Ojo Aderemi [Saturday 30th of June, 2018]
Nigeria lost to Argentina and being one of the pro-Nigerian nationalists who doesn't care about the loss of the other nation on the field of play, I was grossly disappointed at the last minute goal. It pained me and I told one of the persons I met on Oduduwa road (University of Ibadan) that I haven't been more pained by any single incidence than that in the last one year. But you know that sledgehammer that hits you from an uncharted corner? That's was how the news of my father's demise hit me.
Born after the Second World War in 1948(?), November 14, he told us he had at first attempted to joined the Nigerian Army. The NCO who was instructing him on the recruitment ground was rude and illiterate. Being a brilliant science student from the prestigious Fatima College, Gbongan -where he excelled in Geography-he was too proud to take the character of the NCO man who whipped him and other army enthusiastic youths like animals and not army recruits. In those, not unlike now although, soldiers didn't necessarily need to have a school leaving certificate -only primary school. Fatima College, Gbongan had Europeans who thought the students and so I can understand his arrogance. He probably complained about the way he was being maltreated -he probably saw it as unnecessary, according to his narration he seized the whip, stung the NCO with some hot strokes and push through the sea of heads to escape the pursuing colleagues of the soldier man. The pursuit reached the home of a Lagos politician into whose compound he (Mr Samson Ojo) leaped. The soldiers followed. Mobile policemen were stationed in the place and they indeed intervened. The NCO spoke only Hausa fluently, the Fatima College graduate and former petrol attendant spoke Queen's English after the order of his former teachers. The good English speaker won the debate, the policemen ordered the soldiers out of the place and father was never punished for it. Probably on the invitation of the police officers present, he joined the police eventually. The time was between 1966 and 1968. He told us he was in Lagos during the first and second coup and the efforts of the Russian navy in saving Brigadier Ogundipe from the rebellious Nigerian Army officers who had killed Major General Ironsi in Ibadan.
He had a 35 year journey through the Nigerian Police Force.
Like most good men, his foundation had profound influence on him. He was an Apostolic Faith youth, had a tough grandfather (?), father and was taught by European religious men. He was drafted to War Front during the civil war but never saw action. He was said to have been under General Mohammed Shuwa. There was a cholera outbreak and the platoon to which he belonged got transported back to Lagos and was never redeployed. He was interested so much in education but loved his neighbours more than himself. He supported the education of his younger ones through University -in Nigeria and Holland. He himself was to get a degree at the Enugu State University decades later. But it was of no use.
Father was interested in your education all the time. I think one of the persons who had influence on him was Chief Obafemi Awolowo whose orderly he was for a period. He was a teetotaller. He was introduced to a lady during his stay with the sage but he was simply not interested. When he eventually had his kids, I was told that sometime in the late 1990s he took one of my brothers to Police Secondary School in Minna, Niger State. He used public transport and had my brother sit on his legs. The journey was from Idekpa, Ohimini Local Government in Benue State and it was in the night. His complained about the pain in his legs till I grew up. He was an unrepentant pro-public education ideologue. He wanted to establish a prize that would be awarded to the best Geography student in Fatima College, Gbongan. I am not sure he did it before now. I can't but wonder what could be responsible for the marriage of one of my brothers to a geographer if not his penchant for geography.
He wanted me to be a lawyer but I wanted to be something else. An army general or something. He is one of those parents who want you to be governor but the idea of you joining a political party was abominable. "Don't participate in elections when you get to school" he had told me. "Yes sir". I disobeyed afterwards. He had experiences with students and he warned against participation. He had been wounded by University of Ibadan students before in the 1990s during a demonstration. He was the leader of the anti-riot squad then. He always cautioned against the brutality of his men. In my opinion, his disagreement with the then Comissioner of Police Abubakar Tsav was based on tactics. The Commissioner was said to have had his biases and father refused to capitulate apart from the respect he showed his superior. The other policemen did support father during the intense days. The solution was transfer. When the signal came father was posted to be DPO in a North Central police division that covered Mr Tsav's hometown. Father was never petty. He did his job and left amid cheers and enduring respect from there. He never told me the story himself but I heard from one of his friends who was also a police officer. I never heard of any disciplinary case of his in the police.
He did bad things too but we both repented. Each time the food on the table prepared by mother or somebody else was unsatisfying, he would tickle me and we both would shake our heads. We knew where to meet. It was at the gate. He would drive out of the compound and I would join him. Ijokodo, Apete, Jericho, BCGA he knew everywhere they sold good food. Piping hot amala, gbegiri and ewedu and assorted meat. The string of sweat would be eased by the way. He had a collection of white handkerchiefs. He did sweat a lot and hot amala was a catalyst for sweat in Yoruba land. To conceal the secret deal (my mom was usually inquisitive), he would tell me to sit by him all day. It all ended when I travelled to Lagos to stay briefly with my Uncle.
My friends never hid their admiration for my trousers. Neat ironing was a tradition in the Nigerian Police, he once made me know. The front fold -"gator" was capable of, if converted to iron, slicing through the skin. I saw many plaques and certificates from different organisations in the house while growing up. There was one from the United Nations in his room. It was awarded for his participation in the UNTAG in Namibia. He was sent to South Africa for conferences where he was prevented from washing his own clothes. The South African officers told him it was their duty. We didn't talk so much about it. Conferences and trainings in the United States kept evading him but he didn't really care. My dad was not corrupt as far as I know and I knew him well.
On the 26th of June, after a disappointing loss to Argentina, I got home to know that I have been promoted to the league of the fatherless. God is Great.
So...
I saw an article online and I would like to share the ending part of it. I don't know if it would be so relevant but it makes good sense. It's about the burial of Otto von Habsburg the last of the Habsburg ruling house of Austria. The Habsburgs date back into the era of the Roman Empire. After a procession of nobles and great men numbering up to about 10,000 reached the church the following ensued;
"(the Master of Ceremony knocked the door thrice)
Prior: Who desires entry?
MC: Otto of Austria; once Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary; Royal Prince of Hungary and Bohemia, of Dalmatia, Croatia, Slavonia, Galicia, Lodomeria and Illyria; Grand Duke of Tuscany and Cracow; Duke of Lorraine, Salzburg, Styria, Carinthia, Carniola and the Bukowina; Grand Prince of Transylvania, Margrave of Moravia; Duke of Upper and Lower Silesia, of Modena, Parma, Piacenza, Guastalla, of Oświęcim and Zator, Teschen, Friaul, Dubrovnik and Zadar; Princely Count of Habsburg and Tyrol, of Kyburg, Gorizia and Gradisca; Prince of Trent and Brixen; Margrave of Upper and Lower Lusatia and Istria; Count of Hohenems, Feldkirch, Bregenz, Sonnenburg etc.; Lord of Trieste, Kotor and Windic March, Grand Voivod of the Voivodeship of Serbia etc. etc.
Prior: We do not know him.
(The MC knocks thrice)
Prior: Who desires entry?
MC: Dr. Otto von Habsburg, President and Honorary President of the Paneuropean Union, Member and quondam President of the European Parliament, honorary doctor of many universities, honorary citizen of many cities in Central Europe, member of numerous venerable academies and institutes, recipient of high civil and ecclesiastical honours, awards, and medals, which were given him in recognition of his decades-long struggle for the freedom of peoples for justice and right.
Prior: We do not know him.
(The MC knocks thrice)
Prior: Who desires entry?
MC: Otto, a mortal and sinful man.
Prior: Then let him come in."
Ojo Aderemi
Ibadan, Nigeria...
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