‘One day, an expatriate officer walked into my office and asked, ‘Where is the Dental Office?’ Without the courtesy of saying ‘Good morning’. Then I retorted, ‘Is that how you say good morning in your own country?’’

 

 

Chapter 2

Launching into a Career

Getting jobs in those days was relatively easy. In secondary school, officers from the Labour Office visited and asked students in their final year where they would like to work when they graduated. I opted for the Judiciary because I wanted to use the Judiciary as a stepping stone to a career in Law. I was disappointed when I was posted to Medical Headquarters.

I started work as a third-class clerk in early 1950 at the Medical Headquarters on Broad Street, Lagos when Dr. Samuel L. Manuwa (now late) was the First African Director of Medical Services for the Federation (he later became Chairman, Federal Public Service Commission). He was the first Nigerian to be promoted director (which was a very top position in those days).

In the course of my service, I was posted to a section known as Registration of Births and Deaths. In the same building we had the Dental Department.

It was a monotonous job but I couldn’t complain. I filed records all day, registered all manner of correspondence. We wore shirt with a tie and a pair of trousers so that we could look like ‘big men’, throughout my short stint there from 1950 to 1952.

One day, an expatriate officer walked into my office and asked, ‘Where is the Dental Office?’ Without the courtesy of saying ‘Good morning’. Then I retorted, ‘Is that how you say good morning in your own country?’

He was taken aback, speechless of course. As an expatriate he went upstairs to report me to the senior expatriate officer, Mr.  Benasone,  who  was  the  Administrative  Secretary  of the Medical Headquarters. The Chief Clerk then was Mr. D. P. S. Shaw (now late) and his assistant was Mr. D.M.O.

Ogunmodede (who was one of the wardens in our church, Holy Trinity Anglican Church, Ebute-Ero).

It was on the strength of this report that Mr. Shaw, the Chief Clerk (who was a very strict man), issued me a query.

In my answer, I stated the case as it was. Both Shaw and Ogunmodede were surprised at the tone of my reply which showed no remorse or apology.

They both tried to persuade me to apologise so that the matter could be put to rest. They said that with the hope that I would tone down my reply before they would take it to the expatriate officer. I blatantly refused, insisting that the white man behaved that way because I was black.

When they took my reply to the Administrative Secretary a few days later, I got a letter of termination.

And so came an abrupt end to my civil service career after less than two years. My appointment having been so terminated, the next question was, ‘where do I get another job?’

By  this  time  in  1952,  I  was  already  in  Egbe  Omo Oduduwa (where I was Secretary of the Lagos Branch under Mr. Sobande), following Dr. Akinola Maja (who was president after Sir Adeyemo Alakija) and Dr. J. Akanni Doherty (later dubbed the ‘Generalissimo of Action Group’ or ‘Daddy’). There was also Chief Remi Fani-Kayode (who was a partner in the chambers of Thomas, Williams & Kayode Solicitors – that is Bode Thomas, Rotimi Williams and Fani-Kayode), H.A.B. Fasinro, Justice Omololu, Justice Adedoyin, Issa Williams, Adeyemi Lawson and S.O. Gbadamosi.

At that time there was the Youth Association and the Lagos  Branch  met  regularly  in  Fani-Kayode’s  office.  He was the chairman and I the secretary. We were known as mosquitoes (which was our emblem).

I took my letter of termination to Dr. Akinola Maja and Alhaji S.O. Gbadamosi who were my political leaders at the time. They both agreed that, due to my political activities, it would be no use seeking appointment for me elsewhere in the Civil Service.

Dr. Maja therefore suggested to Alhaji Gbadamosi (who was then the National Treasurer of Egbe Omo Oduduwa and later Treasurer of Action Group), a first-class Yoruba patriot, that he should employ me in his firm, Ikorodu Trading Company (ITC), which then manufactured singlets. So, I was employed by the company, then at Balogun on Lagos Island where Financial Trust Bank was, and near the Chambers of Samuel, Chris and Michael (that is, Samuel Akintola, Chris Ogunbanjo and Michael Odesanya). Ikorodu Trading Company paid me about £10 (while I earned £7 at Medical Headquarters). Here too, I was a clerk.

I had already left home, got an apartment on Princess Street which I shared with a friend. The apartment was rented to me through Chief Bode Thomas, who was the Deputy Leader of Action Group.

The clerical job at ITC was temporary. But that was what they could find for me at the time. I was keeping records of  sales (and B.S. Ajenifuja, who later became a gynaecologist, as well as Mudashiru Gbadamosi, later worked with me).

While at the Medical Headquarters, the Enugu Coal Mines shooting incident erupted (many people had died at the mines). There was a National Emergency Committee (NEC) which decided to protect the rights of those who died in the Coal Mines. To mobilise Nigerians, the Nationalist Movement printed memorabilia, including emblems, to support the cause of the miners.

As a radical sympathetic to the cause of the miners, I bought one of the emblems of NEC and I usually pinned it to my tie.

Our Chief Clerk, later Administrative Assistant (Mr. D.P. Turner-Shaw) saw me one day while wearing the emblem and warned me: ‘You will be sacked, and Zik and Awo won’t save you.’ We laughed over it.

We had some young clerical officers, my seniors, also. I remember Mr. P.O. Bamgbose, whose signature was superb, and we talked about it endlessly. There was Mr. Denloye (our sectional head), who went on to study Law, whom I fondly called ‘Oga mi’ (my boss). I was already politically conscious, very nationalistic, even right from elementary school. Way back in 1941, when I was barely 13, I regularly bought and read West African  Pilot (Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe’s Pan-African newspaper which confronted colonialism).

I read it everyday, and even my teacher (Mr. Barber, who later became the headmaster of Christ Church Cathedral School after the late Mr. E.B. Osibo) read my copy (the teacher’s copy arrived around 10 a.m. while I bought mine earlier, at the break of dawn.

I used my pocket money to buy the paper. It cost a penny and that was a lot of money in those days. It was expensive.

In the shop, where my mother sold odds and ends at Idumota, nobody used the papers kept in a pile, my West African Pilot, to wrap anything. They knew there was a special place in my heart for the newspaper. No one wanted to draw my ire.

With that background, I always beat my classmates in General Knowledge.

Unlike some of my classmates, who went straight ahead to England or the United States of America, or stayed back in Nigeria to attend Yaba Higher College (now Yaba College of Technology in Lagos, established in 1932) and University College, Ibadan (University of Ibadan as it is now known, in today’s Oyo State, started in 1948), I had to work for some time, no matter my plans for education.

My  mother  had  seen  me  through  elementary  and secondary schools at great expense. Burdening her with the responsibility of bankrolling my professional training as a lawyer in England was unthinkable. 

I had to find my feet financially, earn a living, for a few years, and save. That was the only way my dream of a brighter future could become real, tangible.

Luckily I did well in my exams when the results were released (with credits in all my subjects, except Mathematics in which I managed a pass).

Not long after I settled at Ikorodu Trading Company, the routine of the unexciting job of keeping sales records became unbearable. I was already looking elsewhere.

Journalism  appealed  to  me.  I  was  fascinated  by  the profession. My eye was on Daily Service  which started in 1938, owned by leaders of Egbe Omo Oduduwa. Chief S.O. Gbadamosi (one of its leaders) was the Managing Director while Dr. Akinola Maja and Adebayo Doherty were associated with the paper.

So, I told them I would like to work there. They obliged me and I then moved on to Daily Service, with its offices at Apongbon area of Lagos. At this time, Alhaji Lateef Jakande was the editor. Chief Bisi Onabanjo, who was the editor of Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation’s bulletin, joined the publication.  He  was  drawn  to  edit  Daily Service (which later became Daily Express under a new company known as Amalgamated Press, which was in partnership with a foreign company, the Ray Thomson Group of Newspapers).

Daily Service Ltd. was eventually acquired by Amalgamated Press with the Nigerian Tribune being its sister publication. Alhaji Jakande then moved to Ibadan as editor of the Tribune after the formation of Amalgamated Press. Chief Awolowo was the proprietor of the Nigerian Tribune, established in 1949.

I already knew Chief Onabanjo before my employment at Daily Service. We were both members of Fancy Club led by Tunde Amuwo. The club participated in carnivals in those days. It was based in Ijebu-Ode and known as the Royal Fancy Club.

Onabanjo and I had a very cordial relationship. We had been friends from youth (apart from our days in Ijebu-Ode). While he was at Baptist Academy, I was at CMS Grammar School, and he was under the guardianship of Rev. S.I. Kale, living in the premises of CMS Grammar School.

The Action Group Youth Association had some prominent members like H.A.B. Fasinro, Omololu Thomas (who later became Justice of the Court of Appeal) and Lateef Jakande. We regularly toured the country to mobilise youths for the Action Group.

The party bought us a bus to facilitate our tours, and the vehicle was under my care (I had to learn how to drive in Lagos, after Fani-Kayode got me a learner’s permit). We always toured the tough areas like Ilesa, and went as far as Ondo.

There was a senior police officer, Odofin Bello (who later became a Police Commissioner in the Western Region) from Idoani (Bode Olajumoke’s town) who had sympathy for the Action Group. So, Doherty instructed me to arrange a tour, and establish AG there.

At Daily Service, I started by covering crime, visiting the courts to get stories, and filing my reports. As a journalist, I was entranced by the performances of some leading legal minds at the time. I knew firsthand the leading lawyers, and witnessed many legal fireworks in courts. I was particularly fascinated by Rotimi Williams (the legendary Chief F.R.A. Williams who had returned from England and was already becoming a force) and J.I.C. Taylor (former Chief Judge of Lagos State, later Justice of the Supreme Court).

I was fascinated by journalism, and I enjoyed the job. If I wasn’t a lawyer, I would have remained a journalist. It was a profession I really liked. It exposed you; you met important people, and it compelled you to read. It broadened your knowledge.

Journalism is almost like Law, it is about enquiry. There is no subject that is not in Law. It is an advantage if you did Literature, History or Philosophy first (that’s why two of my children studied Philosophy first before Law).

Before long, I became the Commercial Editor of Daily Service (later Daily Express). I actually wanted to train and advance in the profession. I wanted to go to North Western Polytechnic in London.

Chief Bisi Onabanjo, my editor, who was a year older than me, was prepared to write a letter on my behalf to the college. Daily Express was exciting. I was in the hub of high society, mixing with the crème de la crème of Politics, Law and Business.

 

Chapter 3

Politics Beckons:

Appointment as AG Organising Secretary

Then I was recruited in 1954 by the Action Group (founded on March 21, 1951) as an Organising Secretary, that dream of being a journalist and advancing in the profession, occupying a special place as a member of the ‘Fourth Estate of the Realm,’ was aborted. I started a new role in politics.

To be at the centre of the growing struggle for power in the country, to be, as it were, behind the wheels and propel change directly, suddenly seemed more appealing than a career in journalism.

Politics had always held me spell-bound from youth. I had moved and rubbed shoulders with the big wigs, even when I was in secondary school. I was already a member of Egbe Omo Oduduwa (a socio-cultural group meant to unite all Yoruba) from CMS Grammar School (having joined in 1949). Then I was a regular visitor to Chief Hezekiah Oladipo Davies’ house (in Idumagbo, Isale Eko).

Davies loved young people who were serious and passionate about politics.

As a young man, I went to all the political leaders then. I was familiar with the Nigerian Youth Movement. Whenever there was a strong political disagreement between S.L. Akintola and H.O. Davies, I went to them to talk about it (while Davies was an idealist advocating one Nigeria, Akintola, Maja and some leading activists differed in approach, maintaining that they shouldn’t forget who they were first, as Yoruba). Mr. Adewale Thompson, a brilliant political activist at the time (later a judge) was then the secretary of the movement.

This went on until the Action Group was formed, and we joined as members of the Area Council (which was a local political organisation in opposition to the then Herbert Macaulay-led Nigerian National Democratic Party, NNDP).

Before that time, there was this regular visit to Ilorin and Kabba. The Yoruba in Ilorin, Kabba and Igbomina, which were part of the Northern Region, were agitating for a merger with their kith and kin in the Western Region. They were led by Chief J.S. Olawoyin, Alhaji Sule Maito and J. G. Ekunrin respectively, under the umbrella of their organisation, the League of Northern Yorubas. When Egbe Omo Oduduwa was formed, the League embraced the struggle and so their organisation merged with the Egbe.

By the time the Action Group came into existence in 1951, most members of the Egbe became leaders of the Action  Group.  Chief  Obafemi  Awolowo,  who  was  the General  Secretary  of  Egbe  Omo  Oduduwa,  became  the leader of Action Group, strongly supported by the Egbe Omo Oduduwa organisation.

It should be noted here that the formation of Egbe Omo Oduduwa in Ile-Ife in 1948 was quite distinct from the political organisation known as the Action Group, which was formed in 1951.

 Egbe Omo Oduduwa was purely socio-cultural while the Action Group was political, although the latter had the former as its catchment area.

At the inception of Egbe Omo Oduduwa, Sir Adeyemo Alakija was the first President and Chief Obafemi Awolowo was the first General Secretary, while Chief Isaac O. Delano was the first Administrative Secretary. After the death of Sir Adeyemo Alakija, Dr. Akinola Maja became the President. As for the Action Group, Chief Obafemi Awolowo was its first leader while Bode Thomas was his deputy.

In order to firm up the relationship with the League of Northern Yorubas, we made regular trips to give encouragement to the Yorubas in the Northern Region. The leaders of Egbe Omo Oduduwa now made it a point of duty to pay frequent visits to the area to rally round the people just to show that the leaders of Egbe Omo Oduduwa shared in their aspirations to merge with the Egbe.

Among those who made the trips were Dr. Akinola Maja, Dr. J. Akanni Doherty (Generalissimo), Sir Kofo Abayomi, Chief J.A. Ajao, Alhaji Issa Williams (father of Justice Fatai Williams), Mr. A.B.O.O. Oyediran (father of the former Vice-Chancellor of University of Ibadan, Prof. Kayode Oyediran), Alhaji Adesoye Onasanya (of Ijebu-Ode), Alhaji S.O. Gbadamosi, Chief Bode Thomas and Chief M.A. Ogun (alias M.A. Natural).

For the trips to the North, we used a Chevrolet Estate (with a bold inscription of Egbe Omo Oduduwa on it). The brand was new in the country at that time. We usually assembled in Dr. Maja’s house (on 2, Garber Square, off Victoria Street, now Nnamdi Azikiwe Street, near Breadfruit Street on Lagos Island).

This was in 1950 and 1951, and I usually found excuses not to go to work whenever the trips were scheduled. I sat on a stool at the back, that is, the luggage compartment of the

Chevrolet on these trips. The colonialists were uncomfortable about our activities and objectives. Each time we went to Northern Nigeria, we were not given permit to organise rallies or hold meetings. Anytime we were allowed, they warned us not to say anything about the merger. To circumvent the order, Dr. Akinola Maja usually said to the audience, ‘You know why we are here. Your aspiration is our aspiration.’ And that carried the message.

Our effort to unite Northern Yorubas with their kith and kin in the West suffered a setback with the creation of states in 1967 when they were grouped as minorities in Kwara State (out of which Kogi State was later carved out). However, the agitation has persisted with the clamour of the people for an Okun State or a merger with adjacent Yoruba states).

After the general election into the Western House of Assembly in 1952, the Action Group decided to employ full- time organising secretaries in each of the 24 divisions, with two in Osun (being a very large division). Advertisements were placed in the newspaper to recruit candidates for the various divisions.

I did not think much of this position as I was then enjoying my job as the Commercial Editor of Daily Service. 

Read Also: Ogun, Oyo, FCT, 28 other states to experience flooding – NIHSA

But Chief Ladoke Akintola, who was one of the party’s leaders in Lagos, secretly advised Chief Awolowo that the party leadership should talk to me privately before the interview as he was aware that I would not like to do the party’s job as a paid official. I had just then been elected Secretary of the party at the youth congress and Chief Remi Fani-Kayode emerged as the Chairman.

So, I was invited for a private discussion (at the Party Headquarters in Ibadan) which had in attendance Chief Awolowo, Chief Akintola and Chief S.T. Oredein, the then Principal Assistant Secretary. Their mission was to convince me to accept the appointment, as they wanted a trusted person to take charge of the leader’s constituency (Remo Division). They believed too that I was someone who could work without supervision as the leader would be too busy to visit his constituency as regularly as others. It was with this persuasion that I was made to accept the appointment and posting to Remo Division.

The practice, normally, was to appoint a ‘son of the soil’ as organising secretary for every division. But in my own case, I was posted to Ijebu-Remo, even though I am from Ijebu Division. In any case, my area of operation included some parts of Ijebu Division, namely Odogbolu, Aiyepe and Okun-Owa.

One month after my appointment, I was yet to assume duty and Chief Awolowo had to ask Shonibare, who was the Managing Director of Daily Service, to release me. I was released about a fortnight later.

The headquarters of Remo Division was Sagamu and I resided there at Makun quarters (in the house of Chief Olusiji Osisanya, the Agbaje of Makun, who was a great supporter of AG) while my office was on Akarigbo Street in Offin quarters (My landlord’s brother was Abiodun Osisanya).

My residence was a storey building where I occupied a bedroom and a living room, while my office (also a one-storey building) was a mere five-minute drive away. But we later moved office to a bigger space also on the same major road. The office was a base for members. They came to suggest how to recruit and mobilise members for the party.