Chief Niyi Adegbenro is 80, but he does n not look it. He looks 70. He is still very agile and trendy. And he has managed to keep his handsome look. He is a respected Egba high chief. He is equally an Owu high chief. On Sunday, 3rd April, 2022, this illustrious son of Owu, Chief Abdulfatai Adio Olaniyi Adegbenro, celebrated his 80th birthday in Abeokuta, Ogun State.
Across the South-West, Chief Adegbenro, who is the Osi of Owu Kingdom and Baaloro of Egbaland, is well known. He is one of the sons of late, Alhaji Chief Dauda Soroye Adegbenro, a seasoned politician who was the Premier of the old Western region during the crisis in 1962.
To mark his 80th, he hosted a thanksgiving party inside his house in Abeokuta. The prayer session began early in the morning, as religious leaders took charge of the session, made up of Muslim clerics, to Christian Ministers and Traditionalists. After the prayers, the party started in full swing and many dignitaries attended. The Governor of Ogun State, Prince Dapo Abiodun came to honour Chief Niyi Adegbenro. Chief Olusegun Obasanjo was also there.
We asked him how he celebrated his 80th birthday on Sunday, 3rd April, 2022. “It was a very quiet celebration,” he said. “Although some people say it wasn’t a quiet party. Actually, my children had planned it since I did my 70th birthday in 2012 at DLK, on Abiola Way. Obey was the one that played for me then.
Usually, from when we turned 40, I usually come to Obey to celebrate with him, because we were born the same day, same month, same year. So, on the 3rd of April, I normally come to Lagos, to celebrate the day with him. And the following week, Obey will come to Abeokuta and he will come and play for me. That was right from the age of 40. We have been doing that. This time around, Commander now told me that since all of us are now retiring at 80, I should celebrate my own birthday, on that day, that he will play for me.
So, I went to OOPL, Obasanjo’s Place, to book for 3rd of April, 2022 and Obey had to change his own to 8th of April. Then he will have his own Thanksgiving prayers at his Agege Church and after the church service, he will come and play for me.
Unfortunately for me, I lost 2 important people to me. My son-in-law, former Assistant General of Customs became the Oba of Kobape, who married my first daughter. He died on the 23rd of December. Then the 2nd week, the mother of my son’s wife, my 2nd to the last born, the Customs Superintendent, Wale Adegbenro (the Mother of his son’s wife died at the age of 61). A lot of people felt with all these incidents, we should call off the loud celebration we had planned. We wanted to celebrate it in a big way before. My children then said, Daddy, can we just allow things to mellow? I said no problem. Let me just have my prayer in the house.”
“So, I decided to cancel OOPL and used my compound in my house for the prayers. And being a traditional person, I have the erinwo yaa’. Ile ni mope. They came very early in the morning. Then, by 8’o clock, the Moslems came. The Chief Imam was here. The Chief Imam of Oluwo was here in this parlour. After that, we had some members of the Christian Association, led by Rev. Bola Ojeshina. They came around 9 am. Because I told everybody I will give them I hour each. So, by 10 o’clock we started the programme properly in my compound. By the Grace of God, the turnout was impressive even though I didn’t issue an Invitation Card. The turnout was fantastic.”
On an actual day he turned 80 what also went through his mind, we asked him? “I must confess to you. I didn’t believe I am going to get to 80,” he responded. “Because I have passed through so many things in life. I have been faced with so many challenges both health-wise and political. I don’t want to start recounting all those things. But let’s give thanks to God Almighty, who provides life. If He says you are not going to live more than 20 years, what are you going to do? He is the man who brought you. He is the man who can take your life back. So, with all the challenges I felt I won’t even get to see 60 years. But here we are today, I have celebrated 40, 50, 60, 70 and then 80, to the Glory of God. Anu larigba, because who am I? I built this house in 1982. I bought the land of this house at N5,000 and gave N50,000 to my brother who was the Quantity Surveyor for Ogun State, Kenny Jacobs in 1982, because I had to relocate my mother from my father’s house where she had lived for 13 years. My mother had Stroke for 13 years. Surveyor Hassan asked me to come and buy the land. He told me there is land here. So, I bought this land for N5,000. That was how I built this house and my mother began to live here. My mother died here in 1985. I didn’t even know I am going to stay in this house. I was living in Lagos then, behind the Aswani area.
“We are only 2 that my mother had, out of 32 children that my father had. We are only 2. My sister died 15 years ago and here I am.”
“I said okay God has been kind to me with all my children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren that I have now. So all I will say to us elders is to continue to pray for our children, to continue to pray for our children’s children because we have had our own opportunities and we have misused them. But these young people in Nigeria, we should be able to let them know that it is their time. We are passing away now. Like I will always tell my children, look, I am now at the Departure Hall, I am only waiting for the Boarding Pass. Anytime, the Boarding Pass may come without you knowing yourself.
Their Education is very important. Once they have Education, they will go places”.
When he woke up in the morning of the day he turned 80, how did he feel? What came to his mind? “I must tell you the truth”, Chief Niyi Adegbenro explained. “Normally, I wake up around 5.30am and 6am to have this early morning Muslim prayer. And I woke up and saw that it was 6 0’clock. I wept. I said, could it be true, that I am now 80. I was weeping inside, sort of. My thought was God has done his wonders for me. So, I am now 80 years old. Then, I knelt down to pray to God, I thanked him for giving me the gift of life. I now moved round the house. My children were not around. But they came later and saw that the party had become BIG. Chief Olusegun Obasanjo was here. He brought me out of my room. He said I should go inside my bathroom to shower. And he waited for me in the parlour. He was there and we went outside together, and I saw distinguished Nigerians. And I wondered: what have I done to deserve this from God? Ore ni mo ri gba, because I did not issue out Invitation cards and people turned up. Although, I wrote some letters to those that really matter like Obasanjo, Otunba Gbenga, Daniel, Gov. Dapo Abiodun. Senator Amosun, Daniel came. Daniel met Obasanjo here and they both left for Epe where Femi Otedola’s mum was celebrating her birthday. It was at Epe that they told Gov. Dapo Abiodun that they were coming from my place and he came straight here when he got to Abeokuta. All of them said so many nice things, about me”.
What are the lessons he has learnt about life at 80? “There are big lessons. The 1st is that people should not be too much in a hurry because in this life, you can be hardworking. You can do all sorts of things. But more importantly, put the fear of God in your mind. That is the only thing that can help you to pass through so many obstacles.”
He says he has a lot to be thankful to God for.
Many don’t know that in the past 30 years, the Baloro of Egbaland and Osi of Owu-kingdom has been Diabetic and managing its associating diseases.
“Aside my father dying at age 75, which made the age significant to me; thinking that I may also follow suit, an illness which got me admitted into the hospital a few weeks to my 75 also got me worried whether I would not die at the same age with my father.”
“God has been kind to me, despite getting involved in several fatal motor accidents, I have been Diabetic for 30 years now and still here, expecting my appointed time with death. But sincerely, I never thought I will live up to 80 years on earth. God has been immensely good to me.”
“I thank God for His abundant Mercy and Grace which had kept me this far. It is by His grace that I am still alive today. I have cheated death in the past, through road accidents and evil machinations of men but I thank Him that I am alive today”, he said.
In September 1975, when he lost his father, Alhaji Dauda Isola Soroye Adegbenro (D.S. Adegbenro), the late Premier of the old Western Region and Acting Leader of the defunct Action Group (AG), Chief Niyi Adegbenro was number 7 among the 32 children, from 9 wives that survived his father.
Exactly 10 years later, his mother, Mrs. Sussanah Aderinsola Adegbenro (nee Soleye), who was elder sister to the former Minister of Finance, Chief Onaolapo Soleye died. That was in 1985, years after moving his mother who had been battling with Stroke from Lagos into his care in Abeokuta necessitating him to sell his house in Lagos to build his present residence at Abule Oluwo, Abeokuta basically to take care of his ailing mother.
“I sold my house in Lagos and built this house in 1982.
At that time, my mother was sick and needed proper attention. I bought the land for N5,000 and the building cost me N50,000 to complete. She was here until 1985 when she died”.
Recalling that the edifice which could be valued at several millions of naira today cost him N50,000.00 (Fifty thousand naira) to build aside from buying the parcel of the land for only N5,000 (five thousand naira). He noted that it was one of the best decisions he ever took in his youthful years.
Another divine event in his life is his friendship with the Juju Maestro, Evangelist Chief Ebenezer Obey Fabiyi.
Destiny made them birthday mates and friends.
Whether born in the morning, afternoon or evening of that fateful Friday, April 3, 1942, the fact remains that both of them will turn 80 on the same day (Sunday, April 3rd) this year. Over the years, till date, they have maintained a cordial relationship. Their mothers too were said to be friends in their lifetime. Again, Chief Layiwola Amoje, a businessman and social icon from Awe, in Oyo State is another agelong friend of Chief Adegbenro.
They rocked the social circles together in their youthful days and still maintain mutual friendship till now. Chief Ebenezer Obey and the Kwara State-born Dadakuada crooner, Odolaye Aremu and other great musicians in the past eulogized them in their records.
Adegbenro, who always admits that he is a polygamist, is married with children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. A highly sociable personality, he is a strong member of many social clubs including the Abeokuta Club, Abeokuta Sports Club, where he was former President, as well as the Osupa Egba Club, Abeokuta, Association of Friends, Lagos; Yoruba Tennis Club, Lagos and Doma Club among others. He is the Baaloro of Egbaland, Osi of Owu Kingdom and Ogboye Adinni of the United Muslim Council among others.
As he turns 80 years, the respected politician and veteran socialite could not wish for more from God than a continuous peaceful life until his appointed time with death.
“When I am done on earth, I want to be remembered simply as a man who enjoyed God’s Grace and lived according to God’s wishes for him… I want my children to be watchful in choosing their friends, they should be closer to God and strive to carry on the principle and legacies of the Adegbenro dynasty”.
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