By Segun Adeleye and Nkasiobi Oluikpe
Akanji Adeleke Omoniyi
Akanji Adeleke Omoniyi, a retired naval lieutenant commander, has likened his life to that of the biblical Queen Esther who through divine intervention transited from being a slave to a palace queen.
Despite having firebrand intelligence, especially for mathematics, Omoniyi could not go beyond primary education. He had to stay at home for four consecutive years, fetching snails and fire woods in order to make ends meet.
Luckily for him, the very fourth year of his fire wood and snail gathering, his brother sent him money that could only take him for one single term at Anglican Modern School. Thereafter, the embarrassment came.
One morning at the assembly ground, the principal, late Chief Ladipo, announced that those who have not paid their school fees should form a line. Poor Omoniyi felt so dejected and confused.
Unknown to him, the principal has been taking note of his mathematical brilliance. As he was moving slowly to join the line of school fees debtors, the principal spotted him and asked him to move back, telling him that somebody had paid for his school fees.
Young Omoniyi was to later discover that nobody actually paid for his tuition fees, but according to Ladipo, the school discovered that he (Omoniyi) was useful to the school. Although, he was the school goalkeeper, he felt that was not enough to earn him a scholarship.
Little did he know it was his versatility in mathematics subject that earned him the scholarship as Anglican Modern School was the first modern school in that area that started mathematics as a subject.
While at home and anticipating a likely admission into the secondary school, rather than waste away, the little boy busied himself with studying and working through math books one and two for more than three times. So when he entered the modern school, he had no problems scaling through his mathematics tests and examinations as he was always scoring either 99 per cent or 100 per cent.
Sometimes he would be asked to take his mates on algebra whenever the teacher was not around. On one of such occasions, he was in the class when the principal came and asked the students to think of a number, multiply it by three, add three to it, divide whatever is gotten by three and arrive at three. He then asked, what is the number?
Omoniyi took his pen and book, worked it out quickly and submitted. That singular act marked the beginning of a life long journey for this retired naval officer.
After passing out of the modern school, fate saw him living with his brother who was a naval officer. Initially, it was not in young Omoniyi’s agenda to join the Navy. But appreciating the neatness of the naval uniform and the manner in which the officers conducted themselves, he started nursing the dream.
When the opportunity came, he entered for the examination and passed. At the naval base in Apapa, about 400 of them were picked for recruitment and training. He was assigned to the gunnery and seamanship.
There, his God given talent came to play as most of the naval works he encountered revolved around calculations and your understanding of bearing, navigation and chart work. Omoniyi’s mathematical talent made it easier for him to scale most of the hurdles that his colleagues find difficult to scale.
In fact, he joined the naval force as a recruit, but his brilliance and God given mathematical talent saw his name frequently appearing on the notice board for oversea training in the gunnery. During the course of his service in the Navy, he had the privilege of undergoing trainings in the UK, India, USA and France.
It was during the course of his being in France to bring in one of the newly purchased Nigerian war ships in 1982, that he got his very first car, Renault 18 which he later sold at a giveaway price to one of his friends and got himself a Peugeot 505 while in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. After his retirement, he moved to Ilaro and bought himself a Mercedes Benz 190 which he also uses to do his business.
Joining the force in 1969, he became a petty officer in 1976 and in 1986 he rose to become a commissioned officer, retiring with the rank of lieutenant commander. Omoniyi was the first among his colleagues that was promoted an officer.
Were he to write his biography, the story of his life may never be complete without a frequent mention of his firewood and snail expedition because it was the same process of trying to make ends meet in the thick forest of Igbogila that brought his wife to him. His story:
“I never intended to get married at that time as I wanted to still enjoy life a bit. You will not believe that I had known her since the time we were fetching snails and firewood from the bush. I saw her during one of our expeditions and instantly liked her but I could not talk to her because I did not want her to know the kind of odd jobs we were doing. Later we got close and when I was about to join the navy my parents insisted I must get married as my father claimed he got married late. We did the introduction and I left for the navy.
“Can you believe that she gave birth the third day I joined the navy? You are surprised I presume? Of course, we had been doing our thing and she was already pregnant. It was later we did the normal marriage rites, but five years ago, our children said we had to formalise it. So we all came down to the registry in Abeokuta and an exchanged vow in their presence and that is why you see me wearing a wedding band.”
Omoniyi didn’t just retire from the naval force to go and enjoy his pension and gratuity in idleness. Unlike some of his colleagues, he sought divine guidance as to what to do with his life after retirement considering that he was still strong and healthy to engage in some other meaningful ventures.
“When I was about to retire from the service, I went to my church then which was a celestial church. I prayed to God in order to ask for His direction concerning the next step to take and the prophet in charge told me that whatever business I ventured into would be prosperous. I then came to Ilaro here.
“So when I wanted to paint my personal house built in the town here, I enquired where to purchase paints and I went there to get the paint for my house. It was there I got the inspiration to go into paint business because in the Navy, one would be thought all the niceties of painting vis-à-vis paint making. There and then I started selling gallons of paints in a shop in my house and everybody started identifying me with paints and they gave me the appellation ***Baba paint****. Initially, I was selling a particular brand which was on the high side and the people here could not afford to buy it. So I had to switch to this brand which is a bit affordable to our people here. I thank God for my life; I have been managing and I enjoy what I do.
“Sometime I do go to Lagos to visit my colleagues who are still in the service and when I visit we go to the Lagoon Bar to unwind and relive old times. My friends look at me and marvel at how healthy and youthful I look despite my age and they tease me that they would want to be like me when eventually they leave the service and I always tell them to come over to Ilaro here in order to always look youthful.
Though young Omoniyi grew up following the trend of his time, but coming from a very strict background, there was no room for hooliganism or rascality because his father was no nonsense fellow and intolerable to any social vice.
“I cannot say I was stubborn or rascally because you had to follow what was operating in your locality then. So in my own case, I had no room to be stubborn because my parents took no nonsense. I grew up in Igbogila town in the 1950s with the likes of Josy Friday of Bolojo music fame and the rest. I started my primary education at UNA Primary School in the town. There was no room for stubbornness because my father would not allow you to go out with just anybody, while mummy who was also strict wouldn’t allow you to mix up with anybody who was perceived as a bad guy. So we were just restricted to our home. If you wanted to play, you could play at home with your siblings and if you wanted to read your books, you would do so at home.
“Later I came to Ilaro. Before then, my brother who was in Baptist Boys High School, Abeokuta asked me to leave Igbogila and come over to Abeokuta. That was where I met former President Olusegun Obasanjo; he was in the same class with my brother. When they passed out in 1957, my brother went to Ibadan and I went with him. He later won a scholarship to study abroad and left for the U.S., I had to leave Ibadan when there was no one to stay with. That was how I came down to Ilaro to finish my primary education at Baptist Day School in 1960.
“After that I could not continue with my education because there was no money though I wished to proceed further because I was very good in arithmetic while in Ibadan. Henceforth I stayed at home to fetch firewood and snails during the raining seasons to sell in order for me make ends meet.