‘MY LIFE ODYSSEY’
Emmanuel Ojo reviews Joshua Olagunju’s autobiography
This 484-page and twenty chapter book by Pastor Joshua Sunday Olagunju – a one-time Managing Director of the rested Sketch Newspapers – is a latest addition to the growing literature on both autobiographies and biographies of eminent personalities in our society. According to the author, the book is “an epic account of struggles, setbacks, renewed hopes, and a triumph”. Putting one’s life journey from cradle to its twilight on record, no doubt, is greatly beneficial to both the author who may like to be immortalised and the younger generation who may be privileged to read the story and learn few things in their life course. According to The Penguin Dictionary of Proverbs, (1984:268) ‘writing destroys the memory’. More so that there is a limit to human memory if not committed to writing in black and white.
Like many who were born into a stark illiterate family, the exact date of the author’s birth was not known! His date of birth became mere matter of conjecture as there was no record of birth in the family, neither did they go to the birth registry to register his birth and collect birth certificate. Not until his brother one Dele, the first son of his father told him that by the time their father gave up the ghost in 1960, that he was between 13 and 14 years old. He was also between seven and eight years old in 1955 when the author entered St. Paul’s Primary School, EfonAlaaye on February 17, 1955. From his account he was born into a polygamous family – of three wives, of which his mother Rachael Oluwafumilayo, nee Folayan – was the third wife of his father while Sunday was the first child from his own mother.
From the first chapter of the book which he titled “My Childhood Years”, the author benefitted from the free Universal Basic Education of the late Sage – Chief Obafemi Awolowo- the Premier of the defunct Western Region. In the early hours of February 17, 1955 his mother had woken him up early enough to get ready for school. It was at Efon Alaaye, in present day Ekiti State of Nigeria. Young Sunday was a brilliant chap passing exams in flying colours to the admiration of his teachers and consternation of his class mates.
The second chapter entitled ‘Parenthood’, Sunday’s father was a traditional ‘Adamo’ musician who was famous for it with his dexterity which attracted accolades and fame from his admirers. His father did not live long with Sunday. His son started school in 1955 and Dad gave up the ghost in 1960. Life expectancy was very low then. The sudden demise of his father made the responsibility of taking good care of the author to fall solely on his mother who had no dime with her after a protracted sickness. He thus began a journey of life of poverty and penury.
The death of his benefactors and those left behind with low education that could barely eke a living threw young Sunday into a bleak future. Vicissitudes of life made him to begin squatting from one relation to the other, while some were tolerant for a short while some could not accommodate him with his financial liabilities. On completion of his Secondary Modern School which was in vogue then, he found himself in a quagmire, especially as regards what next for him to do. He became perplexed and seemed totally hopeless as a young man. In the process, he found himself at Osogbo, present day capital of Osun State as an apprentice Radio repairer. Not long, he found himself in Lagos too as an apprentice tailor. His Lagos experience was fascinating as he was moving away from his cocoon to a cosmopolitan city for the first time in his life. His high expectation was not a misnomer as his movements ever since his birth was restricted to few towns of Efon, Aramoko, Ilesha and Osogbo. It was in Lagos while working as a professional tailor that by happenstance and divine providence that this author got a salary job for the first time in his life with Palm Line Agency of Nigeria, Apapa, Lagos.
Despite being paid monthly salary, the author did not relent in his innate desire for Western Education which he believed could liberate him from poverty. As a private candidate he registered for two ‘A’ level papers – Economics and Government – at the same time he also put in for four ‘O’ level papers too – English Language, Geography, History and Mathematics. He however passed the two ‘A’level papers and the four ‘O’ level ones. What was amazing to many is the English Language that he crushed. It was the major albatross for many including his superiors at work.
Furthermore, with his sterling performance in public examinations, God’s fingers did not stop pushing him to great fortunes as he was advised to apply for the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for a job. He did and was able to pass the interview. Thus, a career in banking commenced in earnest. He was with the CBN between 1976 – 1978. He attempted professional bodies’ examination in Banking which he passed. But all these did not becloud his desire for tertiary education.
In July, 1978 fortune smiled on him as he was admitted to the University of Lagos to read History. He was faced with making difficult decisions of whether to continue with the prestigious CBN job or proceed to the University. Eventually, reason prevailed as he registered as an undergraduate despite all hiccups. He waved all entreaties from his bosses and colleagues at the bank to stay put, as he resigned his appointment in August 1978 for higher education.
Few events cannot escape this review from his experience in the University as a student. First was the smart way he was schemed out of the race of becoming the Secretary-General of the Student Union. He was shown real ‘politik’ that eventually tainted his perception and world view of politics in the larger society. Another is the cat and mouse relationship amongst lecturers in his department; which dissuaded him from taking up interest in scholarship. He however learnt later from his work place experiences most especially in The Daily Times where he worked for more than a decade before he was frustrated out, and the rested Daily Sketch too. Perhaps, a bad one was the personal animosity with one Professor Asiwaju.
Chapter nine chronicles his National Youth Service (NYSC) experience after graduation from the University of Lagos. He was posted to Plateau State. The take away from the chapter is that it was during his Youth Corps programme that he met his wife. We never read of his romance with any woman, in fact, if not for the prodding of a colleague the author might have missed Wura, who turned out to be his better-half. Dictionary of Proverbs p.11, says ‘Never refuse a good offer’. During his Youth Corps, he was shocked that the North despite dearth of qualified teachers preferred Indians to Southerners to be employed on full-time.
Shortly after his NYSC he picked up job with the Ondo State Teaching Service Commission. But he got discouraged with the fluctuating fortunes of teachers in terms of irregular payment of salaries! According to this account on 15th March, 1984 he got married to Wura at the famous Mapo Hall Marriage Registry in Ibadan, the capital of Oyo State. In his words ‘ours was one of the humblest marriage ceremonies that one could think of’. This is in line with the proverb that says that “every beginning is hard”.
In November 1984, the author began active journalism practice with The Daily Times as a freelance writer. This was done to augment his income that had nose-dived. The Daily Times was established in 1926, and by 1985 the paper was already 59 years old. What began like a short stint with The Daily Times eventually turned out to be a long stay having secured permanent job with the organization on October 18, 1985. He recalled that his experience with The Daily Times was far from being palatable in terms of promotion, transfers and appointments. The author was shocked that rather than merit, productivity and competence extraneous considerations were the order of the day. This largely led to the collapse of the organization. He resigned his appointment with The Daily Times simply for the fact that the organization was badly administered. In his words “in The Daily Times of the period, there were some maverick and brutally uncivil individuals that people employed to do such dirty job pushing their way through within the organization…”. No doubt, this is a common feature in all human collectivities in Africa, which is one of the potent reasons for our under development. After ten years of sojourn with The Daily Times, the paper popularly known as ‘Obituary’ suffered dwindling advert revenues and poor sales to the point that workers were owed more than twelve months unpaid salaries.
However, he had a fulfilled life in active journalism. He also had a short stint with the Yoruba Council of Elders (YCE) working with Dr. Kunle Olajide as Secretary/PA until January 2001 when he left to take up the Sketch job as General Manager. At the Sketch Newspapers the story was not really different from that of the defunct Daily Times. He was brought in to revive a dead horse! With the shenanigans of people there, the paper could not be brought back to life. Eventually, the paper was closed down by the owner states. He had worked there as General Manager for a year.
With his background as an historian and a journalist, the book is well written, succinct and readable.
– Ojo is a Professor of Comparative Politics, Department of Political Science, University of Ilorin, Kwara State
