Last moments of Nigeria’s oldest WW2 veteran, by family
Why he was nicknamed ‘Head of Snake’ He washed his clothes despite old age
He also participated in politics. He was a staunch member of National Party of Nigeria (NPN) in Abejukolo when it produced Governor Apeh Aku in 1979
Except for the two enlarged photographs and a condolence register on a table suspended by the wall of a building on the edge of the family compound of Pa Adama Aduku in Abejukolo town, the headquarters of Omala Local Government area of Kogi State, there is hardly a sign to indicate that Nigeria’s oldest World War II veteran has passed on.
The compound was devoid of the usual long faces and pensive mood that would have ordinarily characterized such passing when Daily Trust Saturday visited the town on Thursday, two days after his demise. Few of the children who were around were seen exchanging banters and jokes among themselves. “Daddy wouldn’t have wanted anyone to mourn him having lived a very fulfilled life,” Mrs Pauline Alhassan Adama, one of the daughters, noted.
“By the way, to him, showing emotion was a sign of weakness which he never condoned,” another of the kids, Mr Oke Adama, added.
This tough disposition was well captured in a message of condolence scribbled by an anonymous mourner who described the late veteran as a “resilient, principled and uncompromising gentleman” in the register already filled up by many glowing tributes. But his nickname itself exudes fears and sends jitters down the spine of strangers. He referred to himself as “Oji ejo” meaning “Head of Snake” in his native Igala dialect. It is believed that the snake’s venom is stored in part of the head and the snake uses this venom to debilitate and immobilize its prey. To the veteran therefore, anybody who dared him was bound to suffer the same fate.
The name “Oji ejo” as he was fondly called by his contemporaries came about his resistance to any form of oppression, Samuel Adama, one of the sons explained. This resistance to oppression, according to an interview he granted to a newspaper, provoked him into joining the Army even when the thought of that line of career never crossed his mind. “I was coming back from the farm one evening when I saw a man who was younger than me at the time beating our village head.
“The man named Salikawa was a soldier who resorted to beating up our chief for refusing to carry his bag and seeing him off to his house, which was 10 miles away.
“When the matter was reported to the District Officer, the chief was advised to obey the soldier in his own interest or face whatever consequences that resulted from that.
“I was very angry and bitter and I made up my mind to join the military so that I could go back to the village and also beat up Salikawa for humiliating our chief,” he had told The Punch newspaper in the interview.
He succeeded in enlisting in the Army but his wish of coming back to exert revenge on Salikawa for manhandling the village head never came to pass because, according to Samuel, Salikawa died before Pa Aduku could return from the war.
According to the family account provided by Samuel, Pa Aduku was born at Odomagu, a remote community in Odo district in Omala Local
Government area in 1918 and he joined the Army, then called Royal West African Frontier Force, in 1942, in Makurdi, Benue State. He was said to have trained at Auguwan Shanu in Kaduna State and was deployed to India during the Second World War where he fought at Calcutta. He exited the Army after the Second World War in 1946, discharged in Lagos, rejoined again in 1950 in Zaria and finally exited in 1957.
He told the story of how at his dad’s point of discharge on return from India, he had to trek from
Apapa to in Ikeja at time when most parts of Lagos were bushes.
After he finally exited the Army, the late veteran became a trader, buying yams from Lafiyan Barebari, in current Nasarawa State and taking it to Onitsha for sale. “I actually grew up to know him on that trade for years before he came back home and settled for agriculture. He was a renowned farmer and was noted for harvesting his yam before any other farmer in Omala Local Government.
“He also participated in politics. He was a staunch member of National Party of Nigeria (NPN) in Abejukolo when it produced Governor Apeh Aku in 1979 and Sule Iyaji in Buneu State assembly in 1979 also. His contemporaries were Alfa Okpanachi, James Omada Ita, Usman Akuta Awodi Ashetu and Oga Agege.Till his death he was a member of qua Ibo Church Abejukolo and participates actively well in every Church activities and developmental projects,” Samuel recounted.
Mrs Pauline told our correspondent that he took ill last week. “We suspected he had malaria and it was treated but his condition got worse two days later. So we decided to take him to Grimmad hospital in Ayigba