Adinoyi Ojo Onukaba: Mourning a Nigerian playwright

On Sunday March 5, journalist, playwright and politician Adinoyi Ojo Onukaba lost his life in a robbery incident along Akure-Elisha Road on his way back to Abuja from commissioning the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library in Abeaokuta. A former aide to both President Obasanjo and Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Onukaba who contested the Kogi State Governorship […]

On Sunday March 5, journalist, playwright and politician Adinoyi Ojo Onukaba lost his life in a robbery incident along Akure-Elisha Road on his way back to Abuja from commissioning the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library in Abeaokuta. A former aide to both President Obasanjo and Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Onukaba who contested the Kogi State Governorship under the APC, died a few days to his 57th birthday, throwing the political and literary class in the country into mourning.

Thursday, March 9. A Facebook notification popped up. It was a reminder about Onukaba Adinoyi Ojo’s birthday. But this was no happy notification for the journalist and playwright, author of many books and many articles was still lying in his fresh grave in which he had been laid four days before.

Those who knew Onukaba well said he had a flare for the dramatic. And those who have read his plays, Sooomaliya, among others, could attest to this flare. But not many imagined that his life would end in such dramatic circumstances.

Onukaba had been in Abeokuta, Ogun State to celebrate the 80th Birthday of President Olusegun Obasanjo and the commissioning of the controversial Presidential Library. Onukaba and Obasanjo go a long way back. He was Obasanjo’s biographer and had worked with him when the retired soldier occupied Nigeria’s seat of power.  He had also worked with Obasanjo’s number two, Atiku Abubakar, skillfully navigating the treacherous gap that had emerged between the two most powerful men in the country at the time.

After the events in Akure, Onukaba, who had also been the Managing Director of the Daily Times, hit the road along with an unnamed friend, heading to Abuja. About ten minutes’ drive from Akure, not far from the village of Ero, Onukaba sighted armed men conducting a robbery operation. He escaped the armed men, he didn’t escape his fate though. He veered off the road into the bush to avoid being detected by the robbers. Another commuter, desperate to escape the bandits also charged off the road, running over Onukaba who died on the spot. The driver fled the scene and has not been identified since.

And that was how Nigeria lost one of its most promising playwright and distinguished journalist.

News of his death soon reverberated across the country, sending shock waves among the political class and the literati as well as journalists who have since been penning tributes to the late playwright.

There have been condolence messages from Obasanjo, from Atiku, from the Kogi State governor, where Onukaba hails from, the soil of which now holds his mangled remains. Acting President Yemi Osinbajo has expressed sadness over the death, as have former senate president David Mark and many others.

Nigeria’s foremost writers body, the Association of Nigerian Authors, ANA, was thrown into shock with President Denja Abdullahi expressing the Association’s sadness over the death.

“Onukaba, as an aide to Atiku Abubakar, was instrumental to the endowment of the now defunct ANA/Atiku Abubakar Prize for Children’s Literature and also helped to facilitate the sponsorship of the national workshop on Children’s literature which held in Yola in 2009.Onukaba’s plays are much-performed and very sensitive to the nation’s socio-cultural space. He was a committed friend of the Association and will be dearly missed. May God be kind to his soul and console his family,” A statement by ANA said.

Another person devasted by the death of Onukaba is writer and journalist Jerry Adesewo, who is also the founder of Arojah Royal Theatre. He has had a seven year relationship with Onukaba, whose play, The Killing Swamp, Arojah used to launch its playreading sessions in 2010.

“My reaction is of shock,” Adesewo said, “Personally I am still in shock. I was meant to meet him on [Wednesday] which was the eve of his birthday to discuss a festival of his plays. He has about three new plays coming out and I was supposed to look at them in preparation  for the festival.

“He has inspired me a lot in journalism, in playwriting, in everything and despite his age and position, he never allowed any of that to come into the relationship we had,” Adesewo said.

Onukaba had been supportive of the endeavours of Arojah and has been its patron for several years now.

His philanthropy and generosity have been attested to by people who have benefited from it. Many commenters on Facebook have mentioned this as one of the many qualities of the late writer.

But where there is grief and sadness, there is also anger and rage. Nigerian writer and journalist, Izuchukwu Okeke Job, who has worked closely with Onukaba and is putting together a compendium of writings on Onukaba was raging over the death, believing that Nigeria is responsible for the passing of one of its finest playwrights.

Okeke’s emotions were captured in a poem he shared on his social medium platform

Onukaba, who was born March 9, 1960 and has authored about ten plays, lost his wife, Rachel, in 2009 after her illness was mismanaged by a hospital in Abuja. She left him with three young children, who now with the death of their father, have become orphans. Onukaba was buried according to Islamic rites in his native Ihima, Okene, Kogi State.