By Femi Orebe
”Never before have I had such impassioned full voices, singing with the organs blowing in deep tones. I was transported and I have ever since visited that house of God, now a cathedral, to listen to the music the organ and the enlightened choir and Christian congregation.
The feeling has always been edifying. On that night, the hymn that won me over was “Oh God our help in ages past”, written by Rev Isaac Watts, in Yoruba to the tune of St Agnes. Such was the majestic cadence of the singing, the expertise of the organist and the fulfilling bellowing of the organ that I was transfixed and as Milton said in Lycidas: “it dissolved me in ecstasies and brought heaven before my eyes”. – 91year-old Papa, Chief Alex Olu Ajayi, recalling in soaring, mellifluous and totally unmatchable prose, events of January 4, 1943 at the centenary of Christianity in Abeokuta, Egba land and Anglican in Nigeria, which held at the St. Peters Church, Ake when he was just 12.
Papa had called me, as he often does immediately after reading the column every Sunday but this time it was not strictly about the article as he gave me the rare privilege of knowing that:”A Legacy On The Move”, his long awaited Memoir, was about to be publicly presented.
I knew, instinctively, that the least I could do for what I know would be a masterpiece – as it is sure to be encyclopedic – was give it a decent mention in your soar away newspaper, The Nation. I have since read the book and what a ramifying canvas on the cultural, historical, educational, religious, even economic history of Nigeria, in the past onecentury it covers? A LEGACY … encapsulates, as the author describes his life, a “panorama of life, across the world, spanning a greater part of a century and told with some nostalgia”. Put in his own words: “In Education, I have had my full involvement in the Teaching, Administration, Primary, Secondary, Teachers’ Training, University, Post – Graduate, Examining and Distant Learning. In Industry, I set up with A. G. Leventis, a multi- national organisation, a carpet manufacturing industry that lasted for a quarter century, sponsored a football team, Leventis United, which became the National Champion within two years of its existence. In civil administration, I served the longest term as Chairman of Ado – Ekiti Local Government under both Military and civilian regimes, and both by invitation. The council was rated a model. For nearly 60 years, I have been given public appointments from 1964 to date.
I cherish our culture and this secured for me both Traditional and Honorary recognition from my home, Ado- Ekiti and the ancestral Central Spring of Yoruba culture – Ile – Ife; also from my matrilineal lineage in Owo”.
This son of the Hon. Canon Joseph Adesuyi Ajayi and Princess (Mrs) Marian Ademubiola Oyegoriade Ajayi, surely has seen something of the world.
He has actually visited over 100 countries.
If, like me, you love good and edifying language, you are sure to be suffused with that in this book, rendered in elegant and stimulating English language.
Sample: “Near us by the shore where we were standing, some fishermen had come out of their canoes into the water and seemed to be walking in the water. I then surmised that the fishermen were walking on solid ground and so decided to follow their example. I then backed the lagoon, put my two elbows on the embankment and tried to let myself down into the water. To my shattering disbelief, my feet did not touch any ground, and already, the strong flood was striking me as if I was about to drown!
I shouted at my brother to pull me up who was himself a novice to swimming as he too would have somersaulted into the pitiless waves. Pull he did, and by some hidden hand of the Almighty, I got buoyed up by the waves and I rolled back on the embankment, saved from an assured tragedy which the Ajayi tribe would have agonised over down the ages as both of us would have gone down the bottomless lagoon, with those fishermen not taking the slightest glance at our direction.
Silas Adedapo saved my life, and I will owe him this through eternity”.
To do justice to ‘A LEGACY ON THE MOVE’, within the limited space available on the column, I now yield to Dr Yinka Oyegbile, the multi- award winning journalist who, until recently was one of my editors at this newspaper.
Chief ALEX OLU AJAYI’S ENCHANTING LEGACY
“Nobody is going to give you anything. You’ve got to go out and fight for it. Nobody knows what you want except you, and nobody will be as sorry as you if you don’t get it. So don’t give up your dreams” – Barry Manilow
Autobiographies, memoirs and personal stories written by men and women of honour are treasure troves which any reader, at any time, would find very useful and rich in nuggets of wisdom. It is based on this that I usually love to read such books because we are in a world where one needs to learn from those who have passed through thickets of life, and have done the world the benefit of putting their experiences down for posterity to learn from their mistakes and to apply their nuggets of wisdom to chart their own path in life. There is, however, a distinction in the kind of biographies or memoirs over which one needs to labour, especially in a country like ours where men and women who had held even high offices now turn to vain glory; writing memoirs or autobiographies just to launder an already tarnished image. Therefore, in picking what books to read, many readers know what to expect, which is why today readers do not take such an endeavour too seriously. Otherwise, you waste your time reading a book which you know is miles away from what it presents.
That is called hagiography!
This is not the case with Chief Alex Olu Ajayi’s ‘A Legacy On The Move’, which is a documentation of the little oak that grew, years later to become an icon, not only in his home State of Ekiti or country, Nigeria, but in the world.
In this book, the author gives details of his background and leaves the reader in no doubt as to his very rich ancestry which cuts across many parts of Nigeria.
The son of a school teacher and pastor, he writes candidly about his upbringing and how the lessons he was taught by his parents have endured to enrich his entire life which he, in turn, discusses refreshingly from his birthplace in Owo, Ondo State, to his own lineage in Ado-Ekiti, and how he went to school near, and far away from home, going from one part of the old Western Region to another, following the family to wherever it is his father, an ordained pastor, was transferred.
His student days at Igbobi College – not at its present site in Yaba but in Ibadan – where it was moved because of the ongoing World war, is well documented. Chief Ajayi made a point which many today pay only lip service to – the importance of teaching, and speaking, our languages which are today becoming increasingly endangered. According to him, our languages used to occupy a pride of place and those grounded in their mother tongues turned out to be better off in understanding other languages very much unlike today when many think that versatility in foreign languages is a plus: far superior to ours. He writes: “Meanwhile, we had been grounded well in Yoruba language, our own native tongue. This is the great advantage of our generation, which the modern ones have lost forever. Skill in one’s language fortifies one for grasping the essence of any concept. It gives a linguistic skill that would enable the speaker more ability to comprehend and enhance his skill in the knowledge of other language.”
This is a truism that has been scientifically proved but which we have, unfortunately, consigned to the dust bin in our educational system because we are all eager to speak the so-called international languages.
These and other gems of wisdom and vignettes of life are what is contained in this book which a reader would find very enriching. The writer’s experience both at home and at the international level are well documented. Unfortunately, Nigeria is today dominated by the irrelevancies that predominate the social media which has made illiterates of many whose interventions, online, are without any iota of wisdom.
The author’s experiences at the West African Examination Council, University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo) and in other organizations which he graced with his aura, brilliance and wisdom, all demonstrate what it means to be a quintessential administrator.
In ‘A Legacy on The Move’, the author has done a great service to record keeping, quoting dates that go back over a half century with effortless ease, going back to ages when you would not expect him to have paid that much attention to events around him. Even if these dates were written down, with the intent to use them much later, that must still attract a gargantuan commendation for prescience.
Papa is no doubt a solid archivist.
He showed, from page to page, what it means to be called an Omoluabi and how upbringing goes a long way to shape the lives of young ones. From being a pastor’s boy, he projected himself to the world stage by sheer dint of hard work and a studious commitment to whatever he laid his hands on: never for once looking for the short cut, either to wealth or fame, both of which the Almighty God blessed him with.
His tenure at the West African Examination Council where, as Registrar, he seamlessly took over the conduct of examinations hitherto being conducted by Cambridge, is a case in point as it set a template for how to run international organizations without compromising standards.
This is a book that will almost bring tears to the eyes as you ask yourself how, where and when, we missed it in this country that things are now so different in literally every aspect of life; the worst being the behaviour of our young ones which now leaves so much to be desired.
A Legacy … is a book the reader would find interesting and easy to read. The printing and pictures are solid and good; a distinct credit to the publishers, EKSU Printing Press, Ado-Ekiti.
It is a book one would not regret investing time to read.
Title: A Legacy on The Move
Author: Alex Olu Ajayi
Publishers: EKSU Printing Press
Year: 2021
Pages: 342
Reviewer: Olayinka Oyegbile
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