PA ADEGOKE AT 85: With N18, I trained five children to the university level

Pa Adebisi Adegoke, 85, and a former
chief relations officer of the Nigerian
Railway Corporation, retired in 1990. In
this interview, he speaks on how he, a
Muslim, has been living with his Christian
wife, Iyabo, 74, for the past 52 years and
why the railway of his time was effective.
The beginning
I was born in 1928 in Oyan, Osun State.
At a very early age, I was taken to Ghana
where I started Quranic School. My uncle
had sent for me to come there. The idea
then was that I would be trading with him
because he was a trader, and at the same
time schooling, but it was when I got
there that he discovered that that I was
too fragile to be involved in trading.
So, I started going to Quranic School first
before going to conventional school. This
was after I had clocked 13. I went to
Ogbomosho Baptist School established by
Ogbomosho settlers in Ghana. Then I
went to Anshate Kotoko School. I returned
home in 1946 after I had completed
Standard Six. It was in Saint Paul’s
School, Oyan that I completed my primary
education and proceeded to Ibadan Boys
High School for my secondary education.
*PA ADEGOKE
It was after that, that I got a job with the
Ministry of Education of Western Region
then. I was one of the members of the
ministry that started the free education
programme of the Action Group. I worked
in Abeokuta and Ilaro, both now in Ogun
State. But because the routine nature of
the job had become monotonous and
boring, I decided to cross to Lagos to join
P and T, that is Ministry of
Communication.
I later found the job difficult because I
didn’t understand the techniques of
sending telegraph, I could receive though.
If I had not taken that decision, and
management got to know this
shortcoming, my appointment would have
been been terminated. So, I decided to
resign voluntarily. And immediately, I got
a job at the Nigerian Railway Corporation,
the so- called Nigerian Railway
Department in 1955.
I was initially working in the accounts
department but I knew I was not good at
calculations. Figures terrified me. So
when an opportunity came, I quickly
crossed to the management side and I
found this one so easy. I was in the
personnel department. This was in 1958.
This was a happy moment for me
because I crossed from the junior cadre
to the senior cadre, then known as senior
service. I left in 1990 as assistant director
after 35 years of active service.
Meeting his wife
When I came to Lagos in 1954, we were
living on the same street. I think she was
living with the parents then at 37 Ibadan
Street, Ebute Metta and mine was number
135 on the same street. I saw many of her
peers, all of them playing after school
hours, but I was particular about her. She
could not have known. Later, I moved
from that house to Mushin because, at
Ebute Metta, we were about four living in
the same room, but because I wanted to
have privacy, I decided to look for my
own room. So, on this particular evening,
I was returning home when I saw her. I
called her but it was obvious she didn’t
recognise me. After some explanation,
she finally did. And that was where we
started our relationship. We got married in
1957.
The attraction
She was beautiful and had these straight
legs. Those were the first things I saw that
attracted me to her.
Broken homes
When you are blessed with children,
sometimes it makes separation difficult. I
didn’t want to part with my children by
separating from their mother. Of course,
we had our trouble moments like every
marriage around, but my focus was I will
not leave these children so that if there
was any problem, we settle it amicably
between us. And when our children
started coming of age, they became
arbiters in any misunderstanding we may
have. But, above all, patience played a big
role in it which is lacking in most homes
these days and that is why broken homes
are common in the society. You hardly
see such in those days.
Event that shook the marriage
That was when I was about to retire. I
had two sisters. One is dead while the
other is alive. My children thought I was
bent on sending their mother out of the
house. My daughter went to my sisters,
and they all used trick to invite me home.
They started pleading that I should not
send their mother out but, unknowingly to
them, I was not serious about that action,
and the reason was so simple, when they
were about to get married, I would not
have wanted another woman to be their
mother on the happy moments.
Trained five children to university with 9
pounds (18naira)
Our children enjoyed free education of the
government at that time. That programme
was a sort of relief for me. Again, things
were not as bad as it is now,
economically. But, more importantly, we
planned for everything we spent money
on or did. I wanted one or two of the
children to be doctors because that was
one of the few professions in vogue at
that time.
The major and only profession you find
was medicine but these children didn’t
listen to me. One of them, now an
assistant director in Federal Inland
Revenue, would attack the suggestion
saying medicine was not the best
profession for him. I suggested
accountancy to him but he said he would
rather read business administration. I told
him to look at the OyingboMarket, all the
women selling there were also doing
business administration, ‘so how can you
now say you want to read business
administration?’
He now said if after graduating as
business administrator and he could not
find job, he would go to Ebutte Metta and
be splitting woods for others. And that
was what he did. When he finished school,
I wanted him to come over to railway but
he was not employed even though I was
the one that constituted the selection
panel for the job; so he just went to
Ebutte Metta to split woods in Oko Baba
even with an upper credit grade.
Happiest moments
That should be my first appointment to
the railway. We were four living in a
room. And I was the only one withouta
job. The house rent was usually shared
equally among the four, same with food.
It was a thing of joy that I could also
contribute to the upkeep of the room. The
second was in 1968 when I crossed from
the junior to senior cadre because before
the elevation, I had thought I was not
going further than that position, so I was
pleasantly surprised and happy that I was
promoted.
Between then and now in the railway
I think the level of corruption compared to
now was very low, maybe because there
was no much money in circulation at that
time. The white men were the
administrators of the railway and their
dedication to duty was much more than
what it is now. At that time, if a police
man took money and he was caught, he
was going to jail.
Sometimes policemen would come to our
office with a letter and they would show
the accused and immediately you would
be invited to EBJ (Ebutte Metta Junction
Railway),which was the headquarters of
the police at that time. The way people
were prosecuted at that time is much
more than what they are doing now.
Today, there is no prosecution anymore
and that is why corruption is on the
increase. Our bosses, the white men, were
not corrupt. At that time, there was not
much to desire, or I should say, we were
contenedt with whatever we had, but now,
everybody wants to build storey-
buildings, send their children to private
schools and abroad.
We worship differently
I tried to convert her initially until I
discovered she couldn’t be. As a matter of
fact, that would have been our first
problem. She was and still a Christian
and I was and still a Muslim. I thought I
could convert her to Islam, but she was
and still the type that goes to church
virtually every other day. She attends
Cherubim and Seraphim Church.
She goes to church four times a week.
And I guess that is why when I was on
transfer to Bauchi, before I could return to
Lagos, she had converted the children to
Christianity. I was in Bauchi for two and a
half years and, because I didn’t want to
be carrying my family everywhere so that
their education would not be distorted, I
decided to leave them in Lagos, but,
before I returned here, the children had
started praying in Christian way and
going to church.
I tried to bring them back to Islam but
they didn’t bulge. But in all of this, our
religions never affected our relationship
and marriage. Of course if it does, we
would not have lasted these 52 years. It is
your attitude that matters. We don’t
discriminate on religion here. The most
important thing is that you are
worshipping God. How you worship Him
may differ but the point is it is God.
Saddest moment
That was when I lost my first child in
1958.