•At 80, I enjoy cooking, doing dishes for my family
By Oluseye Ojo
Celebrated journalist and media personality, Akogun Tola Adeniyi, turned 80 on Thursday may 29 2025.
He is Chairman/Managing Consultant of The Knowledge Plaza, a body of ghost writers, speech writers, biographers and editorial consultants.
He was Chairman/Editor-in-Chief of the defunct Daily Times Conglomerate, former permanent secretary in the presidency, ex-acting Editor-in-Chief of the Nigerian Tribune, and former Deputy Managing Director/Managing Editor of the defunct Sketch newspapers.
He was Africa’s first newspaper Ombudsman. He also held senior editorial positions in Lancashire Evening Post and Burnley Express in the United Kingdom, and at the Atlanta Enquirer in the United States. He was also a Visiting Lecturer (Theatre and English) at Lancaster University, UK.
In this interview, the octogenarian shares tales of resilience, wisdom, success in marriage, and a career that has shaped journalism across continents.
How do you feel at 80?
Well, I feel grateful to Olodumare. That’s all I could say. Years back, I used to threaten my wife that I might not live beyond 40 because most of my uncles didn’t live beyond up to 40; they didn’t even live up to 40. Brother Lamidi, brother Waidi, Brother Mutiu, Brother Muraina, they all died or were killed before the age of 40. And I also had younger ones who didn’t make it up to 40. So, I just felt that it might be a terrible tradition in the family not to allow the men to live up to 40.
But I also then consoled myself that after all, my father was from that family and he had already lived beyond 40. I had some uncles about my father’s age who had already lived beyond 40. So, with that, I thought I might and I should go beyond 40. So, here I am, my father lived up to 75, 76 and my mother lived up to 96 before the witches took her away. So I feel great. I thank Olodumare.
And I think it’s all gratitude that I feel at 80 and I don’t feel it in my voice. I don’t think I feel it in my bones.
Relatively, I enjoy good health. In total, I don’t think I have spent up to 12 days in hospital since I was born. I also thank my wife for giving me peace. I also thank my children for being a great source of joy and happiness to me. If you have things that make you sad everyday, you have sad things around you, whatever your age may be, you would feel uncomfortable.
What’s the secret of your longevity?
There are people that smoked up to the age of 96. There are people who drank whisky, brandy, ogogoro (alcohol) up to the age of 96, 97. There are people who’re eating about three, four, five times a day and they still live long. So, I will not attribute whatever you think is good about me being 80 to anything. All I know is that I sleep well. I work hard. I don’t allow my brain to be idle. I don’t allow my hands to be idle. I don’t allow my legs to be idle, though I don’t play any games. I don’t play table tennis. I don’t run. But within my premises in Canada or in England or in Lagos or in Ijebu, I’m always on my feet.
I don’t just sit down. I’m very mobile. I can go upstairs about 20 to 30 times a day out of choice.
Then, I’m more or less the family cook. I wash dishes. That’s my hobby. When the whole family eat, I pack all the plates, I wash them. Even when they put the utensils and plates in the dishwasher, I take them out. I just enjoy that.
So, when I wake up in the morning, by 8.30, I’ll do my devotion. By 8.30, to 9a.m., I’m already downstairs in the kitchen, preparing breakfast.
Washing dishes, family cook… Did you do it when your mother was around? Would she not say maybe your wife has cooked vegetable for you?
Yes, she would say so. If we were in Ago Iwoye (Ogun State), I wouldn’t do it because they would take it on her. They would say she has turned our son into an ‘ode,’ a fool.
But I just enjoy it. I do eba, amala and poundo. The only thing I don’t do often is to prepare the stew. Of course, if I am alone, I will do that. I think what was also responsible for that is, until we moved out of Nigeria to settle in Canada, for some 30 years of our marriage, if they put the years we spent together, out of those 30 years, we’re less than seven.
I was a weekend husband. I was in Lagos, and my wife had her career in Ibadan. I went to do my Masters in Lancaster, lived in England for about two years when I was teaching in Lancaster University. She was in Ibadan, pursuing her career when I became a permanent secretary. So, we didn’t really live together as husband and wife like that.
So, I don’t allow my hands to be idle. I don’t allow my limbs to be idle. I just want to be busy. If I wake up and I’m not writing and I’m not doing video conferencing, what am I doing? I should be somewhere. So I must be doing something.
And I enjoy it. I run down to the kitchen, run up, run down. I like it. I think it has kept me alive.
Then, more importantly, the brain is the master of the body. I deliberately refused and I still refuse to allow my brain to be idle. My brain must be working 24 hours, even when I’m sleeping.
I’m also a mystic person and when I’m sleeping, my mind is thinking of the world, philosophies, character, marriage, divorce, adultery, and what does a bastard be? My mind is thinking of Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Russia, Gaza and so on. So, I keep my brain very, very active
And I read a lot. At any given time, I must have about five to six books, newly published ones, that I’m going through. Even up till now, I read. Many books are published regularly and people send their books to me, including some of my old classmates.
Anytime Femi Osofisan writes something, he will let me have a copy. Also, the younger journalists, who are also publishing their own stories, they send copies to me and I love them. So, I read, I read, and I read.
You kept a distant relationship with your wife at the early period of your marriage. How were you able to keep the marriage intact?
First and foremost, the marriage was not made by me. It was a marriage made by destiny. It’s a divine marriage. Truly and honestly, I had no hand in the woman I married.
It was preordained. It was predicted that the person I would marry would be this and that, and it happened that way. We had a courtship of less than three months. We met August 23, 1972, and we got married December 2nd. And we’ve been together for 53 years.
Believe it or not, no outsider: father, mother, sister, brother, or friend, has ever sat both of us down to settle any quarrel. It has never happened. I think the credit should go to her. I’m a very difficult person to live with; I know it myself.
If I put this scissors here, if I come back three years’ time, if I don’t find it there, all of you in this house will be in trouble. I believe in orderliness. This is me. I like everything clean and so on. So, I don’t want anybody to disturb my space.
When you have a man like that who is finicky, it’s very difficult to stay with him. Then I made it clear, I cannot be possessed because I don’t believe in ownership. I don’t own anything.
When you say something is in Tola Adeniyi’s house, it’s just an adjectival. They just use me to describe the place because if I passed or somebody else can buy the house, it’s no longer my house. So, I don’t believe in ownership. I don’t own anything. The owner of anything is the creator and I’m not a creator.
We got married in December. By January, I’d already gone to Lagos to resume in the Daily Times.
So people were telling her, ‘ah, your husband is going to be in Lagos. Lagos boys, Lagos girls are difficult. And then I was already a columnist even before I went to the Daily Times.
They told my wife that her husband is known and he’s also an actor. My wife told them that even people living together, if the man wants to have 50 wives, nothing can stop it. So why must I disturb my career? I’ve just started the civil service. I want to pursue my own career. Let him be in Lagos. Whatever remains of him every weekend, he will bring here. So, that is her attitude.
I believe in astrology. Scorpio women are the most possessive in the world. But I think from onset, she realised it would not work with me. I’m Gemini. I’m free air. I’m as free as the bird. I mean, nobody can own me. I don’t own anybody.
My wife was in the secretariat in Ibadan for years. I don’t think I ever touched her office. I never knew how much she was earning. I never asked her for salary. I didn’t ask her for anything.
Even in those days, we had the landline. If she had a call from her office or from whoever, and she was answering the phone call, if it was here, I would just leave her space. Let her talk, let her chat with whoever she’s chatting with. She should be free. She has her own life, personality, dignity, and individuality.
Let her nourish that, and let her nurture herself, and be whatever she wanted. That’s why I encouraged her to become a permanent secretary.
I am one man that if my wife becomes president, I’ll be so happy if she employs me in the office as a messenger, because I will still be saying that she’s my wife. I am the First Man. Then, a man should not have inferiority complex.
My wife would tell you, I’m married to a man that is extremely confident. I love it. She doesn’t like a man that they would call ‘gbewudani’ (a fool). She wants a mature man. She wants a man. She says the man in my life must be a man, not a woman-man, but a man-man. Then, she’s very tolerant, patient, understanding, giving, wife and mother. She also believes in marriage. She knows that to make a marriage work, depends almost 90 per cent on the wife, not on the man, because man will be man.
Therefore, the youth of nowadays should not turn themselves to monitoring spirits. Some will check your email. Some will check your pocket and all that. No. The word is trust. If you don’t trust a man, then leave him. If you don’t trust your wife, leave her.
It’s not by force that people should live together like Nigeria, where they’re living together by force. So, if you don’t trust any person, end the relationship.
If you think your wife is unfaithful, then divorce her, not slapping her. I’ve never raised my voice against her because it’s not necessary.
Can you tell us some of the childhood pranks that you played?
I played all the pranks people of my age and my generation played. But I didn’t drink. Till the time I left university, I didn’t drink. Even if I drank when I was in university, maybe some palm wine, just to feel like boys. But I wasn’t a drinker. Of course, I never smoked.
When I was growing up in secondary school, we had marijuana in our compound at Ago Secondary School. But I never. Even the Lagos boys would go, roll them, and put them down; not me. It might be because of my Islamic background. At that time, I was a very serious young Muslim. And if you considered the fact that my first English book was ‘Teenagers Must Repent’ you would know the kind of person that I was as a child.
When I came on air at Radio Nigeria, one of my commonest lines was to preach against immorality by youths. If at 16, you are writing that kind of poetry, you should respect the kind of person I was. Then, I was again busy. I was editing the school magazine in secondary school.
I was acting in secondary school. I acted Macbeth, the Prince of Aragon, and so on.
So, the kind of childhood I had; I’d go to primary school, come out at 2pm, go straight to Ile Kewu (Quoranic Centre), leave the place at 4pm or 5pm, then before I went home, occasionally, I would then branch at the market where we were doing some boxing. We had some brothers who were doing boxing training.
As a young child, I’d call there. Then, we’d go and do killing of birds with catapult. Then, I was very rascally. There’s no doubt about that.
Looking at journalism yesterday, today, and tomorrow, what would be your appraisal and what should be the way forward?
Well, yesterday, the media was great. It was the media that got Nigeria independence. It was the media that drove away whoever was messing the country up. It was the media that drove away Shehu Shagari. It was the media that killed Sani Abacha. It was the media that sent Ibrahim Babangida away. It was the media that prevented Olusegun Obasanjo from his third term or lifetime presidency.
So, the media in Nigeria has been very great. From beginning, we had people like Sissei Ikoli, the man from Ijaw, who became editor the year Obafemi Awolowo was born. Their generation gave the Oyinbo hell. So, the media had been at the vanguard of fighting against oppression, suppression, and all that.
Then, it came to the generation of Bisi Onabanjo, Lateef Jakande, Aloba Williams, Alade Odunewu, Peter Enahoro, and so on. These were powerful columnists.
They were also very fearless. They didn’t have the kind of education that my generation or your generation had or have. But having said that, a school certificate holder in the time of Enahoro and the time of Onabanjo certainly was better than any university graduate now.
If you read the editorials by Jakande or Babatunde Jose, you cannot even compare them with what you have today. So, in terms of having focus and commitment, they were great.
Then, my generation, our employers were good. I’m always proud to say that in our time, if you ran into trouble, you could always be sure that your employers would defend you. Anytime I was arrested or tortured, Jose would phone Gowon or come to Kam Salem House and so on. But you don’t have that now.
Daily Times treated my generation very well, that we had housing allowance, accommodation allowance, furniture allowance, dress allowance, and entertainment allowance. Then, Daily Times was paying columnists for whatever they wrote. So, with all modesty, I could now lay claim that my take-home pay was probably bigger than any other person at that time, because I was being paid for 16 columns.
I wasn’t paid for the ombudsman column because that was my direct job. But the columns I wrote for Sunday Times or the two I wrote for Lagos Weekend, the two I wrote for Evening times, I was paid. So, imagine being paid for about at least 14 columns on top of your salary.
The house I was living at in Surulere, it was a British-trained lawyer that was living in my boys’ quarters, to tell you the dignity and the respectability our employers gave to us.
Bola Ogunsanwo was virtually living in a mansion. Areoye Oyebola, my editor, was living large. But it is no more so. The journalists of today, though are working their bones out, they are not given the kind of encouragement that they should be given. Some media houses owe salaries. Again, it’s not their fault because the cost of producing paper or the cost of maintaining a radio and television house has gone haywire. If you run a television house or a radio station, you must keep your power on.
So, if you are burning diesel and so on in your television house, that’s a lot of money. And if you run a traditional newspaper, you still need to keep your computers and newsroom cool, and so on too. You must be burning gas. So, it’s difficult. Then, the newsprint is terrible.
So, I can understand the dilemma of employers of labour. But at the same time, I cannot excuse the human relations they exhibit. I still submit that they don’t have as much respect for their employees as during my time.
But I would still give kudos to the media of today. But for them, the hooligans and rogues and businessmen and traders and criminals who are running the affairs of the country today would have sent everybody to the grave. The media exposed them. They may not do anything beyond that.
And when people say, what are the media people doing? What do you want them to do? The newspaper man is to report and they are reporting.
Their business is to report, educate, and inform. They are doing that. What else do they want them to do? They don’t carry guns. You can’t even ask the media men to go on the streets and carry placards. That’s not their function. So, they sensitise people. So if people don’t respond in accordance to what they should do, then you cannot blame the media at all.
I still give kudos to Nigerian media. And I say it with all sense of responsibility, the Nigerian media today is more enlightened, more educated, more broad-minded, and more independent than the Western media, than any media house in America or Britain or Europe. The media houses in Europe, America are just follow-follow. They just toe the government line. Do not mind whatever nonsense they are saying about themselves and the propaganda. They are not as independent at all as Nigerian media.
The future and the salvation of this country, which I don’t believe in any way, but for those who still believe in Nigeria, depends entirely on the efforts of the media and the response that we expect that the citizenry of this country give to the efforts of the media.
The Nigerian citizens are not encouraging the media at all, and yet they are expecting the media to do more when they are not doing their own part.
In the days of Julius Adelusi Adeluyi (Julie Pharmacy), you won’t have all this rubbish going on. Julius Adelusi was the leader of the university students who stopped the Anglo-Nigerian military pact. But for them, Nigeria would have just been a vassal of UK.
Those that fought included Adelusi Adeluyi, Solaja and Falase of NTC. These were the three men in U.I. at that time.. But their efforts would not have been known if the media also didn’t report them.