Comrade Jola Ogunlusi, national secretary of Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, from 1978 to 1990, in an interview with MOYO FABIYI to mark his 80th birthday, reveals why he has cause to be grateful to God

What is the secret of your longevity?

Yes, longevity runs in my family. My father died at 131, grandma at 122 and my mother at 110. But as for the secret of the longevity, I don’t know. But I do know that anyone who wants to live long should not eat all those sophisticated foods (junk) that many people eat. For me, I eat vegetables a lot. I don’t patronise the eateries.

Another secret of my life is that long ago, I discovered that the drugs we take do not help us much. I prefer to take natural herbs. An example: I think, about 1965 I took ill. A doctor friend had lost hope of my surviving. For about three days I could not eat, my temperature was over 200. He said it would be a miracle if in two days I was alive. I went to Ekiti so that I would not die in Ibadan. When I got home and my grandma saw my worsened health she ordered somebody to rush to the farm and get a particular herb. I used it to bath and drank part of it. Thereafter I purged. Soon, I recovered. I would have died if I did not go home.

What was your background like?

I was born in Esun-Ekiti in Ikole Local Government Area of Ekiti State on 25 September, 1934. I started elementary school late. What was partly responsible for this was that I was a spoilt child; in the sense that I grew up with my grandmother, Princess Oguntuka, also from a royal family but married to Oba Adumore, Elesun of Esun-Ekiti. At that time, of my mother’s 10 children, only two, I and Mrs. Idowu Aruleba, mother of Gbenga Aruleba of AIT, survived. I was given many abiku names, which I jettisoned later and adopted Emmanuel Ajijola-Iya. I attended different schools in Odo Oke, Aiyedun and Esun-Ekiti and finally completed my standard six in 1953. There was no job for a year. I was going to farm with my father. But from 1955 to 1958 I was a teacher. My first salary was £48 per annum. It was later increased to £56 a year with arrears. From my salary arrears I bought a bicycle which I rode to school. It was a fine, well-decorated bicycle.

Early in life, what was your ambition? What informed your choice of profession?

My preference was to study medicine in the university. Two incidents motivated me. First, in 1955 when I was a teacher, they sent to me that my only sister, Idowu, mother of Gbenga Aruleba, was ill.

I returned home late in the day. They had already wrapped her, presumed she was dead. I went into the room, took her hand and noticed she was warm. I used my knowledge of first aid to remove the mucus that blocked her nostrils. Then she started breathing.

She was revived. She later vomited, stooled. After a few hours, she asked for food and was given ogi (corn pap) to drink. That informed why many so-called abiku died and were buried for lack of simple medicare.

The other incident also convinced me that many accident victims died because they were abandoned and lacked care. One day there was a terrible traffic snarl that forced people to track from Anthony to Ikeja through Maryland. When we got near Ikeja police barrack, we saw an accident victim abandoned inside his car. I and another person assisted him. At Ikeja General Hospital, doctors were able to revive him. They attended promptly to the victim. Through an identity card I recovered from his car, I was able to locate his office and relations. The man survived because he was attended to promptly after our intervention. The two incidents encouraged me to be a medical doctor.