Chief Taiye Ayorinde has undoubtedly paid his dues in the development of Nigeria. The octogenarian, who in his active days, was a Cinematographer, Public Relations expert, and broadcast journalist, is now the Baale of Ekotedo in Ibadan. He took ABDULAZEEZ ABDULWAHAB and FLORENCE OLUGBODI on the trajectory of his life. Photo credit: NEWTON ANTHONY.
Kindly let us into your background
Well, I am an Ibadan man; I started school at Baale School.
(Cut in): Before you go to where you started school, you also hold an office, you can also tell us about that office, sir.
But I started somewhere before I got to the office. I am trying to lay the background, or is it wrong? I am a veteran journalist if you must know.
Well, I am an Ibadan man and I was born into the royal family of Ayorinde Kobiowu of Oranyan in Ibadan. I started school at Baale School. Baale School was founded for privileged Ibadan children. Some of the people that attended the school include Adedibu and others. From there, my father, being an agriculturist, was one of those who propagated cocoa for West Africa. He was transferred from Ibadan to Ondo, from Ondo to Ilesa, like that.
But something happened to me, I happened to have been born blind, and for the first three years of my life, I was completely blind. One of the reasons why I hate anybody that is capitalising on religion, whether Christianity, Islam or even traditional religion, I don’t like it because my mother refused my being taken to hospital for an operation. But one day, though I was blind, I could still see, or so they said, I was playing with my cousin, running around still with my eyes closed and I mistakenly kicked a gorge of palm wine my uncle and his friend were drinking from. My uncle’s friend smacked me. My father’s senior brother then told him ‘don’t mind him, his eyes are closed. Some of the palm wine spilt and my uncle’s friend said next time come, in three days I will come and your eyes will happen. He came three days later and told my mother, bring all those things that twins use, because we are three sets of twins but I am the only boy. According to them, they brought all those things and he was rubbing something on my eyes, believe me, by the time he finished, my eyes opened and this is a man that knew the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, including the Psalms, he is the same man who could quote the Quran from the beginning to the end including the Hadith and this is the same man who can talk to leaves and they will obey him. He was three-in-one and this is why to date I hate anybody discriminating with regards to religion.
Well, my parents took me to live with Bishop Akinyele because my mother was afraid of my predicting things that would happen. She would take her kit car….If I tell her then that she shouldn’t go out and maybe she went out, then something would happen and because of that she was afraid of me and she later asked me to be living with Bishop Akinyele. When Bishop Akinyele had to relocate to Ondo, I went there with him. When Bishop Akinyele was to leave Ondo, he sent for Archdeacon Alayande, and he came to Ondo and I started living with him, while Bishop Akinyele came back to Ibadan and he was the one who founded Ibadan Grammar School. While in Ondo, I did many things. I sold cigarettes, kola nuts and matches as well as going to school. You know in those days, they used to say the reward for a teacher is in heaven. But in my case, part of the reward was for me to sell stuff. Then we came to Ibadan. You know, where we have Galaxy Television now, that was where Ibadan Grammar School was situated. And this was in 1948. I settled at Oke-Are, in Ibadan. I was a Parlour Boarder. A Parlour Boarder is someone who lives with the school Principal, who enjoys the facilities of the school, who did all the students do but who was not yet a student. I wasn’t the only person in such a position. There was Bayo Akinola and Muyiro.
Eventually, I gained admission into Ibadan Grammar School. I started work at the Ministry of Agriculture under the Western Region with somebody like Alani Akinrinade, who later joined the Nigerian Army, which was after I left Ibadan Grammar School.
His father and his cousin also worked in the ministry back then. Something happened here. I was a no-nonsense man. It was Chief Akindeko, a no-nonsense man in charge of agriculture in Nigeria. In those days, we didn’t call them “Commissioners”; we called them “Ministers”. He was the Minister of Agriculture in the then Western Region. He made us work in the Confidential Library.
There was a rule that nobody from Level ‘12’ upward must take any book outside that place for more than three days, But there was a European who worked in the ministry as well and whenever he was coming across the corridor, you had to stop whatever you were doing and bow, otherwise you would get slapped. At that time, there was the need for a conference at the ministry, Cocoa Conference. As providence would have it, my father worked there at the time. My father’s cousin, Dr T.S.B. Aribisala was the Permanent Secretary. There was a book that was needed for the conference, and this white man happened to be the one that took it.
(Cut in) we are more interested in how you get into journalism and all that sir.
Listen, I have not gotten there. I worked in the bank before. Somehow we reported the missing books to Chief Akindeko at his conference and we made a scene and in doing that Chief Akindeko ordered his orderlies to go get the white man. He was brought to the anteroom where we were and we slapped him.
(Cut in) the white man?
Yes, because he used to slap people. We were no-nonsense people.
(Cut in) What year was this?
It is the same year that Alani Akinrinade went to join the Army. I also wanted to join the Army but my mother refused me joining and I was later posted to Cooperative Bank.
(Cut in) Were you close to General Alani Akinrinade?
We worked together.
Beyond the working relationship?
Of course yes, we were friends and very close even up till now, and if you want to see proof of that I can show you. When he was 80, I was there.
What kind of man is he?
He is a disciplinarian, a no-nonsense man and a risk calculator. If he sees anything that will soil his name, he will back off. He is not corrupt, unlike the kind of people we have managing the affairs of Nigeria now, Alani is not like that. He will call a spade a spade. Alani is a man who understands his onus and I can say he is a soldier by birth. I know him, if you move with him you will realise that you are moving with a well-cooked man. He is a good friend, jovial, extrovert and disciplined.
As I got into the bank, the talent in me started manifesting, even in my ledger book; I will be doing music forgetting I was in a bank. I drew, painted, composed and arranged music and I write. Chief Onagoruwa once questioned me on this. During that same time, I will gather the children of ministers at that time, that is how I founded Nigeria Theatre Group, and we staged plays at Cocoa House in Ibadan here. Anytime my plays were ready, you would see big men attending because we had ministers’ children who were in my group. We had people like Julie Coker, Ibidun Allyson (Amebo). And I made a name as well.
But then I had to leave the bank for England. Oba Otudeko, the owner of Honeywell and I were colleagues in the bank. He was a very clever man, he was brilliant. Talk about finance, he’s got what it takes to excel in mathematics, accounting and what have you. At the bank, what I used to do was stay at the counter and instead of 13, I will write 3 and during the balance, they will be looking for the remaining number. I was not made for banking.
So that perhaps informed your decision to go into journalism?
Not only journalism but also acting, writing plays. When I write any play at that time, people will come to watch. Things were good, Nigeria was good, Nigeria was a place where you don’t know Igbo, Hausa or Yoruba.
(Cut in) I want to play the devil’s advocate here sir because you just mentioned something that piques my emotion, you just said that Nigeria was good in those days.
Ah! Very Good!
So now, how do you respond to this insinuation, sir? Nigeria got bad through your generation activities because we are a newer generation and we met Nigeria, not in a favourable state. How do you respond to the allegation that the older generation got Nigeria into the parlous state it is at the moment?
No, it is a mistake. The older generation could not have made it bad, those that made it bad are the new generation, the young generation. It is rather funny.
How so?
Things went bad in Western Region for instance when aggrandisement was introduced, when selfishness was introduced. I will give you an example, Akintola, and Awolowo. If (Chief Ladoke) Akintola had agreed to give (Chief Obafemi) Awolowo his due regard as the leader and founder, things wouldn’t have gone bad, because it was Akintola that went to the Northerners to join them. We wouldn’t have been in this situation and they went to the extent of Palm Tree House getting involved in their imbroglio. Do you know about Palm Tree House? That was the house at Oke-Ado which was Action Group House, and unfortunately, those things got into a mess, you can say things started going bad from there.
Things become more complicated when you talk of stories of Shonibare, Gbadamosi, etc.
These are the people who were running the affairs of Western Nigeria then. They did not give Chief Awolowo the due regard that he needed at the time. Look, things were very good not bad otherwise how did we have an embassy in Europe. Nigeria had an embassy of her own at Great Portland. Before you get to England, your file would have gotten there and people will meet you at the airport. People like us enjoyed England. If you go to Western Nigeria House as a Yoruba man from the west and say you needed something, yes you will get it.
Were you an active participant in the politics of the First Republic, beyond voting, etc?
I was alive, I was an adult at the time. Some of us were the foot-soldiers and secret service agents to Baba Awolowo, Segun Awolowo, the firstborn, Kunmi Ishola Osobu, myself, Gani Fawehinmi, and Okunrounmu, the youngest of us was Debo Akande. Anything we told Baba at that time, he will never find any fault in it because we would tell him the truth. But not many people knew us, he alone knew us, he alone set us up and we were doing what we should do. There was a place called Mainland Hotel in Lagos, we used that place to launch Papa’s books. You know Femi Okunrounmu, a very highly educated mathematician and equally blunt. You know one thing with Papa Awolowo, if you are not honest, you can’t work with him. If you tell him a little lie before you finish, he will already know that you were a liar. That is the kind of person he was. And Segun, the firstborn, was a lawyer. We founded a club…anyway don’t let us go into that.
Let’s talk about your acting career; you were into acting at some point in your life.
I will write and people will come, I will get children of ministers, cast them at Cocoa House, anytime you hear Nigeria Theatre Group, people will flood the place. I was talented.
Any association with the legendary Hubert Ogunde?
Hubert Ogunde had his own with Yoruba history and things like that, mine was contemporary, and Papa Ogunde respected me, he liked me. Once he finds out that you are very creative, you are already his son or daughter.
I went to England and when I got to England I did not forget my writing or acting talents. I wrote a play called Omonide.
Omonide o, Omonide la n wa, I wrote the play with Jumoke Adebayo, an ace actress with Ibidun Allyson, who later became Amaebo. The Duke of Edinburgh was at the Royal Festival Hall when we were staging the play. And how did I get to use the Royal Festival Hall? I was on a tube train and at the same time I didn’t forget I was writing a musical play, I was singing, and there was a gentleman, an old man sitting not very far from me and as I was singing, the man would move near me and I would move away. At some point I boldly asked why he was moving near me, he said he was interested in the music I was singing. He then gave me a card. On the card, there was no name written on it but there was an office address on it. He just scribbled something at the back and said, “when you finish that music that you are writing, come and see me in that office”. I asked who I should ask for. He said ‘just show that card’.
I remembered my encounter with the old man one day after I finished writing the play. I had finished my study in Cinematography then. Then when I staged this play, at the Royal Festival Hall, there were so many Nigerians; the day was called Africa Freedom Day. People like Chief Nathaniel Idowu (the owner of Leyland Motors) came there, and then the Duke of Edinburgh, husband of the Queen, was the Guest of Honour and then this man Nathaniel Idowu came to me and asked “which Ayorinde are you and where are you from?” I told him I am from Ibadan; my father was High Chief Ayorinde. He said, “that’s the man who brought me to England”. Do you see life? He said it was my father that brought him to England. He then said when you finish writing these plays, what do you want to do? He said he would advise me to come to his college to study Business Management so that when I get back to Nigeria and keep on writing, I will be managing the whole thing myself. By this time, I was done with Cinematography. So I had to go to Western Polytechnic, I was admitted to study Business Management. From there I still didn’t want to come home, I don’t know why, something was just pushing me, that is when I went to study Journalism and Public Relations with people like Ponju Akinola who was a Manager at Savanna Bank. He’s a lawyer and so many others like that.
I just couldn’t understand why I didn’t want to come home. Eventually, when a professor had to write about me, he called me an “enigma”, the book was titled: “Unveiling The Enigma”.
You studied Journalism and Public Relations, what were your significant impacts in this regard? You have talked about being involved in the Village Headmaster.
No, before the Village Headmaster, I was writing in a newspaper, Olu Aboderin, the founder of Punch newspaper, I was close to him and I had a pseudonym I used in writing then, nobody knew I was the one that was writing then, only him because anytime I wrote, I gave it to him.
I came back from England to join NBC-TV. NBC-TV was where I started what was known as The Bar Beach Show. The show was a potpourri of music, journalistic insight into what was happening in the country. There was space for news, space for dancing, space for married people in the same programme. That’s where Art Alade came in. There was a case of a couple that came; the Bar Beach Show was very popular at the time. A man, who travelled, came back home and tuned in to the station to see his wife dancing with another man on The Bar Beach Show. He had to come into the studio and disrupt the programme that day. “Kilode, kilo n wa, oko oloko lo n ba jo, abajo”, and things like that. We had to switch to blank. That was the kind of show it was at that time.
There was another one meant for the youths called “Saturday Square”. That too, Nigerian Breweries did supply us with free drinks on Saturday Square, people enjoyed themselves. But on that programme again, we had stories of what was happening to them, how they should be behaving and things like that. Different corners like a magazine programme. I, by His grace, was the Head of the drama department.
From NBC-TV, I moved to NTA. You know NTA was never NTA, it was Ibadan… When people are talking about the federal government taking things that they did not establish, NTA is a good example. They took over the television station in Western Region, they took over the stadium, they took over everything, why? People did not talk at that time. I am asking the question, and you were asking me that during that time, are things not good? Things were good. The question should be why should our elderly people hand over most of these things to the federal government? The reason is simple: guns, coups, soldiers. In the face of the military, they did everything by fiat, by decree, and it was not that our elderly people didn’t do anything. Why was Awolowo jailed? It was because of his profile. Why did we have Biafra? It was because of what is happening now that caused it, isn’t it? It was because of the noticed domination of other ethnic groups. How did we get OIC in Nigeria? No house of parliament passed it, no Senate, no House of Reps, it was by fiat, Babangida just took Nigeria into OIC by force. Let’s be frank it is not elderly people that did all these things, it is the military.
(Cut in) but it was in your generation sir, Babangida is in the same age bracket as you. Is he in the same age bracket as me?
(Cut in) what I mean by that is that he is in your generation; he may not necessarily be in the same age bracket as you
In a few months, I will be 87.
(Cut in) congratulations!
What is the Babangida age? What is his age?
He should be in his 70’s
Look at my age, what is the difference? There is a lot of difference.
(Cut in) but he is in your generation.
He had guns, and I didn’t have a gun. They were doing everything with guns.
If you are asked to do a comparison between the broadcast that you were involved in those days and the broadcast that we have now, what would you say?
Look at It, the people now are not creative and they are not bold enough. We had freedom; there was a programme that hurt the military in those days called “Take The Lead Off”. What do you get in a dustbin if not dirt, rubbish? But when you take the lead off during the military, it says whatever is secret, say it to the public, don’t hide anything. The programme hit them real bad; they had to ask for the programme to be stopped. In the face of guns, how many people….look at what happened to Ken Saro Wiwa and Dele Giwa. Those are the answers to your questions. I was bold.
There was a drama programme that led to some military boys hiding under the table. The story was written by Gbadamosi, and it was produced by Sanya Dosunmu or Bayo Awala and we had to promote it to make people watch it. They (the military) didn’t wait to listen to the entire promo before they started running helter-skelter. “The head of state of Muhammal Village has been captured”. That’s all they heard, the capture of the head of state, they didn’t wait to hear the rest, and they started running, calling and hiding and called in to stop the programme. They then went around and ‘collected’ the various heads of various departments including our DG (Director-General). It took time before the military people knew it was an advert for a play. That was when we knew that even the military were cowards.
In another event, Mike Enahoro was on Lagos Scope, a programme with me. We brought in a man who, looking through a crystal ball, predicted how Yakubu Gowon would go, then wahala burst. We were told to come to Dodan Barracks, like an arrest. There was this man, who was managing the television station then, he was the General Manager and he told them then that if they had to arrest anybody, they should arrest him because he was in charge of everything we did. Not like these days if they arrest you, no boss will as much as raise a finger in your favour.
That was how they listened to us and that was the first time I would have dinner with the Executive Council. Mike Enahoro and I left with the professor that looked into the crystal ball. We were given some envelopes and we took them.
We did many programmes. The person who saved us was the oldest man in the military at that time, Commodore Wey. When they were to release us, they kept the man with the crystal ball.
Having travelled around the world, what informs your decision to go into traditional rulership?
I have been to three-quarters of the world, in the least. When I retired and I came to Ibadan, my hometown, I went into politics, politics around here. I was close to Chief Lamidi Adedibu, Kolapo Ishola, Governor Olunloyo, I was close to them because I am an Ibadan man and from a well-known family and they also were from well–known families. Olunloyo’s father and mine were very close and we are almost the same age group. I was into politics doing the real thing a politician should do, not getting involved in all these cunning things, I was very blunt, straightforward, introduced so many things in this Ekotedo area and the elderly in Ekotedo, like the father of Chief Mrs Bola Ige (Baba Oloko), the Adeyemos, all these elderly people that have been noticing what I was doing pencilled in my name and told people to sign that I was the Baale. They took my name to Odewenwa, who was then the Chairman of Ibadan North-West Local government Area. They made me sign the paper, and then I got interested. My father was still alive then, my brother was a High Chief, the Ashipa Olubadan of Ibadan Land, he was a
well-read man, knowledgeable, and he had been around the world.
In any case, they nominated me, I didn’t nominate myself and when I got to Olubadan palace, there was a crowd. The day I was to be installed, some people came up and said they were contesting the baaleship with me. So as the tradition goes, two chairs were provided, mine and the other for those interested, then Olubadan called them, they didn’t come, hence I got installed as the Baale of Ekotedo.
I must be sincere, somebody was to be Baale of Ekotedo before I arrived (in Nigeria), but somehow, the Ekotedo people refused him before my arrival. So the stool was vacant. You must also know that Ekotedo extended to Eleyele before, Oke-Itunu, Onireke, all those places were Ekotedo. But because of politics they had to take Oke- Itunu, Onireke and Eleyele out of Ekotedo because it was too big. Ekotedo, if you wish to know, was at the outskirts of Ibadan, it was not within the city of Ibadan. It was never called Ekotedo, it was Oke-Esu. Oke-Esu was where anybody who committed any offence in town was brought for punishment, to be killed or to be given for ritual. But if you are an Ibadan man and you were brought there, that ritual won’t go, that is why they say, Ibadan ki n gba onile bi ajeji. That is when it comes to ritual, if you are an Ibadan man and you are taken, it will fail. But if it is a stranger, oh yes.
Dugbe was Ekotedo and still is Ekotedo. What is the meaning of Dugbe? Dugbe is an Onomatopoeia language. There was no train at that time. It was where so many people would come and carry railway engines and they would say dugbe, dugbe. At the introduction of the railway, so many people came down to Ibadan to work, and Ibadan people believed that everybody that came to work in Ibadan was from Lagos that is how it became Ekotedo. But before it became Ekotedo, it was Mosafejo. Why Mosafejo? All these people who came to work at the railway had no place to sleep, they would go to the Gbagi area, the Europeans would tell them to put a tent “gbaji mole ki o fi se ile” (erect four pegs and your cover clothes on it and you sleep). That is how Gbagi came about. And after some time, the Europeans from Lagos asked that Ibadan people in this place should accommodate them. That is why you see so many foreigners living in Ekotedo now. It isn’t meant as an abode for foreigners, it is purely Ibadan town outside Ibadan. Ibadan grew up to meet Ekotedo, Bodija, and Iwo Road and yet they have Baales there too.
Yes, I became the Baale, what have I done for people as the Baale? During the period I was Baale, I became the Chairman of immunization for children, which was the first time I would meet governor Akala, then as the Chairman in Ogbomoso North Local Government Area. I went to see his work, which was how I travelled around the length and breadth of Oyo State to see how children are being immunised. There was a time the United Nations World Health Organisation wanted to see how Oyo State was handling the children’s immunisation, and then the wife of the governor asked who could help them because there was a strike action and the immunisation must go on at Iseyin. Then the Commissioner, late Dr Oladapo, mentioned my name and said there is a man who can convince people to do what they have to do despite the strike action. So the First Lady came to me disguised and said she wanted me to do something for the state. She came to me at 5 O’clock or thereabouts, how can I do that. She assured on the provision of logistics including money. I said I can’t go alone and then I mentioned a name and that was Dolapo Dosunmu.
Dosunmu was in charge of NOA in Ibadan, National Orientation Agency. I said she also knows how to convince people. They now asked Mapaderun, who was the Director-General of NOA, to release her. So, the two of us had to go to Iseyin. We got there at night with escort and at that time the town hall was near the palace, but because the Oba was dead and another was yet to be installed, so I went to the drummers there, I said “take money, keep on drumming, “ema lulu” till daybreak”. In front of the palace was a woman who was baking Akara (bean cake), I said till day-break keep baking akara. I also arranged for Eko to be supplied.
We went around, you have Coca-Cola, give it to people, let them drink, take money. Maybe these people have never seen this kind of money before and then I went to the local government chairman’s house. I said (it was a lie though), I brought out an empty envelope and say in this envelope is your sack letter, call all your people out for the immunisation to start tomorrow or you sign the duplicate of this paper that you have resigned. He said but there was a strike and I told him strike or no strike, Immunisation must go on. The man called all his men out that same night, we gave them some money. Believe me, by 9 am (the following day) when the time the immunisation was to start, you would think that it was a market with children. We did not even know that the government from Lagos had asked one Mrs Williams to come and inspect what was going on there. By the time she got to the town hall, she met the town hall overfilled. She was so happy and that is when Oyo State came first in the immunisation of children.
The narration of your experiences in the media industry in your active years show that there was little freedom of the press and the situation appears the same even till now. What do you think is responsible for this?
The situation in the past was even better than now. I can’t imagine what Lai Muhammed said and what they did to Channels television, the kind of fine they imposed on the station for airing views concerning Nnamdi Kanu. That is nonsense! We will show it at that time and they won’t stop us, but you have to balance it up. We would invite members of the government to balance up. We won’t just talk loosely at that time. We were investigative at that time. That was when we would say ‘print and be damned’.
Can you print and be damned now? When you print and you are taken by DSS (Department of State Service), nobody will know where they will take you to. They can’t do that then. The worst they could do was what they did to Dele Giwa. What they are doing now is not a letter bomb but it is worse!
When the court says something you have to abide by the dictum of the court, but now it is not like that. The court has said that Igboho (Sunday Adeyemo) should be freed, that he did nothing wrong by conducting a rally. Let me tell you something, this country is going to the dogs if care is not taken as to how we handle situations. I don’t buy acidic nonsense! Sunday Igboho had been to all the Yoruba states for rallies, and it was only when he was going to Lagos, “Ejo lowo ninu”. Why Lagos? Simply because (Bola Ahmed) Tinubu wants to go for the presidency and he doesn’t want that kind of rally. I am assuming that that was what went wrong. Why Lagos? Why? They went like a thief in the night to do all they did illegally in his house. But for providence or whatever it was, if they had gotten that boy, they would have killed him.
The Nigeria that we have now is a Gestapo system which they used in capturing Nnamdi Kanu or which they almost used in bringing Sunday Igboho down here. Why didn’t they use it for Boko Haram? Why? Why did they not use it to capture the bandits, kidnappers? Who are the kidnappers? Who are those making money from kidnapping and yet they could easily capture them? (Sheik) Gumi has been saying things worse than others. Sunday Igboho didn’t kill anybody, he was merely holding rallies, but Gumi knows the people kidnapping people and nothing has been done about that.
Gumi knows those doing the kidnapping, he knows the head of Boko Haram. And who are the Boko Haram, they are the ones who grew up not going to school, that is why they call them Boko Haram, which means “ book is bad’. If they had allowed and agree with Chief Awolowo who took free education to them in the North at that time and they were not ready for it, who took the principle of independence, self-government to them, believe you me…..I am tired of this country; I am tired of saying that I am tired.
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