Chapter 3 titled “GENEALOGY” contains elaboration and elucidation on the family trees of Pa Ajayi in his four cities. The chapter naturally includes description of the lineage, as well as the distinctive values and unique virtues of the father of the autobiographer, Moses Ajayi. Though from a lineage of medicine men and warriors, Moses Ajayi “veered off the family line of traditional medicine as he got converted to Christianity very early in his own life …”
This chapter highlights the age-old issue of land tenure system in Nigeria. Pa Moses Ajayi (because his father came from Erinmo and his mother from Efon) was a virtual stranger in Ilara, so “he had to beg for land to farm.” It is a strange irony that, in Nigeria, no matter how many years you have been resident in a land outside the birth place of your parents, you are still considered a settler who must beg for land or pay through the nose to acquire land for farming and housing purposes, even when you yourself might have been born in your current location outside your ancestral roots. This forced the author’s father to go secure farmlands in distant locations and virgin forests like Omimeje, “where no one was landowner and vacant land lay plenty.” However, apart from the long distance and the huge trees that a farmer needs to contend with in the pristine forest of Omimeje, there was also the menace of wild beasts, such as monkeys, baboons and wartdogs that devastated farm crops. So, only sticklers of a rare genre could farm in Omimeje jungles in those days! However, the autobiographer gleefully informs readers that those brutes (jungle beasts) met more than their match in his father, who was “a formidable fighter and a sharp shooter of a hunter.” He recalls with admirable nostalgia: “We ate bush meat to the point of losing some of our teeth.” It is hyperboles like this that Pa Ajayi, an enchanting story teller, generously deploys to breathe life into the otherwise dry bones that are recipes of historical narratives. Unfortunately, he concludes the genealogy of his paternal lineage with the death of his strong and dedicated father under mysterious circumstances that he, as a practical psychologist, attributes to assassination through “mental suggestion”. The Ifa diviner, called Epipu-kan-gidi, who visited the author’s home without invitation, told them of the need for conducting sacrifices and rituals to ward off imminent death. The family cooperated with him and provided the materials for the sacrifice, which the diviner dutifully performed with all the razzmatazz associated with such rituals. A couple of weeks later, the author’s father came back from the family distant farm, Omimeje, shivering with severe fever which, within three days, degenerated into a distended abdomen accompanied by acute pains. The intervention of the village nurse who administered an enema provided temporary relief, as the author’s father defecated “but as comfort replaced pain, he grunted and breathed his last.” The tragedy occurred, in the inimitably dramatic language of the author, “at about 8 p.m. on Tuesday September 21, 1943; and there was a great tumult, then a great calm; and I became fatherless, bedevilled by a life of struggles.”
Chapter Four, titled: “The Birth of a Revolutionary”, describes the political import and impact of the obnoxious British policy of indirect rule on Nigeria as a whole, as well as the regions, provinces and other sub-units of the country. Indirect rule introduced the concept of paramountcy of some traditional rulers (Obas, Baales, Emirs, and Obis) of big towns and the consequent political subjugation and social marginalisation of rulers of relatively smaller towns unilaterally put under them.”
Rightly believing that “Resistance to tyranny is obedience to God,” it was the tyranny and injustice that the concept of paramountcy constituted to the people of Ilara and other villages and towns in Ifedore community that compelled the autobiographer to go into political activism and later politics proper. Given the seemingly accidental but carefully predestined circumstances through which he was introduced to and became engrossed with the fight to free his people from the oppression of the Deji of Akure, Pa Ajayi identifies his historic destiny as the liberation of the people of Ifedore from colonially inspired slavery.
In his own words, “There is a clear indication that my mission in life is to fight for liberation and it was easy to realise that the scourge I came to combat was also ready for me.”
The author recalls how he was sucked into political activism by a seemingly innocuous assignment of helping certain Itaogbolu traditional rulers to write a letter, which turned out to be a petition to British administrative officers, against the imposition of an Oba or Baale on Itaogbolu against the wish of the chiefs.
Pa John Ajayi innocently wrote the protest letter at the behest of the chiefs and it was dutifully forwarded to the Native Authority. The Native Authority police reacted by arresting the chiefs, who revealed the identity of their letter writer, and subsequently picked up the then young and politically naïve John Ajayi for writing a subversive and seditious letter. He was dumped half-nude in a dingy cell and later charged to court. Needless stating that rather than discouraging or demotivating him, this baptism of fire into political activism whetted his appetite for the liberation struggles that he later spearheaded in Ilara.
Chapter Five is devoted to “My Religious Life”. The academic rigour and polemical essence of this chapter are testimonies to the intellectual sophistication and spiritual depth of the autobiographer. This recommends this chapter, and several others like it, to theologians and polemically inclined academicians. The chapter takes the reader down memory lane on how the author was born a consummate “omo awo”, into a family of warriors and veritable medicine men, who were reputed, revered, envied and persecuted in the same breath for their sorcery, wizardry, juju, efficacious herbs, voodoo, necromancy, hypnotism and mesmerism. He goes on to say, “So, in all the meanings and connotations of the term, I could be said to be an omo awo indeed,” asserted Pa John Ajayi.
Largely due to intellectual curiosity and inquisitiveness, the author, as a youngster, devoted ample time to collecting and memorizing ofo or ogede (incantations), as well as compiling herbal recipes and antidotes for common ailments, such as fever, aches and snake bites. He also took special interest in herbal ingredients and incantations for ofe (burden lightener or body lifter) and isoye (memory enhancer). Yet he abhorred, resented and shunned divining and elements of traditional medicine “requiring consultation with or conjuration of any god and idols.” In the same vein, he resented, “the concoctions and decoctions prepared and administered by the dirty hardly-ever-washed hands of awo dispensers” oftentimes forced on him to drink to treat sicknesses that are less nauseous than the dirty hands and repulsive activities of omo awos. He recounts sickening and unwholesome rituals, such as “the sight of blood oozing out of the neck of a fowl whose head was pulled out to supply blood for one medicine or the other” and the scene of “miniature gourds (ado) and statues sprinkled with blood of fowl or other animals.” Yet, he retained his interest in incantations and made a habit of collecting ofo and ogede on all problems or challenging situations that could require them.
Perhaps to warn the reader of the limited reliability of incantations, the author, in his inimitably dramatic manner, recalls how “one day during high jump at a school meet” he put ofe to use and commanded it to lift him up, only for him to crash down and break his right wrist!” In his words, “Ofe, rather than bear me up, had let me down. It marked the parting of ways between ofe and me, and largely too between traditional medicine and me. At any rate, even while writing notes on herbal medicine recipes and collecting incantations for deployment in several trying situations, he said, “yet I did not worship the gods of the awos or babalawos.” He declares, “I never for one day deviated from my belief in and loyalty to the one God, though I had problems of not knowing how to benefit from His power!”
examinations that earned him academic and professional certificates comparable to first and second degrees. This chapter is an exposition of how Pa John Ajayi became a home-grown professor who could not be outperformed or intimidated by any intellectual of his time. It is a revelation of how the author became an academic terrorist despite never seeing the four walls of a university. This segment of the autobiography is a practical manual for those who want to learn about self-development. It could be a motivational tool and an encouragement to those who lack the financial resources but are desirous of achieving higher academic goals.
Chapter 7 of the autobiography details the work experience of the author from the tender age of 10 years until he breathed his last on earth.
The sundry occupations discussed in the book as having been engaged in by the author at various times of his life are not just indicative of his versatility but also evidence of his positive work ethics, can-do spirit, doggedness and diligence. The job descriptions and titles include Isaana Oju Ale re e (Matches for evening light are here), Agbegilodo (timber merchant), the Alagbaro (the farmhand), Weaver of Baskets and Maker of Thatch, the Untrained Teacher, the Public Letter Writer, Journalist and Salesman, the block maker, the Oyinbo Elepo (Fuel Merchant), Gari Maker, Produce Merchant, and the Party Agent.
An incurable believer in the dignity of labour and an apostle of “hard work does not kill,” Pa Ajayi did every legitimate job available to raise money for his cherished life goal: sound education. From his account, he started work as an auxiliary teacher because “teaching provided the only salaried employment in those days.” However, he had to leave teaching because of “the drudgery of the job, compounded by the untrained, uncertificated stigma, the low earning and the monotony.” He even tried to become a constable in the police force, as he “preferred that to remaining in teaching without any prospect of advancement” or returning to good old farming!
This was the difficult situation under which he went into trading. The objective, he says, was “first and foremost, to facilitate the means of funding advanced education.” He reflects, “All the business enterprises I did in those years were for keeping body and soul together, while the real goal [good education] remained at the back of my mind all the time.”
Not for him the life of a loafer or cheat, he strongly believed the only way to success is hard work, self-denial, perseverance, dedication to the achievement of the defined goal. He says excellent service was always his goal.
Despite his diligence and dedication, the author recalls how he got sacked from A. J. Seward under very strange and inexplicable circumstances. However, he says the contrary winds that led to his getting sacked took him to Cadbury Nigeria Limited, where he rapidly rose to become an Area Manager. “When a person needs to be pushed up the ladder of life, men and circumstances are used by the divine hands for the pushing.”
Chapter 8 of the book is about his Family Life. The chapter describes how the loneliness of being orphaned at the age of 23 years drove the author into early marriage, as he lost his father when he was only thirteen and his mother barely ten years after. Desperate “to fill this aching void through marriage,” he got married in 1954, at the age of 24, to the second girl he ever befriended, Beatrice Adebanke, then an 18-year-old girl. The author speaks glowingly and passionately about this love of his life “who filled her roles beautifully.” She was a wife as well as a mother.” The early and unfortunate loss of his parents, a shattering experience of his life, ironically brought his marriage to his wife Banke (the best marriage that he could have had), a testimony to the truth of the Scripture, “All things work together for good to them who love God…” He equally says that his blissful marriage to Banke made her untimely transition at the age of 60 on 25th December 1996 “the most grievous experience of my life.”
The author also uses the book to explain the circumstances that led to his contracting another marriage even during the subsistence of his “recounted blessed marriage.” He attributes his second marriage mainly to the fact that his wife, because of the demanding circumstances of her profession, “was most of the time in the early days an absentee wife.” Aside from “this fact of perennial separation” from his wife, the author, in his characteristic bluntness and candour, confesses, “But fundamentally, the African in me is polygamist.” So, in 1958, while his first wife was undergoing her midwifery course, the author married another spinster, then Miss Margaret Ogbenuubi Ojo, who, like him, was a descendant of Erinmo. He recalls that he had to snatch the maiden from the man to whom she was betrothed at a tender age, “as the custom went in those days.” Explaining the seeming conflict between this anti-tradition action and his self-description as “an irredeemable traditionalist,” he says, “while I am a traditionalist and I respect the tradition of my people a lot, I revolt against, and break at will, such as I regard as unreasonable, anachronistic and unacceptable.” He points out that this oppressive aspect of our marriage custom falls into this category. The author pays tribute to the understanding of his first wife, her liberality and the motherly role she played to his second wife for the period the second marriage lasted. He regrets the dissolution of his second marriage, which he attributes largely to his pattern of “distancing from wife” because of the roving existence forced on him by his occupation.
The book underlines the topmost priority that the author placed on the education of his children. He states, “I could not bear to have children that would not be well-educated and well-read.”
The book also highlights the travails and trials of the author in his quest to build a personal house to provide shelter to his family. The experience, he notes, was “typical of the difficulty faced by all salary earners in the country and perhaps most countries of the world.” As the monthly income is never enough to take care of immediate and basic family needs while the building of a personal house is capital intensive, it is a daunting challenge saving enough capital, except in rare cases where employment conditions of service include a housing loan scheme. As he could not cut corners or bend the rules, not to talk of engaging in outright stealing or embezzlement, because of his moral principles and Christian ethics, he had to wait for God’s time. God’s time came through “a government wage policy [that] reverberated in the private sector and gave me a lump sum in salary arrears.” This was how the author started the building of his house, which he completed several years later.
The narration about the building project does not end without an account of the fortuitous circumstances that gave the author the “building site in a choice area” of Ilara. The prime land, which later became Ajayi Street, was left undeveloped and overgrown by weeds because people, rooted in superstition, believed “it was the forest of ghosts, the abode of fairies, which no human being could share or, in fact, visit at night, as, according to general belief, fairies would snuff life out of such mortals!”
As the author, despite being an irredeemable traditionalist, by his own admission, lived above silly superstition, he built and inhabited his house without any interference from fairies. He records having welcomed six other houses to Ajayi Street with several occupants, none of whom ever saw any fairy or had any unusual experience.
The autobiography also vividly captures the circumstances that pressed the author into community service, development activism and ultimately partisan politics. The remote cause is of course the ancestry of the author as “his forbears, left and right, maternal and paternal, were politicians, warriors and servers of the people.” Another motivating factor highlighted in the book was the fascination of the author by “the exploits and struggles of Nigerian nationalists who were agitating for independence”.
Notwithstanding this, the book pin-points the actual trigger of his entry into politics as “the dehumanizing practice of paramountcy”, which was a logical consequence of the system of Indirect Rule imposed on Nigeria by the colonial British administration. Ilara, according to the passionate account of the author, felt the full and brutal weight of “the repulsive practices of paramountcy” which peaked with the banishment of the then Alara of Ilara-mokin, Oba Adamu Arojojoye for re-crowning himself and wearing a beaded crown in defiance of the colonially-selected paramount ruler, Oba Afunbiowo, the then Deji of Akure. This, the author stated, “sets the stage, no doubt, for a liberation struggle since slavery is not the legitimate state of man, and must be overthrown.”
If any was needed, this provocation was a clarion call to arms for the autobiographer. Being a man of valour by lineage, by nature and by nurture, he took up the gauntlet to play “Moses” of not just Ilara town but the entire community of Ilara, Ijare and Igbara-Oke, later christened Ifedore. The rest as they say is history.
The book further documents the pioneering role of the author, along with other patriots, to mid-wife Ifedore community, which later transmuted into Ifedore District Council, and much later to Ifedore Local Government. Ifedore was the unified umbrella for collective and effective resistance to the oppression and enslavement of Ifedore people by the rapacious and evil agents of paramount mis-government. The book also chronicles the titanic efforts of the author and other community leaders to resolve the divisive tripartite battles that later ensued for the hosting of the Local Government Headquarters of Ifedore.
Aside from “passion for service to humanity” that is a common denominator of all the actions and activities during his life and time, one unmistakable tendency is the missionary zeal and messianic streak of the author. This led him to spearhead several liberation struggles and freedom-fighting initiatives which inevitably brought him into confrontation and face-offs with external political oppressors like the Deji of Akure, social suppressors like the local Ogboni confraternity and tyrannical traditional leaders like Oba Ojoopagogo. The autobiographer’s abhorrence for “arrogance of power and despotism or tyranny” and “misrule” or “reign of terror” saw him fight to finish several monarchs, including Oba Ojoopagogo, though the author was largely instrumental to drafting him from the police force for royal tutelage and subsequent crowning as an Oba. Thus the king-maker easily and unrepentantly turned to a king-fighter because of his moral outrage against oppression and injustice against the people.
The author’s fight for freedom was also extended to social vices like silly and anachronistic superstitions and obnoxious cultural practices. The book gleeful reports the battle that the author singlehandedly fought and won against the retrogressive cultural taboo attached to selling of pounded yam in Ilara Mokin. Now, thanks to the daring and revolutionary Pa John Ajayi, Ilara people don’t have to leave Ilara and go to ‘bukateria’ in Ijare, Igbara-Oke or Akure to buy and eat good Iyan-gbona (hot pounded yam)!
For all his zeal for selfless service and passion for people’s welfare, the many intrigues and the pervasive pathologies of politics forced the autobiographer to leave politics on two different occasions which is responsible for the chapters on to his second coming and third coming into politics in this book. The author was detained several times on trumped up charges by the native authority police and he narrowly escaped assassination several times by either the Ogboni confraternity or Oba Ojoopagogo, who he helped to install but, he stated, “who was in mortal fear of my political activism.”
Perhaps because the Akure-styled “wizard of Ilara”could not be assassinated, his political enemies decided to raze down his family home. The book narrates the circumstances that surrounded the attempted burning down of his family house and the heroic efforts of Ilara indigenes to rescue the house after the endless wait for the summoned firemen to arrive from Akure. The author testified that the villagers successfully put out the fire before the coming of the firemen, adding: “My whole house remained standing but with my own apartment reduced to outright charcoal. “ The fact that the arson preceded the third coming of the author into politics after his earlier “indefinite withdrawal from community service” is a clear testimony that the author was indeed a fanatical and incurable community servant, who is passionate about service to his community even at the risk of losing his freedom.
Teaching by example, the author has through his autobiography made a good case for selfless service to mankind as the raison d’etre for continued existence and relevance. As one of the converts and disciples of the autobiographer, let me in concluding this review leave you with my own thoughts on service:
To serve is to live,
And to live is to serve,
A life devoid of service
is a life bereft of essence.
Pa Ajayi’s career and life were uniquely driven by the irresistible passion and altruistic desire to right societal wrongs as well as promote fair-play and justice. He was a development missionary and veritable change-agent with undeniable dedication to value addition and positive social transformation.
Though William Shakespare said that “the evil that men do lives after them and the good often interred with their bones”, yet Pa John Ajayi will be remembered and his memory cherished anywhere selfless service is valued because he lived for service and fought for justice.
At this stage, permit me to express my appreciation and enduring love to the noble family of Pa John Ayanfe Ajayi. I feel quite honoured that I was given the rare privilege to review this exceptional autobiography of a quintessential personality and outstanding community leader whose life of selfless service positively changed the course of history of his people and community. I thank you all for your presence and attention.
