Personal recollections and tales of a Nation, by Michael Olatunbosun  |

The author of the book for this week said it is autobiographical but not an autobiography. Essentially, it captures a slice of the author’s life. The book is titled: “Iroye: Stories from Childhood,” written by Professor Olabode Lucas and published in 2019 by Sterling Hodden Publishers in Ibadan. 

Olabode Lucas is a retired Professor of Crop Physiology and Nutrition at the University of Ibadan. For over 50 years he has been a regular contributor to topical issues in newspapers in Nigeria and South Africa. His other works include Split Image, Dividends of Greed, and Snapshots on Some Nigerian and international Events, a compilation of some of his articles in some Nigerian newspapers. Iroye is his latest work.

The book: “Iroye: Stories from Childhood,” records events that took place around the author during his formative years at Iroye Street, Ilesha in Osun State in the 1950s. Thus, in 11 chapters and across 111 pages, Professor Olabode Lucas captures for the reader some of his personal recollections of things that happened in his family, school, immediate environment, and the nation at large. For instance, in the chapter titled The Egungun Terrorism, the author captures the unforgettable experience of a day when his mother brought a masquerade into their home to threaten him into helping her with house chores. Knowing his phobia for masquerades, his mother had to bribe the masquerade who then threatened to take him to Igbo nla if he refused to help at home. 

In this work, the author reminisced about the Empire Day celebration which was marked on May 24 then to showcase the splendour of the British Empire. After vividly describing the beauty, funfair and joy that characterised the celebration, the author lamented that the glamour which graced the Empire Day celebration ceased with it as the Children’s Day celebration of May 27th that replaced it is not as colourful as it should be. He suggests that the government should incorporate all the ingredients that made Empire Day celebrations into planning. 

The author gives a peep into his family. He tells the story of how his father moved to Ilesha to cofound the Ilesha Grammar School. The author recalls that he was taken to Lagos for the first time in the ‘50s by his father, and how he almost suffocated in a jam-packed room with all windows and doors securely locked. Even for an 8-year-old, the author’s description of the psychology of Lagos of 1953 still hangs around us. He says of Lagos then that it was a place where “everybody appeared to be in a hurry.”

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In the work Iroye, Professor Olabode Lucas provides us a description of the beginnings of radio transmission in Ilesha with the rediffusion box in 1953 which literally brought the world to Ilesha. The author recalls that the radio broadcasts opened the people to information and news from all over the world. He tells of the ecstasies that the news and sports broadcasts, musical programmes and political programmes generated among the young ones in Ilesha.

In the book, the author narrates his experience of attending, with his grandfather, what turned out to be an election day outing. 

It was orderly and people went home after voting. That was the mode of the politics of the 1950s in Ilesha where even colleagues at work contested against each other, and still continued to work together.

In this work, Prof Lucas writes about the census, and maintains that Nigeria may never be able to conduct a population count that will have fidelity, and be accepted by all. He writes that the 1953 census, the first census which the white people conducted, gave a slight advantage to the north. He maintains that since then, there have been ethno-regional controversies around census exercises. For him, all censuses in Nigeria have been filled with inaccuracies on the sides of the south and the north. And this will continue as long as unproductive yardsticks, including landmass and population, are factored into revenue sharing in the country.

According to the author, the 1966 census could have been an authentic one had it not suffered the fate of all the others before it. And he presents in the work an episode which could have made him a victim of lynching in the north when at 18 years of age, he attempted to prevent the people from manipulating the census.

The work, Iroye, is the story of a nation told within a personal story. It is a potent reference portrayal of Nigeria of the 1950s and 1960s, and it is laced with humour and vivid details, thanks to the author’s keen memory and attention to details.

. Olatunbosun can be reached via 0802-351-7565 (SMS and WhatsApp only) and [email protected].

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