I’ll use law degree to reclaim what my people lost – 73-year-old Oba
Oba Olufemi Ogunleye is the traditional ruler of Akinale in Ewekoro Local Government Area of Ogun State. The 73-year-old monarch recently graduated with a Law degree from the Crescent University, Abeokuta. He narrated the inspiration behind his return to
How did you pull off getting a degree as an Oba and at such an old age? I was occasionally going to the Crescent University, Abeokuta, to visit a friend who had worked with me at Village News, a community newspaper, I started publishing in Abeokuta in 2000, and who is the Head of the Mass Communication department at the university. One day, a cousin, also a lecturer at the university told me that since I was already educated, I should try to study a course. I told him studying law would be okay for me and he advised that if I was interest, I should first obtain the Diploma in Law. I did and had Upper Credit. The head of the law department then said I was a Direct Entry material. That was how I got to be a law undergraduate.
What was the memorable high point during the programme?
At 300 level, when we were doing Criminal Law, my experience as a reporter came sharply into focus because many of the cases cited in the class were cases I had covered as a reporter. One interesting case was that of a popular lawyer, who murdered his girlfriend in Kaduna. I was then a Daily Times reporter between 1969 and 1974 in Kaduna. I covered the matter from the day of his arrest, to the first day in court and judgment day. So when the example was cited in class, I was really excited. I told my lecturer I knew about the story and brought to the class my court reporting files of 1972.
Second, during the Islamic law class, each time the lecturer referred to the Saudi Arabia people, vis-a-viz their actions, I was also aware of that because for five years I was the chairman of the pilgrims committee at the Nigeria Airways and in charge of pilgrims to Saudi Arabia. I worked with the Nigeria Airways from 1976 to 1996.
I was in the Law class with young people, majority of them age mates of my children. I could see their unseriousness. Some of them would be pressing their phones in class during lectures. I would be annoyed with them. Some would be afraid and drop their phones, some, initially, would dare me. But gradually they became serious. So that was the kind of fun I had while I was in school and was very happy about it.
How did you metamorphose from journalism and work at Nigeria Airways to be king?
I never desired to be king, though my forefathers owned this town. My great-grandfather established the community. He was the head of this village and my grandfather succeeded him but I never for one day thought I would be what I am now.
When I retired from service at the Nigeria Airways after 20 years of service, I wanted to return to reporting. That was when I was employed by the Vanguard newspapers, though not as a mainstream reporter. I was only writing a column per week, which I enjoyed.
In my house in Lagos, anytime I came back home, there was this church down my street that was always blaring deafening noise. It was so serious that I went to challenge its pastor. But in order not to tango with him and be a nuisance like him, I just asked my wife one day that since we have a country home in our village, can’t we be going there on Friday, stay over the weekend and come back to Lagos on Sunday?
So we agreed on that. We would go to Akinale to rest on weekends and there, I’d do my write up. And we began to enjoy it. In fact, when I would have finished playing golf at Ikeja on Friday evening and leave Lagos by 6.30pm, I would already be in my village latest 9pm.
I began to seriously ask: What is so precious about this Lagos that one can’t get away from it? I would tell myself, ‘I am in my village now, sleeping very well, with no noise nor disturbance from anywhere, and no pollution.’
The third week I had started coming to my village every weekend, the agitation started. The elders and youth came to my house and said they had been waiting for me, that
After they left vowing to come again the next morning, I called my wife and we packed our luggage and headed back to Lagos. But by 9am, they were in my house in Lagos I was angry. But they began telling me it wasn’t them that picked me but the Ifa oracle
they had selected me in my absence as the head of the Akinale village. I politely rejected the offer. Instead, I gave them a list of people I believed were more capable of being a better king. Some of my nominees were my elders, while some were my age mates. But the agitators said ‘no.’
After they left vowing to come again the next morning, I called my wife and we packed our luggage and headed back to Lagos. But by 9am, they were in my house in Lagos. I was angry. But they began telling me it wasn’t them that picked me but the Ifa oracle. I replied, ‘Baba, I don’t know Ifa and neither does Ifa know me. You must have told Ifa something about me.’
But they were unyielding. I then called my wife, explained to her the situation and said I can’t do what they wanted me to do. I told her I would leave her in Lagos and go to England. My wife then was the head of Corona Schools. I told her I would be in England for a while and they would forget about me being their king. I fled to England in 2001.
You still eventually became king. How did that happen?
One day, in 2002, I learnt that a former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, was coming to England on an official visit and I was asked to be part of the Nigeria Diaspora to meet him. Obasanjo knew me because his parents were also blood relations of Akinale. He saw me in the crowd and charged at me directly, saying, ‘My friend, what are you doing here?’ I told him that I had retired at Nigeria Airways.
Then he told me he heard they wanted to make me the head of my village and I ran away. I denied but he maintained that was the truth. He then proceeded to give me a short lecture, citing about three neighbouring villages whose heads were retired public officers, up to Permanent Secretary. He urged me to return home immediately. In fact, I came back to Nigeria with him in 2003.
That was how it happened. I could no longer run away. In 2004, I became, first the Bale, a junior, unbeaded head, of my community. I have almost 20 villages under my control and about 70 bales from different villages. In 2006, I was elevated to and crowned a full grade ‘A’ beaded king.
How do you intend to apply your law education to develop your community?
The answer to that requires a little bit of history. My great grandfather was named ‘Lapeleke.’ He was among the old hunters that came to Abeokuta after the war that displaced them from Osun. When they arrived in Abeokuta, they dispersed into various areas. He established Akinale where we are today, named after his younger brother who was also a hunter.
Lapeleke then moved to establish another area that he named after himself under Ewekoro Local Government. Akinale, his brother, again left Akinale and went to establish Onihale in Ifo, so there are those three big communities that belonged to the same family today.
Our forefathers were illiterates and government took over their land for peanuts. But today, having read law, I know it is our right to collect certain sums of compensation from the company for air pollution in Ewekoro, for example.
I have gone far as England to look at how their factories operate over there. Now, I have written to Lafarge Cement that I needed to dialogue with them on how to resolve certain grey areas amicably so we don’t have to go to court.
I thank God I am 73 years now and I don’t think I needed anything material again. But the generations coming after me must have something to recover from their great-grandfathers’ properties that had been destroyed. That’s the joy of my Law degree.