Professor Segun Ajibola is the President/Chairman of Council, The Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria and also the Dean, College of Postgraduate Studies, Caleb University. He shares his life experience with GISTMANIA
Taking a trip down memory lane, how would you describe your childhood?
My childhood was very tough and rough but I would not describe it with the word, turbulent. However, it was a very harsh environment for me in Ekiti State, where I was raised. I had a very uneasy childhood experience simply because of poverty and lack. I come from a polygamous family; my mother was the fourth wife of my father and I was her last child. She lost one of her children about 21 years ago. That kind of setting did not permit my siblings and me to have the privilege to live with our father. We lived with our grandmother and the environment there was also not friendly, so we had to struggle to earn money for our daily needs.
I started primary school when I was about six years old, but I attended classes in rags and tattered clothes. The first time I ever wore shoes was when I was 13 years old; that was after I had left primary school. It was when I worked as a houseboy. It was from my first salary as a houseboy that I was able to buy a pair of shoes for myself; so the beginning was very rough.
Despite the poverty we faced, we were subjected to very strict discipline. We had to be at the farm with our father daily after school; we had no other option in the matter. Despite that, we had other chores to do as well. In our free time, we would go to building sites to carry building blocks. I remember that we carried ten mud blocks and walked for half a kilometre and after we had made ten trips, we would be paid about one penny and with that money, we were guaranteed a meal in school the next day. If you failed to go to the building site, then it meant that you would not buy food the next day; you could get cooked maize or yam from home but there was no way you would be able to buy food the next day in school. Even when it had to do with school books, we had to borrow from our seniors or colleagues. I could not ask my parents for money to buy ‘Alawiye’ (Yoruba storybook), which was the popular book during our time. That is how we were introduced to life; that was the experience all through my primary school days. We struggled to live.
If you went to the farm with your father during your childhood then at what point did you leave him to stay with your maternal grandmother?
We all lived in the same town and community. When my mother was pregnant with me, she lived with her mother, so I was born at my grandmother’s place. I never lived with my father.
Does it mean that you did not have a close relationship with your father while growing up?
I always went to my father’s house and farm daily. The only thing was that we did not live together because the environment was too tough for everybody to live under one roof.
Initially, I had a strained relationship with my father. I saw my mother and grandmother as being more affectionate, accommodating, loving and caring but the more I grew older, the more my father and I got closer. The ties became stronger with time. In the beginning, I just felt it was a matter of obligation to go to his farm and I had to obey all instructions, perform all duties and carry out other responsibilities.
Did you ever wish your father was not a polygamist?
At that time, if a man failed to marry more than one wife, he was seen as a weakling. The number of children, size of farmland, roles in the church and the community, were determinants of a man’s status and success in life. It was a mark of respect during their time to have many wives and children. Due to this, I could not fault my father’s lifestyle.
As of the time you wore tattered clothes to school and worked as a houseboy, weren’t you intimidated by your peers?
I read something about the late M.K.O. Abiola some days ago and in the article, it was stated that there was a day he was asked to leave school because of his tattered clothes. And worse still, his colleagues taunted him and said that he did not belong to their social status. He wept from the school to his house where his father saw him. When his father asked him why he was crying, he told his father that his classmates told him that he was a wretched fellow who hailed from a wretched family because of the clothes that he wore before they eventually sent him out of the school. His father then asked him, ‘Are they telling lies?’, ‘I am wretched, so you are from a wretched home but it simply means that you should work hard so that no one would ever call your child wretched.’ That was more or less the story of my life.
I can vividly recall when my colleagues were going for Independence Day parade; I would be disqualified because I did not have the right kind of clothes to wear for such an event. The same thing with the church harvest thanksgiving, I would not be allowed to join the choir because I did not have the right attire. I was always missing at other social events in the community like the end of the year parties so it was a period of rejection and mental agony for people like us but we had no choice but to endure the hardship.
Funnily enough, in the midst of all this, I always came first in my class. I had few teachers who always encouraged me and they kept telling me that life held a surprise for me, and so, I should not be discouraged. I can still recall those events.
Will it be right then to say that your rough childhood propelled you to excel in life?
I would say that it did because the same way M.K.O. Abiola’s father spoke to him was the same way my mother and grandmother spoke to me. Despite the hostility I faced in the environment I grew up, my mother and grandmother always encouraged me. However, they were so strict despite the poverty we faced. I dared not have anything I could not account for; even it was as little as a pencil. If I was unable to explain how I got a new pencil, they would march me back to the school, have a meeting with my teacher and tell him that they saw me with a pencil that did not belong to me. That showed the extent of moral values that were inculcated in me in the midst of abject poverty.
Weren’t you tempted to make money the fast way?
We were all village boys and the kind of crimes we had then was probably petty ones like people pickpocketing others or boys stealing from people’s farmlands. In school, we had boys that would steal their peer’s notebooks or pens, but no one committed any serious crime. In fact, I cannot recall seeing somebody, either a teacher or pupil, with a cigarette in my primary school days. Those were the kind of vices we had in those days; it is nothing compared to what we have these days.
How would you describe your secondary school days, were they as challenging as your days in primary school?
After primary school, I was able to attend modern school. That was after I had worked as a houseboy for two years. It was the money that I gathered while working that I used to pay for my school fees at modern school for about a year before my father began to support my educational pursuit.
My father was very hard-working and he was with the defunct Public Works Department in the old Western Region. He was in a position to send me to school comfortably, especially due to my stellar performance in primary school but he dared not because of the other wives and their kids. If he did it for one person, he had to do it for the others; but when I went to work as a houseboy and returned with the saving from my earning, my father stood firmly behind me and supported me. He said that if I could do that, the others should follow suit if they wanted his help. That was how my father took over the responsibility of my education. After I completed my education at the Adventist Modern School, Ipoti-Ekiti, I went to a Catholic Technical College. From there, the battle began again before I eventually found myself at the University of Ife, now Obafemi Awolowo University.
What do you mean by ‘the battle started again’?
As of the time my Unified Matriculation Examination result was released, I had only N35 with me and I needed about N90 to process my admission. The accommodation fee was about N60 and I also needed to pay some other registration fees. My elder brother, who died about 21 years ago, gave me about N40 and with that, I was able to pay for my accommodation. All through the four years that I spent for my first degree at the school, I never went to the cafeteria to eat because it was 50 kobo per meal, so I would go for the cheaper option which we referred to as the ‘Bukateria’ and eat with 20 kobo. I could not buy any textbook; I would either borrow or go to the library to study. Towards the end of my first degree programme, I won two scholarships; the University of Ife Undergraduate Scholarship and the Federal Merit Award, which was given by the Federal Ministry of Education.
I was able to collect the prize money attached to the undergraduate scholarship, which was about N100 while I was still in school. But as for the federal scholarship, we were not paid until we were at the National Youth Service Corps camp. I also received N500 and N100 on two occasions from the Ondo State government as bursaries. I also did vacation jobs in Ondo State and I was paid about N150. Those were the little money I earned while I was a student.
When you worked as houseboy, were you maltreated?
I worked with a man who sold medical drugs. We were in Ile-Ife and I remember I always carried the drugs on my head as we went to villages and hamlets. We trekked for many miles every day till late at night, selling from one hamlet to another. That was what I did for two years. That was in 1971. We lived in a community called Atere; it was a very big hamlet in Ile-Ife. The name of the man I worked for was Aranfeajo. He was very wonderful to me and he treated me like his first child. The only reason I referred to myself as a houseboy was because that was my title and job description. The man treated me very well and I looked up to him like a father. I learnt a lot from him. While I was with him, I never suffered any deprivation or oppression; he never humiliated me during my two years with him.
For someone who could not afford to buy books in school, how did you get a first-class degree at the university?
It was by the grace of God. Interestingly, during my first year in school, some of my roommates queried why I did not withdraw from school. They were of the opinion that I should drop out to do some menial job, save enough money before I returned to school. They gave me this advice when they saw what I was going through in school because they felt it was very agonising for me. While they were going to the cafeteria, I would either go to the ‘bukateria’ or drink garri. However, during our time, there was discipline so you would never see me at the cinema. I never spoke amorously to any lady all through my four years in school.
Does it mean that you never had a girlfriend all through the time you were in the university?
No, I never did; it was all part of the discipline.
Was it because there was no money?
The kind of upbringing I had did not permit me to have that kind of lifestyle.
But you were brilliant, that should have attracted some girls to you…
Yes, I was brilliant, but they also looked at factors like wealth. What I noticed then was that most of the boys and girls took themselves to Oduduwa Hall every day to watch a show or film. When Baba Sala (famous comedian, Moses Olaiya) came to the University of Ife with his first film, Orun mooru, the admission fee was N1, but only few people were able to pay for it. Some of us were struggling to make a living so we could not afford to do that. Hard work and the grace of God made me get a first-class degree. I had the best result in my department and faculty. I also won all the prizes at the faculty at the time.
It sounds as if you had no social life in the university?
I had a spiritual life. I was a prominent member of Baptist Students Fellowship. I was also very instrumental in the setting up of the Ipoti-Ekiti Students’ Union as well as Ijero Local Government Students’ Union. When I was in 300 levels, I was the General Secretary of the Nigerian Economic Students Association. Those were the extra activities that I was involved in at the university. I did not belong to any social club or anything that was non-academic. I was involved in church, community, and departmental matters.
What made you study law to the extent that you were called to bar?
I was discussing with a friend one day and I mentioned to him that I wanted to continue to engage my intellect because I did not want to be mentally lazy. At first, I wanted to study MBA at the University of Lagos, but the person told me that it would be too easy for me and that I should branch out of my comfort zone. We exchanged ideas and I ended up settling for law. I went to the school to buy the form and when we were shortlisted, I came out top on the list.
You are also a lecturer…
Yes, I lecture, I am a professor of economics. I love lecturing because it means mentoring and imparting knowledge. I am the Dean of the College of Postgraduate Studies at Caleb University. I have the love and flair for imparting knowledge. I started my career in an environment that looked like a school setting – Financial Institutions Training Centre, Yaba. It was from there that I moved to the banking industry and I worked with about four banks before retiring voluntarily. I also worked at the Federal Inland Revenue Service.
How did you meet your wife?
My wife was my pastor’s daughter; that is, when I was in Ife. Coincidentally, he was from my hometown, Ipoti-Ekiti. I got married to his first daughter and we met in the church. Simply because we were from the same place, it made the communication process easy. We always went to the pastor’s house after service and he would host us. We would eat and be merry before going back to the campus. That was how the interaction started.
How were you able to convince her to be your lover?
It was quite easy because we always went to their house after service on Sundays; also, we met in our hometown whenever I visited my parents. I did not have the courage to tell her father, so I had to go home, inform my father and he sent emissaries to her father’s house as it is done in the traditional way.
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