•What He Told City People About His Life
Before his death last week, he had a name that was larger than life. This is because in the 70s he was a very popular journalist in Nigeria. He was the celebrated Editor of Sunday Times and then Daily Times, the 2 leading newspapers of that era. The sad news is that renowned author, editor & publisher, Chief Areoye Oyebola died last week. When he turned 80 in December, 2016, he celebrated it big at Kakanfo Inn, Ibadan.
He also spoke to the publisher of City People Magazine, SEYE KEHINDE on his life at 80
But not many people know the story of this elder statesman who was very popular in those good old days.
Only very few know that all these while he had lived a life of miracles and that he was alive till last week, simply because of Miracles.
“I am an author of 26 books on Economics, Government and general subjects, including a 436-Page book – A Modern Approach to Economics of West Africa,.
I was the first long serving graduate editor of the Daily Times, which, at the time of my editorship, was the largest mass-circulating daily newspaper in Africa and that as busy as my schedule of duties as Editor then was, I maintained a regular weekly column – FRANK TALK BY OMO OYE.
My life is about wonderful miracles . My life from birth to date is entirely a miracle. The circumstances of my birth are so strange that they may appear unbelievable to you.
I was born after my mother, late Madam Marian Morinade OYEBOLA, of the Ishole Chieftaincy Compound in Ibadan city, had given birth to 7 other children who all died in infancy. My mother gave birth to 3 sets of twins who all died a few days or weeks after birth. After the twins, she gave birth to the 7th child who also died. I am the 8th child who miraculously survived. 1 have also enjoyed a very buoyant health, to the glory of God.
In 1973, I became fully convinced that God had definite plans for me to work for Him.
This was after the miraculous landing of a Pakistani Airline plane, with its two engines irreparably damaged, in which I was travelling from Peking, China, to Pakistan en route Nigeria.
The pilot regarded our chances of survival as slim but I cried unto the Lord that He should, according to His promise in Hebrews 1:14, “send his ministering spirits who minister to those who are heirs of salvation” to rescue me. And He did just that.
Then on December 23, 1993, satan whispered clearly to my right ear at Shagamu town: “You will die today”. I was on my way to Lagos. Certainly, satan had made his definite plans to kill. me that day because forty minutes later, my car, which was snatched and driven away, was surrounded by four fierce-looking young armed robbers with guns at the Ilupeju area of Lagos. But God saved me miraculously.
Amazingly, the leader of the armed robbery gang later begged me for forgiveness. I prayed for him. There was yet another wonderful miracle.
Unknown to me in 1989 an old Nigeria politician took my name, address and other details to a very powerful wizard, herbalist and occultist in Ondo State of Nigeria with a request that he should kill me with his satanic powers. At his request, the old politician later came to our Ring Road, Ibadan Fellowship one Sunday evening. He confessed that he had made a futile plan to kill me, narrated all the details and asked for forgiveness.
There is also the soul-stirring story of the woman who, dead in the night, attacked me on three occasions with what is known among the Yoruba people of Nigeria as “Sigidi” witchcraft power. Through powers of darkness, a short object in human form made of clay and known as “Sigidi” is infused with life and sent to its victim.
The “Sigidi” entered my bedroom and tried hard on each occasion to remove my right hand from its shoulder socket. But the Lord, who is behind all the wonders of my life, saved me.
And in 1994, I drove in error a Volkswagen Beetle car with complete brake failure down the very steep Ajeigbe Street slope that enters the fast four lane express Ring Road in Ibadan. It was an utterly helpless situation and I will always recollect the deep feeling I had that a supernatural power stopped my car, which almost hit two fast approaching vehicles, and saved me from instant death.
I narrowly escaped being kidnapped and assassinated by my political opponents in 1979. In most cases, I usually fought for my life with the blood of Jesus and the affirmation of relevant verses of the Bible.
But it was not all miraculous escapes from tragic death. There was once a significant breakthrough in business through God’s amazing intervention. That was in 1984. Because of overbooking, I was down graded from the First Class to the Economy apartment of the British Caledonia Airways plane in which I travelled from Lagos to London. Down-graded as well and made to sit with me on the first two seats of the economy class, was a Briton, who later became my business partner. With the dwindling fortunes of my companies, I managed to raise just a loan of N20,OOO.OO from my bank manager for my trip to London but I returned from London with a bank draft for N300,000,00 from my new business partner. This was an unexpected partnership investment, which was not only fifteen times more than the N20,000,00 loan I received from my bank but the investment completely transformed my business. To God be the glory.
The essence of my story, which you will find most fascinating and intriguing pages, is that God can be absolutely trusted and that our God has not changed.
Whenever I was at the end of my rope, my heavenly Father was always at the other end. And He can become just like that to you as well if you love, fear and always put Him first.
“I was born in the Ishole Chieftaincy compound in Oje area of Ibadan, the largest city in Africa South of the Sahara desert. Ibadan is also one of the most thickly populated cities in Africa.
Ours is a big traditional compound which serves as home to different lineages of our big extended family, founded in the 19th century by my great great grandfather.
The compound, one of the oldest in the city, was built when the people of Ibadan were the most valiant and dominant warriors, who determined everything about war and peace in Yoruba land and beyond. Warfare was then my townsmen’s main occupation. They defended the defenseless and weak tribesmen and they brought the obdurate ones to servile compliance through persistent raids.
My father had 2 buildings within the big compound. One is a single storey building where he lived upstairs, where he also held court, and six bedroom bungalows where my Mum and Dad’s other wives lived. There are six other buildings owned by the other lineages of our family.
At a very early age, I was aware that my mother was a very hard working and successful textile trader. I was also aware that she, like my father, was a devout Christian, who loved God greatly.
I remember vividly that my mother was very painstaking in sending, through me, her church dues, levies and offerings to Madam A. Wuraola, whenever the demands of her textile trade in the neighbouring towns made her attendance at church services impossible.
Madam Wuraola was the president of my mother’s church, society at my parent’s church.
Saint Paul’s Anglican Church in the Yemetu area of Ibadan.
There is a lot of evidence about my father’s love of God. Whenever he was on visits to the city and this was always weekly or fortnightly, from Apasan Oyebola Village, where he was a successful and popular Cocoa Produce Merchant, owner of big cocoa and kolanuts plantations, head of villages in the district and political party leader, he was very punctual at church services.
Tall, handsome and light-complexioned, with a dignified bearing, I used to admire Dad and his big intricately embroidered traditional gown, as I carried his Bible and hymn book on my head walking behind him on our way to the church, which was a walking distance from our home. And as one of the church leaders and elders, he had a seat reserved for him on one of the front pews.
But it was my Dad’s encouragement of all his children to love God and practice Christianity diligently which impressed me most. For instance, he would wake each child up by five in the morning whenever it was that child’s turn for a compulsory test on the Lord’s prayer. Failure to recite it correctly meant that you would be forced to repeat it several times until my’ father was satisfied. I will not forget the day he tested me on the Lord’s prayer. I recited it in Yoruba, our indigenous language and English before he allowed me to go to school, I was late to school and was given six strokes of the cane on my two palms for lateness.
A clever man that he was, my father would, about a week after you’ve passed your early morning test, again call you for another correct recitation of the Lord’s prayer. That was his means of confirming that you’ve truly digested the prayer. He also encouraged us to cram Psalms 23 and 91. He so much believed in the effectiveness of the two Psalms as a form of prayer.
The fore-going was the setting in our big family when I was born in 1936, to Chief Joseph Babalola Oyebola and Madam Marian Morinade Oyebola.
Before the agony that my deeply spiritual mother suffered began, she had given birth to a boy and two girls who grew normally to adulthood. The first child, a male and a combatant soldier who served in Asia during the Second World War, died at the age of 60, while the next two girls are now more than 70 years old.
Unlike those 3 however, I was born in the midst of conflicting emotions and motley of contradictions.
In the first place and understandably too, many members of our larger extended family were full of jeers and pessimism when they learnt that Morinade, that’s my mother’s middle name had given birth to another of her many “Abiku” children. Old women who saw me at birth were said to have giggled in derision and pursed their lips in wonder: “This child again.” Among the Yoruba people of Nigeria, an Abiku” is a child destined to die in infancy. When a woman gives birth to many children who die within days or weeks of their birth, the woman is believed to be afflicted by the dreaded “Abiku” spirit.
Besides, people in our compound had reasons for their lack of enthusiasm and joy about my birth. For one thing, my mother had three sets of twins and another male child who all died in infancy before I was born. Hence, I was the eighth in the series of the much resented “Abiku” children.
For another, there was the superstitious belief that I was the same child who had reincarnated eight times. In my view, it would be wrong to condemn the elders of our extended family. To them, it was an unrealistic hope to believe I could survive considering my antecedent.
But thanks to God, the omens were not all gloomy because my father was not pessimistic about my chances of survival. In fact, his circumstances shortly before I was born, gave him a lot of hope that I would survive and be very successful in life. According to the story he later told me, shortly before I was born, there was a boom in his cocoa produce business. Many new customers sold more produce to him and he graded and sold in bulk to the British exporting companies then based in Nigeria. Also, the British Colonial Authority, which then ruled Nigeria, increased the price paid to cocoa farmers for their beans. And being an owner of large cocoa plantations, he earned a lot of money before I was born. So father regarded my birth as a joyful event and he gave me the name ABIOLA, meaning a child born into wealth. He fondly called me only that name throughout his life.
There was another manifestation of joy on his part. My father, who was prosperous and very resourceful, was among eminent indigenes of Ibadan city, being considered for chieftaincy titles by our city’s paramount ruler and his highest traditional council when I was born. He, therefore, regarded my birth as a happy coincidence for he was shortly given the chieftaincy title. This explains why he gave me the name, AREOYE, meaning a race or competition for chieftaincy.
His undisguised and robust optimism about me and my future was further revealed at my church baptism. My father gave EMMANUEL to the Reverend gentleman in our church as my baptismal name. He strongly believed that God was with him and my mother and that Jesus was capable of solving my “Abiku” or “born to die” problem.
Even then, there was still an irony. Some grey-haired elders in our extended family, who were older than my parents and were either Moslems or practitioners of traditional religion, believed that the new found hope of my father and mother on my survival was an utterly futile hope, which had nothing to do with reality.
So in the traditional society, where age and customs trample on individual freedom, in a society where every child was regarded as belonging to the entire lineage, our factly elders, believed to be the authentic representatives of our ancestors, gave me a name they felt was appropriate for the unenviable circumstances of my birth. They named me, AJITONI OKUT’OLA, meaning, he is alive today but his further existence tomorrow is uncertain. They believed that my growing to adulthood was dearly uncertain and speculative.
Luckily, both my father and mother believed in the efficacy of prayers. The 2 of them were known to have prayed at least twice a day throughout their lives. They regularly prayed for me. And I was aware as I grew up that the Yoruba translation of Psalm 37:4: “Delight yourself also in the Lord: and He shall give you the desires of your heart” was my Mummy’s favourite verse of the Bible. And Dad believed that he could triumph over any tribulation by reciting Psalms 23 and 91.
My parents disregarded the negative curse-generating name-AJITONI OKUT’OLA given to me by the elders. Not once did either of them call me that name. Rather, I was known to my immediate family as EMMANUEL AREOYE ABIOLA.
Even then, there is one significant aspect of my infant mortality or “Abiku” episode for which I will forever be thankful to God. Several years ago in the traditional African society, especially among the Yoruba nationality of Nigeria, when a mother was afflicted by the “Abiku” or “born to die” syndrome, family elders usually caused deformity on the corpse of the dead “Abiku” infant.
They could cut part of the lips of the child with a sharp knife before burial so that the teeth would become permanently exposed. They could also break, cut or twist a foot.
And strangely indeed, when this was done to any dead “Abiku” infant, the next child porn by the same mother would have the exact mouth or foot deformity inflicted on the previous child who died. The thinking of the elders was that the newly born “Abiku” child with the ugly deformity would be ashamed to go back to the spirit world with the twisted or cut foot or the permanently exposed teeth. It was reasoned further that the deformed child would be forced to live and not die again but go through life with his deformity as a punishment for tormenting his mother. When I was young, I used to occasionally see some of the “Abikus”, also known as “Ogbanjes” in another part of Nigeria, with their man-inflicted deformities.
In my own case, I Was told that some tooth-less and very old’ elders in our extended family wanted to get the mouth of my Mum’s dead seventh child cut with a sharp knife in the traditional way before his burial. But my parents rejected the suggestion and told the elders that the practice was superstitious and alien to their Christian religion. Dad and Mum also told the aged custodians of fetish ancient customs that God would answer their prayers and save me. Hence I, the eighth child, was saved by the Almighty God, who knew before I was born His purpose and plan for my life, from a life-long embarrassment of going about with a mouth that would have been permanently open, revealing an exposed set of teeth that would be ugly and many-layered.
There is more for which I always give all the glory to the living God. As my father anticipated by giving me the baptismal name, Emmanuel, God was always with my parents throughout their lives. Our merciful heavenly Father also met all their needs.
Furthermore, my heart was warm with gratitude to God when, on a visit to my Dad. A year before he died 1975, his eyes lit up with real joy about his awareness that I. his “Abiku” son, had become a very famous columnist, author of many books and editor of the largest mass-circulating news-paper in Africa, the Nigerian “Daily Times”. And a month before he died, he looked at me. breathed, shut his eyes and said: “Abiola, I give glory to God for your life”. At that moment, the story of my Dad’s faith in my future all along touched me deeply and tears of joy were blinding my eyes.
Equally thrilling was the joy my survival and success gave to my late mother. After I entered primary school and I told my mother I was always in the first to third positions in class, I observed a deeper spiritual stirring and a greater hunger for God in her as she said to me. “I am very happy you have survived”. Mother began to crave for and find tremendous pleasure and perfect joy in what she perceived as the beautiful will of God for my life.
Light eventually broke through the thick darkness of my mother’s spirit as her “born to die” “Abiku” child became a success.
But above all, my two parents died as committed Christians, In fact, a development that has always given me an immeasurable joy is that on the day my mother died in 1967, she went for Bible lessons in the afternoon at our family church and passed to glory in the evening. That incident and her great love for God was the crux of our Reverend’s sermon at her church burial.
God has been very merciful to me as well.
Since I was born about 80 years ago, I have never been admitted to any hospital for any illness whatsoever. My health has always been robust and the most serious illnesses I have ever suffered from are malaria and occasional fatigue-to God be all the glory. That word of God in Isaiah 40 verse 31 has always been true in my life: “But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run, and not be weary, and they shall walk, and not faint”.
The cardinal point about my birth and childhood was that God has been real in my life.
My birth was a great miracle, while my survival up till now has been a series of miracles. I have been face to face with death several times but I am alive to write my book because of the sustained intervention of my dear heavenly Father. In a nutshell, I am today ALIVE BECAUSE OF MIRACLES.
WHO IS AREOYE OYEBOLA?
Chief Areoye Oyebola was born in Ibadan, Nigeria on December 23, 1936. He was born into the Christian family of Chief Joseph Babalola Oyebola and Madam Marian Morinade Oyebola.
Even though many of the relations of his father thought he would not survive (seven siblings before him having died) his parents who were not moved by the circumstances and the situation, had an unshakeable faith in the Almighty God, whom they were serving that the child, Areoye, would not only live, he would live to declare the glory and praise of God in the land of the living. True, indeed, the expectation of the righteous has not been, and will never be cut off.
Young Areoye had a Christian upbringing and education. He studied Economics at the University of Ibadan (1961-1964). He later returned to the institution for a post-Graduate Diploma in Education. He obtained the Diploma in Journalism from Plymouth in England.
He had a brief stint as a teacher at Ibadan Grammar School (his Alma Mater) and Olivet Baptist High School, Oyo, where he taught Economics and Government at the Higher School Certificate level. As a teacher, God used him so mightily that his students achieved distinctions and resounding successes in. their examinations.
He joined the editorial staff of the Daily Times of Nigeria Limited in 1968. Through the grace of God in his life and by dint of hardwork, devotion to duty, self discipline and high sense of responsibility, he rose rapidly and was appointed Editor of the Nigerian Daily Times – (Nigeria’s most widely-read and circulated newspaper at that time) in July 1972. He was Managing Editor of the newspaper when he was appointed to serve as a Commissioner for Home Affairs and Information in the then Western State of Nigeria in November 1975 – his industry, conscientiousness, forthrightness, fearlessness and high sense of responsibility at the Daily Times having been recognized by the Government.
Whilst at the Daily Times he had more than 6,000 exclusive stories, feature articles, travel reports, investigative reports, interviews and reviews to his credit. A widely travelled Editor, he had visited (covering major international press assignments) and written illuminating and penetrating articles on China, the U.S.A, South America and most of the countries of Europe and Africa. Proverbs 22:29
says seest thou a man diligent in his business; he shall stand before Kings.
Dr Areoye Oyebola had not only stood before but he had also interviewed many world renowned leaders. His popular column Frank Talk by Omo Oye in the “Daily Times” from 1972 -1975, was a household topic of discussion throughout Nigeria and beyond every week. In the column, he fearlessly and courageously attacked evils and wrongdoings, in all their ramifications, in all institutions or organizations where they were enthroned. No matter whose ox was gored he didn’t care.
His mission was to expose corruption, injustice, man’s inhumanity to man, indiscipline and other vices in the society. To the glory of God, he held very many high public offices in which he distinguished himself and made his footprints on the sands of time. Very few among them are: Commissioner for Home Affairs and Information, Western State of Nigeria 1975-1976. Commissioner for Local Government and Information, Oyo State 1976-1977. Director, Plateau State Publishing Company Limited Jos – Nigeria 1979-1983. Chairman, Ibadan Flood Disaster Relief Committee 1978. Director, Sketch Press Limited, Ibadan, 1992-1994. Member Oyo State Economics Advisory Council 1992-1994.
He resigned his public appointment as Oyo State Commissioner in 1977 to set up a publishing business-Board Publications Ltd. Like all his other endeavours, God (who knew him before He formed him) prospered the printing and publishing business. He has personally written and published over 25 books on different subjects which have blessed tremendously the lives of thousands and thousands of people-God’s name he praised.
One of the books is, A Modern Approach to Economics of West Africa, (436 pages). It is the most comprehensive book on applied economies of West Africa to date. But the most popular and controversial of all his books, which also happen to be a best-seller is Black Man’s Dilemma.
