DR T.M. Aluko was attacked by stroke, August 27, 1987 after attending the annual general meeting of Heinemann Educational Books in Ibadan, taking with it, his right writing hand. This almost put paid to the writing and engineering career of this foremost Nigerian satirist-novelist of the colonial-colonised relations and transitions.
But his loving wife, Mrs. Bisi Aluko encouraged him to try his left hand, an encouragement that got him on a difficult but fresh start. This nudge of encouragement by a helpful wife has since given birth to other books including the latest, Our Born Again President (2009) billed for launch at his Ladipo Oluwole, Apapa, courtyard, November 9, where his defeat of stroke with a stroke of his pen and penmanship will be publicly presented.
Recalling the initial struggle, Aluko says “whenever I remember my condition, I usually get depressed. You may probably know that I used to write with my right hand…As you can see, I now write with my left hand. Unfortunately too, Ido not know how to dictate my works; I have been forced to use my hand to write.”
New works
T.M has since moved on triumphantly with new works to show for it at 91. The event promises to have in attendance young and other elderly members of the literary art like his co-trustee of the Association of Nigerian Authors, ANA, Mrs Mabel Segun; the association’s first vice president to former president, Chinua Achebe, Ambassador Segun Olusola; past presidents of the ANA, Prof. Femi Osofisan, Odia Ofeimun, Prof. Olu Obafemi, Dr. Wale Okediran, and the present president Dr. Jerry Agada.
Also confirmed coming are the author of Eze Goes to School, Chief Onuorah Nzekwu; Otunba Eddie Aderinokun, journalist-writer, Dr,Tolu Ajayi, the doctor turned author and past chairman of the ANA Lagos chapter and other writers and artists will be gracing the occasion with many other important dignitaries across professions and businesses under the chairmanship of Justice Kayode Esho.
Dr Reuben Abati, chairman of the Editorial Board of the Guardian will be reviewing Our Born Again President which will also have some literary elders paying tributes and reading portions of the book that came 50 years after the first: One Man, One Wife, in 1959; marking Aluko’s 50years of published writing. Date is Monday November 9 at the Alukos’s Ladipo Oluwole, Apapa home.
Men like this are undeniable rare in Nigeria. A country of warped values and get rich quick. He extended the richness of his intellectual gift to bequeath something of lasting value to future generations not just in Nigeria but the world. Yes, think of what ou can do for your country and not what your country can do for you. TM Aluko taught us that in practical terms. May this compatriot live very long still. God bless his heart.
I am T.M. Aluko’s niece and I am just overjoyed that this remarkable man is being celebrated today. It is gratifying to note the list of authors, journalists and dignitaries honouring one of Nigeria’s very very best. I hope this article is published. Thanks
The world knows him as an author, an engineer, a former commisoner and professor. I know him as big uncle, the appellation bestowed on him by my sister, Bimbola, now Dr. Mrs. Abimbola Afolabi . In those days to call your father’s egbon, uncle was a huge abomination so we were given flak by our grandmothers for not calling him daddy agba but he was so humane, so approachable that we did not see him as daddy agba at all. Big uncle, he became and still is although more recently, we have called him daddy Apapa as the grand patriarch of our extended family but really because he has been a true father to us particularly in the aftermath of the loss of our own father.
Big uncle, has always been one of the greatest inspiration in my life. I have learned from him, particulary, the value of finshing. As everyone can see today, this man finshes what he starts. He is a man of great ideas but also a man of action. He is an example of how to finsh well. Many start well, some are born great, others have greatness thrust upon them, big uncle had no such luxury. But his life epitomizes the reality that whatever odds are against you, you can rewrite your story. Today is the first day of the rest of your life.
He was not even an early starter. He wrote his first book when he was over forty. He went to school in the days when your hand had to reach your ears . He got his PHD when his second child, Sheye was graduating. He gave birth to children well into his 40s. It is not how old, ITS HOW THE MIND IS RENEWED. its all a matter of attitude. In fact, as I write this article, I have decided to dust off one of my own dreams and go for it, stop making excuses, I’m too old, its my children’s turn. If big unlce could write while raising my six cousins, what’s stoppping me but me. The years will still pass but if I do nothing, my dream will remain just that – a dream. In big uncle’s resillience and doggedness, he has given us first the gift of his life and example but also the gift of the books he has penned. Long after he is gone, he will live first in our hearts but also through those words etched for all time in indelible ink. I am glad he never gave up.
Big uncle towers high but is so humble, so approachable, so practical and humorous. He uses sattire and humor as social commentary. He is easy going and kind but a shrewd observer of human beings and that is what makes him such a good writer. His writings just resonate. Even today in Canada where I live, his words come back to me in my lived experiences. I cant remember which of his books, he said the colonialists loves the Nigeria of the cook,the driver, the house boy. It is the educated upstart that they could not stand. Today, I see it; they love the refugee, the one they can hand down their used clothes, dishes, pots and pans. It is the one who comes armed with MBA, Msc, PHD, that is a misnomer. They can’t place that one. What do you do with a problem like Maria? THis one needs no ESL (English as a econd language) class, does not fit into the sterotypes, calls you to examine the lens with you see others. But big uncle would never say it so strongly, he would just write a story, create and bring to life a fictonal character, that is so real, we recognize him. Like the biblical prophet confronting that great king David with his adultery
but doing it so deftly David pronounced judgement before realising “thou art the man” Sattire as social and political commentary is delicate and only the truly gifted and wise can pass it off the way my own big uncle does.
I have not read this latest book but ceratinly will be buying a great number of copies and reading, nay studying it. It goes without saying that at 91, I may not see many more where this came from. But when these gifted
hands write no more, we will treasure this gift, this legacy because you chose to always live with HOPE,
Out of that horrible scourge called stroke, which paralysed your right hand, lips and speech, hope was birthed and hope surmounted. 23 years later, my uncle has learned to walk and talk and write afresh. It is no mean feat, for one who employs no dicta phone but scribbles away painstakingly, slowly but surely.
I have seen that hope at work so many times. I saw it when big uncle resigned from being commisioner in the then Western Region because he would not defile himself with a corrupt government. I saw him go back to school, redifine himself from public works engineer to author to professor, to business man. Always keeping hope alive. I saw it in the stories he told me about my birth and about our ancestors, of fortunes reversed and fortunes acquired, of tides turned and destinies shaped in the family and the clan. I saw it in his resillience in the face of many adversities including death of his beloved wife, Adebisi Aluke, big aunty, and other losses that would have crumbled lesser men.
I see it in you becoming born again two decades ago and the huge spiritual transformation. You were already a good incorruptible man but you you saw what many fail to see, we all need a saviour. It is not weakness but strenght to surrender to the lord. I see it in daddy Apapa, finishing this book. Doing something and doing it well FOR 50 YEARS consistently would be considered unNigerian by some but this is a true
Ijesha man. To say it was painstaking would be an understatement. It was even hard to watch him write but he forged on and on and on and on
And today we have this book , the born again president. congratulations to my big uncle, Timothy, Ilesanmi Mofolorunsho Aluko. Congratulations to our family for being part of someone, larger than life, congratulations to the body of Christ for a gifted writer with a unique message and
congratulations to Nigeria for producing such a rare breed. Indeed there is hope yet for thee.