His name might not ring any bell in Nollywood today, but Pa Ola Omonitan, popularly known by his stage name Ajimajasan is one of the earliest Yoruba theatre artistes to popularise comedy. At 74, Aji Father looks back at his career and expresses regret that he did not capitalise on the opportunities he had in the past to make lots of money. He spoke with BISI OLADELE
Though he has grown older than the face one used to see on the television screen some 30 years ago, Ajimajasan is still surprisingly agile. He hasn’t lost his idiosyncrasy. Ever smiling, happy and above all, filled with funny acts, even at 74.
After series of efforts to get him for this interview, Pa Ajimajasan, who is always courteous on the telephone and during face-to-face conversations, arranged our meeting for a near-public place at Dugbe, the central business district in Ibadan, Oyo State capital. On getting there, this reporter needed not ask anyone before sighting him. And his Ijesa dialect is still fresh and illuminating. It was an interesting one-hour encounter!
What was your first occupation in life?
I lost my father when I was eight years old. I went to primary school and after that I learnt to speak four different languages by reason of the tough conditions I encountered while growing up. I am from a polygamous family. Early in life, I went to Patigi, Kwara State, as a house boy with a European. I took this job because I hated begging. My first job was carpentry and I learnt it in Ibadan for six years, while I stayed with my brother, the late Adebisi Aromolaran. I am also talented in drama, but I took to carpentry as an alternative to drama so I could survive if drama went down. My contemporaries in drama are Ola Olumegbon, Lere Paimo, Ojo Ladipo, Moses Omilani, Jimoh Aliu and our mentors then were late Duro Ladipo, Bola Ogunmola, Oyin Adejobi, Baba Ogunde, Baba Sala. When I came into limelight in this drama job, we were connected with top people in the society including General Jembewon. But I made a mistake then because I didn’t utilise the opportunity to make additional income through those influential people because I have passion for this job. We were two prominent comedians then – Moses Olaiya (aka Baba Sala) and myself. Ojo Ladipo later joined the league.
During your days, drama was acted on stage but the situation had since changed. How would you compare comedy then and now?
The present comedians deserve to be praised because they are performing well, they took it from where we stopped to the current level. They are now doing better all the things we could not do. I was the first comedian to act a comedy series for one year. 52 episodes of one hour each on the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) from 1981. It was aired on all the NTA stations. We started with “Omo Araye Le”, “Bata Wahala” and “Ogun L’aye.” You cannot compare our own days with the present because we were underdeveloped then but all our works really made a mark.
Do you have any relationship with the present generation of comedians?
Yes, I do. Babatunde Omidina (aka Baba Suwe) and Sanyeri, among others do still come to seek advice from me.
What was your troupe like in those days and how will you describe your achievement then?
I always thank God for giving me the opportunity to be able to gather that troupe. Baba Sala was a one-man comedian and a role model, but I didn’t like imitating others. Baba Sala’s comedy show was on Wednesdays, ours was on Mondays. If you see most of our comedians now they copy Baba Sala because they prefix their name with ‘Baba’. But instead of calling myself Baba Something, I called myself ‘Ajimajasan’, that was where I showed my uniqueness.
How did you come across that name?
My maternal grandmother used to sell meat and I used to eat meat a lot. So, she used to call me Ajimajasan (a meat lover). When she later died I took after that name in order to always remember her. I gained stardom during my days to the extent that before appearing on stage, the audience will be laughing already and that was what gave me an edge over Baba Sala. My troupe comprised Baba Eleko, Iya Ijebu, Adamson, Jacob, Aderupoko, Papilolo and myself. We were seven. We trained ourselves to the extent that within five minutes on state you had to produce a comedy. My troop was very strong then but at the end of the day we got separated.
What caused the separation?
It was because we wanted to copy the white men. There was a foreign comedian called ‘Jester.’ I told my troupe members that we should create another troupe called ‘Jester,’ that will not be limited only to the stage but would also offer stand-up comedy, entertaining guests at social gatherings. Papilolo had the talent of converting songs to create jokes. Jacob also had the ability to display. Aderupoko could also convert songs and it was accepted by the audience. But later, some members of my troupe decided to stay alone because they believed they could stand alone. When they told me that they wanted to stand alone, I was shocked. The three of them – Jacob, Papilolo and Ader-upoko left in a day. I said there is no problem. A good composer should not be afraid, if any of his members was leaving his troupe. It was Papilolo that brought the idea of converting songs to create jokes in a stand-up comedy and it was well accepted by the audience. When they left, some people were of the opinion that I should not have allowed them to leave the same day but I told them that I cannot hinder their progress. Jacob served me for 13 years, Aderupoko served for eight years, and Papiplolo, six years. So, I saw no reason why I should hold them down when they wanted to leave for greener pasture. Their leaving didn’t affect me because I was the one God gave the idea of composition in the troupe. They were like organists while I was the musician. So, it did not affect me but what hurt me most was that when I took a script to Lagos for a show, I was told that most of the script had been acted by the three of them. I also went to other states, I was told the same thing. So, I called them for a meeting and asked them what was happening to all my scripts. They have left my group but they were still performing my comedy in their shows. But Jacob laughed and said: “When a carpenter finishes apprenticeship from his boss, his products will be exactly like his boss’. Then, I said no problem, but I ask them for prayers and I also prayed for them and we departed. They were very nice boys to me and I had confidence in them.
You earlier mentioned that Baba Sala was your senior in the business. Did you always compete?
Yes, we did. People turned us into enemies which ought not to happen. Again, some artists believed that we were competing enemies but I did not see it that way. I like Baba Sala because he was a good comedian and I always praised him for that. When our misunderstanding started he went to the North and we were given his time on NTA every Wednesday instead of our normal Monday. When he came back he was annoyed with the new arrangement, saying that we also took the show’s name ‘Awada’ from (his) ‘Alawada’ series. So, he said he was taking us to court for that and NTA said it was ready to defend us because it was NTA that gave us that stage name but later we did not hear anything from the court again.
How will you rate this present generation’s comedy?
What we have not seen or done in our time are now being included in today’s comedy. They now incorporate new things and the world itself is changing fast. We have strange things happening today. Imagine, homosexuality in the society today. That didn’t happen during our time. The more the world is changing, the more comedy activities will be changing. I recently saw a picture and story in the newspaper that a father wanted to sell his six children and he put them inside a wheel barrow. If a comedian uses that as his story line all the audience will laugh. But during our time the audience will not believe it because all those evil things were hard to find then.
In your days there was nothing like Nollywood, but now we have comedians, artistes and others making waves in the industry and they are making a lot of money now. Did you ever imagine it could be this better?
At all, we didn’t believe that it can get to this level because only cinema films were fashionable then. We didn’t even believe we could start acting at all. It was Orlando Martins that acted a film then and he was speaking Yoruba. So, the audience was thrilled. So, the movie was showed for seven days instead of three days because everybody was rushing the ticket. It was only the white men that produced film then. Orlando was a Yoruba man but schooled in America. He was just like an angel then. Whenever we touched his hands we will not want to wash it off. Most Nigerian artistes, then, too could not believe they can appear on the screen.
Looking at the industry now and the money in it, would you have wished that Nollywood had come during your time?
Although, we wish we could have Nollywood during our days but money was hard to find in our time. But the Naira was strong then because I can remember I bought a new Mercedez Benz car then for N10,500. I bought my Volvo car for N6,500. But now, there is money in Nollywood, we thank God for that and we also thank God that we are still relevant in the history of comedy and acting in Nigeria.
Nollyhood has really reduced the work of the artistes because actions are magnified to be the best with new technological equipment. But, during our time, we would work hard to get the best. Most of today’s artistes are doing well and making more money every day, but I thank God that I am alive to witness it because I would have died. There was no such money during our days and the industry was full of stigmatisation. Any woman acting would be labelled a prostitute then. There was a female banker in 1982 that came to our location. She wanted to join our group. That was when I started suspecting that there is a great future for our profession. I was in Lagos then because I had relocated to Lagos when my boys left me and I started another new system because I believe in myself and I won another contract with a telecom outfit for ‘Omo Araye Le’. There was a time a white man was carrying out a research with us and I told him that I did not want to marry more than one wife. I told him that I was afraid, that bringing in more women may lead me into marrying more wives. But he advised that the best thing to do was to bring them in as guest artistes. We would give them a script and put them on payroll. So, when I got to Lagos I started inviting all the artistes and we acted ’Omo Araye Le.’ The artistes included Baba Wande, Lere Paimo, Bello, Aluwe and others. What the white man taught me was what I used to produce ‘Omo Araye Le’ and ‘Bata Wahala’ and they were acceptable to our fans.
How do you source materials for your plays?
They come in two forms. We develop them from true life story, although it may be tragic to the fans. We also get some in our dreams or sometimes in the news.
Ajimajasan was a very popular name in the past but the present generation don’t seem to know you by that name, what happened?
When I relocated from Ibadan to Lagos, I discovered that it would be a difficult thing for non-Yoruba to pronounce ‘Ajimajasan.’ So, I changed it to ‘Baba No Regret’, ‘Awaiting Millionaire’ or ‘A fool at 40 is a fool forever’. So it was easy for every tribe to pronounce it.
I was sick sometime ago when I had prostate cancer. It was discovered late, and I spent so much money. I even taught I would die. The sickness started about six years ago but God took control when Aare Musulunmi of Yorubaland, Alhaji Abdul-Azeez Arisekola-Alao came to my aid. I was even duped by some people just because I wanted to be healed. They passed a 36ft rubber hose into me to urinate but when Alhaji Arisekola came to my aid, I went to South Africa for the surgery and he was the one who paid the bills.
I was surprised and told him that I don’t know why he likes me so much because I am a Christian and he is a Muslim. But he laughed and said that Nigerians must overgrow the sentiment of religion and work for the progress of the country. He said Nigerians need to cultivate this idea of helping one another without being religion biased. I thank God that I am healthy now.
What is the state of your health now?
I thank God for His mercy because I am healthy now and my struggle will continue. Very soon a film on Nigerian politics will be released and the title is ‘Do or Die.’ It is aimed at warning politicians against do-or-die politics. I have to work in order to be able to feed myself.
With your long years of experience you don’t need to work hard again. At which level do you wish to operate in the movie industry?
I want to participate in drama but money will decide the position one will be. The amount of money you have for the production will determine your role. If I have money and a good sponsor, all the new technologies used by the foreign artistes will be used for the production. I am also scared of piracy. They will buy one disc and go to Alaba Market to mass dub it into millions of copies. We will sell our film at N300, they sell theirs at N100. We have complained to the government but till date, there is nothing they could do to stop them. If a producer spends N10 million on the production of a film, if he is not careful, piracy will plunge him into debt.
Is any of your children into acting of comedy?
Although, they wish to do but I didn’t allow them. I like the idea that ‘Oga Bello’ adopted. Our children should first graduate from the university, have all the necessary degrees and then, they can do anything they like. Look at Femi Adebayo now. He is a lawyer – competent one for that matter. So, many of his (Bello’s) children did the same thing. If drama goes down, they will be able to rely on their profession.
As an icon in this industry, what is your advice for the upcoming artistes and those intending to be?
I pray they will be able to listen to my advice and yield to it. From experience, they should have another vocation or skill and should not depend on drama alone. They should look for a profitable business to rely upon because of the future and that was the mistake I made when I finished learning my furniture work. I should have continued with it. I would not have found myself in this mess.
