For me, clocking 80 is a miracle —Oyebola

Chief Areoye Oyebola successfully edited the Daily Times in the early 70s. Before his journalism career he was the head of department of Economics at the Olivet Height School in Oyo after he had graduated from the University of Ibadan in 1964 with a Bachelor of Science in Economics. He is author of 26 books. Oyebola clocks eighty years today. In this interview by TUNDE BUSARI, he speaks on his life, national issues among others. Excerpts:

How do you feel entering the club of octogenarians?

I am thankful to God for his mercy over me. I always imagine how I made it till this age. How did I make it? I wrote a book titled ‘Alive Because of Miracle’. I will attribute my survival to the unbelievable intervention of God in my life. Why me? Why am I the only surviving child out of eight children? My mother had three sets of twins and all died at infancy. She later had me as Idowu and I surprisingly survived. To God be the glory for his protection over me from childhood through adulthood. He alone deserves all praises and adoration.

You must have passed through some challenges of life that informed this gratitude to God. Can you share some of these experiences?

Can you believe it that I have never spent a day in any hospital bed in my life? Is that not God’s grace? I never had a sickness that took me to the hospital to the extent of keeping me there. If at 80 I am saying this, you should know that I have enjoyed the mercy of God in my life. One interesting experience I had that also made me to further understand the work of God in my life occurred incidentally on the very day I clocked 60.

What happened?

I was travelling to Lagos on that day. I just wanted to quickly go and return to Ibadan same day. As we approached Shagamu, satan spoke into my ear and said loudly that ‘you are going to die today’. He called my first name loudly and repeated it that ‘you are going to die today’. I then replied and called on Jesus and said that ‘satan you were defeated at Cavalry. Stop threatening me.’ I started to sing some hymns. But when we arrived Lagos, precisely at Ilupeju, a gang of armed robbers attacked me and the driver and went away with the car. Do you know how God surprised me? Five days after the incident, I received a call from the police anti-robbery squad that the armed robbers had been arrested. They said the gang was rounded up somewhere in Apapa. One of them I learnt was shot while attempting to escape. I saw the leader of the gang and he apologized to me. He said he had killed somebody at the same spot and went away with his Honda Accord. He said something was telling him not to kill me. Is that not God’s grace?

Can I then say you are fulfilled?

You can say that again. I am fulfilled in all areas of life. I rose from nothing to become something in life. What else do I want? I am author of 26 books including the unique and timeless book I call ‘Black Man Dilemma’ which I published in 1976. Also when I turned 60, the prestigious Guardian Newspaper devoted a full page for me under the title: A critic, A Patriot. In the piece I was described thus: ‘If there was any man who pushed Nigeria with sound ideas that could make it great, that man is Areoye Oyebola.’ My writings were quoted in the piece and I was likened to a prophet. I said Nigerian approach to economic development of Nigeria was so naïve and superficial and based on trial-and-error and that I concluded that the farther we went the further would the end of our journey remain out of sight in Nigeria. Also I am sited in the international biographies of 5000 personalities of the world. I am sited among the who-is-who in the Commonwealth. I was a guest of the Chinese government. I was also a guest of the US government, North Korean government and the Queen of England. What else do I want?

Let us talk about your journey into the media world. How did you become a journalist?

I was inspired by my acknowledged flair for writing right from my secondary school days. I love writing and I recollect the day our teacher, Mrs Kemi Morgan, gave the class an essay titled ‘Storm In The City.’ It was an essay about the storm that occurred in Ibadan and swept away a lot of things. I was in Class three then. When Mrs Morgan read out my essay to the class, my classmates all hailed me and the woman called me and remarked that I would be a great person in the future. She said my introduction was so impressive and above the standard expected of a class three student.  One day, she called me and advised that I should have a book in which I record important words, phrases and expressions for future use. This piece of advice helped me and made me a confident writer. Today, I go through my old writings and asked myself ‘how did I write those things?’

When and how did you break into the profession?

As I said, I had developed interest in writing articles which were published in the Nigerian Tribune, Sketch and Daily Times. I was not new to the profession before I finally joined in 1968 after I passed an interview. I was teaching at the Olivet Height School, Oyo when I saw the Daily Times advertisement for graduate trainee. I applied and was recruited by Mr Henry Kayode Odukomaya. He said he did not want to offer me the job despite the fact that I scored the highest mark of 80. The next person to me scored 68. He said he did not want Daily Times, a national newspaper to recruit me as journalist.

How then did you rise to the elite position of editor of the paper?

There was no magic there. It was by a dint of hard work and nothing more. I was regarded as a resourceful journalist with so many investigative and exclusive stories, stories which asserted the authority of Daily Times. I was contributing to all publications from the organization. I recall that I covered the burial of the late Ghana President Kwame Nkruma and went ahead to interview his mother. Nkruma’s body was in Conakry and I found my way there instead of going to Accra straight, and filed exclusive stories. This particular trip earned me commendation and salary increment. The truth is that because I was already well grounded in writing before I joined, I was able to prove my competence beyond doubt even though this did not go without some envy among the non-graduates who formed 80 per cent of the staff strength of the organisation.

I learnt that your exit raised some dust. What led to your disengagement?

It was what I can call professional hazard because the person, our managing Director, Alhaji Babatunde Jose, could not defend his action. He took a unilateral decision which led to the crisis in the organization. He lost confidence of the staff to the extent that unknown to me a Joint Action Committee was set up by the senior management staff in editorial, marketing and advertisement departments. The staff did not allow my deputy to take my place.

Who was your deputy?

Segun Osoba. He would later get another job with Herald Newspaper.

Where then did you go?

I was made a commissioner in the defunct western state.

How did you emerge a commissioner after the incident?

I think I told you that God has always favoured me. The power-that-be, in the first place, differed with Alhaji Jose’s decision, then they thought I would be useful in higher position. I cannot forget the role played by the duo of the late Murtala Muhammed and former President Olusegun Obasanjo. The duo stood by me. Baba Awolowo too invited Jose to his Apapa residence and asked him some questions, to which he had no answer except an assurance that he would remedy the mistake by making me the editor-in-chief. But he never did.

What is your view on the state of Nigeria today? 

I must first clarify that in Nigeria we don’t have leaders. Those we have are rulers who are worst than colonial rulers. They are responsible for the backwardness of this great nation, a nation destined to play important roles in the comity of nations. Go and read my Black Man’s Dilemma. Baba Awolowo read the manuscript of the book before I published and we argued and discussed it. In fact, he told me he had spent his last 10 years thinking on the same subject. Something fundamental is wrong with us. We are the most thickly populated black country on the earth yet we cannot translate this to development.

What then do you think is the way out?

I am waiting for God’s intervention, which I believe will come at the appropriate time. It has been said. I am expecting a Rawling to come and line up these people and shoot them. They have messed up our future generations.