On Saturday 15th February 2025 in Ibadan, the family of late Chief T.A Oni of the famous Oni & Sons company had his 50 years remembrance. He was a great man during his lifetime. Even after his death his name still reverberated.
The remembrance of the legendary T. A Oni & Sons was held at Jogor Centre, in Ibadan. At the event High Chief Michael Omoleye spoke about the late Chief Theophilus Adediran Oni, the Road & Building Construction giant.
High Chief Michael Omoleye is a seasoned journalist who began his Journalism career in the defunct MORNING/SUNDAY POST, a Federal government newspaper in Lagos as a Reporter in 1964. He joined the SKETCH newspapers, Ibadan in 1969. A Daily Sketch West Correspondent during the Nigeria-Biafra war 1967-1970. He resigned as Editor of Daily Sketch in 1976.
High Chief Omoleye established his printing press in 1979, the Omoleye Publishing Press and and registered as the Omoleye Publishing Company Limited. The company published several books including Yoruba Traditional Religion….in the light of the Qabalah and 23 others.
He launched a weekly newspaper, The SUNDAY GLORY in 1986, which appeared regularly on the newsstand for 7 years.
Below are excerpts of his address at the Remembrance.
“I never imagined a day like this would come in my lifetime. As a Journalist on the defunct Daily Sketch, Ibadan, I interviewed late Chief T.A Oni at his company’s headquarters, Ibadan few days before the commencement of the Silver Jubilee (25th anniversary) of T.A. Oni & Sons, which began on April 29, 1971. And here today, I am giving an address on the 50th anniversary of his demise also in Ibadan.
I consider it an honour to be invited here today to talk about the famous and illustrious Chief T.A Oni who was introduced to me by late Mr. Justice Adewale Thompson, an outstanding legal practitioner, and a judge. During the lifetime of Chief Oni, he and I interacted so much. He took me as a confidant and I advised him on several issues including his Construction company, social and political issues though as you all know Chief Oni was not a politician. I visited Chief Oni regularly and many of the times we spoke one-on-one in his bedroom at his Goodwill House residence/estate, Ring Road, Ibadan.”
“Chief Oni marked the 25th anniversary of T.A Oni & Sons with a three-day celebration that started on 29 April 1971. As part of the anniversary events, Chief Oni’s company booked and paid for a 6-page supplement in the Daily Sketch. Two of the pages were for the interview with Chief Oni and as the Supplement Editor, I conducted the Interview which appeared in the Daily Sketch edition of Thursday, 29 April 1971-that is 54 years ago. In my hand here are the pages in which the interview was published in the Sketch newspaper.
INTERVIEW AND 1945 AS TURNING POINT
The year 1945 marked a turning point in the life of Chief Oni and the desire to resign from the Public Works Department (PWD) where he worked and start his own private company burned in him.
After working at the PWD for 15 years, Chief Oni said he began to worry that the School Leaving Certificate he obtained after completing his primary school education at Ogba Methodist School, Abeokuta in 1930 was not allowing him to move forward. He was convinced that his brain and things he could do were far higher than the level his educational certificate had placed him.”
“Firstly, there was the innate urge in me to resign and secondly, the belief had there was little prospect for further promotion at PWD without professional or academic qualification,” Chief Oni said during the interview.
Chief Oni decided in 1945 that he must take drastic action to improve his life. He consulted some of his close friends that he was contemplating resigning from the PWD to start a construction company. How do you want to make up the 10 pounds a month on your own amount which Europeans pay you at this period of your life (1945) queried my friends,” Chief Oni quoted his friends as saying during my interview with him. In other words, some of his friends dissuaded him from resigning from the PWD. But Chief Oni persisted and wanted to resign.
One evening in April 1945, he told one of his wives that though, he liked to resign he was worried that he may not succeed. But the wife encouraged and inspired him to resign and take the plunge.
“Can’t you realise that your time has come to face life squarely and damn the consequences notwithstanding the fears of your friends,” said his wife, according to Chief Oni.
“Today, you shall resign from that work,” the wife told Chief Oni. The wife went into her room, and later emerged holding a white sheet of paper in which she had written the resignation letter of her husband from the PWD, Chief Oni said.
‘Here you are sign it,” said his wife, Chief Oni told me at the interview that he had no alternative than to append his signature to the letter. Thus the end of his job was sealed after 15 years with the PWD. He resigned in 1945. The wife was Mrs. Mary Tejuade Oni, a qualified midwife.
LOOKING BACK WITH PRIDE
Having achieved so much in the past 25 years since the company was founded Chief Oni said “I look back with pride and satisfaction feeling that after all the idea of becoming an independent businessman did not die in my mind when I was a Road Overseer. My philosophy of life is that if and when anybody is determined to do something good for himself or others he can always do it if the determination does not falter.”
“Now having set at it, one does not need to be too anxious to succeed. Just work with integrity although the hard period is there to be encountered. The fault with many youths of nowadays is that most of them are afraid of taking risks. Secondly, many youths find it a huge task to be honest. But whether such youths like it or not they will realise in the end the importance of honesty in anything one does”. said Chief Oni.
He explained that it took his colonial masters four weeks to accept his letter of resignation. That was when they knew he would not budge an inch on his intention to resign from PWD.
SICKNESS AND DEATH
I feel a sense of great loss of a friend, confident, a great motivator and one of the most illustrious sons of Nigeria. Chief Oni and I even became closer after he fell sick in 1974.
INADEQUATE RECOGNITION
I found Chief Oni very intelligent during the interview. He discussed like a Phd holder in the subject of building, bridge construction and engineering, Chief Oni deserves state and federal government honours. It could have been good if one of the stations of the new Lagos-Ibadan Railway Service had been named after him to immortalise his name at the national level. To correct the oversight, I here today recommend that some important buildings or a key section of UCH Ibadan be named after Chief Oni. The 6 state governments in Western Nigeria should also name some important structures after Chief Oni. Today, the family including his children, grandchildren, associates and friends can appreciate the determination of Chief Oni to resign from the PWD in 1945. If he did not take the risk then we would not know that he was a genius.
May God provide people like Chief Oni for the development of Nigeria. I respectfully ask that we all rise for the traditional one-minute silence in honour of Chief T.A Oni. May His Soul continue to Rest in Peace. Amen.
