Although the oldest man according to the Guinness World Book of Records is confirmed to have lived only 114 years on earth, which so far, is highly applaudable, there is yet a shocking discovery. At Ogbagi Akoko, in Akoko North Local Government of Ondo State, lives Pa Adekile Omoti whose 140th birthday ceremony was recently celebrated. JIDE OMOJOLOMOJU, in an investigative trip to the serene city, uncovered details of how the wonder man has managed to survive three centuries as against his many counterparts, who barely lived beyond age 70.
According to Erik Erikson’s, “Eight Stages of Life” theory, the human personality is developed in a series of eight stages that take place from the time of birth and continue on throughout an individual’s complete life. He characterises old age as a period of “Integrity versus despair”, during which a person focuses on reflecting back on his life. Those who are unsuccessful during this phase, feel that their life has been wasted and will experience many regrets.The individual will be left with feelings of bitterness and despair. Those who feel proud of their accomplishments, on the other hand, feel a sense of integrity. Successfully completing this phase, means looking back with few regrets and a general feeling of satisfaction. These individuals will attain wisdom, even when confronting death.
For all that is said and obvious of Pa Adekunle Omoti, he is no doubt, a rare specie of human being. He has managed to complete the said eight stages of life and by all standard, set, to face death whenever it shows up with all wisdom and readiness.
Although there were no proper records and data backing this seemingly outrageous age declaration as Omoti was born at a time when not many were literate, he was hell bent on his claim and made an attestable explanations corroborating his claim. Unfortunately, his appearance which would have been an evidence again was quite contradictory. Against a blurred eyesight were clear ones that could see many kilometres away and in place of a breaking voice is a smooth and audible one. Besides, Omoti could walk on his own and still recognises the people around him.
Then the doubts set in! Can this man really be above 100 years and what do they stand to achieve by the allegation?, asked this curious reporter. But Pa Omoti was too sure.
According to him,he was born at a time when cowries was the currency of exchange and this dated three centuries back. “ I cannot remember exactly when I was born because no one cared about all these data you keep these days but then, they were the days of cowries and it was long ago,” he recalled.
Apart from this, he referred to some significant landmarks and events he witnessed pointing to the affirmation of his age. By his memory, which appeared unusually sound still, Pa Omoti, had witnessed the reigns of four different Obas in Ogbagi town, and was present at the coronation of three of the monarchs, including incumbent. In his words, he grew up to know the most ancient of them; Oba Aboyinbogoke Ojuko on the throne who according to oral traditions,died in the early years of the 20th century,in the early 1920s and was said to have reigned for over 50 years.
Reeling off the names of the monarchs whose coronations he witnessed, Pa Omoti mentioned Oba Omoeegun Omolola Amerijoye, Oba Saliu. A. Bakare Oloriki II and the incumbent Oba Victor Adetona, Odagbaragaja III, whose ascension to the throne was only last year.
Oba Amerijoye reigned between 1929 and 1962, a period of 33 years while Oba Bakare reigned from August 6, 1967 to November 11, 2006, a period of 39 years and 96 days.
To further buttress the authenticity of his age, Pa Omoti said he was a very small boy when Christianity was brought into Ogbagi, through an Ijebu man, though, he couldn’t remember the Ijebu man’s name, but he knew him very well. He said that at that time, the story he was told was that the first set of believers were taken to prison in Kabba, for simply becoming Christians. He added that when he was growing up, whenever the Christians were going about with their preaching, as a child, he would always follow them around.
Investigations by the Nigerian Compass on Sunday revealed that the first denomination to come to Ogbagi was the Anglican Communion. The Saint John’s Anglican Church, Ogbagi was established in 1886, through the efforts of an Ijebu man, who was a trader. Its primary school was established in 1926, 40 years after the church was established. Efforts by the Nigerian Compass to speak with the vicar of the Saint John’s Anglican Church were unsuccessful as he was said to be out of town.
A simple calculation will suffice here: From 1886, when the Anglican church was established in Ogbagi to date is a period of 124 years. Assuming Pa Omoti was between 7 and 10 years of age when the church was established, that would safely put his age between 131 and 134 years.
He said that he grew up to know Ogbagi then as a scattered settlement, made up of five different quarters, demarcated by bushes, but which, however, have now become one a big town. His father, Omoti, was a poor man who found it difficult to make ends meet and at an early age, he was used as collateral for a loan, equivalent to N12.25 kobo, his father took in Ikare, the headquarters of the Akoko North Local Government Area, where he started his early years as a slave which the Yorubas popularly termed an iwofa, a term for someone used as collateral for a loan. He would stay at Ikare working for his father’s creditor, with many others, until the loan was repaid.
Pa Omoti lost his father at a very early age, even though he could not remember how old he was then, but he knew when his father died.
He was a workaholic. He was a farmer through and through. He said that after the death of his father, he suffered a great deal, because help was not forthcoming from any where. His mother had to take him to Ilesa, in present day Osun State, to learn carpentry, but that was shortlived as his mother died exactly three months after he began his apprenticeship, thus putting paid to that dream of becoming a carpenter.
Then, he came back to Ogbagi to start work as a farmer. The first hurdle he had to cross was getting a piece of land, as his brothers and uncles had appropriated what belonged to his father. He began going to farm with his maternal uncle, where he actually went through hell. He would only eat after every member of the household had had their fill. And God help him, if he fails to obey the instruction of the uncle’s wife, then he may have to go for days without food, as she would starve him and the others living under wings of the uncle.
He said in all his troubles in his early life, it was his mother’s friend, one Alhaja, who took care of him. He recollected that his elder sister, never wanted to assist him, even with food. She would always say that if the uncle he stays with cannot feed him, then that was his own problem. She would in his presence keep her food, even left-overs
He went through all these suffering without any help from anywhere until he was able to start a little farming of his own, after securing a piece of land through the benevolence of a good Samaritan. He made his first real money (cowries) when his mother’s friend helped him sell his tobacco and cassava. What he first made was five pounds, an equivalent of modern day N10. He recollected that that was a lot of money in those days.
Thereafter, he started trading. He would go to Owo to buy mats, bring the mats down to Ogbagi to sell. There were very few cars, so most times he trekked to the market. From Owo, he would go to Ibadan to buy clothes, too and brought them to Ogbagi to sell. He recollected that the trade was very profitable.
Because of the travails he faced in life, Pa Omoti did not get married when his contemporaries were getting married. According to him, he did not want to bring any child into the world to suffer the kind of deprivations he went through. So by the time he married his first wife, Olayemi, most of his age mates were almost done with child bearing, with many of them having as many as five, six
children.
After Olayemi, he married another wife, Yetunde, because of the belief then that the number of your children determined how much wealth you have. He said that both wives were blessed with children, when asked how many children he has, saying that in Yoruba land, you don’t count the number of children a man has - “A kii ka omo fun olomo,” he said.
However, the Nigerian Compass on Sunday met many of his children during the visit to Ogbagi. Though, we were unable to meet his first surviving child, Oni, a female, married to the Ebiotomi family, allegedly said to be above 70 years of age, we also met his first surviving son, Sunday, aged 65 years and Olu, 50, through whom the Nigerian Compass on Sunday learnt of the great grandfather’s existence. We also met with his last son, Adefarati, who has been saddled with the responsibility of taking care of Pa Omoti.
However, Omoti had not been spared the harsh cost of extra aged life. Before now, he had lost two sons – Ojo and Biodun, who by the common obtainance this age, died between 72 and 75 years on earth. To the deceased children, their fathers’ death were no tragedy but for their grand father who was supposed not to have witnessed his child’s death had he not been destined to live longer than his children. But the old man never allowed the loss of his first two children to affect his countenance as he had accepted all as his fate.
When asked what has kept him going all these years, Pa Omoti disclosed that in their days, they eat good food, fresh from the farm and work hard. These, he said, kept men and women of his time in fit shape, unlike these days when young men laze about, looking for money without working for it.
In a bid to assert the authenticity of Omoti’s age, the Nigerian Compass on Sunday met with another indigene of the town and a one-time colleague of Pa Omoti at the Nigerian Railway Corporation.. Prince Ayo Adeyemo, who retired in 1978, threw more light on Pa Omoti,s probable age.
He said “ Pa Omoti was an old man before he joined the service. Although I cannot really determine his age because of lack of records, I am sure he was above 80 years of age.” He added that he came to Lagos in 1956, after which he joined the Nigerian Railway Corporation.
“ I grew up to know Pa Omoti as an octogenarian and as a matter of fact, I am a contemporary of his fourth child, so, there is no doubt that the man is about the oldest around here,” he said.
But for lack of proper record and data, which has been the bane of a lot of historical facts in this part of the world, Pa Omoti’s name should have entered the Guinness Book of records.
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