Dr Olapade Agoro is a man of many parts. He is an engineer, church leader, traditional ruler, businessman, as well as a politician. In this interview with OLASUMBO OTAGBO, the septuagenarian bares his mind on the Nigeria of his youth, his love for education and the failure of his generation,
among other issues. Excerpts:
TELL us more about your background?
I’m a trained engineer with a doctoral degree in Interdisciplinary Engineering. I schooled in Willesden London NW10 and Gateshead Co. Durham, California Western University, University of Ibadan and later California Coast University (CCU). I studied a little bit of law, but I don’t practise law. I am a spiritual leader and head of Aladura Church in Nigeria and Diaspora. I am the Owa Tapa of Itapa-Ijeshaland. I am also a publisher. I contested the presidential election in 2003. But I gave up when I realised that my ambition was constituting a threat to my life. In 2007, it was the same story. In 2011, I challenged the modus operandi of that election and the case is still at the Court of Appeal. I introduced the concept of a plastic ID card in Nigeria in 1976. I also introduced the road safety concept to Nigeria in 1972. I did the first international oil conference in the whole of black Africa in 1990. I have lived a very successful life up till now.
My love for education
Unfortunately, the focus of the younger generation is get rich quick. But in our own days, it was to get a good education. The vogue in town then was for you to see your children get educated. I think I was brainy and I had the desire for education. I have published 18 books on various subjects and they are all selling well. I publish my own magazine, the people’s journal. So, it all depends on what you want in life. Some people are hell-bent on making money, but I have never seen my life like that. I was born by a very affluent father, but it never made any negative impact on my life.
My desire was to contribute relatively to human development, and that shifted my focus from making money, irrespective of how. What we have now, particularly since oil was discovered in Nigeria, is that people don’t want to work any longer. The quality of education is so low, people don’t want to read to get their degrees, they don’t want to read to get the certificates. Now, you will see a young boy or girl telling you that he or she made five papers at two sittings. The idea of making five papers in two sittings should be discouraged. It shows a serious disdain for education. It does not encourage industry. It means the children should not work, just go there and try your luck.
Unfortunately, how will such student survive in the higher institution when it is obvious that he is not sound? They are gamblers, and our leaders are not encouraging the youth. How do you explain to the world that, barely two days to the kick-off of the World Cup tournament, the players were demanding for millions of naira and the President had to settle them with $3.5 million.
After that experience, how can a child study hard? He would simply say ‘if the President could pay $3.5 million, how will you now say a child should study hard? They will say since Mr. President can pay $3.5million to please footballers, why do I need to struggle?’
Nigeria of my childhood
We did not know that it will get to this stage when we were growing up. We never thought it will be as bad as this. The decline started during the Tafa Balewa’s regime when he introduced austerity measures. At the time, the ministers were floating in wealth while the masses were suffering. The worst was Babangida’s introduction of an economic policy that destroyed everything in Nigeria. Nigerians’ desire for good was destroyed when we fell into the trap of the western world. Nigeria was a great nation. When we were growing up, nobody thought of money, your father’s name meant a lot to you then. There was no way you could live beyond your means; it was not only an offence to the system, but also an offence to the household. It will be difficult for a man who is caught stealing to get a woman to marry.
But now, it is a thing of pride. They will say after all, he went to jail for only two years. He will start all over again living in mansions all over the country. During our time, you have to live according to your means, you have to justify the standard of your living with your earnings. It was very difficult for us to live above our earnings and the moral value was so solid. When we were young, you wouldn’t find a woman leaving any part of her body bare, every part had to be covered. They didn’t know what is called bleaching then; now, you see women like mascara. In those days, you see men being responsible to the family.
The last I heard was people going abroad for weekend shopping while the average Nigerians are suffering. In our time, the standard of living was based on morality. But these days, you see women jumping from one man to the other, prostitution is now in the open market. Now, you see people building mansions here and there without anybody questioning the source of their money. That is part of our problem, and until we have the society sanitised, we are going nowhere.
My advice to the younger generation
My generation has not done what anybody can pray to copy. My generation might be good, but the leadership is terribly bad. When we were young, we were not known to condone stealing. But now, the more you can steal the more you are recognised. We were God-fearing, I was brought up in the house of good Christians, although I was born and brought up in the house of the Chief Imam of Ibadanland, yet as a Christian, I had my respect for Islam.
But nowadays, we hear people talking about religious dichotomy. In our days, we didn’t know if you are a Christian or you are a Muslim. We have some good examples: Bola Ahmed Tinubu is a Muslim, but the wife is a good Christian. There is Governor Babatunde Fashola in Lagos, a Muslim with a Christian wife. Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State is a Muslim with a Christian wife.
I am a preacher, I preach peace through religion. At the end of the day, God will not ask me how many people I have killed for Him, He will not ask me how many people I have destroyed for Him. He would only ask how many people you have saved for His sake. My religion believes in saving souls for God and the Lord Jesus Christ, not destroy people. I don’t envy anybody, I don’t envy any religious leader flying around. I am more at peace riding my rickety vehicle. I don’t have any room for religious leaders who dance around swimming in affluence. I don’t know what my generation will want to leave behind for future generations, but the truth is that we have nothing good to leave. However, my prayer is that those coming behind us should live a better life. Our fathers gave us something we should be proud of, but we are giving rotten apples for our children to eat. It is too bad; 99% of our leaders are terrible; 99.99% of the people appointed as our leaders are people who should be ashamed of themselves. They steal and they are proud of it. That is not what I want to leave for my children.
Secret of my good health
I don’t even know that I am 70. I don’t have any ailment; I haven’t got a single ailment. My eyes are still sharp. When I was 40, I was reading with glasses. Just about when I got to age 40, I discovered that my vision was blurred and they recommended a pair of glasses for me. But before I clocked 50, I jettisoned reading with glasses. I am not hypertensive; I don’t have blood sugar, I don’t know what it means and I’m still in tune with my wife; it doesn’t make any difference to me. Age has never had impact on me.
By the grace of God, this year, I will be moving towards 72 from October 9. But it doesn’t make any difference to me, I still walk, I still do everything I used to do when I was younger. I enjoy leading the service and even leading the choir. I enjoy standing on the podium and singing for about one hour to the church instead of leaving it to the choirmaster. I give glory to God and I practise early to bed, early to rise; I go to bed around 9pm. I don’t drink, but anytime I feel like it, I go for red wine. I don’t use any medication.
I told my wife recently that people are using medication, so let me be using something too. So, I started using garlic. I am grateful to God for endowing me with good health up till now. I have not had any ailment that will make me see a doctor. I sleep well and when I wake up around 3am, I do my prayers. My day starts by 4am after prayers. I listen to the bible for about 30 minutes. Then I listen to Voice of America, then to BBC and later to local news. I hardly observe siesta because I don’t know how to sleep in the afternoon. Of course, I may dose in my office or in the car when I’m travelling, but to go and sleep in my room in the afternoon when I’m not sick, I can’t remember doing that. My normal ailment is simple malaria and once I take one or two doses of drugs, it goes. In fact, I hardly notice it, I can’t remember falling sick.
For more than 30 years now, I don’t use analgesic because it troubles my stomach. Up till today, I don’t know the meaning of hate. When you do anything and I’m affected, when I see you coming before me, the first thing I will do is to laugh. So I tell people to avoid it, it destroys, I don’t hate people and that has been keeping me on. To me, both black and white are all the handiwork of God. Religion is something inside you. When you talk about God, it should be inside of you, not what you carry on your face. You don’t become a pastor just because you wear a collar or speak big grammar on television.
The other day, I was going along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway and I saw a masquerade at the back of a horse. I said to myself, ‘So masquerades have started riding on horses; so the people from heaven know how to ride horses’. And when they got to me, some of their followers walked up to me and said, ‘Baba, we want you to give us money’. Naturally, I would not have given them money, but they might break my windscreen and run away. So, I told my driver to stop and I gave them N200 and they went their way. What stops me giving them that N200 if only it will make them happy, if it will eliminate crime from the society?
If the government would create jobs instead of taking the money abroad, instead of buying aircraft, instead of going abroad for medical treatment. When you make life difficult for the poor, they will make the rich live constantly in fear. That is our problem in the society. My own idea is to make life comfortable for the people and they will make life comfortable for you.
