volunteer to follow me to the farm. None of them wanted to go. Recently, here in my hometown,  at the riverine areas, the Odo Otin river I found heaps made in preparation for yam, I found fresh vegetables, fresh tomatoes. Who did all these? I asked?  Someone  said Hausa migrants who were displaced in the north. They came here and they are selling vegetables and other items. Food is becoming cheaper here. Vegetables are becoming cheaper and the people in the town are angry that they have come to plant here  and there are people that could not do such.

 They prefer going around following politicians to take cheap money. They beg before they eat. While you are blaming leadership, blame the followership too.

 You’ve identified a major problem. Going forward, what do you think can be done to address this?

 We need a leader that would not mind stepping on toes. Whoever that one is, we need leadership system that will nail the coffin of making cheap money and develop and change our orientation. We have to start from the young people , they  have to be given correct orientation right from their homes. The parents are no longer in control. The children are becoming uncontrollable. Unless that is done, there will be problem. 

We have leaders, we have followers, and you’ve identified the challenges facing us, and you have also proffered solutions but the loss of moral character, what do we do about it?

 Well, again, when we were growing up, our character moulding system started from the home, from our father, from our mother. We wake up in the morning, the first thing they do is that they make sure you wash your face, brush your teeth, sweep the rooms, make your beds and go and clean the frontage of the building. Even where there are no toilets, they go to the backyards and defecate there, they would ask you to cover it with sand and so on. How many children do that now? We used to have our time to read, to study and under very harsh conditions. I was telling some of my grandchildren, we used to use hurricane lamps and before then we used to use earthen clay ‘fitilas’. Now what they hold is their phone and if they are learning something tangible on the phone, yes it is positive but they don’t.  Comedies, sexual materials, indecent videos and so on, that’s what they face. You see them walking along the road with that thing and they collide with others. So the thing starts from home. Then, now, when we get to the school system, the teacher is there ,

it is said that ‘you spare the rod you spoil the child’. When you discipline a child that misbehaves the mother would get home and still reprimand the child. But now, you cannot even do that. They will go to the teacher’s wife or children and beat them. So there have been great lapses there and as long as that continues, it will be worst. When you are saying the correct thing, they have categorized us now as ‘old school’ or ‘analogue’, they are digital. Whereas I believe in change but that change should be on very strong moral behaviours, not on those behaviours. We used to have sex education from our parents. A young lady who is probably knowing about menstrual period for the first time would go to the mother and ask questions. Now it’s the boyfriend who will know and they regulate it together. Mothers have no control. This is a system now that both mum and dad will not even agree at home. Father says this is the right thing and mother says no, people don’t do that anymore. So the home, the school, the religious institutions, that is where they use to wrap everything up in those days. Even if people are misbehaving, the church system would correct but  today the leadership of the church itself is corrupt. When I say church, I mean church and mosque. The religious system, they are corrupt because they are also materialistic. They are not spiritually -inclined anymore. Everything they do now is terrestrial, no more celestial. Then the peer group, ‘oniru n ru ni iborun’  is even worst. The peer group which has been in place like  boys scout, girls guild and all those things  we used to call extra- curricular activities in those days, it is  now cultism that is in vogue.

Some people started this, people who are now heroes of the world; they started it like a joke. The thing turned out to be a stigma now. They thought they were playing rascality. They introduced drinking of palm wine while learning. They called themselves kegites. See what it has turned into. So all the systems, organs, agencies, that used to mould the character of the child right from the beginning to adulthood have collapsed. The worst is the home. If your child could not speak English, then he’s an illiterate. Yoruba is losing its value, and once you lose your language, you lose your culture and tradition. I was watching a programme of the elegant woman some three days ago and that guy was emphasizing that an elegant woman must be a woman who doesn’t tie wrapper, they should be wearing gowns, mini skirts. I nearly broke the screen, if I could get the woman inside there. When you’re doing that, if it suits their culture in the east, does it suit our culture in Yoruba land for woman not to tie wrapper? He said its old fashion to tie wrapper with buba and gele and iborun to look beautiful. 

Alhaji Shuaib Oyedokun poses for picture with his daughter ; Hajia Basirat, the Iyalode of Inisha  and others after the interview.

Why did you choose to join the NPN because  UPN was then the most popular party in  Yoruba land ? 

When I said my people called me. It was very genuine. Because now, there are two groups that are being called ; greedy politicians would say my people called me, fake prophets would say God called me. So this call of a thing we have to define it. My own was through a meeting held  in my community. They said who is the best to represent us and they chose five of us and I topped the list. 

 Was the decision on the party you eventually joined taken at  the said meeting?

There were two parties ; UPN and NPN. By the grace of God, if my book comes out, this question is already answered there. The party I chose was due to the outcome of my father’s spiritual consultation in respect of the issue. He didn’t want me to join politics  but his  friends, persuaded him to allow me. He said  I should give him  two days and  he called me  later and said the most popular party is UPN, but you won’t have your way there. No, he described it. He said there are two political parties. One has a very narrow path at the beginning but as I moved on it becomes wide. He said one has a very wide beginning but it narrows down and somehow it vanishes and I asked which one is it, he said UPN. He wasn’t a politician. He was the chief imam of this town. 

The beginning of my journey with NPN was narrow but gradually it became widened until eventually it metamorphosed into PDP. If I was deputy national Chairman, and for sometimes acted as national chairman when my principal was not around, then it means I was on top of the ladder. And in the same party, NPN, I was secretary to the government. And I’ve been leading in my own way until we all came into PDP and I became the deputy national chairman. And I was very functional, I was effective. I’m proud to say that. Maybe one of the reasons I don’t have as much as my colleagues have was because I have never been a minister or a senator . I have faced party administration and I never left  that line. I have focused on one line and I  have maintained that line throughout. 

The late Chief Bola Ige wanted a second term  and you were one of those who stopped him from getting re-elected, after the military coup had taken place and you had  both left government , did you get to meet anywhere?

What a beautiful question. This house was completely burnt down  because he instigated violence.  My father’s house was burnt down,  an innocent man. My brother’s school was burnt down, my sister’s house was set ablaze. Many people were killed in this town because of the post-election broadcast he made and he incited the people.  Before then, the UPN in this town deliberately wanted to annoy me and named this street  after Bola Ige.

Most of the buildings belong to NPN members; Prof. Adewoye was here, a renowned historian. That’s his house there.  Another person, one of the best lawyers around then, that’s his house there. Everyone of us here belonged to NPN. Then they came and named this place Bola Ige street. I was later  in position to rename it when I became secretary to the state  government ,people wanted to change it. I said no, it has come to stay. 

You were the state secretary of NPN when they named it after Chief Bola Ige?

Yes, they did it just to annoy me. Very interesting. I said no, don’t do it. 

Where were you when they were attacking your house, I mean the arson attack?

I was in the house here.

How were you able to escape?

It was the second day I left this place that they burnt the house. I was in a Peugeot car.  They saw me and wanted to waylay me. I passed through here to check what was going on. They saw me and mobilized that at least I would take this route while  coming back but when I got to the eid area, I changed the car. I entered a Volkswagen, so the station wagon took the other place. By the time I passed through them nobody knew. 

Are we talking about security strategy or spiritual strategy here, like late Sikiru Ayinde Barrister did? 

 I had no police, I had nobody. 

A popular publisher in Akure wasn’t that lucky?

 I wouldn’t want to mention names. Let me tell you one thing. This world, one has   to be very careful. God sees everything. They gave us some money to keep. We , the state NPN secretaries. They gave us some money to keep after attending a meeting. I kept mine in the house here but when I was going, I took it along.  A secretary in  one of the states, said he kept the money, and could not find it again   but in spite of all the problems, they thought the money had been burnt in my house because they saw  sample ballot papers  that we  had used to educate voters. It was not my money they burnt. I took my money away and handed it over to the party. Then the other man said that he took the money from Dikko because we were receiving the money from Umaru  Dikko then, that when he got to the checking point, he saw that the car boot  had been opened and he was afraid and he didn’t know. When he got home he checked the car boot and realized that they had taken the money.  They  killed him  during the post-election violence and found the money in his house. I don’t want to mention names. I gave my own money to the party after my house had been burnt. The party bought clothes for me, they gave me half of the money. MKO Abiola flew from Lagos in a Helicopter and landed in. premier hotel and came to see me in  the hospital. 

You asked  if myself and Bola Ige met after the 1983 post-election violence?  Yes. We met 

What was  your reaction?

 We were both members of this Ilosiwaju Yoruba group and a meeting was called by  Chief J.S Olawoyin in Offa. I arrived at the venue early. Bola Ige came late and he was to pass through where I was sitting to go to the high table. Then he stopped to greet me and whispered  in my ear  ‘Shuaib, I’m sorry for all that happened. The future will be bright for us. Please forget everything’ , I brought out my handkerchief. I was sobbing. I could not make any contribution at the meeting that day. I was impressed. I’ve never told anybody this except my wife and children. 

Meaning that I’m the first person to be told what happened outside your family, thank you, I appreciate?

 Yes. Before he sat down, he whispered in my ear and apologized. Based on that, I told my friend, late Ambassador Kolawole  Bidmus  that we should  visit Bola Ige in Ibadan. He invited me and said I should bring my friend. So he gave us lunch, we ate pounded yam. He said I should compile  the list of likeminded individuals in both parties, and said we   should  work together. 

When he became the Minister of Justice, you were the PDP Deputy National Chairman?

We were together when he was part of the  people writing the manifestos.

I mean after his appointment as minister?

I was then acting, because S.M Afolabi together with him had already been appointed  as ministers, Afolabi was the  deputy national chairman. So, when he left I took over in acting capacity.

  

We’re talking about chief Bola Ige as Justice  minister, did you visit him in his office? Was there any interaction between the two of you?

You know what? Himself and  SM Afolabi were not on talking terms  I intervened  I talked to the two of them and they obliged. Then, I was even almost closer to Bola Ige. And we had some understanding, what really caused the problem was when he decided  that he was going to reorganize AD in preparation for the  2003 general election.

So, you were actually thinking he would defect to the PDP?

No, no, no. People were acting on principles on ideology then, loyalty to what they belong to. Not all these materialistic people. There was loyalty to his party then.

But as the PDP  Deputy National Chairman, did you actually ask him  to join your party? 

 We never did. Instead of that, he wanted me to join  the AD. He came to this town and said look, you people here you don’t value what you have. You know he can abuse anybody. He never abused me. He said you have people like Shuaib here, highly intelligent, this and that and so on, he’s my friend. Go and win him instead of fighting with him. He said this during a campaign rally  here.

When was the last time you spoke to him before he was assassinated?

I can’t really remember the last time we spoke. I think it was during  a party at Jerry Gana’s house.

But he wasn’t a member of PDP? What was he doing at Jerry Gana’s residence?

Don’t you know that they formed the PDP together? Jerry Gana was the coordinator. 

He actually said  he wrote the manifestos of the three political parties; APP,AD and PDP?

Yes, himself and David Jembewon. They  played very prominent roles.

What really was the reason for disagreement between late S.M Afolabi and Chief Bola Ige?

Well, if they were alive they will be able to say better because for every action a man performs there are two broad reasons; the real reason and the good reason. Good reason is the one you want people to hear. Real reason is what is in your mind. You can’t tell people but it’s in your mind. The real reason is what really you cannot tell people. The good reason is the one you want to tell people. The good reason is  political it centres on the issue of secession. That’s the good reason. The real reason is between the two of them. 

You’re an octogenarian and a prominent Yoruba leader. We currently have a Yoruba man as president . How do you see this? Do you think he has gotten off  to a good start?  Also, talking about the government at the state level vis a vis  the development at the federal level, would the interest of Osun state be protected? 

It’s a very broad and rich question. I will summarize it in two sentences. As a Yoruba man, I’m happy that our man is there which may not necessarily translate to maximum dividends of democracy for an average Yoruba man. It may be, it may not. But before I can assess him, I want the tribunal to end. Because I’m in PDP, a prominent member, at least by title. I want to see the end of the tribunal before making any appraisal. Number two, as far as Osun state is concerned, we are in government, we have all the members of the house assembly, just one for APC. We have all the national assembly seats, we have the governor. My take is that we should be endowed with wisdom, courage, native intelligence and spirit of justice and  fair play to justify the honour and grace  that God has given the party. 

Can you please tell us about yourself?

My education started from home, from my father and mother. I was well- groomed under them. I had my basic education at the  St Peters here in Inisha, and I left there in 1951. And I jumped into my other labour of love, tailoring which includes both English and native wears and I  became a popular tailor here in Inisha and Oshogbo. I always cherish this.  I ventured into teaching by the virtue of the fact that my father was one of those people who brought Ansar-deen primary school here and they needed teachers. All the teachers they had at the beginning were Christians and they needed Muslim boys. They came to recruit me from my tailoring shop and I trained as a teacher, became a teacher. I passed my grade 2 with my GCE  at the same time. I never visited any university in  my life until the day I resumed there. Some people here were mocking me that was he going there to study tailoring. Some even thought that I was at the teachers’ college when I was in the university. I had a very nice time there. I had a scholarship. 

Which university?

 University of Ife and University of  Ibadan. I did my postgraduate in Ife. I read geography in Ife and did Business administration in Ibadan- Team@orientactualmags.com
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