I had countless girlfriends — 80-year-old lawyer

In this interview with SUCCESS NWOGU, 80-year-old Chief Tunji Arosanyin, a legal practitioner, relives his life experiences

 

 Chief Tunji Arosanyin

How do you feel at 80?

I do not feel that I am 80 years of age. I feel like 60 or 65 years.

Did you envisage that you would live to be 80 years?

I never thought I could be 80 because I never knew someone can be as old as 80 years.

What would you say helped you in attaining the age?

It is only the sheer grace of God; there is no reason why I should live to be 80. I could have died through an accident or other means; I was a politician; a farmer and then, a lawyer. I thank God that despite all, I still clocked 80.

Are you on a special diet?

No, when growing up, my mother was one of the poorest women in Egbe my town in Kogi State. We ate the poorest food as that was what she could provide. I ate whatever she gave me. Now, I don’t have any special meal. It is pounded yam, amala, yam, beans, grains or vegetables.

What is your favourite food?

Pounded yam. I can eat it three times a day.

Do you engage in exercise to keep fit?

Naturally, I am a sportsman. During my school days, I played football which earned me many laurels. My nickname in the secondary school was Black Magnet. I was a good goalkeeper. It was that ability that saw me through school because when there was no money, I had to leave school. But during one of the football competitions, they defeated our school. Then, the students and teachers wept and said they were defeated because Black Magnet was not in school. When asked where I was, they said I left school because I had no money to pay the fees. The school authorities requested that I should be recalled and some teachers gave me grants. That was how I was able to complete my six years in Titcombe College Egbe, in Kogi State.

What was your childhood experience?

It was quite an interesting one. My mother really wanted me to be in school but she could not afford it. When her half brother came from Ilesha, Osun State, to spend Christmas with us, she handed me over to him and asked that he sent me to school. He promised to take me along to Ilesha where I was supposed to start school. That day, he took four of us but he did not send us to school when we got to Ilesha. I spent four years with him. He was a farmer and bought cocoa. I was the youngest and whenever he was going to buy cocoa, I was always with him. All he did was to give us a book containing the alphabets and yet we had nobody to teach us the alphabets. Then, two among us died and I asked to be taken home for fear that I may be the next to die. My mother sent my brother to take me home but my uncle was not prepared to let me go. He seized all my things and said only my mother could come and take me home. My brother refused and we trekked many kilometers before we boarded a train to Ilorin. When we reached Ilorin, we begged the only driver we saw to take us home with a promise that our mother would pay. She did but was very sad that I did not go to school. Later, she took me to the chief of the town weeping because she wanted me to go to school. The chief assured her that I would go to school and handed me over to the headmaster of the school in my community.

You must have been old as a primary school pupil?

I started school at the age of nine or 10 and due to my size (I was the tallest and biggest), I was made a class monitor throughout my primary school to Standard Five.

Were you flogged by any of your teachers?

The only day I remember I was flogged was in my Primary Four. My teacher, Dr. Ayodele Balogun, now retired, flogged me but I cannot remember what I did. He was teaching us the Book of Romans in the Bible. He was the only teacher that I can remember to have flogged me but he was the only teacher that led me to Christ. He was at my 80th birthday celebration recently.

Can you recall your secondary school experiences?

By the grace of God, I attended   Titcombe College, which was the only secondary school in Kabba province then. I was there when my father died, but my mother tried to pay my school fees in the first and second year. By the third year, she could not pay school fees, and I had to leave secondary school. Then, I saw an advertisement in ‘Nigeria Citizen,’ the only northern Nigerian newspaper that sought to employ a secondary school leaver. I applied and went to Kaduna, where I was employed as assistant tsetse fly officer.

My duty was to inject cows and I was posted to Makurdi for training with two other persons. At the training school, an English man was the principal. When he saw us, he was very furious and called us lazy people. He asked what we were doing there and told us the place was not meant for us. He urged us to go and finish our secondary school education and become professionals. Though they gave us where to sleep, we could not sleep. That night, the three of us started weeping because we did not know what to do. We went back to him and explained our plight. By the time we left him and returned to our room, we received a telegraph that we had been awarded scholarship and that we should come back to Titcombe College. The white man was very happy and gave us warrant to travel by train to Kaduna in order to get another warrant in Kaduna and return to Ilorin. From Ilorin, we went to Egbe, which is about 86 miles.

When we got to Kaduna, we told them the same story thinking the Nigerian officer there would congratulate us but he did not. He said, ‘you fools, you do not want to work in the bush, you just want to work in the office. I will not give you warrant. I will only give you warrant to go back to Makurdi.’ We were there for two weeks weeping. Finally, God touched his heart, he gave us warrant and we went back heading for Egbe. When I got home, my people saw me and they were happy. He told me that had been looking for me and that the principal of Titcombe College wanted to see me. My two friends and I went there. When the pupils saw me, they were happy, jumped up, and kept shouting, ‘the Black Magnet is back.’ Then, the teachers at Titcombe College were all white men. I entered the school in 1953 and finished in 1958. I was a school prefect, and captain of the football team. I had a very rewarding stay in Titcombe College.

Did you go to any university afterwards?

I went to university after I had entered into politics. I joined politics because I was very popular. I had a very interesting experience in politics and I later got in contact with the late Dr. Olusola Saraki, who was calling the shots in Kwara politics. In politics, two attempts were made to kill me. There was a time a man came with an axe, aimed at my head and thought he had smashed it. The axe did not touch me but tore my clothes.

How did you pursue your law programme?

I went to Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, for a diploma in Law. There, I met the late Chief Solomon Lar, a former governor of Plateau State, and we became very good friends. I had a government-sponsored scholarship for my diploma but none for my first degree. Later, I got scholarship for my first degree in Law and my wife was given £5 per month and my child some pounds per month.

How many girl friends did you have before you got married?

They were many that I cannot even count. Some of them would even be competing because of me. Some brought many gifts. This is because I always occupied positions which the girls envied. Even in primary school as a goalkeeper, I was loved. When one is a good sportsman, and has good skills, girls would like one. I had many girl friends, but the relationship between girls and boys of those days was not amorous. It was a taboo to engage in sexual relationship. I had uncountable girlfriends but God led me to my wife.

How did you meet your wife?

She was one of the girls that I had as a friend. One day, my grandmother, who was our leader, and who we respected and feared, was against the many girls coming to my place. She rejected all other girls and picked my wife because she knew the family she came from. That was how I married my wife and I had nothing to say. My grandmother chose rightly. I always thank God for leading her to choose my wife for me. We have been together and have five children, who are all doing well in their chosen professions. I have about seven grandchildren because I married very late. I married at age 34 and that for me is late.