What I want to do when I’m still alive is to achieve God’s project that He has assigned me to do. And at the age of 12 I actually asked God: what am I here for? I’m not expressing ego. I asked God what I was here for, and I was instructed: You will use the weapon of your gift to support your fellow human beings. Whichever way that one goes, I think I’ve been targeted by God Almighty towards a particular objective, and I thank God I never run short of friends
By Anote Ajeluorou
FOR Ben Omowafola Tomoloju, the quintessential man of journalism and culture who recently turned 70, there was perhaps no better way to celebrate him than a day of artistic activities that re-enacted his versatility in his chosen areas of specialty. And those areas span playwriting, song composition, singing, dancing, acting, directing, culture journalism, teaching, and theorising. All these were in evident display on December 18, 2024 at Freedom Park, Lagos Island.
Starting from Freedom Park Museum, activities spilled into its inter-locked courtyard in an enchanting evening under the leafy boughs that provided a canopy for the community of fellow artists who gathered to salute a man who has touched them in diverse ways in their artistic and journalistic journeys. They were also unsparing in their praise of the man who did so much to raise their individual and collective levels of cultural and journalism engagements.
It was a roomful of creatives that converged to show why Tomoloju deserved his day in the sun. All the dimensions of his creative, advocacy /activist and scholarly life were represented. The culture advocacy side was led by Chief Kayode Aderinokun, Chairman of the Committee for Relevant Art, CORA, supported by board members Theo Lawson, Sola Alamutu, and Jahman Anikulapo Prog chair, who led about 15 volunteers of the organisation. The Theatre side included, Israel Eboh and Makinde Adeniran, President and Sec Gen of National Association of Nigerian Theatre Practitioners, NANTAP, to which Tomoloju was founding protem chairman in the 80s, and his now a Fellow; senior actors Olu Okekanye, Antar Laniyan, Edmund Enaibe, Francis Onwochei; Yeye Dorothy Iyere; actresses/songstresses Salome Ikuenogbon, songstress Yinka Davies, Jumoke Oke among others;
The writer side included, the poet-activist A.J Dagga Tolar and Ifeanyi Avajah, former chairman of Association of Nigerian Authors, ANA. The journalism side had Kunle Ajibade Executive Editor, the News; Dr Gbile Oshadipe, former editor of The Guardian’s Lagos Life; Kadaria Ahmed, CEO Radio Now. The Culture entrepreneurship side had among others, Dr Dapo Adelegan, founder Lekki Sunsplash, Muyiwa Majekodunmi, founder of former Jazzville, now Praiseville; and Sir. Semoore Badejo , CEO of Concrete Studios who initiated the “100 Songs of Ben Tomoloju 10 years ago, and has now compiled them into a 6-in-1 pack that was unveiled on that day. The academia had among others, Professor of technical theatre and former Deputy Vice Chancellor of the University of Lagos Duro Oni, and political scientist Professor Sylvester Akhaine of Lagos State University, Ojo, and professor of theatre studies, Tunji Azeez also of LASU. A sizeable team of faculty members of the University of Lagos Creative Arts Department where Tomoloju is currently an Adjunct Lecturer in Drama, led by Professor Bisi Ademakinwa, included Dr Tunji Sotiminrin, Dr Felix Emoruwa; Dr Toyin Olokodana James and others.
It was co-organiser Anikulapo who opened the afternoon by cataloguing the debt of gratitude many in the room owed Tomoloju, when he said, “He has trained us as actors, directors, singers, dancers, poets, critics and theorists and the rest of them. So he deserves a lot more than this, but we decided to do this just to celebrate him at 70. Some acknowledgments here. Prof. Jonathan Haynes here wrote Nollywood into what it is today; he’s done about five books on Nollywood. He made me change my mind about Nollywood which I used to criticise heavily. When he heard about this, he said he must be here.”
Anikulapo then went on to inform his audience about the canonical works of Tomoloju in their exploration of critical social issues that still plague the country, indicating his foresight and prophetic artistic vision. He, however, lamented that not much exposure has been given to his works in the school system, so young ones can be acquainted with them.
According to him, “Ben Tomoloju has written so much – Jankariwo, Mujemuje, Amona, Askari and the rest of them – and the beauty of it all is that they have all been put on stage. But this is my personal grouse: they are not being taught in schools. And the teachers here know this. These are dramatic works that have really spoken to whatever you think we are going through now. Talking about Jankariwo, it’s what we are going through now, about the irresponsibility of politicians, our leaders; all these are captured in it. He recently wrote a book on 100 Yoruba folktales that came out about three years ago. Also, about 10 years ago over 100 songs out of over 500 songs of Tomoloju were collected and put on an App, but traffic there has been slow. But now 100 of his songs have been put on a CD pack. There’s also his book on Queen Amina, the real Queen Amina story, Aminatu: Queen of Zazzau; not many know this, but it’s here for us to have. There’s also a book Ben Tomoloju called The Essentials of Ben Tomoloju.”
When co-organiser Adesewo took over, it was to bring in a panel of four theatre experts who have put the plays of Tomoloju on stage in the past either as actors or directors or both. The panel included Prof. Azeez, Adeniran, with Dr. Ifure Ufford-Azorbo of University of Uyo and Dr. Toyin Abifarin-Ogundeji of Dramatic Arts, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife joining the session virtually.
Adeniran said he first encountered the personality of Mr Tomoloju at age 21 as an actor and later a director, noting that there’s always something about the personality of the writer that goes into his or her works, noting, “I first worked in Tomoloju’s play as an actor and later as a director. I read Mujemuje over and over again and fell in love with it as to want to put it on stage. At that time Mujemuje was new, was happening everywhere. Fortunately, this year again, one way or the other I picked the same play and Mujemuje was still on, 30 years after. And I say it’s a classic, because the works of Tomoloju speak to the future. It takes a lot of pain to speak to the future.
“And that’s why the character of Eluku is constant, the different characters running through several of his plays; his employment of such characters shows his own personality as someone who speaks into the future. Mujemuje is a classic. That if after 30 years and Mujemuje is still happening now, then there’s something in it for us to look at. And Love in Limbo, reading it side-by-side Mujemuje, even though different subject matters, one could still see the announcer, one who’s announcing… There’s a transition, everything is transiting. There’s that likelihood for us to speak about it. Tomoloju is someone who deploys symbolism, particularly using puberty rights, because that’s a transition time from not knowing something to knowing something.”
On his part, Professor Azeez commended Tomoloju for what he has done for the theatre industry through his hard work, saying, “I’m not sure there’s anybody here who has read all of his works. But I have. There was a project we were to do at a point and he gave me his works, cyclostyled ones, hand written ones. So I read everything except the new one. The ones I have been part of I can boast of their aesthetic and thematic ideas. I try to mainstream Tomoloju in my university and have them perform. I even invited him sometime to share his experience with us. It’s not true that we haven’t been celebrating him.
“Jankariwo is one play that’s dear to me for many reasons. I have been part of its performance back-to-back. All the things spoken about are still relevant. Even the coup that it talks about is something not to toy with. Young ones are very lucky not to have encountered the military in power – the gunshots, the killings, etc. All the characters, all the things he talks about are still relevant, and they’re in Jankariwo.”
Professor Azeez also spoke about the overriding philosophy that undergirds Tomoloju’s works, arguing that his plays speak to humanity, particularly the child that’s synonymous with his own name which he bears out in his work by giving the child a future with hope away from the grimness of his or her present condition.
“The overriding philosophy of Ben Tomoloju can be looked at from the perspective of consistency of vision and passion in his works,” Professor Azeez theorised. “His plays speak to humanity and the conscience of a people, to the human race. His plays are topical and they resonate with humanity. And the emphasis on the child runs through almost all his plays. This is evident in his name ‘Tomoloju’ that means ‘attention or care for the child is supreme’. The Yoruba culture looks at the tradition of a family in the naming of a child. So, he’s always concerned about the child, and the name has stuck, because in every of his plays you see a child: how a child is molested, raped. The condition of the child is central to Tomoloju (creative vision), but he always gives the child hope, that there’s a bright future.
“Now talking about his music. Tomoloju’s songs are not ornamental, but integral part at every plot and point of the performance. Every song has meaning that’s integral to the plays. There’s a way that music reaches the soul, and in Tomoloju’s plays his songs play a vital role. I find the songs very fascinating in all his plays, especially his earlier plays. I’m still interested in doing a critic of his works. Now that I’m a professor I will have time to do it.”
Theatre director Adeniran further outlined the futuristic, creative vision behind Tomoloju’s works when he said, “His plays announce the future. So it depends on the director to take the subject matter to be able to do it. He does the composition of the songs and that makes them a bit difficult to change. His characters are so, so rounded as to find them your next door neighbours. The one that stands very strongly for me is the child, which is simply the symbolism of the future, because it announces the future most of the time, and such characters resonate in almost all his plays. You have Serena and Dudu speaking into the future; the same thing with the others, transitioning into the future, the rite of puberty. For me as a director, it’s the characters. It’s either you want to take then back or into the future. His lines, his compositions, his songs are so powerful it is hard to want to change them.”
Speaking from her Uyo base, Dr. Ufford-Azorbo who directed Askari said it was “a fascinating experience for me to do that. I knew that this is a play that has Yoruba background and I was having to direct it in Akwa Ibom State. It was exciting but also quite challenging for me, but I saw that this play is total theatre – the songs, actions and dances in it; it was a great experience for me. I picked interest in directing Askari, because in 1997 I was part of its performance in the East. It was a very revealing experience, a very different one in my theatre practice. When I wanted to direct Askari, I got in touch with Tomoloju, to be able to research the songs with my students. You know that Askari is action-packed, the drama that happens in the family of Askari. While directing, I was just wondering how I was going to realise it. Askari has been one of the most successful performances in my university. I’ve played many parts in it. Having to pull that through was very exciting and wonderful for me. My stage name now became my name among the lecturers. It was a fascinating experience, and I look forward to more such experiences.
“Happy birthday Papi Ben Tomoloju. And thank you for this opportunity to share.”
Again, Adeniran spoke about Tomoloju’s play Mujemuje as “being all about this society and the man who tells the story, who threw the story into the face of the audience, as if to say: whoever is affected by the splashing of the mud should take it. I use the word autowrite – one who writes from the deepest inspiration and sees into the future and writes about it. It makes the writer become a prophet. The first character I encountered is his personality before his plays. He got me out of this country as a dramatist. His personality in my journey as a dramatist is very strong. So, each time any of his works come to my table, it takes me back to that person, because I see that singular character who is autowriting, seeing and saying something into the future. If you look at the situation in Nigeria now, it’s about those in power, the bourgeoisie (bursts into one of Tomoloju’s songs lampooning the ruling class for their bad behaviour). In politics, they are there siphoning whatever they can siphon for their own personal ends as in Mujemuje. It’s not about the society, but about their personal interests, about that minute fragment and how it spreads to all.
Adeniran’s fascination with Mujemuje is so infectious, saying the play “talks about the good, the bad and the ugly. There’s the character that intends to do good in his own thinking but ends up doing bad; he thought he’d be rich by whichever means possible for his family, but he has to sacrifice his own body. At the end it’s all vanity, but the vanity here is not the vanity of the singular, but one that spreads beyond the person to the nation. In it he makes reference to the Commonwealth, the NNPC (now NNPCL), that becomes a cult running the nation. So there’s a government and there’s a cult that we refer to today as the ‘cabal’ that runs the nation. Mujemuje opens up very largely about who we are; it’s a classic. It cuts through time. 30 years ago I came across it as a young director, at my own level of understanding of it. Now, it’s still the same things that I see in our society. People who listened to Eluku thought he was talking about the rich and how they spoilt the country, but it’s about all of us. Eluku said the problem in society is a pebble that has been thrown into the air. It can fall on anybody’s head, because we are all here. Mujemuje, for me, I can go on and on about the fascinating thing about it. But the writer here is that constant character that sees into the future.”
The themes in Tomoloju’s plays, according to Professor Azeez, are seen in the connections made in the plays, “a passion to make a better society. It will take a person who connects with all strata of society to come up with characters and themes that resonate with society. Tomoloju is someone who relates with all strata of society. So everybody has a representation in his plays. Askari and Kankariwo – that last song in Jankariwo is a moving trope to social reality (bursts into the song and was joined by the pair of Jumoke Oke Angels and Funmilayo Abe). That song is something else; it’s the depth of it. After performing the play, I remember Tomoloju coming to shake my hand and giving us N25,000 as an extra. Each time I get to that point I almost weep for the child who is the symbol of tomorrow, the future.
“If you look at that child on Askari, the child that has been battered and molested, you ask the question: what have we learnt from those messages that he keeps passing to us? How good is our educational system today? He mentions the teacher that has been impoverished. What’s the lot of the teacher today at all levels? He mentions how farmers are cheated out of their produce. What’s the lot of the farmers today? He mentions the politician who takes money from us and travels abroad? He talks about government spending money travelling for frivolities but abandoning hospitals and schools. All these are there in Jankariwo.
“But my worry, my concern in all that this man has been telling us, what have we learnt? All of us here are kindred spirits. These plays should come alive and for our rulers to watche them and to look at their own lives and what their roles are in making a better society.”
”In 1987 we took Jankariwo to University of Port Harcourt for the National University Theatre Arts Festival (NUTAF),” recalled Dr. Abifarin-Ogundeji. “Then we had the luxury of having very good actors in the department. There was popular Nollywood writer Tunde Babalola. They came from Lagos and taught us the songs and we took it to UNIPORT, did the performance. It was a new experience for us. Ola Rotimi said that was the best performance. And because of this song that popular musician Raskimono sang that was written by Tomoloju. Since that 1987 I’ve been thinking that one day I would do Jankariwo. An opportunity now came at Ife for us to do a convocation play. I suggested we use Jankariwo, and as we were rehearsing, Jahman Anikulapo sent a message that Ben T was turning 60, and wanted to know what we could do for him. He couldn’t come to Ife, so we had to bring the production to Lagos. And so we did the production of Jankariwo at UNILAG and Freedom Park.”
Dr. Abifarin-Ogundeji also had fondly memory of her experience working on Jankariwo at Ife and Lagos, particularly excited about the chance it offered her to experiment with four different stages with the play, saying that adopting flexibility became key in her realisation of the play at the time.
“I won’t say it was a challenge and I won’t say otherwise,” she told her audience. “I love the fact that I handled the production when BT turned 60. I handled the production in four different stages. Two stages in Ife and two in Lagos – at UNILAG and Freedom Park. When we got to Freedom Park, it was a total ball game, because we had to do multiple entrances. So the flexibility of working on that production got me interested in the works of Ben Tomoloju, and nobody, none of the actors we took to Lagos for the performance would easily forget the experience. No single performance of that play was the same. We kept on changing the blockings from each of the four stages. And I remember what Ben Tomoloju said, that he was seeing the play in that light for the first time that night due to the different entrances we used.
“We used all the lawns, the walkways. We picked one area in Freedom Park to serve as London and another as New York (bursts into the song depicting these two cities). It was such an interesting experience for me. I’ve not been in other plays of Ben Tomolohu, but that play Jankariwo, I see it as a play that can work on any stage, and can be handled by any director, so long he or she is creative enough to be flexible with the directing and to train his actors to be flexible, as it can play on any stage available at any time. In so happy that I was part of that production, so happy that I was part of it. It’s been 10 years ago since and I’d love to do it again with any of your new plays. Congratulations sir!”
THEN the tribute sessions started with art patron, poet and Chairman of Board of Trustees of CORA Chief Kayode Aderibokun taking the podium first, saying that his goodwill message was on behalf of CORA. He noted antithetically that he was “not particularly enamoured by Ben Tomoloju,” because he is a man disproportionately gifted by God. He’s my friend, my pathfinder, my inspiration and my creative muse. When God was distributing talents, He gave us one each, but gave Ben Tomoloju 100! Is this justice? Oloye Ben Tomoloju@70, he’s so phenomenal that those of us his friends are so shaken by his talent. And he’s so generous with it that you cannot but acknowledge that he deserves his many talents.”
Chief Aderinokun then read a poem in praise of Tomoloju’s enduring virtues as a friend and man of culture.
Actor Antar Laniyan then stepped up on behalf Kakaaki Family, acknowledging that “Ben Tomoloju taught me everything I know. He didn’t teach me how to be gentle when it comes to creativity. He said just do it. In 1981 he told to go to school. He encouraged me to go to the University of Ibadan. If I told you somethings you’d all shed tears but I want us to be happy (also bursts into one of Tomoloju’s songs). We must continue to put those great works on record forever. We will continue to put him on record and history, so he can be remembered for posterity.”
But when he stepped down to huge his mentor, Laniyan did what he encouraged others not to do: shed tears of gratitude for his mentor!
Thereafter, spoken word poet Yusuf Balogun performed a collage of Tomoloju’s works in a poetic piece in Yoruba based on his 100 Yoruba folktales, a new book to his ouvre. Yinka Davies, Jumoke Oke Angels and Funmilayo Abe took to the stage to serenade Tomoloju with some of his own folk songs, with three bata drummers accompanying them with rhythmic drumming. And when the party left the museum to settle in chairs under the leafy boughs of Freedom park outside the museum, Angels and Abe continued the folksy serenade of the audience with the songs of Tomoloju. Then students of the University of Lagos took to the stage to play-read excerpts from the playwright’s works that had the audience enthralled.
WHEN the play-reading ended, President of National Association of Nigerian Theatre Arts Practitioners (NANTAP) Mr. Israel Eboh told the audience the role Tomoloju played in making theatre practice better as an arts editor with The Guardian and in setting up NANTAP, a body for theatre practitioners.
“This is a day for celebration,” Eboh said. “I prays for him to be celebrated @100. It’s very difficult to talk about Tomoloju. He’s a man of many hearts and many parts. We got encouraged by some of the things he and Jide Ogungbade did when we were young graduates in Ajoh Festival. At the time he was the Arts Editor of The Guardian. And he made it a point that any production happening at the National Theatre he would send a reporter to our rehearsals and production and report a preview of your work. It was a form of publicity for us. And he did it selflessly. And they were not doing it to tear the performance apart but to get it better. He would come and give you notes about your production, how to make it better.
“In 1989 we thought it wise to form a body, because both the government and companies were cheating us when they engaged us. Ben Tomoloju was the man who devoted 12 months of his life for the movement for an artist association. We met every week to chart a pathway for the future of theatre. Out of that movement we came up with NANTAP and got it registered in 1990. We thank you for those selfless years, and you’ve remained an elder member of that association. And you became the first set of Fellows of NANTAP. I bring you greetings from across the length and breadth of Nigeria. We celebrate you for what you have done for the arts and journalism, because today every newspaper has an arts desk. You taught them how to critique theatre, how to critique literature. Someone said God gave you 100 talents, but I think God gave you more than 100 talents!”
Aj. Dagga Tolar then read a poem ‘Lonesome bleeding heart’ dedicated to Ben Tomoloju.
Badejo of Concrete Studios who produced Tomoloju’s 100 song CD also spoke in glowing terms about the man of culture and his impact as well in journalism. “We must continue to put those great works on record forever. We will continue to put him on record and history, so he can be remembered for posterity. I can tell that these works are a tip of the iceberg. Tomoloju has a lot, well over 400 songs. We will not allow him go without putting his works on record. I foresee PhD graduates will emerge from Tomoloju’s works; his works will be reference points, not only in theatre but in all areas of creative endeavour. This is just our modest efforts in recognition of what he is to a lot of people. He has a lot of mentees who grew, who he tutored. We need to continue to put his work on record for history. The 100 songs in this CD is a collector’s item, and proceeds will go to Uncle Ben Tomoloju’s estate.”
Prof. Oni spoke about Tomoloju’s unwavering commitment to impacting the young ones with his vast wealth of knowledge, and by his decision to return to teaching at the Department of Creative Arts of the University of Lagos where he has endeared himself to everyone, saying it takes a selfless man at the height of his creative ingenuity to do so.
TO round off the evening that had advanced somewhat, Tomoloju expressed gratitude to God and his wife Caroline who he described as “rescue missioner from psychological strain; she has become my soulmate. Thank you very much indeed. I appreciate you. I want to thank my big brothers here, beginning with High Chief Kayode Aderinokun, and Prof. Duro Oni – I always look up to him; he’s already a doyen in his own right, academically and artistically; he’s always been there for us. And many others.”
Tomoloju also said young people are central as they give him a lot of inspiration about what he does, saying, “It’s become part of a philosophy, so tokenist a philosophy that it will not enter the books of philosophy but it’s fundamental, and I call it posteriorise and posteriorise. I was running a programme somewhere and my supervisor said I was too fond of coining words (laughter). Posterior is the one that’s coming, the one that is behind that is becoming the posterior. It has its own rights (like human rights), and in the process of executing such human rights it has its own rights. It’s a loaded thing. If you respect the rights of posterity – that’s young ones – you will harvest, reap the fruits of posterity. But if you’re waiting for the rights of posterity without investing in the rights of young people you might reap anarchy.”
Tomoloju went down memory lane and dredged up his student days and the protest to save university education that students embarked upon, and how it has become a mirage the national atrophy that has become the country’s lot.
“In 1978 when we went on riot over ‘Ali Must Go’, they thought we were rascals,” he recalled. “Ibadan. Lagos. ABU, soldiers shot into our midst. There was crisis. I remember at Dugbe market; I told a pregnant woman that the struggle we are going through ‘was for that baby in your womb’. That was 1978; that baby in the womb of that woman will be 46 years old today. That baby, if he or she is lucky to be alive, will be enjoying the harvest from Aso Rock and the rest of Nigeria – from these charlatans, looters of treasuries, all these destroyers of legacies. You’re not their friends; don’t make the mistake. You’re just surviving, because we are also tactical enough to know how to survive, so that we will surmount them.
“Seventy years; people hate me saying it. The older we become the nearer we are to our graves. Why shouldn’t I say it? I don’t have any illusion, any fantasy about living. What I want to do when I’m still alive is to achieve God’s project that He has assigned me to do. And at the age of 12 I actually asked God: what am I here for? I’m not expressing ego. I asked God what I was here for, and I was instructed: You will use the weapon of your gift to support your fellow human beings. Whichever way that one goes, I think I’ve been targeted by God Almighty towards a particular objective, and I thank God I never run short of friends. I’m a good mixer, not a free mixer. Only people who have noble objectives can be my friends. And you’re here. Thank you very much. My artist community. God bless you – Yinka, Salome, Funmi, Toyin, Steve James, Gbile; I’ve got friends and I love them all.”
Tomoloju’s lifelong commitment to young ones is undiminishing with his recent move to mentor them at a deeper level by going back to the classroom where it all began for him, so he could interact with them at a close, personal level. He also took time to recognise his journalism community, particularly those who followed his footsteps and showering praises on them for holding aloft the torch of culture journalism.
So he told his audience, “Recently, I thought: ‘how do I wrap up if I was to wrap up’? So I stepped into the University of Lagos. I wanted to return to where I started – to teaching, sharing time with the young people. I won’t regret it, have never regretted it. I reached out to the authority of the University of Lagos and they gave me the opportunity to interact with young people and into the future. I thank the journalists, particularly arts journalists who have always been powering the legacy that we modestly put on the ground – Anote Ajeluorou of TheArtHubNg, Evelyn Osagie of The Nation who are here, and the others. I celebrate you all, and you will be greatly celebrated. Thank you all.”
Crown Troupe of Africa rounded off the celebration with a medley dance performance before those who could retired to the food court of Freedom Park to unwind for the night.
- https://thearthubng.com/in-distributing-talents-god-gave-us-one-each-but-ben-tomoloju-got-100-says-kayode-aderinokun/
