“I am not scared of it, I have lived a fulfilled life, I am only
worried about those who are wishing me death, worried because it takes
God’s grace to get to 80,” Alex Akinyele told Raphael James, his
friend who was checking on him just a year ago when a rumour of his
death rippled.
Riding on the words of William Shakespeare, Akinyele told his friend
that death, a necessary end, will come when it will come. Indeed, the
curtains were finally drawn for him Thursday night when he breathed
his last after a battle with an undisclosed ailment.
Could he have lost the fight? He wanted to live four more years, and
he sounded so sure about that.
“I will live for 85 years. My father was 87, my mother 84. So I’ll
live for 85 years. I have that covenant with God, and nothing will
change it,” he said in an interview on his 70th in 2008.
Described by many as a fine public relations expert, Akinyele lived up
to 81 years.
Started public relations from school
While he was a student at St Andrew’s College in Oyo, the young
Akinyele nominated himself to be elected prefect, but he would not get
votes from most of the students in the college who saw him as a
nuisance.
Seeing himself more as a non-conformist, the rules and regulations of
the college were archaic for him, and he did not find any sense in
keeping them.
Until a man he called Bishop Kale took interest in him, Akinyele,
perhaps, would not have had his first reckoning shot.
“So, when Bishop Kale came for the end of year meeting with us, and he
discovered that I did not win election to any position, and whereas he
felt I was a very good student because he saw me perform on the stage,
I marketed myself to him, and he bought me hook, line and sinker,” he
said in the interview.
“He then told the students, you have elected your own officers, I am
going to appoint my own. He’s not going to be elected. He said he has
created a new office, which is that of the receptionist prefect. He
told us what a receptionist prefect would do, which is a replica of
what a PR person should do. He said the person is not going to be
elected but appointed, and I appoint Alexander Opeyemi Akinyele. That
was how I went into public relations.”
With a degree in English from the then University of Ife, and after a
career in teaching, Akinyele came to Lagos in 1967, took up
appointment as superintendent collector, and would subsequently be
appointed the first public relations officer to the department of
customs and excise, now known as the Nigeria Customs Service
Akinyele rose through the ranks and in 1978, he voluntarily retired as
an assistant comptroller of customs to start business.
Did not lobby to become a Minister
Akinyele was that professional who could beat his chest that his track
record is all he needed to get him jobs.
On his 50th birthday in 1988, Ibrahim Babangida, the military
president, nominated him into the constituent assembly. IBB, Akinyele
would described as someone “who brought a big bang and change into my
life”.
When he left the assembly, he was reluctant to return to his Cybele
Cosmetics business where he was managing director.
“But then, Gen. Babangida came again, another glorious divine
intrusion, he appointed me minister,” he continued in the interview.
“I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t lobby for it, but he saw me as a
super PR person. I’d done PR for him at the back stage, and he saw the
integrity of my service. The integrity is in the fact that I did not
ask for anything, so he respected me for it.
“On that evening, when Chief Olu Falae called me to his house, and
said the president wants to make you information minister, will you
accept the job? I said; who born dog? why should I not accept it?
Nobody in my family or in Ondo town, had ever reached that height. I
said I would accept. The man said okay.
“You can imagine my anxiety. First day, second day, third day, first
month, second month. I began to say, why did Chief Falae set my
ambition on fire, and now I did not hear anything. I was in my office
at Cybele Cosmetics one day, quarrelling with my business colleagues
because there was another booty to share, and I said I was not going
to plough it back into the business. I told them I had spent all my
money at the Constituent Assembly. While the argument was going on, my
wife rushed to my office, shouting, my dear, my dear, my dear. She
kissed me, and before I asked what’s it, I first enjoyed the kiss.
Then she said, I heard on radio, you’ve been appointed information
minister. That was how Gen. Babangida came into my life.”
During IBB’s regime, Akinyele also led the Nigerian Sports Commission.
To curb corruption, he wanted politicians to swear by deities
Although he professed Christianity, Akinyele, in another interview on
his 75th birthday in 2013, said Nigeria would be cured of corruption
if politicians swore by their native deities.
“Anybody who is going to do PR successfully for Nigeria will first
call out all the ministers to swear before the gods of Ogun so that
they will not steal our money,” he said.
“The first thing they will say is that it is anti-Christ. Jesus Christ
does not in anyway support corruption. So, if we are doing anything to
curb corruption, it is in line with the ideals which Jesus taught. But
you see, most of these flamboyant pastors encourage them. They build
their churches on the foundation of native medicine. If you want to
cure Nigeria, let them swear to these native deities.
“If you come to our area in Ondo State, there is what we call
‘Aiyelala.’ It is a terrible deity. If you swear there and you steal,
you will become dead in no time. Let them all go there and swear. We
need terrible things to turn us to the way of God. If you stole and
you are taken to Oyo; to the shrine of ‘sango,’ and they perform their
rituals on you, you will see the consequence immediately. We have all
these powers but we don’t use them. That is the only way I think we
can cleanse Nigeria. I say it and I mean it and I don’t care if
anybody says I am not a Christian.”
Akinyele was born in Ondo town where he had his primary education at
All Saints School. He continued with his secondary education at
Gboluji Grammar School in Ile-Oluji, a neighbouring town.
He was the first former secretary general of the Nigeria Institute of
Public Relations (NIPR), and later became the president.
