Open grazing is primitive, insulting to the people —Ajayi, 91-year old ex-WAEC Registrar

Chief Alex Olu Ajayi, a political ally of the sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo and elder statesman, is a former registrar of the West Africa Examination Council (WAEC) and holds a chieftaincy title of Odoba of Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State. In this interview with ‘YOMI AYELESO, Pa Ajayi, who will be 91 on June 28, speaks on his background, his relationship with Chief Awolowo, the state of the nation and other issues.

 

As the first university graduate in Ado-Ekiti, your friend, Aare Afe Babalola, once said that you both taught briefly in school after your standard six educations. What was the level of education during your time compared with what we have today?

You can’t even compare it. It is a clear contrast. During our time in Standard Six, you would first attend infant class and spend three solid years there, then another six years in primary school.  Standard Six teachers teaching in Standard Two then were also able to write poems. Teachers were well trained and devoted. Schools were few that time, so there was so much concentration on the few pupils at various schools. I have been reading Shakespeare and with some understanding since Standard Two in 1939 and by the time you get to Standard Three, you start reading English Bible. What we have now is that, primary six pupils now cannot write his name. If they spelt words, they cannot pronounce them. The students are not studying as they should. Too many of the teachers are not well grounded. We never had such in those days and the few teachers that were available spent their time on self-improvement .It is unfortunate that adequate attention has not been given to support the mass expansion happening in education now and it is affecting the standard. We have quantity now, not quality.

 

You were the campaign director for sage Chief Obafemi Awolowo in 1979. What makes him different from the present crop of politicians?

Pa Awolowo was a businessman; he was the first to build a storey building in Remo, Ogun State. After studying commerce, he went abroad and studied law. He created his own political party over there called ‹Egbe Omo Oodua’, then Action Group. So, by the time all these started, he was well-equipped. Not that he just jumped into anything, he was fully equipped to run Nigeria. Harrold Wilson once said Awolowo would be a good Prime Minister of Britain. Yes, I was in charge of Awolowo’s campaign then in Borno State. What happened was, he invited me to his house one day for lunch. My friend, [Lateef] Jakande was there, and I was telling them news of happenings in Borno State that   there is inter-connectivity in the cultural heritage of people in Nigeria. They were friendly and were never conquered. El-kanemi was never conquered   by Uthman Dan Fodio. So when Chief Awolowo heard me talking about Borno, he was coming downstairs and said Alex would be an asset to us in that place. That was how I became his coordinator in Borno State and some other areas around that side including Yobe, Potiskum, Baga.

Awolowo prepared himself, had his implements sharpened. He was fully equipped to run Nigeria. Awolowo’s time was novel. He had a whole region to himself. He had personal integrity; he would not touch anybody’s kobo. These are part of the things missing now. States now have to go cap in hand every month to lobby the Accountant-General and Minister of Finance to eke out a little existence and it is never enough. The internally generated revenue cannot cover expenses. For instance, Ekiti State earns 2.5billion naira every month; the wage bill alone is over 2billion naira. How do you have money for any other business? Awolowo, at that time, had the whole of the West, including the Midwest. We had our timber in the Midwest and rubber and cocoa in Ondo and Ekiti states. We had our trade in Lagos. We had enough. All the money was spread round the region for development.

 

Do you support those clamoring for regional government?

It may not be the solution also because there is the human aspect. Then, we found that there was lopsided sharing of facilities. There was not much coming to this part (Ekiti) despite the resources coming from here. We produced and supplied cocoa and kolanuts and so on. But a lot of money went to Ibadan (in Oyo State) and Abeokuta (in Ogun State), despite not supplying so much, but merely because the politicians were there. When you queried them, they said we were not attending political meetings. Of course, we in Ekiti would not give you money, but our cocoa enriched them there.

 

What is your view on the clamour for equitable distribution of resources and the agitation for Oduduwa Republic? 

The clamour for equitable distribution is a genuine reaction to the insult that we are receiving from some northerners. One of the northerners said recently that their conquest must continue. How can you still be saying in 2021 what had been said and unsaid in 1955, 1956? However, I am not backing Oduduwa State as such, but I am definitely backing confirmation of our existence and self-respect. We have self-respect enough not to allow any tout from the North to talk to us anyhow. The northern governors had met many times. What is the point of having northern governors’ meetings when there is Nigeria Governors’ Forum meeting and state meetings? The whole idea of the Nigerian constitution as regards creation of more states is to make everybody co-equal as much as possible, so that they don’t have a large area. The whole idea of federalism is that one large area would not be oppressive over another area.

 

Southern governors met recently in Asaba, Delta State. Do you subscribe to their resolutions? 

I think it was the first time they were seeing the light of the day. That was what they should have done four or five years ago. But I am glad that they had that meeting. The northerners now know that the southerners can have a personality of their own instead of broken groups. Definitely, number one, open grazing is primitive. Nomadic life is primitive. Normally, every state should create an area where cattle can feed and ranch. Open grazing is an insult; they come to rape, kill and destroy the farms as if we are back to slave trade. I feel assaulted that people who are supposed to be carrying pastoral staff now carry weapons – AK 47 and the like.

 

The level of insecurity across the country has reached a frightening dimension now and as an elder statesman, what is your take? 

I blame the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami and the former Inspector General of Police, Muhammed Adamu for the extension and sinking of terrorism in Nigeria.  For instance, when Amotekun was going to be formed in the South-West, instead of Malami to privately discuss the problems with the governors, if there is any, he went on open air, and discredited the mission. Adamu who sat with them when they were planning the security outfit, as Malami was shouting one way, he too reneged ingloriously and the federal government came out with a still-born community policing. Amotekun was planned to check the influx of criminal herders; the herders themselves are raw materials of Boko Haram, particularly those of them who are foreigners. Nigeria is now a colony belonging to terrorists with what Malami told the governor and Adamu’s renege. The herders and their sponsors became hardened, carrying AK-47 around. I repeat the herders are handmade of Boko Haram; they are the raw materials. There is no point for the Attorney General to use federal government to dispel the security plans of the Southerners. Things are changing and we are not robots.

This is not the first time this would happen, for instance, the National Security and Civil Defence Corps now carrying arms to curtail crime don’t carry arms before, but there are some now carrying arms among them all in the bid to tackle crimes.  Even customs, prisons, everything is changing   all in the bid to achieve positive results. We cannot remain indefensible. Malami’s reaction to Amotekun turned South-West governors to colonial subjects.  The community policing they are talking about does not have any effect. The traditional people are not duly carried along when planning such, no proportional arrangement   in terms of recruitment and population. But Amotekun would have done well looking at the structure whereby local hunters would be involved. For instance, in 1973, at  a time when there was a rampage of hoodlums around, we  mobilized local hunters and  the robbers were chased away. If Malami had not been so arrogant with federal might, it would have been easier for those governors to operate freely and checkmate crimes in their terrains.  What has come out of the state policing? Herders are still on the rampage, so no place is safe.

 

You are still agile at your age with a complete set of teeth and you do not read with glasses. What is the secret?

It is the chance of nature. If you have many pieces of kolanut, only one or two may be white. It cannot be easily regulated. Unfortunately, I lost two of my younger siblings – the one immediately after me and the one after him, whereas, here I am. It is not that I don’t have any ailment, but they are not the debilitating types. I had rheumatic pain at the age of seven. It was treated that time but it kept recurring. But when I grew up playing cricket, it went off. What is far more interesting and surprising is that I have what people dread most, high blood pressure. I have been hypertensive from the age of 30 in 1960.

By April 1960, I found that if I read some lines, they would get blurred, so, when I requested for a pair of glasses, the doctors said I didn’t need a pair of glasses. I said why? That time, we had expatriate doctors in West African Examination Council; he said I had high blood pressure. That time, nobody knew what was called high blood pressure in Nigeria. It was not a common ailment. I asked whether he wanted me to go and donate blood. Then he laughed and explained to me what high blood pressure meant. Since then, I have had to control high blood pressure with all sorts of drugs. When I was in England, a daughter gave me a drug which I have been taking every day since August 19, 1981. The drug is “Thenoretics”. I have taken it faithfully.

For the first 15 years, the drug was not available in Nigeria, but fortunately I was virtually part of the English landscape, I travelled to England at will. I have always had a London Office since the time I joined WAEC till 1995. That is from 1959 till 1995. From 1980 till 1995, the drug was not available in Nigeria, so I had to go to England where I could get it easily. But in 1995, I went to a pharmacy shop in Surulere Lagos and I saw Thenoretic on the shelf, I was amazed and I ordered it, but they said unless a doctor prescribed it. Fortunately, I then got an Indian pharmacist who could sell it to me without prescription. That was the beginning of how the drug was available in different pharmacy stores in different towns including Ado Ekiti. I depend on the drug every day. But from December last year when the economy dimmed, nobody has it in Nigeria anymore. Fortunately, my sister in London sent me enough to cover a year. Then again, they brought me a consignment that will last years more. But fortunately I don’t have diabetes; I don’t have asthma. I don’t have all those other killer-ailments. That is what has helped me. For the sight, my mother was reading at the age of 90. I also keep the petty things I hear from friends and doctors to stay healthy.

 

So, why did you choose to write a book at this age?

That is the question people asked me. Even when Governor Kayode Fayemi came here, sometime after a past birthday celebration, he saw papers on my table and he asked ‘what are all these? I said ‘they are the manuscripts for my autobiography’. He said he was interested. He even paid for the printing. It is my autobiography. I had thought it would be ready for launch during my birthday in June last year, but COVID-19 stalled it. It will now be launched on the occasion of my 91st birthday this month. The message is in the title of the book, The legacy on the move. Legacy is what you had, but in this case, fortunately, legacy is being passed on. My grandfather was a name in the community and was significant and contributed a lot to the Commonwealth. My father took off from there, and created so many universes. He was the one who founded the Ekiti Progressives Union in 1930, the year I was born. The association founded Ekiti Parapo College at Ido Ekiti.

Papa was the first member of House of Assembly from Ado Ekiti. He was a pastor, but because of what he had done for the community, he was virtually selected for the Assembly. Awolowo wanted to make him Minister of Education because he attended St Andrews College and was captain of his class. I had so much to look up to and to try to achieve. And in my own little way, I don’t think I have done badly either. In 1953, I became the first graduate in Ado Ekiti and the next graduate came four years after. I came back to Nigeria to work. At age 26, I was the principal of a grammar school. Some of my students were about my age. From that school, I went to join WAEC, I was appointed as the first Nigerian substantive international staff of WAEC. I will pass the legacy down to my children who had already taken after us scoring first and making contributions to humanity.

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