INSTEAD of deconstructing the second year of the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu today, I would like to celebrate one of our own on a thankless and dangerous beat that harbours what even the World Bank Institute once celebrated in a publication as ‘the best profession in the world: Journalism.
I would like join others who are currently wrapping their hands around the shoulders of Akogun Tola Adeniyi who arrived on the 8th Floor on Thursday May 29, 2025. I was there when family members, friends, young and old including former Governors Olusegun Mimiko, Rauf Aregbesola, Professor Femi Osofisan, Dr. Yemi Farounbi, etc, celebrated him last Thursday May 29, in “Ibadan”, iconic J.P Clark once described as, “running splash of rust and gold-flung and scattered among seven hills like broken china in the sun”.
Let’s celebrate the man of the moment, Adeniyi the organic Daily Times, Nigerian Tribune, the Nigerian Press organisation (NPO) should be celebrating for weeks but for the parlous state of the political economy of press freedom in Nigeria, our Nigeria. But for our now-peculiar federal bureaucracy too, Chief Tola Adeniyi should be celebrated by the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) as one of the significant, history-makers of Capital Relocation from Lagos to Abuja in 1991. The pen-power man was in 1991 appointed by General IBB as Director-General/Coordinator Capital Relocation to Abuja (from Lagos). He succeeded Maj-Gen Olu Bajowa (rtd) the pioneer Director-General/Coordinator, Capital Relocation Presidential Committee in the presidency. But this background may sound Greek to FCT’s new public officers as there may be no record of the 1991 special service even in the History and Archives Department of FCTA.
Despite loss of institutional memory in Abuja, let’s salute Akogun Adeniyi’s remarkable journey through life and communication as a testament to his unwavering dedication, creativity, and leadership. From his early years in Quranic education to his illustrious career in journalism, literature, and commerce, he has left an indelible mark on Nigerian society. We need to celebrate this worthy Nigerian because his legacy continues to inspire generations, highlighting the transformative power of effective communication, responsible journalism, and advocacy for good governance and democracy. His pen wields greater power than the sword and he remains a Field Marshal of the Fourth Estate of the Realm.
A literary pioneer
We should celebrate his literary and journalistic career, which spans decades, during which he established himself as a masterful storyteller, a keen observer of human nature, and a thoughtful commentator on the issues of our time. His writing is characterised by a unique blend of wit, wisdom, and insight, which has captivated readers and inspired a new generation of writers.
A columnist of distinction
As a columnist, Chief Adeniyi has demonstrated a remarkable ability to craft compelling narratives that inform, educate, and entertain. His columns have been a staple of Nigerian journalism, offering readers a nuanced perspective on the complexities of modern life, politics, and culture. His writing is marked by a deep understanding of the human condition, a keen sense of observation, and a commitment to truth-telling, which is rare these days.
At 70, Akogun Adeniyi, as Amzat Ajibola put it in a symposium interview in The Guardian, “…He remains a feisty warrior in the battle of redeeming Nigeria and its people from further slide into moral abyss and blissful ignorance. With pen as his weapon, Adeniyi has paralysed the antics of the ruling class, who appear to be on a mission to bring the country to ruin at all costs”.
“From Gowon to Obasanjo and Shagari, and much later, Jonathan, all the leaders suffered hard hit from the literary missiles of Akogun Adeniyi. Back in the 70s, Adeniyi was like a northern star in the Nigerian media firmament, shining brighter amidst a constellation of other influential writers such as Labanji Bolaji, Areoye Oyebola, Gbolabo Ogusanwo, Haroun Adamu, David Attah, Abidina Koomasi, Doyin Aboaba, Peggy Cole, Banji Kuroloja and a host of others. But among these star writers, Adeniyi remains the last man standing, still writing and taking a dig at the power class that is yet to wean itself of its self-indulgence and malefaction,’ Ajibola had then added.
Throughout his career as a newsman, Adeniyi remained one of Nigeria’s most controversial and colourful columnists, combining literary genius with activism. Hear him: “All my writings have been geared towards protecting the weak and the oppressed, the depressed and the deprived in the society”
That he became an outstanding man of letter is not by accident. He had honed his skill right from his days as an opinion writer in his Grammar school in Ago Iwoye, Ogun State, where he was the editor of The Spartan, the school magazine. He continued in Ijebu Ode Muslim College and became the Editor-in-Chief of The Scientia.
At the University of Ibadan, he founded the Writers’ Club in 1966, which had iconic Prof. Femi Osofisan as a member. Before then, the young Adeniyi had established himself as a local poet in his little village of Ago-Iwoye. His published poetry, Aye Ode Oni earned him enough to pay his fees through university.
What is more excellent, this same precocious Tola was also the first person to adapt Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, for stage and television. The play was performed in all major cities of Nigeria in 1966. That feat earned him the friendship of the master storyteller, Achebe. He and his wife would later spend their honeymoon in Achebe’s house in Nsukka, in today’s Enugu state where (the first full-fledged university) University of Nigeria is located. As a columnist in the defunct Daily Times, Daily Sketch and Nigerian Tribune, Adeniyi wrote with candour under different pseudonyms such as Aba Saheed, Nguwen Tol Nae, Tola Nee, and Ticha Bento. His career climaxed when he started writing about 16 articles a week, a distinction no one has surpassed or even matched.
It is a time to celebrate this pearl who also contributed columns to Uche Chukwumerije’s Afriscope, Tunji Oseni’s Sunday Sketch and Sam Amuka’s Sunday Times. In one of his critical articles, ‘Soldiers, Stones and Sanity’, Adeniyi lampooned the military for their misconduct in the public. The civil war had just ended, and Nigerians were settling down to peaceful living in the country again when he fired that guided missile.
But the soldiers were everywhere, causing public nuisance and panic without any control from the authorities. As the fresh experience of the war had made Nigerians timid, no one, including the public intellectuals, dared caution the khaki boys. Behold, the fiery dart of Adeniyi wasn’t affected by the fear that gripped men without chests then. Pronto, reprisal from the soldiers, anyway. But he still lives to tell the story even at 80. At another time, the police authorities claimed too that they were at the receiving end of his truculent censure. In Kabukabu, he derided the police for using their operations vehicles to make money on the road.
Though that practice was well known to the public, the authorities were markedly embarrassed that a journalist could capture that as something bizarre. Adeniyi was curiously arrested on the order of Kam Salem, the then Inspector General of Police. But the fearless columnist wasn’t deterred by police recourse to self-help. If the harassment by the police unnerved him, it never deterred him. And then his big boss, Alhaji Babatunde Josewho enjoyed Adeniyi’s distinctive writing, had to devise a protection strategy when he realised that his young reporter would never stay out of trouble. He advised that Adeniyi should write under pseudonyms. ‘Blacky, what is your Muslim name?’ Jose inquired. ‘Saheed,’ he replied. ‘Since your initials are ABA (Adetola Babatunde Atanda), why not use Aba Saheed as your byline so that people would think you are a Northerner?’ And that was how the name Aba Saheed came to be. Though the propriety of a journalist using pseudonyms has been a subject of debate in media scholarship, but true to Jose’s advice, the name offered Adeniyi some protection.
Yet, the name still stirred the hornet’s nest in the corridor of power. “For about a whole year after I started using Aba Saheed as my byline, the Gowon government was lenient, thinking I was a Northerner,” he once told The Guardian. Notwithstanding, few Nigerian journalists have demonstrated a fatalist stance in their writing like Aba Saheed. The man predicted the fall of Gowon government in Let Me Fall (Daily Times, 1974).
In We Are All Damned Stupid, he described Obasanjo and Yar’adua as “twin devils” that impoverished the rank and file of the Nigerian army. Shagari government was typified as being grossly corrupt in Let Me Steal (Tribune 1980). Decades after his audacious exploit, one would have thought that acidic pen of elder Adeniyi would be battle-weary, stay quietly in Canada, where he has been sojourning for more than 20 years and continue to enjoy the robust economy of the North American country, but that is not in the character of Aba Saheed.
In The Sun (newspaper) to which he regularly contributes, he once described Jonathan administration as “the worst in living memory” (January 2015). In Jonathan Agonizare, he drew the parallel between President Jonathan’s qualification as a doctorate degree holder and his performance as head of state.
Hear him: “It is incredible that someone who claims to have a PhD degree would demonstrate the kind of kindergarten administration Jonathan exposed Nigerians to these past years and would want to depart the chair he had sat on for six years with smelly faeces.”
But Adeniyi is never apologetic for his style. He once told The Guardian that Agitational Journalism, which drives his writing philosophy, is key in the rescue of democracy from the hands of power mongers. “ABA Saheed nursed not the intent to appease anybody. Rather he writes to pull down the ‘Berlin Walls’ of Oppression,” he was quoted in his biography.
Adeniyi, pioneer President of League of Nigerian Columnists (LNC) graduated with B.A English from the University of Ibadan. He also bagged an MA Theatre Studies from the University of Lancaster in the U.K. He crowned it with a diploma in Mass communication. He is the Chairman/CEO of Toronto-based Canada College and Canada University Press. He had published The Stamp and Naked World newspapers. And the man still writes even as his pieces have not lost any steam and sting.
80 Hearty Cheers to a great journalist of significance! I honor not only his achievements but also the values that he embodies – integrity, curiosity, and a passion for learning. Let’s celebrate his life, his work, and the impact that he has had on our world. Let’s acknowledge the challenges that he has faced and the obstacles that he has overcome. I marvel at his resilience, his determination, and his unwavering commitment to his craft at 80. As I round off this tribute, this thorny question cropped up: where are the suckers that will grow as the old babana trees are drying up?
- Oloja is former editor of The Guardian newspaper and his column, Inside Stuff, runs on the back page of the newspaper on Sundays. The column appears on News Point Nigeria newspaper on Mondays.