I slept in an open verandah beside the forest in Tai Solarin’s school - Chemist Babalola Adebisi Ayoola, 1st Cosmetologist in Nigeria/GNPP Guber Candidate

Additional reports from Yinka Feyisina: updated Sunday 05-07-2009

HE was born in Agbonle Village, Ido Local Government, Ibadan, on December 23, 1939, to make impact in life. His father was at the warfront when he was born and he did not know him until he was almost seven years old.

His father was Pa Theophilus Afolabi Ayoola from Eleepo Village, in the present Ona Ara Local Government of Oyo State (then Ibadan Division), while his mother, Mrs. Mojereola Ayoka Ayoola is from Mapo in Ibadan, while their village is Agbonle, near Ologuneru, Ibadan. His father was drafted into the Army during the Second World War and was posted to Poa, in old India, between 1939 and 1945. A reputable Chemist, the first Patron of Hairdressers’ Association of Nigeria, started his career as a teacher and later became a politician to reckon with.

He was a student of Tai Solarin at Mayflower Secondary School, Ikenne, Ogun State, Nigeria. The first African to bag the highest score in Physical Chemistry at Leceister School of Pharmacy, England, he was among the executives as the Welfare Secretary of the Nigerian Students’ Union in England of Great Britain and Ireland, in 1963.

The gubernatorial candidate of the GNPP(Great Nigeria People’s Party) in Oyo State, during the 1983 elections, later rose to become the Second National Vice-Chairman of the party. He speaks on his childhood days with nostalgia:

‘Ogun Pari konga...’
“My mother told me she was three months pregnant when dad left for the battle field and that she had to relocate to her mother’s village, Agbonle because of this. When the war ended and the soldiers came back, including my dad, we used to sing,‘Ogun pari konga, ko, ko, konga....’ People were joyous that the war had ended. Soldiers who were posted to Nigeria from other countries came into the village because their camp was nearby. Their camp was at Ologuneru, very near Ido Local Government headquarters. The area was called ‘Iyana Akufo.’ Whenever they came, they stayed around a tree at the middle of the village. In those days, the soldiers used to molest the women but the villagers had some groups of vigilante that escorted the women to the stream and market. We ate together then. We may be three or four eating from the same bowl and if you wanted to take meat when it was not your turn, mother would say, ‘no, it is not your turn,’ as a corrective measure, admonishing you to be considerate.”

School
“I attended St. Peter’s Anglican Primary School, Aremo, Ibadan. When I started, I was asked to put my right hand across my head and touch my left ear. When they asked for my mother’s name, I gave them my grandmother’s name, Alawede, because she was the one that was always around and since then, they called me ‘Omo Alawede.’ I remember that the first day in school, I was very moody because I missed home. I remained quiet while my classmates chatted around. I terribly missed my normal daily routine of waking up to bath, eating and going to play around. I had to sit all day in class and I didn’t like that.

“I was able to study my classmates very well to know who to play with and the rest of it and our teacher was also very good, and I told you it was the time of merriment because the war had just finished, ’Ogun pari.‘They provided food for us in school free of charge and it was the same 1946 that our headmaster, Reverend Fawole (now late), took us from Ojaagbo down to Aremo, Ibadan and we sang the song ‘Ogun pari konga, ko, ko, konga,’ in celebration of the just ended war, as we moved along.

‘Ege’
“I was doing well and I wasn’t a lousy noisemaker, so my teachers didn’t beat me. But, at Aremo, we had one teacher, Mr. Orowale, he was nicknamed ‘Ege’ because of his prowess in caning, that was when we got to Primary Six. My teacher in Primary Two, Mr. Amoo, was very good, then, in Standards One and Five, Mrs. Olukoya, an Egba, taught me, while, in Standard Two, Mrs. Oshifodunrin, from Ijebu, was our teacher. Mrs. Olukoya always told us to face our studies to get to good positions in life, that anybody who failed to face his or her studies would sell gari at Ojagbo Ale, the local night market. There was this other teacher that had a lasting impression all through, Pa Layode, he had retired before he came to teach us and he was funny. Anytime he got into the class, everyone of us would keep quiet; then he would ask everyone, “what did you do yesterday, where did you go?” He would interview everybody and after that, he would put a test on the blackboard and anybody that did not do well, he would tell him or her that he or she had been playing all day at home. ‘Ege’ also made an impact, he would tell us that if we didn’t pass to secondary school, then we must be dullards. He wanted everyone of us to get into secondary school so he was always very meticulous and if you did anything nasty, he caned you very well. Because of his unusual discipline, I don’t think any set has been able to beat the record we set then, up till today. We were 72, in class A and B, we were divided into thirty-six each in a class, you wouldn’t believe that half of the 72 passed into secondary school. That was unusual because there were very few secondary schools in those days. Government College, Ibadan, used to admit only 50 throughout the country and our school, for that year, had eight out of the number of people admitted in Nigeria. It was that year Awolowo introduced the grading system, A and B, I didn’t go to Government College but most of us had Grade A. It was at that time Standards Five and Six were merged and we did the School Certificate Examination together.”

Mayflower Secondary School
“I passed to Mayflower, Ikenne and we were the pioneer students in 1956, January. I was number four on the register and we knew ourselves more by number than by name. When we first got to school, there was only one building of two classrooms, which we also used for our hostel. There was a palm tree beside the building which provided a shade and when we arrived in school for the first time, we put our luggages under the tree and wondered where we would sleep. There was no other building on the campus except that one. Later, one boy, Ajani, asked Tai Solarin, the headmaster: “Sir, where are we going to sleep tonight?” He just smacked the boy lightly and told us to line up. He asked some of us to go into the classrooms, we moved back the lockers and the blackboard and he started allotting space to us. The classrooms could not accommodate everybody and he moved outside and allotted space on the pavement. The open verandah outside was just 10 feet to the forest and that was where I slept, beside one Oduola. One of our teachers, Mr. Adenuga, who later became a professor and deputy vice-chancellor at OAU, Ife, slept with us outside and in the middle of the night, they were doing ’Oro’ and my friend, Oduola was so afraid but, the teacher assured us. One thing that struck me about Professor Adenuga (now late) was that nothing could destabilise him. When it rained and all his books floated in water, he took it so calmly and did not complain, he stayed with us on the verandah till we built our own hostel. That first day, the first thing we were given the following morning was a test, unannounced. When the results came, we were given numbers according to how we performed in the test. That was how I got number four, while Oduola, who wanted to run back home to his mother because of the ‘Oro’ worshippers, eventually became the number one in class. He is now Dr. Rasaki Oduola and he was a former deputy rector at The Polytechnic, Ibadan. We the first four of the class, were all from Ibadan.”

Lessons from Tai Solarin
“There were three things I learnt from Tai Solarin, even in death. He was a democrat to the core. When our teachers chose our officers for us, one person from our class challenged Tai that ‘you said you are a democrat, why should our teachers choose our officers for us? Why can’t we choose our officers ourselves’ The officers were dissolved and he set up a two-week campaign programme for all intending officers. After two weeks, I was not one of the chosen officers of the school, but when we campaigned, I became the first Financial Secretary of the school. From financial secretary I became the Post- Master General; from that I became the Secretary of the Science Society. It was a yearly thing and in the final year, I became Senior Prefect of the school. Late Moji Obasanjo, nee Adekunle, was two years my junior, but she was the senior prefect, girl, when I was the senior prefect, boy.
“I learnt hardwork, perseverance, steadfastness and being focused, not minding the challenges that come one’s way, from Tai. Infact, I should say he gave us a semi-military training such that there was no situation we could not cope with. The wife too, Sheilah, was a colossus. She taught us English and if you had four over 10 in Sheilah’s subject at that time, you were sure of 80 per cent in any external examination.”

My school mates
“One of them was Kumuyi. He was my immediate junior, I think he was two years behind me, Moji Obasanjo was Kumuyi’s mate. When I became a teacher, Kumuyi used to come for prep in my flat. He was very very quiet and intelligent. When I came back from England in 1974 and I went to see one of my friends at the University of Lagos, as I was passing by, I just heard someone calling, ‘senior! senior!’ When I looked back, it turned out to be Kumuyi, he was then a lecturer at Unilag and I asked him what he was doing under the tree, he said he was teaching Bible class. They were not up to 10 and I was so surprised, but I wished him goodluck. Tai Solarin produced a lot of clergies, the youngest one is Bishop Mike Okonkwo at Lagos. I taught him in Mayflower in 1960/’61; also, the overseer of Mount Zion in Ibadan, Cardinal Oyeniran; Reverend Peju Oyefuga (late) and so on. They said Tai was an atheist, but he produced a lot of men of God.”

England
I sufferred racism. They did not believe a black man could be so brilliant and my union activities did not help matters. I was in the Nigerian Students’ Union with people like, Oba Osungbade of Ile-Igbon; Oba Fatai Irawo, who was the MC during my wedding; Joseph Oke, cousin to Obasanjo; Akinyosoye (SAN) from Ondo State; Omo Akusu (Benin); Imonioroh (Iroboh); Asagba (Delta); Professor Bolaji Akinyemi; Ibrahim Tahir (Bauchi) and late Idris Kuta, who was secretary when I was Assistant Secretary, and other eminent members too numerous to mention. When I had problems with the racists, my good friend, one-time education minister, Tunde Adeniran, was of immense assistance. The problems I encountered in England were not far- fetched from the racist UDI declaration of Ian Smith who believed in white supremacy, and the civil war. Then, they didn’t believe anything good could come out of the black race.s Those of us that were very articulate at that time were not in the good books of the British at all. I later graduated from the house of the Mayor of Colorado Springs, in USA. I came back home to Nigeria in 1974 and since then we’ve been toiling politically, socially and economically.

“I later founded the Hairdressers’ Association in Nigeria in 1976 and I was the first patron. I was also the first cosmetologist in Nigeria, I was producing Ade Cream and relaxer, but that was later stopped.”

Philosophy and politics
“Hardwork and reward, as well as leadership by example. I also believe in the rule of law because without it, no nation can grow. Gowon was in power when I came back in 1974 so when politics began, I contested for constituent assembly in 1976 but I lost. By 1979, I joined the GNPP by Late Waziri, I contested as their senatorial candidate in the 1979 election and lost as well. So, by 1983, I was also in the contest for the gubernatorial seat of Oyo State under the GNPP, but because the party was not on ground in this area, we kept losing. Then I rose to become the Second National Vice-Chairman of GNPP in 1983. By January 1984, I was arrested and taken to Eleyele for interrogation by the military regime but I was released immediately. That was during the time of Bola Ige, and the rest were incarcerated but they left us later. Bola Ige was arrested because he was the governor then. I refused to serve the military regime, although I served during Bola Ige’s regime as councillor at Mapo, under Adelakun and Aleshinloye. Aleshinloye was chairman and Busari Adelakun, alias ‘Eru o bodo,’ was the commissioner for local government affairs. Babangida later came in and ruled for eight years. New political parties were formed and I joined the SDP (Social Democratic Party) in 1993, that was the time of M.K.O. Abiola.”