A Life Well Lived : Celebrating A Retired Public Servant, Alhaji Adekunle Adegbite At 90.
By Charles Segun Adegbite
A retired Chief Technical Officer of the Federal Housing Authority, Lagos; former Supervisor for Finance, Sagamu Local Government Council, erstwhile teacher and nonagenarian community leader, Alhaji Adekunle Sikirullahi Oladele Adegbite, is a true public servant who refused to retire even at 90.
Born on Wednesday, February 20, 1935 into the Adegbite Royal family of Owarodo and Koyelu Ruling Houses of the Akarigbo by Alhaji Buraimoh Adegbite, this man; Sikiru, as he was fondly called then, grew up as a clever boy.
He attended Wesley School, Oko , Sagamu (1943-1951). Because he was born into a polygamous family with some of his elder brothers already in school, and his father couldn't afford sending him to secondary school, due to the problem of school fees, he had to stay out of school for two years
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Consequently he started working. But as a clever boy who did not want to end up as just a holder of primary school certificate, he saved out of his meagre earnings to enter school. So, in January 1954 he entered Molusi College, Ijebu Igbo, by telling his father he has been offered government scholarship to attend secondary school.
After spending two terms in secondary school and he couldn't pay for the next term, he cleverly told his father that those who gave him scholarship have withdrawn. And he would have to withdraw or his father had to come in.
Having one's son as a student of Molusi College in those days was a thing of pride for every father from that part of Nigeria. Dr Tai Sholarin, who returned from Europe was the Principal of the school that time.
"So, my father took over with the payment of the school fees." He told Successful People Biography.
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Between 1954 and 1958 he was at the Molusi College, where he passed out in flying colours. Between February and December 1959 he worked as a teacher at Muslim High School, Sagamu.
He then landed a job at the Post & Telecommunication Dept. Lagos, where he worked as a Clerical Officer in 1960. There he was till 1965 when he travelled to the United Kingdom for further studies, after getting a Federal Government scholarship.
Before traveling abroad, he got wedded to his heartthrob, Miss Lydia Modupe Okeowo, on September 9, 1965; who later travelled on July 13, 1966, to join him.
He studied Ceramic Technology and bagged Higher National Diploma, HND, at the North Staffordshire Polytechnic, (Now North Staffordshire University ) UK. And while studying he also engaged in part time job to take care of his marriage and home.
In September 1967 their marriage was blessed with a beautiful baby girl, christened Yewande Adegbite, who grew up to become a medical doctor.
And at the completion of his HND program, he landed a job and raised additional children in UK, before returning to Nigeria in March 1972.
He got a job at Richwell, a British company, as a manager, between 1972-74, . He later moved to Federal Institute Of Industrial Research, Oshodi,FIIRO, Lagos State (1974-78), where he was a Research Manager.
Thereafter he got another job at Federal Housing Authority, FHA, Festac Town, Lagos State, where he worked from that 1978, retired as a Chief Technical Officer in 1988.
He became a contractor with the Ikoyi Club, in 1989, engaging in general supplies. And he was into that till 1991 when he joined politics in Sagamu, Ogun State.
Together with his wife, they made their Festac home a haven, where a lot of families, friends and town's people from Sagamu converge to jaw-jaw and maintain good relationship, that later paved the way for the establishment of Egbe Omo Ibile Sagamu (Sagamu Descendants Union)
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At the FHA, he rose to the rank of Chief Technical Officer before his retirement in 1988.
As the Egbe Omo Ibile Sagamu grew, this enhanced his association with the Conference of Social Clubs in Sagamu, as the founder. This paved the way for his participation in Sagamu development activities and organisation of Sagamu Day events.
He later joined politics and became member of the Social Democratic Party, SDP. at the beginning of the aborted Third Republic in Nigeria, at Local Government level.
When Chief Bayode Oluwole became the pioneering Chairman of Sagamu Local Government, after Ijebu Remo Local Government was scrapped, Alhaji Adegbite was member of the first Executive Council of the Sagamu Local Government. And he held the position of Supervisor for Finance and also Agriculture between 1991 and 1993.
However, as a man of integrity he couldn't stay long in politics because of corrupt nature of so many politicians and the dirty ways politics are played, which he could not be comfortable being part of.
As he was growing older, attaining elders age, while all his children have grown to become parents and faced their careers cum family life , he relocated from Lagos and settled down in his Sagamu home; taking part in community development activities.
He devoted his old age to taking part and contributing meaningfully to religious activities, alumni association, extended family affairs in maternal and paternal sides, and annually travel abroad for personal and immediate family matters.
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