Abdul-Hakeem Ajijola: I Ate Carrots for 21 Days to Survive Abroad

https://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/abdul-hakeem-dirisu-ajilola-i-ate-carrots-for-21-days-to-survive-abroad/208250/

Abdul-Hakeem Ajijola: I Ate Carrots for 21 Days to Survive Abroad

02 May 2015

Abdul-Hakeem Ajijola

Growing up in Nigeria and United Kingdom naturally should affect one’s way of life. Not Abdul-Hakeem Ajijola. The former Special Adviser to the National Security Adviser on Cyber Crimes is of the opinion that Nigerians in the diaspora should not look down on people at home because there are smart Nigerians developing different software and applications. The man, who survived in the United States by washing dishes and eating only carrots for 21 days while the austerity measures lasted in Nigeria, spoke with Stanley Nkwazema on his growing up in England, Mushin in Lagos,  Ikare in Ondo State and Kaduna State

His Growing Up and the Calypso Osuorji Civil War Story…
“I don’t really remember much about it. But the little I was told I can recollect. My mother is a British lady. I can recall her first six months in Nigeria, she did not realise she could buy tea from the shop. And you could imagine a white lady without tea. It was quite an interesting story living in Mushin part of Lagos in those early days.
In the early days at a point, my father was recruited by the late Sardauna of Sokoto and instead of basically developing his own career in Lagos as a lawyer, he opted to go to Kaduna around 1964. Again, my mother and I boarded the train at Ebute Metta in Lagos with the little possessions that my parents had at that time and of course, a young baby (myself), we went up to Kaduna and again our initial abode in Kaduna was Sardauna Crescent.
I would like to say that my beginning, relatively speaking, was humble but with that humility was also high level of comfort. They did their best upon getting to Kaduna as my father’s practice began to blossom. I remember as a young child, we actually lived quite qualitative life. From Sardauna Crescent we moved to Muazu Lamido Road and from there overtime, we moved into the GRA and life was good. At a point in the late 60s, just at the tail end of the civil war, my parents opted to go back to our hometown, a place called Ikare in Akoko North East of Ondo State. At that point in time, my parents had a lot of dilemmas and challenges about me, so they opted to send me to school in England and I stayed with my grandparents in Nottingham. I have a lot of interesting memories from just before the war, during the war and after the civil war that I would like to share with you. One of my early memories was that my father had a very young man who worked as a general caretaker in his office and he was an Igbo man. This young man, his name was Calypso Osuorji; during the pogrom that occurred in the north, he was unable to go home and he often slept in the office. During one of the points of confusion, of course, his parents had to flee; they fled thinking that he had been killed. He tried to get in touch with them but did not realise that they had fled and thought they had been killed. From then on basically, he became my father’s son. Interestingly, being Igbo he was fair in complexion and I was also fair in complexion. It was just assumed he was my elder brother.
The interesting part of this story for me as I recount it to you is that at the end of the war, I think in 1971 or 1972, of course the country was trying to rebuild particularly the East and a well-known gentleman, Chief Ugochukwu, set up Ugo Foam, Ugo Chemical Industries in Umunze, now in Anambra State. My parents at that time had a huge store or what I would call the equivalent of a departmental store. My father is remembered in my home town as not only being the first lawyer, but as one of the people who brought big business to that part of the world. And so as part of this business they (my parents) used to sell anything from tyres to mattresses, car parts you name it. We actually had a supermarket which was also a separate business and a small hotel.
My parents then decided that they had to go to Umunze to see the factory and possibly sign a distributorship agreement because basically. The areas of Ondo, Akure, Owo, all the way up to Okene, Lokoja were all their market areas. On the way going at Agbor our car engine knocked. That is how I got to know Boji Boji, Agbor. There was a very nice catering rest house there. On leaving Agbor, we got to Asaba and I remember we crossed the Niger Bridge on the western part of the bridge, everything was okay beautiful smooth going, the Eastern side of the bridge had been blown up. I do not know if it was by the retreating Biafran soldiers or by the advancing Federal Troops, but all the traffic had to make a very sharp right turn and then a left because basically it was a wooden attachment to the main bridge. I recollect that I was in the back of the car and I was looking forward. You come down into this part of the Bridge Head up to Onitsha, it was a big round about or open space, what I remember were the buildings. As we all know, Onitsha had sizeable buildings in those days. That was not what struck me anyway but the fact that every single building had pot marks as if somebody just did it with machine guns and just fired every bullet into the building.
From Onitsha, we proceeded to Umunze, I was a young child but I remember my mother asking Calypso to go visit his parents somewhere in the present Imo State around Okigwe. They were shocked to see him alive. His father had passed on. They thought he was a ghost, but he came back thereafter and continued to live with us. He was a member of our family; there were no two ways about that and as he grew older, he went to school, obtained some certificates because he used to look after the books in the office. He went on the finance and accounting line. At a point, he became the bursar of a federal institution. His last appointment as far as I could recollect was Federal Government College, Ikot Ekpene. Very sadly, he passed away there. I also remember that after he passed, we did not know that he passed and his wife came to see my father to let him know what happened. Interestingly, Calypso had left all his property to my dad. My father told me of this and as a lawyer, he brought his papers out, signed what he needed to sign and called his legal clerk, went with Calypso’s wife to court and everything was transferred back to her. Unfortunately, I have not seen her since then. Definitely I wish her well, the children also.”

My Education from Nigeria to United Kingdom…
“Like I said, I was born in the United Kingdom but my early education that I would remember though, was in Kaduna in a school called Sacred Heart Primary School along Independence Way. I was later taken to Burton Joyce Primary School outside Nottingham, England. One of the interesting things I mentioned earlier, I was born on a farm, and my grandparents lived on this farm. It was quite a distance from the school. Honestly, I had to trek, the farm was at the crest of a hill, so I had to climb the big hill. I was obviously fitter than I am now. One holiday my mother came and she explained to me that exactly the same thing happened to her there. When you look back you see the tree, it’s not a person but you know, as a child, your imagination makes it real.
My paternal grandparents, Alhaji Jimoh and Animatu Ajijola, were very kind to me, they brought me up. One of the strong lessons I learnt was that I used to come to Nigeria on holidays from school in England and when I come, of course, I am the first son of the first son, so I had a special place. He would make me sit on his balcony and will not allow me to play and I use to go down to play with the children and eat Akamu and Akara because “Iya” was there serving it. But during this particular holiday, I saw my age group, they were beginning to learn how to ride bicycles and of course they were not tall enough. You know men’s bicycle has a bar and they could not put their leg over the bar, so they put it between the bars. It was a Christmas holiday, I went back to England and my maternal grandfather, George Musson, bought me a bicycle and I said Yeah, I am going to learn how to ride it.”

My Parents…My Heroes
“I love my parents. Really I can only say that the Almighty blessed us. In all my years with my father, Alhaji Dirisu Ajijola, I cannot recollect once that he ever beat me or touched me. But if my father talked to me, I would weep. My father used to have a bit of a temper. The thing about my father (he actually died in January 2014) though he was a Yoruba man from Western Region, yet he became legal adviser to the late Sardauna and Permanent Secretary and at a point, acting Commissioner of Justice in the Old Kaduna State. He was also very well known for his prowess in private practice. One of the interesting things I always admired about my dad was that he allowed us to speak. With our religion (Islam), he will always tell us “my duty is not to convert you but to deliver the message’’ and in terms of delivering the message, I believe he has between 40 – 45 books in print and about 30 unpublished manuscripts. I just want to give you a very recent example of the impact. My family, that is my extended family in Ikare, Akoko, Ondo State, they are all very proud of him. But I know none of them can be as passionate as I am about him. Prior to his death, he has been trying to build a polytechnic there and by the grace of God, my siblings and I will continue and finish it. My mother, Mrs Dorothy Mubarakatu Ajijola, was an extra-ordinary woman. My father bumped into her at the Anti-Nuclear rally in London. That is how they met after the Second World War. My mother is, very strong because for you to leave the comfort of Europe to come to Africa by yourself; the husband was there waiting for her, he did not come and hold her hand to escort her to Nigeria, she came all by herself. I think that says something about her. My mother by nature is a very hardworking woman; my father will always be the entrepreneur, a woman full of business ideas. In actual fact, as at last November before he died, she set up a hair dressing salon. That is the entrepreneur in here.”

Choosing a Profession…
“To be honest with you, I cannot recollect what initially fascinated me. I know I have always been inclined towards engineering and I know that to some extent I have always been a bit of a frustrated architect.
As u can see from my houses, I try to exhibit some of the frustrations. I think if I was given an early choice; which I was to be honest, I wanted to do mechanical engineering. I liked the drawing part of mechanicals; drawing the curves and the engines. I have always been somebody that today you will call a hacker. My parents used to call me a fiddler because I am the one who will go and open the back of the television to look at what is inside and then not quite knowing how different bolts were put together, to couple it back would become a problem.
My secondary school was actually at the Federal Government College, Kaduna and I have very fond memories of a lot of things there. I initially started secondary school in 1972 in Victory College, Ikare. But then my father at that point was offered a new appointment in Kaduna, so around 1972, he went and what happened was that I retook common entrance to get admission back into form one even though I had finished Form 1 in Ikare. Interestingly, I still keep in touch with some of my friends like Emeka Ezekwesili. I call him Hezekiah. I have very good friends like Mohammed Gombe, a journalist. Some of them we try to keep in touch.”

‘When You Sit with Mechanics, You Learn a Lot…’
“Let me state that my first job was making sure that I went with my father’s car to the mechanic and sit there to make sure that it was fixed according to the specification. I was not paid but I learnt a lot of things about life. When you sit with mechanics you learn a lot. Actually, that is how I learnt to fix cars. I worked in a couple of the family businesses at different levels, I will say with hindsight of seriousness, I will like to believe that my first job was for an advertising agency in a suburb of Greater Washington D.C. Basically because I was a Data Entry Clerk; I was putting in billings with the computer. But my first major job that I am very happy with I worked in the Educational Department of National Geographic Society in Downtown Washington DC. We used to develop a number of projects. They gave us a lot of opportunities, what some people call play around but we call it explore and investigate. We used the BSS (Bulletin Bold Systems) and we used it to dial each other. It was a precursor to the modern internet that we know of today. This was around 1985 and 87. So I am very proud of that because Bulletin Board is like now that we have a chat site like Facebook where you post. You could equally download some files or software. I can’t recollect how much I earned to be honest with you. But when I was in school, I used to work in a restaurant washing dishes in the United States and whatever was the minimum wage in 1983 was what I earned and I think $2.90. I needed the money. Remember we had a lot of austerity in Nigeria; sometimes it affected how you transfer foreign exchange. You could go to jail. My father being a lawyer would fastidiously pursue the CBN and the correct method. In that pursuit, you don’t get money for years. I remember that there was a point, for about three weeks, I ate only carrots, which were all I had. Then of course, it was hard but hindsight in all you will say you thank God. It taught you lessons about humility, being careful with your money. You learn a lot of things the hard way.
I attended a University called Oklahoma State University and it was in Oklahoma. Interestingly in America when they say State University that means it is a Federal Land Grant University whereas the one that does not have State is usually owned by the Local State or a private entity. Like Oklahoma University is owned by the State of Oklahoma, but Oklahoma State University was a federally funded university.
My wife is my friend. As a wife, I value everything. But I think it is my capacity to enterprise and advice in a very matter of fact way. To say this thing you are doing is not like that; to not beat about the bush.”

Meeting My Wife…
“My wife’s siblings were actually my friends in the United States. Her two older siblings were my mates. The older was my mate but the immediate younger one, maybe a year difference. But we were all in the same catchment group. As they say, I was treacherous. I used to go see them but ended up abandoning them and seeing their sister instead. I must say something about my in-laws. It is very important as I always tell people that I do not have brother in-laws and sister in-laws. What I have are brothers and sisters. That is how the relationship has evolved.”

The People I Cherish…
“There are people who impress me a lot. For instance, many years ago, my wife and I went for a conference in Kenya. At this conference, we met a lady who had to literally beg and borrow because she believed that this conference will better her career. She did not have the formal degree but the workshop was actually on the Linux Operating Systems. My wife looked at this lady and said that a woman will carry herself by her own bootstraps despite the odds and climb that mountain. You won’t believe that we eventually employed her, she has now moved on to greener pastures. I am just saying that those kinds of people are the people I cherish a lot. It was the effort of overcoming the odds to succeed that thrilled me.”

Dad’s Death was a Low Point But Testimonies of Him Humbled Me…
“Certainly the recent death of my father I will say is my lowest point, but even within that death is the appreciation that people liked that man; people cared about him. People said a lot of very good things about him. In fact, in February, I was fortunate enough to go to India and while I was there I phoned one of his publishers to let him know about his passing. The way this man prayed for Alhaji, it brought tears to my eyes. Just a phone call but it moved me. The lowest point was probably his passing.”

Abdul-Hakeem Ajijola