Chief Theophilus Olakunle Dada, a retired librarian, Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, celebrated his 70th birthday recently and shares his life experience in this interview with Fisayo Falodi
How has life been for the past 70 years?
When you go through life, you don’t expect everything to be smooth-sailing. This life is full of vicissitude; ups and downs and that is how it has been from my youth to this moment. The early youthful part of my life was not really much exciting, but there were expectations that the future would be great. I was born in a polygamous family. My mother was second in the ranking of my father’s six wives. So, when I came as a boy, I came as a Daodu and that really informed my belief that there could be expectations in the future.
You described your journey in life during your recent 70th birthday as that of Odyssey. What informed such a description?
It was the milestone experiences one comes across in the journey. There were many road blocks, and in an attempt to avoid or overcome them, you know you have to put up a lot of tasks and energy, which time will not allow me to enumerate.
Can you recall any of the road blocks and how you overcame them?
When I wanted to go to the secondary school, there was no way. So, I had to start struggling. I had to go to modern school when the hope of going straight to the secondary school after I finished my primary school appeared almost dashed. But within my first year in modern school, my father just called me one Sunday morning and said, ‘go and arrange your load and go to my friend, Nathaniel Adewoye.’ By the way, Chief Adewoye was a school principal. That was how I entered secondary school in the evening of that Sunday without a pair of uniform. I was attending classes from the school’s dormitory with buba and soro until my father was able to buy a uniform for me. The principal, Adewoye, was very cooperative; he understood the plight of my father.
When we were born, Dada Transport Service, my father’s business, was blossoming in Osogbo. When Tafa Transport Service was operating in Lagos and Banuso Transport Service was operating in Ilesa, my father was running Dada Transport Service. But suddenly, there was a business slump and everything just crashed. It happened when we were getting ready for the secondary school education and there was no money to finance our education. That was how Adewoye, the late Principal of Otan-Ayegbaju Grammar School, came to my rescue, apparently to show gratitude to my father for assisting him with a brand new car when he (Adewoye) wanted to marry.
Do you mean your father once bought a brand new car for the principal?
On the eve of Adewoye’s wedding, his car broke down and he needed a brand new car to drive his wife home after the wedding. So, he came to my father who gave the car to him on hire purchase basis. That was how Adewole got a brand new car and a brand new wife. It was a natural assistance then and for a long time, the principal would come to the classroom and say, ‘if you have not paid your school fees, stand up’. I would stand up because I wouldn’t know whether my father had paid or not. But the principal would say, ‘Kunle sit down, I have seen your father.’ Then they used to spend six years in secondary school, but there was a policy change and we were made to spend five years. My classmates included former Inspector-General of Police, Tafa Balogun; Jimi Aladedokun, who later became a permanent secretary; Michael Popoola, a chartered accountant; and many other people who rose to prominent positions in their chosen careers.
After I left the secondary school, I had to go for Higher School Certificate at Oyemekun Grammar School, Akure. This was also made possible due to the humanitarian attitude of my father’s first wife, who knew the school’s principal. I spent two years for my HSC at Oyemekun Grammar School and I made a good grade. With that, it became easier for me to gain admission into the university and I had option. First, I was admitted at the University of Ibadan to study History, but I decided to write a letter, without seriousness, to the admission officer to help me change the course to Geography, University of Lagos. Some days after, my father just phoned me from Osogbo to inform that my name had been published in the Daily Times for admission to study Geography in the University of Lagos in 1967. After I graduated in 1970, I was lucky because jobs were already waiting for us as the Principal of Otan-Ayegbaju Grammar offered some of us who passed through his school employment. I taught in that school between 1970 and 1973 before I decided to go for further study in Librarianship in 1974 and I got employed as an assistant librarian in the University of Lagos.
What role did your wife play in your success?
My wife stabilised me. When I was rising, women were hovering round me and I had the problem of making a choice. My parents were interested in me getting married. They were putting pressure on me to pick one among the women thronging my house. But I told them to allow me to make my choice. My mother would say, ‘see this beautiful lady and you cannot marry her, are you sure you are okay?’ and I insisted that she should allow me to pick my choice. So, when I went to the University of Ibadan for further studies in Librarianship, it was then I saw this beautiful lady and we started interacting. Apart from that, she too was mature and fortunately for us, there was a relation of hers in Osogbo, Ebenezer Akeju, who her parents later contacted to help monitor our relationship. Akeju himself was more or less like my father’s younger brother. So, there was no problem whether the lady was going to marry into a good home or not and that was how we started. Because there was pressure on me, I decided to make our wedding simple.
Didn’t your wife’s beauty intimidate you before you ‘toasted’ her?
You mean I should be intimidated by the things that lured me to her? Why should I be scared of the things that attracted me? That was one of the reasons that made her marriageable. As we were getting along after our marriage, I decided to bring her to the status I wanted. I now see her as a colleague of mine though we are husband and wife. As a result of that, there is nothing I do that annoys her and there is nothing she does that annoys me. We have seen each other as friends and colleagues. Our children also know that.
Your father had 14 children and you appeared to be the most favoured among them as he enrolled you in a school different from that of your siblings. What do you think made your father show special interest in you?
It was as a result of his benefaction to the people. That principal wouldn’t have got a car to ride to church on his wedding day if not for my father who came to his rescue. When the principal approached my father, there was no saloon car available except one Opel car and the principal said he would not mind it. My father just asked him to take the car though the principal paid for it later. What I am saying is that assistance has always come to me. My father’s first wife who was then working in Akure, out of love, took me to the Principal of Oyemekun Grammar School in Akure, Rev. Adinlewa, for my HSC. The work I got as a junior teacher at Okebadan High School, Ibadan, shortly after I finished my HSC, was by chance before I went to the University of Lagos for a Bachelor’s Degree in Geography. When I was teaching at Okebadan High School, I was living in the house of one Lagunju at Bodija where I met many friends. The spirit of conviviality which my father thought me also helped me and is still helping me up till today. It was not a matter of being specially favoured by my father; I was a beneficiary of my father’s generosity to people.
While you were still proposing to your wife, she wrote a letter to Ebenezer Akeju to help her verify who you were. How did you feel when you learnt she had gone that far to investigate you?
It was a traditional way of doing things and she also took me to her mother at Ijare, Ondo State. The first thing her mother asked me was, ‘why must you come yourself, don’t you have a father or a mother at home?’ I had to go to Osogbo to beg my mother and say, ‘please follow me to Ijare to see my mother-in-law.’ Our love blossomed while she was doing her youth service in Erin-Ile, Kwara State. I was going to Erin-Ile every weekend to visit her. When she wrote to Akeju, I knew the reply could not be negative because Akeju used to come to my father’s house to play organ. Like I said, I chose my wife out of nine potential competitors and I am not regretting marrying her.
Has your marriage been all rosy these past years?
There were times both of us were down; there would be no money to pay the children school fees and because I have a cooperative and understanding wife, we were able to forge ahead. I have also trained many people who are not my children and this was made possible because my wife was cooperative.
You are referred to as the Daodu of the wider Dada family. This means you must be very rich and possess enormous power and influence….
Daodu does not mean richness; it is the first male child, but it connotes influence and respect. Daodu must leave by example and be a role model to those coming behind him, not the type that will be violating family property or misbehaving. So, I am not a businessman, but a civil servant. While working as a librarian at UNILAG, I decided to study Law alongside it and my father was happy that I also became a lawyer. When he was about to die, he asked me to assist him to write his Will, but I declined. I asked him to engage another lawyer to write the Will for him. My immediate responsibility was to preserve the golden name of Dada in Osogbo and Iloro-Ekiti. We were born in Osogbo, but our native town is Iloro-Ekiti.
Why did you deviate to study law while your colleagues at UNILAG library were pursuing Master’s and doctorate degrees in Librarianship?
We had a very nice Chief Librarian, the late Chief E. B. Bankole, who was sending every other member of UNILAG library staff in twos to the University of Pittsburgh, the United States and the University of Loughborough, the United Kingdom, for Master’s and PhD degrees. As it was about to get to my turn, there was derailment somehow and the plan flopped. I then decided to register for a part-time law degree. My aim was that before those who went abroad for master’s and PhD degrees would come back, I would have been in third year in my law course. That was exactly what happened and when I discovered that I would need a Master’s in Law, I also got it in UNILAG and I specialised in Family Law, with emphasis on the Management of Polygamy. Most of the matters I handle are family-related; I have re-organised many houses and united many couples. But before I retired from service, I had risen to become the Librarian, the Nigerians Institute of Legal Advanced Studies in 2001.
As an undergraduate at the University of Lagos, you always partook in the hot tea drinking competition. How was the experience like?
Food was virtually free at the university then. Immediately you paid your fees, you would be given tickets for three meals per day that would last you for one month and we were being served. The wife of Sir Michael Otedola, a former Lagos State Governor, was our Chief Catering Officer. So, some of us grouped ourselves and we decided to do hot tea competition and people would be watching and clapping as we were taking hot tea.
How did you use the position of Daodu to impact the lives of your people since you said Daodu connotes influence and power?
Instead of arrogating the property of my father to myself as the Daodu, I applied wisdom and I did allotment of the property to my father’s 14 children and the six wives and they were all contented. Up till today, nobody among them is quarrelling over what was given to him or her.
Some of those who wrote tributes on your 70th birthday said you are an extrovert, gregarious and a sociable person. Do you see yourself as such?
It is because I always want to help people; especially the underdogs and I have helped many friends. When somebody comes to you with a frown on his face, the person should be able to smile by the time he leaves you. I am also a lover of pets. I used to have three monkeys and many goats. I took the monkeys to UNILAG zoo and the goats to Iloro-Ekiti because of Ebola. If you can take care of animals like that, then you would do more for human beings. I take life simple and I approach everything I do with simplicity.
You belong to many clubs at UNILAG and Magodo Estate. How do you manage your time to attend their activities coupled with your attention that would be needed by your family at home?
It is a simple thing. As a member of UNILAG, which itself is a town within town, I started there as an assistant librarian and I was given a house. Everything you want is available for sale and for one month, you may not have any reason to go to Yaba, the nearest community, to buy anything. So, the clubs are so located that if you are there, you will be seeing everything outside the university’s community. Some of them are not only social clubs, they are also investment clubs. For now, I am a member of Octagon 90 and being a member, one has been insured for life. If the person should die, the minimum amount of money his family can get from an insurance company is N5m. Then at the UNILAG Estate here, we also have UNILAG Associates so that the conviviality we were enjoying on campus could be extended here. For example, my next neighbour was my wife’s boss at UNILAG. So, we are like brothers and sisters here. Sparingly, I go to clubs to relax in the evening.
Since your wife worked in UNILAG as well, how did you feel working with her in the same place?
It made the running of the family smooth and easier. When she was working on Lagos Island, she would leave home very early in the morning and come late in the evening. But when she got a job with UNILAG, it made the training and supervision of the children easier. There is nothing stopping husband and wife from working in the same place so far the schedules of their works are not the same. Even if the schedules are the same, they can still work in the same place since there is a mechanism to check laxity.
How do you intend to spend your post-70 years?
I will compare it with an aircraft that has flown for a long time. The most difficult of the flight are the take-off and the landing. I want to soft-land in my post-70 years so that I don’t crash-land. If God calls me now, I will answer, but not that I am ready to die now. In my post-70 years, I want to continue to do good to those who come my way and monitor my children and my grand-children. I will be happy if any of my children can allow one of his or her children to stay with me. I have started reaping the fruits of my labour. Just recently, one of my children sent a car to me from the United States, but I wish to have one of my grand-children living with me so that we can be running around the compound.
What legacy do you intend to leave behind for people?
One cannot be perfect, but as much as I am here, I will want to continue to do good to people. Each time I go to the office where I retired, the first thing I would check is to find out if they have removed my picture from where it was hung. So, if the people’s lives can be impacted by you in a little way, they will keep on remembering you.
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