Onukaba Adinoyi-Ojo: Five books in tribute
In the early 1980s, I cannot say precisely when but it would certainly be shortly after my graduation in 1981, I began to write for one of Nigeria’s most prestigious Newspapers - The Guardian. I was privileged to be in the company of Nigeria’s finest minds - Wole Soyinka, Emeka Eleum Izeze,(who also edited the paper) Eddie Iroh, Onwuchekwa Jemie, Ndaeyo Uko, Edwin Madunagu, Yemi Ogunbiyi, Bisi Ogunbadejo,and Onukaba Adinoyi-Ojo among others. The paper was edited at the time by an incredible woman and one of Nigeria’s forward looking journalists, the arty and irreplaceable Ama Ogan. It was in this heady mix that I became a feature writer for nearly 23 years culminating in the book “In the Blink of an Eye,” most of it collections from my Guardian years. I lived in Markurdi during this period but every time I arrived Lagos, I visited the Guardian Newspapers. Lagos was alien to me but Onukaba made it easy. For a place that was so impersonal, Onukaba connected with me as a fellow writer, a brother, a friend and a human kind. He would patiently wait for me to finish chatting with all my friends at the Guardian and then he would always give me a ride wherever I was going. The kinship grew when I discovered that Onukaba was from the same ethnic stock as my mother. I remember vividly the long enjoyable trips with Onukaba between Isolo where the Guardian was and Victoria Island where NTA was. It was full of laughter, tales and intellectual discourse often code switching from English to Egbira. Onukaba was fun to be with. His mind was always active. His thoughts very deep, but he was always known to laugh heartily. When he lost his first wife to what he considered medical carelessness, Onukaba was shattered and from the depth of his sorrow, he wrote some of his most profound non-fiction. He told me he was writing a book on the experiences. He grieved long and hard.
As an academic, author, playwright and literary critic, Onukaba enjoyed intellectual discourse and we had many long ones. I was always at the performance of his plays as often as I could and we discussed my writings extensively. We shared time in Abuja but not enough. He never let any of his positions go to his head. SA Media to Vice President Atiku Abubakar, MD, Daily Times,Villa insider, gubernatorial candidate, Doctor of philosophy. His feet were firmly rooted; humble, kind and warm.He will be sorely missed.