Tribute to Rev. Cannon Johnson Olajide Fagboyegun
The passing away of Reverend Cannon Johnson Olajide Fagboyegun, at the ripe age of 82, in London, in the early hours of Wednesday July 30 th, 2008 was indeed a seismic event.
Reverend Fagboyegun started out in life as a simple, true icon of indigenous African businessman and later grew with the staunch support of his soulmate, Florence Olawumi, together they would form an impregnable union, through which they nurtured their off springs and other dreams.
In body frame, the man known as “Oga Jide” to most people in his home town Uso, in Owo Local Government of Ondo State, was a six-footer, in direct paradox to his personality, very humble, non-intrusive and self-effacing. Considering his humble beginning, the only thing that matched his towering height was his colossal success in business, industry, philanthropy and Christian evangelism.
The essence of his life was love for God, family and country. He spoke little but did so much as a manager of men and resources.
In an ancient clime such as rural, sub-Sahara Africa, where survival past infancy is only a matter of providence, Fagboyegun had to tough it through early life by overcoming the odds of polygamous upbringing to blossom as a bright whiz-kid.
He was born the second of eleven children to late Samuel Adebayo Fagboyegun and Deborah Aoyeyebi Fagboyegun in 1926. His father, an accomplished textile and cotton trader alongside other illustrious siblings like Chief Jacob Fasuranti, Mr Daniel Fagbayibo, Late Fadero, Late Falohun, descended from the Odopetu ruling home of Akure, capital of Ondo State, South-west Nigeria.
His mother, Aoyeyebi, was a daughter of the Sasere family of the ancient city of Owo, the town that would later be central to the building of his gigantic business dynasty.
In truth there was no comet to herald Jide Fagboyegun’s birth as a man of improbable fortunes, his parents paid close attention to peculiar traits in him.
Women in those days were not only expected to assist their husbands on the farm, they also raised livestock on the side, Madam Aoyeyebi was no exception, she kept native poultry. She noticed that whatever hen kept in Jide’s name always did very well, at least compared with those in care of other people in their Udemo yard at Uso.
In time, young Jide enrolled for elementary education at St. Andrew’s Anglican Primary School at Uso. He could only go up to Standard 4. He had to complete his education at another school in Ifon, now the headquarter of Ọsẹ Local Government of Ondo State.
He developed a passion for natural food out of necessity. Pawpaw (Papaya) and roasted plantain became his regular preferred breakfast menu. And this would remain so throughout his lifetime.
Even at that early age of elementary schooling at Ifun, Fagboyegun had fallen distinctively in love with the Holy Bible and Arithmetic. He also developed a brilliant reading skill in his mother tongue, Yoruba and the English language. This gift would later come handy for him as a businessman and a preacher of the gospel.
He performed well in his final examination and had looked forward to entering a reputable Grammar School, but the intentions of Nigeria’s colonial education heritage was usually at variance with the rules for admission: Olajide showed up for the interview that would hallmark his destiny. A laughable rule said that he was not eligible for high school education because he was too tall for his age!
Those who were older than him in age, but shorter in height were allowed in. He admitted to this writer “that it was a disappointment, but you know God turned it into blessing.”
Bruised but not crushed, he applied and was employed as a teacher and briefly pursued the career, which he said he actually enjoyed. “I give whatever I do,” he would later recall, “my total commitment.”
Going into business was a chancy affair initially for young Jide. He was on a paltry salary as a teacher. He earned a little above £1 (one pound) a month.
On the side, he spared time to assist his uncle, Mr. Daniel Fagbayibọ, who by the standard of the time was doing well as a produce buyer. Jide decided to test the tricky waters of entrepreneurship and went to a local market and made a profit of over one pound on that fateful day. He calculated that if a day’s trade could yield him as much reward as he earned burning the candle at both ends as a teacher, then he would rather embrace produce buying.
He knew the entire locality and where he could get a good deal with his clients. He still assisted his uncle, while he made purchases on the side. A colleague of his, Mr. Olu Fulade, who retired as an high level Bank Executive recalled that while he, the late Mr. Amos Dare Abitogun and Rev. Fagboyegun worked for Fagbayibo in the mid-1940s that he (Fagboyegun) was very pleasant.
By 1948, it was clear that a business enigma was already evolving in “Oga Jide.” He was separating his business from that of Fagbayibo. He would go from Uso to Ayede-Ogbese where his elder sister, Enilola lived with her husband, Cornelius Ojo Abitogun. Jide and Cornelius would buy produce and keep same in a store in the house of another big uncle, Chief Jacob Fasoranti, the father of Chief Reuben F. Fasoranti, the current leader of the Yoruba socio-cultural movement, Afenifere.
Rev. Fagboyegun personally acknowledged that by 1952, while still in his early twenties, he had saved more than £33,000 (Thirty three thousand pounds sterling), thus effectively overcoming poverty. He had at that stage saved up enough that starting a family was no longer a fearful issue for him.
In later years, he would fondly say that the education officer who refused him admission to go on to Grammar School was the catalyst chosen in life, by God, to help him find his destiny.
He was a man for whom financial success never meant alienation from his roots. Apart from being visibly prosperous, he kept touch with his childhood peers and even kept a life-membership of the church society they started right from childhood. Fagboyegun was a global personality, with rigorously tight schedules, never rigidly committing himself to honour most invitations but it always turned out to be a pleasant surprise for him to show up in the least expected social functions.
His foremost legacy was to live in truth at all times and always uneconomical with the truth. He never suffered fools gladly. He never started anything that he could not finish. He always refused corrupt suggestions from tax officers as he always preferred to fully pay his dues in full.
Most people never understood why he would not encourage people to beg in order to be able to meet basic daily needs.
HIS SHARE OF LIFE’S VICCISSITUDES
Rev. Jide Fagboyegun had a long staying power that is almost comparable with that of a bull rider. It could not be less so in a business environment like Africa. There were times he suffered painful losses, not in terms of business profit, but in form of hard to bear terrible blows of life: like the death of a much loved first son in a very bad auto accident in the 70s.
He was never a politician, at least he never loved to be seen as one, but many politicians sought his anointing and whatever side he chose, it always meant some rocking of the boat; it was always a sad day for irresponsible leaders, whom he shunned like a plagues. And they never loved what they tagged as his “snobbish disposition.” That would cause him so much disaffection. He always fought on the side of the weak. For example, he chose to openly testify against the monarch of his town of sojourn, the Ọlọwọ of Ọwọ, Oba Olateru Olagbegi, who had perpetrated a politically motivated killing against Uso people in the 1960s. As a result, Oba Olagbegi was banished from the throne and exiled from Owo for twenty six years.
Despite their differences, Rev. Jide Fagboyegun once saw the exiled king on the highway one day, the King’s vehicle broke down and Fagboyegun did not hesitate to genuinely offer him a ride; the king declined. Fagboyegun took the high ground by getting back into his own car and wishing Oba Olagbegi well.
In year 2000, there was heightening tension in Owo over the crisis of succession to the vacant stool of Ọlowọ. The then aspiring candidate to the throne, Prince David Folagbade Olateru-Olagbegi had approached and solicited the support of Rev. Fagboyegun. The man of God prayed that the spirit of God would lead and divinely choose for the people. He expressed a neutral view, but some political actors who enjoyed the tacit support of the police and People’s Democratic Party in Abuja, decided to use maximum brutality on the then 74 year old Fagboyegun. They stormed his Oke-Ogun home, in fact the senseless assault was led by a police armoured tank, which tore through his gate.
The then police Chief; Ondo State Command, Mr. Chris Obadan, was said to have personally struck the old man across the face.
Fagboyegun lost a fortune estimated at $10 million in the upheaval.
Fagboyegun had lived and prospered beyond imagination at Owo for over 50 years, but with the new twist of unparalleled brigandage and the immediate danger posed to his life, he left Owo and returned to the land of his ancestors, Akure from where he now chose to oversee his diverse mammoth investments all over the world.
He had hardly recovered from the sad events of June 2000, when another big tragedy struck. His younger brother, Obaaji Joseph Sunday Fagboyegun was killed in November of the same year. Chief Fagboyegun was killed alongside family friends and his faithful driver while returning from a wedding ceremony held in Lagos. The tragic event happened as a result of an illegal checkpoint, mounted by some disgraceful policemen near the then Ife-Ibadan Highway toll gate. A petrol tanker had lost control, rammed into a long line of cars waiting to pay their own share of 20 naira extortion fee, the tanker exploded and so many people perished.
It was a huge incident. As usual Rev. Fagboyegun used his spiritual and mental magnitudes to brave the time.
He had a certain presence of mind with which he was always able to maintain his sanity. For example, during one of my visits to his Oke-Ogun home in 1994, I asked to know if he would become active with other elites; and demand the de-annulment of the June 12 elections of 1993; he characteristically looked at me and replied “I don’t talk to the deaf.”
Imminent Transition
Rev. Canon Olajide Fagboyegun was thorough and meticulous in always being prepared for the final home call. He once said that the preparation for heaven is the essence of every life. He said that the process of redemption basically addresses the issue.
His greatest tool for building long lasting legacies was his solid investment in people. He ensured that all his children were well educated and raised in the fear of God.
His first daughter, Mrs Olu Olorundare, has a Ph.D in pharmacy and she is a Professor at the University of Illorin, Nigeria. All his children, Lanre, Tunji, Segun, Rotimi and Lola were well groomed professionals.
In the mid-1980s, he started diversifying into hitherto un-charted territories. Having stopped as a buying agent for the Western Nigerian Marketing Board, he would re-christen his trading concern J.O. Fagboyegun and Sons Ltd. to JOF Ideal Family Farms Limited.
He was financially secured to explore. He had large Cocoa plantations, he grew an orchard and his poultry farm was doing wonderfully well.
Having also invested in real estate, he began implementing his comprehensive expansion programme. He always took issues of environment safety very seriously long before the present concern about climate change. He built a very large edible oil refinery for low-cholesterol Soya-bean oil. He would also build a cashew processing factory. He had an army of able lieutenants in his well trained children. At the peak of operations in year 2000, his businesses were employing over 1,200 workers. He had a nose that could smell economic troubles from afar, he began to scale down the productions at his cashew factory around this time; apart from the increasing cost of production, he was compassionate that some of the workers at the factory were developing blisters and sores. He hired his nephew, Mr. Lawrence Bosede Abitogun, as his General Manager and also signed on expatriate personnel to assist him in sharpening the unfolding vision.
He would later create a separate subsidiary for handling commodities importation. He placed his son, a marine lawyer, Segun, at the helm of the company named JOF Ltd. His wife remained the financial controller of his empire.
Rev. Fagboyegun acquired major shares in several banks and manufacturing companies, he started a construction company and a big quarry operation. His children, Tunji and Rotimi were always at his side.
The presence of the children gave him more time for pastoral devotions. He had started out as a chorister at his local church in Uso. He was an active member of the laity at the St. Andrews Anglican Church, Oke-Mola, Owo.
His zeal and pro-active stance as an evangelical believer would later make him a strong candidate for lay-readership in the communion. He continued his stewardship in the Lord’s vineyard and privately studied and would later be made a Deacon in the Anglican Church.
I can recall that many of the folks who attended his ordination were struck with awe and fascination as he always kept people enthralled with his flawless reading of passages from the Bible. In 1988, the National Bible Study Conference of the Anglican Youth Fellowship of Nigeria was held at the Saints John Mary Unity Secondary School, Owo, I had the opportunity of witnessing the awesome reading gift of Reverend Canon Olajide Fagboyegun. Only that he read the King James Version of the Holy Bible. My God, he was a good reader, I mean a perfect reader.
Way back in 1977, as a little boy in the small town of Ayede-Ogbese, I had the opportunity of witnessing, first hand, Fagboyegun’s rare act of giving. His Uncle, the then President of the local church, Pa Jacob Fasoranti had a near death experience, a 911-Mercedes Benz lorry had plowed right into his sprawling country home. The historical shop where Rev. Fagboyegun had launched his career, some thirty something years earlier was directly hit. And to celebrate and give thanks to the Almighty that there was no human casualty recorded, a service was held.
Reverend Fagboyegun noticed that the church still used a manual accordion, that which had been played and left by the prince who later became Oba Gabriel Adelegan Adesida III. Rev. Fagboyegun wanted the church to retire the instrument in archive. He promised and promptly bought a modern pedal organ for the church.
In my immediate family, some of my siblings witnessed his generosity as he lavished them with scholarships. He even encouraged some of them and his other nephews and nieces to return to Nigeria after overseas studies, he always had brand new cars waiting for those who accepted to come back. He always wanted the best mind for Nigeria.
He assisted towards the take-off of Federal University of Technology, Akure, Ondo State Polytechnic, Owo, Ondo State University Akungba.
He assisted in the building of the Library at Uso Grammar School, Uso. He contributed the most to the building of the multi-million naira ultra modern St. Andrews Anglican Church, Uso. In 1996, during his 70 th birthday, he donated a 20 million naira pipe organ to the church at Owo.
Above all, he loved God, served and revered Him. He took care of his siblings and relations, some of them are now senior citizens, he had them placed on permanent salaries.
By the mid-1980s it had become very clear that Rev. Jide Fagboyegun was the richest man in Ondo State, Nigeria. The tax papers showed it. There were times he had to make strategic intervention to financially assist, in form of loans, so that the state could pay salaries. Those were times Nigeria was at its worst economically.
Not everyone that wanted Fagboyegun’s help got it, but one should also reason that Jesus Christ did not heal everyone that needed a miracle.
The Holy Bible that the man preached says in the Book of Psalms: “Blessed is everyone that fears the Lord, that works in His ways, for thou shall eat the labour of thine hands, happy shall thou be and it shall be well with you. Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of they house. Thy children like olive plants round about they table.” (Ps. 128)
That was the portion of Rev. Canon Johnson Olajide Fagboyegun, when he breathed his last on Wednesday 30 th July, 2008; some of his off springs, their spouses and his wife saw his sweet exit. He was ready for the final call all his life. He left other siblings as well. He had other surviving younger sisters and brothers too: Mama Selia Adegbeha, Mrs. Eunice Ebun Akintemi, wife of the former Bishop of Ijebu Ode, Rt-Rev. I.B.O. Akintemi. Others are Mrs. Wale Adebowale, Mr. Tubosun Fagboyegun, Olaposi Fagboyegun, Folayan Fagboyegun, Mary Fagboyegun and Olayinola Fagboyegun.
Rev. Fagboyegun once outlined simple rules for success in life. He was speaking with his nephew, Mr. Olatunde Fagboyegun. He said “learn how to manage success, and be prudent in words; Do not abandon your first love when you are successful; And always invest in legacies that last.”
The man passes on to glory for the final communion with people of ages now, our memory of him will abide.
May I die like the righteous and may my end be like that of a righteous man.
Good night Sir
