Celebrating culture icon, Pa Frank Aig-Imoukhuede at 90, By Steve Ayorinde

Today, Wednesday, 8 January, he clocks 90, and not a few in Nigeria’s culture sphere and allied industries will be elated to see a true man of letters, an icon of the culturati and indeed one of the remaining shining stars of arts and literature, engage in an authentic dance of the elders.

Ten years ago when he clocked 80, his good old, shoot straight self was more evident than ever.

“I don’t want people to remember me for anything (other) than this was a man who worked hard, and walked straight,” he told ThisDay in a rare, detailed interview.

That was him in his true elements, saying it as it is, with fervour; always with candour and dignity.

Pa Frank Abiodun Aig-Imoukhuede, the respected and celebrated man of culture and the arts.

Today, Wednesday, 8 January, he clocks 90, and not a few in Nigeria’s culture sphere and allied industries will be elated to see a true man of letters, an icon of the culturati and indeed one of the remaining shining stars of arts and literature, engage in an authentic dance of the elders.

Journalist, poet, author, thespian and admistrator per excellence, Pa Aig-Imoukhuede is one of those blessed gems who have witnessed Nigeria’s transformation from the last few decades of its colonial era in the 30s, 40s and 50s; and of course all of the intriguing 64 years of independence.

At every point in time since his undergraduate days, he has captured different slices and shades of the country’s journey.

He has, in the process, contributed his own indelible quota to the greatness that Nigeria has achieved among the comity of nations.

Many knew him as a younger brother to the literary matriarch, Mabel Segun, together with whom they are the only surviving siblings from a family of six children.

Many more would know him as the father of the accomplished banker, business man and an art aficionado in his own right, Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, the chairman of Access Bank Holdings.

But Pa Aig-Imoukhuede is definitely known and celebrated beyond his family pedigree and progeny.

Until his retirement in 1995 as the Federal Director of Culture, he was a prime go-to man in matters of culture.

I bear witness to his wealth of knowledge, firm but accommodating spirit, and his unwavering belief in how and why Nigeria must fulfil its potential as a uniquely blessed country.

As a young reporter with The Guardian in the mid 1990s, Pa Imoukhuede was an unrivalled resource bank for journalists, especially on federal matters.

His younger colleague, Oba Gbenga Sonuga (now the Fadesewa of Simawa, in Makun, Sagamu Ogun State), was another reliable source while he was the Director of Lagos State Council for Arts and Culture and later Founder/CEO of International Centre for the Arts, Lagos (ICAL).

But Pa Imoukhuede was helpful to me beyond a couple of interviews he granted The Guardian.

He was one of the key people who graciously granted my request for an interview when I was writing the biography of a special cultural icon, my grand uncle, who was the late Ashipa of Ibadanland, High Chief (Dr) John Adeyemi Ayorinde.

Pa Imoukuede’s recollection of Papa Ayorinde is captured on Page 124 in Chapter 9 of my book, Abokede: The Man, The Hill, The City, published in conjunction with the Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan in 2011.

My grand uncle was one of the key people who Pa Imoukhuede served with on the same committee during the hosting of the FESTAC in 1977 and while he was Secretary at the National Council for Arts & Culture (NCAC).

His views, as captured in the book, reads, in part: “I was co-opted into the committee through my boss, Chief Harold Dappa-Biriye, while I was at NCAC. I believe Papa JA Ayorinde was appointed into the NCAC Board to represent Traditional Institutions. His deep knowledge of culture, clothing and traditional institution must have greatly endeared him to the authorities.”

His larger views on FESTAC are the stuff that words on marble are made of: “FESTAC did a lot for the black man. It was a symbol that brought 59 countries of the world together. It was the biggest event for the black man in the last century. It has symbols such as the National Theatre, Festac Town, Durbar Hotel and so on.”

It is worthy of note that Pa Imoukhuede did not just jump into matters of culture.

Culture found him from a tender age!

He was born on 8 January, 1935 in Edunabon, near Ile Ife, in the old Western Region (now in Edo State) as the fourth child of the family. But he lost his father, Isiah Aigbovbioise Imoukhuede early in life. He was only three-years-old when his father passed on, leaving him (with his other sibblings) in the care of his mother, Madam Eunice Ovbialeke Imoukhuede, a hard-working trader who ensured that all her children had University education.

Although his father departed early, he picked at least four major legacies from his dad.

A legacy of quality education.

A legacy of ecumenical service that saw the good Reverend Imoukhuede adding to the pioneering work of spreading the gospel through many communities of the old Western Region.

The legacy of a bloodline of royalty and nobility, traceable from Oba Ozolua the Great, who was the founder of the Sabongida Ora’s family ancestral homestead. He ruled Benin in the 15th century.

And, of course, he picked from his father the legacy of respect for heritage and love for creativity and the arts.

His father was credited with the popular Yoruba children’s song: “Iwe kika, laisi oko, koi pe o…” (education without farming is inadequate).

From Edunabon to Ila Orangun where he also lived with his mother and where he encountered the Fakeye family of carvers; to Lagos, then Ibadan and back to Lagos, the good legacies that his father left would later shape his life’s trajectory as a cultured, creative and forthright gentleman.

He got to Lagos in 1947 with an innate love for things of culture. “I used to watch the annual festivals in those days,” he once said in a newspaper interview. “In a way my experience living in several places influenced my passion for culture.”

He attended Igbobi College between 1950 and 1954, during which time he was a member of the College Cricket 11. Those were the good old days when education in public schools was not complete without sports arenas, including inter-house sports; literary and debating societies; functional science laboratories and excellent curriculum.

Young Frank Aig-Imoukhuede continued playing the gentleman’s sport at the University College, Ibadan where he enrolled to study English and would later graduate with honours in 1961.

He was a valued member of the University Cricket Team and won several international caps.

He was also a member of the University Hockey Team.

But University College Ibadan certainly did more for him than provide sporting activities.

It was at UCI that he honed his writing and theatrical skills.

He wrote, directed and acted in several plays, some staged at first in the dinning hall.

It is said that his was the first play penned by a Nigerian to be staged by the Arts and Theatre group of the University.

He would later lead the University Graduating Procession with his buddy, Professor Wole Soyinka, the Nobel Laureate, who celebrated his own 90th last July.

It was not a surprise that both were involved in a leading socio-cultural confraternity in campus and were welcoming to Robert Mugabe, who would later become the President of Zimbabwe (formerly Rodesia) when he had a stint at UCI.

But UCI sharpened Pa Aig-Imoukhuede’s somewhat revolutionary mien too.

He once protested the practice of Nigerian students playing the parts of animals in the classic university plays, while their white lecturers had the good speaking roles.

His student political activism had peaked as soon as he arrived on campus.

Not surprisingly, he did not take the back seat, when almost two thousand students on campus led a major protest against the British Prime Minister at the time, Harold Macmillan, who had suddenly appeared at the university library one memorable day in 1958.

“It was the time of the atomic bomb in the Sahara desert”, Pa Aig-Imoukhuede, once recalled. “So we were politically alert. We were holding Independent movements and all that.”

The former British Prime Minister, who incidentally was known as ‘SmartMac’ in England in those days, had to be rushed into a waiting car, hitting his head in the car in the process, to escape the wrath of the students in Ibadan.

That was years before ‘Ali Must Go’ protest; way before the protest that caught the late business mogul, Chief Arisekola Alao, at the University of Ibadan, and decades before the social-media driven #EndSARS protest by Nigerian youths in October 2020.

Upon graduation, his first job was with Radio Nigeria Service as Planning Officer to the Controller of National Programmes.

He also explored television briefly when he produced ‘Focus’ a documentary of Western Nigerian Government Programmes.

He worked with the Daily Express newspaper as a journalist, thereby becoming arguably the first graduate of a Nigerian University to be hired by a local newspaper.

In 1962, he moved from full-time journalism to join the Nigerian Civil Service when he was appointed as Information Officer for the Western Region.

But then he continued to write columns for a couple of newspapers and magazines, including SPEAR and Modern Woman magazine.

In 1963, he was assigned to the Federal Unit as a Scriptwriter; a position he held till 1971.

During that time, he scripted the popular radio series: “Save Journey,” “Oga Mr. Councillor” and “Constable Joe”, among others.

He also penned several radio plays that were performed to popular acclaim in Ibadan and Lagos.

Of course Lagos played a central role in his illustrious career as a civil servant and he has fond memories of the city that his grandchildren would probably be referring to as ‘Las gidi’ today.

“We had all sorts of things happening at that time. Lagos was clean. We used to race in the gutter with matchboxes. We would make a shape out of it and we would run after it until we got to Marina.

“When I began my career, my office was opposite the Cathedral, the magazine section. That was when we started the cultural division and Marina was a bit different from what we have now.”

In 1964, he went on a post-graduate diploma course at Poona Film Institute in India, to study Cinematography. His script at the Institute earned him a gold prize before proceeding to win another award at the maiden edition of the African and Asian Film Festival.

Poetry had a sweet taste for him, especially the ones he wrote in pidgin. For their quality, he got them published in respected pioneer literary journals like the Black Orpheus (1964), The Horn and his major collection, Pidgin Stew and Sufferhead.

His promotions and impact became steady in the ’70s.

From becoming the first ever Cultural Officer of the Federal Civil Service in 1971 and rising to the position of Principal Cultural Officer in 1975, he had become something of a force in Nigeria’s culture landscape. He practically supervised Nigeria’s entries and exhibitions during FESTAC.

Between 1975 and 1988, he held the post of Director at NCAC and the annual competitive National Festival of Arts & Culture (NAFEST).

The big one eventually came his way in 1988 when he was appointed the Federal Director of Culture, a position he held until his retirement in 1995.

Few people have made matters of culture and creativity their full menu like Pa Aig-Imoukhuede has. And he’s been somewhat relentless, even in retirement.

If he’s not serving on the Board of several government and non-governmental agencies, he is presiding over committees and councils, or attending conferences.

He has remained a veritable resource, post-retirement, to the parastatals that were created from the old directorates of culture.

With dedication and integrity, he has played useful roles as culture and heritage specialist, as well as arts and tourism consultant, including making contributions to the Niger Delta Development Plan, among other initiatives.

In retirement, he chaired the review of Nigerian Film Policy, even as many years in retirement saw him attending conferences and making presentations and being involved in legacy-making documentations.

This will naturally include the writing of A Calendar of Nigerian Traditional Festivals and Between God and Man: Meaning and Essence of Traditional Festivals.

In the last 10 years, quite remarkably, he has continued writing and documenting Nigerian culture, exploring etymology of our ethnicity and interacting with old friends like Demas Nwoko and Bruce Onabrakpeya in similar endeavours. Not surprisingly, he has also found ample time for exhibitions at the Coronation Gallery, his son’s (Aigboje) arthouse in Lagos.

In fact, after the last exhibition at The Coronation, he was said to have remarked that although the exhibition was well-curated, it was lacking the works of “masters” that he would have loved to see.

His verdict, therefore: he must be invited to all the Coronation Gallery exhibitions.

That’s vintage Frank Aig-Imoukhuede, the quintessential artman who joins the league of nonagenarians today and will later in the year celebrate his 60th wedding anniversary to his childhood love, Emily Ofovwe, with whom they share four children who “have made me a proud father”: Erekpitan, a University don; Aigboje, the indefatigable banker; Oluwakemi, a business tycoon and education entrepreneur, and Aigbovbioise, a stock broker.

“At times people used to say I’m proud. Well, how can a man who is proud be also full of humility?” He asks rhetorically.

He shoots straight, yet again, but with wise nuggets. “Life is about knowing where you are going and being focused!”

Happy birthday to this refined gentleman from Sabongida Ora who finds, and shares, values in culture.

Steve Ayorinde, a journalist, author and TV Host, is former Commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism in Lagos State.