Category: Society

AS the song of a bird, good vibes emanate from Ekua Abudu. The rumour merchants and distributors who have traded her troubles may as well go to bed or find another victim to rip into as the elegant proprietress of Greenwood House School basks in the effervescent glow of good fortune.

The controversy and scandal that dogged her like a shadow after the crash of her marriage have gradually given way to a successful career. Many expected the chocolate-skinned daughter of textile doyenne, Modupe Sagoe, to slowly sink into the slough of despair after her domestic experience but their expectations collapsed as multi-talented Ekua rose like a phoenix from the ashes of a broken home and continues to flourish in the limelight.

The chartered administrator and one-time lawyer today handles multiple projects from education to activism. And she seems poised to continue climbing the rungs of success even as she prepares to mark her 51st birthday on September 9.

‘We used to move currency from the port to head office in trucks hired from motor park and escorted by one policeman carrying a Mark 4 rifle’ Segun AJIBOYE, Assistant Editor

Seventy-five-year-old Abiodun Sopitan retired from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in 1996 as a Deputy Director. He joined the service of the apex bank as a clerk in 1962 and had a career that spanned 34 years.

Interestingly, Sopitan only got educated because of the insistence of his mother and the headmaster of his primary school. While he was so brilliant that he always led his class, young Sopitan dreamt of a future that was completely at variance with the one his parents had in mind.

As a young boy growing up in his native Remo, Ogun State hometown, contrary to his parents’ wish that their son would get a good education, Sopitan’s greatest ambition was to become a driver so that he could make money like some of his friends and age mates who never went to school were already doing at the time.

Describing himself as a “a product of God’s grace,” he went down memory lane to relive the battles he had with his parents and headmaster before he yielded to the pressure mounted on him to go to school.

He said: “It is a very funny story. When I got to Standard Five, the headmaster of my school insisted that I should write the examination for that year. Although I was in class five, he said he believed that if only two people would pass, I would be one of them. Unfortunately, when the result came out, I failed. That really surprised the man and he said he was going to investigate the reason why I failed.

“Some of my friends who wrote the same examination had left the village for Lagos. Soon, most of them got jobs as drivers and were making money. And each time they came to the village, they would appear like wealthy people, wearing nice clothes and spending money. Unknown to us, some of them even came home with their bosses’ vehicles.”

Convinced that his Lagos-based contemporaries had made the right decision in their choice of profession, young Sopitan made up his mind to quit school and get a job as a driver. So, in spite of the efforts his mother and the headmaster made to ensure that he proceeded to secondary school, Sopitan ensured that he failed all the entrance examinations he was made to sit.

Luck, however, ran out on him in one of the failure tricks he played on his parents.

He said: “In 1955 when the popular Mayflower School in Ikenne was to take off, the headmaster bought two entrance examination forms. He gave one to me and the other one to another student. On the day of the examination, I told the other boy to write my name and number on his answer script while I wrote his name and number on mine. Of course, when the results were released, the other boy passed while I failed.

“I was happy that at last, they would leave me alone and allow me to learn driving, but my immediate elder sister and the headmaster were not convinced, so they decided to find out what was amiss. The headmaster threatened the other boy and he confessed that I told him to write my name and number on his answer script while I wrote his name and number on mine.”

The mystery of his unmerited failures now unraveled, his parents hatched a plan that would get him into a secondary school.

“After they had found out that I was deliberately failing the entrance examinations I had taken part in, my elder sister and my mother made up their minds to make sure that I entered a secondary school,” he said.

So, without letting him know of their plot, his elder sister and mother approached a Catholic priest who had just founded a secondary school in a nearby community.

He recalled the incident thus: “I was not aware of the plot to get me registered in school. One day, my mother said I should accompany her on a visit to an uncle. Indeed, the Catholic priest was related to my mother, and I was happy to go with her. Unknown to me, they had bought all the materials I would need in school and taken them there.

“After the priest and my mother had exchanged greetings, the priest asked some students of the school to take me round. By the time I came back, my mother and sister had left. When I asked to go home, the priest simply brought out a cane and asked the students to take me to my dormitory.”

However, after a short time, the young Sopitan got over his grief and settled down to work. His efforts paid off in 1961 after the results of that year’s school certificate examination were released. He made a distinction; a feat that could not be matched by any student of the school in a decade.

Now convinced that education was a better path to success that the driving job he so much craved, Sopitan relocated to Lagos with a mission to switch his interest to the sciences.

“It was while I was in Lagos to start the school that a friend told me that the CBN wanted to employ a new set of employees with preference for Grade 1 students. Since I had a Grade 1, I decided to go with him. Interestingly, I passed and was employed as a clerk. That was in 1962.”

The job marked the beginning of a beautiful and fruitful romance between the young Sopitan and the apex bank, lasting three decades and four years.

Asked what the experience was in those years, Pa Sopitan burst into a prolonged laughter and said: “It was nothing short of beautiful and rewarding.”

For him, being rewarding meant rising to the pinnacle of his chosen career without having any godfather to make things work for him.

He said: “The system in those days rewarded hard work. For instance, to get into the CBN, you must have a grade one result. And from that point, the future rests in your hands. I remember the words of the late Pa Ola Vincent, the former governor of the CBN. He often told us that, ‘now you are in the CBN, your progress depends on how you develop yourself. It was such words of advice that pushed us to work very hard.”

Speaking on the high point of his career at the CBN, he cited a case of fraud involving a popular restaurant owner at the time. The fraud, which was perpetrated through a bank (names withheld), was carried out through the account of the restaurant owner.

He said: “The CBN job availed me the opportunity to travel all over the country. I worked in different capacities in all the places that I was posted to. But one very incident that has stuck with me was when I was in charge of the commercial banks in the country. A fraud running into almost N2 million was perpetrated in a bank, and the case was brought to my notice.

“I set up a committee to investigate it. The committee was headed by a woman who was an assistant director at the time. We traced the money and how it was spent. We retrieved more than two thirds of the money and also seized a building belonging to the man. All the money we got back and the building was handed over to the bank. I was happy that God used me to settle the matter.”

Brimming with smiles, the old man suddenly remembered another experience, which he described as a reward for honesty. According to him, a friend who worked with a commercial bank at the time approached him to help sign a document.

“At the time, the government introduced a policy that stipulated that foreign investors could deposit money in their country and get a document to prove the deposit. That document is then used as collateral to get money in Nigeria. The CBN had to sign the document that the concerned bank has completed all the necessary things that had to do with the document. Because I was in charge of the commercial banks, I would have to sign their documents.

“One day, a friend who worked with a commercial bank came to me and said he wanted me to sign the papers for his bank. But at the time, his bank had not done all the things it was supposed to do. He brought out N10,000 and offered it to me.

“You know, he is my friend, so I simply told him to keep the money. I told him to go and perfect the papers and that whenever he brought it, I would give it express treatment. As God would have it, that same day, a friend was having a naming ceremony and I decided to attend. Just as I entered into the gathering, the managing director of that particular bank suddenly called out my name. When I went to greet him, he said, ‘Sopitan, your friend told me you asked for N30,000 to sign our papers.’ I was surprised, but I took my time to explain to him what happened and the advice I gave.

“The man said he was surprised when the man told him that I asked to collect N30,000 gratification. He said he told my friend that that was not the Sopitan that he knew. That day, I felt very proud and on top of the world that somebody could vouch for my integrity even in my absence. It was indeed a wonderful experience for me.”

But the old man is unhappy about how things have turned out in Nigeria. Comparing the Nigeria of his time and the present generation, he wondered what has become of integrity, which he said was something to flaunt in his time.

“When I joined the CBN, we didn’t use bullion vans and all we had was one policeman carrying a Mark Four rifle. Then, our currency was printed in the UK, and we would go to the motor park to hire a truck to ferry the money from the wharf to the CBN office. Can you try that today? Even with the number of security men that follow the bullion vans, they are still waylaid by armed robbers.

“I tell people that Nigerians who are 40 years old and below are like a man who was born blind. He does not know the difference between darkness and light. But the older people, like my generation are like a man who had sight and could see before suddenly going blind. He knows what light looks like and will always cry that he lost his sight.”

For a man who in his younger days displayed extreme sense of truancy and almost didn’t go to school, Pa Sopitan confessed that he is shocked each time he remembers the antics he displayed in those days. His life, he said, is guided by God’s grace.

“These days, when I visit my hometown and I see those friends who almost inspired me to become a driver, I just smile to myself. Believe me, I think it is just the grace of God. Or how do you explain why a young boy would do all those things just to make sure that he would not be enrolled in school?,” he asked, before quickly adding: “That is the grace of God at work in my life.”

About 16 years ago, Pa Sopitan was transported back to his own childhood by an incident that happened to his last son. The young man was ready to proceed to the university and wrote the JAMB examination. However, due to a technical error, his result was not released.

Alarmed at what had happened, the old man’s past quickly ran through his mind and he suspected that the boy could have deliberately failed the examination.

He said: “It was a very funny experience. My last son wrote his JAMB examination. Of course, we expected him to pass, but I think he made an error while he was shading the answers or something like that. But his result was not released.

“Suddenly, I remembered all the things that I did and I was like, could he have done what he did deliberately? But after a while, I knew he could not have done that and I simply let go.”

With age, Pa Sopitan now uses most of his time to relax, read and contribute to debates on public affairs on radio and television stations.

“When I was younger, I enjoyed my game of lawn tennis a lot. You know, as young men, we would go to club in the evenings to relax after work. And I always loved to play tennis. But now, what I do most is to relax and read. I also appear as guest analyst on public affairs discussions on radio and television stations. Aside from these, the rest of my time is dedicated to the service of God.”