How nature has been kind to me —Ibirogba

Lateef Ibirogba, who initially studied Mass Communication at Ogun State Polytechnic and later studied Communications and Language Arts at the University of Ibadan, was a former Commissioner for Information in Lagos State. In this interview, he told SEGUN KASALI how nature has been kind to him and other experiences while growing up.

GIVE us an insight into your background, sir.

I had a humble beginning. My parents were illiterates, but they gave me their best I attended public schools, from primary to secondary. When we were growing up, the popular thing among those of us growing up in Ijebu Ode together was to take eba as breakfast, take garri and fried fish for lunch and for dinner it was eba. Rice was another thing. You wouldn’t even think about it. At times for any reason there was no soup at home in the morning you could not take eba, so they shared money to us to buy beans and mixed with garri. Even when you take that in the morning to school and in the course of school activity, Our mummy must have prepared obe (soup). So, definitely the eba we miss in the morning, we will take in the afternoon and still take eba in the night. At that time, some kind of happiness run into me that oh yes we are not going to drink garri when I get home. In the face of all that, they never compromised discipline and insisted that we must go to school. I think that was the only thing that gave us a place because of their insistence on discipline.

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How much of this discipline did you take to school?

In our days, there was no escape for you. Our home, there was discipline. In school, we had teachers that took us as their children. They would do everything to make sure that discipline was there. I think the inspectors then judged them based on our performances, so they were dedicated. It is not like these days you find teachers misbehaving that children cannot even emulate.

 

How excellent were you in school?

I had a phobia for Arithmetic. There were some problems that I couldn’t even understand. But where I lagged behind in mathematics, I made up in languages, arts and so on.

 

So, what was your escape route for the difficulty in arithmetic?

When I was to sit for WAEC, I realised that one couldn’t escape Maths and English. I had to sit down to interpret those topics and equations in English. It was then I realised that simultaneous equation could be solved using English. I realised too that over the years, there were some topics that you would come across- Longitude and Latitude and so on. Thanks to God I was able to scale through.

 

How was Ijebu ode then while growing up then, sir?

It is not as big as it is now and not as modernized as it now. But even at our level then, it was still something we were proud of because there were some elderly ones who were aristocratic. There were some who were misbehaving. Crime was not as rampant as what we have now. Because they are arrogant they find it difficult to do things that will place in a position to start begging. When we were growing up, you wouldn’t find an Ijebu man doing some jobs, for instance, a gate man. But today, everyone is now misbehaving. I think law and order then was a big thing. You have disgraced the family if you are found contravening the law what people do now without blinking an eye.

 

Take us through your journey into the university

I went to St. Michaels Catholic Primary school. As a Catholic, I did everything religiously. There was a day in Primary four that one of our teachers came to class and asked if anyone could lead us into Catechism. The teachers expected the Catholics amongst us to do it. We were Muslims. I came out and led them into the prayers and from there I began to lead the morning devotion. That too changed my life because I was getting late to school every time. But because of this assignment, I got a true definition of what life is all about that everything is counted on time. I finished that in 1972 and as it I was customary then that when you finished school, you must first of all stay at home. They say you are not mature for secondary school. So, I agreed to stay home. But we were lucky then that it was in 1973 that the school curriculum changed. Instead of January to December, the curriculum changed to from September, so, I couldn’t resume with the January set. I would have waited the whole of 1973, but because of that, it became a six months thing.  By 1979, I was at Adeola Odutola College for my A levels. I had my Secondary School at Ijebu Muslim College. Interestingly, I studied Sciences. By 1982, I had two points and I wanted to study Mass Communication or Law, even with my sciences. Of course, I needed 10 points. University if Ibadan offered me Sociology. Of course, I didn’t have an idea but there was an elderly brother that just finished from the university four or five years later and there was no job. So, I decided that it’s not a question of just studying anything. I was offered at Ogun State University Mass Comunication, not knowing in details what it was. People like Tola Adeniyi and the likes propelled me towards studying Journalism.

 

As a journalist then, what brought you into politics?

I was at Alakuko living there and found that there were a lot of things that people would not do. So, I started rallying them that look let’s form ourselves into CDA. Then, I was the Secretary. I was a political correspondent then. So, you may write the story and not come back home. Our bosses always told us to be prepared as we may not go home that day. Fortunately, Babangida formed SDP and NRC. As political correspondent, we were the first to be trained. They took us on many seminars, telling us the details about this and the other one. At that time, I had been known very well in the community. Every environmental sanitation day, we had meetings. So, I told the community that this is where we are going. Babangida was serious. I told the community that it was the SDP that was progressives and that it was Baba Awolowo’s party. Of course, there were some who still went to NRC but the majority was in SDP. There was a time they said for we to have our own representative, we want you as our councilor. Funny enough, I didn’t win. Why? This is because at that time, there had been crack in the house. In Lagos, there were those of us who were loyal to Dapo Sarumi to become Governor and those loyal to Jakande. Jakande picked the late Agbalajobi to become Governor and we rejected him by voting for Otedola. So, I came into politics really from that background.

 

When you lost the elections, how did you feel because you also lost your job?

I didn’t agonize too much. I had already gained admission into UI to study Communication and Language Arts.

 

How did you come back to politics?

Abacha scuttled the democratic process. Of course some people were doing some small small groupings but some of us felt that this is not the time to get involved in it. Abacha engaged some people to form five political parties, which adopted him. But the late Bola Ige and others decided not to be involved in the nonsense. Of course, in 1999 when everything now happened, all of us came back together came into politics and that’s what we are still doing now.

 

Where did you meet your wife, sir?

We met in school. We have been together from school. She has her secondary school in Ijebu Ode but we were friends then. So, when we got to The Polytechnic, she studied Food Technology. We were meeting in mosque also.

 

What endeared her to you? 

Her brilliance and religion. We had been so close. We could not had any problem of her not telling me yes. Even at outings, we were always together.

 

Sir, what is that thing she has been trying to make you stop?

Because we have known each other for that long, she is like a mother to us all. She even determines whatever I wear.

 

So, she makes cloth choices for you?

Most times, I will even ask her se eleyi da o? I was not used to creaming the body but she insisted I must. She insisted too that our early routine is when you wake up you first of all take water and then take smoothies. It is her definition. Ordinarily, I wouldn’t want to wake up and start doing that.